Newspaper Page Text
Page 4— Wednesday, April 27, 2022, The True Citizen
OPINIONS
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LOOKING BACK
{this week in Burke County history}
10 YEARS AGO-MAY 2,2012
After several years of coaching at Burke County Middle
School as well as the junior varsity, Billy Marchman was
named head baseball coach at Burke County High School. He
said, “I will stay in this position as long as they allow me to.”
EBA freshman Carter Mobley shot even par to become
low medalist in the GISA Class-AA state golf tournament at
Jekyll Island. He had won low medalist honors at the region
tournament the previous week.
Late former Waynesboro radio station owner Bob Hunnicut
Sr. was inducted into the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame. Hun
nicut had also served as Burke County’s magistrate judge.
25 YEARS AGO-APRIL30,1997
Frederico Palmer testified in Burke County Superior Court
that his uncle, Willie Palmer, shot and killed his estranged
wife and her daughter on Sept. 10 1995. Willie Palmer faced
the death penalty if convicted of the two murders.
The City of Waynesboro endorsed the county’s proposal for
a one percent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax to be
voted on in a referendum. County funds would be used for
road improvements and the city identified needed water and
sewer projects throughout the community.
Construction was underway on the Burke County Senior
Citizens Center. The project was mostly paid for by a grant
to the county.
50 YEARS AGO-APRIL26,1972
Kirby Brooks, a junior at Boggs Academy, was named
president of the Honor Societies of the State of Georgia at
the organization’s annual meeting at Jekyll Island. Over 500
students from 33 honor societies across the state participated
in the meeting.
Mike Griffis, manager of Radio Station WBRO, invited
the public to visit the station to help celebrate its 18th anni
versary. The station was owned by legendary country singer
Webb Pierce.
Burke County School Superintendent M. W. Sessions said
the county had initiated steps to begin a program for gifted
students in the school system. Emanuel Larkin, Jr. was named
as coordinator of the program.
70 YEARS AGO-MAY 1,1952
The City of Midville placed 25 large trash cans in the busi
ness section of the city in hopes that citizens would help keep
the city free of unsightly trash and garbage.
The State Board of Education approved $1.5 million in fund
ing for new school facilities in the county. Henry W. Blount of
Waynesboro, First District representative on the board, made
the announcement.
Advertisers included Southern Auto Store, First National
Bank, Augusta Roofing and Metal Works, Dolin’s Dept. Store
and Jitney Jungle Supermarket.
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Waynesboro, Georgia 30830
Telephone: (706) 554-2111 • Fax: (706) 526-4779
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Feature Writer/Reporter/Associate Editor; Brannon
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BEN ROBERTS
benroberts@bellsouth.net
“The Commission is not
entitled to dictate how funds
allocated to the Sheriff are
to be used. Yet, by requiring
control over the payroll of
the Sheriff’s employees, the
Commission is able to do just
that. For example, in order to
grant promotions or administer
nighttime differential and over
time pay, the Sheriff must seek
approval from the Commission,
which approval it has histori
cally withheld.” - portion of
statement from Sheriff Alfonzo
Williams regarding his appeal
The sheriff’s lawsuit against
the Burke County Commis
sioners is headed to round two.
Sheriff Alfonzo Williams has
appealed the January ruling by
Augusta Judicial Circuit Supe
rior Court Judge Jesse Stone
that dismissed the sheriff’s
Mandamus lawsuit against the
Burke County commission.
In a statement explaining
his action to WJBF News in
Augusta, Williams, unfortu
nately, continued to play fast
and loose with some of the facts
in the case. In the portion of
his statement above, the sheriff
claims that commissioners have
“historically” turned down his
requests to pay his officers a
supplement for those working
night shifts as well as his desire
to offer bonuses for officers
with certain levels of secondary
educational degrees - both of
which, I would say, are reason
able incentives when taken at
face value.
Williams is mostly correct
when he says “historically”
because, yes, in 2021, the com
mission did turn down a re
quest for these supplements in
the middle of a budget year.
However, the commission typi
cally turns down such mid-year
requests because those funds
have not been included in a de
partment’s budget. They prefer
to wait until the next budget
cycle to make a final decision.
Also, to the best of my knowl
edge, this is the only time Wil
liams has officially asked for
such pay incentives.
A few months later, when the
sheriff was putting together his
requests for the 2022 budget,
he didn’t ask for these supple
ments to be included at that
time either.
Fast forward to November of
last year, when Williams sued
the commission for control of
his department’s payroll after
the two parties couldn’t agree
on their respective responsi
bilities concerning the BCSO’s
budget.
