About The wiregrass farmer. (Ashburn, Ga.) 1984-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 11, 2006)
No pay no license policy makes good sense, Page 4 Limited torture OK for terrorist suspects. Bob Tribble, Page 4 ™ Wiregrass Farmer Serving Turner County Since 1902 Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2006 ASHBURN, GA, 31714 VOL 106-No. 2-500 Around town Rec basketball Turner County Recreation Department Basketball Registration Tuesday, Jan. 3 - Friday, Jan. 13 Old Ashburn Gym 4-6 p.m. Boys and Girls - Ages 6-14. Cost $25. Coaches needed: Please contact David Kingry at 567-5223. Bike engraving The Ashburn Police Department and The Wiregrass Farmer are offering FREE bicycle theft protection help. Just bring your bike by the APD or The Wiregrass and someone will engrave your name and address in a hid den location on the bike. We’ll also take down infor mation about the bike so if it is stolen, law enforce ment will be better able to recover to the stolen bike. Two kids bikes, boy and girl were found Tuesday. Call 567-2401 to identify and claim. 2005 WGF on CD The entire 2005 year of the Wiregrass Farmer is now available on CD in PDF file. CDs are $5 each (includes mailing), or you can bring a blank CD by our office and we’ll burn it for free. 2004 and 2003 editions are also available. BoE meetings The Board of Education meetings for 2006 are at the Turner County Transpor-tation Department (Bus Shop), 821 North St. Workshop meetings are the 1st Monday of the month and regular meetings are the 2nd Monday of the month. and are open to the public. ' Z,vt Public hearing A public hearing is set for 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26 at the Civic Center to discuss the future of the w Commission meeting The County Commission will move its February meeting to Thursday, Feb. 9. The meeting is open to the pub lic. The workshop session begins at 6 p.m. Republicans meeting Turner County Republicans will meet at the Library, Jan. 21 at 10 a.m. to select a representa tive to serve on the Turner County elections board. Obituaries Ms. Lorine Harvey Mr. George Curry, Jr. Complete obituary informa tion is on Page 5. . Should County give Center to BoE? by Ben Baker Editor With some $35,000 in repairs needed and annual expenses running around $28,000 a year, the Turner County Civic Center is an expense the County Commission is looking at very hard. The Commission has called a public hearing at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26 at the Civic Center. The public is encour aged to attend and speak. Specifically, the Commission is interested in knowing if the citizens are willing to have the Commission deed the Civic Center to the Board of Education. If that idea isn’t accepted, the Commissioners want to hear from citizens about how to best handle the annual expenses of owning and operating the Civic Center. The Civic Center was first used in April 1989. WHO OWNS IT In reality, all the citizens of Turner County own the Civic Center. The deed is held by the County Commission. The Board of Education has a contract for using the facility. The contract states the School Board is responsible for very limited maintenance at the building. For a number of years now the School Board has asked the County to deed over the property. The Commission has reject ed such offers. SALES TAX BUILT IT The center was the first Special Purpose Local Option Sales (SPLOST) project in the County. It was built as a County facility after a School Board attempt to build a similar gym- type facility failed. Voters approved the SPLOST for the Civic Center with the under standing it would be available for community use as well as school use. “It was a huge thing. It was the first thing we did with SPLOST,” County Attorney John Holland said. MAINTENANCE With the building more than 10 years old, maintenance is becoming an increasingly important issue. The County has agreed to roof repairs, but tabled getting new curtains for the stage. (See CIVIC Page 2) Board tables policy by Ben Baker Editor The County Commission tabled a policy which would prevent someone from getting County-supplied permits and licenses if the person has a past due bill with the County. Commissioners Daryl Hall and Joe Burgess were against immediate approval with both saying they wanted the County attorney to check on the legality of such a policy first. Commiss ioner Hall said he favored the policy, if it was legal. Commissioner Burgess merely said he wanted the attorney to check on it. County Manager Charles Akridge brought the idea to the Commission, saying after the meeting it was County Building Inspector Mike