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Page 4A — Wednesday, February 17, 2021, The True Citizen
OPINIONS
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
The Pledge Of Allegiance
1 pledge, allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which
*it stands, one Nation under
God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice, for all.
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
LOOKING BACK
{this week in Burke County history}
10 YEARS AGO-FEBRUARY 23,20ll
Veteran Waynesboro Police Officer Mike Johnson was
killed in a boating accident on the Savannah River. Witnesses
said Johnson may have hit a submerged structure in the water
which resulted in him being thrown from the boat. Deputy
Coroner Susan Salemi said the drowning was the cause of
death, but that heart problems were a contributing factor.
A Jefferson County Grand Jury cleared Charles Frank
Strother of animal cruelty charges related to the killing of 19
dogs which were dumped along the Old Wadley Road. It was
determined that he had asked for and been given permission
to kill the dogs by the Wadley Police Department.
25 YEARS AGO-FEBRUARY 22,1996
The Waynesboro City Council approved the annexation
of 47 acres on Highway 25 north for the development of an
up-scale subdivision. Realtors handling the property said the
annexation would mean the construction of about 60 apart
ments and 30 plus single family homes could proceed.
Eleven local citizens were selected to take part in carrying
the Olympic torch when it travelled through Waynesboro on
its way to Atlanta. They included Dr. J. Miller Byne, Bill
Craven, Henry Hopkins, Jr., Preston B. Lewis, Jr. O .B. Poole,
Louis Sapp, Gladys Johnson, Rob Saxon, Cynthia Gardner-
Brim, Buzz Hankinson and Todd Ware.
The Burke County Bears basketball team recorded its first
winning season in eight years with 16 wins and ten losses.
40 YEARS AGO-FEBRUARY 18,1981
The roundup of 33 alleged drug dealers ended a four month
long investigation into illegal drug activity at Plant Vogtle.
Sheriff Greg Coursey said security officials at the plant had
initiated the investigation and recruited the assistance of local
and state law enforcement agencies.
The Burke County Hospital Authority officially requested
$3.7 million in county funding for the renovation of the
hospital.
A new shopping center on Highway 24 south of Waynes
boro was nearing completion. The center would include a
new Bi-Lo Supermarket, TG&Y Family Center, Wheelers,
Revco and Liquidation Mart.
75 YEARS AGO-FEBRUARY 21,1946
The Burke County Health Department announced plans
to provide an X-Ray program throughout the school system
which would screen every student, teacher and staff member..
The expense would be borne by the Burke County Tubercu
losis Association.
Advertisers included T.R. Holton Co., Hopper-DeLoach
Funeral Home, Guy Chance Motor Co., Sandeford Shoe Shop,
Jarvis Drug Co. and Ellis & Abbott Shell Service Station.
“Trail to Vengeance” starring Kirby Grant and Fuzzy Knight
was playing at the Grand Theatre.
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Waynesboro, Georgia 30830
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BEN ROBERTS
benroberts@bellsouth.net
A new chapter appears to be
on the horizon for Burke Medi
cal Center.
Last week, the Board of Com
missioners voted unanimously
to approve an agreement with
the Burke County Hospital
Authority that authorized the
funding for a lease agreement
with Burke Hospital Company
LLC, a new medical group who
will oversee the day-to-day op
erations of the hospital.
At a called meeting Monday
night, the hospital authority
also approved a resolution to
move forward with that lease
agreement.
Assuming this deal is ap
proved by the Georgia Attorney
General’s office, the new group
would begin running the hospi
tal on June 1,2021.
As with so many things like
this, rumor and bad informa
tion have spread faster than
facts and truth. At Monday’s
meeting, the authority answered
questions to address the con
cerns of those gathered.
Obviously, it’s a complicated
agreement but the authority
negotiated to ensure that the
hospital would not lose any of
its current services while adding
various surgical,orthopedic and
cardiovascular procedures.
The ER will remain open
24 hours a day with its current
number of eight beds.
There will be at least six beds
for hospital patients, which may
sound low but has been more
than enough over the past few
years. Most nights the hospital
has only one or two patients for
which to care.
The remaining beds would
house surgical patients requir
ing hospital care but could also
be used for sick patients in the
event of such a need.
The current staff will become
employees of the new group
with their current level of se
niority.
If you’re wondering what
prompted the need for such an
agreement and why now, the
answer is 33 million dollars.
According to Burke County
Manager Merv Waldrop, that
is roughly the amount of money
Burke County taxpayers have
spent to keep the hospital afloat
since 2015.
Burke Medical Center has
not been profitable in any of
those years, and taxpayers have
ensured that its bills were paid
and its employees received their
paychecks.
