Newspaper Page Text
Where learning begins, but the fun never ends
WELCOME BACK-TO-SCHOOL
LET’S WORK TOGETHER TO PREPARE OUR
CHILDREN FOR ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL SCHOOL TERM.
O
CM
O
CM
CM
Vol. 142, No. 23 - Waynesboro, Ga. 30830 Established in 1882 Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - $1.00
Burke property owners to see increase in values
Annual assessment notices should
start landing in mailboxes this week,
and Burke County Chief Appraiser,
Phillip Wren, says many prop
erty owners should expect to see
increases in their property values.
Some of those increases, especially
for residential properties, could be
substantial.
Wren said it’s important to remind
property owners that Georgia law
requires appraised values for tax
purposes to be within a range of
36-percent to 44-percent of current
market values; however, Burke
County is held to a stricter standard
of 38-percent to 42-percent due to
a previous lawsuit involving Plant
Vogtle. Market values are deter
mined by the recent sales of property
in the area.
“The public needs to understand,
our office is not raising property
values on some whim or because the
county or the school board need or
want more tax money,” Wren said.
“This is a direct result of that hot real
estate market we’ve seen in Burke
County and across the country. All
of us know someone who has sold
a piece of property for a huge price;
well, this is the other side of that
coin. Those high prices have driven
up values and the State of Georgia
says we have to keep up with those
increases.”
Wren explained that there are two
kinds of growth to the county’s tax
digest, a term that refers to all the
taxable property in the county. Real
growth is made up of improvements
added to the taxable property for
this year, for example a newly con
structed home or a swimming pool
added to a property since last year.
Then there is inflationary growth,
where the physical characteristics
of a property have not changed but
the value has increased due to the
demand for similar properties.
“People are willing to pay more
for a property, so it has become more
valuable,” Wren said. “We have to
account for that increase in value for
tax purposes as well.”
According to Wren, the growth in
Burke County’ digest is primarily as
sociated with residential properties,
small acreage tracts with homes or
that are ready for construction. Wren
said residential properties have seen
an average increase of 18.8-percent
county-wide.
Wren said the next obvious ques
tion from property owners is “How
will this affect my taxes?”
He explained that if municipalities
don’t lower their respective millage
rates, or tax rates, from last year’s
rates, property owners that have an
increase in value will see in increase
in their tax bills as well.
Our office has zero control over
your tax bill. We are tasked with
setting an appropriate value for your
property. If you have an issue with
the amount of your
ccc
taxes, you’ll have to
take that up with the INCREASE,
elected officials for 3A
EBA students hand out lunches to Matoaka residents.
Second arrest made
in Simon Powell case
—MAKING A—
Difference
SHELLIE SMITLEY
thetruecitizen.shellie@gmail.com
Ten junior and senior students
from Edmund Burke Academy
took a missionary trip that gave
them a different perspective on
poverty.
The EBA group was part of
eight teams that made up ap
proximately 144 people who
journeyed to Matoaka, West Vir
ginia. EBA Headmaster Adam
Brett’s home church, Wadley
Baptist Church, makes the trip
annually. Brett had been thinking
about kicking off the leadership
students’ school year with a mis
sionary trip for a while, however,
like a lot of things, the pandemic
put the idea on hold.
“This year, we said okay, we
are going to do this,” he said.
The 10 EBA students teamed
up with 12 members from his
church to make the trek to the
old mining town with a 2010
census population of 227. The
unincorporated town is name
“If you don’t have
electricity or running water,
a good hot cooked meal is
hard to do” Headmaster
Adam Brett
for Chief Powhatan's daughter,
better known as Pocahontas.
According to a January 2016
article in the Bluefield Daily
Telegraph, the Virginian Rail
way started serving the Matoaka
area in 1907. In 1929, the greater
Matoaka area was the southern
terminus of the coalfields served
by the railway.
Captain D. H. Barger orga
nized the Bank of Matoaka in
1908. The town was incorpo
rated in 1912 but dissolved its
charter in 2018. Most of the
coal mine work in Matoaka ran
out during the 1940’s. Today,
the area is riddled in poverty
and drug abuse. A creek next
to the Bridge Baptist Church of
Matoaka is contaminated with
raw sewage.
