A costly question
Inadvertently, I seem to have cost Dougherty County taxpayers lots of money -- $266, to be exact. On Feb. 16, we asked why the Board of Education discussed the hiring of a consultant in executive session. Although the elected school board members who were the targets of our question, the school system’s attorney, Tommy Coleman, went to work – on our dime. He billed his bosses (aka us taxpayers) for 2.8 hours of work at $95 an hour for working on what he described in his billing report as “an open records matter” doing such tasks as making three calls to the Journal. As it turns out, Coleman says that although transportation consultant Rick Wheeler’s title is “consultant”, he actually is a part-time employee; as such, the discussion about Wheeler’s hiring in an executive session was proper, the attorney said. We’re sorry, taxpayers. If only I would’ve known … Oh, heck, I still would have asked the question. But should you have to pay for it?
Is ATI’s former chief a blogger?
If so, he’s pretty doggone mad. Someone identifying himself as Ken Weaver – the same name as Albany Tomorrow Inc.’s recently ousted CEO -- went off on ATI board member Emily Jean McAfee and Albany Area Chamber of Commerce CEO on the community Web blog topix.com. “Wake up, Albany , you are being run by imbeciles,” the blogger said. Weaver has not returned out telephone call seeking an interview.
A glowing recommendation
An Albany lobbyist who has been busted for ethics violations will make $24,000 consulting for the City of Bainbridge for four months. William G. “Jerry” Usry was recommended by state Sen. John Bulloch (R-Ochlocknee) for the gig as a state lobbyist providing consulting on municipal affairs. It’s no wonder that Bulloch gave Usry a good word; Usry donates mightily to Bulloch’s campaign fund and has reported that he has bought Bulloch meals, as well. In July 2007, Usry was fined $15,000 for violating the state’s Ethics in Government Act by being compensated for lobbying without being registered with the State Ethics Commission and, thus, without filing expenditure reports. Usry, who has since registered as a lobbyist, also is heavy contributor to the campaign fund of U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Albany.
Hole in one for Albany
Albany will host the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference’s men’s golf championships for three years beginning this year. “We truly believe the City of Albany and the Recreation and Parks Department have all the necessary tools to make it an annual signature event,” conference commissioner William L. Lide said in a recent letter notifying the city that its bid had been accepted. Albany State University is an SIAC member.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Albany Beat
Albany’s future mayor
Here’s a politician who could someday be Albany’s mayor – if only he lived here. Augusta state Sen. Ed Tarver, a Democrat, wants to make it illegal for Georgia General Assembly speakers to lie – unless the speaker is a state representative or senator. Tarver produced is proposing a law that would require an oath from the presenter of “any oral evidence in support or opposition of any legislation or request for appropriation to a committee or subcommittee of the General Assembly. The penalty would be a fine of up to $1,000 and five years in prison – unless you’re a General Assembly member. Recently, Albany Mayor Willie Adams told a City Commission visitor, “I’m a liar,” when the visitor confronted him about not telling the truth.
Here’s a politician who could someday be Albany’s mayor – if only he lived here. Augusta state Sen. Ed Tarver, a Democrat, wants to make it illegal for Georgia General Assembly speakers to lie – unless the speaker is a state representative or senator. Tarver produced is proposing a law that would require an oath from the presenter of “any oral evidence in support or opposition of any legislation or request for appropriation to a committee or subcommittee of the General Assembly. The penalty would be a fine of up to $1,000 and five years in prison – unless you’re a General Assembly member. Recently, Albany Mayor Willie Adams told a City Commission visitor, “I’m a liar,” when the visitor confronted him about not telling the truth.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Albany Beat
Super Tuesday 101
The Dougherty County School System had its game on in preparation for Super Tuesday. For one thing, its 3,000-plus third- through fifth-graders participated Monday in a mock presidential election, and the participants proudly sported official Georgia voter stickers for the remainder of the school day. Before Tuesday’s primary elections, the same students learned about the history of voting in America , qualifications for candidacy, and about the issues facing our country. It’s a civic lesson that increases the chances of those children becoming better citizens. And here’s icing on the cake: Dougherty High School administrators provided space and support for a voter-registration drive at the school. As a result, 65 new voters are now on the rolls.
When severing doesn’t warrant a severance
An Albany Tomorrow Inc. board member says that she and her colleagues erred in hiring Kenneth Weaver, who resigned last week as CEO. Emily Jean McAfee told WALB-TV that she and board Chairman C.W. Grant came to that conclusion, and that Grant shared that perspective with Weaver, who then submitted his resignation. In particular, Ms. McAfee said, Weaver’s shortcomings became clear through his inability to recruit retailers. Unlike Albany City Manager Alfred Lott, who recently forced his finance director to resign after three months on the job, Ms. McAfee and her fellow ATI board members opted not to award a severance package to Weaver as a reward for his three months of service.
