Newspaper Page Text
the Wiregrass Farmer
Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008
ASHBURN, GA, 31714
VOL 106 - No. 47 • 500
/Around Town \
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to The Wiregrass
Farmer
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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.
Family holiday
traditions
Sponsored by: Turner
County Schools Parent
Involvement Council
Presented by Connie
Brown and Javier Gonzalez
Tuesday, Dec. 9 at 5:45
pm. Turner County Pr-
K/Special Services
Cafeteria
Cookies and punch will
be provided.
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.
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
be sold in whole boxes (4/5
bushel) or half boxes (2/5
bushel). The fruit selection
will consist of Navel
Oranges, Juice Oranges,
Tangelos and Red
Grapefruit. The cost for a
whole box is $25.00 and
half boxes will be $15. To
place your order, call
(229)567-3448.
Christmas
Parade
Saturday, Dec. 13 6:00
Parade, line up at 5 at Civic
Center Christmas Open
House to follow downtown
with merchants Theme -
Home for the Holidays.
Book signing
Hugh Hardy will be
signing his latest cookbook
at Carroll’s Sausage on
Thursday, Nov. 20, 1 lam-2
pm.
(See BRIEFLY Page 6)
Serving Turner County Since 1902
Property taxes due in January
Delay in paying taxes until January may affect 2008 income tax deductions
by Ben Baker
Editor
Property tax bills, which
have generally come out well
before now, are just hitting
mail boxes.
While the taxes are not due
until 2009, if you plan to use
your property taxes as a deduc
tion on your income tax, you
need to pay them by Dec. 31.
For the great majority of
expenses, only expenses paid
before Dec. 31, 2008 may be
deducted on income tax forms
filed in 2009.
Tax Commissioner Shirley
Brock provided this written
statement:
To the taxpayers, although
you may have already received
your 2008 tax notice, please
note that the tax is due by
January 20, 2009. By law, you
are allowed 60 days to pay
your tax.
Also, please know that as
always we will continue to get
your bills to your mortgage
companies provided they have
requested it or you have
instructed us to do so. We will
also inform them of the due
date and include a reminder of
payment if there is a need to
pay by Dec. 31, 2008.
You can check with us any
time to see if your taxes have
been paid by your mortgage
company. Please call if you
should need help in any way,
567-3636.
DELAYED NOTICES
The delay began back when
Tax notices were
mailed Monday.
Taxes are due
Jan. 20, 2009
the County Commission
approved a county-wide prop
erty re-evaluation. The evalua
tion was necessary because
property values here had
slipped well below what actual
values are, according to the
state. Once the re-eval was
done, the Tax Assessor’s office
then began a long series of
appeals from property owners
who felt their property was
value wrong.
Until these appeals were
mostly cleared up, the Tax
Digest could not be generated.
Once the Digest was known,
this had to be sent to Atlanta
for approval by state officials.
Then, the Digest was sent back
to Turner County and bills
were prepared.
A grateful community salutes veterans
pH
JROTC cadets laid a wreath at the Courthouse monument
Tuesday at noon following the Veterans Day Ceremonies at
the Civic Center. The wreath was also a centerpiece of the
JROTC’s display at the Civic Center. Taps was played during
the wreath-laying ceremony.
by Ben Baker
Editor
Turner County gave grate
ful thanks to the veterans and
active servicemen and women
at the annual JROTC Veterans
Day ceremony at the Civic
Center.
The featured speaker for the
event, Dr. Steven Greer, is a
decorated combat veteran and
FOX news consultant.
“If you look in the eye of a
veteran today, not just the vet
eran, their spouse and children,
there is something different. He
has done all he can for his
country. Now, he is asking you
to help,” he said.
Dr. Greer then had the
assembled audience say
“Thank You” to the veterans in
the audience.
“If you value what you
have and I don’t care if you
live in a trailer or the biggest
house in Ashburn, you owe it
to our vets,” he said.
A CALL TO SERVICE
He said the reasons for
serving in the military vary, but
his was personal.
“I was serving so I could
come back and hold my son,
kiss my wife and hug my
daughter,” he said.
