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Page 4A - The Lee County Ledger, Thursday, November 8, 2001 BURNING PERMITS DENIED Due to the extreme dry weather conditions the Georgia Forestry Commission is not issuing any burning permits for outdoor burn ing in Lee County. The lack of rain, lower humidity, and the dry ing effects of the sun have dried forest and open land fuels to the point that wildfire potential is too great. Wildfires are not just destruc tive to our forestlands but often threaten personal property such as our homes and can also threaten personal safety. Georgia Forestry personnel in Lee County feel that the best way to protect the best interest of the Lee County citizens is to stop is suing burning permits until the county as a whole receives some significant rainfall. Wildfires also burn with more intensity and spread more rapidly during extremely dry conditions, making it harder for fire crews to contain the fires. A rapid hot run ning fire can damage personal property before the fire is even discovered. This is the type of situation that the Georgia For estry Commission hopes to avoid by postponing outdoor burning until we receive adequate rainfall to make burning conditions more favorable. The Georgia Forestry Commis sion also wants to encourage ev eryone to exercise caution while enjoying his or her outdoor activi ties such as grilling, hunting, and camping. Be sure to wet the grass underneath the grill so if hot ash hits the grass it will not set the yard on fire. Also remember that the coals from the grill can be hot the next day so don't dump them until you are sure that they are cool. Hunters and anyone travel ing through heavy vegetation should be cautious of stopping and possibly setting the grass on fire with the exhaust system. Campers should make sure that the campfire is completely extin guished prior to leaving the camp area. We just need to be extra careful to prevent wildfires dur ing these dry conditions. Early detection is the key to fire suppression and minimizing damage by wildfires. If you spot a fire or questionable smoke The University of Georgia • Cooperative Extension Service Test Soil Now ■r mft — * Doug Collins, CEA v I Putting Knowledge toWork' 1 ^ Test Soil Now Now is the time to test soil. Why now? Why not in the spring? There are several reasons to do it now. The results of a soil test will vary depending upon the time of year that the sample is taken. Be cause most farmers take their samples in the fall, recommenda tions are based upon the soil fer tility indexes that are obtained with samples taken in the fall. This may not make a whole lot of sense to you. All you need to understand is that you will receive more accurate recommendations with a soil sample taken in the fall than at any other time of year . If lime is required to adjust the pH of the soil, it needs to be ap plied in the fall. Applying lime in the fall will give it time to react with the soil and raise the pH. A fall soil sample will allow you to apply lime in the fall if needed. If you are taking soil samples from a lawn or garden, take cores from several spots around the lawn or garden and mix them to gether in a clean plastic bucket that has never contained fertilizer or lime. Soil samples taken in lawns should be taken to a depth The Le6 County Ledger ‘EstabCisf.ed August 24,1978 P.O. Box 715 (124 4th Street) Leesburg, Georgia 31763 (229)759-2413 USPS 470-310 Official Organ of Lee County SUBSCRIPTION RATES Lee and surrounding counties $14. 95 year Elsewhere $19. 95 year Publisher Derryl Quinn Editor Jim Quinn Layout and Design Tricia Quinn (USPS 470-310), is published weekly for $14. 95 per year in Lee and surrounding counties, and $19. 95 per year else where by at its offices at the May Office Building, 126 - 4th Street, Leesburg, Georgia 31763. Periodicals postage paid at Leesburg, GA. POSTMASTER: Send address changes on Form 3579 to, RO. 715, Leesburg, GA 31763. 0 Printed On Recycled Paper MEMBER OF GEORGIA PRESS ASSOCIATION please contact the Georgia For estry Commission in Lee County at 759-3011. Thank you for your support and understanding. Hopefully the good Lord will bless us with some much-needed rain soon. "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." Wendell Phillips -1852 Facts About Masonry identity Theft And Fraud D \ 7 T A \ D hr\/IAn it 10 nnt cmrit thmin-ht it poame hJ A soil probe and soil bags may be obtained from the Lee County Extension Office. of four inches. Gardens should be sampled to a depth of six inches, while orchards should be sampled to an eight inch depth. Fill out the required information on the soil sample bag and fill it with soil to the "fill" line on the bag. Make sure to fill in all requested infor mation. Number each sample with a one. two. or three digit des ignation so that you will know which recommendation goes with which sample if you have more than one sample. The Lee County Extension Office Secretary. Jan Weathersby, will be glad to fill in the crop code on the bag based on what you tell her you want to grow on the land sampled. Jan will also be glad to provide you with soil sample bags and to loan you a soil sample tube. Just remember to bring it back promptly. The charge for soil sample analysis is four dollars for homeowners. For those of you who may not know, our office is located in the Lee County Governmental Build ing, which is just south of the courthouse in downtown Lees burg. For more information, call