About The wiregrass farmer. (Ashburn, Ga.) 1984-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 22, 2023)
Wednesday, November 22, 2023 ASHBURN,GA, 31714 VOL 109 - No. 47 • 750 www.thewiregrassfarmer.com ^Around Town N Subscribe to The Wiregrass Farmer Delivered in your mail every week Call 567-3655 No blood drive NO Red Cross Blood Drive will be held in Novem ber. Next drive will be Janu ary 2024 and location will be announced at that time. Thank you to all donors faith ful and 1st timers. Teddy bears The Kiwanis Club is col lecting teddy bears for public safety to give to children. The bears are to help frightened kids. New bears may be dropped off at The Wiregrass. Stray dogs Ashburn residents are re minded that pets must have a collar and current rabies tag. Animals without tags will be collected by Animal Control. A copy of the City's animal ordinance is available at City Hall and the Police Depart ment. Animal control number is 567-0313. Separate debris If you pile leaves and limbs at curbside, please sep arate limbs from the leaves and pine straw. The City's street vac can pick up the leaves and straw. The boom truck can pick up limbs. When you separate the leaves and limbs, pick up goes faster and takes fewer employees. HOMETOWN NEWS SINCE 1902 No more repairs to Chamber floor What was supposed to be a 2 week remodel turned into more than 2 months. And, just when it was supposed to be over, it was not. The Chamber staff moved back in to a remodeled build ing that saw problems with the floor. The original floor, dating back to when the Chamber was the Library, was dimpled with high heel marks. The staff moved back out while the work was redone. The company doing the ren ovation work agreed to work on the floor. Chamber Executive Direc tor Ashley Miller said the com pany left gouges in the hardwood floor. Ms. Miller is not exactly sure what the com pany did. The original hard wood floor appears to be painted a dark brown as well. A floor in one of the bath rooms also had gouges in it. “They tried to tell me that was already there. But, they re placed the floor,” she said. When the company started working on the building, they discovered the floor in that bathroom was rotted out. It had to be replaced. Ms. Miller said she is not willing to approve the work because of the floor. So every thing was moved back out of the Chamber offices. The walls and ceiling work are acceptable, she said. The Turner County Devel opment Authority is paying for the work. No taxpayer money is involved. All the money is from the Authority’s develop ment account. The chamber staff is work ing out of office space at the Ashburn Police Department while the work goes on. The Chamber Board has met at the South Georgia bank meeting room. The building is owned by the Turner County Develop ment Authority and is shared with the Chamber of Com merce. Ms. Miller works for both groups. At the November Chamber Board meeting, Ms. Miller said the original hardwood floors are “down to the nails” now. Any future work on the floor means replacing the floor or covering what is there. Burgess not sure why City collected debris Drowning An investigation into the death of a Sycamore man found in a pond in Turner County tin Sep tember is still underway David Cameron Spears, 33, of Sycamore, was found in a pond off S. Railroad and Blan chard Road. Two other men present at the time said a boat overturned and they swam to the shore. Sheriff Andy Hester said the GBI was called to the scene that evening and has taken charge of the investigation. It is not a murder investiga tion at this time, the Sheriff said. “We are getting told by fam ily members what they think happened. We don’t go on ‘I think.’ We have to have credi ble information,” he said. “The information we get from wit nesses, it has to be credible in formation we can use. “We have been called by people saying they thought that (murder) was the case.” The GBI has not released any information and the inves tigation is still underway. The Sheriff said his department is assisting the state agency “We are waiting on the GBI,” he said. Coroner Jim Lumpkin said the body was sent to the Crime Lab in Macon crime lab for an (See DROWN Page 8) Someone violated a City of Ashburn policy. Who ordered that viola tion, if it was ordered, remains to be seen. The matter at hand is a home in Ashburn now owned by City Councilman Johnny Burgess. After taking posses sion of the home following tax sale foreclosure, Mr. Burgess had a crew clean it out and pile stuff at the roadside. The City’s garbage policy clearly states the City will not pick up things like that. It says in part, “Garbage created by evictions. Once the renter’s right to reclaim their property has been satisfied by the land lord, it is the landlords or his appointed designee’s responsi bility to dispose of the garbage generated by this process.” Other landlords in town say they have either hauled off or paid to have such matters hauled off. “Yeah. I heard the boys from city picked it up. I did not tell people them to pick up a damn thing from me,” Mr. Burgess said. “Johnny Burgess hadn’t told nobody to pick up a damned thing... I just bought the house.” As for anyone who says Mr. Burgess ordered the City workers to pick up the debris, “anyone who told you that is a damned lie.” City of Ashburn Sanita tion Policy (relevant parts) Purpose: to establish an of ficial policy regarding house hold waste and yard debris pickup. Definitions: Normal House hold Garbage - Garbage asso ciated with normal household purposes. Normal Household Garbage and Brown Good Removal In regards to household waste, the City of Ashburn contracts with a private sanita tion company to remove nor mal household garbage. Items not eligible for Pickup: The City of Ashburn will not pickup: Any items associated with home renovation or demolition with work done by a private contractor, renter, or the home owner. White goods containing Freon Garbage created by evic tions. Once the renter’s right to reclaim their property has been satisfied by the landlord, it is the landlords or his appointed designee’s responsibility to dispose of the garbage gener ated by this process Farmers, state officials discuss current ag concerns Siren Test The Turner County weather warning siren is tested the first Wednesday of the month, good weather per mitting, at noon. If weather is bad, the system will be tested at noon on the next clear day. County website The County Commission has a website, www.tumer- countygeorgia.com . Obituaries Bennie Hugh Metcalf, 72, Sycamore Sandra Dorothy Wadsworth Muse, 76, Ashburn Lajuana Ann Branch, 64, Denton Thomas Monroe McDaniel, 83, Brunswick Complete obituary information Page 5 by Sami Mastrario Organized by their re spective chapters, six counties of Young Farmers members came together with sev eral local and state elected officials on No vember 13 at Turner County Elementary School to eat a deli cious seafood meal and discuss current and fu ture agricultural con cerns for the state. The counties that partici pated were Turner County, Wilcox County, Crisp County, Tift County, Ben Hill County, and Dooly County. In addition to 100 Young Farmer members in attendance, GA Rep. Clay Pirkle (District #169), GA Rep. Feesa Hagan (District #156), GA Rep. Bill Yearta (District #152), GA Senator Carden Summers (District #13), and GA Commissioner of Agricul ture Tyler Harper were also present. According to Harper, these kind of meetings are vital be cause it helps the community, and especially farmers, get to know their government offi cials. With such a small number of members of the assembly being in the farming industry, it falls on farmers and produc ers to make sure legislators un derstand the exact needs of our (See FARM Page 2) ;v. ■ •« Commissioner Harper, Young Farmer Chapter leaders, and legislative members. Photo by Sami Mastrario 8 66670 00023 750 - tax included Wed AM Showers Thur Mostly Cloudy Fri Showers Mostly Cloudy Q 62 44 Weather for © Mostly Cloudy Q jfr 64 7% 47 , 40% .© © Sat Partly Cloudy Sun Partly Cloudy © * -F t 63 TtY, 45 © I suppose I will die never knowing what pumpkin pie tastes like when I have room for it - Robert Brault Thanksgiving: when the people who are the most thankful are the ones who didn’t have to cook - Melanie White This space available. Your ad runs 4 or more weeks. Get your business noticed! Call 567-3655
