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Index Obituaries 3 Opinion 4 News 5 Around the County 6 Sheriff's Report 8 Legals 8 Calendar 9 Sports 10-11 The Inside Oglethorpe County basketball player Javaun Pittard was named MVP at the summer league camp the Patriots hosted at OCHS last week. ... Page 10 To start your subscription or to donate to The Oglethorpe Echo, see Page 6. Oglethorpe Echo Volume 149, Number 40 July 6, 2023 ■ Oglethorpe County, Georgia $1 JULY 4 CELEBRATION f ■■ «r 1 i* s l i 1 _ St. tl 5L VM a m '' i] A !J apt1 1 )iA JL 9 TANYA EIDSON/THE OGLETHORPE ECHO Folks packed Bryan Park to check out the vendors and watch fireworks at the Oglethorpe County Recreation Department's fifth annual 4th of July Celebration on Tuesday. Vendors, including orga nizations from around the county, and food trucks were part of the attraction before the fireworks started at dark. TANYA EIDSON/THE OGLETHORPE ECHO Irfan Green, Carnesha Green, Nathan Green, Ken- zie Jackson, Isaiah Green and Noah Green enjoy the holiday celebration. EDDIE SACKETT/FORTHE OGLETHORPE ECHO Sue Robertson,Tanya Eidson, Donna Churchill, Cheryl Sackett and Shaylynn Stevenson display their patriotic colors at Bryan Park. Property values part of formula to figure taxes By Julianne Akers The Oglethorpe Echo The appraisal notices that ar rived in mailboxes last week showed a 22.5% av erage increase in property values in Oglethorpe County. The official tax bills, adjusted for the new millage rate, will be sent out this fall. “We’ve had to raise values again, pret ty considerably,” said Kem Caldwell, chief appraiser of the Oglethorpe County Tax Asses sor’s Office. The property values listed in the assessments sent last week are decided by market values, not the county. The county then determines the millage rate af ter the completion of the coun ty budget process, which is un derway. That budget will soon be open for public input, Oglethorpe County District 5 Commission er Tracy Norman said. “We can actually have hear ings on the budget that are open and people can come and look at those,” he said. “We go over (it), and we’ll answer questions for them.” Once the budget is finalized, this year’s millage rate can be de cided “based on the value of the digest,” said Norman, who said this usually oc curs in late July or Au gust, but could be as late as September. “Our county’s somewhat unique,” he said. “We only need about a third. It’s about 37-38% of our (county) budget that comes from property tax. The rest comes from sales tax, other fees, and then we have enterprise departments, such as the landfill that actually make See PROPERTY, Page 7 Tracy Norman HOW TO FILE A PROPERTY TAX APPEAL You must file a property tax appeal in writing no later than 45 days after the date of the tax assessment notice. Appeal forms can be found at http://dor.georgia.gov/documents/property-tax-appeal-assessment-form. There are three appeal methods: 1. County Board of Equalization (value, uniformity, denial of exemption or taxibility) 2. Arbitration (value) 3. County Hearing Officer (value or uniformity, on non-homestead real property or wireless personal property valued, in excess of $500,000) LILLY KERSH/THE OGLETHORPE ECHO Winsett helps shine light on shortage of Braille translators MOLLY LINDER/THE OGLETHORPE ECHO Fingers read Braille on a page. Debbie Winsett is a local translator and teacher, but there's a shortage of people in the profession at the national level. Resident: Feral hogs make way to Lexington In high demand By Molly Linder and Olivia Shapiro The Oglethorpe Echo At the bottom of every email Crawford resident Debbie Winsett sends, she includes a quote from Helen Keller’s book “Light in My Darkness”: “There is no better way to thank God for your sight than by giving a helping hand to some one in the dark.” By taking words on a page and converting them to lifted cells, Winsett works with schools in the county and around the U.S. to make textbooks accessible to stu dents who are visually impaired. These students have long relied on Braille as an essential tool for reading and writing, but the short age of trained Braille teachers and transcribers has raised concerns about the future of this skill. According to the National Fed eration of the Blind, fewer than 10% of blind people in the U.S. read Braille. With the number of Braille learners, readers and transcrib ers dwindling, it begs the ques tion: What other tools are avail able and how important is Braille? Underlying issues The shortage of Braille teachers and transcribers is due, in part, to the fact that these professions are not well known. Many don’t con sider it as a potential career path, according to the NFB. The only way to be certified is through the Library of Congress. “It took me two years to get my transcriber certification through the Library of Congress. Then, I had to do another one in 2015, they went to what’s called UEB (Unified English Braille),” Winsett said. “They changed a lot of it, and I had to take another course and another test.” See BRAILLE, Page 2 By Garrett Kicklighter The Oglethorpe Echo Lexington resident Kathrine Clark has noticed feral hog activity in downtown Lexing ton. Clark and her husband live on Dupree Street, about a block from Highway 78, and a few weeks ago, she said she noticed digging in her flower beds and droppings on her lawn. “We’re like, ‘Huh? It must be hogs,’ ” Clark said. Clark said a week passed and the hogs had dealt more damage. “They knocked over a bunch of fences that we put up to pro tect the camellias from deer. (They’ve) gotten smart enough to flip those over and get into the rich soil,” Clark said. Clark said Lexington May or Craig Snow is working on so lutions. He was unavailable for comment. I See HOGS. Page 5 I SUBMITTED PHOTO Lexington resident Kathrine Clark began noticing her garden being uprooted a few weeks ago. She concluded hogs were the culprit. : Thinking of Selling a Home, Farm or Land? Give us a call for a free market analysis of what your property could bring! 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