Realizing that the law was on
the sheriff’s side on this point,
in December, the commission
passed a resolution by a vote of
5-0 stating “that the number of
deputies and other employees
of the Sheriff of Burke County
and their amount of pay shall no
longer be subject to the control
of the Board of Commission
ers....”
Williams is no longer re
quired to ask for permission
on how he spends his payroll.
If he wants to pay extra to
employees working the night
shift or someone who earns a
bachelor’s degree, all he needs
to do is instruct the county to
make that change to someone’s
paycheck.
There are other facts in this
disagreement that remain in
dispute; this point, however, is
not one of them.
For the sheriff to continue to
suggest otherwise is an example
of him not being honest with his
constituents.
The principals’ office of sev
eral Burke County schools
will have different occupants
next year.
According to personnel
changes at last week’s board
of education meeting, Waynes
boro Primary School Principal
Sam Adkins will retire at the
end of this school year.
According to
Burke County SEE
School Superin- BIRD DOG,
tendent Angela g
(Reprintedfrom 2014)
I admit, I don’t have the pa
tience of Solomon.
Wait.
That’s not right.
The patience of Job, not
Solomon.
It’s the wisdom of Solomon.
The patience of Job.
I think.
I get the two Old Testament
axioms confused.
Honestly, I’ve never been ac
cused of having much of either
of those commodities, patience
or wisdom. Being short of both
has, at times, caused me some
frustration.
You’ve heard the old nugget
of advice, “take a deep breath
and count to ten.”
It doesn’t work.
It’s a waste of breath and
verbalized numerals.
A few years ago, I was driv
ing my family across northern
Nevada enroute to Oregon.
Northern Nevada is, in the
words of Red Skelton describ
ing Texas, “miles and miles of
nothing but miles and miles.”
Not a lot to look at except sage
brush and tumbleweeds. But the
Don Lively
NOT IN ME
Oregon coast awaited and I’d
picked what I thought was the
quickest route.
Not so fast.
Somewhere along the way we
were leaving a small town and
got behind an old pickup truck
with an old man driving and
an old woman in the passenger
seat. The bed of the truck held
dozens of bags of groceries and
I quickly surmised that these
ranchers had come to town for
a month’s supplies and were
headed home.
That would normally be a
quaint sight.
Americana at its best.
Not so much.
The old fellow drove at a
steady forty-three miles an hour
on roads so winding that there
was no way to get around him.
For eighty-six miles.
I kept count.
Eighty-six.
At forty-three miles an hour.
Do the math.
And to make it worse his
right turn signal blinked the
entire time.
For eighty-six miles.
Finally, thank Jesus, he
tapped his brakes and began
to slow.
He turned left.
Finally free of his eighty-
six-mile slow speed misuse of
turn indicators, I was so happy
to leave him in the dust that
I stomped my accelerator at
which point my wife-at-the-
time told me that I should learn
some patience.
I scoffed for about five sec
onds.
Until I smacked an errant
prairie dog vaporizing him to
kingdom come and putting
a rodent shaped dent in the
Blazer’s grill.
My wife-at-the-time scoffed
for about five minutes.
And probably smirked.
I don’t do frustration well.
Recently I ran into a lady that
I’d met at one of my book sign
ings. She began to rave about
my book and related how she
had loaned her copy to “at least
twenty-five” of her friends and
relatives, all of whom had read
it cover to cover.
While half of me was grati
fied, the other half was calcu
lating “at least” twenty-five
unsold copies sitting in my
closet creating dust bunnies.
Twenty-five copies that could
have sold for.. .well.. .mercy.
I just gave her my most sin
cere weak smile and thanked
her.
I meant it; I was very grateful.
And a little frustrated.
A large part of my real job
(the one that pays the bills, not
the one where I write words that
I pray you continue liking) is
event planning, from 4th of July
Fireworks shows to Christmas
parades. With very few excep
tions the weather has wreaked
havoc on my planning.
There may not be a more
frustrating experience than to
sit in an office checking www.
weather.com every hour trying
to decide whether to postpone
or proceed.
The problem is, Who are you
going to blame? The One who
controls the weather?
Hardly.
There are a few other things
that just forevermore scorch
my grits.
Like when I watch a movie
where the story is based in
the Blessed South but none of
the actors have a clue about
how to truly articulate an au
thentic Southern accent when
there are dozens of amazing,
talented performers who hail
from below the Mason-Dixon
who could.
When somebody who doesn’t
have a job, and, from what lean
tell, has never had a real one,
feels compelled to offer his or
her unsolicited opinion as to
how I should be doing mine.
When I arrive at an airport
only to find that my flight will
have an unexplained and un
apologized for five
hour delay during
which time I could LIVELY,
ride a slow mule to 6