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Trojans are #llf V\ed. Oct. 6, 2004 Peach Counti s i IJ / ? i u Serving .^1 Peach County Since 1888 Wf UNIV. Oh OA ATHENS GA 30602 lull III! llililuiMlIml'l"! 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 m mm JfC L % n sst ¥ rf #00 V # c<W' * s f 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 m m L i T 88 , * _ 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.