October 2, 2019
ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN
by Don Daniel
A wasteful expense
n an obvious ploy to hide
behind Georgia’s Open Records
Law (Act), the Monroe County
Manager and County Lawyer
are attempting to antagonize the edi-
tor of this newspaper and hinder the
access of the public’s right to know.
Go back and read last
week’s Will’s On the
Porch Column. From
what Will wrote and his
experience “dealing”
with the county lawyer
and county manager
will help you under-
stand why the county
commission is often
dysfunctional.
Being very familiar
with Georgia’s Open
Records Act, what can
and cannot be released
to the public and the
news media is clearly defined. There
are times when an open record
letter is necessary but more often
than not, there is cooperation and
courtesy exemplified. The informa—
tion requested is totally in the public
domain and should be provided and
totally publicly/ individually upon
verbal request, not requiring a writ-
ten request.
It gets nasty when a public official
uses the Open Records Law for
protection and for self-service. This
county lawyer/ county manager have
been on the verge several times of at-
tempting to prevent the citizens they
serve and work for the information
to insure an open government, by
the people and for the people. Guess
the county manager is attempting to
CHA! ‘
Here are a couple of items for
which public taxpayer money was
used/spent: $3,888.50 for football
and cheer uniforms; Harbin Engi-
neering, $57,071.50 for “HE Proj-
ects” 4990-010-01 and 4990-010-01.
Guess if we want to know what are
“HE Projects” we will have to file
an open records request with the
Glenda Lucear this year marked 30 years working
at the Captain D’s in Forsyth. She has been with
the restaurant since it opened. Glenda said she has
remained loyal because she likes working close to
home. She and her husband have one son and one
grandson. Asked what has changed over the years,
Lucear said that young people no longer want to
work. Congratulations Glenda for setting a good
example of loyalty and hard work for everyone in
Forsyth.
county manager who will refer it to
the county attorney who will bill the
county (us taxpayers) for writing a
letter back to county manager defin-
ing what can and cannot be released
and citing the Georgia Opens Record
Act/ Law. Duhl; $7,500 to the Hub-
bard Alumni Association; get ready,
$16,586.48 to Monroe County Hos-
pital for inmates’ (jailbirds’) medical
expenses; Stacey Necastro, $6,750
for contract labor (Sports Officials);
$16,638.21 to Raffield Tire Masters,
Inc., for inventory; Ten-8 Fire 8:
Safety $9,939.55 for motor vehicle
maintenance services. No lawyer bills
or county commission reimburse-
ment checks, yet. Sixty checks were
written for a total of $269,033.50.
Just a couple of unattributed
commissioner comments since the
thrones of the chairman and the Dis-
trict 4 commissioner were empty:
“Outstanding bunch running the
county”;
“The thought was”.
Hey, I am sure you have received
your county tax notices and they are
due in December. Since the county
tax office does not close for lunch
and is open Monday thru Friday 7:30
am. until 5 pm, there is no excuse
for not paying your county taxes.
Take a bow of gratitude toward Plant
Scherer for keeping those bills lower
_'
than most.
OVER AT Forsyth City Hall, the
Forsyth Convention and Visitors Bu-
reau held its monthly meeting reveal-
ing how much hotel/ motel tax was
collected in June with the city getting
$27,522.70 and the CVB
getting its share in the
amount $18,348.46. The
biggest hotel/ motel tax
payer was again Holi-
day Inn Express paying
$9,132.97. Second was
Hampton Inn, which
sent a check in for
$7,626.57. Coming in
at number three was
LaQuinta Inn and Suites
at $4,654.38. The lowest
tax paid, $78.57, came
from Budget Inn.
FROM HIS actions, Forsyth City
Councilman Chris Hewett is more
than twerked with Will, Diane and
possibly me. Well I know he is very
twerked with me after what he called
me at a chamber breakfast. He can-
celed his subscription to The Report-
er and Will sent him a refund check.
Will should have given his refund in
quarters so he could pay the $1 rack
price. Ifanyone sees him purchas-
ing a paper, take a picture and I will
show it in this column.
Guess he will be getting all his For-
syth news frbm the Macon television
station when the Mayor calls a press
conference.
DID NOT realize that our seafood
restaurant, Captain D’s, had been
open for 30 years until I saw Glenda
Lucear, who has worked there since
it opened 30 years ago. That’s what I
call a loyal and dedicated and obvi-
ously happy employee.
REV. JOHN TARRER up here
at Paran Baptist Church in Blount
asked to remind all my readers that
Paran will be celebrating its 196th
birthday this Sunday.
According to the an-
nouncement in the
church bulletin, “We
will have a meal after
worship and the church
will furnish the meats.
Members please bring
vegetables, salads,
desserts and drinks”.
Whatta you mean!