the Lee County Extension Office at 759-6025. By J.M. Rhodes Member of Chehaw Lodge 701 Leesburg, Georgia "MORE LIGHT" If one were asked to sum up the meaning of Masonry in one word, the only word equal to the task is "Light" A lodge of Ma sonry is a House of Light. Sym bolically it has no roof but the sky, open to all light of nature and of grace. As the sun rises in the East to open and rule the day, so the Master rises in the East to open and guide the Lodge, in its labor. All the work of the Lodge is done under the eye and in the name of God. obeying Him who made great lights, whose mercy endureth forever. To the door comes the see ked after light asking to be led out of shadows into realities, out of darkness into light. From its first page to the last the key-word of the Bible is light, until, at the end, when the City of God is built, it has no need of the sun or the moon or stars, for God is the light of it. To find the real orgin of Ma sonry we must go far back into the past, back behind history. All the world over, at a certain stage of culture, men bowed down in worship of the sun, the moon and the stars. In prehistoric graves the body was buried in a sitting pos ture, and always with the face to ward the East, that the sleeper might be ready to spring up early to face the new and brighter day. There is a mystery in light. It is not matter, but form of motion. it is not spirit, thought it seems closely akin to it. Midway be tween the material and the spiri tual, it is the gateway where mat ter and apart pass and repass. Of all the glories of nature it most resembles God in its gentleness, its pity, falling with impartial benediction alike upon the just and the unjust, upon the splendor of wealth and the squalar of pov erty. Yes God is light, and the mis sion of Masonry is to open the Windows of the mind of men. let ting the dim spark within us meet and blend with the light of God, in whom there is no darkness, there is "a light that lighteth ev ery man that cometh into the world," as we learn in the Book of Holy Law, but too often it is made dim by evil, error, and ig norance. until it seems well nigh to have gone out. Thus our gentle Masonry, by seeking to "Bring men to light", not simply symboli cally but morally and spiritually, is trying to lift the shadow of evil, ignorance and injustice off the life of man. What the sad world needs-what each of us needs- is more light, more love, more clarity of mind and more charity of heart, and this is what Masonry is trying to give us. Once we take it to heart, it will help us to see God in the face of our fellows, to see the power of a lie and its inherent weakness be cause it is false, to see the glory of truth and its final victory - to see these things is to be a Mason, to see these things is to be saved. ALERT ALL TAXPAYERS Recently homeowners in the Redbone District of Lee County were surprised by the request of a farmer to rezone 168.6 acres of his 530- acre tract to permit R-3, mixed use residential development. My per sonal concern is the existing infrastructure would not be able to handle a large subdivision. However, the larger consideration is the petition signed by over 200 citizens that opposed the rezoning for various reasons. The constitutional rights of all Lee County citizens have been respected as demonstrated by the numerous public meetings on zon ing and other issues. The traffic on Philema Road is getting to the point we will need red lights at different points to allow safe entry onto the road at peak times if a large subdivision is established off Middle Road. It is al ready hard to safely exit the existing neighborhoods in the mornings. My other concern is our tax base. We have a county that is bringing in people from all surrounding counties to attend our public school system. I take pride in the reputation our schools have, but we need more houses here to help cover the taxes that will be needed. The county will need to add more classrooms and purchase additional buses when the land is developed. We will not get the revenue needed to do this from a mobile home park. My concern is for homeowners who are currently living in Lee County. If our taxes continue to rise, our senior citizens will not be able to afford to pay their property taxes. Instead of a mobile home park we need a neighborhood established with homes that cost from $65,000 to $85,000. Many of the young couples in our neighborhood cannot get into a home in our area be cause the majority of them start out at $100,000. Affordable housing is a need that I feel could be met. Regardless of the type of homes allowed on this property, the prop erty owners should not be allowed to sell any lots until they have built and paved roads with the proper drainage and curbs. None of this expense should fall back on the taxpayers when a landowner is going to make the profits. It doesn't matter if you live in a mobile home or house; we all need a safe road for our buses and ambulances. And again, we will need extra tax dollars to maintain these roads once the builder has developed the streets and turned them over to the county to maintain. Concerned Citizen Gail Fentem APPRECIATES SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT I would like to join with many other Lee Countians in expressing of our appreciation to Sheriff Harold Breeden and the Lee County Sheriffs Department for their efforts in making Halloween a safe experience for the children last Wednesday