January 8, 2020
ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN
by Don Daniel
Predictions for 2020
in Monroe County
ou saw/heard the news about some church
members out in Texas stopping a potential church
massacre with a couple of the parishioners quick
on the draw and killing the intentions of the
deranged. I go to a small church.
I know most of the people sitting
in the pews and the congregation
always welcomes strangers and
newcomers. What I don’t know
nor care to know is how many
of the congregation are “packing
heat”
More and more church’s
deacons and pastors are offering
firearms training, bringing in
legitimate and licensed gun toters ..
to train certain members of the ' ’
congregation on how to protect M
those praying, singing and listen- W
ing to the sermon. I was told a ‘
few years ago classes were given
by our Sheriff’s oflice to local churches on how to provide
their own church security program, and it was not how to
throw a Bible or hymnal
I understand it was offered at the church in Texas and
obviously it was worth the Prayers and training
were answered.
I IUST don’t make New Year’s resolutions but I did have a
bowl of oyster stew on New Year’s Eve h0ping for a posi-
tive change in my life. As I heard a person lament, “I make
New Year’s resolutions that last until New Year’s Day. Always
makes for interesting conversations at New Year’s Eve par-
ties” '
I asked a couple of “sages” and prognosticators what
was in the future for Forsyth and Monroe County. He/ she
convinced me several of their last year’s crystal ball predic-
tions came true: (1) Forsyth city council would lose their suit
against the railroad and NS would close the Indian Springs
crossing; (2) Chief of Monroe County and EMS would be
dismissed, offered the opportunity to resign; (3) the county
manager will not stay in the job through 2020; (4) the T-
SPLOST would not pass; the present county commission
chairman and District One commissioner will keep their
seats in the 2020 election.
No cheating, but share a couple of your prognostica-
tions and I will share, anonymously with the readers of this
column.
OBVIOUSLY I did not correctly nor clearly ask “The
Question”, how many dollar stores are there in Monroe
County. Debbie Nelson answered “I think the answer to the
questions is three dollar stores” 'lhere are six Dollar General,
Family Dollar, etc. in Monroe County. Debbie you are still
going to get the goodie certificate.
Here’s The Question for this weelc How much is it going
to cost us taxpayers to have the former Hubbard Middle
School demolished? First correct answer after 12 noon on
Thursday, gets a certificate for a Whistle Stop fried green
tomato appetizer, slice of Shoney’s strawberry pie, single
dip of ice cream from Scoops, dozen Dunkin donuts, Dairy
Queen Blizzard, slice of Ionah’s pizza and a Forsyth Main
Street t-shirt.
LEGISLATION HAS been passed by our US. Congress
and is waiting on President Trump’s signature that could
fine robocallers $1,000 per call for nuisance and scam calls. I
wonder if that law is applicable to President Trump?
Just this past weekend, The President “called” me three
times. Each time I told him I was going to vote for him but
I could not afford to send him a donation because I had not
yet received my pittance Social Security check.
THIS IS how our national government works. Here’s the
story: For a company coming off its best year ever, Amtrak
reported an adjusted (whatever that means) operating loss
of--—get ready--—$29.8 billion.
HERE’S ANOTHER government story and it is a local
story about how our local tax money is going to be spent:
Not to be outdone by the City of Forsyth building a “dog
park”, the Board of Education is considering building a park
with part of the money it is going to cost to demolish the
Hubbard Middle School building.
And again not to be outdone, the BOE is also considering
a walking trail and playground How many parks does the
City of Forsyth have/ proposed? Six.
ONE MORE ridiculous “guvment” story: the outrage over
vaping and consequent deaths with e-cigarettes reached
the “hallowed halls of Congress” with the intention to ban
against all types of those flavored electric puffing devices.
President Trump was hell-fired and determined to elimi-
nate all forms, flavors and usage of e-smokes but all of a sud—
den, the e-cigarette lobby opened their billfolds and check
books and the intentions of Congress and President Trump
got flushed.
The only thing that got banned was the flavored juices
withnicotine and menthol flavors still abundantly available.
I DON’T THINK the Forsyth Police Department and
Monroe County Sheriffs’ Department have changed their
policies in regard to high-Speed chases. But Atlanta’s mayor ‘
announced no more high-speed chases in the city. Will
the county, Forsyth and State Patrol cease the high—speed
chases? Wonder if The Pit Maneuver can still be used.
