Jefferson County Unity F.O.P. Lodge #58 - Pleasant Grove, al

01/13/2025

Lodge meeting Tuesday January 14 at 6 pm. Dues for 2025 are due at the first meeting in January. $25 for active and associate members, $18 for retired members. Payments received after the February meeting will incur a $25 late fee. If unable to attend either meeting, mail dues payments to FOP Lodge 58, PO Bix 215, Pleasant Grove AL 35127. Call me at 205-966-2137 if you have questions or need assistance. Jon Grigsby

12/19/2024

Letter from your President, December 2024.

That is another year in the books. We made some big changes to the way our Lodge runs this year and today is proof that our efforts were productive.

This year we overhauled the Lodge’s bylaws, setting up better fiscal planning and management. Before, we just kind of winged it and it somehow worked out. We also closed 2 bank accounts and combined the Lodge’s assets in one checking and savings account, simplifying reconciliation. Our primary goal with the financial changes is to be in a better position to serve our members when in need and to be able to contribute to a worthwhile charity that supports local children at the end of the year with 100% of the unused income. After settling all bills, we were able to donate $4803.86 to our local Children’s Hospital and Ronald McDonald House.

Regular Membership dues of $25 are due at the first meeting of every year (January 14th). The new bylaws provides for a late fee of $25 if they are not paid by the end of the February meeting (February 11). Our Lifetime Members now tote the load of their $18 membership dues that the National FOP and State FOP require. If you cannot attend the meetings due to your work schedule, mail it in to the Lodge’s PO Box. The address is FOP Lodge 58, PO Box 215, Pleasant Grove AL 35127. Joe Tew will mail your card to you. Don’t wait until your car tags are due later in the year to handle it.

Regular members pay only $25 a year to be affiliated with an Alabama FOP Lodge, getting them access to National and State FOP benefits such as personalized FOP car tags, moonlighting insurance, prescription medication programs, prescription weight loss programs, low cost life insurance, a free life insurance program, and input/support for pro-FOP legislative changes at our state level.

Lodge 58 membership also gets you free use of the FOP Range Inc’s main range 4 times a year for practice prior to qualification, reduced cost membership to the FOP Range ($75 instead of $300), an invite to a meal at a local restaurant after attending any meeting, and a Christmas Dinner at the Bright Star if you attend one meeting during the year. The $7 in profit from your membership payment goes a long way here. There are no plans to increase dues.

I have enjoyed serving the Lodge as President for 28 years and look forward to the new year.

Jon Grigsby

10/20/2024

2024 Christmas Dinner Info

The 2024 FOP Lodge Christmas Dinner will be held at the Bright Star on Tuesday December 17 at 6:30 PM. All lodge members who have attended a meeting this year are invited to attend. The menu will be an abbreviated special event menu. Attendees are responsible for their adult beverages and anything ordered that is not on the event menu. Following the dinner, a donation to a worthy charity will be made in the name of the FOP Lodge 58.

In the planning for this dinner, the date of Dec 12 was set as a goal for the dinner but the 12th was not available at the restaurant.

We will hold our regular December meeting at the range on the 2nd Tuesday in December on the 10th at 6:00 PM. In years past, we merged the meeting with the dinner but that is not the plan this year. We have the matter of which charity to select for the donation prior to the dinner. See you there.

Jon Grigsby

Send a message to learn more

02/29/2024

Next meeting is March 12, 6:00 PM, FOP Range classroom. See you there.

02/04/2024

Our next meeting will be Feb 13 at 6 pm at the range classroom. Dues are late and will incur a late fee if paid later than this meeting.

There are 2 ways to pay your dues, attend a meeting and pay in person or mail a check or money order to FOP Lodge 58, PO Box 215, Pleasant Grove AL 35127. Dues are still $25 unless you are a retiree in which case they are $18.

