Tears and Laughter: The state of Wilcox County – somebody offer a prayer

I was driving through Greensboro on my way home from Tuscaloosa a few days ago when I noticed signs along the side of Highway 69 that read, “Pray for Hale County.” Can we do that in Wilcox? These were small signs like the kids put out when their school is on the way out of town heading to state playoffs. We are probably not going to want to be quite that discreet about it. We are going to want double billboards and banners because we have some issues in Wilcox County.

And don’t miss take me. I love it here. We are people who communicate with pound cakes and casseroles, but Wilcox still leads the state in unemployment. Only Sumter keeps us from being the poorest county in the state. And I don’t like to use the term failing when it comes to schools, but our schools are challenged. All of them.

The roads are unbelievable. Some are in need of such repair that they are closed indefinitely. There is one place on County Road 19 where there should be a culvert that I keep documenting like a science experiment involving gravity and rain. Most residents do not understand why problems aren’t fixed right the first time. The county commission has addressed road concerns many times. It is because of lack of funds, but sometimes – if you harp on it and post pictures of it twice a week and start quoting the annual salaries of the county engineer and assistant engineer – they patch it with a dump truck load of red dirt and clay.

This typical patch in Wilcox County has affectionately become known as a red dirt Band-Aid. All they do is cover the problem and look bad. They wash away with the next two-inch rain. When they get really serious about fixing things, they use red dirt mixed with big rocks. This washes away too. If they bother to put out the orange cones and ribbon, they are showing they care, they are trying, and evidently doing all they can do. If asked, they will repeat again how the county doesn’t have any money.

Wilcox County does have money that comes in. There are millions of dollars that are funneled through this county every year, but something is wrong. And it didn’t just start. Wilcox County is legally managed illegally.

At the last commission meeting, with Commissioner Bill Albritton advising, “Y’all can’t do that,” the others passed an open-ended motion allowing commissioners who refused a county truck to be reimbursed for their costs of riding the roads in their district. In other words…they were given a blank check. Two commissioners, Reginald Southall and Michael Saulsberry – each with a long history with the county – won back the seats they had lost in 2014. It seems there may be a reckoning to be done. The consequence of elections I suppose…just politics.  There is also a smidge of friction within the courthouse. The newly elected Probate Judge, Brittany Alexander, is hiring a new chief clerk. Some readers may remember the former chief clerk who allegedly took thousands of dollars from the probate account for liposuction and cosmetic procedures. So naturally a new clerk needed to be hired. No pay scale had been set on the front end so the judge was requesting the commission agree to pay the new clerk $15 an hour. They were more comfortable with $13.75. But that has caused tension among the other clerks in other departments, including the sheriff’s office, who have worked for the county between 10 and 35 years and still do not make $13.75 an hour. Sheriff Earnest Evans said he is suing the commission over it and the chairman…in a moment of sincere honesty, admitted what many may have been thinking for a long time. He said he is “sick of this sh*t.”

Anyways, I don’t think the size signs we need are anything they can’t handle over at the print shop, but at this point prayer is the only hope Wilcox County has got.

Amanda Walker is a contributor with AL.com, Selma Times Journal, Thomasville Times, West Alabama Watchman, Alabama Gazette, and the Wilcox Progressive Era. Contact her at Walkerworld77@msn.com or at https://www.facebook.com/AmandaWalker.Columnist.