Newspaper Page Text
Barrow g Journal
www.BarrowJournal.com Barrow County’s Award-Winning Newspaper
Vol. 4 No. 5
www. Barro wJo urnal.com
Wednesday, November 23,2011
36 PAGES 3 SECTIONS plus inserts A publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc.
WINDER, BARROW COUNTY GEORGIA 30680 25(t COPY
Inside:
•Holidays arrive in
Auburn
pages 1C, 3 C
•Community Briefs
page 8C
Opinions:
•'Where are all the
adults in our political
culture?'
page 4 A
•'Pausing to give
thanks'
page 4A
•'Telling our story'
page 5A
Sports:
•A new basketball sea
son for WBHS
page 1B
•AHS, WBHS wrestlers
set for new year
page 1B
•Lady Wildcats eye
state tournament
page 7B
Also Inside:
•Church News
page 6C
•Classifieds
page 11C
•Obituaries
pages 7C
•Opinion
page 4A
•Pets of the Week
page 3C
•Public Safety
pages 6-11A
•School News
page 9C
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Barrow i journal
Did Barrow end FY2011 in the black?
County CFO brings encouraging numbers to BOC
By Susan Norman
snorman @ barrowjournal. com
For the first time in years, the
operating fund of Barrow County's
government may have made it to the
end of a fiscal year in the black.
Barrow County CFO Rose Kisaalita
submitted to the Barrow County Board
of Commissioners on Friday a finan
cial presentation to be discussed at the
board’s meeting Tuesday night, which
was held after the Barrow Journal’s
holiday publication deadline.
Kisaalita said in an e-mail to the
newspaper on Monday that her num
bers were not final, because the
FY2011 audit would not be com
pleted until March 2012. But she
said most of the year-end accounting
adjustments had been made.
“So I am hopeful that the final fig
ures will not change that much." she
wrote.
If her projections hold, the bottom
line is the county could have about
$1 million left over from FY2011 to
add to its operating “reserve” to cover
future expenses.
It would be the first time since at
least the early 2000s that there has
been enough unspent operating rev
enue to begin rebuilding the reserves.
At the start of the fiscal year in
October 2010, the operating fund’s
reserves amounted to a little under
$4.3 million, but that was not all cash,
because some of the money was obli
gated for certain uses.
Kisaalita’s forecast for the reserves
at the end of FY2011 is $6.3 million
— minus about $1 million committed
to other uses — for a net balance of
$5.3 million in “unassigned” General
Fund revenue.
The excess funds are a bit of a sur
prise because when the BOC adopted
the 2011 budget, many thought it was
so restrictive that most department
managers would come back before
the end of the year to ask for money.
But that didn't happen.
No managers reporting directly to
the BOC came back for more money
during the year. Instead, the addi
tional $360,000 was approved for
departments run by elected officials
— the sheriff, the tax commissioner,
and court-related offices — and the
other $200,000 in additional funding
was for legal expenses.
Kisaalita's numbers show that many
managers did cut it very close. Nine
departments wound up with less than
$5,000 at the end of the fiscal year on
Sept. 30.
The only appointed manager to
exceed his budget was Barrow County
Emergency Services Chief Dennis
Merrifield, and he was expected to be
in a bit of a hot seat Tuesday night,
because he had told the commission
ers more than once that he wouldn't
need to request more money for
FY2011. But Merrifield learned just
last week that some accrued expenses
had shown up on the finance depart
ment’s books, but not on his.
See Finances on Page 3k
Deliverins more than food...
Benson acts out of kindness, not pay
By Lorin Sinn-Clark
1orin@ barrowjournal. com
E very week Howard Benson spends
hours of his time and $65-$70
on gas driving the streets and roads of
Barrow County.
He does this cheerfully, in part because
he doesn’t get paid and he says he wouldn’t
have it any other way. Benson is a volun
teer for the Barrow branch of the Athens
Community Council on Aging’s (ACCA)
Meals on Wheels food delivery program
and he says it’s one of the most rewarding
things he’s done in his whole life.
“It’s just something I do,” Benson said.
“People have helped me all of my life. It’s
just about giving back and trying to feel
good about yourself.”
Benson has been delivering Meals on
Wheels in Barrow County for the past
two years.
He said he started doing it because he
“got bored pretty quickly” after retiring
from Gwinnett County and he “always
admired” his mother for “walking all over
town, delivering food” to people in the
Kentucky coal mining community where
he grew up.
See Meals on Wheels on Page 13A
SERVICE WITH A SMILE
Meals on Wheels volunteer Howard
Benson displays the meals clients
get to choose between each day
on the new “My Choice” program.
Benson has delivered meals for the
past two years and knows the (four
local) routes and clients on them
personally. Photo by Lorin Sinn-Clark
DEDICATED SERVANTS
Howard Benson is Mary Beth Toles’ “volunteer super star.” He has deliv
ered Meals on Wheels for the past two years and she is the Winder home-
delivered meals program specialist for the Barrow branch of the Athens
Community Council on Aging, based at the Winder-Barrow Adult Day Health
Services building on Lee Street in Winder. Photo by Lorin Sinn-Clark
Two more arrested for
exploiting mentally ill
Investigators, families now
look beyond Barrow County
By Susan Norman
snorman@barrowjournal.com
Following searches that reportedly yielded “a boatload of evi
dence,” two alleged accomplices in the operation of unlicensed
Barrow County homes for the mentally ill were arrested Nov.
17 and charged with exploiting theirformer clients.
Narquitta Jebeh Street, 45, was arrested at the house she
helped run at 926 Downing Drive, and Priscilla Verdia Streete,
41, was arrested at the other house at 1144 Otis Drive. The
women reportedly are sisters but their last names are spelled
differently on jail documents.
Each was charged with five felonies: one count of giving
false information to law enforcement and four counts of the
abuse, neglect or exploitation of disabled adults. Their male
associate, 41-year-old Mario Kenneth Yarbrough, was charged
with an additional felony of giving false information to law
enforcement.
He has been in the Barrow County Detention Center since his
arrest in the early morning hours of Nov. 12.
With the addition of a ninth charge late last week, his bond
rose to $95,000.
However, the women were released Sunday on their own
recognizance, and Yarbrough was scheduled for another bond
hearing Tuesday in Barrow County Magistrate Court.
See Mental Illness on Page 3A
Tonya Lynn Murder Case
Suspect pleads not guilty
at Monday arraignment
By Katie Cofer
katie @ barrowjournal. com
The man accused of murdering his 38-year-old wife and
dumping her body in a well pleaded not guilty at his arraign
ment Monday in front of a Barrow County Superior Court
judge.
The first hearing in the case of James Morris “Jim” Lynn Jr.
versus the State was before Honorable Joseph Booth and lasted
just under 20 minutes.
About 30 family members and friends of Tonya Lynn and
Lynn’s first wife, Julie Johnson, who allegedly died of a sui
cide in Metter, Ga., in 1989, gathered in front of courtroom 4 at
8:30 a.m. Nov. 21. They were wearing buttons displaying the
faces of their loved ones in support.
See Arraignment on Page 3P
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