Newspaper Page Text
O
The
www.MadisonJournalTODAY.com
MARCH 19, 2009
Merged with The Comer News and The Danielsville Monitor, 2006
Vol. 24 No. 12 • Publication No. 1074-987 • Danielsville, Madison County, Georgia 30633 • A Publication of MainStreet Newspapers Inc. • 38 Pages, 3 Sections Plus Supplements
TAXES
Dove says BOC
must take control
of appraiser search
Interim chief resigns Mon.
By Zach Mitcham
zach@mainstreetnews.com
T he appraisal
office is woe
fully short-
staffed. The interim head
of county appraisals
tendered her resignation
Monday. And there are
no prospects for a chief
appraiser.
Madison County has
long been known for its
tax assessment turmoils,
but a bad situation is get
ting worse. And county
commission chairman
Anthony Dove said its
time for that to change.
“We’ve got to quit the
blame game and get in
here and take control of
this,” said Dove. “This
has been the biggest prob
lem Madison County has
had for a long time. I was
elected to try to take care
of this. And that's what
I’m going to do.”
The chairman called a
commissioners meeting
Wednesday to discuss
changing county policies,
essentially taking the
county board of asses
sors out of the process of
hiring a chief appraiser.
(That meeting took place
after press time for this
week's paper.)
Madison County’s
tax digest has been late
for eight straight years.
County assessors are
shooting for May to get
tax assessment notices
out to property own
ers. But officials worry
that the county could be
headed for another tardy
digest, considering that
it is mid March and the
county remains with
out a person to head the
appraisal department.
“Were talking about
taking the hiring away
from them (the BOA)
and getting a consultant
to come in here and look
at what has been done,
— See “Taxes’ on 2A
ZONING
No inert landfill
for Nowhere Road
By Margie Richards
margie@mainstreetnews.com
There will be no inert landfill on Nowhere Road,
at least not for the time being.
James (Jimbo) and Connie Arnold, of 10315
Nowhere Road, withdrew their request Friday for a
conditional use permit for an inert landfill for con
crete recycling, according to planning and zoning
administrator Linda Fortson.
The planning and zoning commission was sched
uled to hold the first of two public hearings on the
matter on Tuesday, March 17, followed by a second
hearing before the board of commissioners Monday,
April 6.
Fortson said her office has received numerous
phone calls about the landfill since the application
was filed.
“We had a lot of calls and a lot of people came by
the office, and they were not in favor of it,” Fortson
said. She said that neighboring property owners
were concerned about the noise from the “grinder”
and about run-off from the property.
The Arnolds had requested the permit for a four
to five acre portion of a 25.02 acre tract that is cur
rently zoned A-l which contains the Arnolds’ home,
a horse bam and a shop.
2009 Agriculture Edition
Madison Co. Ag
Day set for Sat.
Special ag insert
— Inside this week’s Madison
County Journal, “The ABC’s of
Agriculture,” a 10-page special
section celebrating agriculture
education in Madison County.
Inside: County ag center
plans forge ahead, 3A
By Zach Mitcham
zach@mainstreetnews.com
Madison County citizens will cel
ebrate the county’s ag culture and
heritage Saturday with the annual “ag
day” at the Madison County Freshman
Academy.
The event will open with the roar
of tractor engines, with a 9 a.m. trac
tor parade beginning in the school
What: Madison County Ag
Day
When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.,
Saturday (tractor parade
begins at 9 a.m.)
Where: The Madison County
Freshman Academy (in the
old MCMS parking lot)
parking lot. Tractors will travel down
Madison Street to Hwy. 29, then turn
— See ‘Ag Day’ on 2A
Stewards of the land
Terry Chandler, Danielsville, is pictured at Still Water Farm with his
daughter, Kimberly (L), and wife Deborah (C).
Governor recognizes Terry
Chandler as state’s most
environmentally sound farmer
By Zach Mitcham
zach@mainstreetnews.com
T he cows know the drill. It’s time
to move. And Terry Chandler
opens one of his tri-corner
gates, which allows him to easily move
the animals from one patch of pasture to
another.
The rotational grazing practice is one
of many efficient systems at Still Water
Farm in Danielsville. Take a pickup truck
down the main cattle and equipment traf
fic lane on the farm, and look out toward
the pasture land, and even the novice, the
non farmer, can recognize the order in the
place, the way cows are kept out of creek
water, the way the stormwater funnels to
the drainage pond. You quickly get the
illusion of easy work, the way a good
guitarist makes the fingers glide on a
fretboard, making you feel you could just
pick it up and do the same, no problem.
