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THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2009
Named the best weekly editorial page in the nation for 2007, 2008
Opinions
“Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. ”
- Henry Ward Beecher ~
Mike Buffington, editor • Email: Mike@mainstreetnews.com
our views
Another town
abuses SPLOST
I T APPEARS that the mis
use of SPLOST money in
Jackson County isn’t con
fined to Pendergrass. A look
at the City of Hoschton’s 2008
audit clearly indicates that the
town has misused some of its
SPLOST funds as well.
While Pendergrass was using
some of its SPLOST money
to pay salaries off the books,
Hoschton used $209,000 of
its SPLOST funds to cover a
$130,000 operating shortfall in
the city’s water and sewer fund.
Hoschton auditors booked the
transfer of money as an internal
loan to be paid back in 2009.
But will that happen? Repaying
that internal loan didn’t seem to
be a big priority when the coun
cil settled a $725,000 lawsuit
last week. Instead, the council
was anxious to buy three new
police cars at $45,000 each
with that windfall.
And that’s the core issue
here — Hoschton, like a lot of
other small towns, has it priori
ties all screwed up. Rather than
handling money correctly and
taking care of business, the
city council has been throwing
money around for pet political
projects.
This patter of the misuse
of SPLOST funds is very very
troubling. A recent Georgia
Attorney General’s Opinion
from a Cobb County case
made it very clear that SPLOST
funds are to be used only for
the purposes approved by vot
ers. But both Pendergrass and
Hoschton have been abusing
those dollars for purposes
other than what was approved
by voters.
We suspect they are not the
only area governments that are
dipping into SPLOST money.
How can local government
officials say “trust us” when
asking voters to approve a
SPLOST, then blatantly and
knowingly misuse those dollars
behind the backs of citizens?
For that, voters in Jackson
County need to send a strong
message to public officials
when they come begging for a
SPLOST renewal.
Just say “No.”
The Jackson Herald
Founded 1875 • The Official Legal
Organ of Jackson County, Ga.
Mike Buffington Co-Publisher & Editor
Scott Buffington Co-Publisher &
Advertising Manager
News Department
Angela Gary Associate Editor
Jana Adams Mitcham Features Editor
Brandon Reed Sports Editor
Kerri Testement Reporter
Sharon Hogan Reporter
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letters
Returning from the March on Washington
BY ANDREA JOSEPH
I AM SO proud to have been a part of the “March
on D.C.” this past Saturday, September 12th.
I have never been very politically active, but I
finally became upset with how much power our
government has taken from us.
I was listening to Neal Boortz this morning and
he was wondering if this is just a moment and not
a movement.
Let me tell you something, I’m not going to sit on
my hands anymore. This event was not a moment
and I know that 1 am not the only one who feels
that way.
I was hoping to see 100,000 people there. 1 was
praying that the American people would make the
trip to D.C. and take their government back.
I was thrilled when our bus pulled into D.C. at 7
a.m. and there was a few hundred people already
gathering on the corners, waving their flags and
shouting “USA! USA! USA!”.
Georgia was given the honor of leading the
March down Pennsylvania Avenue. My group left
our bus drop off point at 8:30 a.m. We were on
Pennsylvania Ave a little before 9 a.m. and it was
packed!
How inspiring it was to be part of such a great
gathering! Families were there. Parents brought
their children. Little protesters proudly holding
their American flags from the top of their father’s
shoulders, the elderly and handicapped being
assisted through the march, paths being cleared
for them, veterans’ hands being constantly shaken
by each person they passed. Marchers stood on
walls and steps and read from the Constitution.
The amount of civility and respect for each other
was overwhelming! It was a peaceful angry mob!
It was hard to calculate how many people
were there; you couldn’t see past the hundreds
of people around you. But we knew it was many
more than 100,000 people that had arrived for the
march.
It took us about 25 minutes to make our way to
the Capitol lawn. When we arrived, there were
already hundreds of people standing in front of
the stage listening to the speakers.
