Dear Editor:

What I have to say to your readers is simply in response to my name appearing among comments in your newspaper and in various “Facebook” rants by mayoral candidate Blaine Wilson.

After several weeks of unprovoked verbal aggression towards me personally; Blaine Wilson has now distinguished himself in my eyes. While much of what Blaine says about me is malicious and self-serving, please don’t take my remarks that way. Blaine Wilson has taken facts out of context, created his own version of the truth, and then broadcasted his views to anyone who would listen in an effort to gain acceptance.

With the silver spoon in his back pocket, Blaine presents himself as some type of savior of the working class. Give me a break – nothing could be further from the truth – he’s been listening to too many sad country songs! I have worked side by side with real men and women for over 40 years, and I know you do not create positive results by churning negative propaganda. You catch more flies with honey, and you do not try to harm the very people who go out of their way to help you and your family.

Here are some hard core facts that Blaine forgets when his uncontrollable anger takes over:

I have been developing real estate in Andalusia for 44 years, and I bought my first commercial building from his mother and my friend, Sue Wilson, in 1980. I restored and leased the building to Andalusia Academy of Ballet, Simply Silk, and Heritage Gallery Antiques.

I have used his family’s real estate brokerage to purchase, lease, sell, and appraise property for many years. As late as June 2012, his family’s firm earned an appraisal review fee from two of my shopping center purchase transactions.

Blaine’s father is a tenant in one of my shopping centers, and his air conditioner failed last month during the extreme heat. I replaced it at a cost of nearly $4,000 to me at the same time his son was ranting about me. Jimmy Wilson is a good man and we have a good business relationship. I can assure you that he could ignore kudzu while we made his business cool with a new air conditioner. Jimmy needs to have a father to son talk with Blaine, and explain to Blaine that I set priorities for all of my property, and Blaine runs a radio station.

Blaine is now ranting about my purchase and later sale of a building to the City of Andalusia that was owned by his family, which his mother refers to as the Bass Building. Blaine is again distorting facts about the business deal in a self-serving way. The fact is that the building was listed for sale by the Bass Agency and Blaine’s own mother asked me to purchase the building. I purchased the property from the Bass family, paid bank interest, taxes, insurance, and maintenance on the property while I owned it. I sold the property to the city for approximately the same amount that the Bass family had offered it to the public, so where is the improper action Blaine, or is this just sour grapes on your part?

Take it one step further, and Blaine now claims I get special treatment from City Hall by not spending $175,000 on the Prestwood Building. Actually I have paid receipts of over $500,000 spent on the Prestwood Building, but the interesting fact is that while I will spend more, I have no binding obligation to spend one cent on the Prestwood Building, and Blaine will not set my agenda, now or ever.

Not one positive word by Blaine Wilson has ever been mentioned about work I do every day of every week to provide jobs that improve real estate and bring new business to Andalusia. Since the Bass Building was purchased by the City of Andalusia, more than $2.5 million has been spent in purchasing and repairing real estate in Andalusia by John and Jennifer Tisdale or associated entities they own. Since I know of no mini storage buildings built during that same period, I challenge Blaine Wilson to tell the public just what he has personally done during that same period to improve Andalusia.

Finally, as far as Mayor Earl Johnson placing political signs on my property, I made that decision this week, and I stand by it with conviction. We live in a free country, and I personally gave the Johnson campaign workers full authority to place the signs on my property.

 

John W. Tisdale, Jr.