Welcoming new county ambulance service to Rockford
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In My Humble Opinion
Jodi McDade
I hope you will all join me in welcoming our new Coosa County Ambulance Service to Rockford. We have needed this for so long, and I want to thank the tenacity of our County Commission, State representatives Ed Oliver and Ben Robbins, State Sen. Clyde Chambliss, Coosa County Judge of Probate Richard Dean, and Coosa County EMA Director Sheldon Hutcherson, along with Gov. Kay Ivey, for standing firm until all the hoops were jumped through. My understanding is the ambulance made 10 runs on its first day!
I happened to be outside my house twice on Saturday, July 8, and heard the sirens as they traveled on Highway 14. I had never heard that sound that I can remember in the 25 years we have lived in Equality!
If I ever heard sirens before, they were on Highway 9 going north or south – but never anything going east or west. For those of us south of Highway 22 and west of Highway 231 this was a most welcomed sound. I hope their run reports and times will be published each month so we can see just how productive this service is.
One thing I hope all of you understand is that this service is being operated on grant funds as it gets started. In March there will be an opportunity for us to vote to continue financing the ambulance with a fee added to our automobile tags. I believe it will be $15 per vehicle per year.
Most of you don’t realize how low our overall taxes in Coosa County are compared to other counties in Alabama. Our property, ad valorem and sales taxes are all less than any of our surrounding counties, and that is one reason we do not have the services that other counties are blessed to have.
Personally, I would gladly pay much more than $15 a year to have an ambulance service that I know can respond to a call without having to wait an hour or longer – or wonder if one will even respond. This service is a 24/7 operation with paid county employees operating out of Rockford. It will be able to respond in all directions of the county using our main highways to go to the nearest hospital in Chilton, Elmore, Talladega, or Tallapoosa County.
Don’t get me wrong, we still have the voluntary services provided by Kellyton and Goodwater fire departments, and they have done the best they could to service the entire county. But both services are in the northeast side of Coosa County, and they were at times strapped to be able to handle calls just in that area, much less going to Richville, Equality, or Marble Valley.
Thank you to Jerry Sewell and Elmore Unbehant for all their efforts in Kellyton and Goodwater. I certainly thank the volunteers connected to those volunteer fire departments. Unfortunately, volunteers are hard to come by since our population is either in the older age groups or the younger ages with families and jobs.
Also, the big announcement just out is that we have a pharmacy in Rockford again! The Rockford Pharmacy is in the same building as the Accordia Clinic and the Coosa County Health Department on Highway 231 across from the Triple R Café. They will be open 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday. Please take advantage of this business because it is much needed and has been in the works for a couple of years.
On the national front it’s all about the Bidens. Increased information is coming out about their huge incomes from foreign governments and companies. Congress has also had several committees holding hearings with whistleblowers from the DOJ/FBI/IRS who have testified they were not allowed to fully investigate issues that had been reported. This includes a lot of information on Hunter Biden and his families’ connections to his overseas activities. From what I understand, some of the mainstream media are finally beginning to report on these stories.
Of course, the flip side is the coverage of all the investigations and indictments into Donald Trump. Increased reports are coming out about the Jan. 6, 2021, incident at the Capitol that verifies there were undercover government agents in the crowds who participated in encouraging the crowds to enter the building. Videos of the capitol police walking calmly around with the people who were arrested have been released, and they show none of them causing damages. While Biden and Mike Pence also had “classified” materials in their possession, only Trump is being prosecuted.
I’m all in favor of arresting and prosecuting people who have committed crimes, but we are supposed to have equal rights under the law. If two people have done the very same thing, they should be treated in just the same manner.
Unfortunately, our justice and legal systems are now controlled by many people who have been selected, elected, and/or appointed by the George Soros groups. He has been trying to take down the American government for years and is making great strides under the Obama and Biden administrations. His son is now taking over the family business – just like the mafia and cartels.
And Fox News was matching donations by their employees to a Satanic Temple group! News feeds are now showing they have stopped after getting called out on it! You just can’t make this stuff up! Just another week in the neighborhood – keep your heads down and be safe!