Newspaper Page Text
Barrow Journal
www.BarrowJournal.com •r Read all over...
Wednesday, January 21,2009
Vol. 1 No. 13 20 PAGES 2 SECTIONS A publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. WINDER, BARROW COUNTY GEORGIA 30680 250COPY
•New Piggly Wiggly
Express opens in
Statham
page 2A
•Appeal filed in hos
pital battle
page 2A
•Winder man named
GEFA director
page 2A
Opinions:
•State's situation is
bad and getting worse
page 4A
•Overlooked candi
date set for another try
page 4A
•Where was that
again?
page 5A
Sports:
•WBHS boys basket
ball team emerging as
subregion contender
page 1B
•Mat Wildcats set for
return to action for coach
Jim Stoudenmire
page 1B
•Lady Bulldoggs look
to shake off recent two-
game losing streak
page 3B
Other News:
•Church News
page 8A
• Helen Person col
umn
page 5A
•Public Safety
pages 6-7A
•Obituaries
pages 4-5B
•School News
pages 9A
To subscribe,
call today:
770-867-NEWS
(6397).
The Barrow
Journal is
delivered
every
Thursday.
BOC slashes county pay
‘Can’t postpone it any longer’
BY SUSAN NORMAN
In a split vote decided by its chair
man, the Barrow County Board of
Commissioners put a sharp ax to the
county’s projected $2.5 million bud
get deficit Tuesday night by slashing
pay and other expenses.
Commissioner Steve Worley
proposed the cost-cutting plan at
Tuesday’s called BOC meeting.
Supporting Worley’s plan were com
missioners Larry Joe Wilburn and Eva
Elder. Voting against it were commis
sioners Isaiah Berry, Billy Parks and
Ben Hendrix. BOC Chairman Danny
Yearwood broke the 3-3 tie by voting
in favor of the proposal.
Those against the plan said they
were concerned about the fairness of
the percentage salary reductions. But
none of the opposing commissioners
came to the meeting with a firm alter
native plan for cutting the deficit.
After the split 3-3 vote, Yearwood
asked County Attorney Angela Davis
to again read the proposed resolution
and then voted to support it.
The chairman said it was not an
easy decision but one that needed tc
be made.
“We can’t postpone it any longer,’
he said.
The plan approved by the BOC
will:
•cut county workers’ pay by 3-1C
percent depending on pay level.
continued on page 3A
Auburn council
Comment
time is
debated
BY CHRIS BRIDGES
How — and when —
Auburn leaders want to
hear from the public was
discussed by the Auburn
City Council last Thursday
night.
Currently, no time is set
aside for public comments
at work session meetings.
Public comments are now
only allowed at the end of
regular meetings and during
public hearings.
“Right now, citizens don’t
have a chance to say any
thing until after we vote,”
council member Sally
Brown said. “I’m not say
ing we want to be here until
11 (at night).”
But Mayor Linda
Blechinger said the temp
tation would be to start a
back-and-forth dialog and
the council needed to be
“careful about that.”
“We have two weeks
between work sessions and
regular meetings where we
can receive phone calls,
e-mails and set up meet
ings,” the mayor said. “I do
like the idea of discussing
in a work shop and then
opening the floor up for
comments.”
Council member Dorissa
Shackelford said she would
be willing to try it and if the
meetings got out-of-hand to
modify it.
The council is also con
sidering allowing citizens
the opportunity to speak
before regular meetings on
issues that would be voted
on that night.
Comments on other issues
would still be limited until
after the business meeting
is held.
Historic Day:
Obama takes office, local citizens attend Inauguration
By SUSAN NORMAN
A mong the ocean
of faces along
the Mall in
Washington D.C. wit
nessing President Barack
Obama’s Inauguration
Tuesday were a hand
ful of Barrow County
residents who traveled to
the nation’s capitol to lay
claim to their personal
piece of American history.
Winder bank man
ager Kenny Lumpkin, after
obtaining tickets to both
the Inauguration and an
inaugural ball, flew up with
his wife and
daughters
for an expe
rience of a
lifetime.
