October 16, 2019 Page 5A
iRL l orter
ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN
by Don Daniel
Acouple of weekends ago, actually on a Saturday,
a group of white supremacist acfi,vists,chose
owntown Dahlonega to hold a rally to
spouse their beliefs in white supremacy and
as one observer stated, "what they really want is to make
America white again':
Dahlonega, besides being home to the University of
North Georgia formerly North Georgia College, has be-
come quite a tourist attraction,
capitalizing on the discovery
of gold back in the early 1800's.
As a matter of information,
the dome of our capitol in
Atlanta is covered in gold from
the streams and mines in and
around Dahlonega.
Dahlonega's downtown is
similar to our downtown square
with the courthouse, which has
now become a gold museum, as
the centerpiece. Of course, many
of the stores cover the typical
tourist klatch, but again the city
is capitalizing on Ga. Hwy. 400
almost dead-ending in down-
town and the history of a real historical district.
Going back to the "rally", which was anticipate y going
to bring an element of risk of danger with emotions over-
taking sensibility. Prior to the gathering, news coverage
blanketed the area with television from Atlanta, news-
papers all over the area, and of course the Atlanta media
going "live" as the details and eventual demonstration
unfolded.
A long story short, the Dahlonega city council began
"planning" long before the 40-50 "self-described patriots"
showed up to walk around the square. Realizing the poten-
tial and hazards of such a demonstration, the mayor and
council involved law-enforcement from around the area
and state-wide in the planning stages of what could happen
if this turned into a major disaster.
Well, there were more peaceful anti-demonstrators than
white supremacists and according to my source, more law
enforcement than citizens of Dahlonega. The planning and
involvement was necessary and the fears of local officials
and law enforcement never materialized.
Being indirectly involved in Dahlonega's planning stages,
I began to wonder how would Forsyth handle such an
event. With our professional local law enforcement 0f-
ricers, the home of The Georgia Public Safety Training
center, the public safety resources available, I wouldn't hold
a homecoming or Christmas parade without ensuring
all concemed that peacefulness arid cooperation was the
absolute objective.
WOW, A lot of responses to last week's The Question
and Ann Haines was the first identifying Santas Workshop
down in Bolingbroke needing the repairs. The County
Commissioners have given some shekels and repairs are
supposedly underway with Christmas just a couple of
months away, just in time for Santa Claus.
Here's The Question for this week: A "new" columnist
has joined us here on the Opinions pages. What is his
name? First correct answer receives a certificate for Whistle
Stop fried green tomato appetizer, slice of Shoney's straw-
berry pie, Dairy Queen Blizzard, single scoop of ice cream
at Scoops, slice of Jonah's Pizza and a Forsyth Main Street
t-shirt.
NO MORE envelopes in our water bills to pay our water
bills but we paid Pitney Bowes $7,500. Guess that was
postage to send out the water bills and we paid $1,383.49 to
Sphinx Forms and Systems for finance window envelopes.
OVER AT the county commission office, a lot of tax-
payer money was paid out, including a $29,939.45 check
to Butts County Water and Sewer Authority obviously
for water not sewage, and Macon Water Authority got a
$111,666.13 check for us using their water. Along those
same lines, we paid $117.48 for water cooler water to CCN
Distributing. Our new building supply company, Grif-
fin Lumber and Hardware, sold us $1,110.77 for supplies.
The second largest taxpayer check, $25,046.38, was paid
for Hanson Aggregates, Inc for road matter. Of course
the new fire station had to have toilets and Hughes Sup-
ply received $1,036.45 for the toilets. Don't know what
we purchased from Nationwide Mining Inc. but they got
a $120,000 for "equipment". Yes, we paid $14.90 for jelly
beans from the Penworthy Company. That same company
gota check for $1,398.19, selling us books and periodicals.
$26,008.80 was paid to Watkins & Associates for water
improvement.
All told, 57 checks in the amount of $440,344.63 were
written.
IF YOU want to get involved and be aware of the plan-
ning for our Bicentennial you need to show up at the
Bicentennial Commission meeting this Thursday at 1:30
p.m. at the Conley Building next to the depot.
One of the topics for discussion will be the development
of a "drama" for the celebration. Already, an essay and logo
contest are underway.
DON'T KNOW more than I am going to write about.
But first, riding over Monroe County there are very few
more disgusting sights than seeing a dog chained to a tree,
a car tire or stake and no dog house. Where is the animal
control officer? Surely within their jurisdiction they have
the power to issue a cruelty to animal citation to the person
and then chain the person to the tree, car tire or stake as
punishment.
Monroe County obviously has a "Unchain Monroe"
group with 223 members and is a non-profit group
depending on donations or gifts such as dog houses, dog
pens. So, here I am going to donate a dog house and dog
pen. Come and get
Don Danid is the founder and former publisher of The
Monroe County Report Email him at mediadr@bellsouth.
net.
