Newspaper Page Text
Miz Vivian’s
cinnamon rolls
Details Page 4.
Stop drooling on the newspaper.
THE
Defense pushes
Rebs to win.
Page 3
Wednesday, September 20,2017
ASHBURN,GA, 31714
VOL 109 - No. 38 • 500
www.thewiregrassfarmer.com
(.Around Town\
Subscribe to
The Wiregrass
Farmer
Delivered in your
mail every week
Call 567-3655
Vietnam era vets
recognition serv
ice
A recognition service
for Vietnam Era Veterans to
be held at the Ashburn
Civic center on November
10, 2017 at 9:30 a.m.. Any
veteran serving during the
Vietnam war can be recog
nized at the service as long
as they have a copy of their
DD-214. Veterans need to
send a copy of their DD-
214 to Commander Andrea
Pearce @
hopefaith033 @gmail .com,
o r
wwdaniell_49@yahoo .com
, or Mike Geoghagan @
mikegeoghagan .cc @ gmail.
com
Boiled peanuts
Turner County Young
Farmers has cases of boiled
peanuts for sale. Each case
has 24 quart cans and is
available for a $45 dona
tion. Leave a message at
(706) 452-4906 and a mem
ber will be in touch to
arrange pick up or delivery.
You can also visit
www.facebook.com/turner-
countyyoungfarmers for
more information.
Tools for
Schools
Tools for Schools "Sani
tize September" Help get
classrooms ready for cold &
flu season! Donate any of
the following items during
September: Lysol or Clorox
Wipes, Wet Wipes and Tis
sues, Hand Sanitizer. Items
may be dropped off at the
Turner County Chamber of
Commerce office located at
238 E. College Ave., Ash
burn.
Animal control
Anyone who needs the
Ashburn Animal Control
department should call 567-
0313. All calls routed
through the dispatch center.
Obituaries
Frank Turner, 66, Ashburn
Ellen McMurrain Young,
70, Tifton
Complete obituary
information Page 5
V J
Serving Turner County Since 1902
Chamber on hook for $11K
The Chamber of Commerce
approved a 72-month payment
plan to the IRS at its Monday
morning board meeting.
The IRS is charging the
Chamber $ 11,000 for failing to
file paperwork related to W-2
statements and IRS form 990,
the form non-profits must fill
out and send in each year to the
federal agency. The taxes asso
ciated with the forms were
paid. For some reason, the re
ports were not turned in.
“We will continue to dispute
the W-2 claim,” said Chamber
President Stevi Thompson.
“We paid the taxes. We did not
file the proper forms.”
The unfiled paperwork is a
few years old. It dates from the
transition period when the
Chamber of Commerce was
searching for a new president
after Shelley Zorn resigned.
“We will try to fight having
to pay anything,” she said.
The $ 11K is all penalty
since the taxes were paid.
The chamber’s accountant,
Lee Cleghorn, said the cham
ber should begin making the
payments.
“It needs to be handled. The
W-2 part, we will try to fight
it,” Ms. Thompson said.
“We don’t have a lot of
choice. If we don’t pay it, the
IRS will come take it out of our
account,” said Board Member
Ben Baker. He then offered a
motion to start the payment
plan. Donna NeSmith gave the
second and it passed unani
mously.
$1500 water bill
Eister
A Sycamore resident got
quite a shock when utility bills
were delivered. The amount
owed was $1,459.34.
That was quite a leak. The
leak was fixed.
The Sycamore Coun
cil agreed to remove the
sewer portion of the bill
as the water never went
through the sewer plant.
That knocked off
$655.33, bringing the
total owed to $804.01.
"Before I make a mo
tion, I’d as soon stab
myself in the head,”
quipped Councilman
Jim Galt-Brown.
The Council was then
left to discuss the re
maining amount. On
that, there was no question.
“We have no choice but to
adhere to existing precedent. I
want this water bill paid,” Mr.
Galt-Brown said.
City Clerk Ashley Nutt
asked if the Council would
allow payments. “No one in
their right mind will be able to
pay that,” she said.
Mayor Pro Tem Fred Eister,
sitting in for Mayor Wayne
Galt-Brown
Woodruff who arrived later in
the meeting, said he had no
problem with payments. “If
not, it will be cut off,” he said.
The Council had never dis
cussed payments before,
but neither had the
Council looked at such a
massive bill, Mr. Eister
said.
As of the end of the
meeting, the consensus
was the customer has to
pay the entire amount at
once.
Allowing payments
“would open another
can of worms. They
could get farther and
farther behind,” Mr.