I look forward to seeing you there, Jon Grigsby

02/04/2024

Attention all FOP members,
As most should know time is short to pay your dues. I have tried to make sure everyone knows this. The last day to pay your dues without incurring an additional $25 penalty is Feb 13, 2024. This is all members, including retirees. As I have found out in doing mail outs and bulk emails, I believe some of our members are undercover as they have a bad email and bad home address. If that is the case, please don't come with "no body told me." I have a job to do. Please don't make it any harder.

Joe Tew
Lodge 58 Sec/Tres

01/11/2024

A message from your President.

We held the January meeting last night with 18 in attendance. Several items were hashed out.

January is when all dues are to be paid for the 2024 year. Members have until the February meeting to make their payment. Dues not collected by the end of that meeting will incur a $25 late fee. Dues may be paid by either attending a meeting or mailing your check to the Lodge at FOP Lodge 58, PO Box 215, Pleasant Grove AL 35127. Most of the regulars took care of their 2024 dues in November.

Retirees must now carry the cost of their affiliation with the State and National FOP organizations which is $18. About a third of our members are retirees. The Lodge does not make a penny from their membership.

I discussed why people join FOP Lodge 58. There are 3 reasons… 1. In order to obtain low cost moonlighting off-duty liability insurance that is only available from the National FOP Organization, you have to be an active member of a local FOP lodge. 2. The state of Alabama makes available a FOP personalized tag to active FOP members. You have to show them your card proving you are an FOP active member. FOP Lodge 58 is the least expensive way to obtain that card so you can get a cool FOP tag. 3. People join to be a part of something worthwhile, to meet new friends, and to support the local Lodge with your membership.

I discussed a problem the range is experiencing with a new neighbor, a guy who has leased the property around the range to use as his private hunting club. He has an issue with our closing the business each day by placing a barrel in the range road with a no trespassing notice on it.

The obstruction is there to prove intent of anyone on the property after hours, such as the carload that showed up in the middle of the night a few weeks ago, set off our motion alarms, had 4 guys get out and go towards the office who met Lee with his rifle and then fled. They were stopped for a moment by PGPD on the range road but drove around the patrol car and a chase ensued that was called off when the car made it to the interstate. Bessemer PD later that night got the car, which was stolen, and found one of the armed occupants was wanted for murder. That is why we put a barrel in the roadway. A gate would be better but would create an issue if Lee had a medical emergency and needed paramedics who would have to walk the 1/2 mile in.

I had Joe dig up the paperwork for the purchase of the range property and read it. Seems we have a non-exclusive easement from 1st Street to the edge of the property that begins in the center of the powerlines that cross the range road.

This morning, Lee and David observed this new neighbor take a couple of shots at deer. The land he is hunting on is in the city of Pleasant Grove and subject to their ordinance against the discharge of fi****ms in their limits. He had been told he could only bow hunt the property. I discussed the possibility of the Range seeking to lease the same property as a buffer when his lease expires. There is a potential for us to develop a much needed s***t / trap / 5 stand shotgun field if we can secure the space.

I discussed the role of the FOP Lodge 58. A member who had not attended a meeting in a few years took exception to the requirement of having to attend one meeting during the year to qualify for the Christmas Dinner at the Bright Star. He did so on the Lodge page. He said the Lodge is not doing anything beneficial as an FOP Lodge and has become nothing more than a “dinner club”.

The Lodge is here to support its members. We have extended financial help to many over the years such as guys who had their house burn down and lost everything, were unable to afford medication, or had family members who were in need. The entire time I have been the President, we have supported the State FOP Honor Guard by fully sponsoring one of our members who served on the Honor Guard and picking up the tab for fuel for any event he attended. We also sent him to Washington DC to represent us at the Police Officer Memorial Service for several years. The range is made available to any law enforcement agency who needs a place to train and qualify its officers free of charge. The Lodge and Range have hosted law enforcement tactical matches where agencies sent teams to compete. We held a Law Enforcement appreciation Fun Shoot Day complete with food trucks. After the Christmas Dinner, we donated over $1800 to the Salvation Army. We have made a substantial donation to children in one way or another every Christmas for the last 27 years. We also maintain a training fund for Lodge members who want LE training their agency won’t pay for.