GUEST COLUMN by Eddie Rowland
I
1
scar Wilde said "experi-
is the one thing you
get for nothing". I
recentlylearned a costly
lesson and wanted to share my expe-
rience in order to hopefully help you
learn from it.
As you probably know, I have been
working pretty diligently as your
commissioner to lead the service of
county water to at least
a break-even financial
venture. Most munici-
palities actually make a
profit on water. We have
not been so fortunate.
The enormous invest-
ment to produce water
has forced us to rely on
three different partners
to supply water to our
lines and then we pay for expansion,
maintenance and collections. These
three are Macon Water Authority,
Butts County, and City of Forsyth.
As beneficial as these partnerships
are, the cost of buying the water
leads to very little play in amount we
pay vs. the amount that is charged to
the end user. Therefore, we have to
be very diligent in capturing water
usage and collecting payments.
I have dealt with numerous cus-
tomers regarding their water bills
and I have helped many of them
find the cause of high water usage.
We've come up with solutions and
payment plans to reduce usage or
ensure payment. Some have sworn
to me that there is no way they used
that much water. Now, here is where
my personal experience comes in.
I will share with you how quickly a
single mistake can end up costing a
lot of money.
So I am fixing up a house for
resale in the county. On Tuesday, the
plumber cuts the water offto make
a repair. The painter goes outside
to dean out a brush and turns the
spigot on. But there's no water as
it is offat the meter. He forgets to
turn the spigot back offand about
an hour later the plumber turns the
water back on, checking for his leak
but not checking outside. Hindsight
says check the dial at the
meter to make sure it quits
turning before walking
away. The water ran from
Tuesday at around 11:30
a.m. until about 8 a.m.
Sunday when I happened
to look in the backyard
and noticed the new creek
that had formed. I called
the water department the
next day and requested a data log
to see what time the water started
and what time it was turned off.
That's how I solved the mystery of
what happened. Then the fun part.
I calculated the cost of this simple
five-day mistake. (8.34 gallons per
minute x 60 minutes per hour x 24
hours per day x 5 days = 60,048 gal-
lons.) At $4.44 per thousand gallons,
my mistake cost me $266.61 in wa-
ter. I am sure that when I add in the
normal usage for the month that my
bill will approach $300. Of course I'U
pay it and the world will keep turn-
ing. But the shining light in this pool
of bad news is that maybe I can help
you not make the same mistake.
Here are a few takeaways for you:
Ifyou turn offyour water at the
meter to make a repair, watch for the
red dial to stop at the meter after you
turn it back on. If it still spins after a
few seconds of refilling the line then
you probably still have a leak.
Check your meter periodically
when everything in the house is sup-
posed to be off to make sure the red
dial is not moving at all.
A toilet flush is costing you about
an ounce per second until it fills
the tank. Worst case is if the flapper
never seats which will cost about
$90/month to fail to repair it.
Keep your sprinkler heads in
good condition and monitor dosdy
the run time.
If you get a high bill, check the
meter immediately and watch regu-
larly to find the problem. A good
wayto find if you have an intermit-
tent problem or slow leak is to run
nothing for about 8 hours and see if
the meter registered any usage.
Our water dept is interested in
helping you keep your bill manage-
able and can help with data logs to
find the problem. We are currently
changing all meters to the style
that can give a usage report. Yours
may already have one and, if not, it
should be changed out soon. Some
reports are free while extensive re-
ports may require a charge to cover
the cost of running and printing the
report.
Finally, if you just had that busted
pipe or completely forgot about that
hose being on and have .run up an
extensive bill, call the water depart-
ment at 992:5089 and we can make
some short-term payment arrange-
ments to keep your service while
you catch your bill up. I hope that by
sharing my experience of my costly
mistake that you can avoid the same
fate. Good luck and thank you for
letting me serve you.
Eddie Rowland is the Monroe
County District 2 Commissioner.
JUST THE WAY IT IS by Sloan Oliver
,adimir Lenin said,
I "Capitalists will sell us the
V rope with w, ch we will
hang them. That quote
is SO true if money is the only thing
important. Unfortunately, money is
the only thing important to National
Basketball Association (NBA) players,
owners, and the league; and the NBA
is in the process of hanging itself. Last
week, Daryl Morey, Houston Rock-
ets General Manager,
tweeted the following,
"FIGHT FOR FREE-
DOM, STAND WITH
HONG KONG" For his
comment supporting
the Hong Kong freedom
fighters, for supporting
freedom of speech, and
for supporting the right
to assemble, Morey is
being lambasted by
Chinese communists
and by many liber-
Ks and leftists here in
America who side with
the communists.
qhe back StOlT on Morey's Hong
Kong tweet: Hong Kong (HK) was a
British colony for 156 years. Under
British rule, HK became an economic
powerhouse. In 1997, it was trans-
ferred to Communist China with
stipulations. One of the stipulations
was that HK would be ruled and
administered separately than the rest
of China. Specifically, Hong Kong's
citizens fell under different judicial
administration procedures than did
people on mainland China. Not
content with some Chinese citizens
having any freedoms, Chinas com-
munist regime decided to change
HK'S legal/judicial system - basically,
the communist wanted to end HK's
special treatment and started to extra-
dite dtizens to the mainland for trials.
