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THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS • THE COMMERCE NEWS
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8, 2016
Editorial
Views
Now not the
time to buy
the mansion
With all due respect to those interested
in historic preservation, Commerce and
its Downtown Development Authority do
not need to buy the former Gov. Hardman
House. The city has enough event venues;
it’s taken enough private property off the
tax roles and has more than enough
facilities that need improvements, main
tenance, repairs and whose operations
are supplemented with tax revenue. It has
other more pressing needs.
It is conceivable that having a restored
governor’s mansion might attract a few
tourists to Commerce, but it’s unlikely
that even the most creative advocate
can demonstrate a cost-benefit ratio not
awash in red ink. If the mansion has
potential for operating at a profit, some
private entrepreneur is welcome to take
on the project and the financial risk.
No doubt the city could get a grant
or two to assist with the purchase and/
or renovation, but a grant will not make
its acquisition fiscally responsible. Any
money spent on the Gov. Hardman
House would be better used for improve
ments to the Commerce Civic Center,
such as new HVAC units and an elevator.
The city should attend to the needs of
its current venues before acquiring yet
another ongoing expense to be funded
with tax dollars.
There are two main arguments for
acquiring the former governor’s man
sion. They are historic preservation and
the need for a wedding venue. The build
ing is privately owned, so why should
its preservation and future maintenance
become a public expense? And why
does the city feel an obligation to provide
a place for weddings?
Commerce already has a cultural cen
ter, civic center and the curiously named
Commerce Business Information Center
for indoor meeting space. None of them
are self-supporting, though it was never
anticipated that they would be. The city
has Spencer Park for outdoor events and
is spending $350,000 on a 23-lot park
ing lot officials optimistically believe will
become an outdoor dining and music
venue aimed at bolstering the attractive
ness and economy of the downtown.
Part of the special purpose local option
sales tax recently approved is earmarked
for historic buildings, which gives the
city cover to acquire the Gov. Hardman
House. That doesn’t mean buying it is
the best use of SPLOST money particu
larly when other city property that would
serve more people, like the civic center
and the new park off Smallwood Drive,
have either capital spending issues or
development needs.
Then there is the former Oxford build
ing. Currently an eyesore, it requires min
imal upkeep, and it was donated to the
city but there is a plan afoot to build a
hotel on the site, with the city retaining
part ownership—which will be a liability
if the venture does not succeed.
The Gov. Hardman House is a stately
and historic building, but it needs a lot of
work and will be a continuing financial
liability with limited direct benefit to the
city. Unless the owners choose to donate
it to the city this is not the time to acquire
another building that will be expensive to
renovate and maintain.
Unless otherwise noted, all editorials
are written by Mark Beardsley. He can
be reached at mark@mainstreetnews.
com.
The Commerce News
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Mark Beardsley. Editor
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Some backyard entertainment
It must be a function of aging, like an obses
sion with the weather forecast, but I find myself
spending more time gazing at the birdfeeders in
my yard. I’ve always had some interest in birding
—I’ve got the best field guides and a decent pair
of binoculars—but why is it that I spend hours a
week watching birds freeload off my two (some
times three) feeders?
No, I’ve not developed a life list. I’m not there
yet, but spotting a new or unusual bird on the
feeders seems a noteworthy event.
Granted, aside from work, I have little social
life, but that’s hardly new. I have few hobbies—
none that I would devote much labor to—and at
some point every day I find myself ensconced
in a rocking chair on the patio, watching the
cardinals, tufted titmice and other regulars scarf
up the food that I buy in 35-pound bags with
seemingly increasing frequency.
I tell Barbara that when the time comes, slap
me into a nursing home, park me in front of a
window, keep a birdfeeder just outside and I’ll be
fine. It’s more entertaining than Basic Cable, par
ticularly with the Braves in a season-long slump.
It is not a coincidence that the increasing time
spent watching the feeders began in late winter.
We had a mild winter, and spring has been both
beautiful and pleasant. The rocking chairs on
the patio offer the best vantage point from which
to enjoy the seasonal beauty the activity around
the birdfeeders, plants on the patio and the
spring weather.
It's
Gospel
According
To Mark
By Mark Beardsley
Which is to say when it’s 95 degrees at 7 p.m.
in July and August, I may find an alternative
pastime until fall arrives.