In my conversation with this member, I asked him what he thought we should be doing differently? He said he wanted to see the Lodge go to area agencies and speak to its officers and let them know what the FOP can do for them. I know of no other Lodge that does so. Officers are smart enough to figure out what they need to do to become an Active FOP member. Our Lodge is the best low cost way of obtaining the things they need.

As for us being a dinner club… Hell yes, we are a dinner club. We are an awesome dinner club. After each meeting we go to a local restaurant for a meal together. We finish off each year with an awesome dinner together at one of the best places to eat on the planet. All anyone needs to do is pay their $25 dues and attend one meeting.

Following my talk about the dinner club, a member said she and others she knows did not receive notice of the Christmas Dinner and would have attended if they had known. She asked if we had excluded anyone? I assured her that no one had been left out. Every member in good standing who had attended one meeting during the year was welcome at the dinner. Our Secretary Treasurer has sent every member he has an email address several notices about the dinner. I had announced the date on the Lodge page and posted about it a few times leading up to the dinner. I asked Joe to audit his email to ensure he had her email address correctly and to see if there was a reason she did not get it. I advised her that since the email was part of a bulk email, her spam filter may have stopped her from seeing it. The range uses a commercial email service that runs $75 a month. I don’t think the Lodge needs to spend $75 a month when we have both social media and personal email services available for free.

Well, that’s enough for this month.
See you at the February meeting. Come hungry.
Your President,
Jon Grigsby

01/01/2024

Tuesday, January 9th at 6:00 PM is our next meeting. Put it on your calendar. Dues are due every year in January and late after the February meeting. There are 2 ways to renew your membership; come to the meeting in January or February and pay dues in person, or mail them in before the February meeting. The mailing address is FOP Lodge 58, PO Box 215, Pleasant Grove AL 35127. Dues are still $25 for active and associate members. They are now $18 for retired members. I look forward to seeing everyone there.

Jon Grigsby

12/09/2023

Message from your Lodge President,

Merry Christmas all! We held the Lodge 58 Christmas Dinner at the Bright Star in Bessemer Thursday night. Had about 40 attendees who enjoyed what for me was the best meal I’ve had all year. After settling up after the meal and taking a look at the Lodge account, I found that once the December lease payment is made to the Lodge by the Range, the Lodge will have $1553 available for donation to the Salvation Army for Christmas.

The new By-laws spell out how we manage the Lodge money with the goal of having a donation for a charity before Christmas. At the December meeting, the executive committee is to review the account and reset it for the next year. $5000 is the basis for the budget, $1000 is for a training fund, and $2500 is for the Benevolence fund so $8500 is what we start the year out with. At the Christmas Lodge Dinner, once the tab is paid, we know exactly what there is available and we make all the funds above the $8500 into a donation for a charity that was decided at the November meeting.

We got quite a bit done this year as a Lodge, holding a meeting followed by a dinner at a local restaurant every month, completely overhauling the By-laws, installing a new Sergeant at Arms, and implementing the changes necessary to abide by the By-laws. At the January meeting, everyone’s dues for 2024 are due. Most of the regulars took care of their dues payments at the November meeting. Dues paid after the end of the February meeting will incur a late penalty. There are 2 ways to make your payment, in person at a meeting or by mailing it to the Lodge. The address is FOP Lodge 58, PO Box 215, Pleasant Grove, AL 35127.
I look forward to seeing you at the January meeting.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Jon Grigsby

