Newspaper Page Text
Page 4 — Wednesday, October 28, 2009, The Millen News
Opinions, yours and ours
The Chatter Box
By Deborah Bennett
Just a word of “caution” - check the expiration dates on the bottled
or canned drinks you are buying.
I never thought about doing that until someone I know related how
they had purchased a bottled drink and discovered it was out of date
by over a month when she checked the expiration date. She returned
to the store to exchange it and found that “all” of the same kind of
drinks in the cooler was out of date.
The drink may have been okay to consume, but I don’t think the
company would put an expiration date on the bottle if it was not im
portant.
The Latin doctrine of “caveat emptor” or “Let the buyer beware”
has some merit.
It is that time of the year again. Don’t forget to set your clock “back”
an hour before you go to bed this Saturday night. Daylight Savings
Time ends at 2 a.m.
At least we get to sleep an extra hour Sunday morning!
A new activity has been added to the Harvest of Fun Festival sched
uled to take place 6-8 p.m. Saturday at the Jenkins County Recreation
complex - trunk style “trick or treating.”
Anyone who would like to participate should decorate the hunks of
their vehicles and fill them with candy that can be given away to
children attending the festival.
I think it is a great idea.
Happy birthday this week to: Megan N. Lane, Gwen Lindsay,
Annelle Dickey, Glenda Wallace, Sean Craig, Joshua Gay, C. J. Chance,
Jay Johnson, Bobby Jean Mitchum, Brooke Landing, Julie Chance,
Will Brinson, Michelle Miller, Roy Cook, Doris Parrish, J.R.
Schwonke, Amanda Troisi, Lillie McDowell, Evan Moore, Wade Ward,
Ron Washburn and Camery Meeks.
Celebrating wedding anniversaries are: Mr. and Mrs. Joel Hooks
Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Rich and Mr. and Mrs. Don Godbee.
Military Active Duty List: PV2 Brianna Joiner, U.S. Army Na
tional Guard, Ft. Lconardwood. MO; PV2 Jeremy Johnson, U.S.
Army, 59 th Quartermaster Company, Ft. Carson, Colorado; Ronnie
Perryman, Charlie Troop, 108 th Calvary Division, 4 th Platoon, Af
ghanistan; Lance Cpl. Adam Lanier, U.S. Marines, 8 th & I Marine
Barracks, Washington, D.C.; E-4 Sr. Airman Roy Davis, U.S. Air
Force, RAF Molesworth, United Kingdom; Lance Cpl. Patrick
Barnette, U.S. Marines, Baharia, Iraq; Sgt. Adam Demshar, 44th
Signal Battalion, Baghdad, Iraq; Cpl. Lee Ogden, U.S. Marines, Camp
Pendleton, CA; E5 Petty Officer 2 nd Class Eric B. Kelsey, U.S. Navy,
NSA Naples, Italy; Senior Airman Charles F. Woods, Moody Air
Force Base, Valdosta, GA; Stuart Burrus, U.S. Air Force, Osan AFB,
Korea; SPC 4 Travis D. Motes, 1 st Calvary Division, T. Hood, Texas;
Capt. Donald Slade Burke, 735th Air Mobility Squadron Detach
ment 1 Commander, Richmond Royal Australian AFB, Richmond,
Australia; Staff Sgt. Gilbert C. Sheppard III, 48th Brigade, 118th
Field Artillery, Iraq; Petty Officer 3rd Class Jamie A. Yager, U.S.
Navy, Marine Corps Base Hawaii; Petty Chief Officer Andy D.
Crosby, U.S. Navy, Elroy Destroyer, Norfolk, Va.; Stephanie Crosby,
R.N., U.S. Navy, Lafayette Destroyer; Jimmy Cooper, U.S. Army
National Guard, 878th Engineering Battalion-Augusta, Persian Gulf;
1st Lt. J.R. Taylor, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Divi
sion, Iraq; SPC. Daniel Stuart, 18th MEDCOM, 121 General Hospi
tal, Seoul, Korea; Jeffrey Sweat, U.S. Navy, USS Kauffman, MM3
59/E-Division, A-Gang, Norfolk, Va.; Cpl. Larry Lamont Clark,
U.S. Marine Corp, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune,
N.C. Bagdad, Iraq; Khan Young, U.S. Navy, U.S.S. Kitty Hawk, Per
sian Gulf; Robert Milton Jr., E-3, U.S. Army, Ft. Stewart, Hinesville,
Ga., Mission Kuwait; Arnold R. Mosley, 2nd Lt., U.S. Air Force,
Randolph AFB, Texas; and Debra A. Mosley, Tech. Sgt., U.S. Air
Force, Randolph AFB, Texas; and SPC Charles “CJ.” Amerson,
U.S. Army, Camp Adder, Iraq.
Letters policy
Letters to the editor of The Millen News are welcomed and
encouraged. These are pages of opinions, yours and ours.
The unsigned editorials generally appearing on the left side of
the editorial page represent the opinion of the newspaper and not
that of any one person on our staff. Personal columns represent
the opinions of the writers whose names appear on them and are
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ment or owners. Letters to the editor voice the opinions of the
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ited to 400 words.
The deadline for letters is Friday at noon. You can email letters
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Chartered 1903
The Millen News is published weekly by Chalker
Publishing Company, 601 E. 6th St., Waynesboro, Ga.
The Millen News
856 East Cotton Ave. • Millen, Ga. 30442
Phone: (478) 982-5460 • FAX: (478) 982-1785
Periodical postage paid at Millen, Georgia.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:
The Millen News
P.O. Box 909
Millen, GA 30442
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Walter Harrison
Editor 1946-1985
Frank M. Edenfield
Editor
1985-1998
Roy F. Chalker Jr Publisher
Bonnie K. Taylor General Manager
Deborah Bennett Editor
Lavonna Drawdy Advertising Composition
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“Rats! ...Another flu mask and two bottles of hand sanitizer!"