“Poverty like we don’t under
stand here,” Brett said. “Drug
abuse like we don’t understand
here. Many of the families that
we minister to there
ccc
don’t have power or
running water.” EBA,
The EBA students 15A
SHELLIE SMITLEY
thetruecitizen.shellie@gmail.com
Waynesboro resident Mitchell
Lanell Lambert was arrested in
Cumming, Georgia and charged
with murder, kidnapping and armed
robbery in connection with the 2016
disappearance of Simon Powell.
The U.S. Marshall’s Office arrest
ed Lambert, 39, Thursday, July 21.
The Burke County Sheriff’s Office
is continuing to search an undis
closed pond for Powell’s remains.
“This particular area contains a
sizeable pond and we are in the pro
cess of draining it after divers were
unable to locate any evidence,” a
July 22 press release stated.
The BCSO is also seeking the
help of the community in locating
Crystal Gail Simmons (Mundy) for
SHELLIE SMITLEY
thetruecitizen.shellie@gmail.com
The Vidette City Council meet
ing resembled a game of musical
chairs Wednesday, July 20 as con
flict amongst the panel members
prompted two resignations.
Mayor pro tern Michael Pollex
began the meeting with sharp words
about the way he had been treated
since Vidette began its transition to
becoming a city of compliance. He
also criticized J.R. Alley and sug
gested that he was not a competent
person and possibly needed to step
down from the council. Although
he was scheduled to be sworn in as a
new councilmember that night, Alley
abruptly got up and walked outside
after stating that he felt “belittled” by
Michael Pollex’s comments. In the
Mitchell Lanell Lambert
questioning. She is known to have
connections in Columbia County
and Alabama.
meantime, Michael Pollex turned in
his resignation effective immediately
and left the City Hall.
Alley returned to the meeting.
City Attorney Chris Dube attempted
to keep things rolling by advising
the panel to officially vote to bring
alternative councilmember Brian
Segrest onboard. However, in an
other unexpected turn of events,
Councilwoman Monalisa Pollex
stated that she and her husband had
suffered considerable retribution
since they insisted the city hire an
attorney to navigate the compliance
process. She also resigned effective
immediately and left the building.
In a joint emailed
statement July 22, the SEE
Pollex couple said the VIDETTE
following: „.
“We filled council
Vidette: never a dull moment
Sheriff’s travel costs revealed
BEN ROBERTS
benroberts@bellsouth.net
(Editor’s note: This is the first
of several stories detailing Sher
iff Alfonzo Williams’ spending of
$425,000 in grant funds his office
received in late 2021.)
Burke County Sheriff Alfonzo
Williams has racked up over $38,000
in charges on an unauthorized credit
card since October of last year, pri
marily on travel outside of Burke
County. And now it appears some
of that travel, almost $9,000 worth,
is associated with a separate, paid
position Williams has with another
organization.
At the July Finance Committee
meeting of the Board of Commis
sioners, an invoice in the amount
of $10,000 from Crisp Consulting
Group was approved for payment
out of the Burke County Sheriff’s
Office (BCSO) budget. The bill
stated it was for a “Servant Officer
Class” for up to 25 attendees held
at the BCSO on June 22-24, 2022.
An email address on the statement
connected the group to the Leaders
Helping Leaders Network (LHLN).
According to the LHLN website, the
organization, founded by Dean Crisp
in 2018, has “hopes of creating a
network of leaders focused on lead
ership development and growth.”
The website offers seminars and
classes, a podcast and blog, as well
as a book by Crisp, all focused on
leadership techniques, The Servant
Officer class focuses on skills for
law enforcement individuals. Crisp’s
bio states that he is a 38-veteran of
law enforcement with 17 years as a
chief of police.
The second individual on the web
site’s staff page is Sheriff Williams.
He is listed as an “instructor.”
In email responses on Monday,
both Crisp and Williams confirmed
to The True Citizen that Williams
is a paid instructor with LHLN.
According to Williams, he began
that position in February of this
year. Williams declined, however,
to explain how or what amount he
was paid. He also declined to answer
questions about whether his travel
expenses for his work with LHLN
were included in his compensation.
Using social media posts by LHLN
and Williams, and credit card state
ments provided by Williams through
an open records request, The True
Citizen (TC) compared Williams’
out of state travel expenses with
corresponding LHLN seminars.
That investigation appears to show
Williams was the instructor for six
classes between February and June
of 2022. The credit
CCC
card statements show
charges including ho- REVEALED,
tels, meals, plane tick- 7A