GOT A comment, suggestion, want to answer “The Ques-
tion? Email me at mflaybear@beflsouth.net. Be mine, Will’s
and Richards guest on The Reporter On The Radio on Majic
100 Sunday mornings at seven or anytime by clicking on the
radio tab at mymcmet.
Don Daniel is the founder and former publisher of The
Monroe County Reporter. Email him at tullaybear@bellsouth.
net
Page 5A
GUEST COLUMN by County Commissioner Eddie Rowland
A look back, and the way forward
bout three years ago, I
made the comment to a
couple of commission—
ers that I really believed
we could be the most consequential
commission in recent history. I felt
we had the energy and business
experience to bring positive change
to Monroe. We still had enough
experienced board mem—
bers to maintain necessary
procedural constraints,
but were not tied to past
commission philosophy or
limited by political longev-
heads, finance, and public opinion
on the most pressing needs facing
our county. This was an exhaustive
and pent up list of both reactive and
proactive problems and solutions.
Once the three top leadership enti-
ties, the board of commissioners, the
finance department, and the county
manager/ department heads, had
their work list in front
of them, they all went to
work. Here are some of
the results:
o Set up in-house payroll
that works and gets our
ity fears. We just felt we payroll tax problems
could do things better. This behind us.
year has been an extremely Eliminate the need for
busy and productive year ROWLAND TAN notes to make our
for our county and we income last to the end of
have accomplished a great the year.
deal. I would like to share some of
those accomplishments along with
2020 plans for our future.
From the beginning, I saw finance
and management as our two most
pressing issues. There were other is—
sues but those two were fundamen-
tal to change our county business
from haphazard and reactive to
organized and proactive. The hiring
of a well-qualified finance direc-
tor along with a seasoned county
manager was a great start. The
finance director immediately began
to put our finances in order and this
orderliness along with some inten-
sive budget management allowed
our county to end the practice of
borrowing in the fall to make it to
the end of the year. It also allowed
us to carry a minimum contingency
of around $2 million, both of which
had not been done in many years.
Our auditor verified this by his
glowing comments on the complete
turnaround finance had taken.
Finance is now properly staffed and
not only handles our money but also
provides a great deal of financial
direction with regard to income and
spending. This makes it much easier
for the commission to make prudent
decisions. _
Next was the decision to hire a
qualified county manager. But hiring
the position was only part of the
change that had to be made. In a
decision that goes against the power
that some have wielded as commis-
sioners, we chose to truly let the
manager manage the county. This
is still somewhat difficult for us as
commissioners to follow. We still
have the desire as leaders and busi-
ness owners to want to dig in and fix
things ourselves. We are learning.
We make mistakes. But our general
consensus is that the county will run
most effectively under the county
manager form of government. The
county manager immediately went
to work gathering information
from commissioners, department
- Established a contingency fiind.
Set employee salaries competi-
tive with similarly sized or closely
located counties. .
o Greatly improved EMS collec—
tions for ambulance runs.
o Set recreation fees to a reasonable
expected rate for users.
o Set inspection fees at competitive
rates to bring this service closer to
break even.
c Proactive water billing and col-
lections. New policies that will bring
us to break even within 5 years while
not overburdening seniors and lower
usage residences. ‘
o Replaced outdated water meters
with radio read meters for improved
efficiency and ability to provide
more detailed usage reports to
customers.
o New water monitoring system to
identify and fix water supply prob-
lems, reducing failures.
o Hired new in-house I.T. spe-
cialist that has increased training,
more proactively responded to IT.
needs in county business, and saved
expense by doing projects in house
vs. contracting.
. LT. and recreation worked to-
gether to add increased monitoring
and security at recreation depart-
ment for a fraction of the cost of
outside contracting.
o Hired a new chief building
inspector to manage the department
and provide knowledge for added
growth.
- Newly hired animal control
director has greatly improved the
facilities, safety of animals, and
working relationship with volunteers
and rescue groups.
Zoning director continues to in-
crease education in this service and
is establishing open and accessible
informational paths for citizen use
and benefit.
- Road, vehicle and building main—
tenance investments have continued
to strengthen these services with
quicker response time and increased
effectiveness
o New facelift to the conference
center with more improvements
planned.
