Newspaper Page Text
Getting what you asked for
and finding out it’s not what you wanted. Page 4
™ Wireorass Farmer
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
ASHBURN,GA, 31714
VOL 109 - No. 46 • 500
www.thewiregrassfarmer.com
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Christmas sing
TCES Christmas Pro
gram (Sing) will be Thurs
day evening December 3rd
at the Civic Center. Please
make plans to attend! K-2
will start at 6pm followed
by the 3-5 students. Both
programs will be done by
7:40. Hope to see you
there!
Breakfast with
Santa
Breakfast with Santa
plus Princesses & Super
heroes Dec. 5th starting at
8:30am at the Civic Center
Conference Room. Tickets
are $5 and can be pur
chased at Colony Bank
Ashburn. Deadline to pur
chase tickets is Dec. 1st.
Proceeds will be for Relay
for Life and Toys for Tots.
There will be boxes out if
you want to bring a new
unwrapped toy.
Christmas
parade
Annual Christmas Pa
rade December 12th at
6pm "Rockin' Around the
Christmas Tree". Entry fee
$10. Contact the Chamber
for more information.
School concert
The Turner County
Middle/High Music De
partment will present its
2015 Songs of the Season
Christmas concert on
Thursday, December 10
beginning at 7. Admission
will be $5, a toy of equal
or higher value for the
Toys for Tots drive, or, if
you so desire, both. Thank
you for your support of the
Turner County Music De
partment!
Obituaries
Mary Ann Berry Timm,
78, Sycamore
Mr. C. B. Braddy, 91,
Sycamore
Donald "Don" Aaron
Morgan, 66, Leesburg
Harvey C. Barber, Jr., 89,
Maitland, FL
Bobbie L. Pulliam, 85,
Columbus
Complete obituary
information Page 5
New superintendent at work
Dr. Jeffery McDaniel started
work Monday as the new Turner
County School superintendent.
The Board of Education hired
him last week in a unanimous vote
at a called meeting.
Dr. McDaniel was the sole candi
date for the job after the BOE con
ducted interviews with many
applicants. The School Board an
nounced he was the only person
being considered for the job earlier
in the month.
The board had to wait at least 14
days after that announcement to hire
him.
Dr. McDaniel brought his wife
Lee to the meeting last week. After
the meeting adjourned he and Mrs.
McDaniel stayed in the room to
meet various school system employ
ees.
The BOE “put us through a pretty
decent interview,” he said. “This is
a great community that wants to
help kids. I said I’ve got to get me
some of that.”
The McDaniels come from North
Georgia, where he was a superin
tendent and his wife a teacher. As of
last week, they were staying with a
son in Valdosta while looking for a
place to live in Turner County.
The BOE also called for a special
election in March 2016 to renew the
Education Special Purpose Local
Option Sales Tax (ESPLOST). The
current 10 tax expires in 2017.
The board had 4 dates in 2016 to
have the election. It opted for March
so the local vote can piggyback on
the state presidential preference pri
mary election. That way, the BOE
won’t have to pay for a special elec
tion.
The ESPLOST must be voted on
every few years. The tax can only be
spent on certain things, which will
be spelled out by the BOE when the
election notice is posted next year.
Dr. Jeffery McDaniel
FEEDING THE HUNGRY
Shepherd’s Pantry food bank in Ashburn received a $1,750 check from the Georgia Power Foundation last
week. Georgia Power employees contribute money to the foundation which is matched by Georgia Power. Shep
herd’s Pantry directors and Georgia Power employees met at the Ashburn office last week for the check presen
tation.
Commission renews Turner Transit program
Turner Transit - 567-3400
Operated by MIDS
Offers rides to public
County Commissioner
Daryl Hall continues to say the
drivers for the Turner Transit
program should get a raise.
Mr. Hall has called for a
raise for the drivers for some
time now. The County Com
mission has little control over
employee pay because the
drivers are not County employ
ees. They are employees of
MIDS, a Valdosta-based com
pany that runs Turner Transit
and similar programs in many
other South Georgia counties.
At a called meeting last
week, the Commissioners ap
proved the state contract for
the transportation program.
This provides the funding.
Mr. Hall asked if the County
could request a raise for the
drivers.
County Clerk Latrice Wil
son said right then, no. The
matter before the Commission
was renewing the state agree
ment to bring down operating
money from Atlanta.
Requesting a raise for the
drivers has to be done to
MIDS. Ms. Wilson said the
MIDS contract runs out in De
cember 2017. Driver pay could
be discussed when that con
tract is renewed, she said.
“If we don’t (approve the)
contract, this program goes
away,” said Commission
Chairman Sam McCard.
The 5311-Turner Transit
grant from the DOT was unan
imously approved.
LOCAL COST
5311 is supposed to cost
Turner County $89,000. It ac
tually doesn’t cost the County
anything except for the ex
pense of handling some paper
work.
The $89K local match is
(See TRANSIT Page 2)
Nipper
retires
Jerry Nip
per has worked
for the City of
Sycamore
since 1982.
He’s retiring at
the end of the
year.
Shaun Dupree will take
over as the head of the
Sycamore Public Works De
partment.
Mr. Nipper asked if he can
continue to work part time for
the City to cover health insur
ance.
The City Council didn’t
have problems with that, but
said the City Attorney needed
to check it against the person
nel policy.
The Council discussed
some sort of appreciation for
Mr. Nipper.
“Let’s get him a trip over to
Fitzgerald so he can go skydiv
ing,” Councilman Jim Galt-
Brown suggested.
“Are you talking about
without a chute?” quipped
Mayor Wayne Woodruff.
“Let’s throw him out of a
plane. I’d pay to see that,” Mr.
Galt-Brown added.
Nipper
No garbage hike
from County
A combination of decreases and increases
from the Crisp Solid Waste Authority (CSWA)
means garbage collection in the unincorporated
County is going up 440 in the new year.
The County Commission decided to not pass
this cost on to customers.
Chairman Sam McCard said the County
could “eat” the cost or pass it along.
Commissioner Daryl Hah said the County is
using insurance premium taxes to cover part of
the garbage program cost. He said there’s
enough room in that to cover this increase.
“We can afford to absorb that,” he said.
The new net price for residential collection is
$20.44
The increase was a hike linked to various
economic indicators the CSWA uses to set the
garbage collection price. The contract the
County has with the agency allows this kind of
increase once a year. The price drop was linked
to the cost of fuel. The contract allows the
CSWA to raise or lower a fuel charge for
garbage collection based on the price of diesel.
This went from 800 to 400 for residential con
tainers and 190 per cubic yard in commercial
containers to 120.
KIWANIS CLUB NEWS
Kathleen Fountain is the new Kiwanis
Club president. She takes over from Nancy
Garnet.
Outgoing Kiwanis Club President Nancy Garnet
was named Kiwanian of the Year by the club members
recently.
2176 Hwy 41 South
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Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't.
Pete Seeger
