The wiregrass farmer. (Ashburn, Ga.) 1984-current, January 13, 2016, Image 1
WINNING WAYS! Sports, Page 10 Mayor says another rate hike not likely. Page 1 below the fold MANYTHANKS Cleve Brown THE Wiregrass Farmer Wednesday, January 13,2016 ASHBURN,GA, 31714 VOL 109 - No. 2 • 500 www.thewiregrassfarmer.com ^Around Town N Subscribe to The Wiregrass Farmer Delivered in your mail every week Call 567-3655 for information. Chamber banquet Tickets for the annual Chamber of Commerce banquet in January are on sale now at the Chamber of fice. Tickets are $30. Call 567-9696 for more infor mation. Called meeting Special Called Council Meeting of the Rebecca City Council on January 18th, 2016 at 6:30 p.m. The meeting will take place at Rebecca City Hall, 51 North Railroad St., Re becca. The regular sched uled council meeting on Monday, Feb. 1st, 2016 is canceled at this time. Public is invited to attend. Woops Last week’s story about hog hunting did not include the statement - all hunters need a small game hunting license to hunt hogs unless the hunter owns the prop erty. Democrat registration Registration for county offices under the Demo cratic Party will take place at Ashburn City Hall. San dra Lumpkin will register candidates. Literacy night Turner County Elemen tary School Family Literacy Night. Parents and Teachers Working Together to Help Children Enjoy Reading Jan. 26, from 4:30-6 p.m. Enjoy: Story Time, Teacher Led activities, Reading books with your child. 2nd- 5th graders may take AR test. Take home activities to help your child with Read ing. Blue tickets will be given to students who at tend with their parents. Obituaries Blanchie O. Jordan, 82, Ashburn Vivian Taylor Lane, 96, Rebecca E.A. "Shorty" Young blood, 90, Tifton Complete obituary .information Page 5 , Serving Turner County Since 1902 Rebecca resignations Mayor, councilman, city clerk quit; Special election in the works Rebecca Mayor Don Collins, newly the monthly City Council meeting. not give a reason for her leaving. Mr. Lewis, re-elected Councilman and mayor pro- Mayor Collins and Mr. Lewis said The City Council has a called meet- The City has brought former City tempore Junior Lewis and City Clerk council infighting is why they quit, ing (see Briefs at right) to discuss a spe- Clerk Karen Watson back to City Hall Janice Vamadore quit last week during Mrs. Varnadore, who resigned first, did cial election for mayor and to replace while matters are sorted out. That’s when all hell broke loose. Jimmy said something that ticked the mayor off. Former City Clerk Janice Varnadore Junior Lewis The newspaper called Junior Lewis and spoke to him. He called back about an hour later and provided more information. He too points a finger at Councilman Jimmy Wilk- erson as part of the source of the trouble. He said he is not sure why they did and said the things they did. A message was left at Rebecca City Hall offering Mr. Wilkerson the opportunity to have his say in the DaDer (See LEWIS Page 2) Don Collins Don Collins came to The Wiregrass Farmer to present his side of the story. “The main reason I resigned ... is because we have never had as much problems as the last three months. I dreaded going to City Hall because of the fussing and fighting. You couldn’t tell anybody anything,” Mr. Collins said. “Why a certain gentleman wanted to change everything after all these years I couldn’t understand.” Mr. Collins has sat on the Rebecca Council on and off since 1988. He first joined the Council in 1988 as a councilman. He later became mayor. “I appreciate the citizens of Rebecca letting me be mayor. I hope they continue to progress and get har mony back in City Hall. ARTIST IN RESIDENCE Mike Hasty Rebecca Mayor pro-tempore Mike Hasty was con tacted Thursday at Rebecca City Hall. He provided one brief comment. “I don’t have any comment about that. I understand you spoke to Janice. I am not going to get into a po sition of getting into argument,” he said. If she wants to make a statement, I’m fine with that. I’m not going to get into an argument.” Janice Varnadore Mrs. Varnadore was hired as City Clerk when the former clerk quit. Previously she served as Sycamore City Clerk for years. She was the first to resign at last week’s Council meeting. She said the Council approved the minutes of the December meeting and a credit card policy as required by state law. “That’s when all hell broke loose. Jimmy said something that ticked the mayor off. They had