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PAGE 4A - THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS, WEDNESDAY. APRIL 1, 2009
mion
Editorial Views
Forced Efficiencies To
Have Lasting Benefits
There is an upside to the down economy. All
across society, people are learning to get by
with less money. They're being forced to be
more creative and more responsible, and the
new thriftiness is being applied to individu
als, business and state and local government
in ways that should linger after the recession
wanes. The federal government, where presses
print money almost as fast as officials can
devise new ways to spend it, is the exception.
That is not to say that the recession is good,
nor to downplay the trauma people experi
ence from lost jobs, devastated investments
and slashed government services. But just
as Georgians who were forced to reduce
water consumption during the drought have
retained their water-saving habits now that
water is plentiful, the practical cost-saving
methods employed during a time of reces
sion have benefits that will remain when the
economy recovers.
The state and local governments and schools
grew rapidly over the past several decades.
Locally, increased housing values kept tax
digests growing, allowing school systems and
city and county government the luxury of
adding programs, services and personnel with
a focus on solving problems. But with rev
enue declining, those same entities are look
ing closely at every expenditure to find ways
to work more efficiently — and in some cases
rethinking whether services should be offered
at all.
Some of those services will — and should —
be restored when the economy recovers, but
government, like households, should stumble
upon new efficiencies that can save money
from now on.
Virtually every politician offering for elec
tion pledges to either reduce taxes or keep
them low and to work for smaller government
by reducing waste and controlling spending.
The reality is that it is the nature of govern
ment to grow and its spending to increase.
When money is plentiful new "necessities"
arise to absorb new revenue and dependen
cies develop around the new spending. Only
when declining income forces correction
does the expansion halt.
Even if the economists and talking heads
can't tell us when the economy will recover,
history confirms that it will. Hopefully, when
jobs, retail sales, manufacturing and the hous
ing market begin to recover, citizens and gov
ernments will continue to benefit from the
efficiencies they learned while coping with
this recession.
LETTERS POLICY
The Commerce News reserves space on
its opinion page for readers to express
their views on current issues. The News
welcomes comments in response to events
in the news and to editorials or columns
expressing opinions.
Send letters to: Letters to the Editor,
The Commerce News, 1672 S. Broad
St., Commerce, GA 30529 or email them
at commercenews@mainstreetnews.com.
Letters must be signed and have a phone
number for verification. They should be of
general interest to the public.
Editorials, unless otherwise noted, are written
by Mark Beardsley. He can be reached at mark@
mainstreetnews. 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 BEARDSLEY..Editor/General Manager
JUSTIN POOLE 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 Jefferson, Georgia
30549.
Subscription Rates Per Year: Jackson, Banks
and Madison counties, $19.75; State of
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POSTMASTER send address changes to THE
COMMERCE NEWS. P.O. Box 908, Jefferson. GA
30549.
don't worry anymore now that I've outsourced my
financial problems to some guy in India.
Clearing
My aunt Edith
and I were sitting in
her kitchen late one
afternoon when she
startled me by leaping
up and racing around
the living room, tidy
ing up. My uncle was
due home from work
soon, she reminded
me, and he didn't like
clutter. "Well, gee,"
I said, "I thought everything looked
really nice and homey."
"He doesn't like the lived-in look,"
she said, laughing. "He wants it to
look the way a motel room looks
when you first walk in — as if nobody
actually lives here."
That was on my mind as I prepared
for our new library director. My uncle
may have been a bit too picky, but I
imagine no one is particularly thrilled
to inherit someone else's clutter. We
each have enough of our own, and
to my surprise, I turned out to have
enough for several people.
Now the office is nice and clean, the
files are all organized, the dust has
been banished, and whenever I peek
in there I have that feeling I always
get right before company comes:
"Wow, this is terrific! Why didn't I
do it sooner?" I even neatened-up the
Rolodex. And I donated an umbrella
stand to hold all the posters that are
too good to throw away.
I stand in the doorway and try to
see the office as if I'd never been
there before. Will it be to his taste?
Who knows? He'll have to put his
own stamp on it, as I did. But at
least it's clean. And I'm gone! I can't
help remembering what Flannery
O'Connor said about William
Faulkner: "Nobody wants his mule
and wagon stalled on the same track
For Miguel
the Dixie Limited is
roaring down."
And I do think
that's what's coming.
Miguel Vicente, our
library's new direc
tor, will begin his
work there Thursday,
and you might want
to fasten your seat
belt. The man has
two master's degrees
(in education and in library science),
and he has probably earned more
awards and honors than I can count
— most recently the Charles Beard
Scholarship from the Georgia Library
Association, and the 2008 Dorothy
Mullen National Arts and Humanities
Award for the Pinewoods Library in
Athens, of which he has been director
up until now. That same library, under
his direction, also received the 2007
Highsmith Library Innovation Award,
and was one of three finalists for
Library Journal's "Best Small Library
in America" designation.
