Newspaper Page Text
Page 4A
The Braselton News
Wednesday, February 15, 2023
Opinion
About the fire
The phone call
last Thursday was
one that nobody
wants to get.
"There's a fire in
the office!”
Mainstreet office
manager. Debbie
Castellaw, was out
for an early morn
ing jog before work
when shop foreman
Garnett Smith called
her to report smoke
in our building in downtown
Jefferson. He'd called the fire
department.
Running toward her house,
Debbie called me and said she
would get to the office as soon
as she could. I threw on some
boots and took off in the Jeep,
hoping the traffic enforcement
guys were not on the road at
that moment.
By the time I arrived, the sit
uation had calmed down a little.
The Jefferson Fire Department
had found the source of the fire
— a microwave in our upstairs
break room had caught on fire
during the night and that burned
part of a cabinet it was sitting
on.
But the room was sealed and
once the available oxygen was
burned up, the fire fizzled out.
When the fire department ar
rived early Thursday, the micro-
wave was cold, the fire having
died several hours earlier.
That was a good thing, but
the mess left behind and the
root cause of the fire created
much bigger problems.
•••
As the JFD left the scene
(Harrisburg, Arcade and JCCI
departments also responded),
our electricians began testing
circuits to see if they could
isolate what happened and if
there was additional damage
anywhere. The microwave
shouldn't have just suddenly
caught on fire in the middle of
the night.
On top of that, as we turned
some breakers back on. outlets
in the building would pop and
the breaker would
throw off. Something
wasn't right and
while lights and some
equipment seemed to
work, not everything
powered up.
It didn’t take them
long to figure it out
— many of our out
lets had readings of
208 volts rather than
the normal 110 volts.
That extra “hot”
voltage was creating problems
and had been why the micro-
wave burst into flames.
The cause of the higher volt
age?
Last Wednesday night, crews
had worked on a power pole
and transformer behind our
building. We knew they would
be there — they’d notified us
and had waited until we com
pleted the Feb. 8 editions before
they shut power off to the build
ing to do their work.
Unfortunately, when they
reconnected lines, they pulled
a higher voltage line into the
building rather than the normal
one (I don’t know the technical
terms, so excuse my condensed
phraseology here). The result
was to overload our circuits
with too much voltage and the
microwave got a strong enough
burst to catch on fire.
But a bumed-up microwave
was the least of our concerns.
Newspaper production is heav
ily dependent on computers —
what had that high voltage done
to the various computers and
servers in the building?
•••
And then there was the soot.
Everything throughout the
building was covered in a fine
layer of black soot. It was (and
of this writing still is) a mess.
The air really wasn’t good to
breath and you couldn't sit or
touch anything without getting
covered in the soot.
And what about those com
puters? In addition to getting
hit with the power surge, they
had been sucking in black soot
ST. SIMONS
ISLAND - Mid
day last Sunday
with a bright sun
tempering a biting
wind. I enjoyed a
filling hamburger
at ZuZu's, which
is just a few paces
from one of this vil
lage’s best-known
landmarks, the pier.
It is a good-look
ing pier with a potpourri of hu
manity moving about among
a coterie of serious fisherman.
One was an aging black man
whose gray hair confirmed that
he has has experienced a num
ber of birthdays. He had a chis
eled. ruggedly handsome look
that suggested that his image
in a black and white photo yes
teryear would have made him
a candidate for a Marlboro ad.
A spent cigarette hung loose
ly from his mouth, as
he cast into swirling
waters which looked
like a boatswain’s mate
with an upset stomach.
There must have been
a dozen others fishing
for lord knows what.
Nobody was catching
anything, but nobody
was complaining.
However, I lingered
for a spell, hoping to
see the Marlboro man reel
something in. I had a depress
ing feeling that if his hook
didn’t connect with a fish of
some sort, or a crab, that he
might go to bed without any
supper. I saw a tourist press
a 20-dollar bill in Marlboro’s
hand. His eyes seemed to cry
out with love. As he hugged
his benefactor. I read his lips,
“God bless you, man.” One
will never know the rest of that
m
iSltf
Mainstreet Newspapers staff are working from a room at Jackson EMC in Jef
ferson following a fire at the newspaper office on Lee St. that happened the
night of Feb. 8.
through their cooling fans.
As I said earlier, the situation
was a mess both physically with
the soot and practically with
computers that may or may not
work enough to get this week's
issues produced. (Fortunately,
our printing press is on a dif
ferent power line coming into
the building so it was spared
any electrical damage. And we
weren’t the only business hit
with problems. I understand
our next door neighbor Jeffer
son Drugs also had some elec
trical-related damages.)
