About The wiregrass farmer. (Ashburn, Ga.) 1984-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 2015)
So what is Turner County Connections? Let Greg Millette explain, Page 3 ™ E Wiregrass Farmer Serving Turner County Since 1902 Wednesday, January 21,2015 ASHBURN,GA, 31714 VOL 109 - No. 3 • 500 www.thewiregrassfarmer.com {Around Town\ Subscribe to The Wiregrass Farmer Delivered in your mail every week Call 567-3655 for information. Donations For various reasons dur ing the school year, TCES has children who need clothing. In order to help meet their needs, we are seeking donations of gen- tly-used jeans or pants, shirts, and jackets (chil dren’s sizes 4T-14) and gen- tly-used shoes. We also need new socks and under wear to fit students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Any donations of clothing may be dropped off at TCES between 8:30 and 2:30 each day. Keeping children in school and suc cessful benefits them today and our community and their futures tomorrow. Call TCES at 567-2461 if you have any questions. We appreciate your support. Archery Range Turner Co. Rec. Dept. Archery Range will be open the 1st and 3rd Saturdays Feb., March and April. 1st Saturday in May, 1st and 3rd Saturday in Aug. and 1st Saturday in Sept. Times will be from 9am-2pm. For more info please call Mike Coker at 229-567-5223. Rec basketball signups The Turner County Rec. Dept, will be signing up for basketball Jan. 20-23 and Jan. 26-30 from 4:30-6pm at the old gym at Special Services School. Boys and girls ages 4-14 can sign up at a cost of $25 per child. For more info call Mike Coker, 229-567-5223. Obituaries Herbert Roger Ireland, 91, Ashbum Rayford Carroll Page, 74, Ashbum Jewel Victoria Beard Courtoy, 92, Tifton Jesse Collum Vincent, Mississippi Complete obituary mformation is on Page 5 ^ Shop local Put local people to work and keep your tax dollars at work at home. Explanation falls short Even the state is not sure what’s going to happen by Ben Baker Editor A promised explanation of the three types of school sys tems the Board of Education can have didn’t quite material ize as promised. At the workshop meeting earlier this month, the School Board was promised a visit from a state Department of Ed ucation employee who’d ex plain: Status Quo; IE Squared and Charter Schools. Instead, DOE representative Bobby Smith came back for the regular meeting and spent his presentation explaining re cent test scores. He did say ex plaining the three options was not really something he could “Nobody knows. I don’t think the Legisla ture knows what they are going to do. Sam Brown Turner County schools earn overall passing marks on test scores. Only a few areas slipped. do because the state is contin uing to change what each one of the three school systems are and what is required. “Nobody knows. I don’t think the Legislature knows what they are going to do,” said then BOE-chairman Sam Brown. Add to that, whatever is de cided is going to change as time goes on. Mr. Smith said the educational system changes regularly. Changes are inline right now. The Criterion Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) is being replaced with other tests. Mr. Brown said these new tests are still setting benchmarks. Then, goals can be set. STRATEGIC PLAN He started his speech with a (See SCHOOL Page 2) ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS The Fellowship of Christian Athletes met last week and prior to the guest speaker, played games. The above is a version of Rock, Paper Scissors except it is Ape, Man, Gun. Gun beats Ape. Ape beats Man. Man beats Gun. The ABAC Baptist Campus Ministries staged the games for the students, The FCA meeting had a spaghetti meal sponsored by Bethel Baptist Church, Christian Union Church of God, God’s Ministries of Hope, Rocky Mount and New Providence. Derrick Moore, chaplain for the Georgia Tech football team was the guest speaker. Hospital says rank due to records Tift Regional is listed one of several Georgia hospitals that will lose one percent of Medicare payments for this year. According to Medicare re ports and a summary published on Kaiser Health News, the federal agency “evaluated three types of HACs (hospital- acquired conditions).” “The decision by Medicare to lower payments to Tift Re gional Medical Center (TRMC) is based on older quality data and the hospital is meeting key performance stan dards,” hospital officials said in a press release. “Medicare based the reim bursement penalty on data Our issue during that period was more about documentation than it was actual care. Since that time, we have made significant improve ments in coding and the classification of a patient’s admission type. Mindy McStott, rn being best to 10 being worst. TRMC scored an 8 on serious complications defined as eight from July 2011 to June 2013,” said Mindy McStott, RN, TRMC vice president of qual ity management. “Our issue during that period was more about documentation than it was actual care. Since that time, we have made significant improvements in coding and the classification of a patient’s admission type.” The Medicare report gives TRMC a 7.35 overall score out of 10. The ranking goes from 1 types of injuries, including blood clots, bed sores and falls.” The hospital scored a 7 on central-line associated bloodstream infections, and 7 on catheter-associated urinary tract infections. Across the nation, a few hospitals scored a 1 across the board and a few also scored a 10. (See MONEY Page 2) Week of activities for 20th annual FAF 21 - Laser light & DJ 22 - Always Patsy Cline 23 - The Gong Show 24 - Bingo 25 - no event 26 - Parade 27-28 - FAF! Need more info? Call 567-3436, 567-3655 or 567-9696. FAF meeting Noon, Wednesday (Jan. 21) at Shoney’s. You are invited to attend. This year’s Fire Ant Festival will have a week’s worth of activities to celebrate the 20th year of the event. The festival is March 21-28 with the main event being March 27 and 28. Nick McClellan will bring a DJ and laser light show to town Saturday, March 21. The FAF has had this show once before and it proved to be a big hit with younger people. This is free. Always Patsy Cline, a tribute to the late Country music legend by Jennifer Varnadoe will be Sunday, March 22 at 2:30 p.m. at the Civic Center. The show is a joint presenta tion by the Turner County Arts Council and the FAF. Blocks of tickets are being sold for $100 for $10. Tickets at the door are $12. Does Turner County have talent? A local edition of The Gong Show will let people put that to the test on Monday, March 23. A grand prize will be announced. Anyone interested in entering may call 567-34-36 or 567-3655. The Gong Show will be at the Civic Center. Tickets at the door the night of the show. On Tuesday, March 24, the FAF will host a Bingo tournament at the High School cafeteria. $5 gets you a bingo card, drink, sandwich and chips. Additional cards are $1. Nothing is planned for Wednesday. The FAF will have a parade on Thursday, March 26. The route will be the same as taken by the Annual Christmas parade. There’s no charge to have an entry in the parade. To enter the pa rade call 567-3436 or 567-3655. Friday the Festival properly kicks off on E. College, Heritage Park and Turner County Elementary School. Among the new items for this year is a 300-foot zip line. We’ll have more details in the coming weeks. To be a vendor at this year’s FAF, call 567-3436. This year, ALL food vendors must be inspected by the Health Department. Anyone selling food without a Health Department report will be shut down and possibly fined. The FAF committee is now meeting regularly to plan this year’s event. Everyone is invited to be a part of the committee. For more information call 567-9696,567-3655 or 567-3436. Sat AM Rain Sun 1*4 Partly Cloudy T77T 40% 51 j£W 40 10% it © This space available. Every week. Call Linda at 567-3655 The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next. Abraham Lincoln