Right now, though, the rockers on the patio,
facing the Great Outdoors offer the preferred
venue for relaxation.
Sometimes, nature provides a moment of
drama. In the feeder, it’s almost always present
ed by a red-tailed hawk that views the feeder as
its personal buffet. My presence nearby doesn’t
deter it from kamikaze attacks on songbirds
lulled into complacency by the pile of oil seeds
and millet.
Birds on the feeder can demonstrate antiso
cial behavior. A cardinal, a dove and a titmouse
can dine together in peace, but if a second bird
of one of those species tries to crash the party
a lot of squawking and aerial acrobatics may be
in order until one of the two finds discretion to
be the better part of valor. Birds of a feather do
flock together, but they do not necessarily dine
in harmony.
I have favorites. I like the titmice. They’re
seemingly cheerful, are in-and-out quickly
grabbing a sunflower seed and departing to the
shelter of a nearby tree, perhaps mindful of the
hawk. I especially enjoy birds that, though not
necessarily rare, are infrequent visitors at my
feeders. Among them are a nuthatch pair, an
occasional red-breasted grosbeak, an indigo
bunting that made an appearance recently after
a five-year hiatus and either variety of kinglet
(ruby-crowned or gold-crowned).
If you feed birds, you feed squirrels. Five dine
on spilled seed below the feeder, but only one
has managed to get past the squirrel baffle to the
platform feeder. We’re engaged in an ongoing
contest. He reaches the feeder, I add an obsta
cle. The latest necessitated a spectacular leap
from a rose bush. He missed with his forepaws,
cracked his head on the baffle, but held onto the
feeder with his rear paws and pulled himself up.
I felt like applauding. For now I let him dine. He’s
earned it. Soon I’ll cut the bush back a couple
of inches and marvel at how he answers the
challenge.
Observing nature at the bird feeder is better
than watching the Nature Channel.
Mark Beardsley is the editor of The Com
merce News. He lives in Commerce.
An open letter to Donald Trump
Dear Donald Trump: Does anyone ever
call you “Don”? I always thought The Don
ald’ was an awful nickname for you, but ‘The
Don’ has that macho/Mafioso sound, and
you do cultivate a tough-guy image - although
sometimes you remind me of the gay man in
“The Bird Cage” who tries to walk like John
Wayne! I’m not sure the tough-guy thing is
you. You’re more refined, more effete under
that bluster: more frat-boy than cowboy, per
haps.
You’ve been having a tough time lately.
When the Washington Post asked what
became of the $6 million you said you’d
raised for our military veterans back in Janu
ary, it awakened a sleeping giant: the Media!
Journalists thought they smelled blood in the
water, and they came after you. Yet you had
already dispensed over $3 million to vets’
groups. Besides, some of the pledged dona
tions never came in. You had to toss in $1
million right then and there to fulfill your own
pledge, just to shut them up! And it still didn’t
add up to $6 million.
Then the whole Trump University class-ac
tion lawsuit got blown out of proportion.
That judge was so “unfair,” to use your word.
(And “Mexican,” to use your other word.)
He released the testimony of people who’d
enrolled in Trump U. and now say they never
learned anything. I bet they just didn’t study!
And you didn’t mean anything bad when
A Few
Facts, A
Lot of
Gossip II
By Susan Harper
you called the judge Mexican. You think very
highly of Mexicans. After all, they’re going to
build the wall to keep themselves out of our
country, right? And they’re going to pay for
the whole thing! Truly a remarkable people.
With these dust-ups happening, a lesser
mortal would’ve taken a day off. Much of the
country was fixated on the little boy who got
into the Cincinnati Zoo’s gorilla enclosure, so
you probably could have tiptoed offstage and
joined your wife for a brief rest. But you are
not one to take advantage of a lucky break
when you have scores to settle. The Media
had been awful to you; this was no time to
let yourself be upstaged by a gorilla. So you
held a press conference and told those jour
nalists what you thought of them. They were
“dishonest,” “sleazy” and among the worst
human beings you’d ever met! I ask you, how
many political figures are that bold? That
brave? That honest?
So what happened to top off the week?