Mastrario’s idea. The suggested policy is “no permit of any kind to be issued to any one owing Turner County any money at all,” Mr. Akridge said. Hall Burgess Mastrario ™ Only past due accounts would be affected, he added. “Is that legal John? Can we do that?” Commissioner Hall asked of County Attorney John Holland. Mr. Holland asked if it would apply to peo ple owing past due taxes or bills, such as garbage. “Why wouldn’t it be legal?” Mr. Akridge said. “It makes Holland said. “Absolutely it makes sense,” Mr. Akridge said. Mr. Holland said he had not checked on the matter as he and Mr. Akridge had not dis cussed the policy before the meeting. “Before you pass some- (See POLICY Page 3) Akridge sense,” Mr. HOOPLA Laura Daniels and Marly Myers run defense for the Lady Rebels at a recent basket ball game. Photo Trish Oliver Wiregrass Farmer brings home awards Wiregrass Farmer sales manager Linda Sellars, editor Ben Baker and newspaper owner Bob Tribble with the Wiregrass Farmer’s second-place Advertising Excellence award. The award was one of four which your newspaper received at the annual Trib Publications seminar. by Ben Baker Editor The Wiregrass Farmer received four awards for adver tising excellence at the annual Trib Publications advertising seminar in Manchester. The Wiregrass and Community National Bank share top honors with a first- place award in Best Advertising Campaign. CNB’s ad series spotlighted local business owners. The ad series highlighted Turner County’s attempts to become a state-designated “Entrepren- urial Friendly” community. The judges said the ads were an excellent idea combin ing news, personalities and business-building information. The Wiregrass and Ewing Buick-Pontiac-GMC received a second place Best Automotive Award for an ad featuring Lloyd Ewing and a Turner County Rebels cheerleader and a new Pontiac car. The ad also saluted the Rebels in their drive to win the Region champi onship in football. The Wiregrass won a sec ond-place award for Best Newspaper Promotion. This is the 6th year in row your home town paper has won either first or second place for this award. The award winning ads were the “Classified Page” pic tures. The Wiregrass won a sec ond-place General Advertising Excellence award. Last year The Wiregrass won first place in this competition. The judges said your home town newspaper has an inter esting mix of advertising, which are “well-designed and attractive.” “These awards are not awards for one person,” editor Ben Baker said. “It’s a team effort. Advertisers, who bring you the paper each week, believe in the power of news paper advertising. The staff who sells and puts the ads together work hard to give the advertisers attractive and infor mative ads which will bring in customers.” Rainey Cleaning up in Ashburn by Ben Baker Editor Willie Rainey, the City of Ashburn’s Code Enforcement officer, was the Department of the Month at the Jan. 5 Ashburn City Council meeting. Each month a department head comes to a Council meeting and discusses that department. Rainey, a cer tified law enforcement officer, took over the Code Department after a number of years in the Ashburn Police Department. Mr. Rainey enforces the City’s business license and nui sance ordinances. The nuisance ordinance includes junk cars and neglected property. At the Council meeting Mr. Rainey showed the Council members a scrapbook of prop erty which has been cleaned up over the past three years. “We’ve been trying to clean up the eyesores in the commu nity,” he said. “We still have a long way to go with the task we have in front of us. We are going to get there.” He said his focus has been on property for a while now, but he’s about to turn his atten tion to vehicles. “We are getting a bunch of cars piled up on public and pri vate property,” he said. The City requires vehicles: • Have a valid tag • Have insurance • Be able to move under their own power Mr. Rainey said the City does realize there are circum stances where a person may own a car, but not have a license and so can’t drive. Then, so long as the vehicle can be cranked up and moved, his department is OK with the vehicle. He said such vehicles prob ably need to be washed, not have flat tires and not be stand ing in tall weeds. Councilman James Burks asked why Mr. Rainey did not bring a copy of the junk car ordi nance to the Council meet ing. Mr. Rainey said he had a copy in his truck and would see that the Councilman got a copy. He brought in a copy before the meeting was over. Councilman Burks also urged caution when Mr. Rainey (See CAR Page 3) Burks Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery. Calvin Coolidge