Voter disenfranchisement?
A workers’ vote Tuesday at Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. in Albany created some controversy. An employee told The Albany Journal that rules have been put in place by some – but not all -- supervisors for the Findlay, Ohio-based company wherein employees must take time off and that they could lose their perfect-attendance status simply by casting a ballot. Let’s hope that didn’t actually happen.
Humble disassociation
Sometimes, your alma mater – or at least some people connected with it -- lets you down. That happened with many University of Alabama alumni in the 1980s when a classy and successful coach was run out of town by a redneck contingent, and that’s also what is happening to Albany teacher Laura Swette-Bridges’ alma mater, St. Cloud State University in Minnesota . Since November, there have been at least 19 reports of swastikas showing up in public places at the college. “I have always, secretly, felt a little smug to have come from a part of the country that was more enlightened and had people with more important things to do than worry about race,” Ms. Swette-Bridges wrote in Wednesday’s St. Cloud Times newspaper. “As an example to my young students, I have a desktop full of stuffied huskies ( St. Cloud ’s mascot) and university mugs … I am not faced with the sad realization that I am embarrassed and ashamed to be associated with this memorabilia.”
The Dougherty County School System had its game on in preparation for Super Tuesday. For one thing, its 3,000-plus third- through fifth-graders participated Monday in a mock presidential election, and the participants proudly sported official Georgia voter stickers for the remainder of the school day. Before Tuesday’s primary elections, the same students learned about the history of voting in America , qualifications for candidacy, and about the issues facing our country. It’s a civic lesson that increases the chances of those children becoming better citizens. And here’s icing on the cake: Dougherty High School administrators provided space and support for a voter-registration drive at the school. As a result, 65 new voters are now on the rolls.
When severing doesn’t warrant a severance
An Albany Tomorrow Inc. board member says that she and her colleagues erred in hiring Kenneth Weaver, who resigned last week as CEO. Emily Jean McAfee told WALB-TV that she and board Chairman C.W. Grant came to that conclusion, and that Grant shared that perspective with Weaver, who then submitted his resignation. In particular, Ms. McAfee said, Weaver’s shortcomings became clear through his inability to recruit retailers. Unlike Albany City Manager Alfred Lott, who recently forced his finance director to resign after three months on the job, Ms. McAfee and her fellow ATI board members opted not to award a severance package to Weaver as a reward for his three months of service.
Voter disenfranchisement?
A workers’ vote Tuesday at Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. in Albany created some controversy. An employee told The Albany Journal that rules have been put in place by some – but not all -- supervisors for the Findlay, Ohio-based company wherein employees must take time off and that they could lose their perfect-attendance status simply by casting a ballot. Let’s hope that didn’t actually happen.
Humble disassociation
Sometimes, your alma mater – or at least some people connected with it -- lets you down. That happened with many University of Alabama alumni in the 1980s when a classy and successful coach was run out of town by a redneck contingent, and that’s also what is happening to Albany teacher Laura Swette-Bridges’ alma mater, St. Cloud State University in Minnesota . Since November, there have been at least 19 reports of swastikas showing up in public places at the college. “I have always, secretly, felt a little smug to have come from a part of the country that was more enlightened and had people with more important things to do than worry about race,” Ms. Swette-Bridges wrote in Wednesday’s St. Cloud Times newspaper. “As an example to my young students, I have a desktop full of stuffied huskies ( St. Cloud ’s mascot) and university mugs … I am not faced with the sad realization that I am embarrassed and ashamed to be associated with this memorabilia.”
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Albany Beat
Rock, Roll and Run
Problem solved: Downtown Albany ’s signature weekend finally has an all-encompassing moniker: “Rock, Roll and Run.” The Mardi Gras events begin at noon Saturday, March 1 with live music, food, arts and crafts vendors, a car show and a BBQ cook-off sponsored by the Shriners. Kids’ activities including face painting, jumpy houses, a petting zoo, train rides, rock climbing, and games with prizes. Live bands will continue rocking the stage until midnight. Info: 434-8700.
