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Page 2 • The OGLETHORPE Echo • Thursday, October 14, 2021
State Bound Oglethorpe County 4-H Forestry Judging Team
The Oglethorpe County 4-H Forestry Judging Team traveled to McRae, Georgia, on September 25th
for the 4-H State Forestry Judging Contest. They did a great job as it was their first trip to the State
Contest. Team members worked for weeks mastering aspects of the Forestry profession such as: tree
identification, insect & disease identification, pacing, and timber volume estimation. The team did out
standing and placed 7th overall. Team members included: Aidan Abrams, Katie Embry, Justin Loggins
and Kate Spearing. They were coached by 4-H Agent Marcus Eason.
Sheriff plans to close the county
jail, except for booking, January 1
For several years, Oglethorpe
County SherilF David Gabriel
has considered the possibility of
one day closing the Oglethorpe
County Jail.
When he was first elected
in the county, he was already
pondering the fact that the Law
Enforcement Center might
better serve the community
and save money by not actually
housing inmates.
At the time, Gabriel
emphasized that he would need
to spend at least a couple years
in office getting to know all
the ins and outs of the sheriff’s
department before making any
sort of decision such as that.
In fact, he has since served
four years and been reelected
for his second term before he
started working towards that
potential outcome.
Several months ago, the sheriff
stated that he was moving
forward with his long-term plan
of shuttering the county jail. He
estimated that the change would
happen after the first of the year.
This week, Gabriel
confirmed those statements,
acknowledging that on January
1, 2022, the Oglethorpe County
Jail would stop housing inmates.
The facility will still remain
open as the booking site for the
sheriff’s department, however.
He estimates that closing
the jail would save at least
$300,000 next year compared
to the operating costs for 2021.
Those projections aren’t entirely
accurate, he noted, because
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employees’ salary would have
had to be raised “quite a bit”
this year to be able to staff the
facility appropriately.
Part of the issue that the jail
and the department as a whole
have been experiencing for a
while now is the inability to hire
and retain employees. Gabriel
said the department does not
have the funding available to
pay deputies and other law
enforcement staff comparable
wages to other surrounding
counties.
Finding people to work in
the jail has been particularly
difficult, he added. At one point,
the most experienced employee
at the facility had only been
working there for a year,
Gabriel noted.
“You’re also competing
against all these other counties
who are paying $5-7,000 more
a year than you are,” he said.
Thus, he eventually came to
the realization that it would
better and more cost-effective
to “streamline” the operation.
The county will still have a
functional booking area at the
LEC that will be staffed by at
least one person 24 hours a day.
Gabriel pointed out, “If you go
to jail in Oglethorpe County,
you’ll still go to the jail in
Oglethorpe County.”
“It’s not a complete
shutdown,” he continued. “It’s
just reducing the number of
employees we have there by
11.”
Gabriel explained that cutting
11 employees should save close
to $300,000 in salary alone.
Their insurance costs would
add another $100,000 or so to
the savings amount.
By contrast, he estimated
that it cost around $383,000
annually to house 30 inmates
at the county jail. That is the
average number of inmates that
the jail has contained in the past.
The Professional Alternative
to doing it yourself
* Interior & Exterior
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* landscaping & lamcare
* tree &Umb Services
* Land Clearing & Cleanup
* Concrete & Paving
* Decks & Patios
The employees who do
remain next year to continue
working as jailers will also be
certified as deputies, Gabriel
mentioned. That will provide
the department with additional
flexibility to use its employees
as needed moving forward.
After the first of the year,
any inmates from the county
will instead be housed in other
counties at their jails. For
some time now, the Oglethorpe
County Jail had been housing
inmates from other counties to
bring in some extra revenue, as
there was available space in the
local jail.
Though the department will
lose out on that additional
funding from other counties,
it is expected to save even
more money by not housing
any inmates at all, whether
from Oglethorpe or outside its
borders. For now, the sheriff’s
department has not been hiring
anyone new to work at the jail
and has instead been using part-
time help.
“We’re in the transition phase
now, which is the difficult
part, including winterizing the
jail and making adjustments
as necessary,” Gabriel said.
“We’re trying to finish out the
year and move on to the next
phase.”
Closing the jail is a change that
does not require the approval of
the Oglethorpe County Board of
Commissioners, or anyone else.
It is the sheriff’s responsibility
to house inmates and oversee
the department’s facilities as he
sees fit, and procedures can be
altered at his discretion, Gabriel
stated.
Still, he has taken the time
to speak with almost all of the
commissioners and explain his
decision regarding the jail and
its inmates “out of courtesy,”
he noted. The county ultimately
provides the funding for the
sheriff’s department and its
operations, though Gabriel
pointed out that his plan will
actually save the county money
instead of asking for more.
