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PAGE 2A —THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER 24. 2009 Animal... continued from 1A staff and less money, the office will focus more on dangerous animals than nuisance calls. Now, for instance, people who complain about a neighbor’s dog defecating in their yard must be willing to pay a $69 fee to file a civil complaint against their neigh bor in order to have something done, “Those (nuisance calls) are the type of calls that the time we spend very rarely results in positive action,” said animal control/code enforcement director Jack Huff, who said he spoke with Magistrate Judge Harry Rice about handling animal nuisance disputes in his court. Huff described the nuisance calls as someone complaining about “their neighbor’s dog on their property doing trivial damage like pooping in the yard.” “If they want to fill out a com plaint form and they're willing to testify in court, I can do the docu mentation and get the subpoenas out and take everything to Judge Rice,” said Huff. BOC chairman Anthony Dove asked Huff if he intends to enforce leash laws. “You could still do that (the leash law)?” asked Dove. “You can, but it's very time con suming and I don’t have the man power to do it like it should be done," said Huff. Huff said the leash law action depends on the complainant filling out a complaint form. “Because I’m not going to be able see Mike’s dog run across Bruce's yard,” said Huff. "I didn’t see it; I can’t bring them to court on that by itself. If Bruce wants to take Mike to court and say his dog is pooping in his yard every day, I’ll be in court.” Dove asked Huff if he wanted to leave the leash law in the animal control ordinance. “Each call is similar, but all of them are different,” said Huff. Commissioner Mike Youngblood asked Huff for clarification. “So basically what you’re saying Jack is you're doing away with the leash law and dog off property?” asked Youngblood. Huff said no. "It’s still in the ordinance,” said Huff. "We’re just going to, for lack of a better word, use it when it’s applicable and avoid it when it’s applicable. It's a tool for us to use.” Huff also noted last week that the types of animal control calls he receives vary according to district in Madison County. "A lot of the stuff I see in the southern part of the county, Bruce’s (Scogin) district Mike’s (Youngblood) district they involve the leash, they do,” said Huff. “We get calls there where it’s highly populated. Now Mr. (John) Pethel’s district Pete’s (Bond) district I get a lot of calls of thrown out dogs." For instance. Huff said he picked up 15 dogs thrown out on Pethel’s road. "Those are the types of calls we get in your (Pethel’s) district; we don’t get leash law calls, we get thrown out dog calls,” said Huff. "I really think we need to continue getting up the stray dogs, because if we don’t... the puppies get big enough to where they're going to have puppies." Huff said that he will still handle dangerous dog calls. Dove asked Huff how he will distinguish between a nuisance and a dangerous dog call. “How will you make a decision on what will be a legitimate call?” asked Dove. Huff allowed that making such a determination can be difficult, noting that sometimes he goes to calls where a dog is supposedly dangerous and it acts friendly. And other times, dogs won’t appear to be a threat initially, but end up being dangerous. “A lot of times you're going to have to go to calls that are not going to be what you think they are,” said Huff. The discussion of animal con trol practices took place as county commissioners discussed Huff’s 2010 budget, which was trimmed roughly $30,000 from the 2009 figure. Commissioners praised Huff for significantly cutting his budget. Budget continued from 1A line items. The group ultimate ly reduced the sheriff’s budget by $35,916 and the jail budget by $5,750. The sheriff’s budget now stands at $1,700,430, while the projected jail expenses for next year are $1,237,618. Sheriff Kip Thomas submit ted a request for an additional $1 million in funding for the sheriffis department and jail, but commissioners recently told him they couldn’t afford any increases. However, the BOC can’t avoid a major increase in one line item in Thomas’ budget, since they learned that the 2009 budget for salaries was incorrect. The 2008 budget for sheriff’s department sala ries was $1,089,536, but the 2009 budget showed a reduc tion in salaries to $950,554. The jail wages also dropped by $43,272. However, those decreases should not have been made, since the higher num bers reflected a decision by the BOC in early 2008 to increase pay after a wage scale study conducted by the Carl Vinson Institute suggested they do so. Exactly why that budgeting mistake was made has not been determined, but the error has left the sheriff’s department over budget for 2009. The sher iff has requested $232,985 to cover the budgeting mistakes for the sheriff’s department, jail, CHAMPS and courthouse security. The group agreed to use unspent funds for housing pris oners out of the county to par tially offset the salary shortfall. The county budgeted $90,000 for housing prisoners out of the county but has only spent $9,005 so far in 2009. “I understand the mess up, but there are other items we can do something about and we need to cut it today,” said Youngblood. The commissioner then went line by line through the sheriff’s budget, reducing many items. The board members empha sized that they don’t want to cut jobs. And noted that other departments had worked hard to reduce their budgets and they didn’t feel it would be fair to allow a budget increase for the sheriff’s department. “All the departments have cut, and if this one (the sheriff’s department) goes up, that’s not happy campers,” said commis sioner Pete Bond. “It would be hard for us to look at our other people and say anything.” Commissioner Stanley Thomas also suggested that the county look at lowering food costs at the jail, perhaps con tracting for private services. “That’s been something steadily growing in costs,” said Thomas. The group met again Wednesday, Sept. 23, (see next week’s issue for cover age). Commissioner Bruce Scogin asked finance director Kathy Clark to provide the board with attorney’s expenses at that meeting. Scogin noted that a citizen suggested that the commissioners cut costs by contracting out attorney’s services or hiring an in-house attorney. Madison County’s projected expenses for 2010 now stand at $13,789,664, while antici pated revenues remain at $13 million. However, the revenue figures may be revised soon as digest figures and tax collec tion projections are reviewed. Rain continued from 1A Road were flooded. A tree was reportedly leaning toward the road on Old Wildcat Bridge Road. There were several motor vehicle accidents over the past week and "some were probably related to wet pavement,” Camp said. He also noted that there was one report of a low-hanging branch striking a vehicle, but not damaging it. And there were four reports of trees on roadways, including Reed Brawner Road, Young Harris Road, Blacks Creek Church Road and Cliff Griffeth Road. Mark Jenkins, Madison County's cooperative weather observer in Danielsville, reported that he recorded 8.13 inches of rain between Tuesday, Sept. 15, and Tuesday morning. Sept. 22. ‘This is more than I recorded for the entire summer months of June through August,” said Jenkins. “Sanford and Planter communities likely had the top rain amounts with close to 10 inches, with lesser amounts in the eastern sections of the county (4-7 inches).” Jenkins said this past week's rains helped offset the county's rainfall deficit. “This rain nearly erased our entire deficit for the year, and actually just brought us back close to normal for the year,” said Jenkins. Seat check... continued from 1A Safety checked 23 child safety seats during their annual Child Safety Seat Check Day Saturday at the Ingles parking lot in Hull. Also on hand to assist was Zetta Jones, Department of Child Health, Emergency Preparedness and Response, Injury Prevention Division. The group replaced 16 seats, which were deemed to be unsafe because of age, being on a recall list, being involved in a prior wreck or tire need for a differ ent size, according to Pilot Club members. Six of tire seats were found to be safe, but were in need of correct installation and only one seat was found to be correctly installed. Seven others asked for help, but were turned away Saturday because of lack of time and car seats for replacement, but Pilot members collected names and numbers for later follow-up. Those who sponsored replacement seats for the event were Jimmy Boyette (State Farm Insurance Agency), Dennis Burroughs (B&D Seed Company), Bill Fleeman (A Real Estate and Insurance Company), Ken Howard (Howard Insurance Company and Cotton States Agency) and Ches Smith (Cites Smith State Farm Agency). Others who contributed to the effort included: Jerry Drake (Ingles Supenuarket - use of parking lot), Sandra Webb (Keep Madison County Clean and Beautiful - seat disposal) and Sgt. Tommy Williams of tire Madison County Sheriff’s Office. "We considered this a great suc cess with so many people com ing on a rainy, rainy day,” Pilot members stated. "The Pilot Club will be working to sponsor other events in the future as they can be planned.” LANDSCAPING & HORSE ARENAS • RIVER SAND • TOP SOIL • RIVER ROCK • WHITE SAND • FILL DIRT •PEA GRAVEL WILLIAMS SAND 770-967-6501 OR 706-789-3779 Danielsville, GA • www.williamstransportco.com Highway 106 to Jot-em Down Rd. to Young Harris Road to Serenity Lane "This kind of response today indicates a great need for tire Child Safety Seat Check program in the area,” Townley said. According to reports