Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4, 2010
THE JACKSON HERALD
PAGE 5A
Let’s stop jumping to conclusions
CONCLUSION:
“a reasoned judg
ment; the necessary
consequences of two
or more propositions
taken as premises;
last part of some
thing; a final sum
mation; result; out
come.”
I think “jumping to
conclusions” means
the same thing as
“jumping the gun.”
It behooves all of us to calm
down, sit down, stop the knee
jerking and think before we act.
The bridge we bum may be the
one we later have to cross.
If you have never jumped to a
conclusion, stand up.
I thought so. It’s sort of like
jumping off a cliff, isn't it?
Anyway, that’s been my experi
ence. And climbing out of the
abyss and setting foot on the
straight and narrow again isn’t
the easiest thing in the world.
For me, it means eating crow,
confessing that I was stupid
(O.K. wrong), asking for for
giveness and being thankful
when I get it. Then trying not to
go astray again.
The worst possible thing we
can do is insist that we didn’t
jump, but were pushed. And be
sure to blame somebody who
disagrees with you. If you are
a liberal, a conservative pushed
you. If you are a conservative, a
liberal pushed you.
We moderates, caught in
the middle, can only stand by
and watch the spectacle. There
aren’t enough of us to do any
thing about the impasse. And
anyway, they wouldn’t listen.
Sitting down and reasoning
together went out with President
Lyndon Baines Johnson.
❖ ❖ ❖
If you’ve quoted him once,
I’ve quoted him a thousand
times. “Be not content
with the appearance of
things, but look beneath
the surface to discover
their true meaning.” The
late, great Roy Harris,
famous Georgia politi
cian and editor of The
Augusta Courier, said
that many years ago.
Think what a wonder
ful world it would be if
everybody followed his
advice. For example:
Shirley Sherrod would still
have her job. U.S. Secretary of
Agriculture Tom Vilsack could
stop eating crow and apologiz
ing. Likewise the NAACP who
claimed “we were snookered by
Fox News and Tea Party Activist
Andrew Breibart.” (Any excuse
will do when you jump the gun
and get egg on your face.)
Breibart would stop insisting
he had no evil intentions when
he used a 2 Vi-minute clip of a
43-minute speech. Fox News
would admit they screwed up
and CNN would stop remind
ing them and rubbing it in. (As
if CNN never screwed up.)
President Obama would not be
blamed for the goof-ups of his
underlings.
Best of all, that elderly cou
ple, the Spooners, whose farm
was saved, could settle down
on their South Georgia spread
and enjoy retirement out of the
limelight. Peace and quiet pre
vail when nobody jumps the
gun.
Unfortunately, none of those
good things happened. When
everybody jumps prematurely,
everybody loses.
There are no shortcuts to the
final summation, result or out
come. It’s like baseball; in a
nine-inning game, you’ve got to
get 27 outs.
Yes, there are many steps on
the way to the truth. And most
of them are beneath the surface.
That’s where many of us refuse
to go. We should delete “on the
surface” from our vocabularies.
❖ ❖ ❖
The Shirley Sherrod story is
not going away. I am still writ
ing about it and you are still
reading about it. Shame on both
of us!
CNN and Fox News argue,
debate and blame - but never
discuss with any civility - and
we watch. Shame on all of us!
It’s like customer service; we
don’t get better because we
don’t demand better.
I’m not demanding anything,
but I do have a suggestion for
TV and radio talking heads.
If you must continue beyond
the final summation, result or
outcome, please do it with just
one guest.
When you get two, four, six
or more on your panel - half of
them liberals and half of them
conservatives - you are inviting
incivility, chaos and bedlam.
Bedlam: “a state of uproar and
confusion.”
You and your guests all talk
(no, yell) at once, and if you are
making any sense, we can’t hear
it, and if we could, we couldn’t
understand it. And we are sup
posed to believe you and your
raucous guests? Calm down.
Speak truth - quietly. Please!
And these people are the
brightest, most intelligent,
thoughtful people in America?
Lord, help us.
I hope the kids aren’t watch
ing. There are better role mod
els on the streets of the hood.
❖ ❖ ❖
Afterthought: Sunday morn
ing anchors on NBC, CBS and
ABC do better, but nobody
watches because everybody’s in
church.