When the budget for the
sheriff’s office is set for the
fiscal year, the funding is there
for the sheriff to do with as he
wishes. Once the county sees
the savings from closing the
jail, Gabriel said it would be
“wise to invest” in salary raises
and other incentives for his
employees “without costing the
taxpayers any more money.”
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Something I have done quite a
few times is to go on a week’s fish
ing trip in Alaska. In the South if
you ask a man what he likes to do in
his leisure time, he is very likely to
say, “I like to hunt and fish.” When
I was growing up, my friends and
I did a lot of fishing. That was be
cause it did not cost a lot of money
and it filled the hours with some
thing to do. Some people say that
fishing is boring. I guess it could be
if you really don’t know how to fish.
Remember that this art is not called
“catching” it is called “fishing.”
There are so many different
kinds of fishing that I could not be
gin to describe them in this column.
I would, however, like to share one
category of my own fishing experi
ence that I consider to be “as good
as it gets.” One distinct category of
fishing is fly fishing. This is done
with gear that is usually lightweight
but you can go for the “big ones” if
you just step it up a little bit to the
heavier equipment.
There are two kinds of fly fishing.
One is done under the water and the
other is done on the surface. Like in
the movie “A River Runs Through
It” surface fishing is known as “dry
fly” fishing. The other unique thing
about fly fishing is that you cast the
line and not the weighted lure on the
end of monofilament line. Flies are
very light weight and attached to
the end of the fly line with a tippet,
which is a length of monofilament.
The weighted fly line is then cast
much like a whip.
The good news about fly fishing in
Alaska is the absolute abundance of
fish that like the dry flies, the sub
surface flies and some you catch that
don’t eat at all. These species are
Arctic Char, Grayling, Trout (usu
ally Rainbow) and Salmon. The
first three are hungry fish that go af
ter whatever you present because it
looks like a bug ( food) to them.
The latter is the real reason for
going fishing in Alaska. Mainly
because when the Salmon run hap
pens, five different species of Salm
on come up from the Pacific Ocean
to the rivers they were bom in to
spawn and die. The females are full
of eggs. They deposit them on the
bed of the river followed right be
hind by the males who fertilize them
much like a crop duster covers a
field. These fish don’t eat once they
start up the stream from the ocean.
Why is this so special? Why
Alaska? Why Salmon? Well, it’s
like this. There are a whole bunch
of them. I mean so thick in some
places that you can’t see the bot
tom of the stream. More fish, in one
place, than I have ever seen in my
life. Much like the trout in the long
concrete pools in the fish hatchery,
except in the wild. There may be
places other than Alaska where this
happens but I don’t know where
that is. Lastly, a Salmon is a really
big fish and we all know that if you
are going to catch fish, you want to
catch a big one. In Alaska you can
catch yourself a bunch-a-big’uns
and do it every day.
One important thing to know
about fishing in Alaska is this: In
the summer, the sun comes up about
five o’clock and goes down about
midnight. That makes for a long
day. When you are standing in a
stream in your waders at five in the
afternoon and wondering why you
feel so tired, it’s because you have
been fishing for eleven hours and
you have about six more to go if you
can hold out.
Why would anyone do this? I
guess you have to love to catch fish.
In the streams of Alaska, it is very
hard NOT to catch fish. On one trip,
I sat in a folding chair and caught
one hundred Pink Salmon in a row.
On the other hand, I have hooked a
forty-pound King Salmon on a nine-
weight fly rod and played him up
and down the river for an hour and
a half before I wore him out enough
to land him. Then I turned right
around and put him back in the river.
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Tales of Oglethorpe County
Life Adventures - Fishing in Alaska
If you have a week to spare and much a young man’s game, meaning
don’t mind spending a little bit of it takes stamina to fish sixteen hours
money (really not all that much) you a day for five or so days in a row.
can have the fishing experience of Lastly, the best part is telling every-
your life. Another consideration; it body all about it for the rest of your
is not for the faint of heart and pretty life.
Board of Education
handles annual business
at recent meetings
The Oglethorpe County Board
of Education discussed a variety of
business items that they handle on an
annual basis at their September work-
session. They then voted on each item
and allowed for additional discussion
at their October regular meeting.
First, the board was asked to
consider contracting with a hearing
officer for the district for the school
year. Dr. Jimmy Stokes has served
as the system’s disciplinary hearing
officer for over 10 years.
Superintendent of Schools Beverley
Levine noted that before the system
began contracting with a hearing
officer, teachers and administrators
had to be pulled out of classes
and their regular jobs to serve on
tribunals. The district had to pay
for substitute teachers during those
times, and Levine said the teachers
“hated" having to serve on tribunals
for students they might have taught in
previous classes.
