Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 2017
THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS
PAGE 7A
Editor: Angela Gary
Phone:706-410-1022
E-mail: AngieEditor@aol.com
Website: www.banksnewsTODAY.com
Opinion
“Where the press is free and every man
able to read, all is safe. ”
— Thomas Jefferson
The news just
keeps getting worse
about Plant Vogtle
When it comes
to the nuclear reac
tors Georgia Power
has been trying
to build at Plant
Vogtle, there never
seems to be any
good news - just
a steady stream
of ever-worsening
bad news.
The latest wave
of negative news
hit last week in
the form of disclo
sures by top exec
utives of the Southern Co.,
the Atlanta-based holding
company that owns Geor
gia Power and several other
utilities.
They confirmed that the
total cost of the Vogtle proj
ect, if it were ever to be
actually completed, will be
at least $25 billion, but it
could potentially reach as
high as $27 billion.
That final cost range of
$25 billion to $27 billion
is nearly double the $14
billion that Georgia Power
estimated the project
would cost when it first
proposed it to the Public
Service Commission back
in 2008.
Georgia Power is respon
sible for 45.7 percent of
that cost, with the remain
der divided up among the
other project partners:
Oglethorpe Power (30 per
cent), ME AG Power, (22.7
percent) and Dalton Utili
ties (1.6 percent).
As we have noted in this
space many times before,
these cost increases will
inevitably be passed along
to the customers of these
utilities in the form of high
er monthly power bills,
much higher monthly bills
But wait, there’s more:
Southern Co. revealed that
the service date for the
Unit 3 reactor has been
pushed back to the period
between Febmary 2021 and
March 2022, while the Unit
4 reactor won’t start operat
ing until sometime between
February 2022 and March
2023.
When the project was
initially authorized by the
PSC, Georgia Power said
Unit 3 would be operating
by 2016 and Unit 4 by 2017.
That means the project is
now at least five to six years
behind schedule.
There is one faint bit of
optimism for the Vogtle
partners. Westinghouse,
the primary contractor on
the project, was forced
into bankmptcy in March
because of the cost over
runs. Southern Co. has
now assumed manage
ment responsibility for
completing the reactors.
Toshiba, the parent com
pany of Westinghouse, has
said it will pay the Vog
tle partners $3.68 billion
because of the bankmptcy,
an amount that would be
deducted from the current
cost estimate of $25 billion.
That would seem to be
some good news among
all the bad.
However, Toshiba is
on increasingly
shaky financial
ground itself and
could eventually
end up filing for
bankruptcy as
well - which puts
the future of that
$3.68 billion pay
ment very much
in doubt.
The PSC’s pub
lic interest advo
cacy staff has
already suggested
that Georgia Pow
er’s shareholders should
have to eat the cost if Toshi
ba skips out on that $3.68
billion payment. The staff
ers said in a recent filing:
“the risk of non-collection
of the Toshiba Parental
Guarantee is appropriately
on the company not rate
payers.”
The Southern Alliance
for Clean Energy, an inter
vening party in the Vogtle
case, filed a similar recom
mendation with the PSC.
That recommendation
set off a nuclear reaction
from Georgia Power’s chief
attorney, Kevin Greene. He
fired off a sternly worded
letter to the PSC demand
ing that the commissioners
reject the recommendation
- a move that would, of
course, enable the utility to
pass off that possible loss of
funds to the ratepayers.
“Approving such recom
mendations will have far
reaching adverse impacts
upon the Vogtle Project, the
Company, and all custom
ers,” Greene complained.
In the same week that
all this bad news came
crashing down in Georgia,
two South Carolina utilities
made the difficult decision
to kill a nuclear project that
was similar to Vogtle in
some significant ways.
The South Carolina
venture involved the con
struction by Westinghouse
of two reactors that are
identical in design to the
reactors at Vogtle - and
like Vogtle, the project had
nearly doubled its original
construction budget.
Southern Co. will soon
be faced with the same
decision. Company offi
cials say they will tell the
PSC by the end of August
whether they are going to
cancel the Vogtle project or
continue with construction.
But even pulling the plug
on Vogtle would not be
cheap
“If a decision is made
to cancel the project, we
have estimated Georgia
Power’s cancellation cost
at approximately $400 mil
lion,” Southern Co. CEO
Tom Fanning said.
That cost would also be
passed along to ratepayers,
just in case you were won
dering.
Tom Crawford is editor
of The Georgia Report, an
internet news service at
gareport.com that reports
on state government and
politics. He can be reached
at tcrawford@gareport.
com.
'The Missing Boys' tackles murder in small town in Ga.
Tyson County is
not Jackson County
and solicitor Monty
Floyd is not Floyd
Hoard. However,
when reading Rich
ard Hoard’s latest
novel, “The Missing
Boys,” locals will
certainly get glimps
es of Jefferson and
Floyd Hoard as they
read the fictional
tale of murder in a
small town in Georgia.
Hoard has a gift of describ
ing characters that really do
come to life. Like Mark Twain,
whose Huckleberry Finn and
Tom Sawyer characters seem
so real, Hoard also brings to
life his characters, including
Ryan, Benny and Curtis, three
young men growing up in a
small Southern town.
I could actually visualize
these young men
as I read about
their camping trips
and swimming in
a lake. Readers will
meet Benny, with
his Beatles-inspired
hair and habit of
trying to speak with
an English accent,
and Ryan, the hand
some young man
with a kind, compas
sionate heart that
impresses everyone. Then,
there is Curtis, who is a faith
ful friend to Ryan. I feel as if I
know the three young men.
