Newspaper Page Text
www.MadisonJournalTODAY.com
FEBRUARY 19, 2009
Merged with The Comer News and The Danielsville Monitor, 2006
Vol. 24 No.
Publication No. 1074-987 • Danielsville, Madison County, Georgia 30633 • A Publication of MainStreet Newspapers Inc. • 22 Pages, 2 Sections Plus Supplements
Region championship
Lauren Smith drives to the basket against
Loganville, during the Lady Raiders’ 43-37 vic
tory Tuesday. Madison County will play for the
region champsionship Friday night against Clarke
Central at 7 p.m. at Winder-Barrow High School.
Ben Munro/Staff
TAXES
House passes
assessment freeze
INSIDE: Assessors Change meeting date,
Page 3A
By Zach Mitcham
zach@mainstreetnews.com
P roperty tax assess
ments could be
capped for the
next two years if legisla
tion approved last week
by the Georgia House of
Representatives is ultimately
signed into law.
House Bill 233 passed by
a 110-63 vote Feb. 12. The
measure would place a two-
year moratorium on property
reassessment increases.
"This important measure
will help homeowners strug
gling with a stagnant hous
ing market and rising property
taxes.” said Rep. Tom McCall,
whose District 30 representa
tion includes the southern half
of Madison County.
Both McCall (R) and District
29 Rep. Alan Powell, who rep
resents the northern half of the
county, voted in favor of the
action. In fact, they both agreed
that the House should have
taken the assessment freeze
a step further, approving HR
1, a proposed constitutional
amendment that would have
capped property tax assess
ment revaluations at three per
cent or the rate of inflation
Tax relief
credit remains
in ‘08 bills
Madison County property
owners may receive two
tax bills in 2009 — but not
three.
Gov. Sonny Perdue signed
legislation Tuesday funding
homeowner tax relief grants
for 2008. Perdue had pro
posed the elimination of the
tax credit from 2008 bills,
which would have meant an
additional tax bill this year
for Madison County proper
ty owners of approximately
$240.
County property owners
recently received their 2008
bills and they can expect
another bill later this year
if the county digest is com
pleted on schedule.
every year in the future. (See
Page 4Afor opinion pieces by
both Powell and McCall that
address the proposals).
“The only impact I foresee
is a fairer system where all
property - residential, com
mercial, agricultural and oth-
— See “Taxes’ on 3A
INSIDE
Index:
News — 1-3A,
Opinbns— 4-5A
Crime— 6A
Socials —7A, 12A
Obituaries— 8-9A
Sports— 1-3B
Schools— 4-5B
Churches — 6B
Legate — 7-9B
Contact:
Phone: 706-795-2567
Fax: 706-795-2765
Mail: PO. Box 658,
Danielsville, GA, 30633
Web:
MadisonJoumalTODAY.com
8 ,, 0 4879 14144* 0
BOE to discuss
budget, facilities
Monday
County school leaders
will address next year’s
budget crunch and revisit
a high school renovation
wish list at a called board
of education (BOE) meet
ing Monday at 6:30 p.m.
— Page 2A
Hull seeks
council member
The vacated spot at
the Hull City Council
table will remain unoc
cupied until at least
this summer.
— Page 2A
JOBS
Unemployment claims climbing
First-time filers up 63.6% last
month, compared to January 2008
The layoffs keep coming. In
Madison County, 414 people
filed first-time claims for unem
ployment benefits in January,
up 63.6 percent from 253 in
January 2008.
However, Madison County’s
unemployment numbers
weren't as bad as the state aver
age. According to the Georgia
Department of Labor (GDOL),
120,139 laid-off workers across
the state filed first-time claims
for unemployment insurance
benefits in January, an increase
of 80.7 percent from January
of 2008.
Unemployment claims were
also up in neighboring coun
ties: Oglethorpe, 153 percent;
Jackson, 90percent; Clarke, 88.9
percent; Banks, 69.9; Elbert.
49.5 percent; and Hart, 28.8.
“We are witnessing the
emergence of a ‘Darwinian’
job market," said State Labor
Commissioner Michael
Thurmond. “The growing num
ber of layoffs has created a
surplus of jobseekers who are
talented, experienced, educated
and well-trained. In this chal
lenging environment, the most
successful jobseekers will be
— See “Unemployment’ on 2A
Legislative breakfast
Broun
blasts
stimulus
Local Congressman calls
federal economic plan a
‘steamroller of socialism’
By Margie Richards
margie@mainstreetnews.com
IT*.
Congressman Paul Broun speaks at
Saturday’s Farm Bureau legislative
breakfast in Danielsville.
Margie Richards/Staff
U.S. Congressman Paul Broun says the
federal stimulus plan is a "steamroller of
socialism" that will “strangle” the country’s
economy.
