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THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2008
Editor: Angela Gary
Phone: 706-367-2490
E-mail: AngieEditor@aol.com
Website: www.mainstreetnews.com
Opinions
“Where the press is free and every man
able to read, all is safe.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Enter ‘ICE’ on
your cell phone
I really don’t like forwarded e-mails. The most
annoying of which are the ones that ask the
reader to send them to “everybody,” like the
information in the forwarded e-mail could help to
enlighten, improve or even save lives.
Yeah, right.
So, I click, click, click. Delete. Delete. Delete.
Already, I feel better. My e-mail inbox has been
cleansed.
But there was one recent forwarded e-mail that I not
only didn’t ignore, I actually took the requested action.
The subject of the e-mail is “ICE
Case of Emergency.’”
Considering that we’ve become
regulars in the ER at an area chil
dren’s hospital in the past year, the
subject caught my eye.
The e-mail offers a simple con
cept: Make it easy for emergency
personnel to find the right contact
phone numbers in your cell phone,
should you be involved in an emer
gency.
When someone is involved in an
emergency, hospital employees can
sometimes find it difficult to locate
the victim’s next of kin or other contact information.
And while many people usually have information
about themselves on hand — such as a driver’s license
— oftentimes, they don’t carry a list of how relatives
or others can be contacted in an emergency.
Time is important in many of those incidents. Loved
ones can be contacted quicker, if emergency personnel
know whom to call.
So that’s why a paramedic began advocating for
people to store “ICE” (In Case of Emergency) contacts
in their cell phones.
After all, so many Americans now carry cell phones
on a regular basis. Even my grandparents carry a cell
phone — although they still use a rotary-dial phone in
their home. Go figure.
The e-mail implores readers to store “ICE” as a con
tact in their cell phones, which could then be dialed to
a relative in the event of an emergency. For more than
one contact name, the e-mail says to enter “ICE1,”
“ICE2,” “ICE3,” etc.
After reading the e-mail, I entered my “ICE” con
tacts in my cell phone — which included my husband
and mother-in-law, who lives nearby.
I also entered “ICE Baby Call Egleston,” should
my daughter be involved in an accident with me. The
entry provides another simple message for emergency
personnel about my daughter, who was born with a
severe congenital heart defect.
While many people do carry a cell phone, it could
become lost or damaged in a vehicle accident. So, the
“ICE” campaign should still be used in conjunction
with emergency contact information in your wallet or
purse.
Unfortunately, I’ve been on the scene of a number of
bad accidents during my years working for the news
paper. While the “ICE” campaign may not save lives,
it could help family members respond quicker when
their loved ones are involved in an emergency.
Campaign - ‘In
kerri
testement
Kerri Testement is the news editor of The Braselton
News, a sister publication of The Banks County News.
Her e-mail address is kerri@mainstreetnews.com.
The Banks County News
Founded 1968
The official legal organ of Banks County, Ga.
Mike Buffington Co-Publisher
Scott Buffington Co-Publisher /Ad. Manager
Angela Gary Editor
Chris Bridges Sports Editor
Sharon Hogan Reporter
Anelia Chambers Receptionist
April Reese Sorrow Church News
"1+ gets harder to find a candidate to vote for, but
finding candidates to vote against gets easier all the time!"
Let the vetting begin
T his is serious. Gov. Sonny
Perdue really is on the short
list of possible Republican
vice presidential nominees.
At first, I thought somebody was
kidding me. Now I’m satisfied Sonny
is prepping for the national scene. An
impeccable source spilled the beans.
No wonder Sonny has been flying
off to Washington and other faraway
places.
He is boning up on national and
international concerns. He is heavily
involved in the Republican Governors
Association, a group that raises big
money and hands it out to GOP guber
natorial candidates.
President George W. Bush has
named Sonny vice chairman of the
Homeland Security Advisory Council.
The Georgia governor also has taken a
hand in counseling the White House on
international trade.
Meanwhile, there are a couple of
nettlesome questions: Who’s minding
the store in Georgia? Who is cracking
the whip over a runaway Legislature?
Amid much cheering last week, the
Legislature passed a flawed statewide
water plan, a major problem being that
somebody forgot to include implemen
tation of the plan in the budget. No
money equals no water plan.
The General Assembly is in near
meltdown over taxes, budgets, vetoes
and bleached-blonde lobbyists. Our
state faces a severe water shortage,
unmanageable traffic in many areas and
record home foreclosures. So where’s
Sonny?