FIRE PROTECTION ISSUES AND CLARIFICATIONS
By Mike Lane
The City of Millen has had an
organized fire department for
100+ years. In the 1960s, a group
of residents in the unincorpo
rated area organized the Jenkins
County Volunteer Fire Depart
ment. That group became the
Jenkins County Rescue Squad.
Before the late Fire Chief W.B.
Black retired, it was decided that
the City of Millen could no
longer send its fire engines out
of the city. That decision was
based upon two problems: when
the Class A City Engine left the
city, the city was not protected,
and, the city apparatus was gov
erned to non-highway speeds.
This resulted in damaged appa
ratus and poor response times.
The Insurance Services Office
(A Private Ratings Company to
whom many insurance compa
nies subscribe) rates fire protec
tion classifications on: the wa
ter system, the ability of the fire
apparatus, communications sys
tem, training, on-duty 24-hour
personnel, distance and code
compliance.
The area within the city limits
of Millen had in-place all of
these requirements for rate re
duction. The unincorporated ar
eas of the county did not. The
last ISO inspection resulted in a
split rating for fire protection: A
class 5 for property inside the
city, and a Class 9 for the area
within 5 miles of the city fire sta
tion in the unincorporated area.
The difference was the lack of a
Class A fire engine, lack of a
water supply, and lack of build
ing codes within the unincorpo
rated area. The better equipped
city apparatus was unable to re
spond. The engines that did re
spond belonged to Jenkins
County and were primarily brash
trucks obtained through the
Georgia Forestry Commission.
Those homes further than five
miles from the city station were
considered unprotected.
Several insurance companies
allowed their agents to write in
surance at the lower premium
class with a written declaration
that a track carrying 750 gallons
of water would respond.
With an agreement between
the Jenkins County Board of
Commissioners and the Millen
City Council, up to six volun
teers could leave the city to fight
county fires. ISO requires a
minimum of 12 firefighters to re
spond whether the fire is in the
city or the county.
In 2005 the Jenkins County
Commission adopted the Jenkins
County Rural Fire Defense Plan.
As a result, there have been six
stations established throughout
the county. The Jenkins County
Volunteer Fire Department has
been re-established and has new
apparatus and equipment. The
unincorporated area has been di
vided into three protection areas.
The station in Millen serves as
the hub of the rural fire defense.
The manner in which ISO
grades those areas is now GPS
based. The City of Millen has not
made any negative changes in
delivery of fire services in over
25 years.
The rural fire departments
have brought fire protection to
most homes in unincorporated
Jenkins County. As these depart
ments improve, the insurance
ratings outside the city limits will
improve. ISO is scheduled to
begin inspections in late fall of
2009. Insurance premiums af
fected by the change will begin
to drop significantly as these
improvements are made. Those
who are currently a Class 9 will
see their rates begin to drop as
the Classifications improve.
While some folks look for
someone, or some organization
to blame, there is no one to
blame. The Millen Fire Depart
ment is still a Class 5/9. The ru
ral departments are still a Class
9. The classifications will im
prove as quickly as possible.
Several property owners in the
unincorporated areas were able
to enjoy the fruits of the City of
Millen’s efforts. Insurance com
panies are no longer permitting
local agents to write lower pre
mium policies in areas that do
not have paid firefighters, pres
surized water systems, and
building codes.
All of the fire departments are
working diligently to lower your
premiums and provide the best
fire protection possible.
Don Lively
APPARITION
It was a dark and stormy night.
Yes, I know that line has been used a billion times since it was
first penned by a Victorian novelist.
But the night in question truly was a dark and stormy Southern
night.
Halloween fell on Saturday the year my friends and I were
high school seniors. That night I was hanging around the Dairy
Bar with R.J. and Mike. We had won our football game the night
before and were celebrating with chili dogs and milk shakes.
Wheatie drifted in later and we started talking about some of the
scary legends that caused us to keep flashlights in our cars. No
body would have admitted to being afraid of the dark but being
armed with illumination was just common sense.
We’d all grown up hearing about Bloody Bones, a skeletal
phantom who would sneak up on unsuspecting kids, coinciden
tally, usually when spooky stories were being told, and scare the
bejeebers out of them. Old Bloody made most of his appear
ances around Halloween.
We had also seen the monster movies at the old Grand Theater.
Dracula. Frankenstein. The Werewolf.
Locally, we had our own murderous fiends allegedly lurking
the backroads of the county, waiting for the right moment to
strike.
There was the Gill Man who could suddenly arise from pretty
much any body of water.
Bear Gator, a mutant cross between a black bear and an alliga
tor.
And in our neck of the woods we had Jacob, a man at least
150 years old who we sometimes caught glimpses of in the edge
of the woods, still carrying the ax with which he murdered his
family in the 1800s.
None of those ever scared me.
I didn’t believe in such silliness.
At least not until that long ago Halloween night when my
friends and I saw something that none of us will ever forget.
The Rock Creek Church Burning Woman Ghost.
We sat under the overhang at the Dairy Bar trying to stay dry
and look cool at the same time. The conversation had turned to
the legend of the flaming lady. About then some of the girls
showed up so, naturally, we dared them to go with us to Rock
Creek to confront the ghost.
The four of us, along with Martha Mary, Patty and Patsi
crammed into my Rambler and headed out.
The rain stopped just as we parked in the graveyard but a thick
fog had rolled in. The quarter moon was trying to peek through
the clouds but wasn’t making any progress. An owl hooted off
in the distance as if to warn us to stay out of the trees.
We made our way down the bank to the edge of the creek.
- See Lively, page 10
The Millen News
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