- Completed the new fire station
and move-in with landscape left to
finish.
o Have completed a reach-out
community project in Culloden and
are working on other such project
ideas and implementations in High
Falls, Juliette, and Bolingbroke.
- Completed Hubbard renovation
and move-in. Thank you, Commis—
sioner Evans.
- Made strides in working towards
solutions in internet expansion.
Great job, Commissioner Emami.
o Appointed three new hospital
board members who are diligently
working to maintain this service
while keeping costs in check.
o Replaced many aging and out-
dated vehicles in sheriff and other
depts.
o Have continued to work collab—
oratively with our sheriff, the school
board, and the cities of Forsyth and
Culloden, making Monroe a great
place to call home.
Many departments are not men-
tioned above but they are equally
appreciated and just quietly go
about their daily business of run-
ning the services of our county.
Now, as we look to 2020, we have
new challenges that await. We want
to maintain the great service we do
in EMS but revamp the fire service
with new leadership and improved
relations with volunteers. We have
a new judicial building to approve
and have built. We have expansion
decisions to make and implement in
our recreation department. We will
continue to work towards making
internet expansion a reality. We will
complete and implement a plan
to reduce our energy and utility
costs in our physical plants. We will
continue to look for ways to keep
up with an expanding and aging
road system. We will achieve these
and other opportunities to expand
and improve services by govern-
ing and decision making and leave
the implementation to the qualified
professionals we have hired.
We will strive to do these new
ventures in the most cost conscious
and effective way and, as in 2019,
with no tax increase burden to the
property owners. Thank you for hir-
ing me to run your county business
and I will continue to take this job
to heart each and every day I do it.
As always, I will watch your money
like it was my own and pray about
my decisions. God bless Monroe
County.
Eddie Rowland of Smarr represents
District 2 on the Monroe County
Board of Commissioners.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Kemp breaking immigration promise
To the Editor:
ov. Kemp has regularly
boasted of his business-
first approach to govern-
ing and further enhancing
the climate for corporate profit in
Georgia. But the watchdog media
has neglected to note the trade-offs
he has made. Or the trusting con-
servative voters he has betrayed by
ignoring campaign promises.
Surprising few political insiders,
illegal immigration seems to have
dropped off of the Governor’s radar
since Election Day, 2018.
The left-leaning Georgia Budget
and Policy Institute says Georgia
is home to more “undocumented
workers” than green card holders.
DHS says we host more illegals than
Arizona. A recent IRS/ ICE raid in
metro-Atlanta on six supermarkets
resulted in the arrest of forty-six
illegal alien workers and the seizure
of boxes of employment and tax
records. ‘
This, despite state laws passed
nearly every year since 2006 to make
Georgia inhospitable to illegal im-
migration. The regulations in place
- including state’s the E-Verify laws
- would serve the intended purpose
if they were actually enforced -- or
even noted by Gov. Kemp.
Georgians should realize that most
illegal immigration is a direct result
of illegal employment and must be
recognized as the organized crime
that it is. Kemp is silent on the entire
issue.
“Business friendly” is a term that
is counter to “pro-enforcement” on
immigration. Dalton conservatives
have their own problems closer to
home in that Republican state Sena-
tor Chuck Payne has pledged his
allegiance to the billionaire-funded
anti-enforcement group ‘FWD.us’
that lobbies in Washington DC. and
the state Capitol. Payne has de-
scribed his work with the group as “a
moral imperative and a political ob-
ligation to my constituents and the
health of our country and economy.”
Conservative voters who can
remember back to the summer of
2018 may recall “Brian Kemp’s Track
and Deport Plan” which was an ex-
tremely detailed campaign promise
aimed at illegal aliens who commit
additional crimes. “As governor,
conservative businessman Brian
Kemp will create a comprehensive
database to track criminal aliens in
Georgia. He will also update Geor—
gia law to streamline deportations
from our jails and prisons” went the
pledge. We challenge readers to find
any mention of any of this from the
governor -- or the Georgia media
since he was elected.
All this is yet another brilliant
example of “silence is consent” and
will continue until GOP voters find
the courage to challenge the gover-
nor and the business lobby that has
taken over the Gold Dome.
D.A. King
Marietta
King is president of the Georgia-
based Dustin Inman Society, which
advocates for immigration enforce-
ment.
let our voice be heard. Email letters
tot e editor to publisher@mymcr.nei