Beginning in June and continuing
today, citizens ofHong Kong took to
the streets in protest. Unlike our ig-
norant, fawning liberals in the United
States, the citizens of ilK know the
evils of communism and don't want
any part of it.
Communism and its evil twin,
socialism, are one in the same; they
are the most evil, despotic forms of
government ever devised by man.
Proof of communism's evil lies in the
100+ million people killed by terror,
torture, famine, and massacres in the
past century by countries that include
Russia (the old Soviet Union), China,
Cuba, North Korea, and Nazi Ger-
many (socialism and communism are
identical - both have 100% control of
the populace and the economy). The
hallmark of communism and social-
ism is complete oppression of and
control over the entire population.
There is no freedom of speech, there
is no freedom of the press, there is no
fight to assemble, there is no right to
protest, there is no freedom of reli-
gion, there is no right to bear arms,
and there are no free markets. Under
communism, all aspects
of society are controlled;
you are a slave to the
state. Disagreement is
forbidden. Any protest is
illegal, Period. If some-
one decides to protest
or demonstrate against
governmental policies,
they are tortured and
re-educated in some sort
ofgulag.
f In year 2019, the most
k repressive governments
on Earth are North
Korea and China. Today,
the Chinese are starving millions
of its own citizens in concentration
camps that would make the Nazis
proud. The communists control all
aspects of Chinese society. Nobody
is allowed to disagree, the intemet
is controlled by the communists,
the populace is spied upon by the
government, and people are routinely
rounded up and sent to "re-educa-
tion" camps as a waming to others.
Getting back to Morey's Hong
Kong tweet, the Chinese disagreed
vehemently. The reason they dis-
agreed is because communists and
leftists (which indudes Democrats
and liberals) hate the truth when it
applies to them. The Chinese de-
manded an apology from the NBA
and the NBA quickly caved and
sided with the communists. NBA
coaches such as Steve Kerr and Gregg
Popovich happily criticize President
Trump but remain cowardly quiet
about communist oppression. Just as
disgusting has been the number of
NBA players, and U.S. corporations,
who have either sided with the com-
munists or remained silent knowing
that silence is agreement. Why would
the NBA side with communists over
freedom of speech? Answer, the NBA
would lose hundreds of millions in
merchandise revenue if the Chinese
kick NBA merchandise out of the
country. The NBA and the players
sided with the communists solely
because they chose the almighty dol-
lar over freedom. These pampered,
4'
arrogant millionaire players and bil-
lionaire owners have sold their souls
to Satan in exchange for fame and
fortune. It is this "attitude of silence"
that allowed dictators like Hitler, Cas-
tro, and Hugo Chavez to succeed.
So, here we have a small, insignifi-
cant comment about supporting the
Hong Kong freedom fighters that
been turned into a polarizing global
issue. The control the Chinese are
trying to exert over the NBA reminds
me of the Left here in America, the
way the Left enforces speech codes on
college campuses. The same intoler-
ance displayed by the Chinese is the
same intolerance shown by Demo-
crats; Chinese cannot disagree with
their government, and you cannot
disagree with Dems. Examples: In
N.Y. City it's illegal to use the term
"illegal alien;" or when Joe Biden's
campaign demanded that TV execs
stop interviewing Rudy Giuliani
about Biden-Ukraine corruption.
Chinese police chase down and beat !
protestors; here in America, the Left
chases down and beats Trump sup-
porters. (Libs and Dems, get out of
your CNN and MSNBC bubble and
learn the truth.)
The citizens of Hong Kong have
finally said "Enough" and are protest-
ing against the tyranny and oppres-
sion of the communists. HK protes-
tors are seen carrying the American
flag, not burning it like the Bernie
Sanders, wannabe communists
do here in America, Hong Kong
protestors are doing what we should
be doing here in the United States
- pushing back against the tyranny,
intolerance and hatred by the Dems;
pushing back against the intoler-
ance on college campuses, against
intolerance by the liberal media, and
against the intolerance and hatred of
those who threaten Tromp support-
ers at his rallies, lust like the Chinese
communists, the left in America is at-
tacking capitalism, attacking freedom
of speech, attacking religion (particu-
larly Christianity), and attacking the
right to bear arms.
Reminder, I'm speaking at the
Monroe County GOP meeting,
Thursday, Oct. 17, Minori's Restau-
rant, 6:30 p.m.
WEEKLY Quote: "Fight for free-
dom, Stand with Hong Kong"
Sloan Oliver is a retired Army officer
who writes a weekly column for the
Report Email him at sloanolive
earthlink.net.
