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PAGE 2A
BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
WEDNESDAY, MAY 24, 2017
RANDOM RANTS IN RHYME
‘Mother’
Maybelle Carter
(Note: Heavily drawn from The
Writers Almanac, May 10, 2017)
Country music fans may
get a little smarter
when they read this history of
“Mother ” Maybelle Carter.
Born as Maybelle Add
ington in 1909,
a descendent from a Brit
ish prime minister's line,
her family had, in
the meantime, fallen on hard times.
Her entire family was inclined to music.
Maybelle played autoharp, and a banjo picked.
In her teenage years, she switched to the guitar,
and this is where she became a superstar.
She developed her own method for guitar play
that still affects most guitar players today:
She played melody on the base notes with her thumb
while she used her other fingers to strum..
“The Carter Scratch,’’ they dubbed her style of play.
The guitar became a lead instrument that day.
Maybelle quit school at the age of fifteen
to sing in a group with Sarah, her cousin,
and Sarah’s husband, A. P. Carter.
(She married Ezra, A. P’s. brother.)
The group toured churches, fairs and schools
near Nickelsville, Virginia, as a rule.
There was little money for them to roam
far from the town that they called home.
They were quite popular locally,
performing as The Carter Family.
A. P. promised Ezra he would weed his corn patch
if he would only release and unlatch
Maybelle for a trip to Bristol, Tennessee,
where the Victor Talking Machine Company
had an agent by the name of Ralph Peer
whose major obsession was to hear
and record string bands and those that played gospel.
Ezra agreed to release Maybelle,
and loan them his old Model T as well.
The group recorded several songs in that Bristol studio,
and that they could hear themselves
set Maybelle’s heart aglow.
Peer paid them fifty dollars on the spot,
and promised them great royalties if the record sold a lot.
The record sales that year neared 300,000,
and The Carter Family were coun
try stars throughout the nation.
When The Carter Family disbanded as a group,
she chose Helen, Anita, and June, and recouped
her vaunted place with the Grand Old Opty.
Her new group made tours of the country
as Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters.
They were sometimes joined by a couple of misters
named Johnny Cash and Elvis Pressley -
and the rest, as they say, is history.
Firmly ensconced as a country music great,
Maybelle Carter died in 1978.
Those recording sessions in Bristol Tennessee,
according to Billboard magazine, are said to be
the most important single event in country music history.
© 2017, cbs
Dr. CB Skelton is a retired Winder physician and author
of several books.
Auburn to move forward with sports
complex master plan development
By Scott Thompson
News-Journal Editor
After nearly a decade of on-and-off-
again discussion, Auburn officials are
hoping to push forward with a specific
master plan for future development of
a city sports complex.
City parks and leisure services
director Dan Pruehs told City Coun
cil at its monthly workshop meeting
Thursday that the city wants to move
forward with preparing a multi-phase
development plan that it can present
to council at its planning retreat next
month.
Based on council recommendations
and citizen feedback, elements of the
master plan that could be constructed
next fiscal year would be discussed
by staff during its FY2018 project
meeting in July. A conceptual drawing
of the Auburn Sports Complex, which
would include the current baseball
fields along Mary Carter Avenue and
other athletic facilities, was developed
in 2009.
Falcon Design Consultants was
hired last year to update the plan by
incorporating property acquired by
the city along Mary Carter Avenue
and 9th Street.
Though the complex has been a
topic of discussion at council's annual
retreat, no solid master plan has been
agreed to, Pruehs said.
Based on needs identified by city
staff and citizen feedback, Pruehs
said the master plan would include
updated walking trails, advanced play
ground areas for a wider age range
of children to play on, multi-purpose
fields which would allow the city to
offer sports like soccer and lacrosse
and basketball goals.
Ideally, Pruehs said, the tennis
courts currently by the Auburn Public
Library would also be relocated to the
complex.
