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& EDITORIALS
Declare among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard;
publish, and conceal not. - Jeremiah 50:2
2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 winner: Editorial Page excellen
2019, 2018 winner: Best Headline Writing
2019 winner: Best Community Service
2019 winner: Best Layout and Design
2019 winner: Best Serious Column - Don Daniel
ON THE PORCH by Will Davis
DRAWING ON THE NEWS by AF Branco
Did we kill golden goose?
It’s ironic that Georgia Power released its 3-year plan aiming to
close Plant Scherer in 2028 on Monday, the same day the owners
of Plant Scherer released to this newspaper a photo of them pre
senting a $4.5 million check to Monroe County.
After years of criticism, lawsuits and unproven accusations
that Plant Scherer is killing Monroe County residents, it’s as if the
power company is saying: be careful what you ask for.
Indeed.
Plant Scherer is why Monroe County has
enjoyed and still enjoys pretty good public
services along with the lowest property taxes
in Middle Georgia. It is, and has been, our
secret sauce.
But time has not been on our side. Coal
plants have been under intense attacks for
30 years from green groups who say they
harm the environment. In movies, in public
school and university curriculum and in
media, coal plants are portrayed as evil pol
luters. Hometown folks who try to destroy
them are portrayed as Erin Brockovich, the
determined and plucky hero.
But is it true? Is coal ash causing people to get sick? I don’t know.
Do you?
Monroe County had a chance to find out in 2020. Dr. Avner
Vengosh of Duke University studies such things and says he can
determine whether high levels of uranium in wells in Monroe
County is naturally occurring or the result of coal ash from Plant
Scherer. Monroe County commissioners hired Vengosh to come
down to make his determination. But then they cancelled at the
last minute. The reason? Vengosh refused to promise to keep his
results private. Monroe County commissioners wanted to keep
those results to themselves for use in a possible lawsuit against
Georgia Power and Plant Scherer. Commissioners hoped a law
suit would force Georgia Power to pay for part of the $20 million
county water project they are doing in Juliette to relieve residents
on wells. The biggest loan in Monroe County government history
is based on an article planted and planned by well-funded liberal
activists from the Altamaha Riverkeepers.
If you want to know what the future ofU.S. energy will look
like without coal plants, well were in luck. Sort of. Europe and
California are well down the road on which we have just em
barked. They all joined the mind-less mantra of replacing “dirty
fossil fuels” with “renewable energy” like solar and wind. And they
all discovered that it leads to insanely high energy prices, shortages
and brownouts. Yes like universal healthcare and Zero Covid, it’s
another socialist paradise that turns out to be hell on earth.
Countries have had to reopen shuddered coal plants to try to
keep the lights on as they learn that when it comes to generating
cheap electricity, there’s really no substitute for good ole coal
In the last decade, plummeting natural gas prices had power
companies including Georgia Power scrambling to add natural
gas plants while scaling back coal That’s why despite President
Trump’s promise to bring back coal during his term, coal use still
dropped. It simply couldn’t compete with abundant gas and low
prices. But now gas prices have skyrocketed. So coal is making a
comeback. U.S. power plants burned 23% more coal in 2021, the
first increase since 2013, despite Biden’s ambitious plan to elimi
nate carbon emissions. The rebound comes after consumption by
utilities plunged 36% under Trump, who slashed regulations in an
unsuccessful effort to boost the fuel, according to Bloomberg.
Bloomberg says the situation is driving up coal demand around
the world, and in the U.S., utilities are cranking up aging power
plants and miners are digging up as much as they can.
“The shift means that coal will supply about 24% ofU.S. electric
ity this year, after falling to 20% in 2020, an historic low?’ said
Bloomberg.
The last few years seem to vindicate Georgia Power’s long-stated
desire to keep a diversified portfolio of power, from coal to nuclear
to hydro to natural gas. That way no matter what the markets do,
Georgia families and businesses can enjoy reasonable power rates.
But as we’ve seen the past two years, the communists, and yes I
mean communists, have taken over almost every sector of Ameri
can life. Public education? Commies. Universities? Commies.
Media? Commies. Even the military is run by woke-sters more
interested in having trans gender troops and appeasing the hateful
left with anti-white racism than winning wars. Power companies
often seem to be no different, taken over by the insane forces of
anti-American and anti-freedom ideology.
Indeed Georgia Power’s 3-year plan filed on Monday paints a
bleak future for Plant Scherer and coal energy But it leaves the
door open for the possibility that as markets change, Georgia
Power could find reason to keep the Cadillac of Coal Plants vi
able, providing jobs, paying taxes and ensuring reliable power for
another generation in Monroe County We can hope.
is published every week by The Monroe County Reporter Inc.
Will Davis, President • Robert M. Williams Jr., Vice President
Cheryl S. Williams, Secretary-T reasurer
REECES PIECES by Steve Reece
Today is a special kind of day
T oday, Feb. 2, is a day that
should be acknowledged
for being exactly halfway
between the first day of
Winter and the first day of Spring.
Today is also known as Candlemas
Day which is a celebration of a re
turn to light and many people even
left their Christmas decorations up
until today. Some Christians take a
candle to their church on Candle
mas Day to be blessed and will use
their blessed candle on special occa
sions throughout the year.
