Newspaper Page Text
January 26, 2022
Page 5A
ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN by Don Daniel
People must care
for us to succeed
here is the adage, when you can take advan
tage of growth, that’s good, but when growth
takes advantage of you, you got problems. And
I think that adage is very a propos for what is
happening in Monroe County as the headline blared last
week touting the phenomenal growth that not only took
place last year but the growth
that is projected. Remember
the song “It’s Only Just Begun”?
Well, coming to the defense
of our commissioners (though
a couple do not feel like they
need defending), there are is
sues that they are facing. In an
attempt to--the best words I
can use—manage the growth
and future growth, they are
beginning to think outside the
box. They should have been
thinking inside the box many
terms and commissioners ago.
Yes, the commissioners,
with the guidance of the county manager and county
finance director, are attempting to get ahead of certain
issues such as paving, replacing worn out equipment and
providing services that not only have lagged behind but
have become antiquated. Leadership takes being com
mitted, and not apathy. For instance, I’m gonna brag by
admitting I have been a member of the Forsyth-Monroe
County Chamber of Commerce for 50 years, and sup
ported the Chamber with my dues, attended yearly
chamber banquets, Business After Hours, monthly Eggs
and Issues function. In other words, I feel that I have
been a faithful and devout member. And at the annual
chamber banquet last Friday night, it surprised me who
in our community who are members and non-members
did not attend. Same wonderment about the E&I, BAH,
ribbon cuttings, and other chamber events, etc. I guess
the attitude is I pay my dues so I don’t have to attend
chamber events. Doggone it, they are chamber events
that promote our community and promote each other
and nothing less than 100 percent involvement and sup
port should be required.
Recently, I was a guest and speaker at a chamber event
at a town not quite as populous as Forsyth. It was a
breakfast meeting, similar to our chamber’s E&I and
there were 85 plus businessmen and ladies (I am sure not
because I was speaking) at the early morning event.
To me, that many members was indicative of support
for the chamber and the community.
A long time ago, I was appointed to the local chamber’s
advertising and promotion committee (first and only
appointment to the chamber board) and served as chair
man. I learned very fast that collecting hotel/motel tax
was like “rassling an octopus”. Everybody wanted some
whether it was legal or illegal to provide the money.
Long story short, I served on that committee one year
and was not reappointed by the chamber board. Learned
from that experience, don’t do your job.
NOW TO something different: the speaker at the MLK
Celebration in downtown Forsyth was Jesse Hicks and
from the numerous correct answers, three of the fastest-
-within seconds—correct answers were Gina Utley
Mathew Sims and Teresa Waite. They each receive a
certificate for dozen Dunkin Donuts, Dairy Queen Bliz
zard, car wash at Big Peach, slice of Shoney’s strawberry
pie, single dip at Scoops, fried green tomato appetizer at
Whistle Stop, Forsyth Main Street and Reporter t-shirt.
Here’s The Question for this week actually a simple
explanation of what is a “bitcoin” and how are they going
to be mined. Let me have you explanation by 12 noon on
Thursday.
OVER AT the county commission meeting, the meet
ing got rather contentious with the discussion of adopt
ing the International Property Maintenance Code. Will
has written about this document and its implementation.
I urge you to go by the commission office and get a copy
of the document.
Here are some of the approved 61 checks written total
ing $265,254.41. County attorney Benjamin Vaughn got
a monthly check in the amount of $8,038.96. Janitorial
Sullies from Bob Barker Company totaled $16,455.87.
Middle Georgia Regional Commission got $22,320.15
for a list of dues, etc., M&W Heating and Air racked up a
$22,275. Jeremy Pennamon was paid $5,984 for contract
labor—sports official; Tommy Campbell’s Collision
Center down in Bolingbroke got $17,012.54 obviously
repairing a 2019 Charger.
This pay-off, $59,429.58, to the United Bank credit
card included charges to Little Caesar’s Pizza, $80.25,
Ingles $77.43; Burger King, $134.61; Subway $26.15.
Greyhound, $239.99 for a ticket for S. Stone; El Tejado,
$181.8. Sol Tacos, $44.99; A lot of purchases for ACE
Hardware of Forsyth, Office Depot, Amazon, Walmart
with one charge, $1,621.72; Marcos, $205. 67; LaPasa
$137.60; El Dorado, $174.25.
WONDER IF our local Starbucks’ employees are going
to unionize. According to a Wall Street Journal story, the
baristas at the coffee chain are attempting a grass roots
campaign to unionize. According to the story, “around
two dozen of the chain’s nearly 9,000 U.S. corporate
stores have filed for individual union elections”.
