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The www.MadisonJournalTODAY.com JULY 30, 2009 Merged with The Comer News and The Danielsville Monitor, 2006 Vol. 24 No. 32 • Publication No. 1074-987 • Danielsville, Madison County, Georgia 30633 • A Publication of MainStreet Newspapers Inc. • 28 Pages, 2 Sections Plus Supplements FINANCES Number crunching BOC begins budget talks; Pethel proposes freeze on pay increases By Zach Mitcham zach@mainstreetnews.com County commissioners met repeatedly last year, trying to squeeze blood from a 2009 budget turnip. They're now hitting the table again, but the 2010 revenues, well, they ain’t a turnip — no, they're a dried up cornstalk. Money is going to be extremely tight next year, with projected county rev enues down eight to 10 per cent. Meanwhile, departmen tal budget requests are up approximately $2 million. “As we all know county revenue and the economy as a whole has taken a big plunge,” said Commissioner John Pethel at Monday’s BOC meeting. “We've lost the Homestead Exemption Grant, which is over $500,000.” — See ‘Budget’ on 7A COUNTY GOV’T Body transport plan approved See the agenda for Monday night’s BOC meeting, Page 2A By Zach Mitcham zach@mainstreetnews.com Facing a budget crunch, Madison County commis sioners are cutting back on how much they pay to trans port bodies to the morgue. The group agreed Monday night to approve a new body transport plan. The county coroner will have five people on a rotating call list to carry bodies in a county van to the morgue in Athens or to the state crime lab. The county will pay $50 for short transports to Athens and $100 for longer trans ports to the state crime lab. Those hired for the job must consent to a back ground check, drug tests and have proper licensing. — See “BOC’on 3A EDUCATION Honk, Honk Here comes school; buses start rolling Aug. 6 Furloughs won’t affect pre-planning Days off without pay will come in Oct., Nov. By Margie Richards margie@mainstreetnews.com B ells will ring for the first day of school in Madison County Thursday, Aug. 6. All five elementary schools will again offer Afterschool programs beginning the first day. Aftershool runs from 2:45 p.m. - 6 p.m. and the cost is $6 per day, with a $10 registration fee. Parents can pick up school registration forms in the front office. Student lunch at elementary schools is $1.50 per day and breakfast is $1.25. Reduced lunch is $.40 and reduced breakfast is $.30 each. COLBERT ELEMENTARY There are 360 students at Colbert Elementary this year. School starts at 8 a.m. and the regular day ends at 2:55 p.m. A number of improvements have been made to the school over the summer, according to school officials. For start ers, the lunchroom has been painted to resemble an outdoor cafe’. Improvements have been made to the playground and security cameras have been placed throughout the building. The air conditioning system has been improved to promote better air circulation and a data/conference room has been added. Teachers will also note a “fresh look to their lounge area.” New faculty this year include: speech teacher Kristen Copes and part-time custodians Judy Bond and David Freeman. “We have a bus lane as well as a car rider lane in the morning,” assistant principal Kathy Perry said. “Please use the car rider lane at all times. Students who are car riders in the afternoon, parents must have a visible card (given by office personnel) to release — See “School’ on 2A By Ben Munro ben@mainstreetnews.com Madison County teachers can report to work Monday - and be paid for it. The much-discussed fur lough issue won't affect pre planning days at Madison County Schools, which run Aug. 3-5. Madison County will instead take its furloughs (days off without pay) in October and November. Most of the state’s 180 school districts are being forced to enact three-day employee furlough days as a result of a cost-cutting mea sure by the state. So Madison County is going forth with the furloughs, though superintendent Mitch McGhee has been advised by the school system’s legal counsel to substitute the word “amended calendar” for “fur lough.” “The choice is to lay off a lot of folks or take the three-day (amended calendar),” he said. “So we are going to go with the (amended calendar).” Rather than use valuable pre-planning days, Madison County School leaders agreed to use an Oct. 9 teacher work day and two instruction days before Thanksgiving break as furloughs. So neither teachers nor students will report on Nov. 23 and 24. Unlike other schools sys tems, Madison County didn't have many pre-planning days to spare. McGhee predicted that had the system enacted furloughs during pre-plan ning, many teachers would have come to work those days anyway. School system leaders want ed to avoid that scenario, he said. “They’re taking a three-day hit in pay,” McGhee said. “We want to make it as painless as we possibly can.” Technically, the state board of education hasn’t mandated these furloughs — it can't without a meeting of the gen eral assembly — but it did wave the rule requiring that teachers must work 190 days. And it is cutting each school district's funding by the sum of those salaries. That leaves school districts little choice. — See ‘Furloughs’ on 2A POPULATION Preparations under way for 2010 Census By Margie Richards margie@mainstreetnews.com U.S. Census workers and volunteers are busy gearing up for the 2010 census nation ally, and on the local level. Sandra Webb, who is head ing up Census preparation efforts in Madison County, along with county commis sion chair Anthony Dove, met with U.S. Census 2010 partnership specialists Verdale Thompson and Tony Flores last week about the upcoming census. Thompson said she and Flores are working with local governments in an eight-coun ty area to build awareness on behalf of the Census by work ing with those governments, as well as schools, civic, faith- based organizations, and oth ers. “We want to increase the response rate for a more accu rate count,” Thompson said, noting that Georgia's response rate was 67 percent in the 2000 Census. CompleteCountCommittees will be formed locally to focus primarily on the “hard to count” populations, such as the homeless, immigrants, those on public assistance and those living in mobile home communities. Thompson noted that these folks are not only often hard to locate, but are leery of the government. Webb said a concern of hers is that “one hand doesn’t seem to know what the other hand is doing” referring to recent calls she has received about Census workers who have been visit ing properties in the county recently with GPS devices to document residential areas. “The county was not made aware of (federal) people coming in with GPS systems,” Webb said, adding that she had received calls from con cerned citizens. She also noted that a least one resident has received a Census packet already, which asked for detailed informa tion, including Social Security numbers. Thompson said the packet — See “Census’ on 10A INSIDE PROFIT .E Index: News — 1-3A7A10A Opinions — 4-5A Crime — 6A Obituaries — 8-9A Socials — 11-12A Sports— 1-2B Schools — 3-4B Churches — 5B Classifieds — 8-10B Legals—1-7C Contact: Phone: 706-795-2567 Fax: 706-795-2765 Mail: PO. Box 658, Danielsville, GA, 30633 Web: MadisonJoumalTODAY. com On those fields of dreams Rec. director reflects on 30 years of watching kids excel at county facilities By Zach Mitcham zach@mainstreetnews.com T here is the solid ping of an Easton bat meeting the ball, followed by the shouts of “run, Justin” or “good hit, Shelly.” The cleats kick up the dirt. “Safe!” Then there is the high five and the smile. This is kids' play. And the focus is fun. But beneath that youthful joy comes the work of adults: the headaches of budgeting, of maintenance, of coordi nating programs, of long-term plan ning. For instance, the issue of grass maintenance must be tackled before the youth association linebacker introduces his tailback buddy to the turf. Madison County’s recreation depart ment was created in 1974. And Dick Perpall has spent most of that time with the department overseeing the behind-the-scenes preparation for fun. He joined the staff 30 years ago and has served as the director since 1982. County commissioners recently pre- — See ‘Perpall’ on 10A 1—1—1 Dick Perpall joined the county recreation department 30 years ago and has served as its director since 1982.