Newspaper Page Text
October 12, 2011
■Reporter
PAGE 5A
On the Outside Looking In
Why is comity
waging war on
a pizza joint?
I do not know Stephanie Lammers other than her
going before the Monroe County Commissioners to
re-apply for a beer selling license--twice. She’s the
small business owner of Stephanie’s Pizzeria up in
High Falls and wants to sell beer when you order a
pizza at her six-table restaurant.
Once before, the commissioners
turned her down and the other night
she appealed the decision, having filed
all the proper paper work so that we
could have an All-American meal of
pizza and a cold beer up in High Falls.
As a small business owner,
Stephanie wants to make a decent
wage and serve a good pizza, and a
pizza is not a pizza without a cold
glass, can or pitcher of beer. Pizza
and beer at High Falls would be a
come-on for the residents up there as
well as one commissioner stated, “High Falls is a
tourist location”. You can purchase beer at the grocery
store, service station and the infamous biker bar up in
High Falls.
Long story short, the commissioners did not approve
Stephanie’s appeal to sell beer with a pizza order by a
vote of 2-2-1. Explanation: the commission chairman
made the motion to approve the pouring license, com
missioner Larry Evans voted aye, commissioners Jim
Ham and Pasty Miller voted nay with Stephanie’s
commissioner abstaining from the vote. That’s right,
Stephanie’s representative on the commission, Joe
Proctor, did not vote. He abstained! That’s what I call
a slap in the face to a small business owner starting a
new business. Neither of the two voting against
Stephanie nor the abstainer explained why they would
not support a small legitimate business owner, partic
ularly with the economic conditions being what they
are, just about everybody attempting to earn a wage
and businesses going out of business like dead flies.
The irony of this is that Stephanie had a beer license
at a location down the road but moved up the road to
save on rent money. But moving to a new location less
than mile up the road caused her to have to re-apply
for a beer license.
I wanted to ask Commissioner Proctor why he
abstained but the word up in my/his district is he will
not talk to me nor will he return my phone calls. Don’t
know why he would abstain but the supposed reasons
are he doesn’t condone beer drinking with a pizza; too
many places already sell beer in High Falls, “I’m tired
of all the beer drinkers....”, you get the idea.
Wonder if commissioner Ham would support a pizze
ria in Smarr or Culloden, both in his district, selling
beer with a pizza pie? Maybe he is more of a ham
sandwich and sweet tea aficionado
Commissioner Miller obviously went along with her
constituents so she could brag about her being against
alcohol sales when her re-election comes up. There
are a lot of beer sellers down in her district including
in Juliette and Bolingbroke selling beer by the bag and
six-pack.
With all that said, here’s my idea: Let’s support
Stephanie and her small business. Bring your own
beer and let’s support a small business and enjoy a
good pizza. I don’t think there is a county ordinance
about bringing your own beer to a restaurant if they
don’t or can’t serve beer. I’m sure the TTAUD’s will tell
the county attorney to “jump” on such an idea to pre
vent such brown bagging from happening. .
REALLY, we do not have county water except up in
High Falls where two wells supply the famous over
flowing water tank. Most “Monroe County water” is
actually purchased water from Bibb and Butts
Counties.
UNATTRIBUTED comments from the commission
meeting:
“Since I’ve been on county water, I have had no kid
ney problems”.
“Kids and their old lady can come with them”.
“We wouldn’t want a McDonalds where the patrol
post used to be”
“We gonna tear something down”.
‘You have been here longer than me and Larry com
bined. Have you ever been able to get water to run up
hill?”
‘You know what that means when they say they
gotta think about it”.
“I had to wait until somebody died”.
“Maybe she has caller ID. That’s why she won’t talk
to you”.
“He’s dead now. He won’t hold you up”.
THE WINNER of a certificate for a cookie from
Jonah’s, breakfast buffet from Prime Palate and a 12
oz Blizzard from Dairy Queen is Evelyn Bugg for iden
tifying Monroe County Bank as the back page adver
tiser in “Welcome Home”.
Here’s the question for this week: How many law
firms are listed as members of the Forsyth-Monroe
County Chamber of Commerce in the “Welcome Home”
publication? First correct answer after 12 noon on
Wednesday is the winner.
UNDERSTAND the Forsyth Police Department has
a new mascot: a goat. Chief Keith Corley needs your
help in naming the mascot. Send him your sugges
tions. If it is a female, my suggestion is “Forsythia”.
