Newspaper Page Text
PACE 4A
THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS
WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 2008
Editor: Angela Gary
Phone: 706-367-2490
E-mail: AngieEditor@aol.com
Website: www.banksnewsTODAY.com
Opinions
“Where the press is free and every tnan
able to read, all is safe.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Our View
Explaining
the numbers
A couple of stories in last week’s Banks County News
about local government audits merit further explina-
tion.
The first article discussed Alto’s audit of 2007 as
being in the red. Town officials point out, however, that
when both the city’s general fund and water fund are
combined, the town was in the black.
That's true. This newspaper, however, covers each
fund as separate entities, as do the audits. A little clari
fication is necessary here. A town’s “general fund” is
the money received and spent on routine government
services. Generally, those funds come from taxes, fines,
permits, etc. General fund expenses are for government
administrative overhead, police departments, recreation
and other city services.
For 2007, Alto spent more in its general fund than it
took in from revenue. City officials said that was due to
the town’s starting a police department, which cost the
city more than anticipated.
But the number this newspaper reported last week
was not the entire picture. When SPLOST funds were
added to the revenues, the town was only $91,500 in the
red, not the $179,400 as originally reported.
Is that cause for concern? Not if it's a one-time thing.
Cities and counties will sometimes dip into reserves to
fund extra projects, as Alto did in 2007 to start a police
department. However, such negative numbers can add
up and if revenues don’t catch up to spending, govern
ments can find themselves in the hole.
On Alto’s other point, that when the city’s water fund
is added to the picture the town would be in the black,
we have a different view.
Proprietary funds, such as Alto’s water fund, are
business departments where specific revenues are used
to pay for specific services. While some towns use the
“profit” from water funds to subsidize general city
operations, that’s a dangerous course to take in the
long run. If city officials start to view their business
operations as cash cows to be used to offset shortfalls
in general spending, it won’t take long for both funds
to be in the red.
So far, Alto hasn’t done that and hopefully won’t.
The two funds should be considered as separate entities,
even though they are both city operations.
Overall, however, Alto is in sound financial shape
despite last year's red ink in its general fund. If that was
just a one-year blip, there's no cause for concern.
However, what Alto officials want to avoid — need
to avoid — is getting into a situation like the City of
Baldwin where that town's general fund had a negative
fund balance and the city’s water system was barely
breaking even in 2007. In addition, the town is running
low on cash and has a lot of debt.
Baldwin’s financial troubles run even deeper with the
city’s auditor having found several significant account
ing problems. Baldwin’s financial picture is troubling
and appears to be the result of the town having grown
its police force too large, too quick. Small towns all
over the state are getting into financial trouble due to the
very high cost of their police departments. Despite that,
elected city officials are often reluctant to cut back on
police spending because of political pressure.
Baldwin has some very real and troubling financial
problems that need to be addressed, now, before they
get worse.
The Banks County News
Founded 1968
The official legal organ of Banks County, Ga.
Mike Buffington.
Scott Buffington .
Angela Gary
Chris Bridges . . .
Sharon Hogan. . .
Anelia Chambers
Suzanne Reed...
Co-Publisher
. Co-Publisher
Editor
Sports Editor
.... Reporter
. Receptionist
Church News
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
(SCED 547160)
Published weekly by
Main Street Newspapers, Inc.,
P.O. Box 908, Jefferson, Ga. 30549
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. 30547
Postmaster, send address changes to:
Subscriptions,
The Banks County News,
P.O. Box 920,
Homer, Ga. 30547
Member: Georgia Press Association
Georgia Sports Writers Association
National Newspaper Association
"Now, let's see...what was I supposed to remember?"
Police reports tell a story about a community
Police reports typically have some
interesting stories — many of them
either make you laugh, roll your eyes
in disbelief or shake your head in dis
approval.
I’ve read police and sheriff reports
for the almost seven years that I’ve
worked with this news organization.
Occasionally, you get that incident
report that you find so amusing that
you read it aloud to everyone in the
news room.
Humor aside, informing the com
munity about the incidents that our
law enforcement handle is an impor
tant role.
Police and sheriff departments
typically have the largest budgets
of any city and county government.
Taxpayers deserve to know what inci
dents their law enforcement officers
deal with and if they handled the situ
ations appropriately.
And unfortunately, you learn that
some people continue to be “trouble
makers” for law enforcement officers,
as their names frequently appear in
arrest and incident reports. I’ve never
met most of these people, but I rec
ognize their names after being printed
in the police and sheriff reports so
many times.
The following are some of my
kerri
testement
choice incident
reports, which are
actual situations
described by local
police and sheriff
deputies:
•Two EMTs
called a sheriff’s
office to say that
a Commerce man
wanted a ride to the
hospital.
No, the man wasn’t sick. He just
wanted a ride to his buddy’s house —
which was near a hospital.
To the man’s credit, he had been
drinking and taking some medication,
which (hopefully) clouded his judg
ment.
As the EMTs were explaining the
situation to a deputy, the man strolled
out of his house — with his bags
packed for the trip to the hospital.
The deputy told the man he didn’t
need to call 911 if he didn’t have a
medical emergency, but the man said
he couldn’t find a ride to his friend’s
house.
Instead of a ride to the hospital, he
got a ride to jail.
A police officer went to one house
in Jackson County, where there was a
suspect with a warrant issued against
her.