•••
So for the past week, we have
been confronted with two large
(and many smaller) problems:
Where could we work since our
building is uninhabitable due to
the soot and cleanup crews do
ing their work; and how could
we work if the computers were
fried or suspect?
Fortunately, the first problem
got solved quickly by one of
Jackson County's leading busi
nesses. Jackson EMC, whose
headquarters are in Jefferson,
graciously allowed us to use a
room in their corporate office
to work from until we can get
back into our building.
Jackson EMC really, really
saved the day for us. (By the
way, Jackson EMC wasn’t the
company that overpowered our
electrical circuits.)
Like most businesses, most
of our work is done via the
internet. Everything from bank
ing to receiving news, ads. obits,
legals, classifieds, etc. is mostly
done by computer and online
systems. That was another issue
to resolve in all of this.
So for now, much of our
office work is being done out
of a room at Jackson EMC.
We hope to get our building
cleaned soon so we can move
back in, but that all depends on
how quickly the cleaning hap
pens. Likely, we’ll move back
in stages.
A big thanks to Jackson
EMC for helping us out during
this crisis.
•••
While we have a temporary
home, the status of our comput
ers is another matter.
Fortunately, a lot of our staff,
especially our news staff, now
work from home. During the
Covid pandemic, we transi
tioned to a more home-based
workflow. Our reporters have
laptops and for the most part,
cover their events and meet
ings, then log into our central
server and upload their stories
and photos.
Alex and I are now working
out of our Homer office where
we have good internet (kudos
to Gumby Communication in
Toccoa which dialed up our
internet speed this week in Ho
mer to make remote work pos
sible.)
Our news server system also
ties into our advertising and
billing systems and into our
page production system. All
together, we run about 5 differ
ent servers that make producing
newspapers, mailing them, pay
ing bills, making payroll, etc. all
work
One of those servers died
earlier this week. It ran for a
while after the fire, but on Mon
day, it went down, creating a
workflow headache.
It’s probably just a matter of
time before other servers and
workstation computers also
start malfunctioning.
Part of that is probably due to
the sudden power surge, but it's
also due to the soot that filled
the building after the fire. Soot
is produced when a fire bums
incompletely, as happened with
the microwave. And unlike
dust, soot, which is tiny carbon
particles, is often ionized and
is very sticky. Think of how a
Bankston
story, but for the moment it was
a classic scene — a happy hap
pening.
A seagull cacophony
brought pause to my walk. I am
amused by the disorganization
of the seagull’s squawk. He
interrupts himself as he sounds
forth while darting, diving, and
making a piercing racket. A
group of seagulls congregating
near the docks reminds you of
the commotion you see on the
floor of the New York stock ex
change. Seagulls on the coast
are like house flies. You find
them everywhere you go.
I looked across a parking
lot where a skating rink once
stood, adjacent to a swimming
pool where former Bulldog
swim team members, Jimmy
and Charlie Bankston once
worked as lifeguards.
No pair ever looked more
like beachcombers than the
blonde and tanned Bankston
boys who explored St. Simons
when it was pristine and re
mote. The bridges on the Tor-
ras causeway were wooden.
You could fish for your supper
year-round. Everybody had a
crab trap and shrimp were as
plentiful as daffodils in early
spring.
The Bankstons taught them
selves how to dive at the Ca
sino pool and became UGA
aficionados owing to their old
er brother, Byron, who drove
to Athens every home game
Saturday. That became a ritual
which all in the Bankston fam
ily embraced.
They stayed at the Colonial
Inn on North Milledge Ave.,
cooked hamburgers on the grill
and played touch football in
the parking lot — first with the
children and as time went by,
the grandchildren. They owned
season tickets for over 60 years.
As undergraduates, the
Bankstons worked their way
through school, taking advan
tage of a work-scholarship
at old Payne Hall where they
served meals behind the steam
table. They were enterprising
and frugal. Jimmy was one of
the most versatile swimmers
ever at Georgia. Just before he
passed away, he got the news
that he had been elected to the
State of Georgia Sports Hall of
Fame, a big day for a man who
truly appreciated his scholar
ship.
He returned home after grad
uation and became the county
recreational director. That was
fun but was not going to allow
for dinner at the nearby Clois
ter on Sea Island very often.
Needing to increase his
bank account, Jimmy became
the director of military sales at
chimney looks on the inside
after a few fires in a fireplace,
black with soot.
Some of the soot is visible,
but it’s also microscopic and
gets into small spaces, like
computers (and lungs.)