So I've been thinking: What I should
tell him about his new job? He already
knows what a supportive and enlight
ened community this is, and how
much we love our schools and our
library. And what I know about him
is that he's extremely smart, delight
ful to talk to, and loves two things:
people and books.
So I may just point to where the
paper clips are, offer to introduce him
to some of the many, many of you
who made the job possible, fun, and
even (sometimes) easy for me, and
then get my mule and wagon off the
track — 'cause here comes Miguel!
Susan Harper is the former director of
the Commerce Public Library. She lives
in Commerce.
Out
A Few
Facts, A
Lot Of
Gossip 2
BY SUSAN HARPER
Are You There Betty Jean?
Some friends of mine
live in California.
The man is a retired
professor from
Pepperdine University
and was originally
from the Midwest
somewhere — Iowa or
Nebraska — but his
wife is from Arkansas.
The lady now goes by
Peggy but her given
name is Betty Jean.
Our friendship came about because
we bought the same computer 30
years ago: a Morrow. It was in the
Paleolithic period before Microsoft
even existed. Owning a computer
back then was something like owning
a Model T in the early years of the
twentieth century.
In Atlanta, a bunch of us Morrow
owners formed a club: what would
now be called a users' group, and we
expanded our membership all over
the country and even to New Zealand.
Jim, the guy in California, wrote a
monthly column for us.
Over the course of thirty-something
years the Morrows mostly wore
out, although Jim may still use his
occasionally. Jim retired, the New
Zealander retired and I retired, but
our friendship continues — on a cor
respondence level. We had never even
spoken to each other,
Jim's handwriting
became increasingly
shaky and Peggy/
Betty Jean assisted
him with his let
ters, so she became
involved in our cor
respondence. Then,
one day, I decided I
would surprise them
by calling. I dialed, a
feminine voice answered and I said,
"Betty Jean?" There was a long pause
and the voice said to someone else:
"It's someone with a Southern accent
and he asked for Betty Jean." Oh Lord,
I though: I have put my foot in it, ask
ing for a lady I don't really know by
her childhood name. But Betty Jean
came to the phone and we had a very
pleasant conversation.
It was her daughter who had
answered the phone and I have always
wondered how she decided I had a
Southern accent based on my pro
nunciation of "Betty Jean." That's not
much to go on, is it? How can I possi
bly say "Betty Jean" that much differ
ently from someone in California?
I have asked my square dancers,
many of whom are from the North,
about this and they assure me that
Please Turn to Page 5A
Viewpoints
In
Rotation
BY WILLIS COOK
It's
Gospel
According
To Mark
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
A Curious
Defense In
Reservoir Suit
I seldom sit in on trials or
hearings, but a couple of weeks
ago I watched the attorney for
the Upper Oconee Basin Water
Authority attempt to get Judge
Joe Booth to throw out Jackson
County's suit against the
authority.
Here's the issue. All four
member counties' water con
tracts and plans are based on a
calculation that the Bear Creek
Reservoir can provide 58 mil
lion gallons of water per day
(mgd) for 180 days during a
drought. That calculation, done
by the authority's engineering
firm and stamped "approved"
by the EPD is the basis for
deciding how much water each
owner gets.
Jackson County has data indi
cating that number is wrong.
Badly wrong, more in the
neighborhood of 24 mgd.
The agreement creating the
authority calls for the yield
to be recalculated after major
droughts. Jackson County wants
a recalculation by a third party
— not the original company, not
Jackson County's consultant.
Jackson officials want to know
how big the bowl is so they can
plan accordingly.
The other three parties in the
case — Athens-Clarke, Barrow
and Oconee counties — don't
want another calculation.
Why? Here's the only pos
sible answer; they fear Jackson
County may be right, and the
economic consequences of find
ing out they've got only 41 per
cent of the water they thought
they bought are devastating.
That's the only reason for the
authority to take the absurd
position that Jackson County
wants all members to have less
water.
All Jackson County wants is
reliable data. Can it count on
14.25 mgd for 180 days (25
percent of 58 mgd) in the next
drought? The results from the
current drought suggest it can't.
If Jackson's numbers are accu
rate, Athens-Clarke and Oconee
counties used a lot of Jackson
County's water during the last
drought without paying for
it. Strangely, Jackson County
doesn't appreciate that.
If Jackson's numbers are
accurate, all of the counties'
allocations will be trimmed,
and some will have to cut back
their withdrawals, find alternate
sources or pay Jackson County
for using its water. They'll also
have to change plans and con
tracts based on 58 mgd.
Those counties fear the truth
if it differs from the status quo.
I think Judge Joe Booth will let
the suit progress and ultimately
the authority will be forced to
redo the calculations because
knowing the true capacity of
the reservoir is too important.
Jackson has Mike Bowers in
its corner. Bowers loves a court
fight, he's got good data on
his side, and the other coun
ties have yet to produce a good
reason why the recalculation
should not be done other than
they don't want it done.
Mark Beardsley is editor of The
Commerce News. He can be reached
at mark@mainstreetnews.com