Yeah, it looks easy.
But it ain’t.
Chandler and his wife, Deborah, bought
the 200-plus acres on Fowler Freeman
Road in 1987. There was so much to do.
Centuries of row-crop production on the
land had wiped out the topsoil.
There were collapsing structures, a
termite-infested 19 th century farmhouse,
a hog finishing floor in shambles, jungles
of Chinese privet, severe erosion. There
were five old home sites concealed by
overgrowth, four abandoned wells, a
wooded area “robbed of mature pines”
and a “silted-in farm pond whose dam
was about to collapse.”
“We were almost at a loss wondering
where to begin,” said Chandler. “Twenty
four thousand hogs, one million pullets,
several hundred cows, a few vegetables,
150 acres of fescue and hybrid Bermuda,
three college educations and 20 years
later, things look a little different.”
Madison County Extension Coordinator
Carl Vamadoe said the Chandlers’ resto
ration of the out-of-shape property into
one of the most environmentally friendly
family farms around is truly remarkable.
And state officials agree. Chandler has
been named the winner of the Governor’s
Agricultural Environmental Stewardship
Award. The Governor announced
Tuesday that Chandler was chosen for
the award out of five finalists.
“Terry’s farm is a point of pride for
Madison County agriculture,” said
Vamadoe. “He has taken a farm that was
literally stripped of all of its resources
— See “Chandler’ on 2A
“We’re stewards here for just a short period of time. And we feel very strongly that it’s
OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO LEAVE THINGS IN BETTER CONDITION THAN WE FOUND THEM.”
Terry Chandler, Still Water Farm
INSIDE
Index:
News—1-3A
Opinions— 4-5A
Crime— 6A
Socials — 8-9A, 15A
Obituaries— 10-11A
Churches— 14A
Schools— 16A
Sports—1-3B
Legate—4-9B
Contact:
Phone: 706-795-2567
Fax: 706-795-2765
Mail: PO. Box 658,
Danielsville, GA, 30633
Web:
MadisonJoumaUODAY.com
Raider
baseball
team rolls
The Madison County var
sity baseball team blasted
defending state champion
Loganville 12-2 Tuesday.
The 6-2 Raiders are now
3-0 in region play.
— PagelB
EDUCATION
Seven Madison Co. teachers face layoffs
However, number should decrease, officials say
By Ben Munro
ben@mainstreetnews.com
Seven Madison County teach
ers — six full-time and one half
time — face layoffs as school
leaders try to cope with less state
funding for teaching positions
next year.
That number should decrease,
however, as three positions have
recently become available, so
these seven teachers will inter
view for those slots.
“Three of them will be offered
a contract,” Madison County
School Superintendent Mitch
McGhee said.
The school system hopes to
Inside: Significance
of stimulus to schools
unclear, 3A
avoid layoffs — or reduction in
force (RIF) — or limit them as
much as possible when contract
renewals are due in April.
Once faced with cutting 15
teaching positions due to a
lack of state funding, Madison
County school leaders have
gradually reduced that number
by moving existing teachers into
the slots of those retiring or
resigning.
Since the school system won’t
issue contracts until April,
there’s the possibility of more
resignations from teachers look
ing for jobs elsewhere, which
could further save layoffs.
“That’s why I keep calling
it potential (layoffs), because
there’s certainly a decent chance
that we won’t have to RIF,”
McGhee said.
Contracts must be issued by
April 15, though a recent legis
lative measure might extend the
deadline to May 15.
If a school system doesn’t
notify a teacher by the contract
deadline that they don’t have a
job, then that teacher’s contract
automatically renews.
That’s why the school system
is addressing layoffs now.
Should Madison County have
to make cuts in April, there’s still
a chance those jobless teachers
could be rehired since additional
positions tend to open up after
the contract deadline.
As far as staff positions at the
schools, cuts to paraprofessional
and clerical workers are on hold
since national stimulus package
money might save those jobs.
Considering layoffs in the
education business has been a
tough process, McGhee said.
“It’s about relationships with
children and between the adults,”
he said. “It’s not a good thing no
matter what the business is, but
it seems to be especially tough
in education because the rela
tionships and the people part of
it are so important.”