Virgil Adams is aformer owner/
editor ofTIte Jackson Herald.
virgil
adams
Maysville approves drafting ordinance for
downtown commercial historic district
BY KATIE HUSTON
AFTER MUCH discussion
and citizen input, the Maysville
City Council decided it needs
an ordinance drafted for its
downtown commercial historic
district.
The ordinance will only affect
commercial property, as citizens
expressed their displeasure of an
ordinance affecting residential
property. The majority of citi
zens at the city’s work session
meeting on Thursday voiced
that they didn’t want anyone
telling them what to do with
their homes.
That was a point Chip Wright
with the Georgia Mountains
Regional Commission tried to
clear up for citizens.
“It’s not really telling any
body what to do,” Wright said.
“It works under the assumption
that you’re invested in a piece of
property for a certain reason -
and that bottom line is money.”
The ordinance will aim to
protect the character value of
the downtown area, which for
Maysville is its market value.
Wright will create a draft and
present it to the council at a
future meeting.
The city wants to prevent busi
nesses from entering the town
and tearing a building down to
replace it with a cookie-cutter
building.
“We’re trying to protect the
city from somebody coming
and building something the
city doesn’t want (or that) the
residents don’t want,” council
member Clay Dorsey said.
Wright said that if eligible,
a property owner who owns
commercial property downtown
could qualify for up to $300,000
in tax credits that go toward
helping restore and maintain the
property.
“Communities that have (the)
ordinance in place qualify for a
certified local government pro
gram, which is a way to get tax
credits at the city level and for
businesses and will attract new
business,” Wright said.
He went on to say that as
development begins to ease
into the city from Interstate-85,
that developers will be coming
into the town with conflicting
information on what’s best for
Maysville.
Mayor Jerry Baker can fore
see the issue as well.
“You get the wrong people
out there with the wrong power
and you’ve got a problem,” he
said.
The council decided to have
Wright draft the ordinance to
affect commercial property only.
Wright said that many commu
nities in Georgia start with a
downtown commercial district
and then branch out.
“What this does, if your town
means something to you - if it
really means something to you
- this helps you define what it is
and helps you keep it a certain
way,” Wright said. “(It) helps
you maintain that integrity.”
OTHER BUSINESS
In other business at the meet
ing:
•the council discussed a
request from Glenn’s Mobile
Home Park to move more
mobile homes into the town’s
historic district. No action was
required.
•the council approved going
with Souder’s Asphalt, Inc.,
Pendergrass, for its pothole
repair project. Souder’s was the
low bidder with an estimated
project cost of $4,800, while the
other bid was from Whitfield
Construction, Co., Commerce,
whose estimated construction
cost was $8,500.
•the council approved a flood
damage prevention ordinance
that will allow residents in the
floodplain to receive certain dis
counted rates on flood insur
ance.
•it was announced that for
mer assistant librarian Sherri
Stephens will hold the posi
tion of interim library manager
until further notice. Former
library manager Delana Hinson
received a job closer to her home
and submitted her resignation.
SCOUTS RECOGNIZED BY BOC
The Jackson County Board of Commissioners recognized area Boy Scouts Monday
night as a resolution on the 100th anniversary of Boy Scouting in America was
approved. BOC chairman Hunter Bicknell told the scouts: “You will remember, for
the rest of your lives, the times you have in scouts. I say that from experience. It
was over 50 years ago that I was a scout. I remember quite vividly participating in
scouting events.” Photo by Angela Gary
Reservoir lawsuit topic at closed session
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
THE GROUP that owns
the Bear Creek Reservoir
spent more than an hour
behind closed doors last
week pondering how to
proceed on its lawsuit with
Jackson County.
Minus the Jackson County
members - Hunter Bicknell
and Eric Klerk - the author
ity went into closed session
to hear an update from its
attorney, Kirby Atkinson, on
the suit, which the Superior
Court of Jackson County
and the Georgia Court of
Appeals have declared can
proceed to trial.
In 2009, Jackson County
sued the Upper Oconee
Basin Water Authority over
the capacity of the reser
voir, which determines how
much water the member
counties can use. Jackson
County alleges that the 505-
acre lake can provide just 40
percent of its stated capac
ity. Should Jackson County
prevail, the amount each
of the four member coun
ties can withdraw would be
slashed significantly.