11/22/2023

As I advised in our November meeting, this is a list of those individuals that attended one meeting this year:
Andrews, Janci
Askew, Deatrice
Attaway, Robert
Bononia, Brent
Bononia, Sarah
Brewer, Harold
Brewer, Robert
Clark, Ken
Crenshaw, Toni
Ellison, Dalton
Findley, Harry
Fortner, Brownyn
Giles, Shannon
Grimmett, Ty’berius
Harper, Charles
Harris, William
Head, Duane
Herrmann, Mike
Johnson, Clyde
Jones, Jayson
Knoblock, Floyd
Knoblock, Anna
Knoblock, Crystal
Lewis, Alphonso
Levert, Darrell
Marshall, Tameka
Moore, Marlon
Morris, Paul
Neal, Lanita
Perdue, Jaquel
Porter, Ben
Porter, Jeff
Powell, Lee
Reese, Kenneth
Sampson, Truman
Scott, Elizabeth
Tew, Joe
Thomas, Joseph
Toney, Clifford
Torbert, David
Walker, Markeeta
Watson, Joseph
If you attended a meeting this year and your name is not on this list and you wish to attend the Lodge Christmas dinner, please contact me or Jon Grigsby and advise what month you attended (I went by the sign in list to compile this list) prior to the dinner. Thanks.
J. Tew

11/15/2023

Message from your President, Nov 2023

We held the November meeting last night with 21 in attendance. The only news I have to share is we decided on the charity to donate to for Christmas, the Salvation Army. In past years we have donated to the Birmingham DHR and to local schools and both of those have their complications. With the Salvation Army, you know where your donation is going and how it is going to be used.

Most in attendance went ahead and paid dues for 2024. The December meeting is to be replaced with the Annual Lodge Christmas Dinner on December 7 at 6:00 PM at the Bright Star. All active members who have attended at least one regular meeting during the year are invited to attend. The menu will be a cafeteria plan. You can order anything you want there but if its not from the cafeteria menu, you will have your own bill for it. The Bright Star has an outstanding bar but alcohol is on you. The Lodge will not provide alcohol at any dinner. I look forward to seeing you there.

The issue of members who hold Active Member status but are not qualified as such is going to be an issue that we decided to deal with when renewal time occurs for 2024. All membership dues are due at the January meeting and late after the February meeting. A late fee will apply to payments made after the February meeting. Please let Joe Tew know if you are not a full-time regular Law Enforcement Officer or engaged in full time Regular Law Enforcement Duties (i.e., Police Officer, Sheriff Deputy, Corrections Officer, Constable, or certified Police Communications Officer), working at least 30 hours per week with arrest powers and POSTC certification in a Municipality, City, Town, County, State, or Federal Agency from which he receives his compensation so he can adjust your position on his membership list. Reserve officers, part-time officers, security guards, civilian staff, volunteers, etc., do not qualify for regular FOP membership. An example would be civilians hired as municipal jail staff. Please don’t be offended when Joe Tew or Ken Clark ask to see your credentials when collecting your dues payment.

This change in our Lodge membership structure came from a directive made by the National FOP Secretary defining who could be an Active Regular Member. We still welcome your membership but with an Associate Member status.

10/22/2023

A message from your President

We held the October Lodge meeting and took care of some business. Last month we ratified a new set of by-laws and are moving forward using the guidelines and requirements they set out.
1. Sergeant at Arms.
We did not have a Sergeant at Arms. It’s an officer position that has gone unfilled for the last 2 decades. Our original by-laws provided for the position and he has a valuable role in the leadership of the Lodge. The Sergeant at Arms, SAA, is responsible for decorum at all meetings, uptake of the role, verification of visitors, and heads the Membership Committee.

I looked around the room and picked out three guys who are regular at meetings and could do a good job. We held an election and Ken Clark is our new SAA. Ken has been a member since 1984, is retired from the prison system, and always has a joke to share.

2. Membership Committee.
The Sergeant at Arms is chairman of this committee. The President and Vice President appoint one member each to this committee. Investigates and vets all applications for active membership and makes reports to the Executive Board prior to voting to accept. This membership committee is also tasked with investigation of members who have violated the oath of membership and make recommendation to the Executive Board about expulsion.

All new applications for active membership have to be screened by the membership committee. To join, attend your first meeting and submit your application and 1st year’s dues payment of $25. The application will be turned over to our SAA who will verify employment and references. He submits his review to the Executive Board at the following meeting. If the applicant is at the following meeting and voted into the Lodge by membership present, we will hold a swearing in ceremony and make him an active member. If he is not present, the Secretary will give him emailed notice of acceptance and he has 6 months to attend a meeting and get sworn in. After 6 months, he forfeits his dues payment and must reapply. Transfers from other Lodges have only to request transfer from their Lodge. Associate membership acceptance is decided by members present when an associate application is made.