The upshot of all this is this:
While some of our computers
are working, it's probably just a
matter of time until they begin
to die. That means we will have
to replace all our computers and
servers, even those not directly
hit by the soot or surge. Newer
computers have newer operat
ing systems and for all our com
plex and proprietary software
systems to work, everything
will have to be upgraded so that
it will all work as it should.
That’s a lot of computers,
monitors, backup power units,
printers, servers, etc. We're a
small business, but everything
we do depends on this tech
nology working correctly and
without failure.
•••
So for the next few weeks,
we hope you’ll be patient with
us as we work through all the
problems create by the fire and
power surge. There may be
some delays in people getting
back with you, or you may see
some different looks in our pa
pers as we transition from our
existing computer hardware to
all new hardware. How quickly
that will happen isn’t yet clear.
Meanwhile, we’ll continue
to cover our communities with
the usual vigor, keeping you in
formed about what’s happening
in your back yard.
And to tell the truth, it’s a
little odd to write this about a
“news” incident that happened
at the newspaper office. We
like to put the focus on others
and not ourselves, but with this
event, we thought our readers
would like to know what had
happened and how we’re work
ing through it.
Mike Buffington is co-pub
lisher of Mainstreet Newspa
pers. He can be reached at
mike@mainstreePiews.com.
SeaPak, a local seafood distrib
utor. He traveled the world and
company sales flourished for
45 years.
When he retired, sales plum
meted. Eventually he came out
of retirement to help build back
the business and train a succes
sor so that he could come off
the road again.
Throughout his career, he
made it back to St. Simons
on the weekend so he could
connect with his old stomping
grounds spend his Saturdays in
Athens and watch the Bulldogs
between the hedges.
The Bankston family has al
ways been typical of so many
in this state. Find your niche in
the community and make Sat
urday between the hedges your
second home.
Loran Smith is a long-time
UGA football radio personality
and syndicated columnist.
LETTER: Says area charter school effort
is about ‘high-quality educational choice’
Dear Editor:
As a parent, long-time
Braselton resident and former
small-business owner. I know
that investing in our children
and their educational opportu
nities is the future of Jackson,
Gwinnett, Hall and Barrow
counties.
To do this we must give par
ents high-quality educational
choice. That's why a group of
community members formed
New Schools Georgia. Inc. - a
non-profit focused on opening
the four-county area’s first pub
lic charter school.
Rooted in the belief that ed
ucation transforms lives. New
Schools Georgia will partner
with National Heritage Acad
emies (NHA) to open Four
Points Prep Academy in Au
gust 2024. Seeking approv
al through the State Charter
Schools Commission of Geor
gia, Four Points Prep Acade
my, if approved, would open
K-5. growing one grade level
per year and ultimately serving
nearly 800 students in K-8.
New Schools Georgia chose
a partnership with NHA for
its proven track record of ed
ucational success and charac
ter-based approach to teach
ing and learning that puts
students first. With a focus on
college-readiness, NHA part
ner-schools serve more than
60,000 students in 100 schools
across nine states.
In fact, a 2018 study of char
ter schools by Stanford Uni
versity’s Center for Research
on Educational Outcomes
concluded that NHA is a lead
er among educational man
agement organizations. NHA
partner-schools consistently
achieve better results in both
academic growth and profi
ciency.
The partnership with NHA
also lessens the burden to tax
payers. If the application for
Four Points Prep Academy is
approved by the State Charter
Schools Commission of Geor
gia, NHA would invest pri
vate capital to renovate a safe,
modem school; and equip,
maintain and operate it, while
also staffing and developing
robust curricula. NHA makes
these essential and substantial
startup investments based on a
model of continued academic
success.
Additionally, New Schools
Georgia plans to submit a
proposal to the Braselton City
Council seeking to lease the
now empty former Jackson El
ementary School.
As community engagement
and support for Four Points
Prep Academy gains momen
tum, our future only shines
brighter. The investments we
make in our children’s educa
tional opportunities today will
pay dividends beyond mea
sure!
Sincerely,
Pam Estabrooke
Braselton
The Braselton News
Mike Buffington Co-Publisher
Scott Buffington Co-Publisher & Advertising Manager
Ben Munro Editor
Taylor Hearn Sports Editor
Wesleigh Sagon Photographer/Features
MEMBER
• Georgia Press Association
• National Newspaper Association
• International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors
Postmaster: Send Address Changes To:
MainStreet Newspapers, Inc.
PO Box 908
Jefferson, Georgia 30549-0908
Web Site: www.BraseltonNewsToday.com
Email: ben@mainstreetnews.com
Voice: 706.367.5233
Published weekly by The Braselton News
33 Lee St.
Jefferson, GA 30549
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