Then at
1:05 a.m.
Monday, retired educator
Ina Brothers of Winder, and
her friends Mary Lay and
Brenda Wells, boarded a
chartered bus at the K-mart
in Athens and rode for
two days, not sure of what
they would see when they
arrived in Washington, but
wanting to be a part of
what for them would be the
culmination of a journey
that began decades ago.
And Statham truck driver
Willie Russell on Monday
called the Barrow Journal
on the way to Washington
to say he was driving a
chartered bus filled with
folks from Stone Mountain
and that he was about to
cross into the Carolinas.
“I feel good about it,
that at least one time in
my lifetime, I’m getting
to go to an Inauguration,”
Winder
observes
MLK
holiday
— I2A
Russell said. “It’s excit
ing. Everybody on the
bus is excited about it.”
Lumpkin said in an email
Monday night that the
Lincoln Memorial concert
had been deeply stirring.
“The songs were so
uplifting and the people
were on fire despite
the enormously cold
weather. Nobody seemed
to care that it was below
freezing,” he wrote.
continued on page 10A
WITNESS TO
HISTORY
Young Carlie
Lumpkin (top) is in
Washington, D.C.
this week with her
parents for the
Barack Obama
swearing in. (Right)
These Barrow
County ladies, Mary
Lay, 72, of Winder,
Ina Brothers, 77,
of Winder and
Branda Wells, 61,
of Statham, were
ready for their bus
ride Sunday to the
Inauguration.
Bethlehem woman gets liver transplant
BY LORIN SINN-CLARK
Special to the Barrow Journal
Incurable liver cancer - a bless
ing? That is exactly what the diagno
sis turned out to be for 58-year-old
Bethlehem resident Kim Corbin. After
years of suffering from a virtually
unbeatable form of Hepatitis C, which
resulted in cirrhosis of the liver, Kim
“thanked the Lord for the cancer”
because it lead to the liver transplant
she had at Emory University hospital
on December 30.
“For the first time in a long time,
I can look forward to feeling good
again,” Kim said. “A transplant is hope,
and having cancer meant I could have
a transplant.”
It’s been a whirlwind ride for Kim,
her husband, family and friends, since
she was diagnosed with two cancerous
liver lesions on October 2.
“I went in for a routine MRI on
September 30,” she states. “I could tell
by the tone in the nurse’s voice when
I called to get my results the next day
that something was wrong...She said
KIM CORBIN
she’d have the doctor call me back.
And when he did, the next day, he told
me it was cancer.”
Years of medical bills, a 20-per
cent co-pay required by Medicare,
and a strong family and social sup
port system allowed Kim to qualify to
become a client of Georgia Transplant
Foundations’ Transplant Fundraising
Program. GTF is a non-profit organi
zation that assists transplant patients
with fundraising, certain expenses, and
provides a variety of educational and
support services.
As a GTF client, Kim must raise
$10,000 within a year of the time her
name went on the transplant list. GTF
matches funds for every dollar raised
for the first $10,000 and disburses the
funds as Kim’s medical bills and pre
scription costs arise.
So far, Kim says she’s “behind on
donations,” having raised only $2,000
of the $10,000 required.
“This all happened so fast,” she says.
“By the time I qualified for GTF and got
on the transplant list, it was November
15, and then the holidays hit, and
the economy’s so bad...I understand
that people are busy with the holidays
and have their own problems...I don’t
expect them to care about me being
sick over the holidays...Praise God, I
was transplanted anyway.”
continued on page 3A
Unemployment
filings climb
locally in Dec.
First time unemployment
insurance claims jumped again
in December in Northeast
Georgia.
Barrow County had 763
make first time unemploy
ment claims in December, an
increase of 67 percent from
December and 120 percent
from the year before.
In Jackson County, 696 peo
ple applied for unemployment
for the first time in December,
a 107 percent increase over
November and a huge 309
percent jump over December
2007.
Banks County had 213 peo
ple file in December, up 72
percent from November and
204 percent from December
2007.
continued on page 3A