On his way to national stardom, I
presume.
But wait.
The party bigwigs don’t want their
pick for vice president to be a distrac
tion in the fall. They would need Sonny
to do what a good V.P. candidate does,
which is to attack the Democrats while
bringing no baggage of his own to the
campaign.
That means
they’ll have some
smart guys in a
windowless room
somewhere poring
over Sonny’s life,
looking for issues
and asking him
tough questions
about whether any
skeletons would
haunt the GOP’s
national effort this
fall. This task is
called vetting.
As informed Georgians, we have a
duty to give those vetters some insight
that will make their job a bit easier.
Below is a list of questions they might
want answered truthfully before they
roll out V.P. Sonny at the GOP conven
tion in Minnesota.
Raising taxes is anathema in today’s
GOP. The core ideologues of their party
believe that a tax increase is almost
never justified (some would drop the
“almost”). In his first address to the
General Assembly his first week in
office, Perdue proposed the biggest tax
increase in Georgia’s history, includ
ing a $280 million property tax hike. It
was so poorly received that legislative
Republicans ran for the hills, and the
president of the Club for Growth (an
enforcer of Republican purity against
taxes) called for Perdue’s impeach
ment. Can Sonny explain?
Speaking of taxes, what about that
personal $100,000 retroactive tax
break? Perdue had the chairman of the
state House Ways & Means Committee
(who conveniently is also his personal
tax lawyer) jam through a bill that gave
Perdue (and maybe only Perdue) a per
sonalized $100,000 state capital gains
tax break on the sale of property he
inherited from his late father.
And speaking of property, the vetters
will certainly want to know about that
land deal with Stan Thomas, a big-time
developer whom Perdue put on the
powerful state Economic Development
Board. Thomas landed a board seat that
benefits his development business, and
Sonny ended up with a sweetheart deal
on property inside a Thomas develop
ment near Disney World.
Can Perdue explain using an undis
closed shell company to buy land
right next to Oaky Woods, formerly a
wildlife and hunting preserve? Perdue
allowed the preserve to be sold to
developers and even blocked the Nature
Conservancy from buying it for public
use.
After the developers announced plans
for thousands of new houses in Oaky
Woods, the value of Perdue’s secretly
purchased land skyrocketed.
How about that 2002 campaign
for governor? Sonny ran on giving
Georgians back the segregation-era
state flag with the Confederate battle
emblem on it. He broke the promise,
but what will The New York Times think
of him making the promise in the first
place?
And finally, there’s his record as gov
ernor. What about his decision to cut
$1.5 billion from our bottom-dwelling
schools?
Can he explain having no plan for
our water shortage but praying for rain
and throwing tantrums about mussels,
Alabamians and Floridians? Can he
provide an explanation of his inaction
on ever worsening traffic and air pol
lution?
Who knows? Maybe Sonny can
smooth talk his way past those ques
tions nationally, just like he’s done here
in Georgia. If he can, we may see a
Vice President (even President) Sonny.
If not, he’ll just have to make himself
content with that cottage in Buckhead.
You can reach award-winning politi
cal columnist Bill Shipp at P O. Box
2520, Kennesaw, GA 30156, or e-mail:
shipp1@bellsouth.net.
bill
shipp
Letters to the Editor policy given
Phones (all 706 area code):
Angela Gary Phone 367-2490
Angela Gary Fax 367-9355
Homer Office Phone 677-3491
Homer Office Fax 677-3263
Advertising Phone 367-5233
Sports News 367-2745
Sports Fax: 367-9355
(SCED 547160)
The Banks County News has estab
lished a policy on printing Letters to
the Editor.
We must have an original copy of
all letters that are submitted to us for
publication.
Members of our staff will not type
out or hand-write letters for people
who stop by the office and ask them
to do so.
Letters to the Editor must also be
signed with the address and phone
number of the person who wrote
them.
The address and phone number
will be for our verification purposes
only and will not be printed unless
the writer requests it. Mail to,
The Banks County News, P.O. Box
920, Homer, Ga. 30547.
E-mailed letters will be accepted,
but we must have a contact phone
number and address. Letters that are
libelous will not be printed.
Letters may also be edited to meet
space requirements. Anyone with
questions on the policy is asked to
contact editor Angela Gary at
AngieEditor@aol.com or by calling
706-367-2490.