She added that it was “far most
cost-effective" to contract with a
hearing officer than hold tribunals as
well. Stokes charges $75 per hearing,
which is the same amount he has
charged for several years now.
Levine told the board that Stokes
was “phenomenal" at serving as the
hearing officer.
He is the only nationally certified
disciplinary hearing officer in
Georgia. Levine informed the board
that “unfortunately" the school
system has had to use his services
three times already this school year.
One of those hearings was actually
an enrollment hearing, which she
noted was the first time one had ever
happened in the county that she knew
of.
A student moved to Oglethorpe
from Clarke County. While in Clarke
County, the student had a physical
altercation that caused the Clarke
County School System to call for a
tribunal.
The student then withdrew from
that school district and enrolled here.
Clarke canceled the hearing, which
left Oglethorpe “in limbo," because
they were under the impression that if
a school system calls for a tribunal, it
must be held whether the student still
attends that district or not.
The assumption was that if
a school district had requested
a hearing, then the situation, in
this case the altercation, must be
“pretty significant," she added.
Thus, Oglethorpe’s school system
recommended that the student start
the year in alternative school.
The student’s guardian did not
want that to happen, so the district
proceeded with an enrollment
hearing. Levine noted that the tribunal
was not to hear the charges from the
previous altercation but to determine
where the student would be placed for
the school year.
Through the course of the hearing.
Dr. Stokes agreed that the student
should be placed in alternative school.
The parents decided to homeschool
the child instead, she said.
Next, Levine recommended
approval of the ASPIRE (After-
School Patriots Involved in Readiness
and Enrichment) Program for the
2021-22 school year. The Georgia
Department of Education issued a
request for proposals in 2019 for the
21 st Century Community Learning
Centers Grant.
The Oglethorpe school district
applied for one grant with two sites
that year, and a grant over $ 1 million
was awarded through a competitive
approval process.
The money was used to create
after-school and summer programs
at the Oglethorpe County Primary
and Elementary Schools. The grant
consists of an award of $350,000
per year for five years, and it can be
applied for again after the fifth year
to maintain the programs. The fourth
and fifth years receive slightly less
than that amount but are still very
substantial.
Performance and attendance are
directly tied to continued funding.
The board is required to approve the
grant award on a yearly basis.
Levine noted that ASPIRE is
going into its third year in the county.
She emphasized that the program
has reached every one of its goals so
far, and Dr. Tonia Willis has done a
“phenomenal" job directing it. The
board unanimously approved the
grant for the year.
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Farm Listings
* Barndominium on 95.13
acres on Clouds Creek in
Comer, GA! The home is
1,000 square feet featuring
one bedroom, one full bath,
9 foot ceilings, custom cabi
nets, granite counter tops,
stainless appliances, large
walk in closet, and a 10x40
porch. 1,200 square foot
shop finished with ship lap
pine, three roll up doors, and
a 16x55 foot lean-to on each
side. 2000 feet offence along
the road with multiple gates.
1,500 plus feet of paved road
frontage. Approximately 50
acres of open land and 45
acres of mature hardwoods.
$750,000
* Poultry farm with 3 broiler
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Land Listing
* 28.9 acres of mature tim
ber on Pine Grove Rd. in
Arnoldsville. 1300 ft of road
frontage. City water avail
able. $259,000
* Tract 1,20 acres on Buddy
Faust Rd. Open, mixed hard
woods & spring. $130,000
* Tract 2, 20 acres on Buddy
Faust Rd. Open, mixed hard
woods & spring. $150,000
* Tract 5, 21 acres on Buddy
Faust Rd. Open, mixed hard
woods & spring. $140,000
* 1.9 acres on Willow St.
in Maxeys. City water and
scholarship available. Great
home sites. $24,900
* 2.5 acres on Willow St.
in Maxeys. City water and
scholarship available. Great
home sites. $24,900
* 63.03 wooded acres on
Arnoldsville Rd. with over
800 ft. of road frontage. City
water and natural gas at the
street. $504,000
* 112 acres of beautiful pines
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flowing creek. Great home
site. Good hunting tract or
get-a-way. $325,000
Commercial Listings
* 1.7 acres with 2 buildings,
zoned B1. Double road front
age on HWY 78 and Wolf
skin Rd. High traffic volume.
Perfect location for your
business. $175,000
IRIS INC.
Jake Willcox, 706-338-0765
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Iris Walker 706-338-8279
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Donna Floyd 706-206-3587
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Brian Hill, 706-340-0512
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Jessica L. Arnold 706) 338-6566
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Blake Arnold i706-340-0866
blakelarnold@outlook.com.
Jake Peacock 706-255-8762
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Brandon Walker, 706-338 7586,
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