Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

PAGE 4A • THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2007 imon Editorial Views Time To Pull The Plug On Fire Training Center Is Jody Thompson the only Jackson County com missioner who thinks the proposed county public safety training center is an outrageous example of wasteful spending? If so, the other commissioners need to wipe off their glasses and take another look at a project that is a perfect example of government spending spiraling out of control. Today's price tag for the burn building is about $6 million. When it was first conceived, the project involved a concrete structure with which firemen could get real-time training in fighting structural fires. The original cost was to be $400,000, and it was a part of a special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) proposal approved by the voters. Unfortunately, over the years the facility has grown in both scope and cost to the point that Jackson County now plans to spend 15 times what was origi nally allocated. What might have been a reasonable concept at the outset has evolved into a "public safety training complex," a combination fire train ing center, fire station, burn building with dorms and classrooms, a fire truck driving range and more — a boondoggle project at a time when the county is struggling financially. This is a project that has gotten grossly out of hand. Commissioner Thompson is right in question ing the priorities of a county where there are scores of more pressing needs but where the commission ers think they've got $6 million to burn. Right now, public safety training is available at the state training center in Forsyth at no cost to the county, save travel and lodging. Jackson County can afford to send a world of firemen and police officers to Forsyth for $6 million. Even as the project continues to inflate, little discussion takes place in public. After setting aside $400,000 from one round of SPLOST, $1 million from a second round and another $4.5 million in bonds (upon which there was no public vote), maybe it's time for the other commissioners to wake up and kill this project. There's $4.5 million of senseless debt just waiting for someone to recognize it. Thompson sees the project for what it is. The other commissioners need to open their eyes too. Happy Birthday To Roper Belated birthday greetings to Roper Pump Company, which has been observing its 150th anniversary dur ing 2007. It's been in Commerce almost 50 years. In a county where industrial growth has been strong in recent years, sometimes the existing indus tries get taken for granted as we express excitement about new corporate citizens. Much has been said in praise of the location of the Toyota and the Kubota plants, for example, and those were terrific economic development success stories for the area. Meanwhile, Roper Pump Company has been the top taxpayer in Commerce for decades and one of its major employ ers. It's jobs and economic impact are second to none here. The new industries that locate here take nothing away from what Roper has and continues to mean to the Commerce area. Roper Pump Company is an industry leader. Its par ent company, Roper Industries, founded right here in Commerce, is a $2 billion enterprise. That Roper Pump Company has survived 150 years is a tribute to its leadership, its skilled employees and its constant innovation, and those are the traits that will allow it to continue to be an industry leader in the future. We're glad Roper Pump Company calls Commerce home. A hundred and fifty years in business is an accomplishment worth celebrating. Editorials, unless otherwise noted, are written by Mark Beardsley. He can be reached by e-mail at mark@main- streetnews.com. The Commerce News ESTABLISHED IN 1875 USPS 125-320 1672 South Broad Street Commerce, Georgia 30529 MIKE BUFFINGTON Co-Publisher SCOTT BUFFINGTON Co-Publisher MARK BEARDSFEY Editor/General Manager BRANDON REED Sports Editor TERESA MARSHAFF Office Manager MERRIFF BAGWEFF Cartoonist THE COMMERCE NEWS is the legal organ of the city of Commerce and is published every Wednesday by MainStreet Newspapers Inc. Periodical postage paid at Commerce, Georgia 30529. Subscription Rates Per Year: Jackson, Banks and Madison counties $19.75; State of Georgia $38.85; out-of-state $44.50. Most rates discounted $2 for senior citizens. POSTMASTER send address changes to THE COMMERCE NEWS, P.O. Box 908, Jefferson, GA 30549. I'm doing my part to help conserve water by drinking more beer Can't Keep A Good Woman Down When Frances Griffin decided to retire, at the age of 93, from the library staff position she had held for 19 years, I begged her not to leave us. There's a photo of the two of us in one of the library scrapbooks, with Frances rolling her eyes at me as I plead, "Just give us another 10 years." I didn't miss it by much; when she died last week, she was a few months shy of her 103rd birthday. She had all of her marbles, too (and way more than I'll ever have). I used to call her periodically with some arcane question about the original library building, for which we no longer have the architectur al drawings. Frances knew the location of every drain, every pipe, every switch. "Honey," she always said, "what are you going to do when I'm not here anymore?" "My point exactly," I used to tell her. "Don't go anywhere." The reason I called her Frances — this dignified and elegant woman who was 40 years my senior — is that when I first came to work at the library, I asked her what she preferred to be called, Mrs. Griffin or Frances, and she said "Frances," adding that she wanted to be "one of the girls." And the reason she knew A Few Facts, A Lot Of Gossip 2 BY SUSAN HARPER so much about the original library building is that she was working in it when it was being expanded, and she showed such an avid interest in the construction details that one of the contractors devel oped quite a crush on her. He was dumbfounded (disbeliev ing, really, I'm told) when he was informed that she was in her eighties. By then, she knew pretty much all there was to know about both the old and the new parts of the library. This came in mighty handy when we decided to observe her 92nd birthday with a sur prise party. (She had threat ened me with sudden death if I gave her a retirement party, but she had never mentioned birthdays.) More than 100 well-wishers managed to slip quietly into the darkened meeting room while Frances was at the front desk, and I knew just how to get her back there without arousing her suspicion. "Frances," I said, "I can't get the meeting