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PAGE 4A — THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL. THURSDAY. JULY 23. 2009
Opinions
Frankly
Speaking
frankgillispie671@msn.com
By Frank Gillispie
Dogsboro sewage
treatment will
boost commerce
The Madison County Industrial Authority has
finally lined up enough financing to proceed with
the Dogsboro water treatment plant. The facility is
designed to provide water treatment for several areas
around the Dogsboro area. Several large tracts in the
area have been zoned for commercial development,
but little progress has been made due to lack of
infrastructure. Two of the three key facilities are in
place. There is a good supply of water and highways
in the area.
A $500,000 grant comes from the OneGeorgia
Authority financing program, and a $1.6 million
Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority grant
and more than $300,000 in private investments.
Initially, the facility will be available to com
mercial users only. Residential buildings in the area
will continue to depend on septic tanks for water
treatment.
Septic tanks are not adequate for most large water
users, but are the only choice at the moment. The
Ingles store, for example, was originally intended
to be a fully developed shopping center, but the
septic tank system currently used by the store will
not handle the sewage that a shopping center would
produce. The water treatment facilities being devel
oped would allow greater use of that area as a retail
center. Several other commercial areas between
Dogsboro and Hull-Sanford school have failed to
find developers due to lack of water treatment. The
proposed facility would allow more rapid develop
ment of the area.
Madison County lags far behind neighboring
counties in commercial development due to deci
sions made in the past. For a long period of time, the
leaders of the county, with the approval of the local
residents, opposed any kind of growth in the county.
It was their wish to keep the county a quiet rural area
depending on agriculture as its primary industry. As
a result, numerous opportunities to build a commer
cial system were rejected.
During the Kennedy/Johnson administrations, a
program to develop the Appalachian region then
considered the most poverty-stricken area of the
nation, including Madison County. There were
programs to develop infrastructure available to the
county but the powers that be chose not to apply
for them. Several production and processing plants
sought to locate in the county, but they also met with
local resistance and chose to locate elsewhere.
Shortly after I launched The Madison County
Journal, I had a conversation with an official from
a national restaurant chain. They wanted to locate
a steakhouse in the Dogsboro area. A comer of the
Ingles parking lot was left unpaved as a possible
location for the store. But company officials dropped
their plans when they learned that there are no sew
age lines in the area. They said that they could not
operate a major restaurant on a septic tank. That lot
still sits empty.
A fully developed commercial center around
the Dogsboro intersection would greatly benefit
Madison County. Not only would it provide jobs for
many of our unemployed citizens, it would produce
a major boost in the county's tax revenues, both
property taxes and local sales taxes. So keep your
fingers crossed that the new effort to build a com
mercial water treatment plant is successful.
Frank Gillispie is founder of The Madison County
Journal. His e-mail address is frankgillispie671@
msn.com. His website can be accessed at http://
frankgillispie. tripod, com/
The Madison
County Journal
(Merged with The Danielsville Monitor
and The Comer News, January 2006)
P.O. Box 658
Hwy. 29 South
Danielsville, Georgia 30633
Phone: 706-795-2567
Fax: 706-795-2765
Email: zach@mainstreetnews.com
ZACH MITCHAM, Editor
MARGIE RICHARDS, Reporter/Office Manager
BEN MUNRO, Reporter/Sports Editor
MIKE BUFFINGTON, Co-publisher
SCOTT BUFFINGTON, Co-publisher
FRANK GILLISPIE, Founder of The Journal.
Jere Ayers (deceased) former owner
of The Danielsville Monitor and The Comer News
Periodical postage paid at Danielsville, Georgia 30633
SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
Madison & surrounding counties $19.75/year
State of Georgia $38.85/year
Out-of-state $44.50/year
Military personnel with APO address $42.50/year
Senior rate $2 off all above rates
College student discount rate $2 off all above
rates
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:
THE MADISON COUNTY JOURNAL
P.O. Box 658, Danielsville, GA 30633
A publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc.
The photo on the refrigerator
I lifted my daughter up to the
freezer door recently to look at all
the family pictures held in place
by magnets. She pointed at the
ultrasound.
“What’s that?’’ she asked.
“Your little brother,” I said.
She frowned, then wiggled free
from my arms and left the room.
It’s hard to distinguish much on
that alien-shaped black and white
photo. Could that be a nose? The
ultrasound photos are like staring
into a deep sea and trying to make
out a shape of something swim
ming at the bottom. A trained eye
can point out the detail, but not
me. And it’s hard to make the con
nection between that blurry photo
and the next big word in my life
— son.