AND THIS from George Carlin: Here’s something you
can’t do by yourself: practice shaking hands. One more:
if a safe is unlocked, is it still safe? This morning, I had
a great idea, but it was too late to put into this column.
I just wanted you to know this is where it would have
gone. Thanks George.
Contact Don Daniel, the founder of this newspaper, at
tullaybear@bellsouth. net.
@ Reporter
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Is city steamrolling local residents?
To the Editor:
"W" A "^hen I found out that
% J\ / a Bitcoin mining
1/ 1/ data center might
T T be built behind my
lovely yellow house, I was scared and
angry and confused. My anger and
confusion increased when I read the
rezoning application submitted by
Nathanial Persky on behalf of WM-
MGA, LLC/Wattum. The informa
tion in the application is minimal,
mostly large sections of text copied
and pasted over and over. Not once
did the application ever discuss
sound or ways to reduce it. Not once
and yet the planning and zoning
committee recommended approving
it, at a meeting held over the holi
days with questionable notification
to the public.
The Wattum website lists two
hosting sites in Georgia: Frontier
(fully booked) and Omega (com
ing soon). In a Facebook comment
since deleted, Persky confirmed that
Forsyth is the new site. As another
resident noted, this seemed incred
ibly premature since the land hasn’t
been officially rezoned yet. Or has it?
Out of curiosity, I went back to
the Wattum website, requested
more information on hosting, and
was sent a price sheet with hosting
locations. The new Georgia location
has hundreds of spots available as
soon as March 30. It appears that
10 of the spots have already been
sold (although not to me). With the
rezoning vote on Feb. 7, a March 30
start date is iffy to construct a build
ing with proper sound insulation
measures and acoustic walls (which
Persky now claims is the plan), but
it’s more than enough time if they
use the modified shipping containers
with no sound mitigation
as described in the original
rezoning application.
To accept money for
services with no guarantee
they can deliver is fraud.
Either Wattum follows the
motto of “move fast and
break things” and cares
little about rules and regu
lations, or the company
has received some sort of solid reas
surance that the land will be rezoned
and everything will go ahead, even
though the rezoning vote hasn’t hap
pened yet.
When I contacted Mayor Eric Wil
son with my concerns over Perksy’s
definitive statement that Forsyth, he
responded that “No one can grant
assurances of rezoning on behalf of
the Council. This is a function re
served for Council and must follow
the prescribed process.” However,
after a Jan. 18 council meeting, a city
employee in the electric department
talked to a concerned citizen and
“kept stating that we were misin
formed [and] spoke as if we are not
gonna have any choice.”
So here I am, still angry and
confused, and wondering which is
worse: a company that plays fast and
loose with the rules will be building
behind my house, or a local govern
ment that claims to be transparent
and honest, but isn’t.
And I’m scared because
neither the council nor
the company will have to
live with the noisy conse
quences. The consequences
will be felt by the residents
who can’t afford to move yet
find it miserable to stay. The
retirees who, having spent
their entire lives in their houses,
now can’t even open their windows
to catch the breezes.The children
with special needs and sound sen
sitivities who are no longer com
fortable in their own homes. The
neighbors who gather on porches
with sweet tea (or something stron
ger) to laugh and talk about the day
but now stay inside, isolated. The
gardeners, the dog walkers, the sun
set watchers, the bird song listeners.
All of us who are scared, and angry,
and confused.
E.G. King
Forsyth
KING
Tell DOT to replace noisy rumble strips
To the Editor:
e live on Hwy. 83 and
have had to endure
loud noise ever since
the DOT installed
rumble strips on the highway. The
noise from the strips is so loud that
in our bedroom at the front of our
house a c-pap machine, a humidi
fier, a ceiling fan and a rain noise
machine won’t drown it out at night.
A space heater fan and an air purifier
won’t drown the noise in the living
room at the back of our house. I used
to sit on the front porch with my
grandbaby and she enjoyed watch
ing the cars and trucks go by. Now
the noise from the strips scares her.
We own 18 acres and have a goldfish
pond in the very back that used to
be our quiet retreat. Now the noise
haunts us even there.
Pity the people who live in places
on this curvy, hilly road where pass
ing can actually take place!
What does that do to our property
values?
A nice home on large acreage
See DOT • Page 6A
A Report from The General Assembly
By Rep. Robert Dickey
robert.dickey@house.ga.gov
On Tuesday, January 1 8, I returned to the State
Capitol for “budget week. Each year, the Georgia
General Assembly is required by the state’s Constitution
to pass a balanced budget, and the House and Senate
typically devote the second week of the legislative
session to this very important process.
During budget week, the House and Senate
Appropriations committees held a series of
joint budget hearings over the course of
three days. To kick off the state budget
process, Governor Brian Kemp gave
opening remarks on Tuesday and presented
his formal budget recommendations for the
current and upcoming fiscal year budgets.
