October 31, 2018
Page 5A
ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN by Don Daniel
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
F
here we are on Halloween, the eve of t dec-
tion, and a gubernatorial candidate is going to be
on the courthouse square toc . If all those going
ons are not enough, we are already
getting over-
loaded on Christmas advertising and the turkey has not even
been put in the oven. a ank goodness the gubernatorial contest
will soon be history we hope and the hwsnits begin. And of
course we will have the run-offfor she .
Betcha, To The Wah 't win have the trick-or-treat candy
off the shelves come tomorrow morning (Thursday) and just
maybe if any of the treats are left on the shelves, they will be half-
price. Don't count on it. They will store and save until next year's
"Boo Time" which win start just after the Fourth of Ju .
This really happened to me at To The Walmart. My daughter
loves candy corn and specifica the Brach brand. I fdt sure To
The Walmart would have some, but guess what? They were sold
out and I had to expand my search To The Ingles. Still, no Brach
candy corn, just the stOre brand.
Thinking I would have to greatly expand my search and head
down to Macon, I filled the truck with gas and before heading
out saw the local CVS drug store. In a last-ditch effort, I decided
to take a look at their candy shelves. Surprise! I purchased all
eight bags of the Bmch Candy Corn at buy-one, get-one free. A
perfect example of what we do for our children and grandchil-
dren.
Living out here in the country and way off the paved mad for
the last 30-plus years, I have had only one trick-or-treater. I used
to purchase trick-or-treat stuff in anticipation of a ghost, goblin
or a witch riding a broom and ended up trick-or-treating myself.
ON MY wayto Juliette's Fried Green Tomato Festival Saturday,
saw this sign: Rum Creek Wildlife Management Dove Fidd.
Wonder if RCWM has a dove shoot or do you go out to the field
and watch doves? You know, bird watching.
Although the weather was spotty, a good crowd was walking
McCracken Street in downtown
Iuliette and shopping. Of course, the
Whistle Stop was selling fried green
tomatoes and you could gobble up
alligator tail on a stick at a local food
vendor. I settled for the fried green
tomatoes. I have had alligator and it
tastes like chickerr
HERE ARE some interesting
county commissioner-approved
$14 283.57 to keep the dectricity
flowing to 15 county taxpayer-
owned---phces;
checks our tax money was used for:
We paid the City
of Forsyth
Our county attorneys, Dillon and
Vaughn, got a'small check" in the amount of $4,312.20 for a
month oflegalling;
Obviously our jailbirds got a lot of medical attention because
we paid Monroe County Hospital $56,583.46 for inmate medi-
calb l
We bought pipe instead of feed or seed from Forsyth Feed and
Seed to the tune of $238.99;
Monitoring sex offenders cost us $270;
Wonder what "ballot bags" are used for? We bought some and
paid $372.48 for them. Guess they could be used in case you had
to throw-up after voting.
Here's one more. I thought county computers were supposed
to save us mone We paid $28,361.60 for computer mainte-
nance, a five freedom IIKM switch (no idea what that is) and
mouse, four monitors a new computer.
What about this one: We paid Ooh-La-La Catering for a lunch
at our Convention Center $2,503 for a DOE meeting. Were you
invited? Guess our invitations are still in the mail.
I write about these expenditures which are only a few of the
total of checks written in the amount of $373,794.53. They are all
public records and accessible.
SURPRISE, SURPRISE! This check is going to be questioned.
Besides having a local attomey as county attomey, we paid
Atlanta firm Chalmers Pak and Butch $92,727 for legal services
with the tag line: County Line Work ArcheologicaL Wonder
what they were digging for and wonder what happened to King
and Spalding, whom we have paid over $2 million for county
line work? Investigating the change is going to be interesting.
Will, Richard and I are working on the why We think we have
an answer but want it confirmed before a front-page sto
When asked about the $92,727, my Commissioner George
Emami emailed: "I see the checks but don't remember anything
saying archeology. I'm being told it's not dassified anything to
do with archaeolog It's a legal expense related to the border
dispute. Ms. Burch has always been one of the lead attorneys on
this case. As I understand Ms. Burch left King & Spalding to
start her o wn firm probably 3 years ago and has continued to be
a lead attorney on the case"
Very conspicuous in the checks we paid out, guess the "Fantas-
tic Five" have cooled their scooting around the county and else-
where. Haven't seen any reimbursement checks paid to them for
mileage or attending a chamber of commerce breakfast meeting.
