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V\ed. Oct. 6, 2004 Peach Counti s i IJ / ? i u
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9 - 4-04
City can do better is word from citizen
BY VICTOR KULKOSKY
The Leader-Tribune
A handful of Fort Valley resi¬
dents spoke out last Thursday
with questions and criticism
about the city’s proposed increase
in the millage rate from 9.3 to 10.
Bill Nichols told the Mayor and
City Council that he had
researched the millage rates of
several nearby cities. He said
Centerville has a rate of 10.2,
Forsyth 7, Byron 8.3, Warner
Robins 9.903, Perry 13.38, Rober¬
ta 4.3, Montezuma 11.04 and
Gray 7.75.
"I really think we can do bet¬
ter," Nichols said. He suggested
that the city annex the property
along Houser’s Mill Road and
raise the garbage collection fee.
He also asked how many city
owned vehicles are regularly driv¬
en out of the county by county
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No, Trojan mascot Darryl Hawkins is not eating crow,
he is taking a bite out of Hawk from Washington Coun¬
ty. The Trojans beat up on WACO pretty bad Friday
night and the rest of the season looks very promising.
PHOTO BY BILLY WADE
‘She lifted up the
BY VICTOR KULKOSKY
The Leader-Tribune
The students, friends,
loved ones and coworkers
of Amitie Lee Gray gath¬
ered around the new
ginkgo tree on the lawn of
Hunt Primary, mixing
tears and smiles as they
remembered the special
education teacher who
seemingly touched every¬
body in the school in her
one year there.
The ginkgo, with its
delicate golden leaves
that can stimulate the
mind, was the favorite
tree of AmitieLee Gray,
who died in a car wreck
on June 11, 2004,age 26.
The speakers talked
not of loss but of the joy
ofhaving known Amitie.
"Look at the person
next to you," said Joe Ann
Denning, director of ser¬
vices. She invited every¬
one attending to hug that
person, or shake hands,
or say "good morning."
"Caring, love and
friendship are the key,"
Denning said, and those
Perspectives - 4 * Sports News-Page Religion- 9&10
Op-Editorial - 5 * 81 Legals-Ciassifieds 11-13
employees.
Council member Beth Collins
said she thought the numbers
was 12 or 13, mostly police offi
cers. Nichols asked if those cars
used high octane gas and Council
member Bobby Hester answered
yes. Nichols said the city should
eliminate some of that spending.
He also said he thought Public
Works Director Richard Powell
should be replaced with someone
who could do what Nichols said
would be a better job, and for a
lower salary.
Mayor John Stumbo said one
way to look at the millage rate
was to consider that the rate
hadn’t been raised since 1993. He
said the millage rate had been
reduced to 9.3 in 2001 after a revi
sion of the city’s tax digest.
Mayor Pro Tern Norman
Fitzgerald again brought up his
suggestion that Fort Valley con-
words were exactly what
Amitie’s name meant.
Denning recalled how
any time she passed Ami
tie’s classroom and Amitie
saw her, Denning would
have to hear about every¬
thing that was happening
in that room, no matter
where she was headed to.
Amitie didn’t think any¬
thing going on in the
classroom should be a
secret, and Denning invit¬
ed everyone to "stand up
and be like Amitie."
Denning recalled when
Amitie interviewed for
her job and Denning
asked the fundamental
question, "Why do you
want to teach?"
Amitie gave the best
answer, Denning recalled:
"This is something I’ve
always wanted to do."
Amitie,s teaching
skills, Denning said,
"Came from the heart."
Interim School Super¬
intendent Doris Wilkin¬
son looked at the ginkgo
tree and the bench near it
sider operating more like the city
of Thomaston, which gets most of
its budget from utilities fees,
Such an arrangement obtains rev
enue from everyone in the city,
not just from homeowners,
Fitzgerald said,
Fitzgerald said the Fort Valley
Utility Commission has been
operating the same way for 32
years and that any business that
did the same wouldn’t last. He
said if the FVUC gave more rev
enue back to the city, it might be
possible to keep the millage rate
down,
Council member Herman
Light, chair of the Finance Com
mittee, said that the city’s expens
es have risen by 9 percent while
revenue has fallen about 6 per
cent, due to businesses closing
and leaving the tax roll.
He said cities such as Perry
and Forsyth earn hundreds of
thousands of dollars from
hotel/motel taxes that Fort Valley
doesn't make
"You can’t look at the mil-
Hunters cause major cable outage
BY VICKY WHITEHEAD- The Leader-Tribune
Picture this. You are an avid football fan and it
is the second day of football season. You are
watching the game and at approximately 5:15
p.m. your cable TV goes out. You are not a happy
camper.
