Newspaper Page Text
February 16, 2022
Page 5A
ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN by Don Daniel
Citizens spoke,
council listened
F orsyths new city hall got its first citizen-packed
council chamber last week with the councils pub
lic hearing on the Bitcoin or crypto. Believe it or
not the mayor and council members listened and
denied the request to locate the Bitcoin mining operation
too close to the homes of residents. The presentation by
the pro Bitcoin representative
calmed no fears by the residents
in opposition to the “noise
producer”.
The one issue not brought
before the council nor answered
by the council was how much
the operation would have
brought to the city’s coffers
via electricity usage. Although
speculation was up to $2 mil
lion in revenue for the city, how
much was not an issue.
The other sentiments ex
pressed, particularly after the
meeting, was wondering if the
mayor and council didn’t attempt to “pull something”
off on the citizens and were forced into revealing “their
shenanigans” at a public hearing with their hands caught
in the cookie jar.
As a footnote, when it came to either approve or deny,
all six council members voted to deny the re-zoning of
the property to allow crypto-mining. Now that the city
of Forsyth is out of the Bitcoin business, there are other
locations in the city and out in the county that would and
could function as a mining operation.
Go back a sentence or two. Just maybe the Development
Authority of Monroe County working with the chamber
of commerce could offer a location and work with Geor
gia Power, Central Georgia and the EMCs to get the $2
million into their coffers.
Another footnote, obviously the city of Forsyth is not
using all the electricity allocated. WOW!
I AM sure more county checks have been written since
Jan. 25 but they just haven’t been posted on the county’s
finance department website. Here are a few I might have
missed that you should be interested in: $1,284.24 was
garnished from five county employees for child support;
$8,976 paid to Krown Sports for 2022 basketball uniforms;
$187.76 for liquid dynamite; O’Reilly and Ham Auto Parts
got $711.11 and $ 1,000.20 respectively for motor vehicle
maintenance; for a water cooler rental, we paid Quench
USA, Inc. $108.21; TEMS consultants received $5,314.48
for “monthly EMS Insurance billing for December; three
county citizens got $131.86 in water deposit refunds; and a
$75 refund for baseball.
As reported earlier, 70 checks were written totaling
$652,181.25.
I HAVEN’T counted the number of tax Fi Fas published
in the legal section, but they have not decreased much.
Usually, after being notified and names published, those
with past due tax bills trickle into the tax commissioner’s
office to settle up.
Those who have not paid their taxes take advantage of all
us taxpayer paying for their fire protection, sheriffs patrol
ling, etc. You get the idea.
OOPS: YES there was a correct answer to last week’s
The Question, but again AT&T failed which seems to be
their objective and I lost everything. I am having to call
my computer wizard to dig in to the bowels of my com
puter to retrieve what AT&T lost without even issuing an
apology.
CENTRAL GEORGIA EMC IS installing the high
speed internet access on Hwy. 42 North and down Stokes
Store Road where the CGEMC public relations direc
tor lives. Looks like they are not going to make it down
Blount Road any time soon.
So here’s The Question for this week: The Forsyth Con
vention and Visitors Bureau is seeking what? First correct
answer after 12 noon to tullaybear@bellsouth.net
on Thursday gets a certificate for a car wash at Big
Peach, Whistle Stop fried green tomato appetizer, Scoops
single dip, Dairy Queen Blizzard, slice of Shoney’s straw
berry pie, dozen Dunkin Donuts and a Forsyth Main
Street and Reporter t-shirt.
BIG AD by the City of Forsyth how they are going to
spend their share of the 2021 SPLOST with the largest
project, $3,220,000 for water upgrades. The least amount,
only $75,000, is to be spent on downtown beautification.
Badly needed.
FORSYTHIA FESTIVAL, food trucks and now con
certs on the square with the first concert slated for Satur
day, April 2 with a crowd favorite The Tams. The schedule
includes concerts on May 7, June 4 and Aug. 6.
FYI, I AM finally going to file an open records request
for Forsyth Police Chief Eddie Harris and City Manager
Janice Hall requesting--to let you know--information as
to how many tickets and or citations have been written/
issued by the Forsyth Police Department for cars parking
closer than 12 inches to the parking spaces lines.
Remember that was a big issue a couple of years ago. Just
want to give you an update.
HERE’S ONE of the oldest undertaker comments: “The
undertaker said, ‘I don’t want to wish anyone any bad luck,
but I sure wish business would pick up; remember, I’ll be
the last one to let you down?’ And one more: He’s High As
A Cat’s Back, Low As A Snake’s Belly. Anything that can
be misinterpreted will be misinterpreted.
Contact Don Daniel, the founder of this newspaper, attul-
laybear@bellsouth. net.
@ Reporter
JUST THE WAY IT IS by Sloan Oliver
Stacey Abrams, the smiling tyrant
T jiink of a tyrant.
Who comes to
mind? King George
III? Hitler? Stalin?