IF YOU want proof that tourists coming through
Monroe County contribute to our local economy, check
out the Incident Reports section of this newspaper.
The Forsyth Police Department and Monroe County
Sheriff’s Department do a good job nabbing tourists
coming through on 1-75.
Donald Jackson Daniel can be contacted at tullay-
bear@bellsouth. net.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Mayor: Not intending to sell cable
To the editor:
I would like to take a
moment to lend some
clarity to recent arti
cles and the video in
terview that the Re
porter provided to WMAZ-
TV. I believe the statements
were made that the
City could review
the assessment and
sell the cable system
within 120 days.
That is not the
intent of the City
Council and
Mayor’s request for
the system to be
analyzed. The
intent of hiring the
consultant Jim
Faircloth’s company is to
provide an analysis of the
Cable System’s worth collec
tively, and relative to the
current economic climate
that exists within the cable
industry in the United
States. Over the last five
years, multiple reviews of
the business practices and
potential enhancements
have been provided to the
governing body of the City
of Forsyth, showing how the
City could make the Cable
system more profitable.
City Council has not imple
mented those recommenda
tions, due presumably to
budget restraints and per
haps even political pres
sure.
Mr. Faircloth
was retained as a
knowledgeable
cable industry
insider who would
give a fair and
concise valuation
for the City’s sys
tem. He will pro
vide a non-emo-
tional valuation,
and precise overview of
what the system is worth to
the citizens of Forsyth. His
purpose is not to position
the Cable System to be sold,
but to give the elected offi
cials a true and unbiased
view of what the system’s
worth is currently. We as
elected officials are tasked
with spending the citizen’s
money wisely, with the goal
that any negotiations of any
type should be entered into
with the maximum amount
of information. My position
is to insure that the City
receive a fair and equitable
value should they ultimate
ly decide to vote to offer the
system for sale. This review
is to provide a dollars and
cents evaluation that will
help the City’s elected offi
cials use clear reasoning in
reviewing the value of the
system, and ultimately the
consequences of selling it or
keeping it. It would be a
real shame if your city lead
ers found themselves apolo
gizing several years from
now because they rushed a
decision for political expedi
ency rather than sound
business practices, and cost
their own taxpayers enor
mous sums of money.
It has been obvious for
years that any municipali
ty’s governing body is not
necessarily the best
approach for management
of a cable system, unless it
was able to remove itself
from the day-to-day opera
tions of the system. Any
technology venture needs to
have a qualified manage
ment team run the system.
Yes, politics plays a part in
the decisions that we all
make, however it should
never be the only basis for
those decisions. A decade
ago the City of Forsyth’s
elected officials made a
decision to improve the
quality, and service delivery
of Cable television and
thereafter the high-speed
Internet service for its cus
tomers. It has benefitted
your City, County, and
Board of Education over the
years. Your City Council
and Mayor must always
gain as much information
as possible to make the best
decisions, because we will
always be held responsible
for our actions on our citi
zens behalf.
Tye Howard
Forsyth
Tye Howard is the mayor
of the City of Forsyth.
Sanders
continued from the front
p.m. on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Katie's large
network of friends and fam
ily were praying for her
strength and recovery, fol
lowing her progress through
Marcy Sanders’ updates on
www.carepages.com. Marcy
said Katie must have
speech, occupational and
physical therapy, but is
already using sign lan
guage, counting in Spanish
and has gotten out of bed
numerous times. On
Monday night Marcy wrote
that Katie pulled out a feed
ing tube they had inserted
to help her recover, and she
boasted, “I got it daddy! I
got it daddy!”
Members of the MP soft-
ball team, which Marcy
Sanders helps coach, deco
rated her original room
with signs, lights, garland,
stars, etc. on Friday. On
Sunday Katie was moved to
Room 5255 and of course
the decor followed.
Marcy wrote that the hos
pital staff has been so
impressed by the support
from her friends in Forsyth
that they call her "Miss
America".
A freshman at Mary
Persons High School, Katie
has two younger sisters,
Naomi and Summer. Naomi
celebrated her 12th birth
day at Egleston on Monday.
All three sisters were bap
tized at New Providence
Baptist Church on Sept. 25.
Friends have created a
“Pray for Katie Sanders”
Facebook site.
Marcy noted on Monday
that Katie’s not the only
local teen needing prayer.
