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to all the dads and remembering our dads who are in heaven. v Binyoc 'HUfMALwAYNESBORO, GEORGIA! O 04 o CM CM GO 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, 5A ■Hah hi/ ficuthjeJiAr Dxu/J 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