Don't think they are being paid under the table.
THE FIRST correct answer to last weele.s The Question, came
from Susan Parker with this answer: Bo Gregory (president of
the Devdopment Authority of Monroe County) got a 2-year
contract extension, a raise to $93,000 per year and $7,500 bonus.
His previous salary was $90,000.
Susan gets a certificate for a dozen Dunkin Donuts, Dairy
Queen Blizzard, Whistle Stop fried green tomato appetizer, For-
syth Main Street t-shirt, slice of Shoney's strawberry pie, sand-
wich, chips and drink from The Pickled Okra. As you read the
list, absent is "a cookie from Jonahb' Well, Jonab2s has dosed, but
Sweet Tea Cafe in Bolingbroke has agreed to offer your choice
of dessert when you present the winning certificate. Here's The
Question for this week: Who was named Mary Persons Home-
coming Queen and King Friday night? First correct answer after
12 noon on Thursday gets the all-inclusive certificate.
ON THE lighter side: There are three religious truths: Jews do
not recognize Jesus as the Messiah; Protestants do not recognize
the Pope as the leader of the Christian faith; Baptists do not
recognize each other in the liquor store or at Hooters.
Don Daniel founded the Reporter in 1972. Email him at medi-
adr@bellsouth.net to amwer The Question or make a comment.
Don't forget to listen to The Reporter On The Radio on Majic 100
on Sunday mornings at 7 and watch Don, Will and Richard---on
Forsyth Cable's community access channel
!
till
To the Editor:
Ihave been away from Monroe
County since 1951, but I still
enjoy reading about family
(Vaughns) and friends.
Artides I have enjoyed recently
are: 1) Georgia Farmer of the Year
(James Vaughn is my nephew.) 2)
Cathryn Futral's 90th Birthday. She
and I graduated from Tilt in 1949. I
was 90 in May. I received 155 cards.
Many were from South Pittsburg
High students where I was a teacher
from 1960-1990. 3) The DAR
article with Mr. Dickey, the speaker.
It is interesting about the Dickey
peach farm. (My great nephew,
Matthew Grant, sent me a box of
their peaches for my birthday :) )
All of my sisters and brothers
(Vaughns) have gone on to glory. I
am the last of seven. Many, many
friends and people I knew have also
gone on.
One request: Make the print as
dark as possible and as large as pos-
sible. I have devdoped wet macular
in both eyes. I am sure you have
many other subscribers who are
having sight problems, also.
Helen V. Parsons
Jaspe Tenn.
To the Editor:
As I drive North from
Macon and see the 1-75
right-of-way rehabilita-
tion, it looks very good.
Hundreds of trees have been
removed, with the ones having
commercial value trucked to the
sawmills. All of the other undesir-
able trees, underbrush, and stumps
have been ground up or mulched
with the mulch being spread out
evenly. I hate to see trees removed,
but the result looks good, a profes-
sional job by a competent firm.
As I continue on 1-75 North past
Forsyth, the contractor in that area
has left it looking like a war zone,
with logs, stumps, and underbrush
just scattered on the fight-of-way.
The tornadoes several years ago did
a neater job in removing the excess
vegetation than this contractor,
who appears to have done only half
of his work before packing up and
leaving.
What gives? Do you know any-
one at GDOT that can shed some
light on this?
John Ricketson
South Monroe County
Editor's note:
We passed this
question to the
DOT and got
this answer from
spokesman Penny
Brooks: We
understand how
everyone feds
about the tree
removal project
north of Forsyth
on 1-75. The
contractor for that work was released
from the Georgia DOT contract in
September, and since then we have
been rebidding the project. The
new contractor is set to begin work
in early November and has been
instructed to start the process with
the clearing of that particular stretch
of land. After that, they will continue
the project as originally set.
TAKING A LIKENS TO YOU by Dale Likens
that the
Kavanaugh
hearings are
over and Judge
Brett Kavanaugh has been
sworn in as our newest
Justice of the Supreme '
Court we
can pause
for a mo-
ment and
take one
long, deep
breath.
Perhaps we
can even
take a step
forward
and set
our minds
on college
footbalL
Wouldn't
that be wonderful!
However, I refer you to
one of college football's fa-
vorite commentators who
constantly calls out when
others on their panel pre-
dict future winners, "Not
so fast, gentlemen! Not so
fast! You don't know what
you're talking about!"