“We know that this is not a one-
year project, but a multiple-year one,”
Pruehs told council. “But by coming
up with a conceptual master plan, it
allows us to work in phases with what
our city's budget allows.
“I want more stuff and I want the
city to be able to offer more sports and
programs to bring in more people to
our facilities.”
OTHER BUSINESS
In other business Thursday, council:
•discussed whether to repair,
remove, or remove and relocate the
water wheel in Burel Park. At the
meeting, Pruehs initially recommend
ed removing the wheel, which was
purchased by R.H. Burel and placed
in the city park more than 20 years
ago, and relocating it to a communi
ty garden behind the Auburn Police
Department headquarters as part of
a new water feature. The wheel has
become a “maintenance nightmare,”
Pruehs said, adding the wheel has
been rebuilt twice since 2010, that the
pond under the wheel has a leak and
the pump must be constantly reset.
But council members Peggy Langley
and Robert Vogel and resident Wanda
Hawthorne said the city should instead
replace the wheel with a new one on
site. Pruehs said the cost of the repair/
replacement project would depend
on the size of the water body, but
estimated the maximum cost would
be around $4,000. City administrator
Ron Griffith said the city would like
official direction from council by next
month so improvements can be made
prior to the city’s Independence Day
celebration July 1.
•received a recommendation from
Pruehs to remove the Adirondack
shelters in Shackleford Park and
replace them with campsite tent pads
similar to those typically found in
state and national parks. The shelters
were constructed several years ago
as part of a Boy Scout Eagle project,
but have become commonplace for
litter, graffiti and vagrants living in
them without the city's permission.
Pruehs said. Putting the tent pads in
their place would open up the area and
reduce the potential for “inappropriate
activities,” he added.
•reviewed the Fiscal Year 2016
audit report from independent firm
Hawkins & McNair. The audit found
no material weaknesses. The city had
a bank balance in all funds of just over
$2.3 million at the close of the year on
Sept. 30 and increased its government
net position from $11.19 million at
the close of FY15 to $11.7 million
a year later. The city’s general fund
balance increased over the same time
period from $852,850 to $902,141 —
the third consecutive year the general
fund has ended in the black — and
it had over three months' worth of
reserves ($944,859).
•received the Fiscal Year 2018 bud
get schedule from Griffith. According
to the schedule, council will hold a
capital project and budget planning
session 8 a.m. July 15 in council
chambers. Pre-budget meetings will
also be held at 6 p.m. on July 18, July
25 and Aug. 15; a public hearing on
the proposed budget will be held 6
p.m. Aug. 31 and council will have a
final vote on the budget 6 p.m. Sept. 7.
FY18 begins Oct. 1.
•received a recommendation from
the Downtown Development Author
ity nominating Anytime Fitness as its
2017 Business of the Year. The item
will be voted on at the June 1 business
meeting.
BOC continued from 1A
July. That deposit will come from the
county's reserves under the motion
approved by the board Tuesday.
Contract for LMIG
roadwork approved
In other business Tuesday, com
missioners approved a bid of just
under $2.1 million by Baldwin Pav
ing Company to patch and resurface
eight county roads and three streets
within the Auburn city limits.
Five of the county roads are includ
ed in the Georgia Department of
Transportation's 2017 Local Main
tenance and Improvement Grant
(LMIG).
Also included is the re-striping of
Brown Bridge Road, which is locat
ed partially in the unincorporated
portion of the county and partially
within Auburn.
Aside from the Brown Bridge
Road work from Clover Drive to the
Gwinnett County line, the county
roads slated for the improvements
include:
•Kilcrease Road from Ga. 316 to
Stonebrooke Drive
•Patrick Mill Road from the Gwin
nett County line to the pavement
joint southwest of Barrow Industrial
Parkway
•Carl-Bethlehem Road from 1.060
feet west of Patrick Mill Road to the
Carl city limits.
