Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL. THURSDAY. MARCH 12, 2009 — PAGE 3A Aftermath .cont’dfrom 1A building because it can be replaced, but because of what could have happened,” Mrs. Wages said. "The Lord just had hais protection upon them.” The Wages, who had been prepar ing to receive chickens last Sunday afternoon, lost one of their three chicken houses on their Booger Hill Road farm. Mrs. Wages said they filed the claim with Farm Bureau on Monday and the settlement check arrived on Friday. But while they will continue to grow for Pilgrim’s Pride in their other two houses, they won’t replace the one that they lost. “It was too old to get replacement costs on it and with the economy like it is, we won’t be replacing it.” she said. The Wages aren’t alone. Chicken farmers across Madison County are reeling from the effects of last week’s eight-inch snow. Department of Agriculture repre sentatives said there were a total of 11 chicken farms affected in the county last week, with 14 total chicken houses down. Madison County Farm Bureau Agency Manager Steve Young said his company received claims for eight and a half chicken houses damaged last week, with an esti mated $750,000 worth of damage. Farm Bureau received approxi mately 100 claims in all last week, with numerous people reporting collapsed carports. Like the Wages, Bobby Caudell won’t be replacing the chicken house he lost on his Hwy. 191 farm. Caudell said his 548-foot house went down about 4 a.m. Monday morning, but luckily his last batch of chickens had just been picked up. Caudell said he woke up when the house fell, but thought it was the state road crews scraping the highway and didn’t see what had happened until daylight. If the economy was different, he might rebuild, he said, but as it is now. he doesn’t plan on it. The roof of one of Doug Patton’s nine chicken houses collapsed under the weight of snow. Patton, of Shiloh Fort Lamar Road, had 19,000 chickens in the house and 9,000 were lost in the incident. ‘ A company we grow for brought a crew in and we salvaged about 10,000 birds," said Patton, who contracts with Harrison Poultry out of Bethlehem. Patton said he was out of power from Sunday to Thursday after noon. He had generators connect ed to wells that serve the chicken houses. “The chickens weren’t without power but we were," he said. Patton said last week was cer tainly tough. “It’s been unreal,” said Patton, adding that last week’s power out age wasn’t as bad as the ice storm of 1979, which led to a lack of electricity for seven days. Troy Chandler, Rogers Mill Road, said he discovered the col lapsed roof of one of his six chicken houses around 8 p.m. Sunday. The farmer, who contracts with Pilgrim’s Pride, said there were about 25,000 chickens in the house that were about three-and-a-half weeks old. He lost about 10,000. Chandler, who said he plans to start rebuilding his chicken house this week, said he was without from power Sunday night until Wednesday on one of his farms and from Sunday to Thursday on the other. “It reminded me of the old days,” he said. “I was bom before power ever got here." Chandler said he knows he’s not alone with his chicken house trou bles last week. “There’s a bunch of us in the same boat,” he said. “But we’ll survive.” John Mason of Shoal Creek Road, Colbert, lost two of his four chicken houses Sunday during the snowstorm. Mason, who contracts with Pilgrim’s Pride, lost an esti mated 42.000 chickens. “It’s a little bit devastating," he said. Mason, who has been a chicken farmer for 22 years, heard both houses collapse within around a five-hour span Sunday. The first fell between 4 and 5 p.m. Sunday and the second fell around 9 p.m. Mason said he was out of power between Sunday and Tuesday last week. He said he’s not sure if he’ll rebuild. “There’s not a whole lot we can do,” he said. "We’re not going to rebuild right now. We’ll have to think about Of course, chicken houses weren’t the only structures lost in the storm. Alan Colmes and Trm Hollifield. co-owners of Georgia Metal Finishing, lost their new 20.000-foot structure at Madico Park last week. Colmes said the structure col lapsed Monday around 2 a.m. He said firefighters came to Madico Park to get water as they battled a nearby fire and heard the structure collapse. The owners, both Madison County residents, still have their Georgia Metal facility in Colbert and are speaking with insurers, try ing to determine what they will do next. “We want people to know that we’re still in business," said Colmes. “We’re trying to stay positive and upbeat. God’s on our side and we will get through this." Hollifield said he is glad no one was in the building when it col lapsed. He said the community has been supportive since the incident. “A lot of neighbors have stopped by," said Hollifield. “It’s a good county. That’s why we’re here.” Snowstorm 911 calls Here is a breakdown of calls to the Madison County 911 Center March 1-3: •March 1: 1,222 total calls. •March 2: 596 calls. •March 3: 214 calls. •Three-day total: 2,032. •Power/phone line down: 272 calls. •Roads blocked: 216. •Motor vehicle accidents, no injuries: 52. •Motor vehicle accidents, with injuries: 5. •Fires related to downed power lines: 44. •Structure fires: 6. Students to make up one snow day Friday By Ben Munro ben@mainstreetnews.com One of the three snow days Madison County students enjoyed last week will be made up Friday. The Madison County Board of Education (BOE) approved the change to the school calendar Tuesday night. Friday was originally a teacher workday. Superintendent Mitch McGhee canceled classes March 2-4 after eight inches of snow bombarded the county March 1. Teachers, however, worked March 4. The aftermath of the snowstorm included power outages at the schools and downed trees along bus routes. The school board has a limited number of missed days that it can forgive, and McGhee noted that unpredictable spring weather still awaits the school system. So he suggested making up one of the days. “We still have some spring weather and some things we have to go through," he said. “It is not uncommon that we have to miss a day.” Make-up dates have been a hot topic among teachers, parents and students. “We have, and y’all probably have too, been inundated with, ‘what are we going to do about the make-up days?” McGhee said to the BOE. McGhee said principals and administrators came to a consen sus to use Friday as a make-up day. He added that the teachers’ forum he regularly meets with “were unanimous in choosing to go that route." Elementary teachers were almost "adamant," according to McGhee, about add ing Friday as a regular instruction day because of CRCT prepara tion. The make-up day didn’t pass unanimously, however, among the school board. Chairman Jim Patton voted against the make-up day because he'd already pre-arranged for doctor’s appointments for his children that day. “I just think that I would look like a hypocrite if I said, ‘yes, you’ve got to go to school and then my kids aren’t there,'” Patton said. The school board still has to address teacher make-up days. Teacher must work the two days they missed. STUDENTS MIGHT HAVE MISSED A FOURTH DAY There was plenty of thanks to go around for those who guided the school system through the winter storm of 2009. “I would like to publicly com mend our transportation staff and our maintenance staff," McGhee said. He specifically praised the efforts of transportation director Tom West and assistant direc tor Phillip Croya as well as Ned Graham and his maintenance staff, which allowed the system to resume classes last Thursday. “They did a tremendous job to allow us to have teachers in here Wednesday (March 4) and kids back here on Thursday (March 5)," McGhee said. According to the superinten dent, the county government thought classes might have to be called off again on March 5 due to trees and power fines still down on dirt roads. But the transportation crew spent March 4 redesigning routes around those obstacles. Just one bus became stuck on March 5 after the driver went off road to avoid a downed power fine. That bus was pulled out by school system truck and those students arrived to school only five to 10 minutes late. As for the power outages at the schools, walk-in coolers remained at safe temperatures, so food stored there wasn’t lost. However, food stored in the reach-in cool ers — leftovers and condiments largely — couldn’t be salvaged. County-wide that only amount ed to $1,400 worth of food prod ucts lost. “That was really a whole lot better than we expected,” McGhee said. There was no structural damage found at any of the school system campuses or buildings. The high school, however, lost internet service and didn't regain it until Tuesday. to calculate storm costs County By Zach Mitcham zach@mainstreetnews.com Madison County Commission Chairman Anthony Dove said the county government is assessing costs from last week’s storm and will turn in a dollar figure to the Georgia Emergency Management Agency for potential funding support. “We will be compiling those numbers and turning those in to GEMA,” said Dove. But he voiced doubt about Madison County getting any state funding assistance related to the storm. “I’m not sure that we can,” Dove told the commission ers Monday. “It’s a massive amount of money that you have to show as a region; $10.7 million is what we have to show. We cannot count everything. We can’t count anything but over time, uninsured damage and also some equipment costs.” Dove said citizens can take storm debris to the county transfer station. For the next six weeks, storm debris will be accepted on Mondays and Tuesdays, when the station is nor mally closed, but no solid waste will be taken. (See Page 2Afor more on this). “This (the debris at the transfer station) also gives us a count on how much tonnage we have to give to GEMA later on,” said Dove. The chairman read a let ter to the audience Monday, thanking those who worked during and after the storm to help clear roads, assist those in need and restore power. (See the letter on Page 5A). In a separate matter, Dove said he wants citizens to know that he is available to speak to their groups about local issues. He said he would like to hold town hall meetings in each district so people have an opportunity to address him directly with their concerns. Dove said this week that there has been some misunderstanding about why a state of emergency was not declared after the snowstorm. He said that the county was in constant con tact with GEMA, discuss ing the situation. “We were in touch with GEMA the entire time,” he said. “The only thing they (the state) really could have provided was a forestry unit.” The forestry unit could have helped the clear trees from the roads, but Madison County's road department and volunteer firemen were out in force handling that task. Dove said the forestry unit could not have cleared trees from power lines. “No one can cut trees off power lines but power peo ple," he said. The chairman said state aid would not have restored power any quicker last week. The county suffered infrastructure damage, with 80 power poles and two towers down and the repair of that infrastructure had to be done by the power com panies, who are trained to handle the dangerous tasks. “I think there was a mis understanding from some people who thought that (declaration of an emer gency) would have restored their power quicker,” he said. “That was not the case.” Dove noted that 24,000 customers were without power and that Georgia Power and Jackson EMC worked hard to restore ser vices as quickly as pos sible. AWA Georgia PRO WRESTLING LIVE! March 14 Featuring: 3 time WWE Tag Team Champion Lance Cade % Gray Bell Auction V Hwy. 281 (Widecat Bridge Rd.) Royston, Ga. Bell time: 7:30 p.m. Autographs & Pictures: 7:00 p.m. Tickets: $10 • Kids under 13 Free 706-206-8099 ✓ MadisonJ ournal TODAY.com Aren’t you Worth If? FAYE CAREY'S TAX SERVICE CONTINUES TO OPERATE “We’re here for your income tax preparation needs” In business 46 years at the same location. Thank you for your prayers and thoughts during the passing of Faye in December. We appreciate our customers. • DiAnne Carey, Enrolled Agent - Owner (Faye’s Daughter) • Peggy Thrasher, Tax Professional • Kellie Beard, Tax Professional We Look Forward To Helping You With All Your Tax Needs. Please call for an appointment. Walk-ins Welcome. 706-795-2265 Fax: 706-795-5291 Email: careystaxservice@windstream.net ’ www.careystaxservice.com 2579 Faye Carey Road • Danielsville, GA 30633 ’ HOURS: Mon. - Fri. ~ 8:30 a.m. - 7:30 p.m. Sat. ~ 8:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. \\1 PUT HER TO WORK FOR YOU! “I believe to really honor Colbert’s past we need to plan and protect its future.” REMEMBER TO VOTE ON MARCH 17 FOR: ELLYN TRINRUD Colbert City Council ...You know her ... “She's the Lady on the Corner of Fourth and Fourth" Thank you in advance for your very important vote. This notice was paid for by the candidate.