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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
A reckoning on
county spending
A little history seems in order.
In 2018, four years ago this week, Monroe
County commissioners hired Jim Hedges as the
county manager after they secured state legisla
tion giving this manager increased powers to hire, fire
and spend. Like any good newspaper looking out for our
readers, the taxpayers, we called our newspaper brethren
in Ashburn, where Hedges had served as mayor, to find
out what kind of leader we were getting.
The long-time editor of the Wiregrass Farmer, Ben
Baker, told me that Hedges loved Powerpoint presenta
tions, that he was good with finances, but that he loved to
spend money. Boy was he on the mark.
Hedges has done some good things for Monroe County.
He has upgraded our equipment and finances. He found
lots of money that had been stuffed into different bank
accounts. He has hired some good people. But man, has
he spent some money. The biggest was the $20 million
for the Juliette water project, whose
costs have ballooned from inflation.
More recently he spent $6 million
for 12 new fire trucks. And on and
on it goes. OK, well come back to
Hedges later.
On March 4,2021, this newspa
per featured a front page article, “Is
it time to mull life after Plant
Scherer?” Plant Scherer is of
course our biggest taxpayer by
far, about 40 percent of property
taxes. For the article we talked to
officials from Putnam County, who had to navigate their
county budget after another coal facility, Plant Branch,
was shutdown there. They warned Monroe County of
ficials to start saving money now to avoid a big tax hike
when the plant stops paying big tax checks.
Alas, the Hedges’ spend-a-thon has continued un
abated. Commissioners Jim Ham and Larry Evans had
their faults. But they were both very frugal with taxpayer
money. Hedges has no such hangups.
Last year, Hedges convinced commissioners they
needed to raise property taxes to pay for his continued
spending. But as property values surged, commissioner
George Emami finally had had enough. He refused to
go along with a tax hike. Finally, slowly, the other com
missioners realized Emami had blown their cover. They
lowered the property tax rate unanimously in 2021.
And Emami forced them to do it again this year. But the
spending continued.
Finally, in June, Emami yelled “stop” again. He publicly
called out Hedges for continuing to propose more spend
ing, at the time another raise for county employees, even
as the county’s biggest taxpayer, Plant Scherer, was mak
ing noise about phasing itself out.
Last Thursday, Hedges finally got the wake up call that
Emami has been warning about. Plant Scherer’s taxable
value had come in from the state. It was down 30 percent.
That meant the county would have $2.6 million less than
it anticipated this year.
Hedges seems like a good manager. But it seems his
heartbeat is for the growth and expansion of the gov
ernment. Since he doesn’t live here, he can spend with
aplomb and not worry about getting confronted at Ingles,
at church or at The Pickled Okra over the increasing bur
den on taxpayers. But that may have ended Thursday.
The county has put out a rosy press release. Nothing re
ally will change. If that’s true, the county government had
more fat and funds at the expense of the taxpayers than
we imagined.
In other news: As we go to press on Tuesday night, we
have learned that an inmate at the Monroe County Jail
has died Tuesday night. Jail staff asked for EMS to rush to
the facility for an inmate not breathing. Staff tried to use
a defribillator but the inmate passed. More details will be
available later.
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
OUR STAFF
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Business Manager
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Community Editor
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Deadlines noon on Friday prior to issue. Comments featured on opinion pages are the creation of
the writers, the do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Reporter management.
Publication No. USPS 997-840
Will Davis
Publisher/Editor
publisher@mymcr.net
Steve Reece
Reporter
stevereece@g ma i I .co m
Donna Wilson
Advertising Manager
ads@mymcr.net
rr
L*
3
T JF
REECES PIECES by Steve Reece
Halloween has lost its meaning
S cientists estimate that there
are 15 dead people for every
person alive on the earth
today. Death is so widespread
that we even have a holiday in its
honor. This coming Monday, Oct.
31, the day dedicated to remember
ing all deceased persons since the
beginning of time and one of the
world’s oldest holidays, Halloween,
will be celebrated.
Few give thought to those who have
gone on before us on this day devoted
to them. Most of us try not to engage
thoughts of our own mortality and
have turned what started as a somber
day in the first millennium A.D. into
a cute holiday that is completely op
posite of the reason for its existence.
When I see someone walking around
in a sexy avocado costume, my mind
goes to tacos. Not death.
Irish and Scottish immigrants fled
famine in the 1840s and brought Hal
loween to America. They spent the
evening before All Saints Day having
conversations with the dead. Now we
have trick-or-treating and encourage
our children to put on adorable little
costumes and go door-to-door filling
up decorated bags with sugary sweets
that we know aren’t good for them.
Halloween is not just for kids,
though. More than 5.3 million Amer
ican adults plan to dress up as a witch.
Most of them will be women. Nearly
two million grownups will go
to a party dressed as a vampire
while 1.2 million are going
to spend the evening as a cat.