in the Redbone District as well as throughout Lee County. As always, Sheriff Breeden and his department are on top of the situation by looking out for the children as well as protecting all of Lee County. Sincerely. Mary Gibson By Hugh Morris Andrew and Jen are a happy young couple. Bobby is a close friend from law school that lives across the river at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, the site of the annual University of Geor gia versus University of Florida football game. Andrew and Jen would stay with Bobby for the weekend. Florida was favored but hopes were high that the Dawgs prevail. After all, in the history of both schools, Georgia has tradi tionally beaten Florida. The agenda for Friday night in cluded the Epping Forest Yacht Club. The club holds dinner with plenty of music, dance and cheer leaders from both schools. The University of Georgia and Florida Cheerleaders took turns encour aging while Hairy Dawg toured the crowd. The mood was festive. The night was young and the Worlds Largest Party would be gin tomorrow. Saturday morning arrived. Jen reached for her purse and the wal let was gone. Had she been robbed last night? Suddenly, her driver's license, cash, social-security card, birth certificate, ATM and calling card completely disappeared! Identity theft occurs when someone steals your personal in formation, pretends to be you and obtains credit cards, loans, or even jobs. Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes. The crook steals your social security num ber, credit card, driver's license, ATM cards, telephone calling card and other key pieces of iden tity. They use the information to impersonate victims, spending as much money as possible in short est amount of time before mov ing on to someone else's name and account information. If you have been a victim, you should follow each of the guide points listed be low. 1. Report the crime to the po lice immediately. Obtain a writ ten copy of the police report. 2. If your checks are stolen, no tify the bank at once. Close all ac counts and obtain new account n u m - bers. Re port the crime to the fol lowing nation ally rec ognized companies: National Check Fraud Center, Check Rite, Crosscheck, SCAN, TeleCheck, National Processing Company (NPC), and Certegy Check Ser vices (Formally Equifax Check Services) 3. Call your credit card compa nies. Obtain replacement cards with new account numbers. Close the old accounts. 4. You may be forced to change your social security number if the number becomes associated with bad credit. Contact your Social Security Administration Office. Caution: This step should be re served for only the most extreme situations. 5. You may be forced to change your driver's license number. When requesting the new num ber, the Georgia State Patrol re quire proof that your driver's li cense was stolen. The copy of your written police report will help. 6. Contact the nearest office of the Consumer Credit Counseling Service for advice on removing fraudulent claims from your credit report. Call l(800)-388- 2227. 7. Important: Document every thing. Keep a log of all conversa tions with the legal authorities and financial institutions, includ ing dates and names. Send all cor respondence by certified mail. Keep copies of all letters and documents. Always back up any phone calls with a letter. 8. Be persistent! Jen was smart. She cancelled her accounts the morning before the game. And guess what, Epping Forest Yacht Club was kind enough to report Monday morning that her wallet was fi nally found. Hooks - Hanner Environmental Center To Be Dedicated Friday A new public - private partner ship in Terrell County will bring jobs and economic activity to ru ral Southwest Georgia, while bol stering the region's understand ing of water and natural resource issues. The new facility, the Hooks Hanner Environmental Resource Center (HHERC), will be dedicated Friday. November 9th, as it hosts a legislative study committee tasked with planing the state's water future. HHERC, the brainchild of lo cal conservation leaders and State Representative Bob Hanner and Senator George Hooks, will as semble a critical mass of water related technical experts, plan ners, eductors and researchers from state, federal and private agencies. The 5000 square foot facility and 25 acre research sta tion, formerly owned by Birdsong Peanut Company, will be home to multi-disciplinary water re search, training and education program. A few of the HHERC' functions include housing: Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission’s Irrigation Man agement Program, field research office for the Flint River Water Planning and Policy Center aqui fer capacity and reservoir testing programs, training facility for the Georgia Rural Water Association's water and waste water treatment operator certifi cation programs, education cen ter for the Georgia Association of Conservation’s District's Erosion and Sediment Control training programs and USDAAgricultural Research Service multi-crop irri gation and conservation research farm and Lower Chattahoochee River & Water Conservation Dis trict operations. The $350,000 base funding for the project came during the 2001 session of the Georgia General Assembly, when the two local lawmakers made the project a pri ority for the region. To submit articles and pictures to The Lee County Ledger, you may e-mail them to leeledger@aol.com or mail items of interest to P.O. Box 715, Leesburg Georgia.