Newspaper Page Text
VOL. 116 NO. 48 Millen, Ga. 30442 LEGAL ORGAN OF JENKINS COUNTY SINCE 1903 Wednesday, May 31, 2023 • 750
Commissioners approve credit card proposal
DEBORAH BENNETT
Millen News Editor
During a called meeting May 23rd,
the Jenkins County Commissioners
approved a credit card proposal from
Queensborough National Bank &
Trust Company which will provide
credit cards for county department
heads.
Administrator Grady Saxon re
ported that he had received proposals
from Queensborough and Regions
banks. The deciding factor for the
Queensborough offer was a 1 % cash
back benefit.
Saxon also presented a credit card
policy for the commissioners to
consider adopting which he said was
modeled after the Putnam County
policy.
In other business, commissioners
were advised of changes in the law
governing timber harvest permits
and the need for the county to adopt
a timber harvest ordinance. Saxon
explained that timber harvesters were
previously required to come to Jen
kins County in person and apply for a
permit. The change in law, beginning
July 1st, will allow them to apply for
a permit online through the Georgia
Forestry Commission.
“Having a timber harvest ordinance
in place will allow the county to cap
ture information harvesters put into
the Georgia Forestry Commission
website,” Saxon said.
He noted harvesters will still need
to pay a $5,000 bond and buyers
will continue to report to the Jenkins
County Tax Commissioner.
A proposed ordinance was sent to
the county attorney for his review
and will need to be adopted by June,
Saxon said. The first reading of the
ordinance was conducted during the
meeting.
Saxon presented an update on the
budget for the first seven months of
the fiscal year, noting that revenues
were under budget by approximately
$800,000 and expenses were under
budget by approximately $440,000.
He ssaid he expected that revenues
would even out and expenses would
remain under budget by the end of the
fiscal year. “But there are no guaran
tees,” he added.
He also asked for the group’s di
rections in preparing a timeline for
budget deliberations and preparation
of the 2023-2024 fiscal year budget.
Saxon noted he will need recommen
dations for salaries and retirements,
also.
It was decided that the commission
ers will hold a workshop, a discussion
meeting and a second meeting to fi
nalize the new budget. The workshop
meeting will take place in July with
other meetings to follow.
Millen Lions Club members are shown placing U.S. flags on
the lawn of the Jenkins County Courthouse in observance of
Memorial Day, May 29. From left, are Jimmie Edenfield, Robert
Boatwright and Dick Parker.
(Editor’s Note - Frank Miles Edenfield,
longtime editor of The Millen News,
served on the U.S .S. Mobile during World
War II and was an eye-witness to the loss
of life. The ship was also the first to sail
into Japan’s homeland waters following
the drop of the atomic bombs)
During the war years, no memory is
more moving to me than the time we were
the first ship to sail into Japan’s homeland
waters. We were sent to recover prisoners
of war so that they could finally go home.
We made four separate trips, taking ap
proximately 500 former prisoners each
time. No words I could use nor any descrip
tion I could give would adequately convey
what I saw in those days. The condition of
those men was probably the most inhuman
memory of my life. They were ragged,
starving, skin and bones, and overjoyed at
the prospect of going home at last.
Just as impressionable to me was the
trip by army truck that my shipmates and
I made through Nagasaki, the site of the
second atomic bomb drop. As devasted as
our prisoners were, equally as devastated
was this city. Scorched, destroyed, and
blackened. The human cost of war and
the price of freedom was as tremendous then as they
are today.
I left the Mobile, my home of three years, Decem
ber 2, 1945.1 crossed the country by train to Jack
sonville, Florida, where I was discharged from the
Navy. Tjiankful and excited I returned home. When
I think of those times, my memory is clear. I made
Chief, and I made some precious friends. I saw some
of my shipmates die from injuries sustained aboard
ship and at sea. I witnessed the destruction of war
first hand in Nagasaki, and I saw it for myself in the
faces of those prisoners of war that I helped rescue.
Remembering our fallen heroes
Memorial Day 2023
From
“Frankly Speaking”
by Frank Edenfield
Sasser joins The Millen News
The Millen News welcomes Tara Sasser to its staff this week. Tara will be
handling the office/secretarial operations. She was previously employed as a
paraprofessional by the Jenkins County School System. Tara and husband,
Wally Sasser Jr. have three children, Trey, Charleigh, and Weslee.
Job fair connects employers
with prospective employees
DEBORAH BENNETT
Millen News Editor
Millen and Jenkins County have a
secret, possibly the best kept secret
ever!
That secret is the Work Source
Georgia (WSG) program and the
One Stop Career Center on Winthrope
Avenue. To spread the word, WSG
and Jenkins County Family Enrich
ment Center sponsored a job fair May
24th at the center.
Charlie Rossman,
center coordinator, said
12 employers partici-
SEE
JOB FAIR,
7
Jenkins County is staving off greenhouse gases
Jenkins County GHG Emissions for 2022 per 1,000 people
This chart depicts CQ2e emissions, measured in metric tons, per 1,000 people for the previous year by sector,
compared to the statewide level per 1,000 people. Negative emissions indicate the presence of carbon uptake.
The lighter color bars indicate Jenkins County’s gashouse emissions in
comparison to the darker colored bars representing the State of Georgia’s
averages.
SHELLIE SMITLEY
thetruecitizen.shellie@gmail.com
Jenkins County trees are success
fully balancing out the amount of
greenhouse gases produced by trans
portation.
The State of Georgia emitted more
than 100 million metric tons of green
house gases last year, with the bulk
of it stemming from transportation.
The sectors that produce the most
gashouse emissions vary by county.
“We are trying to address a funda
mental problem,” said Georgia Tech
Associate Professor Bill Drummond.
“Greenhouse gases are invisible.
They have no taste or smell and we
are completely unaware when our
activities put greenhouses gases into
the atmosphere.”
Carbon dioxide (C02) is the main
greenhouse gas causing global warm
ing, according to Drummond. How
ever, it is a vital part of photosyn
thesis, allowing plants to produce
oxygen and carbohydrates needed for
growth. While forestry continuously
pulls C02 out of the air, it is widely
theorized that in excessive quantities
C02 contributes to hotter summers,
drought conditions, intensified hur
ricane seasons and storm severity. A
growing coalition of countries, includ
ing the United States, is pledging to
reach net-zero emissions. The goal is
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to
a level that is balanced by the absorp
tion of C02 by forests and oceans.
“Some counties are already at
net-zero. They already have more
uptake from trees than they are put
ting into the atmosphere,” Drummond
said .“We wanted to develop a way for
people to look at their own emissions
in a way that is as local, timely and as
accessible as possible.”
The result is the Drawdown Geor
gia GHG Emissions Tracker which
provides greenhouse gas emissions
data at the state and county level.
Categorized by sector, the interac
tive map was developed by leading
researchers at the Georgia Institute of
Technology and is updated monthly.
A solutions tracker is in the works
that will provide 20 ways Georgians
can reduce gashouse emissions in the
159 counties.
Jenkins County is already below
the net-zero level. Neighboring Burke
County’s emitted greenhouse gases
are lower than the state’s average.
Burke County is not far from net-zero,
Drummond stated.
The Tracker data reveals the posi
tive impact the pandemic had on
gashouse emissions on the State of
Georgia overall as people began
working from home in large num
bers. However, COVID-19 did not
generally affect rural counties in the
same way.
“The all-time low for emissions in
the State was in April 2020, the first
month of the pandemic,” Drummond
stated. “You can see how radically
transportation dropped
in 2020. It stayed low SEE
for a while but it has GASES,
come back and it’s now 3