Remembering Lewis Scarbrough
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In My Humble Opinion
Jodi McDade
Another sad day for our “Coosa County News” with the death of owner/publisher Lewis Scarbrough.
As the newspaper is celebrating its thirtieth year in operation we have been reading about the history of “The Coosa County News” and how it has kept our residents in the know of our county happenings. Small county newspapers are rare these days, but we have been fortunate to have Lewis and Jo working to keep ours going. Local papers are the backbone of communities and are needed even more today than in the past.
Lewis is one of the people who I have to thank for pushing me to get involved with trying to help improve both Rockford and Coosa County as a whole. He had a deep affection for his hometown and wanted to see it grow and return to the glory days of the past.
Not all of his ideas were popular, but he did have some good ones! I spent many a Saturday morning on the telephone with Lewis as he would tell me what he’d like to do – an assisted living center so the elderly in the county would not have to move away when they couldn’t live alone anymore; a museum for the Native American heritage of Coosa County; a business incubator where new businesses could start without having a high overhead; an office for 501(c)3 groups to have access to assistance for grants, operating ideas and event planning; a grocery store; a drug store and doctor’s office; a trade school; a private Christian school. These are just the ones that come to my mind quickly.
We met when I got involved with the Republican Party here in the county, and he talked me into writing an article for the paper about one of the ideas we had talked about. Then, each week he would call me with another idea for an article until I had a full blown weekly column.
I had never imagined I would ever do anything like that in my life! As they say “the rest is history.” I am forever indebted to him for seeing a hidden talent and pushing me to embrace it.
I hope and pray that our “Coosa County News” will be able to continue as a local newspaper. This is the only place we have to stay informed of the activities in our communities, schools and churches.
Christa, and now Lydia, work hard to put out a paper each week, and they deserve a lot of credit for keeping things going the last few years. My sympathies to Lewis and Jo’s daughter, Denise, in the loss of both of her parents in such a short period of time.
Gov. Kay Ivey is scheduled to have been on Flagg Mountain this past Wednesday to reopen the historic tower after it has been closed to the public for two decades. There are many other state and national dignitaries also expected to attend the festivities in the Weogufka State Forest.
More than $1 million has been invested in the renovations and repairs – there should be another article about this in the paper.
Everyone, please mark your calendars for the run-off election Tuesday! The secretary of state is only expecting 10-15% of registered voters will go to the polls. THAT IS SAD!
Here in Coosa we have some important races to decide. There is a runoff in the District 5 Board of Education race. Our voices need to be heard because these changes will chart the future of our county for the next four years. Please do your civic duty and VOTE!
We also have a very important U.S. Senate seat to fill with night and day choices. I am supporting Mo Brooks because I have followed his votes for years and know he will not sell us out to Mitch McConnell and the moderate voices.
On the national stage there just really is not much good to say. Gas now more than $5, food shelves empty, stock market crashing, retirement accounts headed down, and a recession looking more and more inevitable.
The higher the gas prices go, the more our day to day lives will change. People are going to become unable to go to work, go to the store, go to the doctor – especially people like us who live so far away from all of these places.
We are seeing businesses finally giving up the fight to stay open even after they struggled through the pandemic. Restaurants are really feeling the pain with high costs, no employees and supply challenges.
Many of us are having to reevaluate how we spend our money and where our priorities have to be. What is going to happen when school starts again? Will there be enough money to put gas in the school buses? What about gas for our Sheriff’s Office?
I’m still the same conspiracy theorist I’ve been since I “woke” up to politics in 2010, and I see this as a huge plan to destroy our country. It has been 100 years in the making, but the flood gates have been thrown open. I’m not sure we will survive the next two years.
Pray for the best, but prepare for the worst. You might want to read some books written during the Great Depression of the 1920-30s because most of us have never been through anything like what is looming on the horizon. We are going to learn why our parents and grandparents saved everything – even aluminum foil!
God bless our country and please save us from ourselves.