Newspaper Page Text
THE
Abs* \
ACKSON
m
y'T'i— r —rj
H Wednesday, January 21, 2009
ERALD
www.JacksonHeraldTODAY.com
VOL. 133 NO. 24 48 PACES 4 SECTIONS PLUS INSERTS A PUBLICATION OF MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. JEFFERSON, JACKSON COUNTY GEORGIA 30549 50c COPY
— Inside —
Area news:
•County to condemn
land for airport work
page 2A
• Development in
county at standstill
page 2A
•Pugh to head water
authority
page 2A
•Chamber announces
upcoming events
page 3A
Op/Ed:
•'Contradictions of
America's political soul'
page 4A
Sports:
•JHS takes eighth
straight duals title
page 1B
Features:
•Celebration honors
MLK, Barack Obama
page 1C
Other News:
•School News
. . . pages 9A, 12A, 11B
•Public Safety
pages 6-7A
•Legals
pages 5-24C
•Church News
page 5B
•Obituaries
pages 6-7B
Area residents witness history
“/ have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the
sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will
be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. ”
- Martin Luther King Jr., 1963
WAITING ON THE BUS TO WASHINGTON, D.C.
Jackson County residents making the trip included Angela Bailey, Marvista Weaver,
Rev. Mark Weaver, Rev. Albert Lee Weaver, Matthew Weaver and Mark Weaver.
By SUSAN NORMAN
FORTY-SIX years ago, the
late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
stood at the Lincoln Memorial
in Washington D.C. and told the
nation he had a dream.
Tuesday, some residents
of Barrow, Jackson, Madison
and Athens-Clarke counties
witnessed that dream unfold
with Barack Hussein Obama’s
inauguration as the first black
President of the United States.
Among the more than 1 mil
lion eyewitnesses to the amaz
ing page in American history
were local residents between the
ages of 3 and 80 who boarded
a chartered bus in Athens just
after midnight Monday for a
two-day journey to the nation’s
Capitol.
The Rev. Mark Weaver, pastor
of Summer Hill Baptist Church
in Jefferson and Ebenezer
Baptist Church East in Athens,
chartered the bus that carried 44
men, women and children to the
Virginia suburbs, where before
dawn Tuesday they boarded a
train to the Capitol.
“We do not have tickets to the
inauguration, but we just want to
be in the midst of what’s going
on,’’ Weaver said.
Two hours before Tuesday’s
inauguration, he called to report
that his group had made it to
within a block of the National
Mall and would try to get as
close as possible to the day’s
events.
“Right now, I’m standing
in front of the Department of
Labor, and it’s just a whole lot
of people, people from every
where, people walking from all
directions to see this historical
event,” Weaver said.
“I’m trnly amazed and glad I
came. It’s an awesome experi
ence to be in the middle of the
people. Everybody is happy and
smiling. It’s a wonderful feeling
here.
“The peoplefrom Washington,
when we got off the train, greet
ed us and said, ‘Welcome to
Washington."
“It’s just wonderful. Simply
wonderful.”
With Weaver were three
generations of his family: his
wife Marvista: sons Matthew,
13, and Mark, 14; and the pas
tor’s 80-year-old father, the Rev.
Albert Lee Weaver.
Also on board were Jackson
County resident Angela Bailey;
Barrow County residents Ina
Brothers, Mary Lay and Brenda
Wells; and Madison County res
idents Champayne Elder, Nyzier
Elder, Jimmy Hull, Eleanor
Mitchell, and Gloria Heard.
While waiting for their char
tered bus in the chilly darkness
Monday morning, the passen
gers talked about their excite
ment and about the significance
of what they would witness.
“This is the most wonderful
night I ever looked forward to,”
said Albert Weaver.
“The dreamer and the dream
came true,” said Heard. “Martin
Luther King Jr. is the one who
had the dream, and Obama is
the dream come true.”
Gilda Ivory, a Jackson County
native who now resides in
Athens, expressed the sentiments
of many African-Americans
since Obama’s election.
“I never thought I would see a
black President in my lifetime,”
Ivory said. “I have seen history
come full circle. It’s very emo
tional to me.”
Gloria Fears, 60, of Athens
said she attended King’s funeral
in 1968 and didn’t expect to see
in her lifetime the election of a
black President.
“I didn’t think I’d live to see it.
Honestly I did not.
“But thank God.”
On another bus heading north
Monday was Willie Russell,
the owner of Russell Trucking
in Statham. He called as he
was driving a busload of D.C.-
bound passengers from Stone
Mountain.
“I’m driving one of six buses
owned by T&D Charter Bus
Service of Gainesville to the
inauguration,” said Russell.
“We’re about to cross into
the Carolinas. We’ll be in
Washington by this afternoon.
That’s our plan.”
He said this inauguration is
his first.
“I kinda feel good about it,
that at least one time in my life
time, I’m getting to go to one,”
Russell said.
“It’s exciting. Everybody on
the bus is excited about it.”
45 layoffs at BJC
By Mark Beardsley
OFFICIALS AT BJC Medical Center are couching the Jan. 15
layoffs of 45 employees as difficult but necessary adjustments to
assure the survival of the .
hospital and nursing home C E O J i m
in a weak economy. Yarbrough
“There is no easy way said the lay-
to explain or to try to paint °ff decisions
a pretty picture about what were “the
happened last week,” con- most difficult
ceded Charles Blair, who I’ve ever had
chairs the facility’s gov- to make.”
eming authority.
The layoffs, 75-80 percent of which were termed “manage
rial” and 20-25 percent “clinical,” are expected — in conjunction
with scheduling changes and elimination of overtime — to save
about $2 million a year, according to Ray Leadbetter, the facility’s
interim chief financial officer, who predicted that the facility could
be “very close to running in the black” by the end of February.
“Guys, it’s like this all over society,” added member Jimmy
Hooper concerning the layoffs. “I’ve seen grown men crying,
throwing up their hands and slamming doors. It’s dire out there.”
continued on page 8A
AT MLK EVENT
Program participant Garren Walker and program
coordinator Lucille Cooper are shown at the 25th
annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration held
Sunday in Jefferson. St. Paul Baptist Church was
filled with more than 300 people for the ecumenical
service. Photo by Jana Mitcham
Inauguration Day 2009
WATCHING INAUGURATION
Jefferson Middle School eight graders in Coach Brad Puckett’s social studies class
watched Tuesday’s inauguration of Barack Obama as the nation’s 44th president.
| Jackson County resident to provide first-hand account:
Jackson County resident Linda Kirk and her family traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend the
inauguration. Kirk was a correspondent for The Jackson Herald and will provide a first-hand account,
interviews and photographs for next week’s edition. Kirk was traveling home today (Wednesday).
Unemployment filings climb in Dec.
Initial Unemployment Claims
FIRST TIME unemployment
insurance claims jumped again in
December in Northeast Georgia.
In Jackson County, 696 people
applied for unemployment for
the first time in December, a 107
percent increase over November
and a huge 309 percent jump
over December 2007.
In Madison County, 405 peo
ple made first time filings, a jump
of 85 percent from November
and a 161 percent increase from
December 2007.
Barrow County had 763 make
Location
Dec.
Number
Statewide
128,625
Jackson County
696
Banks County
213
Barrow County
763
Madison County
405
first time unemployment claims
in December, an increase of 67
percent from December and 120
percent from the year before.
%change
%change
From Nov.
From Dec ‘07
73%
174%
107%
309%
72%
204%
67%
120%
85%
161%
Banks County had 213 people
file in December, up 72 percent
from November and 204 percent
from December 2007.