My daughter hasn’t been so sure
about the new word in her life —
brother.
“Am I smart?” she asks, getting a
quick “yes” in reply. “Will the boy
be smarter than me?”
My wife and I talk some with
Addie about the big change ahead.
In the
Meantime
zach@
mainstreet
news.com
By Zach Mitcham
but neither of us feel we need
to pressure her too much to feel
acceptance. She’ll come to that on
her own time. And I guess we’re
just as busy trying to prepare our
selves for the change, too. It’s a
little overwhelming.
I keep thinking about the actual
birthday. As Jana started contrac
tions with Addie four years ago,
I went to bed and told her to
wake me up when she needed
me. Looking back, I can’t believe
that was me. I’m a pretty hor
rible worrier, but I slept soundly
that evening. I remember thinking
that at least one of us needed to
be clearheaded when we actually
went to the hospital. So, I put my
head on the pillow and was imme
diately gone.
In retrospect, I don’t know if it
was confidence or ignorance that
allowed me to sleep that night.
Maybe it was a confident igno
rance. Don’t the two often go hand
in hand?
But this go around, we’re still
several weeks off and I’m often
struggling to shut my mind off at
night.
Of course, the world feels pretty
different than it did four years ago.
Life feels a bit more fragile to me
than it did back then. Our society, in
general, feels like it’s been knocked
wobbly. And we’re waiting to see if
we can stay on the bike.
I can go on and on about all my
apprehensions, my worries. I can
get pretty grim if I let myself. In
fact, I’m quick to do so. And I think
I can offer some pretty good rea
sons for expressing a sour attitude
at times.
But I don’t really enjoy being
like that.
It’s a constant fight inside, one
that I often lose. But I don’t want to
crowd out the good with thoughts
of the bad. I don’t want to let the
good pass by without really enjoy
ing the special moments.
We sat in a childbirth class
Sunday at St. Mary’s with Heather
Shaw, a nurse from Madison
County, cracking up the class. She
was really good. Her class was
very comprehensive and entertain
ing. And she addressed the scary
stuff in a matter of fact way that
puts you at ease.
She held up that belt that will go
around my wife's waist to moni
tor the baby's heartbeat. I remem
ber that sound coming through the
monitor four years ago.
We will hear it again soon, the
thump tha thump of an arrival.
We look forward to meeting our
son, Noah Edward, and seeing our
daughter hold her brother for the
first time.
That’s one photo that might never
leave the refrigerator door.
Zach Mitcham is editor of The
Madison County Journal.
Lake ruling could swamp North Georgia
That gurgling sound you
hear is the sound of metro
Atlanta’s economic prospects
going down the drain.
That prospect is more likely
now with the ruling from fed
eral Judge Paul Magnuson that
the Army Corps of Engineers
never had the legal authority
to allow Atlanta to withdraw
water from Lake Lanier.
This was not a surprise to
those who’ve been paying
attention. Georgia has been
squabbling with Alabama
and Llorida for years over the
Lanier issue and it was inevi
table that at some point the
courts were going to step in
and turn off the faucet.
Our elected leadership
has had years to do some
thing about this possibility.
Environmentalists have been
urging the governor and
Legislature to get serious about
requiring water conservation
and stopping their developer
friends from building subdi
visions and shopping malls
wherever they pleased.
The leadership didn’t heed
that advice, convinced that
they would always be able to
rely on the Lanier reservoir to
provide water for those devel
opments growing like a cancer
around the metro area.
Judge Magnuson was
aware of this cozy relation
ship between politicians and
developers, noting in his deci
sion, “Too often, state, local
and even national govern
ment actors do not consider
The Capitol
Report
tcrawford@
capitol
impact.net.
By Tom Crawford
the long-term consequences
of their decisions. Local gov
ernments allow unchecked
growth because it increases
tax revenue, but these same
governments do not suffi
ciently plan for the resources
such unchecked growth will
require.”
“The big money development
boomers have been paying
big bucks for the fantasy that
they would never have to face
this reality,” House Minority
Leader DuBose Porter said.
“The federal court has said, in
effect, time to close the story
book - Humpty Dumpty has
had a great fall.”
Gov. Sonny Perdue, as he
sometimes does in these situ
ations, got angry at the judge
rather than acknowledge his
own shortcomings.
