Newspaper Page Text
Established in 1882
Vol. 129, No. 34 - Waynesboro, Ga. 30830
Wednesday, December 2, 2009 - $1.00
Students accelerate learning by building electric racecar
Hickman, Washington
Women win
council seats
By Elizabeth Billips
lizbillips@yahoo.com
Donnie Hickman will remain on the Sardis City Council while
veteran councilman Curtis Bell must step down in Waynesboro.
Hickman beat contender Zenobia Freeman 98-72 in Tuesday’s
runoff election where more than 47 percent of Sardis’ 356 vot
ers cast ballots. Only one person voted via absentee ballot, and
that vote went to Hickman.
In Waynesboro’s Ward 3 race, political newcomer Portia Lodge
Washington ousted 12-year veteran Curtis Bell, claiming more
than 62 percent of the votes.
Of the 825 registered voters, 39 cast absentee ballots. Of those,
Washington notched 35 while Bell took 4. On Election Day, 21
votes went to Washington and 34 went to Bell.
Waynesboro’s low 90-voter turnout was comparable to the
Nov. 3 race in which just 93 ballots were cast.
Both Hickman and Washington will take office Jan. 1, 2010.
In Waynesboro, Washington will be the first woman on the coun
cil since 2005 when vice-mayor Pauline Jenkins gave up her seat
to run in the mayoral race.
Editor’s Note: Because of incorrect figures provided to The
True Citizen on Nov. 3, Ward 3’s voter turnout was incorrectly
reported in previous election stories. Previous figures were based
on a 1,006 count; however, Ward 3’s voter pool is actually 825.
That means 11.27 percent of the voters turned out for the Nov. 3
election and 10.9 percent voted in Tuesday's runoff.
By Anne Marie Kyzer
annemariek@thetruecitizen.com
Their pit stops won’t in
volve fuel cans, and the roar
of the engine is more like a
kitten’s purr.
But even without a combus
tible engine, this buggy will top
out at more than 40 miles per
hour.
Burke County High School
teacher Mark Flowers and his
students have spent the past
several weeks building an elec
tric car from scratch - a les
son he says taught them more
about engineering than they
could ever glean from a book.
From the motor to the bat
teries and the steering to the
brakes, they did it all.
“It basically covers every
aspect of a vehicle in a sim
pler form,” Flowers said.
"This has everything we talk
about in class on one machine.
The more things you do like
this, the more the students are
involved.”
Flowers plans to involve
other disciplines by having
math students calculate the
car’s speed using time and dis
tance data collected during test
drives.
Brendan McManus, a junior
who played a lead role in the
construction, hopes to be an
engineer one day, so this was
right up his alley. He called the
project a much more powerful
way to learn engineering con
cepts.
"I, personally, learn more
from hands-on. It gives me
more experience on how to do
things,” he said, laughing about
the sometimes ruthless lessons
of trial and error.
Classmate Dean Parrish said
the real payoff was seeing the
car driven for the first time.
"I thought, ‘wow, this thing
really works,”’ he said.
Flowers and his students will
continue to hone the technol
ogy on their car until next
spring when it will get an ulti
mate test drive at the Georgia
Electric Vehicle Rally. Mem
bers of Burke County’s Tech
nology Students of America
(TSA) organization will race
the car around a track and
through an obstacle course as
well as take a trouble-shooting
test to challenge their knowl
edge of the vehicle. They’ll
compete against schools across
Georgia and a handful from
Alabama.
By that time. Flowers hopes
to enlist the help of local busi
nesses to purchase another elec
tric car kit for TSA members
to assemble and race.
POSITIVE ENERGY
Flowers and his students
were recently featured in a na
tional TSA article for their elec
tric car project.
Students built miniature electric cars to learn about gear
ratios. Isadore Harold shows off his car, which proved
to be the fastest in the class.
Empty Stocking Fund
Jaycees need big
help in hard times
By Elizabeth Billips
lizbillips@yahoo.com
The Waynesboro Jaycees
are hoping to raise at least
$20,000 for this year’s
Empty Stocking Fund to pro
vide Christmas gifts to local
children who would other
wise do without.
Between now and Christ
mas, club members will be
collecting tax-deductible do
nations and selling trees at
their lot at Southern Bank to
get the job done. So far,
more than $2,000 has been
banked.
Last year, nearly $20,000
in donations paired with
around $6,000 in tree sales
put presents under the tree
for more than 600 children
in 140 families.
This year even more fami
lies are in need, and the Jay
cees asking for help from all
who are able to pitch in,
however small the donation.
Week’s total: $2,025
Total to date: $2,025
Woodmen of the World: $100
William Mizell Ford: $500
HELP FILL A STOCKING
Send a donations to:
Jaycees’ Empty Stocking Fund
P.0. Box 378
Waynesboro, Ga. 30830
Harvey J. & Martha J. Sanders: $1,000
Friends of Empty Stocking: $250
Town & Country Woman’s Club: $150
Kitty Lewis: $25
SARDIS CITY COUNCIL
Donnie Hickman - 98
Zenobia Freeman - 72
Voter Turnout - 47.7%
WAYNESBORO CITY COUNCIL
Portia Washington - 56
Curtis Bell - 34
Voter Turnout -10.9%
Lowest since May
New jobs drop
unemployment
rate to 10.9%
By Elizabeth Billips
lizbillips@yahoo.com
Burke County is crawling out of its unemployment hole.
According to figures just released by the Georgia Depart
ment of Labor (DOL), the county’s percentage of jobless resi
dents was down to an estimated 10.9 percent for the month of
October.
This compares to 12 percent a month earlier and 12.3 per
cent in August. Burke County’s rate hit its highest point in
July when the unemployment pool topped off at 13.4 percent.
By DOL estimates, nearly 350 Burke County residents have
found work since then.
Local leaders say hiring at Plant Vogtle and other local in
dustries contributed to the relief.
For the first time in months, Burke sits in the middle of the
pack compared to other Georgia counties. Along with Floyd,
Calhoun, Paulding and Walton counties, Burke ranks the 72 nd
highest of state’s 159 counties. Just three months ago, Burke
was listed as the 33 rd highest.
Oconee County continues to maintain the state’s lowest un
employment rate at 5.9 percent while Hancock had Georgia’s
highest at 20.4 percent.
Oct. 09
Sept. 09
Oct. 08
United States
9.5
9.5
6.1
Georgia
10.2
10.1
7.0
CSRA
10.2
10.1
7.6
Burke
10.9
12.0
8.8
Emanuel
10.8
10.9
8.3
Jefferson
14.4
15.1
11.3
Jenkins
17.5
19.4
14.5
Richmond
10.1
10.1
7.8
Screven
13.6
14.0
9.1
‘October 2009 figures are preliminary and are likely to be
adjusted in upcoming weeks. Rates only include residents
who are actively seeking work and do not take into consid
eration retirees, stay at home parents or those on disability
and other government programs.
ir &
B7D61554-Z114B
www.m[»Word!coin