Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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