The 10 th District Republican spoke before
Madison County Farm Bureau members
at a Saturday morning legislative break
fast. State Representative Tom McCall also
attended. State Representative Alan Powell
and State Senator Ralph Hudgens were
unable to attend the event.
Broun called the federal plan a "non
stimulus” package.
“The president will sign it." Broun said.
“And (I believe) it will prolong and deepen
the recession and possibly push us into a
depression."
Broun said one part of the bill, to estab
lish a national medical record system, will
mandate that all medical records be sent
to a government computer (repository) and
that he feels this is a violation of privacy,
that will also give too much government
control of individual healthcare decisions in
the future.
And Broun predicted that this is just the
first of many bills during the Obama admin
istration focusing on increasing the size and
power of government.
He also laid the blame for some of today’s
economic problems at the feet of Republicans,
who he said “acted like Democrats” over the
past eight years, including former President
George W. Bush, whom he called a “big
spending president."
“I wasn’t there (during that time) or I’d
have been fighting that too,” said Broun.
The Congressman said deregulation wasn’t
the cause of the current economic situation,
but rather the housing market crash.
“Money (for homes) was given to people
who can’t pay it back,” Broun said.
So what’s in the
stimulus plan?
— Source. The USA Today
Aid to poor and unemployed
•$40 billion to provide extended unem
ployment benefits through Dec. 31, and
increase them by $25 a week; $20 bil
lion to increase food-stamp benefits by
14%; $3 billion in temporary welfare
payments.
Direct cash payments
•$14 billion to give one-time $250
payments to Social Security recipients,
poor people on Supplemental Security
Income, and veterans receiving disability
and pensions.
Infrastructure
•$46 billion for transportation projects,
including $27 billion for highway and
bridge construction and repair; $8.4 bil
lion for mass transit; $8 billion for con
struction of high-speed railways and $1.3
billion forAmtrak; $4.6 billion for the Army
Corps of Engineers; $4 billion for public
housing improvements; $6.4 billion for
clean- and drinking-water projects; $7
billion to bring broadband Internet service
to underserved areas.
Health care
•$21 billion to provide a 60% subsidy of
health care insurance premiums for the
unemployed under the COBRA program;
$87 billion to help states with Medicaid;
$19 billion to modernize health informa
tion technology systems; $10 billion for
INVESTIGATION
Churches
continue
Angel Food
distribution
Organization’s
founders at center
of FBI probe, but local
service not affected
By Zach Mitcham
zach@mainstreetnews.com
Federal agents are investi
gating Angel Food Ministries,
with the large income of its
founders generating consider
able public attention.
But leaders of Madison
County churches that host
Angel Food distribution say
the ongoing investigation in
Monroe, where the food min
istry was founded, will have
no effect on their efforts to
help people in need of low-
cost meals.
"Everything is like it always
has been,” said Rev. Tony
Cowart of the Family Worship
Center, which has served as an
Angel Food host site for about
five years. "We’re still serv
ing food. We haven’t stopped.
It’s $30 a box, that’s all we
know. We sell about 80 boxes
— See “Food’ on 3A
WATER
IDA turns back
to state for
water funding
By Margie Richards
maigie@mainstreetnews.com
Hopes for USDA funding
for future water line projects
have apparently dried up in
Madison County.
The Madison County
Industrial Development
Authority hoped to get some
help from the United States
Department of Agriculture for
maj or water line improvement/
— See “Broun’ on 3A
— See ‘Stimulus’ on 3A
— See TDA’ on 5A
ZONING
Inert landfill proposed
for Nowhere Road
By Margie Richards
margie@mainstreetnews.com
A Hull couple has applied
for a conditional use permit to
use a portion their land for an
inert landfill for concrete recy
cling, according to documents
obtained from the county plan
ning and zoning office.
James ("Jimbo”) and Connie
Arnold, 10315 Nowhere Road,
have requested the conditional
use permit for four to five acres
of a 25.02-acre tract currently
zoned A-1 (intensive agricultur
al) property on Nowhere Road
near Planter Gunnell Road.
The tract currently contains tire
Arnolds’ home, a horse bam
and a shop.
Mr. Arnold said that the land
fill would not accept concrete
from the public, but that he
will truck it in himself in slabs
from concrete plants in order to
recycle it.
"There won’t be a bunch of
vehicles going in and out of
there,” Arnold said.
After 20,000 tons has been
collected, a crusher will crush
tire material into “crush and
run” which will then be sold to
Madison County, or any other
area counties that have a need
for it.
Arnold estimated that crash
ing tire concrete would be done
no more than a couple of times
— See “Landfill’ on 3A
EDUCATION
Middle school
attendance
improves
dramatically
By Ben Munro
ben@mainstreetnews.com
Madison County Middle
School now boasts a 95 percent
attendance rate, up 33 percent
from last year’s figures.
Those numbers reflect atten
dance taken during the last week
of January at the 1,050-student
— See“MCMS’on3A
— o