“We oppose health care reform, but you say we
were a small minority. We opposed the bailouts,
but you didn’t hear us. We have spoken at Town
Halls and at Tea Parties across the country but
you didn’t listen.
“Well, Congress, can you hear us now?” and the
crowd cheered, “Can you hear us now?” “Can you
hear us now?” “Can you hear us now?”
You could hear the echo of Patriots down the
entire marching line. “Can you hear us now?”
echoed off of the Capitol building and back to the
crowd. Then the roar of “USA! USA! USA! USA!”
responded like a freight train rumbling through the
night! How amazing!
I could not see above the crowd and the hand
made signs of so many people. I stood on top of a
continued on Page 5A
“Better take a good look, son, _ ^
cause folks are always wanting 4
to cut parts out of it!"
Curry supplies the missing ingredient
GEORGIA STATE University seems to have
everything going for it: the second-largest enroll
ment of any state college, a campus that is
revitalizing downtown Atlanta with all the new
buildings going up, and a sterling reputation as
one of the University System’s four research insti
tutions (a status it shares with UGA, Georgia Tech
and the Medical College of
Georgia).
Even with all the aca
demic acclaim, one thing
Georgia State never had
was that staple of south
ern college life: a football
team.
Football is not every
body’s cup of tea, of
course, and the sport is
often criticized for empha
sizing big-money values
over the academic achieve
ments expected of under
graduates. Even so, the
excitement of “football Saturday” adds a richness
to the college experience for many students and
provides a sentimental bond that strengthens the
support of a school’s alumni.
That is the case at Georgia State, where the deci
sion was made two years ago to begin a football
program in the hope it would provide that missing
ingredient for students and alumni. The Panthers
will soon join the ranks of long-established pro
grams at UGA and Tech, as well as football teams
at smaller schools like Georgia Southern and
Valdosta State.
The man at the center of this big adventure is
head coach Bill Curry who is building a football
program from ground zero at a school long known
as a “commuter college” for non-traditional stu
dents.
Curry has the credentials that seem ideal for
this important position: an All-American center
at Georgia Tech, a 10-year veteran of the NFL who
played for such coaches as Vince Lombardi and
Don Shula, and a former coach at Tech, Alabama
and Kentucky.
He hadn’t coached since 1996 when he was
offered the job at Georgia State last year, but Curry
almost immediately accepted the chance to get
back into the life he loved. He will be one month
away from his 68th birthday when Georgia State
kicks off its first official season in September 2010,
but Curry says he’d much rather do this than slide
into retirement.
“What matters is what’s in your heart,” he said.
“In my heart of hearts there was something that
lingered, a longing for a huddle - a group of young
men that I would have the privilege of mentoring,
using the campus, the classroom and the huddle.
Those are my things that I love.”
A football program, Curry agrees, is an impor
tant part of Georgia State’s transition from a con
crete campus serving part-time students to a more
traditional college environment.
Where applications from prospective freshman
students increased by 6 percent at Georgia Tech
this year and 8 percent at the University of Georgia,
they were up 21 percent at Georgia State, he said.
“I don’t have the illusion football’s the only rea
son, but part of the reason is that kids want to go
live on a campus that has a football team,” Curry
said. “In the South, you want to go to your team’s
football games on Saturday. So instead of having
zero students living on campus, now we have over
3,000 and it’ll soon be 5,000 and it’s just going to
keep right on skyrocketing.”
Curry and his assistant coaches are running that
initial group of players - a mixture of scholarship
athletes, transfers and walk-ons - through their
first months of practice at such venues as a Boys &
Girls Club field near the GSU campus. The sched
ule next year will range from smaller schools like
Shorter and Savannah State to a season-ending
blockbuster against the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Curry has often been asked why he would
send a first-year team out to get clobbered by a
national championship contender like Alabama.
The game will bring badly needed money (about
$400,000) and media exposure to the new pro
gram, he contends.
