Newspaper Page Text
February 2, 2022
^Reporter
Page 5C
State picks own map for Monroe Co. districts
By Will Davis
publisher™ my mcr.net
Monroe County has a
new map of county com
mission districts, but it
didn’t come out like com
missioners had approved
on Jan. 20.
Instead the state reappor
tionment office tweaked it.
Commissioner Eddie
Rowlands District 2 now
spans an even larger swath,
from the Riata subdivision
on Johnstonville Road all
the way down to Zebu-
Ion Road. Commissioner
Lamarcus Davis’ District 1,
which used to basically be
the city of Forsyth district,
now extends from Todd
Creek subdivision south
of town all the way up to
Blount Road, almost the
Butts County line. That was
part of the state’s effort to
try to get the black popula
tion in District 1 close to
50 percent. It now is 48
percent black. Monroe
County’s black population
declined in the 2020 census
from 23.7 percent in 2010
to 21.9 percent.
In George Emami’s Dis
trict 4, the state removed
property at Hwy. 41 and
Thornton Road where
Emami is building a new
subdivision and hopes to
move one day. Tapley had
removed it from an earlier
version after Emami asked
that it be included.
The state map does,
however, leave District 4 on
a finger-like jut down Hwy.
41 to across the street from
the new subdivision.
Emami said he accepts
the state’s decision but said
the resulting map doesn’t
make much sense.
“I’m surprised that the
map we agreed to wasn’t
approved,” said Emami. “In
certain places the lines look
cleaner and in others they
look worse. Seems very
arbitrary’’
Emami added that it’s not
something he’s going to
fight over.
“I have to pick my
battles,” said Emami.
Commissioners had ap
proved their map on Jan.
20 after the state sent an
earlier version back with
complaints that it in
cluded the Burruss prison
population and didn’t have
enough blacks in District 1.
District 2 commissioner
Eddie Rowland said it
seems like their input
wasn’t really used.
“If whatever we give them
they’re gonna tweak, I
guess I serve at the pleasure
of the governor,” said Row
land. “I guess they can do
what they want to do.”
Rowland said his district
is geographically the largest
in the county, but said he’s
OK with that.
Park
Piedmont
National Wildlife
Refuge
Rtf
Johnstonville
Lamar
Redbone
Arkwright
f atesville
Thomastof
5 Miles
fuSj
vj
1, 41 ^
1
/ f
y 11
\
VI
^)US(
“It’s a lot of area to cover,”
said Rowland. “But when
density is low, you don’t
have as many problems.
People are generally rural
and they just want to be left
alone.”
The new district map
takes on added importance
after District 4 commis
sioner George Emami
announced he will not seek
re-election.
Jail visitor charged with hit & run on public defender s car
By Steve Reece
stevereece@gmail.com
An elderly Juliette woman was cited
for hit and run after she struck the
chief public defender’s car while visit
ing an inmate at the Monroe County
Jail around 1:55 p.m. on Friday, Jan.
25 and drove away. According to the
incident report, Vicki Walters, 73, of
Juliette, caused significant damage
to a 2017 Ford Fusion belonging to
public defender Doug Smith when
she backed into his car with her 1999
Honda CRY.
Deputy Jonathan Joyner and Sgt.
Thomas Haskins viewed video foot
age that showed Walters backing
up and hitting Smith’s Ford before
leaving. She then pulled around to
the sheriff’s office, got out and looked
back at her car before she went inside.
She later returned to her car and left
the scene. Haskins recognized her as
Walters.
Two days later, Walters returned to
the sheriff’s office to visit an inmate
and Haskins waited until after visita
tion before citing her for hit and rim.
She was fingerprinted and released.
WAITERS
Oglethorpe Power pays
county $4.6 million
for Plant Scherer taxes
Oglethorpe Power Corp. recently made its 2021 ad valorem tax payment of $4,623,763.05 to
the Monroe County Tax Commissioners office. The payment is for Oglethorpe Powers 60 per
cent ownership in Units 1 and 2 of the Robert W. Scherer coal-fired plant and other properties
in Monroe County. Among those on hand at the check presentation were, from left, John Pope of
Southern Rivers Energy, Steve Caison of Southern Rivers Energy, Tammy Watts, Chief Deputy, Tax
Commission of Monroe County, Melvin Harris of Oglethorpe Power, George Weaver of Central
Georgia EMC and Ben Thomason of Central Georgia EMC. The payment comes just as Georgia
Power confirmed likely plans to close the plant in 2028.
Emami rips property maintenance rules, tells High Falls
crowd county will find reasonable way to clean up
George
Emami
rips
up the
property
mainte
nance
ordi
nance
at a
meeting
in High
Falls on
Jan. 18.
By Steve Reece
stevereece@gmail.com
District 4 Monroe County
commissioner George Emami
apologized to a jam-packed
High Falls town hall meeting
on Tuesday Jan. 18 saying that
commissioners should never
have passed strict property
rules earlier in the month, rules
which were quickly rescinded.
The crowd for the meet
ing grew so much and so fast
that it was decided early on to
change the venue from the old
American Legion Hall to the
First Baptist Church of High
Falls. Then, once the crowd
started rapidly filling up in the
Fellowship Hall of the church
to standing-room-only capac
ity, a quick decision was made
to move the meeting to the
church’s sanctuary where all the
pews were filled. Commission
ers John Ambrose and Eddie
Rowland were also in atten
dance. Emami said he doesn’t
believe there has ever been so
many people at a county com
mission meeting and just by
so many being there, it sends a
message. Some of the folks at
the meeting were sending loud
messages; at times shouting
over him.
The meeting began with
Emami saying that he was very
sorry. Emami said, “When I
got into this role, I told myself
early on that there’s no chance
that I’m not going to mess up
at some point. I reckoned that
when I do that, I would be man
enough to stand up and say I
made a mistake. It’s very hard
to do that in a public capac
ity when politics 101 says that
when you mess up you don’t
apologize.” Suddenly a heckler
from the back of the room
shouted out to Emami, “What
part of the mess up are you re
ferring to?” Emami responded
that he was being respectful
to him, and he needed to be
also respectful and let him
say what he needed to say but
even so, the commissioner let
another citizen, Keith Scott,
have his say: “What exactly are
you sorry for? That you were
stressing at the county com
missioner’s meeting that y’all
hold the power to go out and
arrest people or separate them
from or foreclose on someone’s
property?” A woman then
questioned, “What right do you
have to take away our homes
and our livelihood?” After
the yelling continued, Emami
said, “This is not going to go
anywhere tonight.” He added
that he appreciated the passion,
though. Then, another District
4 voter shouted out, “tell us
what you’re talking about! And
all the bull crap. Tell us what
you’re proposing and let us
have rebuttal. Can we do that?”
Emami answered that he
called the meeting and if the
gentleman didn’t like the way
he was running it, he was wel
come to leave. He added that
just because he was sorry about
something he wasn’t about to
get walked on and he wasn’t
even able to get through an
apology with all the shouting.
Emami continued, “I’m going
to say I’m sorry. I’m going to
tell you what I’m sorry about
and that’s it. I’m not apologiz
ing again. Where I screwed up
See CLEANUP . Page 6c