words,” she said. “It broke out from there. The mayor resigned. Junior resigned. I resigned and left.” Andrew Rudisail-Lilly and Derrick Carter get involved in an art project at the Special Services School recently. On a split vote last week, the County Commission selected Brad Calhoun to serve as Chairman for the coming year. The first motion was made by Joe Burgess to have Daryl Hall serve as chairman. Mr. Hall gave the second. The vote failed 2-3 with Calhoun, Sam McCard and Nick Denham voting no. The next motion was for Calhoun to be chairman, Denham/McCard. It passed 3-2. A motion to make Mr. Denham vice chair passed unanimously. At the workshop meeting at the end of December, Mr. Hall again argued for making the Chairman post rotate sort of automatically through the Commission. “Rather than appoint a (See CHAIR Page 2) Calhoun Calhoun to chair County Commission School Superintendent says state funding is not fair The way the state of Geor gia finances public eduction is not fair, said School Superin tendent Jeff McDaniel. The new superintendent got visibly riled at least weeks Board of Education meeting as he discussed state funding. He apologized for letting his emo tions come out. After the meet- McDaniel ing he said he did not and would not apologize for standing up for the chil dren of Turner County. “Now I see it. We need to I see discrepancies in funding. Our kids are getting the short end of the stick. Our kids are not getting funding. Superintendent Jeff McDaniel be more passionate about it,” he said. “Someone is going to listen.” Those statements came at the end of this presentation. He said coming from wealthy north Georgia public schools to a poor rural South Georgia school has absolutely changed his mind about how Georgia funds education. Now, he’s seen both sides of the funding situation. “I see discrepancies in fund ing. Our kids are getting the short end of the stick. Our kids are not getting funding,” he (See SCHOOL Page 2) Consultant to Ashburn: Make money or get out of the business You’ve got to find a way to generate more revenue in natural gas. Propane, I’d find a way to make more money or get out it. These are decisions you have to make. Tom Berry, consultant The City of Ashburn needs to start making money on its gas service or get out that busi ness said Tom Berry, a consult ant the City has brought in to help with the budget. The problem is the City’s natural gas and propane de partments are not bringing in enough money. Mr. Berry’s report from Julyl through the end of No vember. “The place you ought to be breaking even or generating dollars is your enterprise funds,” he said. The enterprise funds are the two gas depart ments, water & sewer and garbage. Enterprise funds are supposed to be self-supporting. Taxpayer dollars are not sup posed to be used in those de partments. “I am concerned with water and sewer. I know you can do things with natural gas,” he said. “You’ve got to find a way to generate more revenue in natural gas. Propane, I’d find a way to make more money or get out it. These are decisions you have to make.” “These enterprise funds, they are (in) bad (shape),” said Mayor Sedric Carithers. “We knew something wasn’t right.” NATURAL GAS Mr. Berry said the City should be making a profit on natural gas (and propane). “You should run it like a business. “You ought to be making transfers into the General Fund,” he said. The City’s General Fund is the main part of the budget. Part of the problem is the warm weather. Mr. Berry said it’s just not been cold enough for people to use gas to heat their homes. “Natural gas (sales) is a function of weather. But you do have to manage your natu ral gas system. You have to find a way to add to the load and help customers.” As of his report, which re flected finances through Octo ber, natural gas was $43K in the hole. “You budgeted to have a Berry’s deficits $43K nat. gas $100K water $109K sewer A propane deficit was not given. gain (profit) of $174K. I don’t think you will make that. I don’t think you’ve got enough year left,” he said. The solution is to find ways to sell more natural gas. Heat (See MONEY Page 3) 251 E. Monroe Ave • Ashburn, GA 31714 Phone: (229) 778-9228 • Fax: (229) 778-9230 ptn.liberty@gmail.com Wed Sunny Thur Mostly Sunny Fri Cloudy/ Rain Sat Partly Cloudy Sun AM Showers Partly Cloudy Defeat doesn't finish a man, quit does. A man is not finished when he's defeated. He's finished when he quits. Richard M. Nixon