Hillary Clinton took your words and quoted
them back to her audience in a mocking way
that made them laugh at you, and wonder
about you. She called you “temperamentally
unfit to be President,” said you were “thin-
skinned and quick to anger” — someone who
“lashes out at the smallest criticism” — and
asked, “Do we want his finger anywhere near
the [nuclear] button?”
Luckily, you had a major speech scheduled
for just a few hours later: a perfect chance
to prove her wrong. But you were in John
Wayne mode and wasted no time in shooting
back at “Crooked Hillary,” calling her speech
“pathetic” and saying, “She has to go to jail.”
I’m not sure it occurred to you that you were
proving her right. But beyond that, there was
something about the way you were scream
ing, your voice an octave higher than usual —
something about your rage, and your jarringly
delicate gestures — that triggered an old, dark
memory for this child of World War II. It was
as if a long-buried shadow had risen from its
grave and now threatened to walk the world
again, once more empowered to destroy. I
couldn’t look — and couldn’t stop looking.
Susan Harper is a retired editor, lecturer,
and local library director who currently
serves on the Jackson County and Piedmont
Regional library boards.
A school's 'climate' matters
A school’s “climate” is important. If you
spend enough time in the hallways of a school,
you recognize it. It’s the culture of the place, of
its students, teachers and staff.
“Climate” is one of those things that’s incredi
bly easy to feel, but hard to define and measure.
Far too often, we base the quality of a school
only on how its students perform on stan
dardized tests. That’s easier to measure than a
school’s climate.
But there is more to a school than its stu
dents’ test scores. There’s a culture and support
within some schools that contributes more to
a student’s love of learning than any test result
ever will.
The Georgia Department of Education
released its 2014-2015 climate scores last week.
Considered the school’s culture, its climate is
measured through student, staff and parent
surveys, discipline data and attendance records
for students and staff. It’s meant to measure the
“character of school life,” a character that is felt
by the students in the school each day.
Students notice when they’re respected. They
notice when their input is heard. They notice
when they aren’t safe. They notice when their
teachers and school administrators are stressed.
They notice when teachers care about them.
It’s important for students to feel safe and
excited when walking through the hallways of
their schools. It is important that kids want to
come to school.
Schools can’t teach students if they don’t
attend. And if students don’t want to attend
school, they’re more likely to skip, especially
when they start driving and have more freedom.
Even if they aren’t skipping school, students
who don’t want to be there probably won’t work
as hard.
The same goes for teachers and adminis
trators. It’s important for them to know they’re
working in a good climate at school.
It’s also important they feel supported in the
education profession in Georgia As an outsider,
that “climate” does not look good.
One of the things negatively affecting school
climate throughout the state is the ongoing prob
lem with Georgia Milestones and delays in the
release of test results. Georgia Milestones has
become the nightmare that will never end. State
wide technology glitches led to a state waiver
on the promotion/retention requirements of the
End of Grade tests this year.
Several schools have been dealing with
delayed End of Course results for high schools.
Yet, those scores will still be used in the schools’
accountability measure, the College and Career
Readiness Performance Index. And, as of now,
those scores will still count 20 percent towards a
student’s final grades.
The state keeps changing things, making it
nearly impossible to judge from one year to the
next. Georgia Milestones results are incompara
ble to the results of its predecessor, the CRCT.
The state continues to change how much
weight to place on achievement, progress and
achievement gap on the CCRPI. Course stan
dards change, requirements change.
These may be shrugged off as growing pains,
scrapping the old to make way for the improved,
but school systems don’t get to take a five-year
vacation while the GADOE figures all of this
out. Teachers are still teaching. Students are still
taking the tests.
It is adding to the frustrating climate of the
education profession in the state. State Bill 364
may help some. The newly-passed bill will
reduce the number of required standardized
tests and reduce how much those results count
towards a teacher’s evaluation. But that does
not address all the issues facing teachers and
administrators.
Many teachers and administrators work to
make sure their schools have a good climate
for students. The state should be working hard
to make sure those teachers and administrators
feel that support, too. It is important for students
to feel safe and excited about coming to school.
It’s important that teachers and administrators
feel the same.
Alex Pace is the editor of The Braselton
news, a sister publication of The Commerce
News. She lives in Commerce.