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PAGE 4A - THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS. WEDNESDAY. AUGUST 20. 2008
mion
Editorial Views
Time For Moratorium
On Sign Variances
Not to keep beating a dead horse, but another
business is asking the city for a variance for a sign.
A lot of space on this page has been dedicated
to the controversy over requests for a sign vari
ance from Walgreens, and there have been others
before.
Blame the city, blame the sign ordinance —
whatever. But since a new sign ordinance is under
construction, Commerce needs to declare a mora
torium on variances to its sign ordinance until
the new ordinance can be reviewed and accepted.
Hopefully, the new ordinance will meet the needs
of present and future businesses while preserving
the appearance of the downtown but, more likely,
the requests for variances will continue as busi
nesses decide they want a sign just a little bigger
or just a little taller than what the new ordinance
allows.
The city will have to cross that bridge when
it comes to it. To date, although it rejected the
Walgreens' proposal, the city council has a record
of approving too many variances. One aspect of
creating a new ordinance should be a commit
ment by the city to actually following it. Variances
should seldom, if ever, be granted; shortcomings
found in the ordinance later should be dealt with
through amendments.
In the meantime, let's put the madness on hold.
Declare a moratorium on variances to the city sign
ordinance until the new ordinance is in place.
State Budget ‘Cuts* Force
Fallout On Cities, Schools
Gov. Sonny Perdue's proposal to eliminate the
state's Homeowners Tax Relief Grants from the state
budget is typical of how the state treats its school
boards, cities, counties and individual taxpayers.
The credit was instituted as an initiative of Gov.
Roy Barnes to give relief to property taxes. Local
governments trimmed the bills of taxpayers under
the state formula, and the state would reimburse cit
ies, counties and boards of education.
The elimination of that credit would give local tax
ing authorities two choices; they could raise prop
erty taxes to recover the lost money or absorb the
loss themselves and reduce services.
Using the 2007 tax digest, the three school systems
in Jackson County would lose a total of $1.7 mil
lion ($1.4 million by the Jackson County Board of
Education alone).
The local governments — or local taxpayers — would
bear the pain, but the governor and legislators would
take "credit" for reducing taxes statewide.
School taxes across Georgia have risen for years
in large part because the state has never funded the
Quality Basic Education Act to the level required
by law, leaving local school districts to make up the
difference; and because the state has continually
reduced the percentage it pays of K-12 costs in edu
cation, forcing that on local school districts as well.
To add insult to injury, last year a large number of
Republican lawmakers backed a proposal by House
Speaker Glenn Richardson to take over school fund
ing because the speaker felt local school board tax
rates were too high.
Be wary of what the governor and legislature refer
to as tax or spending cuts. Most of the time, they're
shifting the responsibility from themselves to local
governments or school districts. They take the credit
for being good stewards of the taxpayers' money
while leaving city councils, county commissioners
and school board members to cope with the fallout.
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 MARSHALL Office Manager
MERRILL BAGWELL 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 dis
counted $2 for senior citizens.
POSTMASTER send address changes to THE COMMERCE
NEWS, P.O. Box 908, Jefferson, GA, 30549.
hat they’ve settled the Walgreen sign controversy,
I should FINALLY be able to sleep tonight
Find Peace, Do What You Love
In our work-ethic-driven soci
ety, if you ask someone "How
are you?" the response may
be a litany of tasks. "Oh, I've
been so busy," the person may
say. "We're getting the house
painted (kitchen re-done, yard
re-landscaped), plus I had my
elbow (shoulder, knee) oper
ated on, and of course the chil
dren are taking jujitsu (having
their teeth bleached, learning
to speak Navajo), so I just
never have a minute."
If you, too, are pressed for
time, one way to bring the con
versation to a sudden halt is to
ask this person, "So — what are
you doing for fun these days?"
It's amazing what a show-stop
per that is. The ensuing blank
look gives you time to escape
into your own errand list,
thinking, "Whew! I thought I
never would get away — and I
have so much to DO today!"
I'm lucky; my work is fun.
The job I have right now is
more fun than anything I've
ever done. True, my idea of
fun may be a little bit twisted.
I like crawling along the floor
looking for missing books that
may have fallen down behind
the shelves. And for a really
good time, I do paperwork.
I came by these cheap thrills
honestly, several decades ago,
A Few
Facts, A
Lot Of
Gossip 2
BY SUSAN HARPER
after reading a book entitled
"Do What You Love and the
Money Will Follow." It must
have been persuasive, because
I began to be proud of my
checkered career, and I started
taking some real flyers in the
job department. I delivered
newspapers in the middle
of the night, sold hardware
by day, and taught literature
courses inbetween, commuting
on my motorcycle. I did pub
lic relations work for a Jewish
educational organization. And
I quit worrying about whether
these things made any sense
at all on a resume. My "career
path" wandered all over the
place, but I was learning a lot
and, yes, having fun.
Now that I manage a library,
my seemingly scattershot expe
riences have a combined value
I could never have anticipated.
The knowledge I gained from
working in a hardware store
has been especially helpful as
I work to maintain a building
half of which is 41 years old. I
actually know a thing or two
about wiring, plumbing, glazing
— just enough to be dangerous,
probably, but I get a kick out
of understanding conversations
that would otherwise have gone
over my head.