Last Wednesday’s closed-
to-the-public session came
on the heels of a ruling
by the Georgia Court of
Appeals that the suit can
proceed. The authority had
submitted a motion to dis
miss the suit, which Jackson
County Superior Court
Judge Joe Booth rejected.
The authority has asked
the court to reconsider that
decision, said Bicknell, who
chairs the Jackson County
Board of Commissioners.
“If they won’t look at
it, it’s going onto Supreme
Court,” said a source privy
to the closed-session dis
cussion.
The suit puts Jackson
County in the unusual posi
tion of being both a plaintiff
and a defendant in the same
case. In addition to paying
legal and engineering fees
related to prosecuting the
suit, it also pays 25 percent
of the cost of defending it.
“Our attorneys fees have
surpassed $100,000,” said
Eric Klerk, manager of
the Jackson County Water
and Sewerage Authority. “I
know with a fair amount of
certainty that we’ve spent
a little more than that with
C.H. Guernsey (the engi
neering company provid
ing data to support Jackson
County’s contention).”
According to Klerk, the
Jackson County Board of
Commissioners pays the
legal fees for Mike Bowers
of Balch & Bingham LLP,
and the authority pays the
fees charged by Guernsey,
“basically the technical
portion of the lawsuit.”
THE DETAILS
Since it opened in 2002,
the working assumption
with the reservoir is that
it’s capable of providing
58 million gallons per day
(GPD) during times of
drought. That figure is the
basis for determining how
much water each county -
Jackson, Barrow, Athens-
Clarke and Oconee - can
withdraw from the lake. It
was generated by Jordan,
Jones and Goulding (JJ&G)
a predecessor of the com
pany now managing the res
ervoir.
The Environmental
Protection Division used
those calculations to issue
the group a permit to with
draw 58 mgd.
Since it owns 25 percent,
Jackson is entitled to 14.5
mgd, while Athens-Clarke
can withdraw 25.52 mgd.
Barrow, with a 19-percent
share, is entitled to 11.02
mgd and Oconee, which
owns 12 percent of the
reservoir, is allocated 6.96
mgd.
But Jackson officials say
the actual yield of the res
ervoir is closer to 24 mgd.
If its numbers are correct,
that would reduce the mem
bers yields to less than half
those numbers.
Jackson asked the Upper
Oconee Basin Water
Authority to recalculate the
yield using data from the
2006-07 drought and point
ing out that the agreement
forming the authority called
for regular recalculations of
the yield.
To date, the basin author
ity has refused the request;
hence the suit.
Also at the root of the
suit is a Jackson conten
tion that on previous occa
sions during drought years
Athens-Clarke, and possi
bly the other two counties,
used more than their share
of the water, encroaching
on Jackson County’s share
- for which Jackson County
was not reimbursed.
100 participate in Pendergrass summer reading
BY SHARON HOGAN
ONE-HUNDRED chil
dren and adults participat
ed in the summer reading
program at the Pendergrass
Public Library.
A report on the program
was given at the July meet
ing of the Pendergrass City
Council, held last Tuesday.
Librarian Renee Martinez
reported that 27 adults and
73 children attended the
summer reading programs
during July.
“Children have been read
ing all summer and receiv
ing prizes each Friday,” she
said.
OTHER BUSINESS
In other business at last
week’s council meeting:
•the council unanimously
approved the appointment of
city clerk Martinez as elec
tion superintendent.
•the council approved
a resolution to authorize
the transmission of the
Northeast Georgia Regional
Solid Waste Management
five-year short term work
program to the Georgia
Department of Community
Affairs.
The next monthly council
meeting is set for 6:30 p.m.
on Tuesday, Aug. 31, at the
depot.
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Library Manager
City of Maysville
The City of Maysville will be accepting applications
for a Library Manager. Must be self motivated,
have knowledge and abilities in the practices and
procedures of library management. Have general
knowledge of books and other library materials.
Some college preferred.
Applications and job description can be picked up
at city hall. 706-652-2274.
City of Maysville is a drug free workplace
and Equal Opportunity Employer