About The wiregrass farmer. (Ashburn, Ga.) 1984-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 12, 2008)
Blood Drive Thursday! Give another Thanksgiving this year to someone you may never meet! Wiregrass Farmer Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008 ASHBURN, GA, 31714 VOL 106 - No. 46 • 500 /Around Town \ Subscribe to The Wiregrass Farmer Delivered in your mail every week. Call 567-3655 for information. Pix with Santa Treasure's Galore, Yard Sale, Turner County Elementary School Gym Saturday, Dec. 6, 8am-12 pm. Pictures with Santa Firefighter course Ashburn Fire & Emergency Services will offer the Basic Firefighter: Module One Course as part of its in- service training program. The course is a very fast paced course, which is the mandated training course required by Georgia Law to become a firefighter. The class will begin on Monday January 12th, at 6PM at Ashburn Fire & Emergency Services Station #2 located at 1070 Bridges Road in Ashburn. The course is 60 hours in length and will be held on consecutive Monday and Thursday Nights. Therefore, the course will take approxi mately 8 weeks to com plete. If you are interested in attending the class please call 567-4952 to register. There is no charge for this class and after successful completion participants may pursue a career in the Fire Service. Arts Council The Turner County Arts Council is proud to present Saturday with the Sarge. Saturday, Nov. 22, 7 PM First Baptist Church Social Hall. Pound cake & coffee will be served. Come hear little known Civil War facts as told by Charles Perry. Tickets $5, available from Arts Council Members. GED Classes Need to study for the GED Exam? Orientation for Adult Education classes will be held Friday, Nov. Nth , from 8:30- 3:30 at Moultrie Technical College. Call us at 567-4280 for more info. Chickenque T. C. High School will have a Chickenque, Thursday, Nov. 20. Tickets $7 each. Plates include: half grilled chicken, baked beans, chips, bread, dessert. Pick up at TCHS Cafeteria from 3:30-7 pm Nov. 20. Purchase tickets at the school or call 567-4377 for more info. We appreciate your support! Fruit sale Again this year Turner County 4-H will sponsor a Holiday Fruit Sale to raise money for the County pro gram. Fruit sale orders are being taken now and the fruit will be delivered in December. The fruit will (See BRIEFLY Page 6) Serving Turner Co unty Since 1902 == Gangs in Ashburn Special investigator says Council needs to give APD resources to stop them now by Ben Baker Editor Ashburn has two gangs, said Sgt Joey Woods, a gang investigator for the Tift County Sheriff’s Department and the City Council needs to act now to help the Ashburn Police Department control these gangs. The names of the gangs are not being released because gangs often view publicity of any kind as a positive thing. The investigator urged the City Council to back the APD in efforts to control the gangs. “You’ve got to give them resources,” he said. “If you don’t do anything with these gangs, your violence will esca late.... They will fight over anything.” Sgt. Woods said a three- way program is needed. “You’ve got to have preven tion. You’ve got to have inter vention and you've got to have suppression,” he said. “If you let them go wild, they will go wild. You have got to support your police department. You need to have a citizen-based program. “If you do something with them, you can keep them down and keep them out.” Sgt. Woods said gangs can prevent new industry from locating here, because compa nies will see the gang problems and then go somewhere else. “You’ve got to find the resources” to do something about the gangs, he said. BEST EVIDENCE Ashburn Police Chief Bryant McCard asked Sgt. (See GANG Page 3) Feelin’ froggy! GAVIN WIGGINS at the Trinity Baptist Church Fall festival recently. Photo Trish Mathes County garbage hike likely in Jan. by Ben Baker Editor County garbage rates will go up in January most likely, according to information pre sented to the County Commission last week. County Manager Charles Kinney suggest ed a new rate of $18.75, up from the present $17.50. The Commission is expected to vote on the rate hike at the December meeting. The County’s contract with the Crisp Regional Landfill authority gives that board the ability to set the garbage rates with little to no input from the County. The County attempts to pass the costs of the service to the customers. Under the contract terms, the County is ultimately responsible for the bill. Since the program was begun about 14 years ago, the pro gram has never broken even, meaning taxpay ers have picked up part of the bill each year. In addition to that, the County has had many complaints over the collection service. Past audits by County Commissioners revealed