The flap over a state agency slapping at a Barrow County engineer for some recent road work is much ado about nothing.
Barrow engineering department manager Darrell Greeson recently got a letter from the Georgia Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors demanding that he stop doing engineering work.
The group based that demand on an unidentified source who knew about the recent turn lane work at Hwy. 211 and Barrow Park Drive, which had been the site of a number of wrecks.
[Full Story »]
Editorial Archives
OPINION: 'Investment' a code word for spending
In his State of the Union speech, President Obama talked a lot about “investing” in the future.
But what he was really saying is the government needs to spend more money.
[Full Story »]
But what he was really saying is the government needs to spend more money.
[Full Story »]
OPINION: Clarify veto power, or strip it from chairman
So maybe it doesn’t matter that Barrow County Board of Commissioners chairman Danny Yearwood vetoed the BOC’s recent reappointment of Don Holliday to the airport authority. It appears unlikely anyone on the board is going to challenge that in a legal arena.
But there is an important issue at stake here and that is to figure out just what is the balance of power on the BOC? [Full Story »]
But there is an important issue at stake here and that is to figure out just what is the balance of power on the BOC? [Full Story »]
OPINION: No tears for Nocera
After too many months of useless controversy, Barrow County Airport Authority chairman Frank Nocera got canned this week. Nocera’s patron, board of commissioners chairman Danny Yearwood, declined to reappoint him to the authority.
Nocera was appointed as the anti-growth member to the board after a previous admin-istration saw the airport as a potential commercial facility. The public backlash to that swept Yearwood into office and Nocera onto the authority.
But Nocera crashed as a leader after having multiple confrontations with others affiliated with the airport. He simply couldn’t get along with anyone and tried to bully his way around.
He brought this outcome on himself and no tears should be shed on his behalf.
It was time for him to go and Yearwood did the right thing in looking for another candidate.
Nocera was appointed as the anti-growth member to the board after a previous admin-istration saw the airport as a potential commercial facility. The public backlash to that swept Yearwood into office and Nocera onto the authority.
But Nocera crashed as a leader after having multiple confrontations with others affiliated with the airport. He simply couldn’t get along with anyone and tried to bully his way around.
He brought this outcome on himself and no tears should be shed on his behalf.
It was time for him to go and Yearwood did the right thing in looking for another candidate.
OPINION: Time to fix annex problems
THE disturbing conditions at the Barrow courthouse annex building should not exist. As outlined in a front page article this week, the annex building has multiple problems, including a lack of heat, leaking roof and a major mold issue.
Those are the conditions faced by employees of the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office who work out of the facility.
While county leaders found a way to pay for a fancy new courthouse and jail, they didn’t provide for BCSO space. Nor have county officials maintained this facility in any reasonable manner.
That’s the core problem when government spend a lot of money on new facilities; old buildings are too often left to rot while a lack of funds begins to erode even the new buildings’ maintenance.
Barrow government leaders should be embarrassed by the condition of the annex.
It’s a matter of priorities; county officials should put this one at the top of their list.
Those are the conditions faced by employees of the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office who work out of the facility.
While county leaders found a way to pay for a fancy new courthouse and jail, they didn’t provide for BCSO space. Nor have county officials maintained this facility in any reasonable manner.
That’s the core problem when government spend a lot of money on new facilities; old buildings are too often left to rot while a lack of funds begins to erode even the new buildings’ maintenance.
Barrow government leaders should be embarrassed by the condition of the annex.
It’s a matter of priorities; county officials should put this one at the top of their list.
OPINION: End of an era
When the phone rang a few minutes after six on Sunday morning, little did I realize it was the call that would signal an era was coming to an end.
My daddy was in distress and called because he thought I could fix it. We have often gone round and round about his unwillingness to be proactive about things — nothing in particular, everything in general. He’s always believed things would take care of themselves.