“The Missing Boys” opens
when Steve Delaney is the
latest teenager to “go miss
ing” in Tyson County. When
Iran’s brother, Phil, also dis
appears without a trace, the
teenager goes on a quest to
find out what happened to
these boys. Ryan shows brav
ery in the face of danger and
doesn’t back down.
The book is 206 pages and
I read it in one evening, main
ly because each chapter left
me wanting to know more.
The author said a lady once
told him that what makes a
great book is one that makes
you laugh, makes you cry and
makes you think. “The Miss
ing Boys” does all three.
I first met Richard Hoard in
1994. A young reporter then,
I drove to his home and sat
with him in his office as he
told me the story of the mur
der of his father, Floyd Hoard.
His first novel, “Alone Among
the Living” tells of his journey
after the murder of his father.
The murder of Floyd
Hoard is a tragic event that is
a legend in Jackson County.
To him, though it was the
story of his life. The story of a
14yearold boy whose father is
murdered in his front yard in a
car bomb that could have also
taken his life.
This event, and this first
book that he started while in
college but didn’t finish until
he was 40, defined the man
he would become and kicked
off a writing career that he
might not have otherwise had.
“The Missing Boys” is
Hoard’s fourth novel and it’s
an intense look at life in a
small Southern town. Be sure
and get a copy and, if you
haven’t read Hoard’s earlier
works, they are also worth
your time. His writing will
make you think and inspire
you.
Angela Gary is an editor
with MainStreet Newspapers
Inc. She can be reached at
AngieEditor@aol.com.
We learned, a lot, although we seldom noticed
We had a “buddy”
system in scouts in
the early- to mid-
1960s. Everywhere
we went we had to
know where our
buddy might be,
and we had “buddy
checks” regularly.
Most often that
would be a way to
keep up with every
one in the troop
when we were swim
ming in a lake or mountain
creek.
I helped twice get a
buddy out of the undertow
at Abrams Falls in the Great
Smoky Mountains. I had
help myself from an assistant
scoutmaster and a couple
of other scouts. We helped
each other.
At summer camp, we did
things largely as a group by
tent. Each tent held eight
kids.
On Appalachian Trail
hikes, we were responsible
for checking the pack of the
boy in front of us when we
started in the morning and
each time we stopped for a
break.
One of my humiliating
moments was having to
re-roll my sleeping bag which
had not been tied correctly.
That was on my first AT hike
when 1 was 11. My “buddy,”
who was 12, helped with the
re-rolling.
I helped my share of
first-timers when I was 12 to
14.
I learned to start a fire in a
ron
bridgeman
pounng rain, using
a “Firestarter,” a
piece of cardboard
tied with cord and
dipped, repeatedly,
in paraffin. Mostly,
I learned to finish
the job, to pay
attention to the
task at hand.
I never went to a
national jamboree,
but I would have
been bewildered,
and a little ticked off, if I had
and listened to a speech like
Donald Trump gave in West
Virginia recently.
I would have wondered
why this man was spouting
nonsense about a bunch of
things that had nothing to do
with the jamboree or scout
ing or growing up.
Scouts had lots of lessons
for me - independence,
planning, helping other kids,
standing up for “right,” which
was defined by our scout
master. But one of the lasting
lessons was how to act in
civil society.
Our scoutmaster had a lita
ny that he said whenever we
went somewhere. He would
spew it out in a rush because
he knew we were anxious to
get food, or visit the restroom
or go swimming or any of a
hundred other things.
The litany involved being
polite, not yelling, spitting,
fighting, cursing and general
ly not behaving like morons. I
heard that hundreds of times.
We had a sign for quiet.
The scout sign, the three
middle fingers up, facing out
and the thumb and little fin
ger crossed. It was universal.
A couple hundred kids
would go quiet and wait for
whatever came when any
one, boy or adult, lifted that
sign.
For four years, scout events
were a major part of my life.
Weekend camps and hikes,
weekly meetings, track meets
and practices in the spring
and summer and work on
merit badges.
I kept a pack with enough
food and clothes for three
days ready in a closet. About
once a quarter we had a drill
to see how soon we could
gather as a group.
It was the middle of the
Cold War. We were prepared
to go to the woods if some
thing drastic happened or
to go help folks if the bombs
fell.
We had cliques in the
troop and fights occasional
ly. We wrestled a lot, for fun
and for exercise. We ran. We
swam.
Our scoutmaster referred
to boys getting “14-itis.” He
meant we noticed girls. He
was right - except it probably
was closer to 12, certainly 13.
Mostly we learned,
although it was some years
before most of us recog
nized what and how much.
Trump apparently never
had a scoutmaster like mine.
Ron Bridgeman is a
reporter for Mainstreet
Newspapers. Send him
email at ron@mainstreet-
news.com.
POLICY ON
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The policy for letters to the
editor submitted to The Banks
County News is as follows:
• An original copy of all
letters must be submitted 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
be signed with the address
and phone number of the per
son who wrote them. The ad
dress and phone number will
be for our verification purposes
only and will not be printed
unless the writer requests it.
• E-mailed letters will be
accepted but we must have a
phone number and address.
• Letters that are libelous will
also 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 Angie-
Editor@aol.com or 706-410-
1022.
The Banks County News
Founded 1968
The official legal organ
of Banks County, Ga.
142 Old Highway 441 North, Home', GA 30547
Mike Buffington
Scott Buffington
Angela Gary
Charles Phelps
Sharon Hogan
Anelia Chambers
Co-Publisher
Co-Publisher
Editor
Sports Editor
Reporter
Receptionist
Phones (all 706 area code):
Angela Gary Phone 706-410-1022
Angela Gary Fax 706-621-4112
Homer Office Phone 706-612-5327
Web www.BanksNewsTODAY.com
(SCED 547160)
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P.O. Box908, Jefferson, Ga. 30549
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