Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 2008
THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS
PAGE 3A
PICNIC ON THE LAWN
The annual picnic for the Banks County Chamber of Commerce
was held on the lawn of the historic courthouse in Homer
Thursday evening. Entertainment, door prizes and a catered
meal were among the festivities.
Chamber holds annual
picnic on the lawn
SERVING UP DESSERT
Helen Hewell and Tara Fulcher served up cake and ice cream at
the Banks County Chamber of Commerce picnic Thursday night
in Homer.
LINED UP FOR MEAL
Banks County Chamber of Commerce members lined up for the
catered meal Thursday night at the picnic.
PICNIC HELD IN HOMER
Banks County Chamber of Commerce held its annual picnic on
the lawn Thursday night in Homer.
Quail ... mpage 1A
BUILT AT LULA HOME
Thurston Dodd builds quail processing equipment at a shop at his home. Pictured are (L-R)
Dodd, Michael Dodd, Belinda Bryson, Clifford Bryson, Ronny Rowland and Brian Gerrin, all were
involved in some process of the building of the machines.
Photo by Justin Poole
new equipment,” said Thurston.
“I wound up with four patents on
machines.”
Then about 12 years ago, Dodd
received a call, from a man in
Greensboro, Ga., wanting him to come
down and take a look at his process
ing plant where everything was being
done by hand.
“I came back [after visiting the plant]
and drew a blueprint out and started on
his stuff and got him fully automated,”
Dodd said. “Before I got through with
that plant, people were beginning to
find out about me from all over the
country. They found out about me in
South Carolina and a man came down
to visit me and stayed about four hours
watching videos I had of the machines
running and then said he wanted me to
visit his plant in Colombia, S.C.”
After automating the plant in South
Carolina, Dodd continued to work to
develop better machines for process
ing chicken and other poultry, which
has taken him all over the United
States, South America, Greece and
Italy.
“I still work on processing for chick
ens, but the big thing now is quail
equipment,” he said. “I was work
ing on different things when this guy
in Sydney, Australia, contacted me.
He found out about me from the
University of Georgia. How the uni
versity found out about me I don’t
know.”
After talking for a month with the
Australian, who Dodd didn’t want
identify for business reasons, the Lula
man traveled to Sydney to visit the
plant where everything was still being
done by hand.
After seeing the operation, Dodd
created a set of blueprints and returned
home to start work building the equip
ment including one that removes the
crop (windpipe), another that vacuums
out the lungs and the final machine
washes the birds inside and out. It
took two to three months to complete
each of the three machines being sent
to Australia.
The machines are predominately
stainless steel with some minor parts
being aluminum. Dodd has designed
every aspect of the machines without
any electrical motors. The machines
are operated by an overhead drive
while the birds enter and exit on a
conveyor system. Dodd also built the
drive unit and gearbox that the plant
can attach to their motor to operate his
machines and existing machines.
“The ideal thing is for [the Australian
plant] to get fully automated,” said
Dodd. “Instead of running two days a
week, and killing 3,500 birds, they can
run just one day and kill all their birds.
They are increasing their bird size and
will need to run more and more.”
Once the machines are shipped and
set up in Sydney, the processing plant
can go fully automated, processing up
to 5,000 quail per hour using Dodd’s
machines.
“The machines are easy to clean,”
said Dodd. “The USDA requires that
they be easy to clean and Australia
has similar regulations. Another thing
about these machines is that they will
work exactly like I say they will.”
The machines are made completely
on location at Dodd’s shop. According
to Dodd, he uses raw materials and
does all the cutting, machine work and
fabrication on site including building
necessary parts and accessory parts
like shackles.
“It is a real good business,” Dodd
said. “We have to stock parts, what
works on one machine won’t work on
another machine.”
Shackles that hold the birds as they
go through the machines will also be
sent to Australia. The shackle is about
a foot long and looks like an upside
down Y. All the shackles are hand bent
to shape from a rod of stainless steel.
Dodd’s son, Michael, said that they
had tried using a machine to bend the
shackles but when you have to have
them bent in such a shape, by hand is
the only feasible way.
The quail processing equipment is
four times smaller than chicken pro
cessing equipment. Some of Dodd’s
chicken processing machines in opera
tion in the states can operate over
7,000 birds an hour.
The quail machines were wrapped
in plastic to protect the parts during
the trip, which will take over two
months to reach the final destination.
Once the machines go online, Dodd
doesn’t think it will be long before he
starts getting contacted for more of the
machines from other companies.
“The phone stays busy with people
contacting me asking for this or that,”
Dodd said. “We stay busy.”
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Voters encouraged to get
absentee ballots for elections
Registered voters may request an
absentee ballot from their county reg
istrar by completing an application
available on the Georgia Secretary of
State’s website.