“I am deeply disappointed
by Judge Magnuson’s deci
sion,” Perdue said. “I will
use this opportunity not only
to appeal the judge’s deci
sion but, most importantly, to
urge Congress to address the
realities of modem reservoir
usage.”
Somebody needs to tell
Perdue that his good friend
George W. Bush is no lon
ger president and his political
party is no longer the majority
party in Congress.
The state’s ability to draw
water from Lanier hinges
on its success in persuading
Congress to pass legislation
within three years authorizing
those withdrawals.
Unfortunately for Georgia,
nine of its 15 congressional
members are Republicans
at a time when Democrats
have the majority. Two of its
Democratic House members,
Jim Marshall and John Barrow,
might as well be Republicans
because they’re more likely to
vote with the GOP than with
their own caucus.
The Republicans in the
state’s congressional delega
tion are in an especially weak
position when it comes to ask
ing for help from the majority
Democrats.
Rep. Paul Broun is a loud
mouth who makes crazy
statements comparing Barack
Obama to Hitler.
Reps. Tom Price, Lynn
Westmoreland and Jack
Kingston don’t accomplish
much legislatively because
they devote their energies
to mocking and taunting the
Democratic leadership. That
may give them a lot of personal
satisfaction, but it also means
they won’t get any sympathy
when they ask Democrats to
help them on the water issue.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss would
rather spend his time securing
farm subsidy payments and
pork-barrel defense contracts
for his lobbyist buddies than
work on something as boring
as water policy.
Rep. Nathan Deal is one of
the more rational voices on his
side of the aisle, but he’s leav
ing Congress to run for gover
nor. Sen. Johnny Isakson will
at least listen to reason, but his
party is now down to 40 seats
in the Senate and that number
seems to keep shrinking.
Georgia’s prospects for get
ting congressional permission
to use Lanier can be boiled
down to this: We’re sunk.
Perdue is either unwilling
or incapable of doing any
thing - outside of complaining
in press releases - that will
address the issue that becomes
more urgent by the day.
We should ah hope that who
ever is elected governor next
year will sit down with the
legislative leadership and start
making those hard decisions
on conserving water and lim
iting development that might
enable the state to continue
using Lanier.
The hour is getting very late,
however, and they are running
out of time.
Tom Crawford is the editor
of Capitol Impact’s Georgia
Report, an Internet news ser
vice at www. sareport.com
that covers government and
politics in Georgia. He can be
reached at tcrawford@ capito-
limpact.net.
A great organization
Every summer I make a point
to go through the house and
reorganize. I clean out every
drawer, cabinet and closet.
This summer I only had one
week at home to complete the
project, so I glanced through a
few books concerning organi
zational skills to try and find
some ideas to help speed up
the process and get the job
done.
When life gets busy, it is easy
for things to get out of order.
In addition to working outside
of the home, most moms like
myself hold the family job
titles of accountant, chauffeur,
gardener, interior decorator,
social director, counselor, per
sonal shopper, maid, building
manager and home organizer.
In order to reorganize a
whole house, you need a good
By Sherri Stephens
month to really go through ah
of the stuff that you and your
family have accumulated, out
grown or no longer need.
When looking at the big pic
ture, you can easily become
discouraged and feel over
whelmed. However, if you
take baby steps, little by little
you will eventually get every
thing cleaned out, sorted and
done.
Lor example, start with the
junk drawer — everyone has
one. Empty everything out and
organize it as you put only the
things that you really use back
into the drawer. This should
only take around 10 minutes.
By doing this every day, you
can clean out 10 drawers in 10
days. Another great tip is to
use a kitchen timer and give
yourself 30 minutes a day to
work on a closet or an area that
needs attention.
As you scoot through your
house, multi-task. On your
way to your child’s bedroom,
pick a couple of toys up off the
floor and take them with you.
As you leave the bathroom and
head for the kitchen, drop a
few dirty towels in the laundry
room as you pass it by.
Every time you finish a task,
you have made progress. As
you look back and see what
you have accomplished, it will
motivate you to keep moving
forward.
I have found that the key
to helping keep order in the
home is getting the whole fam
ily involved. Everyone needs
to have daily chores and live
by a few simple rules, which
can be established at a family
meeting.
I recently called a quarter
ly meeting to discuss what
is and isn’t working within
our organization. Getting the
family in on the project is a
good reminder that as a team
you are ah working for a great
organization, and that alone is
a wonderful benefit!
Sherri Stephens is a colum
nistfor MainStreet Newspapers
Inc.