Another teenage member of
New Providence, Kyle
Jenkins, was hospitalized
Sunday after having a
seizure. A student at MP, he
has been diagnosed with
Type I diabetes and is in
ICU awaiting an MRI at the
Children’s Hospital at the
Medical Center because
he’d had a brain bleed. Kyle
is the son of David and
Elaine Jenkins.
Families of both teens say
they appreciate the commu
nity’s support and prayers.
Howard
continued from the front
to address the city's annual
$500,000 in losses in cable.
Whether it's cable or anything else
the city does, Howard said the key is
holding people accountable to serve
the citizens.
"The first thing is implement a sys
tem of accountability. I will hold
myself accountable to the council as
the leader, implementing the vision
and goals. And I'd want council to be
accountable for their duties, in get
ting things done."
Howard said by being accountable
to the people it will remind city lead
ers that they work for the residents.
The city must also be accountable
for the money it spends, said
Howard.
But Howard said people he talks to
complain that city hall is not respon
sive to city residents.
"There seems to be no answers,"
said Howard "I hear that a lot of the
city is not responsive. The people
deserve answers."
One way the city can be more
responsive, said Howard, is to do
something about a pool. Howard
said there's not nearly enough recre
ation for children in the city. He said
he doesn't understand why the city
has two vacant pools. Howard said
he would implement benchmarks to
decide where the city needs to go to
add more recreation.
Howard said the city also needs to
work on its infrastructure, which he
said is old and designed for a city
much smaller than Forsyth. "Our
city has grown," said Howard.
"There are more and more kids ..
and more kids are having kids. One
clue is all these schools. We used to
have just three schools total and
now we have three elementary
schools. That tells us we're growing."
He was asked how he would pay
for such upgrades. Howard said he
hears so much about money being
tight, but said that can be
addressed.
"Of course it's tight," said Howard,
"you're losing half a million per year
(on cable). First stop the bleeding.
Look our budget over and see other
areas we're wasting money. Where
there's a budget, money's being
wasted."
Howard said the city can use
grants and loans as well to fund
improvements.
Another priority Howard cited is
fixing interruptions in the city's
power service. He said the city does
n't have that many businesses and
must make sure those which are
here are getting good service. He
said a power interruption can be a
real problem for a business like a
bank that operates off a server.
Howard acknowledges he would
have to work with council to get
things done. That may be made easi
er by the fact that he's a neighbor of
two incumbent council members,
Desi Hansford and Melvin
Lawrence, and one challenger,
Rosemary Walker. He said he does
n't know who they're supporting for
mayor.
Howard was born in South Bend,
Ind. but moved to Forsyth when he
was four after his dad took a job
teaching at the Hubbard School.
He graduated from Mary Persons
in 1989. He also has an associate's
degree and says he's one year away
from getting his bachelor's. He
served in the U.S. Army, including a
two-year stint in Italy and England.
In 2002, Howard
went to work for
the city of
Forsyth as a
police officer. In
2005, he got a
job in informa
tion technology
at Upson
Regional Medical
Center in
Thomaston but
stayed on part-
time at the police
department until
he was sidelined
by shoulder sur
gery in 2007.
He said he had
offers to work for
other police
departments but
said he stayed in
Forsyth because
he had a passion
to work in his
community. He
said he loves
police work and
still wants to
stop when he
sees blue lights.
"I wouldn't
want to work
anywhere but in
my own commu
nity," said
Howard. "I miss it. I miss being here
during the day."
Even though he works in
Thomaston, Howard said his
employer gives him flexibility and he
would be a very accessible mayor.
"I will return your call," said
Howard, "I hope voters won't base
their decision on the fact that I work
out of town."
Howard and his wife live on
Brookwood Drive and have a 14-
year-old son. He has a grown 22-
year-old daughter with a 2-year-old
granddaughter. He is a deacon at St.
James Baptist Church.
While some past candidates have
refused to attend political debates,
Howard said he will be at the city
elections debate at 6:30 p.m. on
Monday, Oct. 24.
'I think it's in my best interest to
be there," said Howard. "How (are)
you gonna be mayor if you don't
come to the debate?"
1 Routine and emergency
house calls are available
day or night.
1 Preventative medicine,
including vaccinations
and flea, tick and
heartworm medications.
1 Comprehensive
medical management,
including diseases
such as diabetes and
heart disease.
1 Surgery
1 Boarding and
Grooming
Caldwell Veterinary
Hospital, LLC
Butler Caldwell, DVM
951 Hwy 41 South • Forsyth, GA
478-994-8228
www.caldwellvet.com