3. Active membership qualifications.
Article IV Section 2 states:
The Petitioner for regular active membership in the Lodge must be a full-time regular Law Enforcement Officer or engaged in full time Regular Law Enforcement Duties (i.e., Police Officer, Sheriff Deputy, Corrections Officer, Constable, or certified Police Communications Officer), working at least 30 hours per week with arrest powers and POSTC certification in a Municipality, City, Town, County, State, or Federal Agency from which he receives his compensation. Reserve officers, part-time officers, security guards, civilian staff, volunteers, etc., do not qualify for regular FOP membership. Honorary Active Membership status may be granted in this local lodge on a case-by-case basis for those individuals who actively support local law enforcement agencies and Lodge functions. Individuals holding Honorary Active Membership may participate in all activities and attend meetings but cannot hold elected office. Honorary Active Membership is granted by the Executive Board by majority vote. No person shall be denied membership on account of race, religion, creed, color, s*x, age, or national origin.

It has come to our attention that Lodge 58 has several individuals who hold Active membership cards who are not qualified to be Active members. As stated above, reserve officers, part-time officers, security guards, civilian staff, volunteers, etc., do not qualify.

National FOP Secretary Jimmy Holderfield writes an article every month for the FOP’s Journal magazine. In the April 2023 issue, he addressed who can be an Active Regular member and who cannot. Our by-laws follow his guidance. How can we address this? All membership dues are to be paid at the Annual meeting in January and are late after the February meeting. When you submit your dues payment, our Secretary may ask to see your credentials as a POSTC certified sworn officer to verify your Active Membership qualification before issuing your 2024 Active member card. We just want to do it right and need to clean up what we have been doing wrong. You know if this affects you and ask that you notify a member of the Executive Board, President Jon Grigsby, Vice President Lee Powell, 2nd VP Elizabeth Scott, Secretary Treasurer Joe Tew, Chaplin Harold Brewer, or our new Sergeant at Arms Ken Clark and we can adjust your membership status. Should this affect you and you want to remain a member, you may become an Associate member and can get a FOP car tag medallion from Joe Tew.

4. Life member’s dues.
About one third of our Lodge is made up of the 45 retired guys who pay no dues. I am one of those guys. The problem is the math doesn't work. We have about 125 members on our roles. The dues are $25.00 for Active and Associate members. Of that $25.00, $16.00 is handed over to the State and National FOP for each member’s affiliation so you can get your card. That leaves $9.00 for paying for the Life guy’s per capita plus the regular expenses of running the Lodge, funding conference trips for our representatives, lodge meals we do at each meeting, the annual Christmas dinner at the Bright Star, and anything philanthropic we want to do.
45 x $16.00 = $720 80 x $9.00 = $720.
In my research of what other Lodges do, I learned that many require their Life guys to cover the expense of per capita, $16.00 a year. So… at the January meeting, your dues will be $16.00 for 2024. There is a movement at the State Lodge to increase their per capita fee another $2.00 making it $18.00 per year total but that has not gone into effect yet. You can mail your $16.00 in if attendance is an issue. The mailing address for the Lodge is

FOP Lodge 58
PO Box 215
Pleasant Grove, AL 35127

5. Christmas Dinner.
The Lodge’s Christmas dinner will be held at the Bright Star in Bessemer on December 7 at 6:30pm. To attend, you must be a member in good standing and have attended at least one meeting during 2023. There will be a special menu for us and as long as we order from it, the Lodge is picking up the tab for you and your guest. The Lodge also will not pay for alcoholic beverages but there is a bar there should you want to partake.
That’s all for now. The November meeting is on the 14th at 6:00 pm. I look forward to seeing you then.
Jon Grigsby
President – FOP Lodge 58