What, you may wonder, did
I get out of my experience at a
Jewish agency? Apart from the
personal satisfaction of know
ing a little more about the
origins of my own faith (Jesus,
that is to say, was Jewish), I
gained an understanding of the
importance of a board of direc
tors, and I learned about work
ing with a board. I had my first
real exposure to fund-raising,
too, and saw some great ideas
implemented. And I had the
unforgettable experience of
being a minority of one.
So if you don't have time to
take up quilting, learn the elec
tric slide, or go trekking in the
Marshall Islands — hey, don't
despair. Just take a very enter
taining job. They're out there.
After all, somebody has to lead
river rafting trips.
Susan Harper is director of the
Commerce Public Library.
This Column Is For Men Only
Well, every woman in
Commerce will read this.
But the title is not a direc
tive, ladies; it's a warning: this
column will mean absolutely
nothing to you. I want to talk
about my astronomical obser
vatory — a ten-foot diameter
building with a hemispherical
dome on top that houses a
small telescope that I bought
for myself last Christmas.
My observatory looks like a
miniature of the observatories
you have seen in magazines,
and guys get excited about
buildings like that. They're so
different from what we usu
ally build. There are no right
angles: everything is curved.
The guys in my square dance
clubs are excited about my
project; the guys at McDonald
Hardware are excited about
it. One of my sons shows the
pictures I send to a friend and
he is excited about it, although
he doesn't even know me. But
whenever a lady looks at one
of my photos, her reaction is:
"It's just a little round build
ing."
Yes, but a little round build
ing is different from a little
BY WILLIS COOK
square build
ing and a
building with
a compound
curve, such
as the dome,
causes more
excitement
than most
guys can
stand. My wife gets frantic over
piecing together quilt squares
which are two-dimensional
rectilinear figures. There is no
way she could make a spherical
quilt. (To be honest, though, I
got rather frantic at times with
my dome.)
I can't understand myself
why a round building appeals
to me so, but the minute I
unpacked the telescope, the
image of an observatory in the
backyard began to obsess me.
An observatory just screams
functionalism. As you swing
the telescope around to point
at various parts of the sky its
end traces out a hemisphere, so
that's the most space-efficient
surface with which to enclose
it. Anything else would be too
close at some points and too
far away at others. But the real
attraction of the dome is the
fact that it is a three-dimen
sional surface. Whenever a guy
sees a photo, the first question
is, "How did you get those pan
els to meet like that?" (They're
plastic and they're flexible and
they're fastened to the dome
ribs with 950 screws.)
Of course, another attraction
of a little building like this for
guys is that it is a little hidey-
hole where he can go and be
alone, surrounded by his little
treasures. An observatory serves
the same purpose as a ham
shack or a woodworking shop.
Such a man's wife know that
if her husband isn't in sight
Please Turn To Page 5A
It’s Gospel
According
To Mark
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
On The Web:
Sex And Stupidity
Trump ‘ReaP News
One thing our web pages have
helped us learn is what kinds of sto
ries most interest our readers.
The winners are sex and stupidity.
Combine the two, and it's a perfect
storm of reader fascination.
Folks like to say the news media
focuses on the sensational. Well, you,
dear reader, are the reason. You love
the sensational. The media aims to
please.
Two weeks ago, The Madison
County Journal carried a report of an
incident encountered by the local
sheriff's department. In making an
arrest, the deputy noted a suspicious
bulge in the crotch of the male sus
pect's pants, and two wires leading
outside of his pants and dragging on
the ground.
The suspect, the police report said,
had installed an electric motor in a
pill bottle, creating a vibrator that
generated a "pleasing sensation"
when placed properly.
The story ran on the crime page
amongst several others, under a small
headline. It was also published on
MadisonJournalTODAY.com.
That online story received more
than 30,000 "hits," more than all of
the other responses to online stories
combined. Other online sites picked
it up or linked to it. TV and radio
rushed to do their versions.
Don't complain to me about news
papers "sensationalizing" the news.
I know better; you crave the sensa
tional — as long as neither you nor a
loved one are the subject of the story.
Those kinds of stories don't happen
everyday, but there are enough to
go around, particularly in the realm
of law enforcement. Two weeks ago,
it was the homemade vibrator in
Madison County. Last week it was
the wife and child locked up in a
Lavonia mobile home.
As local banker Jackie Whitfield
used to say, "People are stranger than
anybody."
Long before there was an Internet,
let alone web pages, I ran a little
story about a man riding in a mov
ing van as part of a party relocating
someone from the Atlanta area to
South Carolina. A good bit of alcohol
was involved in the loading of the
truck, and the subject of the story,
when nature called, simply opened
the door of the truck as it motored
up 1-85 at 70 miles per hour, climbed
onto the back and began urinat
ing off the back, spraying vehicles
behind him.
Hilarious, no doubt, to the subject,
but he had little time to enjoy his
prank, as the truck passed under
a bridge — but the man didn't.
Standing facing backward and doing
his business off the back of the truck
to the consternation of other travel
ers, he failed to see the bridge, which
decapitated him.
Tragic, but also funny — and
immensely stupid. Today, it would
be an Internet sensation, sort of a
reverse affirmation of the survival of
the fittest, and it would be read sev
eral thousand times more frequently
than the more important story about
the local school system trying to
cope with state funding cuts.
What do you think would attract
more readers and more commentary,
a story about a man being decapi
tated while urinating or a story about
a Commerce budget hearing?
I rest my case.
Mark Beardsley is editor of The
Commerce News. He can be reached at
mark@mainstreetnews. com.