Since moving back to Winder in 2006 in an effort to assist my parents, rarely did a week go by that we weren’t butting heads over one of my parents digging in their heels whenever we suggest some revolutionary change in their lives. In my estimation, going through the freezer to pitch all the stuff that belongs in a museum is one of those maintenance journeys upon which one embarks about once a year.
For the Parental Units, going though the freezer (where I discovered the inaugural waxed cardboard quart of vegetable soup dated 1963) represented major life change. I think they’d just about rather throw out the family photo album than to part with the pair of 1972 New York Strip steaks nestled among the frozen peas and chicken stew.
But when push comes to shove and something needs to be done, it isn’t uncommon for one — or both — of my parents to call asking me to take care of it for them. Sometimes it’s a light bulb or attic thing. Sometimes it’s health-related. Either way, they know I — or any other member of the family, for that matter — will go to the ends of the earth to try to help them.
[Full Story »]
My daddy was in distress and called because he thought I could fix it. We have often gone round and round about his unwillingness to be proactive about things — nothing in particular, everything in general. He’s always believed things would take care of themselves.
Since moving back to Winder in 2006 in an effort to assist my parents, rarely did a week go by that we weren’t butting heads over one of my parents digging in their heels whenever we suggest some revolutionary change in their lives. In my estimation, going through the freezer to pitch all the stuff that belongs in a museum is one of those maintenance journeys upon which one embarks about once a year.
For the Parental Units, going though the freezer (where I discovered the inaugural waxed cardboard quart of vegetable soup dated 1963) represented major life change. I think they’d just about rather throw out the family photo album than to part with the pair of 1972 New York Strip steaks nestled among the frozen peas and chicken stew.
But when push comes to shove and something needs to be done, it isn’t uncommon for one — or both — of my parents to call asking me to take care of it for them. Sometimes it’s a light bulb or attic thing. Sometimes it’s health-related. Either way, they know I — or any other member of the family, for that matter — will go to the ends of the earth to try to help them.
[Full Story »]
OPINION: The first victim
THE tragedy in Arizona has haunted this nation for two weeks. A man takes a gun and goes into a crowd where a U.S. Representative is meeting with her constituents. He shoots her and many others, leaving six dead.
There were a lot of victims from that event, but there is one nobody dares talk about — the shooter himself.
Jared Loughner, the 22-year-old man who did the shooting, apparently suffers from some kind of psychotic disorder, possibly schizophrenia.
How the courts will deal with his condition as a legal matter remains to be seen.
We don’t know yet if Loughner had ever undergone psychiatric evaluation, or if he was receiving medication, or if perhaps he had fallen through the cracks and had never received any kind of help. Since schizophrenia mostly emerges from the mid-teens through the early 20s, it’s entirely possible that his friends and family didn’t fully understand that his litany of bizarre behavior was due to a serious mental illness.
Whatever we learn about his condition, the reaction to the shootings by far-left media about Loughner’s actions was among the most disgusting comments I’ve ever heard. Led by the liberal New York Times, the far-left quickly blamed the shootings on what it sees as hate speech by conservative politicians on the right. [Full Story »]
There were a lot of victims from that event, but there is one nobody dares talk about — the shooter himself.
Jared Loughner, the 22-year-old man who did the shooting, apparently suffers from some kind of psychotic disorder, possibly schizophrenia.
How the courts will deal with his condition as a legal matter remains to be seen.
We don’t know yet if Loughner had ever undergone psychiatric evaluation, or if he was receiving medication, or if perhaps he had fallen through the cracks and had never received any kind of help. Since schizophrenia mostly emerges from the mid-teens through the early 20s, it’s entirely possible that his friends and family didn’t fully understand that his litany of bizarre behavior was due to a serious mental illness.
Whatever we learn about his condition, the reaction to the shootings by far-left media about Loughner’s actions was among the most disgusting comments I’ve ever heard. Led by the liberal New York Times, the far-left quickly blamed the shootings on what it sees as hate speech by conservative politicians on the right. [Full Story »]
OPINION: Barrow school system shows good management
THE Barrow County School System is the largest taxing agency and the largest employer in Barrow County. How the system handles its tax money and how it has adjusted to the cut in state funding is very important to all Barrow citizens.
