About The wiregrass farmer. (Ashburn, Ga.) 1984-current | View Entire Issue (April 23, 2014)
Page 2 - The Wiregrass Farmer, April 23,2014 Can you identify these men? These portraits, which are large, were found in the second floor of the Rebecca Masonic Lodge. They are presently housed at Rebecca City Hall. If you can identify these men, please call Rebecca City Hall at 643-7212. Local ham radio operators plan annual Field Day for June by Greg Walls Despite the Internet, cell phones, email and modern communications, every year whole regions find themselves in the dark. Tornadoes, fires, storms, ice and even the occasional cutting of fiber optic cables leave peo ple without the means to com- PreK registration Turner County Pre-K Reg istration 2014-2015 School Year, Tuesday, April 29 at the Turner County Pre-K Cafeteria 3:30-5 p.m. Please bring the following items: • Copy of Birth Certificate • Copy of Insurance Card • Proof of Residency (light, water or landline phone bill w/current address) • Copy of Ear, Eye and Den tal Form • Copy of Immunization Record (up to date w/printed X in the upper right hand comer) municate. In these cases, the one consistent service that has never failed has been Amateur Radio. These radio operators, often called “hams” provide backup communications for every thing from the American Red Cross to FEMA and even for the International Space Station. Turner County “hams” will join with thousands of other Amateur Radio operators showing their emergency capa bilities on June 28. Over the past year, the news has been full of reports of ham radio operators providing crit ical communications during unexpected emergencies in towns across America includ ing the California wildfires, winter storms, tornadoes and other events world-wide. When trouble is brewing, Amateur Radio’s people are often the first to provide res cuers with critical information and communications. On the weekend of June 28- 29, the public will have a chance to meet and talk with local ham radio operators and see for themselves what the Amateur Radio Service is about as hams across the USA will be holding public demon strations of emergency com munications abilities. This annual event, called "Field Day" is the climax of the week long "Amateur Radio Week" sponsored by the ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio. Using only emergency power supplies, ham operators will construct emergency sta tions in parks, shopping malls, schools and backyards around the country. Their slogan, "When All Else Fails, Ham Radio Works” is more than just words to the hams as they prove they can send messages in many forms without the use of phone systems, internet or any other infrastructure that can be compromised in a crisis. More than 35,000 amateur radio operators across the country participated in last year's event. "The fastest way to turn a crisis into a total disaster is to lose communications,” said Allen Pitts of the ARRL. “From the earthquake and tsunami in Japan to tornadoes in Missouri, ham radio pro vided the most reliable com munication networks in the first critical hours of the events. Because ham radios are NEW AND USED TIRES - COMPUTER WHEEL BALANCE ALLEN'S Tire Service OPEN 7:30 A.M. TIL DARK FREE AIR Monday- Friday FREE ROTATION 6 p.m. PRESSURE Saturday 7:30 a.m. CHECK & FILL J 1-75 at Bussey Road Sycamore • 567-3390 AUTO • RV • TRUCK AND TRAILER TIRES AND REPAIRS ON SET OF 4 k Summer Semester 2014 LAST CHANCE Registration May 15— Classes begin May 19. Meet Carolyn Tallman. master cosmetologistj wo _j| me cancer survivor team member (p Divine Design Salon wife and mother moultrie-tech graduate This changes everything. not dependent on the Internet, cell towers or other infrastruc ture, they work when nothing else is available. We need noth ing between us but air.” In the Turner County area, the Coastal Plains Amateur Radio Club which includes Amateur Radio Emergency Service members from Turner, Tift, Irwin, Berrien and other South Georgia Counties will be demonstrating Amateur Radio at Ashbum Fire Station number 2 located at the corner of West Washington Ave. and Bridges Road in Ashburn, Georgia. They invite the public to come and see ham radio’s new capabilities and learn how to get their own FCC radio li cense before the next disaster strikes. Amateur Radio is growing in the US. There are now over 700,000 Amateur Radio li censees in the US, and more than 2.5 million around the world. Through the ARRL’s Amateur Radio Emergency Services program, ham volun teers provide both emergency communications for thousands of state and local emergency response agencies and non emergency community serv ices too, all for free. To learn more about Ama teur Radio, go to www.emer gency-radio.org. The public is most cordially invited to come, meet and talk with the hams. See what modern Amateur Radio can do. They can even help you get on the air! ACTORS IN ASHBURN Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis were apparently in Ashburn last week. The celebrity duo snapped a picture of themselves at the World’s Largest Peanut monument and posted it online. It quickly went viral on the celebrity media circuit. SCHOOL (Continued from Page 1) “Changing public percep tion ... is going to be a chal lenge.” DROPPING STUDENTS Turner County’s school sys tem continues to suffer a de cline in enrollment. Part of this can be attributed to people leaving the county, per the most recent US census. Ms. Bailey said there’s another rea son as well. “Private schools are draw ing our students out at an alarming rate,” she said. LEAVING TEACHERS Teachers are also leaving for other systems which do not have shortened school calen dars. Turner County likely will have a short calendar year next year as well, which means teachers will not receive pay for a typical full contract. Ms. Bailey said teachers are leaving to get a full contract because of the pay. “For the sake of survival, teachers are going to leave,” she said. School Superintendent Ray Jordan said the only way to re turn teachers to a full 190-day Zero Turn Poulan Pro 541ZX Zero Turn ZTR Mower • 22HP Briggs & Stratton engine • V Twin Pro Engine • 54” 3-Blade Cutting Deck • Hydro Gear EZT Transmission • High Back Sliding Seat v Western Auto 382-5767 354 Main St • Tifton pay period is to raise taxes. Ms. Bailey was apparently not totally convinced of that. “We know what positions we can absorb. We know what we can’t do without,” she said. She suggested the School Board talk with the teaching staff to see what can be cut in order to restore as much pay as possible. “We realize this might mean bigger class sizes,” she said. Teachers, she said, want im provement and want to feel they are being considered when decisions are made. She said some of the teacher complaint is a “sense of a lack of leadership. If teachers aren’t informed or aware, they as sume the worst. “When we’re informed, we can plan for success.... We want to help. Come and ask us. You might be surprised. “We’re here because we care. We are on the front line. Let us partner with you,” she said. Recognizing our newest subscriber Bill Story PIGS IN Golf Tourney - Friday, May 30 at 9AM Festival - Saturday, May 31 at 9AM We are accepting vendor applications, BBQ team entries and Golf team entries. E-mail pigsnthepark@gmail.com to request forms or call 229-412-3255 or 229-276-1004 for more information.
