The Georgia post. (Knoxville, Crawford County, Ga.) 19??-current, July 11, 2013, Image 1

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The Georgia post., July 11, 2013, Image 1

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Newspaper Page TextKnock It Out Of the Park Saturday, July 13th 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at Crossroads Store 77 Marshall Mill Road, Fort Valley See page 2 for details... Roberta United Methodist Church will have Vacation Bible School, July 21st - 24th, 6:30 p.m. - 8:45 p.m. for ages 3 yrs. - 12 yrs. The theme is ’’Holy Day”, growing in Faith. For more information call 478-836-4228. Zumba is here!! Forget the workout and join the party! Zumba classes held at 88 E. Agency Street by Martha McAfee Mondays from 6:15-7:15. Line dancing afterward. Issue 28 Thursday, July 11,2013 One Dollar Sections, Page City Meeting Gets Heated Over Police Car Hubcaps By Susan Garnto The Georgia Post A heated discussion about the Roberta Police Department changing hubcaps on police ve hicles, brought raised voices and pointed fingers at the meeting of Roberta City Council last week. But first, there were tears from a citizen about the a job well done by the department. Sherry Thompson of Roberta, wiped away tears as she spoke of a job well done by the Ro berta Police Department, and the people of the community. Thompson spoke of two sepa rate incidences that happened in her life that involved the police department helping her out. She also said the reason she came to the meeting was to “Thank” the city council and the police de partment for being there when she needed them on more than one occasion. Thompson told those present it was a blessing to live in this awesome city, in this awesome town and there were some awesome people living here and that she really appreci ated what everyone has done for her and that she just wanted to come and say “Thank you” be cause she didn’t think they got thanked enough for what they actually do in the community. “I feel truly blessed to be a part of this community,” she stated. Pam Cotton, a youth leader Former Atlanta Braves Outfielder Here Saturday Former Atlanta Brave Brian Jordan will be at the Cross roads Store in Crawford Coun ty Saturday, July 13 th as part of the Knock It Out of the Park event brought to you by Flint River Communications. The event is being planned from 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. to show case the packages offered by Flint River Communications since they expanded the ser vice area and to show appreci ation to their customers. Prizes will be given away and you can register to win Braves tick ets. Crossroads Store is located at 77 Marshall Mill Road, Fort Valley at the comer of Hwy. 42 and Marshall Mill Road. Prizes will include t-shirts and flash drives. A draw ing will be held at 2 p.m. for a chance to win tickets to an Atlanta Braves game. Hud son’s BBQ of Roberta will be provided free barbecue and the kids will enjoy a free 20 ft. slide and deluxe obstacle course. Everyone will want to get a free autographed baseball and shake hands with Brian Jordan. Jordan was an outfielder for the Atlanta Braves from 1999- 2001. He helped carry the Braves early in the 1999 season which propelled him to his only All-Star appear ance. That year was also his only World Series appearance. In his final season with the Braves (2001) he hit 25 hom ers and helped push the team to from the Word of God Taber nacle Church on HWY 341 made a request that she be given permission for the use of the city park for a youth rally where they expect to have more than 50 people attend. Cotton had asked Joanne Hamlin who oversees the city park but was told to schedule any function in the town square, where over 50 people are expected, it must first be approved by the Roberta City Council. Cotton also mentioned they wanted to do a prayer walk around the Town Square that would last for about 15 minutes. She saidt there would be free food and school supplies at this event, scheduled the 2nd Sat urday of August. Councilman Billy Bassett made a motion in favor of Pam Cotton’s event re quest which was unanimously approved. She was asked to bring more details back to the next meeting. Charles Cook, Chamber of Commerce President, addressed council concerning the porch at The Depot/ Chamber of Com merce building. He said it was in dire need of repair and some of the boards need replacing. Mayor Becky Smith will look into the cost of replacement and get back with Executive Direc tor, Patti Temple with details. Cook informed council about a new Chamber event, A Fresh Taste of Crawford County” to Brian Jordan its tenth-straight division title. In 2002 Jordan was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Jor