The website is: www.sos.ga.gov/
elections/ElectionCenter08.htm.
Voters may then submit the form to
their county registrar by mail or fax.
Contact information for county regis
trars is available at www.sos.ga.gov/
elections/ElectionCenter08.htm.
Absentee ballots will also be avail-
able at the registrar’s office begin
ning June 2. Voters will be allowed to
cast an absentee ballot without giving
a reason for wanting to vote early.
“We will likely see high turnout
in this year’s general primary and
general election. That could mean
extended wait times at some pre
cincts,” secretary of state Karen
Handel said. “Absentee voting is a
convenient way for voters to exercise
their civic duty without having to
visit a polling place on election day.”
CRCT... continued from page 1A
the state school superintendent’s
office.
State School Superintendent
Kathy Cox indicated in various con
ference calls regarding the recent
scores that students who fail the
retest may appeal for promotion.
Additionally, she noted that par
ents need to accept that the revised
math standards were necessary.
“We were lulled into the
sense middle school students
were doing good work before
when they weren’t,” she said.
Accounting for the success of the
math scores locally, superinten
dent Chris Erwin said: “I am not
surprised at the results being so
good for Banks County because
of the quality of students, teachers
and administrators. It’s a new test
and a more rigorous curriculum.
Our teachers were prepared for the
challenges of the new curriculum
and have done an outstanding job
delivering instruction for student
mastery.”
BCMS had the highest passing
rate among all area schools, local
officials said. Preliminary data also
indicates the school has a higher
percentage of passing than the sur
rounding counties on other areas of
the test including reading, English/
language arts, science and social
studies.
Cox has said, however, the CRCT
results for sixth and seventh grade
social studies would be invalidated
because they were “implausibly
low.”
“After intense scrutiny of the
standards and assessment, we have
come to the conclusion that these
scores are not trustworthy measures
of student achievement in social
studies,” Cox said. “This decision
is based primarily on the conviction
that we need to revise the curricu
lum and the assessments to better
evaluate the knowledge and skills
that represent student achievement
in social studies.”
Overall results for the CRCT
must be certified by the Georgia
Department of Education before
being released to the public, Cox
said.
Lula ... continued from page 1A
Also at the meeting last week,
the Lula City Council:
•approved a request to start
accepting bids for solid waste
pickup.
•accepted bids on surplus items,
including a Dodge Ram pickup
truck, $250; Ford tractor, $1,501;
Yanmar tractor, $1,130; genera
tor, $410; and two air compres
sors, $150 each.
•denied a bid on surplus scrap
metal of $100.
•denied a request for Highland
Lakes annexation and rezoning.
•tabled discussion of a right of
way usage ordinance until the
next meeting.
•approved the start of repairs on
McLeod Pump Station and stated
they are not to exceed $27,800.
•revised a SPLOST 6 funds
request from Hall County to now
ask for $1.266 million for water
and sewer, $300,000 for parks and
$300,000 for roads.
•heard an update on the proce
dure for vandalism on signage.
More action will be taken at next
month’s meeting.
•named May’s Yard of the Month
recipients, District 1 - Tim Smith,
District 2 - Johnny Brookshire,
District 3 - Robert Grizzle,
District 4 - Jennifer More, and
District 5 - J.L. Kenimer.
•thanked all who helped and
participated in Railroad Days.
The council discussed adding
additional prizes to the parade,
including best old car, best horse
and best antique tractor.
DFACS... continued from page 1A
“I would like to purchase six
flat-screen monitors for the
office.” Jarvis said he recently
purchased some for the Stephens
County office at a cost of $210
each. “I will do everything to
stay within the budget,” Jarvis
said. The vote to approve the
purchase of the monitors passed
unanimously.
In other business:
•Jarvis presented the economic
support services report for April.
The report shows 53 applications
for food stamps, nine applica
tions for temporary assistant
for needy families, 59 family
Medicaid applications and three
applications for childcare.
•Jarvis presented the monthly
social services report for April.
The department had 23 child
protective services referrals for
the month, 21 of these were
accepted and two were screened
out. Banks County has 13 chil
dren in legal custody, one child
boarding the county and three
supervision cases. Banks County
has five foster homes available
and two homes that are under
study. One child was adopted
during the month of April, Jarvis
said.
•Jarvis reported that the annu
al foster parent appreciation
banquet was held on Tuesday,
May 20, at the Homer United
Methodist Church, with five fos
ter parent couples attending.
•Jarvis announced the Field
Staff Awards banquet to be held
on Wednesday night, May 21, in
Atlanta.
The next regularly scheduled
meeting of the DFACS board will
be held at 2 p.m. on Wednesday,
June 18, at the DFACS office.
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