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About The Oglethorpe echo. (Crawford, Ga.) 1874-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 25, 2025)
THE OGLETHORPE Echo Volume 151, Number 52 September 25, 2025 ■ Oglethorpe County, Georgia $1 Preserving history, uniting community ANSLEY GAVLAK/THE OGLETHORPE ECHO Philomath Presbyterian Church has been a promi nent structure in Philomath since the mid-1800s. 02 2' .7 574 - # ANSLEY GAVLAK/THE OGLETHORPE ECHO John Buckman, longtime Philomath resident and member of the Philomath Church Preservation Association, stands in front of his house earlier this month. This house is the sister house to the Globe, which is next door, and has only been lived in by five families. Beloved church is centerpiece of Philomath, tribute to past By Ansley Gavlak The Oglethorpe Echo Driving along state Route 22, it’s hard to miss the historic buildings and South ern architecture on the two-lane road. Stretching for just a mile in the south- eastern corner of Oglethorpe County, the unincorporated community of Philomath might be small, but it car ries a large history. I think it’s just a quaint little village,” said Sonny Bryan, who has called Philomath home for over 60 years. At the center of that his tory stands Philomath Pres byterian Church, which is ered under four names at four differ ent sites, including Liberty, Salem and Woodstock. Philomath history suggests Joseph Wilson, father of Woodrow Wil son, was often a guest preacher at Phi lomath Presbyterian Church in the mid- 1800s. “We’ve got a lot of old peo ple that went (to the church) once upon a time, or their families went there way back yonder,” Bryan said. John W. Reid, the first pas tor of Philomath Presbyterian Church, established the Reid Academy boarding school in 1848. Reid Academy quick ly earned a prominent repu tation, drawing students from different states and bringing HISTORIC RESEARCH Historic Oglethorpe show cased new details on the county's Black one-room schoolhouses, highlighting 21 schools that merged into a single consolidated school in 1955. ... Page 2 included in the Historic Rural Church es of Georgia. Established in 1848, the congrega tion’s roots date to 1788, when it gath ¬ well-known figures such as Alexan der H. Stephens, Ben Irwin and Robert Toombs to be guest speakers. During this time, Philomath was still known as the town of Woodstock. “When they got ready to get a post office, they said there is already a Woodstock, Georgia,” said John Buck- man, long-time resident of Philomath. “So, we had to rename it.” Stephens suggested renaming the town to Philomath — meaning “love of knowledge” — a tribute to the boarding school that had become so important to the community. See PHILOMATH, Page 2 Mail delivery continues to be an issue Residents not satisfied with USPS consolidation By Kimberly Thomas The Oglethorpe Echo On some evenings in Oglethorpe County, the mail doesn’t arrive until after dinnertime. Residents say they’ve waited as late as 8 p.m. for delivery, a far cry from when letters and bills once showed up by early afternoon. The delays reflect a broader shift in how the U.S. Postal Service operates after consolidating small-town offices, such as Crawford and Lexington, into region al sorting centers like the one in Athens. While the agency said the changes will save billions and improve efficiency, according to USPS’ Quar ter One Review for fiscal year 2025, Georgia ranks among the worst states for on-time mail delivery. Many residents question whether cost-cutting is coming at their ex pense. David McGee, a Lexington res ident and the city’s former post- master, said he has noticed drastic changes in service since his retire ment in 2012. “We used to make sure that ev erything was timely,” McGee said. Warren Gilson “Every once in a while, there would be something, but usually it was one of the distribu tion centers. It (didn’t have) anything to do with the carriers because everything went out.” McGee worked for the Lexington Post Office for 29 years before being reassigned to Crawfordville in his final year, when Lexington carriers were moved either there or to Crawford. “That was kind of a mistake right then because towns lose their identity when they don’t have a post office,” McGee said. In November 2022, consolidation forced carriers who formerly reported to Crawford to begin picking See MAIL, Page 6 Georgia lags nationwide in first-class mail delivery for USPS Between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, 2024, Georgia's on-time delivery for single-piece, first-class mail trailed behind the national average for both two-day and three-to-five day service, highlighting a performance gap. Georgia National Two-Day Delivery Three-to-Five-Day 54.5 61 66.8 84 Chart: Kimberly Thomas • Source - U.S. Postal Service • Created with Datawrapper KIMBERLY THOMAS/THE OGLETHORPE ECHO Switch to billing company helps EMS increase collections EMS collection rates increase with outside company Oglethorpe County EMS has nearly doubled its billing collection rate between 2024 and 2025 since hiring Emergency Billing, an external company, to handle the billing • 2024 • 2025 • National average 48% 43% 25% Chart Katherine Davis • Source: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services • Created with Datawrapper KATHERINE DAVIS/THE OGLETHORPE ECHO By Katherine Davis The Oglethorpe Echo Oglethorpe County Emergency Medical Services has nearly doubled its collection rate since last year after bringing in Emer gency Billing, an external billing company. EMS transitioned to a year-long contract with Emergency Billing in March, about the same time that Robinson became the EMS director and Jason Lewis moved to county administrator. Emergency transport is needed approxi mately six times a day in Oglethorpe County, EMS Director Josh Robinson said. Last year, Oglethorpe EMS collected only 25% of what was billed for these transports. This year, it’s at 48%. Cost of emergency TRANSPORT The out-of-pocket cost of emergen cy transport varies depending on mileage, type of call and insurance coverage. Here are base costs for each type of call: ■ Basic life support: $450 ■ Advanced life support 1: $590 ■ Advanced life support 2: $730 “It’s really hard to make back everything that you put out, just because of write-offs and in surance,” Robinson said. EMS’ annual collection goal is $650,000, approximately 50 cents of the dollar for what is billed out on average, Robinson said. Billing was previously handled in-house, but EMS decided to start using an external company because collection revenues were down. Also, keeping up with changing insur ance rules and regulations was becoming in creasingly complicated. “It’s just a lot to have to deal with, with one sole person,” Robinson said. The in-house position still exists, but that job is to communicate with the billing com pany and handle old accounts. Robinson said EMS hasn’t had challenges with Emergency Billing. In fact, “it kind of allowed us to expand little bit more on our See EMS, Page 6 Index News 2, 3, 5,6 Obituaries 3 Opinion 4 Classifieds 7 Calendar 8 Legals 9, 10 Sheriff's Report 10 Sports 11 Seniors HONORED Ansley Paul (12), Carlie Gabriel (22), Elizabeth Cook (21) and Aryana Knight (7) celebrated senior night on Monday. ... Page 11 To start your subscription or to donate to The Oglethorpe Echo, see Page 2 Pasture 0 Real Estate Southern Select Properties HUNTING PROPERTIES 67 REALTREE