The only reason a county of
our size and demographic has
been able to afford this, and
our county commission has
been willing to foot the bill, is
because of the additional tax
revenue generated by the ex
pansion of Plant Vogtle. When
that expansion is complete in
the next couple of years and
Units 3 and 4 come online and
begin providing power, those
massive revenue increases will
stop and start a slow decline in
the coming years.
This agreement calls for the
commission to pay $22 million
of taxpayer money over the
course of the first seven-year
term for immediate facility
improvements and to continue
to cover the losses until the
hospital is profitable again.
After that first term, it will
be the responsibility of this
new hospital group to make it
on its own.
Hospital authority chairman
Chris Collins says there have
always been four options for
the future of the hospital: to
shut it down completely - a
nonstarter for the authority; to
sell it, giving up control for its
future; to continue on the cur
rent track which was financially
unsustainable in the long term;
or to find a suitable group to
lease the operations to.
Is this a perfect agreement?
Of course not, because no such
agreement exists.
The people of Burke County
own an aging facility that was
losing a pile of money on a
daily basis. No big hospital
from Augusta or anywhere else
was interested.
If you agree, like me, that
we need Burke Medical Center
in this community, then this is
continued on page 8A
Don Lively
Recently, our dynamic young
preacher used pictures of the
house that he grew up in as a vi
sual aid during one of his many
fine sermons. He spoke about
how his childhood memories
are so different than what he
saw when he recently went back
to see it. About how his memo
ries of his front yard were that it
was as big as a football field but
when he saw it recently, it was
actually quite small. How the
house seemed as big as a castle
to a child but in reality was a
simple two story home. How
the front porch seemed so high
that jumping off of it seemed
very brave but was really only
a couple of feet off the ground.
I understand that.
I believe that everybody has
mostly positive but possibly
imprecise memories of their
first home. When they actually
go back they see things quite
differently than they remember.
In my case, there's nothing
to see.
No evidence that there was
once a happy family living
there. No sign of the pecan trees
that were in the backyard or the
sycamore that stood out front.
These days there's just an empty
field with an irrigation pivot
that occasionally rolls over the
old house spot. I suppose if you
went out with a metal detector
you might find a few rusty nails.
Or maybe some coins that we
dropped over the years all those
decades ago. Maybe even that
tiny little pocket knife that I lost
and never found in the back
yard. But unless you knew that
there was a house there once,
you'd never guess it now.
It was more than a house.
It was a home.
My very first home, where
Mama and Daddy brought me
from the hospital.
The place where I grew up.
The first place that I ever got
mail, probably a few birthday
cards from my grandmothers
or aunts.
Since we moved out of that
house I've had no less than
twenty-five addresses in four
different states, but none of
those addresses evoke the same
kind of ponderings as does that
first clapboard, tin roofed farm
house with a lightning rod, out
in the middle of a cotton patch.
In the early years the home-
place was still divided by
fenced hedgerows. There were
a couple of abandoned houses
on the property and it was great
AT HOME
fun to explore those old places.
For a kid with a wild imagina
tion like me, I imagined all the
different folks who had lived in
those houses and I sometimes
wondered why nobody still
lived in them. We eventually
tore down all the old houses and
cleaned up the hedgerows and
turned the homeplace into one
large tract.
As with every farmboy who
grew up in the Blessed South,
the barn was a place where
great adventures were found.
The hayloft was my favorite
place on the farm and when
we weren't working that's nor
mally where you would find
me, whether I was reading my
favorite books about Daniel
Boone and Davy Crockett, or
playing war games with my
brothers and cousins.
The homeplace also had a
hotspot for finding arrowheads.
On one particular part of the
acreage there was an area that
was apparently a busy hunting
ground for Indians thousands
of years ago. When farmers
still used bottom plows to bring
rich soil deep below the surface
to the top, I spent many hours
searching the newly plowed
fields for the artifacts and I still
have many of them today.
Plumbing in the house was
limited and there were no bath
room facilities. Our outhouse
was fifty yards from the house
and "going" in the middle of
the night could be adventurous.
When I fondly think back
on the early years in my first
home, I don't fondly remember
the outhouse.
I don't miss the outhouse.
As I said earlier, there's noth
ing left of the old place. I helped
tear it down more than forty
years ago.
I didn't want to move. I would
have happily stayed in that
house my entire childhood.
But, as Daddy always said,
"time marches on", and Mama
finally convinced him to build
a new house.
I wasn't happy but when it
became a foregone conclusion
that we would be moving, my
only hope was that I'd have a
room of my own.
Nope.
The new house had three
bedrooms, just like the old one.
One room for the folks.
One room for my sister.
One room for three growing
boys.
But, no outhouse.
Real bathrooms.
I got used to that pretty quick
ly-