Newspaper Page Text
to all the dads
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Vol. 143, No. 17 - Waynesboro, Ga. 30830 Established in 1882 Wednesday, June 14, 2023 - $1.00
Elections Board reduces polling sites
During the monthly Board of
Elections meeting Tuesday, June 13,
Assistant Chair Ed Burke read the
following statement explaining the
office’s reason for reducing the num
ber of Burke County polling sites:
“The Board of Elections is begin
ning the process of consolidating
precincts to optimize the in-per-
son voting locations within Burke
County. In the last major election,
most voters cast their ballots either
by mail or during early voting, with
only less-than-half voting in person
on election day. Burke County has a
very high number of polling places
for our population and has six pre
cincts which rank in the smallest 5%
of the entire state.
Consolidating these small pre
cincts has no effect on the ballot that
a voter will receive; it only affects
the location that a voter goes to on
election day. The voter’s options
for commissioners, councilmen, or
school board members remain ex
actly the same. This is because each
voter receives a ballot customized to
the districts that they live in.
Consolidating these precincts
will reduce the use of fire stations
as polling places. The fire stations
are undesirable because voting can
impact EMA operations, and because
we cannot get early access to these
locations to set up equipment. If
you vote at 7 a.m., you may have
experienced delays with the opening
of these polls.
Another benefit will be that we
can free up equipment for other uses,
such as expanding early voting to
include additional sites besides the
Courthouse. Our goal is to enable
more early voting so that voters
have as much voting opportunity as
possible. We currently don’t have
enough equipment to do this.
Specifically, we plan to merge the
following: Blakeney will merge into
North Waynesboro and voting will
be at the Senior Citizens Center at
Office Park. Gough will merge into
Vidette and voting will be Vidette
City Hall. Scott’s Crossroads will
merge into Midville and voting will
be at the Community House.
At a later date, perhaps after 2024,
we are considering some additional
merges.
If we can free enough
equipment, early vot
ing might be added at
Keysville, Midville and
Sardis on Thursday, Fri-
SEE
POLLING,
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This 19BB FIDO owned by
Michael Tootle and equipped
with a Mustang BT engine
and transmission can be
seen cruising around town.
For more local Classic Cars,
see this week's Father's
Dag special section about
some of the local cars and
owners.
A special called meeting was held to discuss Councilman Freddie Harden’s
concerns regarding the City Administrator’s use of a car owned by Keysville.
Use of city vehicle prompts
special called meeting
Monday’s Keysville City Council
meeting almost went off without a
hitch, but not quite.
During the regular meeting, the
council voted unanimously to ac
cept the county’s proposal to use
their dump site on Perkins Mill
Road as one of the destinations for
bulk items once curbside service is
implemented. After a bit of discus
sion involving $54,000 that was
taken from an account designated for
roads and transferred to the general
account to assist in paying for the
second well, the regular meeting
was adjourned. However, the City
Council and Mayor held a “special
called meeting” afterward to discuss
the use of the city’s Ford Taurus by
City Administrator Sherell Russ.
Councilman Freddie Harden re
minded the panel that during a
“special called meeting” May 8,
the council voiced their concerns
that Russ was using
the Taurus to drive SEE
back-and-forth to KEYSVILLE,
work from her Au- CA
CORRECTION
Last week The True Citizen reported Sheriff Alfonzo Williams’ 2024
budget request incorrectly.
The headline of the story said the requested budget was $13 million
when, in fact, the total budget request was $14,431,338.28. This included
$4,970,000 for the detention center, an increase of almost $1.7 million,
and $9,461,333.28 for the Sheriff’s Office, an increase of approximately
$1.8 million. We apologize for the error.
Remembering 135th US Colored Troop on Juneteenth
More than a dozen Burke County
freed slaves joined the army of
William T. Sherman as his troops
marched from Atlanta to Savannah
in 1865.
The 135th U.S. Colored Troop
numbered 1,154 men, including
Solomon Gardner who was bom into
slavery in Elbert County and then at
the age of 10 years old sold to W.E.
Jones of Waynesboro. As a slave, he
worked on Jones’s cotton plantation.
Gardner was sent to a home to
deliver honey when a stranger in
formed him there were 8,000 troops
headed toward Waynesboro after
Sherman’s men had just burned
Atlanta. Gardner waited on the road
to see the Union troops march past
him. He told his family there were
about 10 miles of supply wagons
that followed. The troops arrived at
Jones’s house where Sherman was
to stay the night. Gardner overheard
Sherman say, “free if you choose,
and you deserve it.”
Prior to taking the oath of service
in Goldsboro, the Burke County men
had been recmited into the Pioneer
Corps during Sherman’s march
through Georgia and the Carolinas.
The Pioneer Corps worked tire
lessly to help move Sherman’s Army
through swamps. They built bridges
to assist the troops in crossing the
rivers of Georgia and South and
North Carolina. They had to work
day and night to make sure that over
2,500 wagons and 60,000 men were
able to rapidly advance in their effort
to help bring the Civil War to an end.
The story that has been passed
down through Gardner’s family for
generations includes Gardner enlist
ing in the Pioneer Corps Company B
in Savannah after Sherman and his
troops left. He was given a shovel,
spade and an axe.
Gardner’s account of the war is
captured on the official copy of his
Declaration for Pension record. He
recalled skirmishes with “the en
emy” as the men worked to clear the
path for wagons to deliver supplies.
The mud was often so deep, he said,
the roads required the men to cut
trees, lay down the timber and cover
them with soil before they could
pass. Gardner helped other men pull
up the “railroad tracks and bind them
into pretzels.”
“The weather was so bad the roads
were impassable,” Gardner declared.
His division lost about 200 men in
the Battle at Rivers Bridge as they
were shot trying to cross the bit
ter cold waters of the Salkehatchie
Swamp. Gardner stated that he
knew Sherman’s goal was to “strip
the city clean,” as they headed to
ward Columbia, S.C. Gardner also
recalled that the
group of men had SEE
not eaten a decent JUNETEENTH
meal for weeks as gA
they headed toward
Solomon Gardner