Mao? A tyrant is a cruel
and oppressive ruler - who
oppresses their underlings
and denies freedoms to the
people. We don’t associate
tyrants with smiling faces. It’s
time we do. Over
the past two years
we’ve been in
troduced to 21st
century tyranny, a
friendlier version of
oppression in the
name of “It’s
for your own
good.” Stacey
Abrams is the
poster child of
American-style tyranny; as
she practices, “rules are for
thee but not for me.” Stacey
is exactly like hundreds of
her fellow Marxists Demo
crats who, for two years,
have imposed increasingly
harsh measures to keep you
oppressed and denied your
rights.
LAST WEEK, Abrams
took a photo that proves two
years of lies. She visited a
Decatur, GA school as part
of Black History Month. Per
China virus mandates, De
catur schools require masks
to be worn at all times. And
Stacey made her appearance
“on the condition that every
one around her” must wear
a mask, including the school
children, but not her. In the
photo, she gleefully smiled,
unmasked, while three dozen
children obediently wore
masks. Stacey’s smarmy
smile says it all, “Do as you’re
told. I do as I want.”
“DO AS you’re told” Stacey
knows that masks are useless.
That’s why she didn’t wear
one. Moreover, she knows
that children don’t need
masks (they’re almost zero
risk); yet she demanded they
mask-up. Why? She wanted
to prove her authority over
you and your children.
“Mask-up and get vaccinat
ed; do as you’re told.” If not,
the Dems will have you fired
from your job, cancelled,
silenced or arrested if you
don’t produce proper papers
H
it
that show you submitted to
their authority.
TO BE fair, Stacey’s only
doing what every other
Democrat has done during
the WuFlu scam - seize
power, issue draconian
edicts, force you to obey,
while refusing to follow
their own rules. In
February-March
2020, videos showed
Chinese workers
dressed in hazmat
suits, walking abreast,
and systematically
spraying entire
cities in an
attempt to sani
tize everything.
Nobody knew
the full dangers of the China
virus. So, every politician
shut down their schools,
churches, cities, businesses,
states, and countries. Then
came the George Hoyd riots
of May 2020 and proof that
the WuFlu lockdowns were
fraudulent. What was the
proof? Tens of thousands of
Democrats, BLM, and Antifa
protestors staged hundreds of
violent, deadly riots - in doz
ens of cities, for months on
end, all of them unmasked.
With straight faces, thinking
wed believe their lies; CNN,
MSNBC, NY Times, Pelosi,
Kamala Harris, Fauci, and
Democrat politicians told
us that unmasked rioting
was fine because Democrats
needed to destroy cities to
protest social injustice; insist
ing the China virus was NOT
dangerous to unmasked,
social justice rioters - but
you, law-abiding citizens,
must continue to mask-up.
Amazingly, many (all) Joe
Biden voters believed those
lies and stayed masked up.
They screamed at you if you
refused to wear the “mask of
obedience.” Two years later,
Biden voters still believe and
stay masked-up.
THANKFULLY, EVEN
before the George Floyd
riots, Governor Brian Kemp
realized the virus lockdowns
were scams used to seize
power and deny freedoms.
He allowed businesses and
churches to re-open but was
roundly blasted by Demo-
A ■ ■: i-irUi
crat media. Over the next
few months, every Repub
lican governor halted their
mandates. Each was harshly
criticized by Democrats
(they like their mandates).
DeSantis (Florida) and Ab
bot (Texas) were singled out
as “killers” because they al
lowed citizens to decide their
individual circumstances.
BUT NOT the Dems,
by October 2020, every
authoritarian edict that still
remained was under the
gleeful dictate of Democrats.
Monroe County was a good
example - in-person school
attendance was severely re
stricted and mask mandates
were forced onto students
by Nolen Howard, Priscilla
Doster, Jeremy Goodwin,
and JP Evans - the four
Democrat dictators on the
MC school board. Same with
the Marxists who control
Decatur school districts -
force them, against their will,
to mask.
HOWEVER, GEORGIA
is largely governed by Repub
licans, and most Georgians
have not been subjected to
the capricious, authoritarian
edicts by the likes of Cuomo
(NY), Newsome (CA),
Enslee (WA), Whitmer (MI),
DeBlasio (NYC), and every
other city/state ruled by
Democrats. Those Democrat
edicts literally killed thou
sands of people. Whitmer
and Cuomo forced nursing
homes to accept Covid posi
tive seniors who spread the
disease to the elderly - the
single group most at risk
from the WuFlu. Whitmer is
sued an edict refusing people
to visit summer homes or go
powerboating. (Her husband
was caught boating.) New-
some closed beauty salons
and forced everyone to wear
masks. (Numerous times, he
was photographed attend
ing events while unmasked.
Nancy Pelosi was videoed at
a salon that opened only for
her.) The examples of “rules
for thee but not for me”
among Democrat politicians
and their acolytes are endless.
