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December 13, 2016
On Thursday, December 8, 2016 the Simpson County School Board held a regularly scheduled meeting to discuss many different topics regarding our schools. During this meeting, some issues regarding the new Magee Elementary School facility being up to code were addressed. It had been brought to the attention of the School Board that a back flow system be installed into the sprinkler system at the school site to ensure that the building is compliant with requirements set up by the Department of Health’s Bureau of Public Water Supply. Most who are familiar with the elementary school and the issues surrounding it will be aware that this is not the first time an issue has arisen about the facility not meeting certain codes. The City of Magee, adopts their codes from the International Code Council, (ICC) in an effort to make sure that all buildings in the city are safe for those who may be occupying them. The Simpson County School Board has repeatedly had issue in complying with these codes during the construction process of this Elementary School Building; even though the codes in question were all in place well before bids were taken on this project and the architect who was awarded the job admitted that he did not read them. Friction between the School Board and the City of Magee regarding these issues continues to be a problem and the School Board seems to be placing blame on the City of Magee rather than their architect, or themselves, for not doing their due diligence before the project was begun.
On the eve of the December 8th meeting, the issue of the back flow system seemed to be the last straw for Board Member Dale Shotts, who loudly proclaimed that he thought this was a waste of money, just as he thought complying with some of the other codes were a waste of money and ended his statement with the words “Don’t Shop Magee”. A direct blow to the hardworking merchants, business owners and citizens of Magee, a city in the county that Mr. Shotts was elected to represent. A concerned Magee citizen said it best when he stated, “Any member of our School Board who is not committed to serve the entire County’s educational system’s best interests should either resign or those who elected him/her should be committed to replacing him/her during the next election. If we are going to tolerate a School Board member whose self interest is more important to them than working collectively to provide the best possible educational facilities, teachers and curriculum for all students, then shame on us!” The Board of Directors of the Magee Chamber of Commerce is inclined to agree with this person.
As a Chamber of Commerce, we represent numerous retail businesses, all of who would like to encourage you to “Shop Magee First” before you travel out of our city to do business. Tax dollars generated from shopping local stimulate our city’s economy and directly benefit the schools as well as many other city facilities that we all enjoy utilizing. The Board of Directors of the Magee Chamber of Commerce, take the comment made by Mr. Shotts very seriously, and do not condone any elected official who should be representing our entire county without bias making derogatory comments against our city, when in fact his blame and aggravation are wildly misplaced. We are submitting this statement to the Simpson County School Board to let them, the City of Magee and all of Simpson County know that we stand behind our local businesses, we support our local economy, and we do not think comments of this nature should be tolerated. In light of these comments made by Mr. Shotts the Board of Directors is calling not only for a public apology, but also for the immediate resignation of Dale Shotts from the Simpson County School Board. The Board is also asking the Simpson County School Board, specifically Linda Curlee and Sammy Welch, from Magee’s districts to support us in this statement by also asking Mr. Shotts for his resignation.
Christopher R Purdum, President
Magee Chamber of Commerce
For the Board of Directors
