Aw damn! I was just giving her a loan!

Aledo school board member and former city attorney Dwight Shoemaker was arrested and charged on suspicion of soliciting a prostitute in Davenport.

Mr. Shoemaker, 62, of 808 SW 8th Ave., Aledo, was issued a warrant for one charge of prostitution on Oct. 28. He would not comment on the aggravated misdemeanor charge Friday.

Based on extensive contact with people in the Aledo area, visiting ladies of ill-repute has long been a favored past-time for guys who spend endless days looking at cows, or cruising the loop, getting plastered, and going out to get their cars airborne on "Hilljump Road". Without Mercer county business, the working women of the Quad Cities would suffer an economic slump.

The town drunk in Aledo at the time (though there were a few strong contenders for the title, including one who would go into the grocery store and start guzzling bottles of cooking wine.) once told the tale of when he got in a spot of trouble at a bordello in Rock Island. It seems this gent had seen fit to pull a rifle out on the proprietors.
By way of justification, he would explain in his forceful whiskey voice, "I tol' 'em I wasn't gonna pay fer it, and they sicced their damn dover pincherman on me!"

But I can tell you that a school board member snagged allegedly picking up a prostitute isn't going to play too well in Aledo. He'll likely be run out of town.