•Pinebrooke Road from Kenne-
dy-Sells Road to the dead-end at the
cul-de-sac
•Pinebrooke Court from Pine
brooke Road to the dead-end at the
cul-de-sac
•Pearl Pentecost Road from
Carl-Cedar Hill Road to Bankhead
Highway
•Woodland Road from Carl-Beth-
lehem Road to the dead end at the
cul-de-sac
•Hillside Lane from Woodland
Road to the dead end at the cul-de-
sac.
And, aside from the work on
Brown Bridge Road from Kilcrease
Road to Clover Drive, the city streets
to be worked on include:
•Kilcrease Road from Brown
Bridge Road to Stonebrooke Drive
•Carl-Midway Church Road from
Kilcrease Road to Governors Ridge
•Honeysuckle Terrace from Gold-
enrod Lane to the dead-end at the
cul-de-sac.
Funding for the work will come
from a $695,412 grant from the state.
$249,623 from SPLOST 2012 funds
for road and bridge work, $1 mil
lion from the county's capital proj
ects fund and a reimbursement from
Auburn of roughly $290,000.
Graduation continued from 1A
Live an amazing life. Help those that are
less fortunate than you. Spread kindness
in a world dominated by hate. Write a
personal story that will be remembered for
centuries. That’s my wish for each and every
one of you, and I know you can do it.
- Isaac St. Clair
Winder-Barrow High School class of 2017
Salutatorian
uncertainty we can look
back on our experiences
in high school, both the
academic and the social,
both the good and the
bad, and use them as
guidance.”
Winder-Barrow vale
dictorian Donna Ganjuee
said she dealt with her
fair share of obstacles
throughout high school,
working through low test
scores and at times con
fidence issues to emerge
at the top of her class
academically.
“I explain my uncer
tainties because there will
be a moment in your life
where you’ll lose your
way," Ganjuee said Fri
day during the school’s
ceremony at W. Clair
Harris Stadium.
“You’re going to think
you’re doing everything
wrong and, with that
doubt, assume that every
body else is doing better
than you. The truth is, no
one knows what they’re
doing. Not even me. The
people who succeed are
the people who just so
happen to guess correctly
on the first try.
“Your life is not defined
by the summation of your
failures and self-doubts;
it’s defined by how you
decide to deal with them.”
Along with triumphing
over personal obstacles,
the class of 2017 should
“go out in the world and
use the gifts God has
given to each one of you,”
Bethlehem Christian
valedictorian Mary Grace
Gaddy said during the
school’s commencement
ceremony Sunday after
noon in the school gym
nasium. “We, the class of
2017, are a powerhouse
of innovation and creativ
ity. We will be the ones to
push boundaries to make
this world a better place.
Always remember where
you came from. Always
remember where you are
going.
“And always remem
ber whose glory you are
doing everything for. It
may be hard, and it may
look different than what
other people are doing,
but we will be the ones
to step out and make a
difference."
/^^^xConsidering
M R buying or
/ selling?
770-867-9026
www.maynardrealty.com
Thank You
We wanted to take this time to thank all the family
and friends who supported Donna W. Frost during
her time in hospitals, nursing care facilities and
most recently for her passage to Heaven, reuniting
with Spud, Fay, R.T., Axel and many more. We will
be a family together again.
Mark L. Frost
Heather and Ryan Madden
Megan Frost
Jarod Frost
Congratulations
ASHLEY DEAN
Jefferson High School
Class of 2017
Honor Graduate!
We are so proud of you and
all your accomplishments.
Love,
Daddy, Mama & Kristin
Winder-Barrow saluta
torian Isaac St. Clair laid
out a similar challenge to
his classmates.
“Live an amazing
life. Help those that
are less fortunate than
you. Spread kindness
in a world dominated
by hate,” St. Clair said.
“Write a personal story
that will be remembered
for centuries. That’s my
wish for each and every
one of you, and I know
you can do it."
The
4 Barrow News-Journal
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