Wanted, You
Speaking of Rock, Roll and Run, Albany needs you to be a member of the Support Team during the second annual SNICKERS® MARATHON® Energy Bar marathon, half marathon and Fun run; the Regions Bank Bike Race Weekend, and all the festivities taking place downtown on Saturday, March 1. Volunteers will receive a free T-shirt and a ticket for the Mardi Gras Street festival. Road marshals, in particular, are needed, and Central Monitoring will honor volunteers with a thank-you shindig March 18 at the Flint RiverQuarium. To volunteer, sign up at the Albany Chamber of Commerce or at www. albanymarathon.com.
UGA Library support
Harold R. Hudgens Jr., an Albany resident and University of Georgia alumnus, and an Albany couple have teamed up to support the school’s Map Library. A regular user of the Map Library, Hudgens is raising awareness of the library’s important role. Meanwhile, wildlife watercolor artist Rena Divine and her husband, William T. Divine Jr., a former University System of Georgia Board of Regents member, donated four artist's proofs from Rena's series, “Plantations of Southwest Georgia.” In the early 1980s, former Georgia Gov. George Busbee presented Rena's print of brown thrashers, Georgia 's state bird, to dignitaries.
Problem solved: Downtown Albany ’s signature weekend finally has an all-encompassing moniker: “Rock, Roll and Run.” The Mardi Gras events begin at noon Saturday, March 1 with live music, food, arts and crafts vendors, a car show and a BBQ cook-off sponsored by the Shriners. Kids’ activities including face painting, jumpy houses, a petting zoo, train rides, rock climbing, and games with prizes. Live bands will continue rocking the stage until midnight. Info: 434-8700.
Wanted, You
Speaking of Rock, Roll and Run, Albany needs you to be a member of the Support Team during the second annual SNICKERS® MARATHON® Energy Bar marathon, half marathon and Fun run; the Regions Bank Bike Race Weekend, and all the festivities taking place downtown on Saturday, March 1. Volunteers will receive a free T-shirt and a ticket for the Mardi Gras Street festival. Road marshals, in particular, are needed, and Central Monitoring will honor volunteers with a thank-you shindig March 18 at the Flint RiverQuarium. To volunteer, sign up at the Albany Chamber of Commerce or at www. albanymarathon.com.
UGA Library support
Harold R. Hudgens Jr., an Albany resident and University of Georgia alumnus, and an Albany couple have teamed up to support the school’s Map Library. A regular user of the Map Library, Hudgens is raising awareness of the library’s important role. Meanwhile, wildlife watercolor artist Rena Divine and her husband, William T. Divine Jr., a former University System of Georgia Board of Regents member, donated four artist's proofs from Rena's series, “Plantations of Southwest Georgia.” In the early 1980s, former Georgia Gov. George Busbee presented Rena's print of brown thrashers, Georgia 's state bird, to dignitaries.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Albany Beat
Holy Smoke!
Local and state arson investigators say they don’t buy the Rev. Joseph Howard III’s contention that his Metropolitan Baptist Church was torched by racists; rather, they say that Howard did the dirty deed. Howard was arrested Friday and charged with New Year’s Eve arson, which destroyed the church sanctuary, causing an estimated $150,000 in damage. Citing Howard’s “vision and commitment,” U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop in 2003 helped Howard’s Trinity Community Development Corp. receive $3.975 million for 49 senior citizen apartments. The U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department grant was Trinity CDC’s first. Bishop added at the time: “I was pleased to support this grant application.”
Purple Heart to Lex
Albany ’s most famous military working dog is getting a new pendant for his collar – a Purple Heart. The recently retired German shepherd, which was wounded during combat in March in Iraq , will be honored during a ceremony on Feb. 16 at Eglin Air Force Base in Fort Walton Beach , Fla. Based at Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, Lex was serving alongside Cpl. Dustin Lee, a canine handler from Quitman, Miss., when the two were targeted during a mortar attack. Lee, 20, died from his wounds and his parents adopted Lex upon the dog’s retirement in December. Info: donations@militaryworkingdogmemorial.com. Four military dog handlers and three military working dogs have been killed in action during Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom.
Local and state arson investigators say they don’t buy the Rev. Joseph Howard III’s contention that his Metropolitan Baptist Church was torched by racists; rather, they say that Howard did the dirty deed. Howard was arrested Friday and charged with New Year’s Eve arson, which destroyed the church sanctuary, causing an estimated $150,000 in damage. Citing Howard’s “vision and commitment,” U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop in 2003 helped Howard’s Trinity Community Development Corp. receive $3.975 million for 49 senior citizen apartments. The U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department grant was Trinity CDC’s first. Bishop added at the time: “I was pleased to support this grant application.”
