About The wiregrass farmer. (Ashburn, Ga.) 1984-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 3, 2024)
Rosh Hashanah & Jewish celebrations A rabbi explains, Page 4 Wednesday, January 3, 2024 ASHBURN,GA, 31714 VOL 109 - No. 1 • 750 www.thewiregrassfarmer.com ^Around Town' Subscribe to The Wiregrass Farmer Delivered in your mail every week Call 567-3655 Blood drive Red Cross blood drive at the Civic Center January 4th from 2:00 to 6:00. Please do nate as supply levels are ex tremely low. It is so very important. Meetings County Commission, last and 1st Tuesday of the month. Ashburn Council, 1st Thursday of the month. Sycamore Council, 2nd Thursday of the month. School Board, 1st and 2nd Monday of the month. All meetings are at 6 p.m. 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. HOMETOWN NEWS SINCE 1902 Demanding answers from the Post Office Missing mail. Mail deliv ered weeks to months late. Mail delivered after a critical deadline. Vital medicine not delivered on time, if at all. These are issues a dozen of Georgia’s Congressional De mocrat and Republican repre sentatives are asking the US Post Office to address. Con gressman Austin Scott, repre senting Central Georgia from lill 1 Mail drop boxes, like these outside the Ashburn Post Office, have disappeared in many places as the Post Of fice removes them. Death ruled drowning The autopsy results on David Cameron Spears, 33, are back. His death is ruled an accident due to drowning. Mr. Spears was found in a pond off S. Railroad and Blanchard Road in September. County Coroner Jim Lumpkin said GBI scene investigators were not called to scene. The GBI medical examiners office in Macon performed the autopsy. The investigating agency was the Turner County Sher iff’s office. Monroe County north of Macon to the Florida line has signed the letter. Rep. Scott serves Cook, Irwin and Turner County in Washington. Rep. Scott and Rep Sanford Bishop (D-Albany) issued a joint press release about the letter. “The U.S. Postal Service should strive to provide the best possible service to every family and business in Amer ica, even those whose ad dresses are located in remote areas and rural communi ties,” said Congressman Bishop. “Any proposed changes to postal operations in Middle Georgia should take into account the unique chal lenges faced by rural Ameri cans, especially our seniors who often rely on USPS for the delivery of bills, checks, and prescription drugs.” Years back, the Post Office had regional sorting facilities. These got condensed. The Al bany center was closed and mail was sent to Tallahassee or Jacksonville, FL, for sorting and forward ing to rele vant Post Offices. Mail for Turner County is now sent to Jacksonville, FL. Rep. Scott and Rep Bishop say following the clos ings of the Columbus, Albany, and Valdosta Customer Service Mail Processing Centers (CSMPCs) in 2012, Middle and Southwest Georgia lost (See PO Page 2) Read the Congressional Letter to the Post Office, Page 2 As a part of our atten dance incentive pro gram for the 2023-2024 school year, a bicycle is being awarded to one lucky student each 9- week period. The names of all of the students who had great attendance for the 1st Nine Weeks were entered into a drawing and the student whose name was drawn to re ceive the bicycle was 4th grader Lauryn Spikes in Ms. Winter’s homeroom! Congratu lations Lauryn! 2023, a look back at what happened in Turner County 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. 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 . Commission meeting minutes and other items about Turner County are posted on the website. The look back at 2023 picks up with August Week 2. Janu ary through the 1st week of August appeared in last week’s edition. August Week 2 Turner County got a clean opinion from its annual audit, but the numbers also show the County over spent. A clean report means the CPA firm doing the audit found the books to be in order. Week 3 Citing problems with the Turner County E911 dispatch center, 2 in particular, the Sycamore City Council is going to have the Irwin County 911 Center handle Police De partment dispatching. In order to improve security at the schools and school events, the Turner County School Police Department is considering adding equipment. The School PD is a full police department with Willie James Thomas as the chief. The School PD is not connected to Sheriff’s Department nor the Ashburn PD. Stop signs and speed bumps are going up on S. Lee and Old Main Street in hopes of slow ing down speeders. A speed bump is also planned for Whatley at the request of a res ident. The Turner County Airport Authority is working hard to get its hands on $150K a year in federal aviation money. In hopes of lowering the monthly bill and getting better Internet service, the County Commission is looking at changing service providers for landline phone and In ternet service. Lady Titans dominat ing the diamond with massive victories against Monroe, 17-3 and 18-3. In the game against Pelham on Wednesday they tied 7- 7. In football Turner County Titans opens against Worth County Rams in Sylvester Friday night. Week 4 The School Board is getting another half million in state funding for the new middle- high school construction. FTE funding has changed the GADOE’s construction fund ing projection. A final con struction cost is not ready, but the cost has risen from $33 million and last estimate was $39 million. A final price is ex pected soon. Ashburn’s street sweeper repair may cost $11,000 but the Council is divided on getting it repaired. Ashburn’s compliance de partment has gotten some properties cleaned up and has at least one property owner in court to force a cleanup. Bryce Johnson, the Tiftarea District Attorney, is offering to take over the prosecution role in Turner County State Court. For quite some time, the Sycamore City Council has de manded answers on why the City’s sewer treatment pond work is not moving forward. At the August meeting, they got the answer. It was not what they expected. The engineering company said the EPA, the federal agency with oversight on envi ronmental matters, is holding matters up. The Turner County Titans opened the season Friday night over in Sylvester against the Worth County Rams. It was one of the more exciting sea son openers for Turner County in recent years and head coach Ben Simmons said he couldn’t be any prouder after a thrilling 22-21 victory. Turner County Varsity Lady Titans victorious over Ameri- cus 18-9. Week 5 Sycamore Police Chief Bill Ryder said he recently overre acted to issues at the County jail and the 911 center. 911 will continue to handle radio traffic for the Sycamore Police De partment and we will continue to house inmates at the jail. Sheriff Andy Hester said the matter is settled. The Turner County High School Class of 1973 recently held its 50th class reunion. The Turner County Titans fall to Fitzgerald Purple Hurri canes 43-19. Lady Titans fall to Lanier Dawgs 12-0 September Week 1 Turner County got off light in the face of last week’s Hur ricane Idalia. East Georgia was not so lucky. New jail agreement for Sycamore and the County for housing inmates at the County jail. The new agreement is for 2 years and does not have a 30- day cancelation clause. (See YEAR Page 2) 8 66670 00023 750 - tax included Wed Cloudy Thur Partly Cloudy Some rain Weather for Turner Co Fri Mostly Sunny Sat Cloudy with Sun AM showers showers Cloudy This space available. Your ad runs 4 or more weeks. Get your business noticed! Call 567-3655 Mail your packages early so the Post Office can lose them in time for Christmas. - Johnny Carson Let's turn inflation over to the Post Office. That'll slow it down. - Mo Udall