Galt-Brown said. He
added more people
would come in and ask for a
payment plan.
“Somebody cannot ride the
horse and leave the City hang
ing and get by with it,” Mr.
Eister said. “It is not the City’s
fault.”
The Council also agreed to
look at amending City ordi
nances to allow a payment plan
under similar circumstances in
the future.
Firing up the grill to cook for evacuees.
Feeding the evacuees
by Becky Spires
On Friday, September 8th
my husband Nick Spires got up
like we do every morning and
started scrolling through Face-
book.
This morning was a little
different. This morning there
were stories about people
being forced to live in their ve
hicles all over Ashburn be
cause there was nowhere else
for them to go.
My husband, Nick Spires,
and I started discussing the sit
uation and decided we wanted
to help these people by feeding
them a good home cooked
meal. So, we turned to Face-
book to announce what we
wanted to do.
As soon as I put the post on
Facebook my family friend
Sylvia Arnold called to notify
me that she and her family
wanted to help. So, we started
calling businesses we knew
and everything fell into place
after that.
By the end of the day, we
had donations from Walker’s
BBQ, Piggly Wiggly, Sylvester
Coca-Cola, Cordele Wal Mart,
Tifton Wal Mart, Turner
County Chamber of Com
merce, Carroll’s Sausage, Ash-
bum Women’s Club, Amanda
with Little Debbie, Cook
Farms, and several Turner
County residents also made
donations.
We fed about 150 people
lunch and about another 250
people dinner on Saturday,
September 9th. We got to meet
(See HELP Page 2)
Troy and Martha Hobbs with the Quilt of Valor made by Sheila Hobbs.
Hobbs presented Quilt of Valor
by Sheila Hobbs
On Friday, September 16,
Sheila Hobbs presented a quilt
of valor to Mr. Troy Hobbs of
Ashburn as a part of her ongo
ing mission to cover service
men and women with the love
and warmth a quilt brings. She
does this as a small token in
appreciation for their service to
our nation.
Troy served in the United
States Army from 1955-
1957. He did his Basic Train
ing in Ft. Jackson, S C. During
practice his hearing was dam
aged when a bazooka was fired
too close to him. In another in
cident a soldier dropped his
rifle and the bayonet released
going into Troy’s foot.
After basics he was sta
tioned in Ft. Bliss, in El Paso,
Texas working in the corporal
missile division.
Sheila had a good visit with
Troy and his wife, Martha,
who shared interesting stories
to tell of things that happened
during basic training and dur
ing his time in service.
This quilt was a joint effort
between an online group called
Quilt of Valor Stars of which
Sheila is a member of. She is
also a member of the Ashburn
Sit & Sew Group, the Wire-
grass Quilters’ Guild and the
Quilt of Valor Foundation.
Robinson says heat not justified
Turner County Emergency
Management Agency (EMA)
Director Mark Robinson is
catching heat because of a
flawed TV news story about
Turner County and Hurricane
Irma.
The TV report said that
evacuees should not stop in
Turner County because they
were not wanted here. The re
port said they should keep
going. Mr. Robinson said that
is simply not the case.
“My point was to tell people
what we were doing. The point
was to let the evacuees know it
was not safe here either,” he
said. “We’ll help anyone we
can. We just could not shelter
them. That was the point. We
simply did not have the re
sources to shelter them.”
He said he told the reporter
that evacuees needed to keep
going to other communities
which had shelters to receive
them.
“We truly wanted to help,
but we did not have anything
to offer,” he said.
Other communities did have
official shelters and were ac
cepting people.
“Evacuees were safer in
those official shelters than
staying in their cars in parking
lots,” he said. “If we opened an
official shelter, we’d have
2500 people in an hour. We
simply do not have the local re
sources to make that happen.”
Other counties told the TV
station the same thing. Their
reports correctly portrayed
what the EMA directors there
wanted to say.
(see REPORT Page 2)
SWEARING IN
Clay Harris (I) is welcomed to the Sycamore City
Council by Mayor Wayne Woodruff. Mr. Harris replaced-
his late father on the City Council.
8
66670
00023 4
500 - tax included
This space available.
Your ad runs 4 or more
weeks. Get your
business noticed!
Call Chuck at
567-3655
Wed Partly Cloudy Thur Partly Cloudy Fri Partly Cloudy
Set TStorms AM TStorms
Sat Partly Cloudy
©
10%
Sun Mostly Sunny
In levying taxes and in shearing sheep it is well to stop when you get down to the skin.
Austin O'Malley