some houses did not have roll-carts, some houses were not being billed and some houses had carts but did not get a bill. The contract the County has locks the Commission into 8 more years of service with Allied Waste as the collection ser vice. The contract with the Landfill Authority runs another 15 years. “If you haven’t read the contract... you ought to. It’s hor rible,” said Commissioner Mike Geoghagan. “They can do whatever they want, whenever they want and we can’t do anything about it.” Some slight good news on that front is the requested increase to cover fuel expenses has dropped, Mr. Kinney said. EYE ON COLLECTIONS At present, $248,000 is in the past due accounts on garbage. Over the years the County has written off several hundred thousand in past due bills. Collecting that money has been a prob lem. Numerous attempts in the past have met with mixed success. (See TRASH Page 2) Garbage at a glance • Present rate is $17.50 a month. • Recommended new rate is $18.75. • $248,000 is in the past due ledger. • The County has very little choice in the rate or the collection company If you haven’t read the con tract ... you ought to. It’s horrible. Mike Geoghagan Kinney Wiley, McCard, Scott cruise to victories in general election by Ben Baker Editor Turner County turned 3,590 voters out on Tuesday in a his toric election. Roy Wiley cruised to an easy victory last week, tallying 63.18 pecent of the vote. Andy Hester was the only qualified write-in candidate and pulled some of the 1223 write-in votes, but not all of them. Because Mr. Wiley polled a clear majority, the review panel of Coach John Dye, George Beasley and Cheryle Bryan did not examine the computer-gen erated write-in votes. They did review the absentee votes. Not all of the write-ins went to Mr. Hester either. Among the names written in were: Mickey Mouse Randy Kendrick Roy Hester Doug Hester In the only contested race for County Commission, Democrat Sam McCard easily swept past Republican chal lenger Richard Weaver, polling 72 percent of the votes. RUN OFF In one regional race and one statewide race, there was no clear winner. For Superior Court Judge to replace Gary McCorvey, Melanie Cross polled 48.27 percent of the votes here while Joseph Carter had 30.19 per cent. Ronnie Wheeler was a distant third with 21.48 per cent. The race was much tighter across the 4-county area according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, Carter 39.8 percent from the circuit while Cross won 39.1 percent. Mrs. Cross will face Mr. Carter in the runoff Dec. 2. The Tift Judicial circuit comprises Turner, Worth, Tift and Irwin Counties. Incumbent Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss did not get a majority across the state, despite getting 51.84 per cent of the vote in Turner County. He will face Democrat chal lenger Jim Martin on Dec. 2. Mr. Martin had 45.53 percent of the vote here. Libertarian candidate Allen How you voted. Precinct results, Page 3 Runoff election Dec. 2 Any registered voter may vote in this elec tion. Who’s Running Superior Court Judge Melanie Cross Joseph Carter US Senate Saxby Chambliss Jim Martin Early voting is Nov. 24- 26. Buckley was the state-wide race spoiler, but only managed 2.51 percent of the votes here. FOR PRESIDENT The election saw Turner County give 58.94 percent of its votes to John McCain, a trend that was followed across most of the state which went for the Republican ticket. Barack Obama turned out 40.13 percent of the vote. US HOUSE Democrat incumbent Jim Marshall had a decided victory in Turner County with 58.35 percent of the vote to Republican Challenger Rick Goddard’s 41.62 percent. Across the district which Jrflery Iahii by Ben Baker Editor Jeffery Speck was convict ed of murder and concealing the death of another by a Turner County Jury. Speck, 40, a long haul truck reaches up to Warner Robins, Rep. Marshall polled enough votes to hang on to his seat in Congress for the next two years. driver before being arrested in another state, is accused of the death of Michaella Maria Swaney. Her body was found in a ditch off 1-75 in February 1997. The murder was a cold case until 2006 when Speck was serving time in a Texas prison on drug-related charges. His DNA was entered into a national database. “Investigator Steve Mauldin reviewed the case and discovered that the DNA evi dence had not been sent through CODIS (a national database). He sent this infor mation in and a match was dis covered. This was when Jeffrey Speck was arrested in prison in Texas and brought back to Georgia,” said Chief Deputy Steve Wood. “This makes a pretty good story to let people know about up to date inves tigative techniques.” Speck convicted of murder Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. James Bovard