Church not furnishing
the tea? It was sounding
like an old-fashioned
church get-together
until you have to bring
your own drinks. I’ll be
there regardless. Might
sneak in a jug of tea, ’
and I will share. Come
join us for the service
at 10:30 and the eating
after Rev. Tarrer does
his thing. A good Bible
scholar/ preacher by the
way.
AFTER COMING
and celebrating at
Paran, Brock Gill is going to bring
his singing to Monroe Fine Arts
Center Sunday and Nancy Calhoun
was the first to answer “The Ques-
tion” Nancy gets a certificate for a
dozen Dunkin donuts, single dip
of ice cream from Scoops, slice of
Jonah’s pizza, slice of Shoney’s straw-
berry pie, Dairy Queen Blizzard,
Whistle Stop fried green tomato
appetizer and a Forsyth Main Street
t-shirt.
Here‘s The Question for this week:
Name the Forsyth man who lost 70
pounds. First correct answer after
' 12 noon Thursday gets the fantastic
goody certificate.
ONE FINAL note: Ifyou missed
the Forsyth Art Walk this past Satur—
day, sponsored by the 1823 Artisan
Guild, you missed a treat. But you
can see some local artists at the new
home for the Artisan Guild on the
square at the old city hall build-
ing next to Scoops. Don’t know the
hours, but I’m sure they are posted
on the door. Denise Buff is president
of the guild
Don Daniel is the founder and for-
mer publisher of The Monroe County
Reporter. Email him at mediadr@
bellsouth. net. .
sReporter
Page 5A
‘ ‘ LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Forsyth trash sets new record
We Forsyth’s businesses would look
To the Editor,
n picking up litter Saturday morning be-
fore Forsyth’s Art Event, Beautify Forsyth
broke ALL downtown litter records with
39 gallons of trash within ONE block of
the square! And it was a team effort, as all busi-
a shame?
nesses contributed! Would the second block
from the square do better—NOT! And how do
the cut-outs get so nasty?
more inviting to customers if their sidewalks,
gutters and cut-outs were clean. But, hey, don’t
get too MOTIVATED, for Beautify Forsyth
would be out of business, and wouldn’t that be
“Tom Perry
Forsyth
Tom Perry is the chairman of BeautifiI Forsyth
JUST THE WAY IT IS by Sloan Oliver
Deep State strikes at Trump again
It Yogi Berra’s famous
words, “It’s Déja vu all
over again.” We’ve heard
this song, seen this movie,
a dozen times over that past
few years. In the 2016 presi-
dential debates, the final ques-
tion asked to each candidate
ers. Now, we have another
fake “scandal” surrounding
a phone call by Trump to the
president of Ukraine. The
media and the Dems (I repeat
myself) tell us that it’s an im-
peachable event for Trump to
ask Ukraine’s president to look
was, “Will you ac- into Joe Biden’s
cept the election corrupt activities
results should you in Ukraine.
lose?” Knowing
that she would LET’S RE-
win, Hillary an- VIEW Hunter
swered that she’d Biden was kicked
accept the out- out of the Navy
come as “the will for using cocaine.
of the people.” Two months
Hillary LIED. later, he accom-
Neither Hillary, panies his father
the media, nor A m x to Ukraine to
the Democrats JMA’L’A Cr“; ’(W‘Vk discuss energy is-
have supported sues. Despite hav-
the 2016 election results. They ing ZERO experience in the
have worked tirelessly and petroleum industry, Hunter
continuously to overturn the somehow snags a $50,000/
election, to prevent Trump
from being inaugurated, and
then to oust him from office.
LONG BEFORE the No-
vember 2016 election, accel—
erating after, the leftist cabal
(Hillary, Obama, Biden, every
Dem, academia, Hollywood,
and the media) has obstructed
President Trump every step of
the way. It started in July 2016
when Obama authorized the
FBI and the Dept. of Justice to
spy on the Trump campaign.
It continued when Obama and
the FBI developed a Russian
“insurance policy”, called
collusion, should Hillary lose.
Then, November and De-
cember 2016, Hillary worked
to pressure electors to the
Electoral College to vote for
her instead of for Trump. In
January 2017, Comey briefed
Trump about the phony Steele
Dossier in order to get the
Russian collusion hoax into g
the media and into the public
domain. Mind you, all of
this was done before Trump
became president, while he
was still a private citizen.
The Dems scream that their
attempts to remove President
Trump are valid because he’s a
danger to democracy.
SINCE PRESIDENT
Trump’s inauguration, we’ve
been inundated with Rus—
sia, Russia, Russia; porn star
Stormy Daniels; Kavanaugh
the sexual predator; fake hate
crimes; false climate change
accusations; more Russia,
Russia, Russia; and end-
less coverage of the Mueller
investigation - all of it blamed
on President Trump. And
every story became a reason
to impeach and remove him
from office. It never ends.
Everything bad is the fault
of Trump and his support-
SHOW
Continued trom Front
tertained, but also to hear the powerful mes- V
sage of God’s love.