Today is also the day of the feast
of the Presentation of Jesus which
celebrates the occasion when Joseph
and Mary first took the baby Jesus
to the Temple of God and
the purification of the Virgin
Mary is observed on this day
as well. Today’s date cannot
be considered ordinary on
anyone’s calendar. Best of
all, Christmas can now be
declared officially over.
There are 45 days from
Feb. 2 until March 20, the
first day of Spring, but there
is a furry creature living in a scaled-
down antebellum-style mansion
at the Dauset Trails Nature Center
in nearby Jackson who might have
given us hope of an earlier spring
this morning at 7:30 a.m. That is if
he didn’t cast a shadow. If he did,
we can expect six more weeks of
misery. I’m referring to the famous
Gen. Beauregard Lee, Georgia’s
own weather-predicting ground
hog whose bragging rights of 60%
accuracy far exceeds his Yankee
counterpart, Punxsutawney Phil
up in Pennsylvania, who can claim
mere 30% accuracy. Ike English, the
Dauset Trails director, told WMAZ
in an interview a couple of years ago
that Waffle House hash browns and
Indian Springs water keeps Gen. Lee
predicting the weather with such
mastery.
There has been more than one
General Lee. All of them with the
unusual talent of forecasting the ap
proach of Spring. The first General
Lee, who emerged in front of large
crowds every Groundhog Day at the
Yellow River Game Ranch near Lil-
burn from 1981-91, was Gen. Robert
E. Lee. He had an exceptional 94%
accuracy rate but was forced into re
tirement after he became too
old and too fat to perform
his duties. A monument was
erected at the ranch at his
retirement in honor of his
outstanding meteorological
service to the southeastern
U.S. When the ranch closed
suddenly in 2017, the gen
eral’s current successor was
taken to Dauset Trails.
Some believers trust the shadow
of a groundhog even more than the
local “weatherperson”. You may have
wondered how it came to be that
folks put such faith into the largest
member of the squirrel family to de
termine whether they need to keep
the long johns handy or prepare to
kick the dogs out from under the
covers. I decided to find out what’s
behind this strange tradition and
according to an overload of reliable
information on the internet, the
practice has its origins dating back
to 4th century Greece when Chris
tians thought a sunny Candlemas,
40 days after Christmas, meant 40
more days of snow and winter. A lot
of people seem to know this fact, but
no one has an explanation as to why
Christians would think such a thing.
German woodsmen later noticed
that if a hedgehog crawled out
of its burrow and cast a shadow
on Candlemas Day, it was a sure
indication that an early spring wasn’t
something to be counted on. After
this discovery, they kept a close eye
on the prickly creature every Feb.
2 and the practice quickly spread
throughout Europe.
Later, when German immigrants
settled in Pennsylvania starting in
the 18th century, they were disap
pointed to learn there weren’t any
hedgehogs on this continent, so
they resorted to using the available
groundhog to continue their time-
honored tradition. Apparently, the
American rodent was well-suited for
the task and the immigrants came
to rely on its yearly predictions. I
assume they chose the groundhog
because the animals have the same
last name even though they aren’t at
all related.
In 1887, a newspaper editor in
Punxsutawney, Penn, needed a
story and brainstormed the idea of
putting together the Punxsutawney
Groundhog Club and somehow sold
his plan to local businessmen and
groundhog hunters. That Feb. 2 the
founding club members hiked to
nearby Gobbler’s Knob and con
ducted the first official proceedings
of the first Groundhog Day. The
participants were disheartened when
the sleepy groundhog predicted a
long winter that year.
The dignitaries who preside over
the yearly festivities every year these
days in Punxsutawney are known
as the “Inner Circle” and wear fancy
top hats during the proceedings.
They preside speaking Pennsylvania
Dutch dialect and claim to converse
with Punxsutawney Phil in the
language of “Groundhogese” before
a throng of tens of thousands of
cheering spectators.
Of course, it’s ridiculous to place
any faith in the predictions of a
rodent that lives in a hole in the
ground but like my Aunt Shirley
says: “It’s the little things that give us
hope.”
Steve Reece is a writer for the
Reporter and a known crime fighter.
Email him at stevereece@gmail.com.
OUR STAFF
Will Davis
Publisher/Editor
publisher@mymcr.net
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Business Manager
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Steve Reece
Reporter
stevereece@gmail.com
Diane Glidewell
Community Editor
news@mymcr.net
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Advertising Manager
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Creative Director
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Deadlines noon on Friday prior to issue. Comments featured on opinion pages are the creation of
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Publication No. USPS 997-840
County advertising March 1 tax sale
Monroe County property is going for record
prices right now, but locals will have a chance at
finding some deals as the county begins advertis
ing a tax sale in this week’s Reporter.
Tax commissioner Lori Andrews is advertising
72 parcels trying to collect more than $219,000 in
unpaid taxes. The notices, which usually shrink
each week as some taxpayers settle up, is found on
pages C8-D3.
The delinquent properties are scheduled to
be auctioned off on the courthouse steps at 10
a.m. on Tuesday, March 1. Bidding opens at the
amount of taxes owed on the property. Buyers
must bring certified funds or cash to buy the de
linquent properties, and pay a $12 recording fee.
Under the law, buyers aren’t able to touch the property
for 366 days after the auction, giving the property owner
a year to re-claim it. However, to reclaim the property,
the original property owner would have to pay 120 per
cent of what the buyer paid, said Andrews.
Andrews has said she doesn’t act on properties unless
they’re delinquent for more than one year. For more in
formation call the tax commissioners office at 994-7020.