While that may sound like a
selfish motive, the professors
next words prove it was any
thing but.
“I guess we will be at war
for the next several decades
with terrorists,” he said.
Dr. Greer said he went to
Guantanamo and met with ter
rorists there. What he told the
audience he saw is “chilling.”
“There are people the same
age as you, 14, 15, 16, 17 who
are training right now, waiting
for the call to come to our
country and kill us,” he said.
“The only thing to stop those
individuals are you on the left
and you on the right.”
Dr. Greer was urging stu
dents to consider a career in the
military, a career that would let
them defend the United States
against terrorists.
“Some of you in this audi
ence are going to have raise
your right hand and pledge to
defend our country,” he said.
“We have got to fight. If we
don’t fight, they are coming
after us, right here in Ashburn.
I saw it in their eyes.”
Dr. Greer is a four-time
competitor in the grueling
Lieutenant General David E.
Grange, Jr., Best Ranger
Competition and the first
Sergeant Major in the Army to
compete. During his military
career he served as a Ranger
Squad Leader, Special Forces
Weapons Sergeant, Special
Forces Operations and
Intelligence Sergeant, Special
Forces A-Detachment
Sergeant, Instructor at the
Special Warfare Center,
Commandant of the Light-
fighters School, and Command
Sergeant Major for two light
infantry battalions and one
infantry brigade. At 33 years of
age he was selected as one of
the youngest Sergeant Majors
in Army history.
THE CEREMONY
JROTC cadets put on the
annual event as a service pro
ject.
The morning program fea
tured patriotic songs from the
High School band and a slide
presentation of veterans alive
and dead and presently serving
Turner County residents.
(See VET Page 2)
Looking for the origins of cosmic glass brings researcher to South Georgia
LINDA SELLARS looks at the tektite in Hal
Povenmire’s hand as he talks about it at the Wooten
home in Turner County.
by Ben Baker
Editor
They are rare. How rare?
“For every one I find, I
know I have walked over 50,”
he said. “This is only the 10th
tektite I have found in 38
years,” he said.
He estimates he walked
A TEKTITE next to a
pen for size comparison.
hundreds of miles for each one
he’s found.
In his books on the topic, he
said when these tektites hit
earth millions of years ago, it
was probably one or two an
acre.
A tektite is a piece of glass
formed by extreme heat and
generally thought to be extra-
earthly in origin. The two main
schools of thought say tektites
are either from meteors which
hit earth or from a volcanic
eruption on the moon.
Best scientific evidence
Tektites at a glance
Georgiaite - tektites
found in Georgia.
Tektites appear black
on the ground, but when
held to a light, are actu
ally green. Iron in the
glass causes the green
color.
Aside from scientific
study value, tektites
don’t have a lot of mon
etary value.
says these tekities are around
35 million years old. Other tek
tites from other places on the
globe range in age from about
the same to only a few thou
sand years old.
If the glass pieces are from
the moon, there’s little telling
which eruption sent them
spewing to earth or why they
landed where they did.
If the tektites are meteoric,
then most people point to a
Chesapeake Bay impact as the
likely cause of these small bits
of glass.
THE EXPERT
Hal Povenmire has
authored several books and
numerous scholastic articles on
the matter, detailing a stretch of
Georgia where tektites have
been found.
His most recent visit to
South Georgia saw him team
up with Jerry Wooten and Jack
Bodecker who took him to
Wilcox County to search.
It was there, walking
through a wash, that he found a
tektite, marking the first time
one of the pieces of glass as
ever been found in Wilcox
County.
“We had a ball,” Mr.
Wooten said of the miles they
walked looking for the glass
fragments.
Mr. Povenmire and his
books present both sides of the
scientific argument. For him
self, he said he plans to contin
ue researching this field until
one theory is proven over
another.
It’s not a field a study
which attracts a lot of people.
(See TEKTITE Page 2)
So if we are really concerned about generating more taxes, we ought to be investing in our people, not taking away the kinds of resources that con-
tribute to their ability to become greater taxpayers in this country. Patrick J. Kennedy