room lights turned on. Could you go see if you can figure out what's wrong?" "Just let me get my tools," she said, grabbing a flashlight and a screwdriver and trudg ing toward the door. I watched as she opened it, the lights all went on, and a throng of peo ple shouted, "Surprise!" She smiled, turned and shook her finger at me, and said, "You're lucky I didn't have a heart attack!" Actually, I'd been guarding her health by mixing up an occasional batch of margaritas, her favorite libation. I'm sure that's what strengthened her heart. Once she moved out to Peachtree Village, I used to smuggle my blender in once in a while and whiz up our spe cial recipe, just to give us both a thrill — and a laugh. We had many fine adven tures over the years, and I can't believe she's gone, but you can't keep a woman like Frances down here forever. I imagine God is mighty glad to have her back; I know I would be. Susan Harper is director of the Commerce Public Library. Remembering International Paper If you're about my age (I'm a sexagenarian — look it up), you may remember a long-running series of magazine advertise ments sponsored by the International Paper Company. The headline ran: "Send me a man who reads." Back in the sixties you used to see those ads continuously — sort of like the Microsoft ads of today. I suppose they appealed to me because I did like to read and the ads seemed to hold out great promise of future employment. Even as a kid I used to won der what exactly IP was pro moting. Obviously, if you had a nation of readers you would have a nation of books and magazines and that would stimulate the market for paper, which is what they sold. But I always believed that the company had a higher goal in mind. I imagined (and still do) that they thought a well- read man (or woman: this was in the age when we didn't explicitly have to name women to assure them of their inclu sion) would have a breadth of Views In Rotation BY WILLIS COOK knowledge that made him a more valuable employee. Those advertisements are long-since gone. I suppose promoting the use of paper became unnecessary once personal computers became popular. And in the years since, I have sometimes wondered if anyone cared if a poten tial employee read. I seem to remember an anecdote about Jimmy Carter when he was in the Navy being interviewed by Adm. Hyman Rickover. Rickover asked the names of the books Carter had read in the past six months or so. The question caught Carter off guard and he couldn't remem- ber any, but after the interview he took the trouble to send the list to Rickover in a letter. And I think he got the job. Just the other day there was a newspaper article about the personal libraries assembled by some of the greatest lead ers of American business. You wouldn't think that the CEO of a prominent technol ogy company would have a library devoted to the works of William Blake, but there is one. And the ex-president of a leading clothing manufacturer has a library of books on Asian culture. You don't think of company presidents, particularly those of billion-dollar companies, hav ing the leisure time to read for pleasure and certainly not to assemble a specialized library, but apparently it is more com mon than you expect. Now I wonder, which came first: the business success or the library? The newspaper writer seemed to think the books made the man and I think so too. None Please Turn To Page 5A It's Gospel According To Mark BY MARK BEARDSLEY Wilson Backed Wrong Group In Nov. 6 Election The biggest loser in last week's city election could well be Ward 2 Councilman Donald Wilson. He wasn't on the ballot, but he backed all the men who lost, aligning himself with the Commerce-Jackson Concerned Citizens, who not only lost, but lost badly last week. Wilson is seen by those who won Nov. 6 as a turncoat who sold his political soul to a group of people who want to see Commerce's govern ment return to the laughingstock it was in the 1970s. By backing those working against Mayor Charles L. Hardy Jr. and Councilmen Mark Fitzpatrick, Bob Sosebee and Richard Massey, the long-time Ward 2 coun cilman has burned his bridges. Mayor Pro Tem Dusty Slater and Ward 1 Councilman Wayne Gholston, both elected two years ago as candidates of the "concerned citi zens," are well-regarded by the other council members and city staff and are respected and trusted, although there have been some strong dis agreements. But by backing those seeking regime change, Wilson has lost what respect Hardy, Fitzpatrick, Sosebee and Massey might have once had for him. He's now busy trying to convince them that he was on their side all along, but they know better. Ironically, after being recalled for his support for Paul Vickery years ago, Wilson put his political career at risk a second time in part for the same man. Names are already being mentioned of candidates who might beat Wilson in Ward 2 in two years. That should be taken with a large grain of salt because no one can fore see what the political climate will be in two years, but the Nov. 6 election results suggest that the newly-re elected incumbents could strengthen their hold on city government in the 2009 elections. At best, it will be 2011 before the citizens group can improve its standing, and it may well lose one or all of its current council- men in two years. Wilson can't count on the Concerned Citizens for much help. They lost all credibility by promot ing a discredited has-been to the most important elected office in the city. How can they continue to claim to have the best interest of the city at heart when their candidate for mayor has such a history? Wilson is known for changing his position with every new breath of political wind, but turning against long-time fellow councilmen was a gamble he took and lost. As an advocate of the citizens group, he's lost respect and trust from at least three city councilmen and the mayor, and he can't depend upon support from his former benefactors, whose influence has proven fleeting. If he continues to try to cozy up with the winners, Wilson even stands to alienate the Concerned Citizens, who certainly won't appreciate his most recent change of sides. Politics is a matter of building coalitions. Such groups ebb and flow with the tides of time and issues, but you can only change sides so many times without losing all credibility. The councilman from Ward 2 has shifted his allegiance one too many times. He bet on the wrong players Nov. 6 and he'll spend at least the next two years on the outside look ing in. Mark Beardsley is editor of The Commerce News. He can be reached at mark@main- streetnews.com.