County View
Pretty soon, the election signage throughout Mobile and Baldwin County will disappear and the landscape will be altered from expectation. Think about all the busy intersections in West Mobile with no campaign signs. It will seem strange after several months of saturation. It has almost become something I’ve adjusted to, just as the election cycles every fall.
Next time you’re at the intersection of Grelot Road and University Boulevard, if you look beyond the signs currently there, you can see fallen remainders of former hopefuls like former Mobile mayoral candidate John Peavy and former U.S. Congressional candidate Judy Belk. It is almost a “graveyard of campaigns past” at any of the high traffic intersections of Mobile. How’s that for a little pre-Halloween spirit?
Senate 35 race could impact commission race in 2008
Should Mobile City Councilman and Republican nominee for State Senate District 35 Ben Brooks defeat the incumbent senator and former Mobile County Commissioner Gary Tanner, some think Tanner will make a run against Mobile County Commissioner Mike Dean in 2008.
Dean won’t have to face Rep. Spencer Collier in the Republican primary. Collier, who is running unopposed for the Alabama State Representative District 105 seat, is a former state trooper and now director of the Alabama Safety Institute and isn’t interested in the seat according to Chip Drago of mobilebaytimes.com.
Some in the local Republican Party have expressed concerns about Dean’s ability to hold onto the District 3 County Commission seat in 2008 and the all-Republican commission could find themselves in the minority after the 2008 election cycle, should they lose the traditionally Democratic-voting District 1 seat held by Republican Juan Chastang in addition to Dean’s seat.
Tanner would be a very formidable opponent for Dean or whoever else might take the Republican nomination for the District 3 seat in 2008.
Mobile County School Board Superintendent Harold Dodge
What is it about Mobile County School Board Superintendent Harold Dodge’s disapproval among members of the school board? I can’t seem to figure this out to save my life. What am I missing that the five school board members aren’t?
The candidates for the two school board seats, District 1 and District 2, are handling the Harold Dodge situation like a hot potato.
Some point to his treatment of the David Thomas scandal as an indicator of a threat to their power, but if you read the newspapers, indicators show Dodge is performing at a satisfactory level.
Dr. Dodge has been criticized for being a little too friendly in front of the cameras, but he did earn accolades from Parade Magazine this past August. One would think if the school board were as media savvy as they perceive Dodge to be, it wouldn’t be looked upon as one of the disappointments of Mobile County government.
Also at issue is where the school board will relocate to and what will become of historic Barton Academy on Government Street.
Cramped Barton Academy is in structural trouble and cannot be repaired until the building is vacated. But should the school board vacate Barton Academy, unless approved by an act of the Alabama State Legislature, it must be continued to be used for educational purposes.
The school board is leaning toward a site way out in western Mobile County near the intersection of Schillinger and Howell’s Ferry roads that was once occupied by QMS, Inc. The property includes 133,000 square feet of office space and nearly 77 acres of land.
That location isn’t quite on any Mardi Gras parade routes and isn’t one of the bustling parts of Mobile County, so it is a little puzzling as to the appeal of the QMS property.
The school board isn’t known for their real estate prowess, having bought the old Gayfers building in downtown Mobile, where it sat vacant for the three years before being put on sale. How’d that work out? Pretty swell, huh?
The first three months under Sheriff Sam Cochran
Last month, the county commission approved a $5 million increase in spending for the sheriff’s department in its annual budget, granting it and the Metro Jail almost $39 million.
“It was badly needed to catch up with the tremendous growth in unincorporated Mobile County,” said Sheriff Sam Cochran. “Those deputies will give us the opportunity to do more things in the field.”
Cochran emphasizes the need to combat the methamphetamine problem in rural Mobile County.
The former Mobile City Police Chief says the role he played in the Mobile Police Department is comparable to the role he plays in the sheriff’s department now.
“It’s quite similar in some ways except with the jail and the civil process. Semmes is like a city, but it’s not. It has the problems of a place within the city limits.”
Cochran says the rural areas of Mobile County like Tanner Williams and St. Elmo have different problems and require different crime fighting tactics than a lot of what the Mobile City Police Department required.
Cochran took over for interim sheriff David Evans in June and will face Democrat Matt Tew in the general election on Nov. 7.
Correction
A slip of the keyboard may have confused readers in the last issue, as I accidentally referred to Republican Juvenile Court candidate Edmond Naman in a piece about Democratic candidate Chip Herrington. Let’s set the record straight.
Herrington worked at the District Attorney’s office for eight months starting in 1991, and for a private firm after that. He opened his own law firm in 1993. Herrington also asked that I clarify that Camp Martin is often incorrectly referred to as “boot camp,” not the Wilderness Program he supports. We regret the errors.
Contact Jeff Poor at jeffreypoor@yahoo.com.
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