The officer told the woman, who
was five months pregnant, that she
was being arrested and taken to jail
for the outstanding warrant.
The woman then begged the officer
to not take her to jail — the experi
ence would cause too much stress to
her unborn child, she claimed.
But the officer (thankfully) wasn’t
persuaded by this caring mother. He
told her to extinguish the cigarette
in her mouth and get in his patrol
vehicle.
• ••
One man wasn’t thinking when
he tried to steal gas. He drove his
vehicle to the gas pump, pressed the
necessary buttons to start the pump
and proceeded to load up on fuel.
When the man tried too quickly
leave the gas station, he forgot that he
used his grocery store discount card
to start the transaction. Police had
his basic identification information,
which the grocery store provided.
Kerri Testement is the news editor
of The Braselton News, a sister pub
lication of The Banks Coun ty News.
E-mail comments about this column
to kerri@mainstreetnews.com.
Letter to the Editor
Appreciates help of fire departments
Dear Editor:
Thanks to all fire departments who
responded to the fire at 485 Hwy. 105
on Wednesday morning, July 16.
No words can really express our
appreciation for the many fire depart
ments, volunteers, neighbors and friends
who came. I am thankful my daughter
and her two girls escaped safely and
that no firefighters were hurt. Thanks
also to Hal Dowdy and staff with State
Farm, who helped an old fogey who lost
his insurance policy. All the firefighters
looked good coming in, but the pretty
ladies from Alto brightened up an other
wise gloomy day. Thanks to everyone.
Sincerely,
Jerry Williams
Letters to the editor policy given
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, RO. 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.
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, questions
or suggestions relating to the coun
ty board of commissioners, county
government, county board of educa
tion and crime and courts is asked to
contact staff reporter 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 concerning the City of
Maysville should go to staff report
er Justin Poole at 706-367-2348.
Calls for information about the
church page should go to Suzanne
Reed at 706-677-3491. Church
news may also be e-mailed to
churchnews@mainstreetnews.com.
The Banks County News website
is updated throughout the week and
can be accessed on the Internet at
www.banksnewsTODAY.com.
The clock ticks
toward the
November vote
“To sin by silence when we should
protest makes cowards out of men.”
— Ella Wheeler Wilcox
• ••
The front page story of USA Today
earlier this week informed us we were
100 days away from the Nov. 4 presiden
tial election.
That count is now under the century
mark until millions of Americans go to
the polls in what can easily be argued
will be our most important presidential
election in decades.
With what many
historians agree
ing has been the
worst eight-year
stretch our country
has been through
presidentially from
2000-2008,1 can
only hope people
will take this presi
dential election
seriously when they
go into their voting
precinct this fall.
Afterall, we have been through two
terms of a president who at best has been
a disaster and at worst was never elected
legitimately to begin with. Remember,
Bush lost the popular vote to A1 Gore
in 2000. That cannot be disputed. There
is also mounds of evidence which show
he really did not win the state of Florida
eight years ago. Even with his brother
as Governor of the state, a Florida
Secretary of State who acted unethically
by working for his campaign and by
helping to illegally purged voters from
the register (it has been documented over
and over folks if you care to take the
time to look at the evidence), indepen
dent studies have shown if a complete
recount was conducted in Florida, Gore
would have won.
The 2000 election is over, however.
While there should have been an uproar
from Americans over this injustice, most
went about their daily lives as if noth
ing happened. Why did so many people
sleep walk through this miscarriage of
justice? Your guess is as good as mine.
A similar injustice occurred in 2004,
only this time in the state of Ohio with
a similar unethical Republican Secretary
of State. Once again, the evidence is
there for those who care to read about it,
research it and look beyond what is told
to you on FOX News.
Numerous books written by award
winning political journalists, college pro
fessors and those who follow the election
process for a living have outlined how
these two elections were decided under
the shadiest of circumstances. Yet, where
is the outcry from the people? Where is
the demand for justice?
It’s nowhere to be found just like it
was nowhere to be found when Bush
pushed the unconstitutional Patriot Act,
not once, but twice. It’s nowhere to be
found just like when Bush signs laws to
illegally spy on Americans, going against
the very grain of the Bill of Rights. This
is the president who once said afterall,
“this would be much easier if it were a
dictatorship.” He’s proving as much.
For me, I’ve had it with the two par
ties which for the most part have very
few differences. As I’ve stated in the past
I’ve joined the Bob Barr crusade. Barr,
who is the Libertarian candidate for
president, has also seen enough although
he comes from the other side of the aisle.
Barr is a former Republican who saw
personal liberties trampled on by our
current president and had to take a stand.
Like me, Barr said, “Enough is enough.”
I must say it’s been enjoyable to be
enthusiastic about a presidential candi
date again. It’s been a while since I have
really felt that way.
I know a Barr presidency would mean
an end to our violation of civil liberties.
I know a Barr presidency would mean an
end to an ongoing use of our troops to
occupy a foreign country. A Barr presi
dency would mean an end to the uncon
stitutional FISA bill and Patriot Act and
a restoration of Habeas Corpus.
Bob Barr has drawn a line in the sand.
I have too. We would love to have you
join us. Our freedom depends on it. The
clock is now at less than 100 days.
A h
chris
bridges
Chris Bridges is a reporter for The
Banks County News. Contact him at
706-367-2745 or e-mail comments to
chris@mainstreetnews.com.