So I repeat his phrase
once more with a little
twist toward politics. "Not
so fast, America! Not so
fast! You don't know what
you're talking about! The
battle is only beginning!"
At the first Supreme
Court meeting since Mr.
Kavanaugh's swearing-
in ceremony protesters
once again gathered at the
front door of the Supreme
Court shouting vicious
remarks, pounding on
the doors and acting
once again like an unruly
mob. The truth is with
the November elections
very near it won't stop!
The battle has only be-
gun! Our dearly bdoved
friend, Hillary Clinton,
has once again resurrect-
ed from the dead and is
now leading her followers
to a new truth. "There
will be no civility in our
country ffthe
Republicans
once again con-
trol our house
and senate!"
she prodaims
through her
favorite media.
At first I
thought she
was saying
we Repub-
licans lack
civility. Then
it dawned on
me that what
she was really saying was,
"We Democrats will not
remain civil as long as the
Republicans rule the sen-
ate; before and after the
election! We will continue
our protests! We will con-
tinue with Antifa bully-
ing and if we win we will
impeach Supreme Court
Justice Brett Kavanaugh
and President Trump!"
Well, maybe I'm reading
a lot intO what she said.
But let's just watch what
happens in the next few
weeks and beyond. Then
we can better judge.
Certain Democratic
senators have already
vowed their commit-
ment to impeach Presi-
dent Trump and Justice
Brett Kavanaugh if they
should take control of the
senate after this elec-
tion. May I ask for what
reason should they be im-
peached? Shouldn't there
be a justifiable reason for
impeachment? Perhaps
they are so concerned that feat? What has happened
he may try to overturn to the Democratic Party I
the Roe vs. Wade deci- once voted for many years
sion of 1973. Do they not ago? Will the media ever
understand that it takes tell the complete story
a 5-4 ruling to do so? Do their followers need to
they not understand that hear?
it would take four other Sadly it is not over. In
Supreme Court justices fact I believe it will only
to bring the total to five? get worse as we near our
What about the other November elections. If
four votes? Should they the Democrats should
be impeached, too, or just win our November dec-
Brett Kavanaugh? tions our health care will
Many of the Democratic be returned to the days
candidates are advocating of President Obama. We
socialism. Bernie Sanders, may have a new socialistic
a definite Socialist, nearly government where capi-
won in the last Demo- talism will be a thing of
cratic polling. (Needless the past. Our constitution
to say--we won't go into will be shredded.
that election. Somehow I agree totally with Sean
I thought he did win the Hannity when he says,
election. Oh well!) Per- "This election is the most
haps it won't begin with important election in our
an all-out commitment to lifetime and maybe since
Socialism. Perhaps it will the creation of our pres-
come as a little piece here ent form of government:
and a little piece there I do, however, see a
until it feels right, tastes spark of life in our cur-
right and soon becomes rent Republican sena-
the accepted solution to tors. Congratulations to
capitalism. Senator Grassley, Senator
Sadly, I am still haunted Lindsey Graham, Sena-
by the wild, uncontrol- tor Susan Collins and
lable screams during the Senator Mitch McCon-
Judge Brett Kavanaugh nell and others who
hearings! I repeatedly recently have acquired
hear the horrible lies the a new moral fiber and a
Democrats throw so new intestinal fortitude.
quickly when the previ- Thank youl Perhaps there
ous lie is proven false. I is hope after all. Now it is
still see the vicious dem- up to you and me and all
onstrators ripping signs the Republican voters to
from opposing, quiet stand up strong against
protesters and tearing the protests, the slander,
them to pieces. I see the the Socialist Party and all
paid protesters attacking who would bring Amer-
senators in the hallways ica down. See you at the
and in elevators. And I polls! God bless!
wonder where has our
democracy gone? What Dale Likens is an author
has happened to the days who lives in Monroe
when losers accepted de- County.
When Brian Kemp became secretary of state on Jan. 8, 2010, Terry
survey of the Monroe-Bibb County line was on his desk. The law says it's his job
to do something with it. He announced on Aug. 23, 2011 that he was rejecting the
Scarborough survey. Unfortunately, the law gives him no such option. So on March
10, 2014, the Supreme Court ordered him to set the line. That was four years ago.
The Reporter is devoting this space each week to counting the number of days Kemp
has been on the job, and yet not done his job. If you want Kemp to do the job which
he's sought three times before he gets a promotion to governor, call his office at
(404) 656-2817 and let them know.