dan also played football for the Atlanta Falcons. In addi tion to the Braves, he played for the St. Louis Cardinals, LA Dodgers and Texas Rang ers. He is currently a pre-game analyst for the Altanta Braves on Braves Live, the official pregame show and is active in the Atlanta community with the Brian Jordan Foundation. He authored the semi-autobi ographical children’s book At lanta Braves 99-2001. Flint River Communications offers packages for phone, cable and internet which start at $34.95 per month. If you would like more information about their “Triple Play” plans call 1-855-593-FAST (3278) today. take place July 26 at the Depot from 6:30-8 p.m. All commu nity restaurants will participate in the event. If raining it will be held at CGTC inside. There was a discussion about the roof at City Hall which is in need of repair and council has been discussing it for some time but the roof has not been fixed. Several contractors were mentioned to do the repairs and Mayor Smith said they would be taking bids for repairs. A discussion on the subject of the hubcaps (center caps) for the Roberta Police Department’s vehicles veered off into a heated argument. Because the hubcaps were plastic and broke eas ily, Chief Thomas had changed them to metal ones which would last longer and better protect the vehicle. Before it erupted Police Chief Benjamin (Benny) Thom as asked council if they want him to put the old hubcaps back on the cars and Robert Cody said “I do, you know, these cars, I know is a can of worms but I am tired of eating cars and hubcaps and things like that but these cars belong to the City of Roberta, and anything that we do to them should be brought up with the council, now that’s my opinion, I’m only one here, there are four more of ya’ll, so whatever ya’ll want to do but I say put them back like they were and leave them alone.” Tempers By Victoria Simmons The Georgia Post County commissioners ap proved a road list project for 2014 after much discussion at several meetings and voted to get proposals for security up grades for the tax commission er and administration offices located at the development au thority complex on Hwy. 341. Before the regular meeting a public hearing was held on a Beer and Wine License for Ghanshuam Sheth for Pleez- ing Store #2 on Hwy. 80W. Pat Kelly, county manager, noted that all requirements had been completed. Motion to approved passed unanimously. Whether or not to give July 5th as an additional paid holi day for county employees was debated. Chairman Dean Fripp stated he was in favor of giving the holiday because the county did not have a county picnic or other event for employes like some counties did. He said giv ing them July 5th was a way to thank them. Kelly noted that a skeleton crew would be work ing anyway because other em ployees took leave or vacation during that time. Paul Chapman wanted to began to flare at this point when Mayor Smith said “It was told that Erv had told them (PD) they could do anything to the cars that they wanted to as long as it didn’t cost any more mon ey” Patton responded that he did not think he ever said anything like that, but agreed that the City should not bother the police dept, with the day to day things. “We have a drug problem in this city right now and we’re argu ing over hubcaps. Why don’t we just fire our Chief of Police and get Jack Smith in here to run the Police department because we don’t need a Police Chief any more, Jack’s gonna do it. This (hubcaps) all started with Jack, you and other people; he had other people call you...” Bassett said, “I don’t think it’s about Benny not doing a good job, If you have any kind of intuition that we might need to check on, something to see if it is okay before doing it and some of these little things, is what caused your problem.” Chief Thomas suggested that from now on they would check with council members for anything that needed changing involv ing the police cars . He asked for every city council member’s telephone numbers so he would not have a problem getting in touch with them in the future. See CITY, Page 2 know the costs of giving an extra holiday, noting that the private sector did not give as many holidays as the county, or government entities. Kelly noted that deputies would be paid two and a half times their regular salary because of the holiday and that would be the only additional costs. Frank Hollis noted that employees were going to take the day off anyway. It was also noted that other counties give July 5th as a holiday and would be closed as well. The motion to give the paid holiday was approved with Chapman voting against the motion. With the deadline approach ing to turn in a road project list to the Department of Transpor