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Volume 150
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CRAWFORD VILLE, GA 30631 TALIAFERRO COUNTY, MARCH 1, 2024 NUMBER 9
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A Distinctive Dark Sky Commcniiy
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Deerlick Astronomy Village
will host an Open House on
March 16, between the hours of
5-11PM. This is a family-friendly,
free event. Bring a snack or
supper and enjoy gazing into
the night skies with beautiful
and very large telescopes for
viewing the moon, plantets,
and other celestial objects.
Car lights off after entering the
gates to keep the skies truly the
dark skies for which Deerlick is
known. Directions to DAV are
available at deerlickgroup.com.
In the event of cloud cover or
rain, the event will be held April
13, 2024.
Women’s
Margaret’s Grove Baptist Church invites all women to its Women’s
Ministry. The next Ladies Meeting will be on Saturday, March 2, at
1:00 pm. Lunch will be served and there will be a guest speaker.
PLEASE share this with your friends & family!! This is open to all
ladies in the community!
Please join us-you will certainly be blessed.
Sharon Shenanigans
Tree potting
100 trees of different varieties
were potted last Friday by some
of the Sharon Shenanigans
committee members.
Georgia Power donated the
trees, for which the committee is
grateful.
Pictured are Paula Atchison,
Elaine Rivera, Buddy Patterson,
Jane Kuehn, and Renee Brown.
The trees will be given away at
Sharon Shenanigans in April.
Besides the tree giveaway,
there will be entertainment all
day, as well as arts and crafts,
lots of food, and treats for
the kiddos. The University of
Georgia and Taliaferro 4-H club
members with fun stuff for the
kids to do and learn.
To be a vendor or entertainer,
pleasegotosharonshenanigans.
com for more information and a
vendor application.
Multiple churches
worship with New Hope
Baptist Church
A blessing was had at
New Hope Baptist Church,
Crawfordville, on Sunday,
February 25. Multiple churches,
amazing singing, and more
importantly the House of Lord
was filled with the Spirit of God
helping celebrate New Hope’s
Men and Women’s Day.
Fourchurchfamilies, including
New Hope Baptist, celebrated
the Lord together. Rev. Neal
Parks also commented that
history was made on Sunday.
Wesley Chapel Wesleyan
Church, of Greensboro, also
was attendance. When Pastor
Josh Lindsey shared his love of
Christ with the congregation, it
was the first time in 150 years
that a Caucasian had preached
in the church. This is the way
barriers are broken.
Company fined for dumping ‘chicken
sludge’ in northeast Georgia creek
Proposed legislation would make it illegal for an entity cited for fouling
a waterway to continue to do so on the same property afterward
By Doug Richards, 11 Alive Ne
SHARON, GA—The Georgia
Environmental Protection
Division has issued a fine to a
company for fouling a northeast
Georgia creek. Yet residents
say the dumping that fouled the
creek has continued.
Critics describe the stuff being
dumped as chicken sludge. A
bill introduced in the Georgia
House of Representatives last
week would make it illegal for
an entity cited for fouling a
waterway to continue to do so
on the same property afterward.
The northeast Georgia town
of Sharon is unhurried and
seemingly untroubled - until the
trucks show up. They’re loud
and big and typically fast and
always smell pretty terrible.
“It smells like you’ve just
come out of a restroom,” said
Betsy Orr, a business owner.
“You can smell them distinctly
as soon as they’ve gone by.”
Their destination is a large
piece of land down a dirt road,
which includes a creek. The
state EPD said the trucks use
this site to dump what neighbors
describe as a ghastly sludge
that mostly comes from chicken
processing plants.
Tonya Bonitatibus, the
Savannah Riverkeeper, has
seen this unlikely product turn
into an industry growing across
northeast Georgia and said that
when one processes a chicken,
there’s stuff left over on the floor.
“All of a sudden, these trucks
show up, like 30, 35 of them a
week on one piece of property
that are putting pieces and parts
of animals, with this stench,
that makes flies and all of these
buzzards show up. It sounds
biblical, right? It doesn’t sound
real,” Bonitatibus told 11 Alive
News. “It seems almost too
crazy to be true.”
Farmers and landowners
apply it as nourishment to fields
- as we saw last fall across from
Oconee High School.
In the case of this field near
the town of Sharon, residents
say it gets dumped for reuse.
State regulators fined a man
named Justin Echols for letting
the sludge dumped here to foul
a creek that runs nearby. 11 Alive
was unable to reach Echols for
comment.
Investigators documented the
spill and fined Echols’ company,
called Ag Green, $5,000. Yet
even after that, residents say
the trucks still came.
“That seems outrageous.
Why in the world would they be
able to continue to dump when
they’re being ordered to clean
up and have a corrective action
on a site,” Bonitatibus asked.
The substance is actually
very well known to Georgia
regulators and politicians.
Except they don’t call it chicken
sludge. Their sanitized term for
it is “soil amendment.”
The state agriculture
department approves its use
routinely. State records obtained
by 11 Alive News show the
ingredients include “industrial
wastewater” or “DAF sludge”
from the “animal slaughtering
industry” or “pet food processing
industry,” injected into the soil.
Backers say it’s an effective way
to recycle such waste.
The records also show
numerous complaints from
neighbors. Residents of
Walton County howled when
it got applied to fields there
last summer, describing it as
“horrific” with a “literal sickening
smell” that “causes headaches
and nausea.”
A state inspector who showed
up two days later closed the
case, finding “flies and odors
were found to be minimum” and
“compliance is met.”
Betsy Orr has been behind
the upkeep of a historic church
in Sharon. It has a cemetery
more than 200 years old.
There’s a camp nearby, and she
said there’s potential to draw
historic and visitor interest.
Except, she said, when the
place stinks of animal sludge.
Note: The dumping address
is 4020 Locust Grove Road,
Sharon, GA.
T. C. Senior Center
119 Commerce St.
Crawfordville, GA 50651
TALIAFERRO COUflTV
Invites) ou
TO ATTEND
4TH ANNUAL
WOMEN’S
DAY
Union Point to celebrate
120 Years with Community-Wide Birthday Party
On Saturday, March 23, 2024,
the City of Union Point, GA, is
celebrating its 120th birthday in
conjunction with the 13th Annual
Firefly Trail Ticket to Ride
event. It will be an exciting day
for Greene County residents
and visitors to enjoy the city’s
past, present and future, from
the completion of the Firefly
Trail between Union Point and
Woodville to revitalization efforts
for the historic Union Theatre.
The event will showcase local
artists and businesses and some
of the homesteading practices
upon which this rural area is
rooted.
From 10am - 4pm, historic
downtown will be buzzing with
festivities, with live music from
Tim Cadiere and Washboard
Road Band and Chris Jon &
Scott, food trucks, craft vendors,
a bouncy house and train rides
for kids as well as tours of the
Historic Museum. Starting at
11am, Piedmont Healthcare is
offering wellness checks on site,
and at 3pm all ages are invited
to participate in the 5K race on
the Firefly Trail, reviving a town
favorite, the “Sock Trot.” DOCK
103.9 will be streaming live,
and sports broadcaster Tony
Barnhart will be signing copies of
his new book, The 19 of Greene.
And, of course, there will be
plenty of birthday cake at 1 pm!
For more information, visit
www.unionpointga.org or call
706-486-4102.