This is an actual scenario which happened
Sunday, September 19 to over half of Valley
Cable TV customers.
Spokesman Jimmy Barnes says there are usu
ally only three main reasons for something like
this to happen:
1. the loss of electricity.
2. squirrel damage or
3. lightning.
Usually it is the squirrels causing the power to
go out by getting into transformers and/or chew
ing up the lines. But, Barnes says this was not
the case.
and noted that its leaves
would soon turn gold.
"I hope all of you will
sit on this bench and read
a book called The Gold of
Friendship,," she said.
Wilkinson read from
the book. "There’s one
kind of gold tha’.s worth
more than others,"
Wilkinson read, "it’s the
kind you find in a friend."
There is the gold on
"helping hands," the gold
on "lips that say dear,,"
and the gold on the "shoes
of someone helping you."
The gold of friendship,
"sometimes doesn’t show
when you first look, but
when we believe well find
it, we will."
Wilkinson invited
everyone attending to
remember the theme
"the gold of friendship."
Physical therapist
David Mount recalled
Amitie as someone who,
when given the chance to
sit or to dance
music played, would
always dance. Hunt Pri-
lage rates," Light said.
Citizens also expressed con
cems about the future of Fort Val
ley and the impact of tax increas
es on senior citizens,
"Hie older this town gets, the
poorer it gets," said Marvin
Crafter. "The tax burden increas
es while the money they [taxpay
ere] have is decreasing. We cant
plan on what may be, we have to
plan on what’s in the pocket We
have to look at how we can sur
vive in this town."
Pete Nichols pointed out that
about 20 percent of Fort Valley
residents are senior citizens and
that tax increases are especially
difficult for them. Light noted
that senior citizens are eligible for
various exemptions, such as the
Homestead Exemption, and assis¬
tance programs, but that many
haven’t applied for those pro
grams and should check with
local agencies,
Pete Nichols brought up what
she called a case of "fiscal irre
Public Works
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Doris Wilkinson reads
from book “The Gold
of Friendship**.
mary wasn’t the same
place with Amitie around,
Mount said.
There wasn,t much
time between her birth
and death dates, Mount
said, but "there’s a better
way to measure, it’s what
you put in those dashes.
Amitie, Mount recalled,
was "pretty, smart and
talented and I know she
could bake because I ate
some of those goodies."
Mount told the story of
a Special Olympics race
when one girl fell and
skinned her knee. When
her competitors heard the
Director Richard Powell about
$35,000 in overtime pay, even
though Powell is a salaried
employee.
Stumbo said that overtime was
from a SPLOST-funded drainage
project the city decided would
have cost too much if bid out, as
three previous projects had been.
By using Powell to do a job that
the council deemed beyond his
normal duties, the city saved
thousands of dollars.
"That doesn't mean it was the
right decision, but that’s why we
did it," Stumbo said.
The 11:30 a.m. meeting at
City Hall was the first of three
public hearings on the millage
rate required by state law.
Another meeting was held at 6
p.m. the same day, but no mem¬
bers of the public attended and
the hearing was quickly
adjourned. The next hearing is
October 7,9 a.m., at Fort Valley
City Hall.
By nine that night all the TVs were back up in
town but not all the internet customers were
working. The problem was determined to be with
t h e fiber optic cable. On Monday, sophisticated
equipment was used trying to determine where
the fiber was damaged. Since fiber is about the
size of a human hair, this is no easy feat but the
area was narrowed down to within 50 feet.
Barnes says, “As we approached the suspected
trouble spot, we noticed 12-gauge shotgun shells
on t h e ground. Riding the line in a bucket truck
we were dumbfounded to find that out of three
cables on the line of the fiber lines was shot into
and the second severely damaged and the coax
badly damaged as well.”
Shotgun shells were found directly under the
damaged spot. “It is bad
enough we have to battle the Please turn to
elements and squirrels,” said HUNTERS, Page 2 a
Hi
In remembrance Amitie Lee
girl cry out, instead of
continuing, they stopped,
helped the girl up, hooked
arms and walked to the
finish line.
"Amitie was like that,"
Mount said. "She lifted
up the fallen and walked
to the finish line with us.
“There’s greater satis
faction in walking togeth
er arm in arm than in
getting there first. Imag
ine Amitie speaking those
words," Mount said,
Now the tree is there,
with the bench where
anyone can sit and
remember the woman
whose name meant
friendship," and the tree
will grow along with the
rest of us.