17 DEC 07: BANNED FROM THE BAND

It's one thing to show up at church and be surrounded by your friends. It's another thing to go to church and find yourself under a police escort. Yet that happened to one man at a Columbus church over the weekend - and it wasn't even a guest speaker who became converted while in prison.

BLOG EXCLUSIVE: Your blog confirmed Sunday evening that a member of the Cascade Hills Church praise band has been removed, because his wife sent an anonymous e-mail raising questions about church government. Actually, he was told to "lay low" - which some might misunderstand to mean he's softly playing a bass guitar.

The news about this shake-up actually reached us by another anonymous message:

The band member that was mentioned from Cascade Hills who's wife informed the members of the bylaw change was removed from the band list on the website, replaced on his scheduled date and effectively removed from the band. This was done before anyone from the church talked to him. Just as was expected.

Brianna Ogletree confirmed this report in a phone conversation. In fact, she says husband Roy only found out about his removal when the church web site took him off the list of band members. This is almost like that single woman on "Sex and the City" who was dumped with a Post-It note.

Roy Ogletree was taken off the Cascade Hills band list two weeks ago. His wife told me after checking the web site, he called the church music minister - and was told he "needed to lay low." Since it's December, it could have been a move to a live nativity scene.

(We tried to call up the music ministry page Sunday night, but we were kicked back to the Cascade Hills home page instead. Is it because Roy Ogletree could be seen in the background on that page, as wife Brianna told us? Or is someone at the church tapping into our e-mail, and knowing we're coming?)

Other band members set the record straight: Roy Ogletree will NOT be allowed back on stage to play worship songs at Cascade Hills Church. I suppose he still shake a tambourine in the audience - but then, this church is Baptist and not Pentecostal.

But Brianna Ogletree told me her husband still needed to see someone at Cascade Hills Church. So he went to the Saturday night service, and wound up with a "police escort around the building." Perhaps this was understandable, after what happened in Colorado the Sunday before. But if he isn't carrying a guitar case....

(We mentioned here years ago how Cascade Hills Church has off-duty uniformed police officers at its services. The twin shootings in Colorado made me consider them in a very different light. Are they there simply for traffic control? Has Pastor Bill Purvis received some kind of threat? Or are the tithe collections at every service THAT big?)

Brianna Ogletree told the Ledger-Enquirer two weeks ago she feared her husband might be asked to leave the Cascade Hills Church band. She told me Sunday the church seems to have an attitude of "guilty until proven innocent." But hold on - isn't that the process of repenting from sin works?

Brianna Ogletree says she's "very disappointed" with Cascade Hills Church - and in fact was so disappointed that stopped attending there early in the year. At least she's happy with the thought that it'll be "nice to go to church as a family." Wherever they go, the pastor had better preach properly -- or we might hear about it.

By the way, Brianna Ogletree had no new information on the court order Cascade Hills Church sought to stop anonymous e-mailers [2 Dec]. This church might find stamping them out is a lot like stamping out sins from your life -- when you think you've put down one, another two seem to pop up.

E-MAIL UPDATE: What other powers do readers want to go after today? How about the Phenix City Manager....

I know you're the voice of Columbus (and to some small part the voice of hurtsboro?) but we over here in Phenix city have a big problem locally & the media well we all know they are just puppets and dance to whoever is playing the music.

Our elected council members, Mayor, & City Manager all swear to uphold the City Charter when elected or nominated to their seats. One aspect of our cities charter is that all of these fine officials MUST live within the city limits. The reason this was put into the charter (the cornerstone of our fine city) is because if a person lives in our town, pays taxes & city services in our town ... they just MIGHT give a D**N about our town & do the right thing by its people, employees & businesses.

City Manager H.H. "Bubba" Roberts lives 16 miles outside the city & drives a city vehicle to and from work every day. Our citizens pay for that vehicle and the gas he uses to drive back & forth. He is a terror to all that work in the city. He makes HR decisions on a whim and throws actual "PHYSICAL" temper tantrums when he doesnt get his way. He doesnt care about our town or the employees who work very hard to keep it the wonderful town its always been. He and his buddies (John Storey, Arthur Sumbry, & that gal who always votes what John wants) are running this town the way they want & be d**ned with us & down with Jeff too if he doesnt wanna play ball!

The entire city council & mayor know and have known for several years that he does NOT live inside the city limits. A few months back the mayor tried to have him REMOVED because he wouldnt work with him but found out that unless the ENTIRE council backed removing him ... he was staying. They should remove him simply for being in violation of our towns charter and if they are going to ignore the city charter they swore to uphold fully when elected....then they ALL ought to be out of those seats.

Sorry to burn up the blog like this but after writing dozens of letters to the Ledger Enquirer its quite obvious there isnt a sniff of investigative journalism anywhere over there. They only print what comes out of councils mouths ... they wont dare look into anything shady.