tation, Kelly told the board they needed to decide on the proj ects, noting the deadline was at the end of the month (July) for the Local Maintenance & Improvement Grant (LMIG) program. He also noted that the formulate amount for the program increased to $384,718 and the county would have to spend that amount to quality for the grant program. The county would only have to actually pay about $90,000 of that $384,718. Discussion of roads, right of ways, drainage, chip seals and other road descriptions ensued with everyone on the board making a comment or two. There were actually close to $600,000 in projects which had to be whittled down. John Thomas wanted to know whethere the $90,000 would be coming from in the Taste of Crawford County Crawford County/Roberta has much to offer in satisfying hunger pains. To show off what is available in our community the Roberta Crawford County Chamber of Commerce will be holding a Fresh Taste of Crawford County on Friday, July 26 from 6:30-8 p.m. at the Depot. In case of rain, the event will be held at the CGTC Roberta campus inside. For $3 a person or $10 for a family of four you can “taste” signature food items from local eateries. For more informa tion contact Path at the Chamber office, 478-836-3825. County Finalizes J-fometo’Vw J-fero Lillian Breedlove, local volunteer of Musella, Georgia, was recognized Tuesday for countless hours of ser vice to the community by the local Modern Woodmen members. This honor came through the America’s Hometown Heroes Program. She was presented with a certificate and a $100 grant which she chose to go to the Ronald McDonald House. “The Hometown Heroes Program helps us acknowledge and thank volunteers across the country for improving the qual ity of life for our members, their families and commu nities,” said Evelyn J. Harris, Modern Woodmen local activities coordinator. Harris is pictured above at left with Breedlove. The award was presented after lunch at Champion’s Restaurant. Road Project List budget. Kelly responded that there was $40,000 already put in the budget and the rest would come from SPLOST (Special Local Option Sales Tax). Fripp asked about in-kind services on his two roads and was in formed that all the right of way deeds had not been secured. “It’s a process,” County Attor ney David Mincey, III stated. Fripp told him to let him know what he needed to get the right of ways and he would work on getting them. Mincey respond ed, “sure”. The adopted proj ects include 0.4 miles on Billy White, 1.2 miles on Mt. Paran, 1.8 miles on Tribble, 1.5 miles on Cool Springts, 2.85 miles on Walton, 1.1 miles on Causey and 1.0 miles on Hortman Mill. The list was approved unani mously after much discussion. Once again the board dis cussed security for the develop ment center building. Moving the tax commissioner’s office to the Courthouse had been discussed previously but it was noted other employees besides the tax commissioner handled money and also needed secu rity. Therefore, looking into se curing the development author ity facility became a topic. Kelly noted that having a full time deputy at the location would cost about $32,000 a year. Chapman wanted to know what the cost would be to hire a private security guard. There was also discussion about costs for a keyless entry and video cameras as well as beefing up the tax commisisoner’s of fice. The question was posed concerning paying rent to the development authority and what about the possibility of them helping pay for security to which the response was that in that case the authority would most likely ask for more money in their budget from the county. Finally, Thomas made the motion to proceed with getting proposals for security upgrades to county offices at that build ing and for the installation of cameras and monitors. The mo tion carried with Fripp voting against. Mincey gave an update on the upcoming SPLOST, noting he had met with the mayor of Roberta and that a final draft of the intergovernmental agree ment would be ready for the city to adopt by the end of the month. After that the County would need to consider and adopt the agreement. Chapman wanted to know if it was too late to include money for economic development in the SPLOST. He was told by Kelly that it was not too late. Fripp stated that the money was going to long term debt and there would be no money left, however, the possibility could be looked into still. Hollis reported that local fu neral homes were having trou ble locating graves for indigent burials and requested that this item be added to the agenda for the next meeting. Chamber President Charles Cook invited the board to at tend the first “Fresh Tastes of Crawford County to be held on July 26th featuring food from local restaurants.