We also heard from the state’s lead fiscal
economist and other state agency heads,
each of whom provided valuable insight
into the vast budgetary needs of our state government.
We will consider the Fiscal Year 2023 (FY 2023)
budget, which will go into effect on July 1, 2022, and
end on June 30 of the next calendar year. The FY 2023
budget is set at a record revenue estimate of $30.2
billion and includes approximately $3 billion more than
the FY 2022 budget, making FY 2023 the largest
budget in the state’s history. Throughout the pandemic,
the state kept its doors open to doing business and cut
spending, while still providing uninterrupted services to
Georgians. As a result of some difficult yet proactive
spending decisions that were made over the last two
years, the governor and the state economist reported
that revenue projections have soared since we first
passed the original Fiscal Year 2022 budget
With these positive economic projections in mind, the
governor announced that the state can fully fund its
Revenue Shortfall Reserve and has accrued an additional
undesignated surplus, which he intends to give back to
Georgia taxpayers. Gov. Kemp proposes that the
Department of Revenue issue $1.6 billion in tax refunds
to every taxpayer in Georgia using funds from this
surplus. Under his plan, single tax filers would receive a
$250 refund, and those who file jointly would receive a
$500 refund once 202 1 tax returns are processed by
the state.
Education spending remains a top priority for the
governor, and this is certainly reflected in each of his
budget proposals. In 201 9, the General Assembly
provided a $3,000 pay increase to Georgia’s public
school teachers, and Gov. Kemp’s AFY 2022 and FY
2023 budget proposals include an appropriation to
complete his initial goal of providing a $5,000 pay raise
to our K-l 2 teachers, assistant teachers and pre-k
teachers. To ensure our school systems and teachers have
the necessary resources to provide quality education to
students, the governor’s proposal restores $388 million in
both fiscal years to eliminate the austerity cuts that were
made at the start of the pandemic. The HOPE scholarship
also needs to be adjusted to meet evolving needs and
keep pace with rising postsecondary education costs.
Therefore, the FY 2023 budget proposal allocates $79
million to fund program growth to allow the HOPE
programs to cover at least 90 percent of tuition at the
state’s public institutions.
Gov. Kemps budget proposal also upholds his commit
ment to keeping all Georgians safe across the state. His
recommendations for the upcoming fiscal year include
approximately $ 1.6 million to establish a gang prosecu
tion unit in the attorney general s office and expand the
state’s human trafficking unit. His proposal also includes
several million dollars for the Georgia
Bureau of Investigation’s medical examiners
and forensic services, which have experi
enced backlogs in processing criminal
evidence. While Georgia’s judicial system
has focused on reducing recidivism and
rehabilitating low-level, nonviolent offend
ers when appropriate, the state s aging
correctional infrastructure was not intended
to house the number of dangerous offend
ers that are currently in our prisons. In both
budget proposals, the governor recom
mends a historic total of $600 million to purchase a
newer prison facility and build a 3,000 bed facility to
house medium and high-security prisoners; investing in
modern correctional facilities would allow the state to
close four of its older, more dangerous facilities.
Like Georgia’s private sector, the state has faced a
worker shortage and high turnover rates this last year. To
attract and retain the best and brightest state personnel,
the governor recommends a $5,000 pay increase for all
full-time, benefit eligible state employees starting this
fiscal year, which would be the first cost-of-living adjust
ment for state workers in 1 4 years. The governor also
recommends increasing the state employer match for
401 (k) contributions and allowing state employees to
withdraw up to 40 hours of eligible leave as pay each
year starting July 1. During our hearings this week, nearly
every state agency expressed the critical need for this
cost-of-living adjustment for state employees, especially in
the face of inflation and a competitive job market.
Now that the joint budget hearings have concluded,
the House Appropriations subcommittees will begin to
meet separately to review specific portions of the budget
and delve deeper into the state agencies budget needs.
I enjoyed being with Mayor Wilson and City Council at
the Georgia Municipal Association’s annual legislative
breakfast on Monday before the House reconvened for
this week’s session. Cynde and I also had an enjoyable
evening at the Forsyth-Monroe County Chamber’s
annual meeting. Congratulations to all of the award
winners.
I always appreciate hearing directly from my constitu
ents, especially about issues or policies that could impact
our county/counties. My Capitol office number is at
404-656-5099 and my direct email is robert.dickey@-
house.ga.gov.
As always, thank you for allowing me to serve as your
representative.
Rep. Robert Dickey
404-656-5099
228-B State Capitol
Atlanta, Georgia 30334
robert.dickey@house.ga.gov