from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Georgia Highway Safety Council and tire National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration, motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for children from age 2 through 14, and a high per centage of these deaths could be prevented with tire proper use of car seats and seat belts. To find out more information about child safety seats and best practices for using those seats, go to www.usa.safekids.org A. W. A. PRO WRESTLING Saturday, September 26 7:30 p.m. Hwy. 281, Gray Bell Auction Royston, GA T. V. Taping Admission: $10 Kids under 13, FREE with paid adult. We Buy All Gold & Silver ''I'M Including: Class Rings • Wedding Bands • Coins • Broken Jewelry • Dental Gold .Gamesoiffe 4 770-532-2592 1020 Jesse Jewell Pkwy. • Gainesville, GA Mon. - Thurs. 10-6:30 • Fri. - Sat. 10-7 Books • •• continued from 1A books — DeGrasse said it covers all aspects of free speech over the past 100 years — but books have often ended up on censorship lists. And DeGrasse lists a few. Some bannings, like that of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s "Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and J. D. Salinger’s ‘The Catcher in the Rye” are well-known. Others one might not expect — like the American Heritage and Merriam-Webster dic tionaries. ‘That was one of the more surprising ones,” DeGrasse said. The reasons for banning vary widely. Mark Twain’s "Huckleberry Finn” and Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill A Mocking Bird,” were barred numerous times because of racial slurs. Katherine Paterson’s “Bridge to Terabithia” was banned due to children being disrespect ful to adults. More recently, J. K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series has been challenged because of witchcraft, while "And Three Makes Tango,” the true story of two male penguins in the Central Park Zoo who raise an egg togeth er, was barred for anti-family issues. Even Dr. Suess hasn’t escaped the censors. “The Lorax” was once banned. Why? “Unfair portrayal of peo ple in the logging industry," DeGrasse said. The Madison County Library workers have placed a red dot on all previously banned books sitting on the shelves. The plan is to pull them and make them more prominent for potential read ers during banned book week. And reception to banned book week is usually good in Madison County, DeGrasse said. In fact, the library left stick ers in the young adult section last year that read, “I read banned books." “A lot of people were proudly displaying that ... I will probably do that again this year.” DeGrasse said books con traband books are always an interesting topic, “It always sparks conversa tion,” she said. “People will see a book and they’ll be, ‘Why was this banned?'” MORE INFORMATION The exhibit is open to the public during library hours. The library is located at 1315 Hwy. 98 W in Danielsville, next to the Recreation Department. For more infor mation, call 706-795-5597. Trial • •• continued from 1A said Moon lured Barnett, his distant cousin, to the area, promising a source for crack cocaine, then shot and killed him. A separate trial is also scheduled for next week in the case of Christian Oliverio, who is facing a homicide by vehicle charge for the Oct. 31, 2006, death of his wife, Summer Shenk Oliverio, 22, Hull. The accident occurred at the intersection of Hwy. 29 and Clark Circle. Oliverio was also charged with driving under the influence and failure to yield. According to the district attorney’s office, the case of Melinda Spence, the former Madison County deputy clerk accused of stealing upwards of $80,000 from the county government, is set for the criminal trial week beginning Oct. 19. By order of the Madison County Sheriff’s office, the back door of the county government complex will be closed Sept. 28-Oct. 2 during Madison County’s criminal trial week. Citizens needing to do business in the court house must come through the front door. Pumpkin Patch & Hay Maze! Roadside Market Barnyard Activities Petting Zoo Hay Ride & More! Only $10 per person Group rates available Sept 26 - Oct. 31 Fri. 4 pm - 8 pm Sat. 10am - 8 pm Sun. 1 pm - 7 pm 706.540.7196 525 Lexington-Carlton Rd, Lexington, GA www.rockyridqefarmwebs.com Madisonjournal TODAY.com Williams Bar-B-Que Now Has An Additional Location: Hwy. 72, Colbert (next to Fred’s) Serving Barbecue & Stew - to go only * Buy a barbecue sandwich & chips receive a free drink!* Hours: Sun. - Mon.: Closed, Tues. - Thurs.: 11am - 2pm, Fri. & Sat.: 11am - 6pm 706-795-5394 (across from Madison County Hardware) Dr. Jeff Gilliland Veterinarian! Owner (formerly of Commerce Veterinary Hospital and Jefferson Animal Hospital) 706-614-5266 fetch-a-vet@att.net • At Home Veterinarian Care • Small Animal Practice • By Appointment Only For online prescriptions, visit www.fetch-a-vet.com Serving Clarke, Oconee, Madison, Jackson and Oglethorpe Counties