When the game is over, Curry said he will tell
his players: “Now men, we learned a lot today.
The next time we play a great football team, we’re
going to do better. And the time after that we’re
going to do better than that, and we’re going to
keep on playing great football teams until we can
compete with them, and one day we’ll begin to
beat them.”
It’s a hard way to start a college football program,
but Curry is eager to take on that challenge.
Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol Impact’s
Georgia Report. He can be reached at tcrawford@
capitolimpact.net.
What’s happening
to Jackson
County’s towns?
O VER the last year or so, several
municipalities in the county have
gone into meltdown mode, to wit:
• Hoschton has been about as close to
bankruptcy as a town can get without actually
turning off the lights at city hall. A favorable
lawsuit settlement this week may help the town
dig out of that hole, but that lucky break isn’t
a forever solution.
The town needs
leadership. But con
sider the tone of a
meeting last week
where a council
man got angry at
citizens and during
the meeting said
they were “sons-
of-bitches.” Some
leadership.
• In Nicholson, a
citizen slapped the
mayor’s wife last
week. But that’s the
least of the town’s
problems. Over the
last couple of years, the town has fragmented
into warring camps. Some of that has to do
with allegations of insider bids and other
government issues, but much of it is simply
backbiting and small town gossip and family
feuds that have gotten out of control. What do
others think about Nicholson when they read
some of the inane comments being posted on
this newspaper’s website? Are there any adults
left in the town?
• Arcade finds itself in a financial hole
after several years of flying high and running
the town on the backs of motorists who were
unfortunate enough to get caught driving in the
city. But when the speed limit got raised along
the bypass, the town’s key source of income
declined overnight. City officials appear to have
reacted too slowly to that, using reserves until
the reserves have played out. The town now
has no room for financial error.
• Of course there’s Pendergrass, a town so
bizarre it defies belief. In addition to financial
turmoil and nepotism, the town is under a
GBI investigation for possible misuse of public
funds, its citizens are contemplating a recall
and this newspaper has had to sue it to hold
open meetings and to turn over public records.
What a mess.
The common thread in these four local
towns can be summed up in one word: Ego.
All four governments have come unwound
because city leaders have governed more from
ego than common sense.
All four towns have over the last few years
attempted to be something they’re not — big
ger.
Arcade annexed a large amount of property
under the idea it would boom with mega
subdivisions. It wanted its own water system so
it could “control” its “destiny.” Leaders thought
the town would explode with growth. Instead,
it all fell apart.
Ditto for Pendergrass. The city approved
hundreds of new building lots under the idea
the town would be the “next big thing” along
1-85. Like Arcade, it attempted to finance
a growing city government through police
fine money, a move that has destroyed the
reputations of both towns. Now, like Arcade,
Pendergrass is broke. It was all just ego by city
officials who have a stake in the area’s real
estate and attempted to use the city govern
ment as a vehicle to further their private inter
ests.
In Nicholson, ego also came to the forefront
over the last few years. Rather than a small
town, Nicholson wanted to be a big town.
Officials attempted to start a police department
through the backdoor, but that all blew up with
the Pendergrass scandal. When a town emu
lates Pendergrass, you know trouble is ahead.
In Hoschton, ego also ruined the finan
cial standing of the town. Wedged next to
Braselton, which had been booming in recent
years, some Hoschton leaders felt their town,
too, should boom. The problem is, Hoschton
doesn’t have 1-85 or Chateau Elan to anchor
growth.
Hoschton overreached while its leaders
began to function more as a social club than
a responsible government. Problems were
shoved aside and ignored until they collapsed
on the town with full weight.
The moral of the story: We all complain
about the state government and the federal
government, but the real problem is right here
in our own back yards. Big egos aren’t just in
Washington or Atlanta, they exist in our own
little towns, too.
Maybe local government is where citizens
should focus more attention today.
Mike Buffington is editor of The Jackson Herald.
He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.
mike
buffington