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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thought about doing that until someone I know related how they had purchased a bottled drink and discovered it was out of date by over a month when she checked the expiration date. She returned to the store to exchange it and found that “all” of the same kind of drinks in the cooler was out of date.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 not to be considered the opinion of this newspaper, its manage ment or owners. Letters to the editor voice the opinions of the newspaper’s readers. The Millen News reserves the right to edit any and all portions of a letter. Unsigned letters will not be published. Letters must include the signature, address and phone number of the writer to allow our staff to authenticate its origin. Letters should be lim ited to 400 words. The deadline for letters is Friday at noon. You can email letters to themillennews@yahoo.com. 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 USPS No. 349-660 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 Subscription Rates (Includes tax): In Jenkins County $23.00 Elsewhere in Georgia $33.00 Outside of Georgia $39.00 “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 Deadlines THURSDAY AT NOON: Wedding Announcements Engagement Announcements Anniversary Announcements Birth Announcements School News Columns Memoriams and Thank You’s General News Items FRIDAY AT NOON: Chatter Box Items, Letters to the Editor, Datebook and Church News Items OBITUARIES Accepted until press time MONDAY-11 AM: Classified & Legal Ads MONDAY-NOON: Retail Display Ads