They forced their subjects
to stay locked down and
masked-up while they do
the exact opposite. Amaz
ingly, even after seeing their
demi-gods unmasked while
out-and-about, and enjoying
life, tens of millions of Biden
voters never figured out they
were being hoodwinked.
They dutifully complied,
closed their businesses, im
prisoned themselves, sneered
at you for being unmasked,
and called you dangerous for
not following their propa
ganda.
TO INSURE you comply
with their edicts, federal
agencies have targeted those
who disagree with Demo
crats. The Department of Jus
tice, in collaboration with the
teachers’ union, produced a
memo that compared par
ents, concerned about school
mandates, to domestic
terrorists. The DOJ even told
the FBI to open investiga
tions on “dangerous” parents
who protest too loudly at
school board meetings.
AMAZINGLY, LAST
week, many Democrats an
nounced a halt to their Wu-
Hu edicts. Delaware, New
Jersey, Connecticut, even
Oregon have decided to end
mandates. What happened?
Apparently, even Biden vot
ers realize they’ve been lied
to and are questioning those
lies. Don’t worry, Covid man
dates may soon end only to
make way for future man
dates. Can you say “climate
change?”
FINAL THOUGHT:
Getting back to Stacey’s un
masked photo op for which
she was rightfully criticized;
guess what her campaign
called people who criticized
her? Correct - you were
labelled a racist.
Sloan Oliver of Bolingbroke
is a retired Army office who
writes each week in the Re
porter. Email him at sloanoli-
ver@earthlink. com.
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
A Report from The General Assembly
By Rep. Robert Dickey
robert.dickey@house.ga.gov
Last week marked the fifth week of the 2022
legislative session. Each session day grew increasingly
longer as more legislation made its way to the House
floor, including the Amended Fiscal Year (AFY) 2022
budget. We also was privileged to hear
from Chief Justice David Nahmias of the
Supreme Court of Georgia who delivered
the annual State of the Judiciary address
to the House and Senate.
This past week, we passed one of the
most important bills of the legislative
session which amends the state budget for
the current fiscal year ending June 30,
2022. I am pleased to report that
Georgia’s economy has made an
outstanding recovery and the state anticipates robust
collections over the original estimate of $27.2 billion for
the rest of this fiscal year. This amended budget will
allow the state to utilize about $2.6 billion in new funds
which the House has allocated towards our state’s aging
infrastructure and vital workforce needs.
The House proposed budget dedicates more than
$900 million to the state’s infrastructure needs, such as
replacing agency vehicles and school buses, upgrading
state technology and maintenance, repairs, infrastruc
ture and design for state facilities.
This budget also makes a sizeable investment into
retaining and recruiting state workers, including an
allocation of more than $900 million for salary increas
es for state employees, educators and other school
employees. Before the end of this fiscal year, eligible
state employees will receive a $5,000 salary adjust
ment, our teachers would receive a $2,000 supplement,
and many other school employees would receive a
$1,000 supplement.
Georgia’s K-l 2 education system is the largest
budget expenditure and totals $1 1.16 billion or 43.3%
of the general funds in the state budget. Due to the
rebound in state revenues this last year, this amended
budget restores $383 million that is needed to fully fund
our K-l 2 education system using the QBE formula.
This budget also prioritizes keeping Georgians safe
and supporting our law enforcement agencies and
corrections system. This version of AFY 2022 allocates
$1.3 million to support our judicial system’s critical
operations. Also included $23.6 million to replace almost
600 vehicles for the Georgia Department of Correc
tions, Department of Community Supervision, Georgia
Bureau of Investigation, and Department of Public
5afety. This amended budget includes funds to allow the
GBI to hire four election complaint
investigators.
The Georgia Public Safety Training
Center has a $25 million total budget for
this facility. The House has included an
additional $2.5 million in this amended
budget for maintenance and repairs and
additional equipment. All eligible employ
ees will receive the $5,000 pay increase.
Another budget item which will be
important to all Georgians is the proposed
tax rebates Governor Kemp has proposed. The rebate
includes $250 to every single person filing state income
taxes, $375 to every single person heading a household
and $500 to married couples filing jointly.
The House Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Commit
tee has been busy hearing legislation relating to the
Freedom to Farm Act, the legalization of unpasteurized
raw milk for human consumption and the Right to
Repair. All House and Senate meetings are available
for watching on the Georgia General Assembly
website.
Last week I also enjoyed visiting with members of the
Georgia Farm Bureau and the Georgia 4-H who visited
the Capitol. Both are great organizations and help
provide leadership to our youth and adults throughout
the state.
As always, thank you for allowing me to serve as your
representative. Please feel free to contact me on issues
and concerns which are of interest to you. My Capitol
office number is at 404-656-5099 and my direct email
is robert.dickey@house.ga.gov.
Rep. Robert Dickey
404-656-5099
228-B State Capitol
Atlanta, Georgia 30334
robert.dickey@house.ga.gov
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