Published weekly by MainStreet Newspapers, Inc.,
Subscription in county $19.75
Subscription in state $38.85
Subscription out of state $44.20
Military with APO address $42.20
Senior citizens get a $2 discount
Periodicals postage paid at Homer, Ga.
Postmaster, send address changes to:
Subscriptions,
The Banks County News,
P.O. Box 920,
Homer, Ga. 30547
News department contact numbers
Anyone with general story ideas,
complaints or comments about the
news department is asked to call edi
tor Angela Gary at 706-367-2490.
She can also be reached by e-mail
at AngieEditor@aol.com.
Anyone with comments, ques
tions or suggestions relating to the
county board of commissioners,
county government, county board of
education, Maysville City Council
and crime and courts is asked to
contact staff member Chris Bridges
at 706-367-2745 or by e-mail at
chris@mainstreetnews.com.
Bridges also is sports edi
tor of the paper and covers local
high school, middle school and
recreation sports.
Anyone with comments, ques
tions or suggestions relating to
Alto, Lula, Baldwin and Gillsville,
should contact Sharon Hogan at
706-367-5233 or by e-mail at
sharon@mainstreetnews.com.
Calls for information about the
church page should go to April
Reese Sorrow at 706-677-3491.
Church news may also be e-mailed to
asorrow@mainstreetnews.com.
The Banks County News
website can be accessed at
www.mainstreet.news.com.
Local school
system has
strong leadership
T here was not a standing room
only crowd to witness it last
Tuesday night, but the Banks
County Board of Education made a
strong statement about the current lead
ership in the local school system.
Members of the board voted to
unanimously reappoint all principals and
assistant principals at each of the four
schools. In fact, there was no debating
the matter. BOE members didn’t even
go into a closed session to decide the
matter. Each one stated they felt each of
the school leaders
should be back to
continue in their
capable roles for
the upcoming
2008-09 school
year. (Veteran
BOE member
Bo Garrison did
abstain from voting
since his son-in
law is a principal at
Banks County High
School.)
The decision to
continue with the leadership roles of
principals Janice Reiselt, Jan Bertrang,
Matthew Cooper and Art Wheaton was
not surprising. Test scores are way up
in the school system. Absentee rates are
way down among students. The Banks
County School System is currently
blessed with as strong of a group of
principals as it has likely ever had.
The BOE rightfully figured why mess
with a good thing. It’s a refreshing thing
to see. In recent weeks, a controversy
involving a principal in nearby Athens-
Clarke County has been splattered
across the front page of the daily news
paper in that area. The BOE voted to not
renew a high school principal’s contract
without giving any reason to parents
or even teachers at the school. Recent
stories indicate how a group of teachers
are demanding answers from the school
board.
Banks County parents are fortunate
to not have any of that foolishness to
worry about. With a firm show of sup
port by its BOE, local administrators
can go about their business of educating
students and continuing to make their
standout schools even better.
Just as important as all four principals
being reappointed for another year was
the approval of each assistant principal.
Debra Ayers, Lori Rylee, Faith Simpson,
Christine Bray and Michael Williams
are also vital in the day-to-day opera
tions of their respective schools. They
serve as valuable assets day in and day
out and it is important to keep the lead
ership teams intact at each school. The
BOE clearly recognizes this.
Like a good coaching staff in football,
the Banks County School System is also
made strong by a quality support staff at
the central office. Each of these employ
ees were also approved at last week’s
meeting and will continue in their cur
rent roles.
It’s an old saying, but the phrase, “If it
ain’t broke, don’t fix it” certainly applies
to the Banks County School System. So
much has been accomplished in recent
years by local students, that it would be
foolish to mess with the successful for
mula at the leadership level.
While many things have been
achieved in recent years, superintendent
Chris Erwin is always looking to the
future. Erwin is always looking for ways
to make the already strong school sys
tem even better. It’s the mark of a good
leader. Erwin’s leadership qualities is
also seen in each of the schools’ princi
pals and assistant principals and in the
central office staff.
The students of Banks County are
fortunate to be in the school system they
are being educated in. They have teach
ers, administrators and a school board
who are working toward a common
goal. Its sounds like a simple enough
concept, but believe it or not, it’s not
always the case in all school systems.
Politics often makes it way into these
situations. How great it is that we don’t
have to worry about that in Banks
County.
Chris Bridges is a reporter for The
Banks County News. Contact him at
706-367-2745 or e-mail comments to
chris@mainstreetnews.com.