Dogs will get in on the action
as pumpkins and hot dogs.
My own pooch, Muchacho,
will be begging for treats
this year wearing a little
sombrero and serape. My
solid black cat, Noche,
needs nothing.
Like Christmas and all holidays,
Halloween has gone full-fledged
commercial. This year’s spending
will break records during this post
pandemic holiday. At least $2.9 billion
Muchacho is ready for Halloween.
is expected to be spent on costumes
and $700 million will be spent on pet
costumes. To the delight of the dental
industry, $10.6 billion will be spent on
candy.
I never was much into putting on
a costume and drawing attention to
myself. I’m shy like that. But once,
so long ago my oldest son was still
in diapers, I gave in to my wife and
agreed to go to a costume party. Fit
tingly, she decided to go as a witch
and spent nearly all my paycheck
on makeup, nail polish, the hat, the
broom, the works. I admit that when
she was finished, she looked pretty
hot. Better than she usually did. But I
kept my thoughts to myself.
When she finished destroying the
budget, there was nothing left for my
costume so I had to resort to
creating one out of whatever I
could find. We lived ten miles
from the middle of nowhere
in the Alabama woods and
resources were few. I didn’t
want to go but while changing
my little boy’s diaper, I
suddenly had an inspi
ration.
If you think Pampers
are bad now, back then
diapers were a real mess. Made of
cloth, you didn’t just roll them up and
throw them away. You had to clean
them out in a toilet, wash them, and
then reuse them after you hung them
outside on a line. So, while I was gag
ging over the changing table it came
to me that I could rip up a dozen or
so baby diapers and make the perfect
mummy costume.
I had my wife wrap me in 3” strips
of genuine diaper cloth from head to
toe, fastening them wherever needed
with diaper pins that she tucked
beneath the folds. To ensure the cloth
was tight, all I had on beneath were
my whitey-tighties. Afterward I put
on my cowboy hat and my glasses
and, man, I looked good! The babysit
ter acted scared when she arrived, so I
knew I’d be a hit.
We kissed the boy, jumped in my
pickup truck, and headed slowly to
town. I drove below the speed limit
so folks would be sure to notice a
mummy driving a ‘52 Chevrolet
ThriftMaster with a good-looking
witch snuggled up next to him.
Things were going well at the party
until near the end when everything
began to unravel. I was dancing with
my arms in the air when I noticed a
loose piece of diaper cloth hanging
from my arm. From there it only got
worse. Soon I didn’t have enough
hands to keep everything together
and convinced my wife we had to
make a hasty exit before my face and
other areas became exposed. We
made it to the truck, and everything
was fine except that every time I
changed gears, another rag would
come untied. We were only about five
miles from the house when my old
truck started sputtering and then sud
denly decided to not go another inch
without fuel.
My witch-wife was following close
behind, cursing my every step as I
stumbled down that old dirt road
on that Halloween night with a full
moon shining, hanging on to all I had
left.
Steve Reece is a writer for the Report
er and a known crime fighter. Email
him at stevereece@gmail.com.
CAROLYN S CORNER by Carolyn Martel
Some don t like to hear fire & brimstone
I have a question for you. Do you
personally know an atheist?
My husband is not sure, but he
thinks one of his child
hood friends may be an athe
ist. If not an atheist, he comes
across as a person who shows
no interest in the Christian
faith. His friend, which he
had not seen in person for
a longtime, attended
the funeral of our son,
Steven, who passed
away last month from
heart failure.
A FEW days after the funeral, my
husband’s friend called to see how we
were doing. He commented that he
thought the funeral service was nice,
but he did not like the “fire and brim
stone” message the minister delivered.
The “fire and brimstone” message that
triggered his negative response, was
the heart-felt, earnest plea
of the pastor for each of us
to place our faith and trust
in Jesus Clirist as our Savior
and Lord.
IT’S MY observation, that
atheists become uncomfort
able when they hear
the Gospel of Jesus
Clirist. They are not
interested in hearing
a sermon on repen
tance, or about a God who lays claim
to being our Creator. They willingly
reject the truth found in the Word of
God, because they’d rather live by their
own self-determined moral codes and
beliefs.
GOD’S WORD declares, “The fool
has said in his heart, there is no God”
(Psalms 14:1). There is an abundance
of evidence of Gods existence. Yet, the
“fool” mentioned in this verse has vol
untarily chosen to deny the existence
of God!
EACH OF us has been given a free
will by God to choose whether we will
acknowledge Him, His love for us,
and His desire to redeem us through
His Son, Jesus Christ. This powerful
verse comes to mind: “Choose this day
whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15).
It’s my prayer, that you choose Jesus!
Carolyn Martel of Forsyth is the re
tired long-time advertising manager for
the Reporter. Email her at carolynmar-
tell @bellsouth. net.