Newspaper Page Text
Vol. 141, No. 11 - Waynesboro, Ga. 30830
Established in 1882
Wednesday, May 5, 2021 - $1.00
Commission Board retreats, discusses broadband issue
SHELLIE SMITLEY
thetruecitizen.shellie@gmail.com
Commissioners met at
the Burke County Library
Auditorium Saturday to
discuss their priorities moving
forward.
At the retreat, the
commissioners expressed
enthusiasm about solving the
county’s problem of limited
availability of broadband for
its rural residents.
They discussed using
$2 million of American
Rescue Plan funds to install
approximately 100 miles of
trunk line, giving Planters
Telephone Co-op something
to work with, so that they can
expand broadband service
throughout the county. The
county would focus on
installation of trunk lines
at main spokes, including
Highways 56, 25, 23, 24 and
80.
Several potential options
were discussed including,
partnering up with the school
system and selling the county-
owned trunk lines to Planters
over a designated number of
years.
They will place the issue
of accepting installation
proposals on the agenda in
May or June, corresponding
with the first American
Rescue Plan disbursement.
County Manager Merv
Waldrop said the federal
Rural Digital Opportunity
Fund program is slowing
down the current process
of remediating the county’s
broadband problems.
Guidelines mandate that
the area should be covered
within 6 years, but low bid
acceptance may make that
impossible. By taking the
matter into their own hands,
the members agreed that
they may be able to solve the
county-wide problem within
3-4 years.
The commissioners are
taking more
than broadband SEE
into their hands. BOARD
They also talked ^
about taking on
Vice-Chairman Evans Martin (left) and Commissioner Lu-
cious Abrams discuss broadband issues during a retreat
session May 1.
Sisters prepare for
first holiday without
their matriarch
COMPILED BY
DIANA ROYAL
Mother s Day is a time of celebration,
where folks scramble about trying to find the
perfect gift to bestow on the one who gave Barbara Daniel Collier, center, with her daughters, Lisa Collier Brantley, left,
them life. Families gather at church, some and Kristy Collier Smith
around a dinner table piled high with Mom’s
favorite dishes and desserts.
For others, though, the May holiday is a time of bereave
ment, a reminder of pain and an empty feeling that’s, unfor
tunately, sometimes stoked by the joy of others.
Kristy Collier Smith and Lisa Collier Brantley are feeling
the void as their first Mother’s Day without their mama,
Barbara Daniel Collier, approaches. The sisters have been
cleaning out her Waynesboro home, the home not only they
grew up in but the one she was raised in as well, following
her death last year after being diagnosed with COVID-19.
“Being in her home without her here is quite painful and
sad,” Lisa says, while Kristy adds, “The tears and emotions
are there one moment and laughter the next in remembering
things when we come across them.”
The pair agrees they thought they’d have more time
with their mom, a spunky woman well-known and loved
throughout her community, a sweet soul who never forgot
her lipstick or manners.
But on Nov. 16, 2020, a text to Kristy about
J cpp
not feeling well led to the diagnosis none of
them wanted to hear. “From there, it was an MOTHER,
up and down rollercoaster that will forever be 9A
Mrs. Collier in 1973 with her pride and joy, her two daughters.
PLANT VOGUE
Leak may delay
Unit 3 fuel loading
SHELLIE SMITLEY
thetruecitizen.shellie@gmail.com
Construction crews are
tending to a few hiccups as
Georgia Power prepares for
Unit 3’s fuel load.
Fuel assembly deliveries
have been paused in order to
repair a leak that has devel
oped in the spent fuel pool of
Plant Vogtle’s Unit 3.
The spent fuel pool is lo
cated in the unit’s auxiliary
building, a separate location
from the containment vessel
that houses the reactor, said
Georgia Power spokesper
son Jeffrey Wilson. The site
requires 157 fuel assemblies
in preparation for fuel load.
Currently it has received 64.
Experts expect to receive all
157 assemblies in time to
support fuel load.
Additionally, electrical con
struction that failed to meet
quality and design standards
has challenged Unit 3’s in-
service date.
In a March 19 report to
the United States Securities
and Exchange Commission,
Georgia Power announced
that Southern Nuclear Oper
ating Company, Inc. identi
fied additional construction
remediation work primarily
related to electrical commod
ity installations.
As a result, hot functional
testing, conducted to veri
fy the successful operation
of reactor components and
systems together
and confirm the
reactor is ready V0GTLE,
for fuel load, was 10A
The Boss is back
DIANA ROYAL* jdianaroyal@gmail.com
After the devastating blow of
having to put the hee-hawing on
hold last year, the Boss Hog State
Championship Cookoff is back and
raring to go.
“We are so glad that Covid-19
cases here are down and that we
are able to have the Boss this
year,” said Lindsey Beazley Keller,
co-chair for DOOR (Downtown
Organization of Retailers), the group that organizes this
Kansas City Barbecue-sanctioned event. “Boss
Hog is a serious competition, but it’s so much ®EE
fun sometimes people don’t remember that. We BOSS,
cannot wait to welcome all the teams and judges 3A
Fundraising efforts begin for Mad Anthony’s Fireworks Extravaganza
DIANA ROYAL* jdianaroyal@gmail.com
The City of Waynesboro’s Downtown Development Author
ity is asking for assistance with its annual Independence Day
celebration.
DDA has been presenting the Mad Anthony’s Fireworks Ex
travaganza for several years and managed a socially distanced
display in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. “This
year, we want to come back with a big bang,” DDA Director
Don Lively said, recalling how successful the previous year’s
show was despite the chaos created by the coronavirus. “Our
community needed it then, and we need it now; this is a time
we can celebrate together our beautiful country and the things
we’ve all overcome.”
That togetherness is also what helps make the Waynesboro
fireworks show happen.
“We raise the money entirely on our own, with sponsors
across the county digging into their pockets to ensure we have
the money,” Lively continued. “We get no funding from the city
or county, but local businesses, organizations and individuals
step up every year, and we’ve yet to not have a show!”
So far, $2,700 of the $10,000 needed has been donated, ac
cording to Lively.
The show, set for Saturday, July 3, will begin at “dark thirty”
at Jonathan Broxton Park.
Contributions may be sent to the City of Waynesboro/DDA
c/o Don Lively, 615 N. Liberty St., Waynesboro, GA 30830. For
additional information, call Lively at 706.554.8018
THIS WEEK’S DONATIONS:
Samsons Manufacturing $2,000
Queensborough Bank $500
A&A Minit Mart $200
Total $2,700
TOTAL TO DATE: $2,700
GOAL: $10,000
NEEDED: $7,300
HAPPY
DAY
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