As a news story this week shows, the BCSS is among the best managed financially in the state based on its conservative spending per student. Overall, the system spent $7,804 per student in the last fiscal year, making it one of the lowest cost per student systems in Georgia. As a quick comparison, both the Madison County and Jackson County school systems spend $1,000 more per student than does Barrow.
That speaks well of Barrow’s fiscal management, not just last year, but also in the years before. It’s clear from the data that Barrow school officials have worked for many years to be conservative financial managers of tax money.
Most of any school system’s money is spent for personnel in salaries and benefits. It’s easy for school systems to load up on hiring too many administrative staff and letting payroll climb too high. [Full Story »]
As a news story this week shows, the BCSS is among the best managed financially in the state based on its conservative spending per student. Overall, the system spent $7,804 per student in the last fiscal year, making it one of the lowest cost per student systems in Georgia. As a quick comparison, both the Madison County and Jackson County school systems spend $1,000 more per student than does Barrow.
That speaks well of Barrow’s fiscal management, not just last year, but also in the years before. It’s clear from the data that Barrow school officials have worked for many years to be conservative financial managers of tax money.
Most of any school system’s money is spent for personnel in salaries and benefits. It’s easy for school systems to load up on hiring too many administrative staff and letting payroll climb too high. [Full Story »]
OPINION: Trying week for all involved
I'm not used to weather occurrences like the one we had last week.
It’s why I can remember when we have them for they are so rare. We still talk about the winter storm that arrived in 1993. Ironically, I was a college student home on spring break at the time. I guess I should have headed for Florida that week with so many of my fellow students. [Full Story »]
It’s why I can remember when we have them for they are so rare. We still talk about the winter storm that arrived in 1993. Ironically, I was a college student home on spring break at the time. I guess I should have headed for Florida that week with so many of my fellow students. [Full Story »]
OPINION: Do they really know what’s going on?
Ok, I can no longer ignore the increasing number of massive animal deaths in recent news.
The first to catch my eye was the story of 5,000 blackbirds falling from the sky in a town of Little Rock, which is a little unsettling on its own, but then I read about the 100,000 fish that died around the same time in a town a little more than 100 miles away.
I am normally not one to jump to conclusions, in fact I am normally an advocate for not jumping, but to be honest my first thought was something like: “wow, that’s a little suspicious”.
After reading what the “experts” said about the deaths of these animals, it didn’t really ease my mind; in fact it made me more worried. Many scientists claim that the event is not unique but they are the same ones who have no idea what caused the birds and fish and pelicans to die.
So I guess the only thing they know for sure is that mass amounts of birds or fish have died in the past. Let us not forget they still have no definitive cause for the animal’s deaths.
It’s not just the fish either. Jellyfish and starfish have been found dead, along with over 70 bats dropping dead in Arizona.
[Full Story »]
The first to catch my eye was the story of 5,000 blackbirds falling from the sky in a town of Little Rock, which is a little unsettling on its own, but then I read about the 100,000 fish that died around the same time in a town a little more than 100 miles away.
I am normally not one to jump to conclusions, in fact I am normally an advocate for not jumping, but to be honest my first thought was something like: “wow, that’s a little suspicious”.
After reading what the “experts” said about the deaths of these animals, it didn’t really ease my mind; in fact it made me more worried. Many scientists claim that the event is not unique but they are the same ones who have no idea what caused the birds and fish and pelicans to die.
So I guess the only thing they know for sure is that mass amounts of birds or fish have died in the past. Let us not forget they still have no definitive cause for the animal’s deaths.
It’s not just the fish either. Jellyfish and starfish have been found dead, along with over 70 bats dropping dead in Arizona.
[Full Story »]
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