Newspaper Page Text
Your official newspaper serving Greene, Morgan and Putnam counties in Georgia’s Lake Country \ www.LakeOconeeNews.us
VOL. 19 NO. 30 G FRIDAY JULY 28 2017 75 CENTS
GREENE COUNTY
Milestones reveal good, bad in schools
Mark Engel
engel@lakeoconeenews.us
Earlier this year, 91 students
at Greene County High School
(GCHS) took the American Lit
erature test as part of the Georgia
Milestones “End-of-Course As
sessment.”
The results are in and the per
centage of students who passed
the test was more than three
times the percentage that passed
last year.
The Milestones are given to
students in grades three through
high school. Grades three, five
and eight are the most critical
because children who score in the
lowest level can be held back from
moving up to the next grade.
The Georgia Department of Ed
ucation has posted on its website
results for every grade at every
school in every county in Georgia.
We have provided a chart of
some selected results relating
to grades three through eight in
Greene, Morgan and Putnam
counties.
The story of education in Greene
County depends on what numbers
you pick.
SEE SCHOOLS » A3
Photo courtesy of Georgia DNR
Georgia DNR Game Warden Ricky Bowls shows the cast nets he confiscated. The DNR game wardens also have seized
18 gill nets, some of them homemade.
DNR has big catch
of fish poachers
Lynn Hobbs
lynn@lakeoconeenews.us
Authorities of the
Georgia Department
of Natural Resources
have dealt with people
catching fish illegally for
years, but this year there
seems to be a lot more of
it, game warden Ricky
Bowls said.
Bowls, who patrols
Lake Oconee with the law
enforcement division of
GDNR out of the Social
Circle office, said more
than 700 game fish have
been confiscated from the
arrests of at least 10 people
on various charges, in
cluding taking game fish
by illegal methods, use of
gills nets, fishing without
a license, unlawful
dumping and littering.
Noting the poachers
usually fish in groups of
two to 10 people, Bowls
said he has caught about
eight groups this year
fishing with casting nets,
and Sgt. Matt Garth-
right recently caught one
person with 259 fish that
were caught illegally with
a casting net.
“Taking 120 to 200 fish
at one time makes a huge
impact on our natural re
sources,” Bowls said.
Most of the fisher
men were caught during
routine license checks,
Garthright said, noting
game wardens pay atten-
SEE DNR » A10
index
Calendar B4
Churches B8
Classifieds D1
Community B1
Obituaries A8
Opinions A4
Recipes D1
Sports C1
Sports C1
FRIDAY
90/73
Isolated T-storms
WEATHER »D6
0
94922 87855 7
Published by
Smith
Communications Inc.
GREENE COUNTY
Crowd of 1 attends budget hearing
Mark Engel
engel@lakeoconeenews.us
What if they held a public hearing
on the $36 million 2017-2018 oper
ating budget for the Greene County
School System, and no one came?
Well, they held it Tuesday morning
and one citizen joined one journal
ist in the audience. At times, there
were three school officials there, in
cluding GCSS chief financial officer
Dean Ware who gave the presenta
tion.
Ware said there will be 1,540
students attending the Greene
County school district when school
starts August 7- That includes
SEE HEARING » A3
Mark Engel/Staff
Greene County Schools chief financial officer Dean War explains the proposed 2018 school budget at a public
hearing on Tuesday. The second public hearing will be Aug. 3 at 5 p.m.
MORGAN COUNTY
Foster Street developer strikes out with PZC again
Katherine Klimt
katherine@lakeoconeenews.us
The Madison Planning and
Zoning Commission, with one ab
staining vote, denied developer
Brad Good’s application to rezone
property between Foster Street and
Main Street from R2 To R4 at last
week’s meeting on July 20. The PZC’s
decision follows the recommenda
tion of the Historic Preservation
Commission, which decided during
its meeting on Tuesday, July 11 to file
a letter of comment in opposition
to the proposal. This latest denial
represents another for Good and
his partner Wayne Lamar who have
been trying to find a way to develop
the land for more than year.
Good first tried to convince the city
to allow a PRD (planned residential
district) in the same area, but that
idea was met with stiff opposition
from residents who live in Madison’s
historic district.
PRDs already exist within the
borders of the district and include
neighborhoods such as the Silver
Lakes senior apartment complex and
the Candler Lane development, but
the proposed rezoning of sections of
Main and Foster Streets has proven
especially contentious. Good’s appli
cation seeks to reclassify the area’s
current zoning from R2 to R4, a
move that opponents say could prove
disastrous for not only the surround-
SEE DEVELOPER » A2
recommend them for any real estate needs.
THE MULLIGANS
FEATURED LISTING
★★★★★ HIGHLY LIKELY TO RECOMMEND
1216 SWORDS ROAD
Who you choose to work with in real estate makes all the difference..
"We listed our town home and purchased a building
lot with The Vining Group and will never use another
Realtor in this area again.... We sold in 2 weeks. And,
their knowledge and local connections were the main
reasons the lot purchase was possible. We highly
Group
LUXURY HOMES
INTERNATIONAL
KELLER WILLIAMS® REALTY