Gill worked at a sawmill as a young man,
but felt that God wanted him to use illusions,
escapes, and stunts to bring a message of hope
to people.
With a passion for reaching people with
the truth that had changed his own life, Gill
went back to college and began performing at
church outreach events. News of his creative
method of evangelism spread through the area
quickly and he began to receive invitations
almost irnmediately. “I finished my first show
and had three invitations to perform,” Gill ex-
plains. “People just heard about it and wanted
month position on the board
of Burisma, a Ukrainian gas
company. That sounded very
sketchy even to the corrupt
officials in Ukraine. So, a
Ukrainian prosecutor began
investigating Burisma When
Joe Biden learned that Hunter
was one of those being investi-
gated, he returned to Ukraine
and told Ukraine’s president
(previous prez, not the current
president) that he had six
‘ hours to fire the prosecutor or
Ukraine would lose $1 Billion
in US. aid — a quid pro quo.
No surprise, the prosecutor
got fired “Quid pro Joe” even
bragged about it on Youtube.
THE DEMS see nothing
wrong with Biden pressuring
Ukraine to hire Hunter Biden
for $50,000 per month. Dems
have no problem when Joe de-
manded the prosecutor inves-
tigating Hunter be fired or Joe
would cancel aid to Ukraine.
But when Trump dares to
question Biden’s corruption,
they demand impeachment.
(Reminder, President Trump
is head of US. law enforce-
ment. He has as a duty to
insure illegal activities are
investigated.)
AND THE Dems have the
temerity to tell us that Trump
is a threat to Democracy?
H*ll, the Dems want to cancel
63 million voters, negate 30
states that voted for Trump,
and overturn an election.
The Dems and the media are
THE threat to Democracy
and the Constitution. Yes, we
have a constitutional crisis.
It’s because the Dems said,
“Screw the Constitution, hell
with the election; we’re gonna
do whatever we want because
we know you can’t stop us.”
Also, the Dems know their
supporters are “useful idiots”
who will do whatever they’re
instructed. (Useful idiot is
a term coined by Vladimir
Lenin to describe his thoughts
about communist sympathiz-
ers in the West. He held them
in contempt but viewed them
as useful. When Lenin’s obj ec-
tives were complete, they were
no longer “useful”, just idiots.)
FOR ARGUMENT’S sake,
let’s pretend the Dems really
are concerned when a politi-
cian asks a foreign govem—
ment to investigate a political
rival. Then, explain why
the media has said nothing
about the three Dem sena-
tors (Menendez, Durbin, and
Leahy) who, in 2018, sent a
letter to Ukraine and de-
manded that Ukraine assist
Robert Mueller investigating
Trump as part of the collusion
investigation; and if Ukraine
didn’t cooperate with Mueller,
those three senators would
vote against foreign aid to
Ukraine? Nothing to see there
because that activity involved
fellow Dems.
“DRAIN THE SWAMP”
was one of Trump’s HUGE
campaign issues, meaning he
knew we need to eliminate
the dangerous governmental
bureaucracy that has become
a 4th branch of government,
and the most powerful branch.
Nothing highlights the danger
of this 4th branch more than
when Senator Schumer said,
“Let me tell you: You take on
the intelligence community
— they have six ways from
Sunday at getting back at you.”
The intel community is The
Swamp. Schumer knows how
dangerous they are. He knows
there’s not a d@mn thing he,
or anyone else, can do about
them or about the rest of the
Swamp. This latest “whistle—
blower” scandal should be a
warning to everyone before
it’s too late; perhaps it already
is. If the intel community,
and the rest of the Swamp, is
successful at removing Trump
from office, our Democracy
is done. The 243 year run of
our constitutional republic
will have been a good one but
it’ll be over, replaced by the
rule of government oligarchs.
The Clintons, Obama, Pelosi,
ADC, and the Swamp will
dictate who gets and keeps
power. KAGA!!
WEEKLY Thought: Fare—
well, Dale Likens. We’ll miss
you.
Sloan Oliver is a retired
Army ofi‘icer who writes a
weekly column for the Report-
er. Email him at sloanoliver@
earthlink. net.
me to come to their town.”
Since those first outreaches, God has taken
Gill’s ministry across the US. and the world,
while his heart for the lost has grown. Under-
standing that people today have short attention
spans and want to be entertained visually, he
has learned how to grab an audience quick-
ly and keep them on the edge of their seats.
Gill’s message for Christ is clear and effeCtive.
'He has. seen God touch thousands upon thou-
sands of lives through his'ministry.
Brock has shared the stage with many well-
known speakers, worship leaders and artists
such as Franklin Graham, Luis Palau, John
Piper, Newsboys, Toby Mac, Third Day, Mercy
Me and Casting Crowns.
Head Heating and Air, United Bank, Th
Brokery, MedPro and the Reporter are helping
sponsor Sunday’s event.