Purple Heart to Lex
Albany ’s most famous military working dog is getting a new pendant for his collar – a Purple Heart. The recently retired German shepherd, which was wounded during combat in March in Iraq , will be honored during a ceremony on Feb. 16 at Eglin Air Force Base in Fort Walton Beach , Fla. Based at Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, Lex was serving alongside Cpl. Dustin Lee, a canine handler from Quitman, Miss., when the two were targeted during a mortar attack. Lee, 20, died from his wounds and his parents adopted Lex upon the dog’s retirement in December. Info: donations@militaryworkingdogmemorial.com. Four military dog handlers and three military working dogs have been killed in action during Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Albany Beat
Banishment to be banned?
Albany Mayor Willie Adams’ insistence that three-time drug offenders be banished from Dougherty County is being ignored by Chief Dougherty Superior Court Judge Loring Gray, who refuses to hoist our problems on another community. Besides, doing so may soon be illegal. The Georgia Supreme Court is currently reviewing the constitutionality of banishment as it contemplates a Douglas County case in which a convicted stalker is prohibited from living with every Georgia County except Toombs while on probation.
High on … dung?
Hopefully you’re not eating, but you need to know this: Without question, the grossest thing you’ll ever read in this newspaper; Folks, drug addicts are getting high off on excrement. That’s right; they take raw sewage (it may or may not be their own), and they inhale it. Yep, effluent has street value. No dung. A respected local narcotics investigator told us about jenkem, this not-necessarily-so-new drug that is suddenly the topic of water cooler fodder in narcotics divisions throughout the country. Yep, the Apocolypse just may be here. But you needed to know.
Coat drive in final push
Got one warm coat to donate? Central Monitoring is wrapping up its second annual One Warm Coat drive, which benefits clients of agencies served by the Food Bank of Southwest Georgia . New and gently used coats are being collected through Jan. 31 at these and other locations: Any of Dougherty County’s 11 fire stations; Central Monitoring, 522 Pine Ave.; Regions Bank; Security Bank; Albany Bank & Trust; AmerisBank; WALB-TV; WFXL-TV; The Albany Herald; and the Albany Mall’s University Gifts & Apparel. Also, coats will be collected at the King Day Celebration on Monday at the Albany Civic Center . Info: 434-1176.
Albany Mayor Willie Adams’ insistence that three-time drug offenders be banished from Dougherty County is being ignored by Chief Dougherty Superior Court Judge Loring Gray, who refuses to hoist our problems on another community. Besides, doing so may soon be illegal. The Georgia Supreme Court is currently reviewing the constitutionality of banishment as it contemplates a Douglas County case in which a convicted stalker is prohibited from living with every Georgia County except Toombs while on probation.
High on … dung?
Hopefully you’re not eating, but you need to know this: Without question, the grossest thing you’ll ever read in this newspaper; Folks, drug addicts are getting high off on excrement. That’s right; they take raw sewage (it may or may not be their own), and they inhale it. Yep, effluent has street value. No dung. A respected local narcotics investigator told us about jenkem, this not-necessarily-so-new drug that is suddenly the topic of water cooler fodder in narcotics divisions throughout the country. Yep, the Apocolypse just may be here. But you needed to know.
Coat drive in final push
Got one warm coat to donate? Central Monitoring is wrapping up its second annual One Warm Coat drive, which benefits clients of agencies served by the Food Bank of Southwest Georgia . New and gently used coats are being collected through Jan. 31 at these and other locations: Any of Dougherty County’s 11 fire stations; Central Monitoring, 522 Pine Ave.; Regions Bank; Security Bank; Albany Bank & Trust; AmerisBank; WALB-TV; WFXL-TV; The Albany Herald; and the Albany Mall’s University Gifts & Apparel. Also, coats will be collected at the King Day Celebration on Monday at the Albany Civic Center . Info: 434-1176.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Albany Beat
Bishop, Bowling Big; Taylor Not
Georgia Trend magazine has left the “Big Guy” off its 2008 most-powerful list. Georgia ’s leading magazine and politics and the economy says U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, who calls Albany and Columbus home, and Annette Bowling, the Albany Advocacy Resource Center executive director, are among Georgia’s most 100 influential residents. Notably not on the list is a former perennial Georgia Trend honoree – former Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor of Albany.
Georgia Trend magazine has left the “Big Guy” off its 2008 most-powerful list. Georgia ’s leading magazine and politics and the economy says U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, who calls Albany and Columbus home, and Annette Bowling, the Albany Advocacy Resource Center executive director, are among Georgia’s most 100 influential residents. Notably not on the list is a former perennial Georgia Trend honoree – former Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor of Albany.
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