Charles Farley Jr

I asked a news reporter who covers Phenix City about this Sunday - and was told Bubba Roberts claims to own property inside Phenix City, where he lives from time to time. That's in addition to his home outside the city limits. So if Russell County can hire an engineer who lives in Lee County, why isn't this legal?

If Bubba Roberts is that much of a "terror" to Phenix City employees, why is it that the only person to complain about him publicly is a member of Russell County's SWAT team? You may remember that incident involving the city firing range, which led to the new range for county employees in Fort Mitchell. Be thankful those facilities are several miles apart....

CORRECTED: Keep in mind that a city employee filed charges against Phenix City Council member Ray Bush earlier this year, not the City Manager - and Bush was cleared in court. Would any city employee dare accuse Bubba Roberts of some kind of abuse? Or are they waiting until the final weeks of the 2008 election to bring it up?

We thank all of you for sending us comments and news tips - and since not much in the news thrilled us Sunday, we'll focus on sports instead:

+ The Ledger-Enquirer promised it will publish a book on Carver High School's championship football season - and sell it for $29.95. If Brookstone had won a state title, I might understand that price....

+ Mayor Jim Wetherington promised the city will do "something special" for Carver. Maybe the team will get free tickets to the Columbus Catfish home opener in April - and the city can save money, by celebrating two champions at once.

+ The Atlanta Falcons were trampled by Tampa Bay 37-3. Several Falcon players promised radio sideline reporter Nicole Watson they planned their own "something special" for their first touchdown. Well, at least they get another week to practice it....

(The Falcons were SO BAD that they never converted any third-down plays. Did Bobby Petrino take all the team playbooks with him to Arkansas?)

+ Instant Message to Beacon University: Did I hear my radio right - you're sponsoring Columbus Cottonmouths hockey games? Do the ministers on the faculty turn the other direction when fights break out?

2007 IN REVIEW: We start at the beginning, in our review of the last year. The second day of January was the first day in office for Mayor Jim Wetherington. Remember the question he asked in his inaugural speech for evaluating his term: "Do you trust your city government?" At this moment, the answer seems to be a resounding no.

Columbus city documents unveiled in January showed several surprising companies owed landfill fees - including the Dolly Madison bakery. Perhaps the bakers thought they'd wadded up the slices of bread enough to earn a discount.

Later in the month, Columbus Council voted to build a new skate park in the South Commons area. I'm waiting for the construction to start on that - and I don't think they needed to rip up sewer lines around McClung Memorial Stadium to build it.

The Columbus NAACP spent a day in January renovating the historic Spencer House on Veterans Parkway downtown. Your ticket to the January banquet might actually provide the group with enough exterior paint to finish the job, since it's been a scraped mess for months.

President Bush visited Fort Benning in January - and within weeks, the Third Brigade was on its way to Iraq. So if the President makes a surprise visit at your high school during 2008, make a run for it.

Columbus had several grand openings in January. The Riverpark campus of Columbus State University opened downtown. The new Wal-Mart SuperCenter opened at Columbus Park Crossing. And not far from there, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers opened - yet local nature groups have yet to complain about this restaurant killing robins for meat.

Phenix City began the year with news of merger talks, involving three water systems. It's a bit surprising the drought hasn't eliminated one of them by attrition by now.

Developers promised in January that "The Phenixian" complex would begin construction in June. Yet it still hasn't started today, because of a long hassle over ownership of the land. I won't be surprised if we wind up seeing a high-rise on the grounds -- but it'll be for a Troy University academic building.

A Phenix City McDonald's showed a rare bit of customer courtesy in January, by posting signs warning prices were about to go up. Cable TV of East Alabama tried to follow that example months later, but it was a lot more controversial....

The "Hurtsboro Mondays" phenomenon began here Monday, with news that a City Council member was found in violations of Alabama ethics law. Mae Dell McVay faces a January trial - while in the meantime, we've heard enough complaints about Hurtsboro to put half the town in the Russell County jail.

We noted during late January that gasoline prices had dropped to $1.98 a gallon in Columbus. Shame on all of us who failed to hurry to hardware stores, buy all the gas cans we could and filled them on the spot....

The big regional sports story was Nick Saban's decision to leave the National Football League, and become head coach at Alabama. Some sports talk hosts called him a "snake" at the time -- but now Bobby Petrino has made him look downright gentlemanly.

We made a BIG PREDICTION in January that CBS would make Louisiana State-Alabama a national TV game. Sure enough, the network did it -- and if John Parker Wilson had held that football in the fourth quarter, the final result actually would have been two teams with winning records.

(BLOGGER'S NOTE: Our review of 2007 will continue throughout the coming days.)

Today's main topic was the result of a blog reader's tip. To offer a story, make a PayPal donation, advertise to our readers or comment on this blog, write me - but be warned, I may post your e-mail comment and offer a reply.

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UPDATE 1, 4:16pm