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OPINIONS
Frank
Gillispie
Candidates
show Halloween spirit of trying to spook us
Halloween is rapidly approaching. The
season when we are told to be afraid, be very afraid. The two
major presidential candidates have gotten into the spirit of
the season. Each of them is trying to frighten us into voting
against the other.
Zach
Mitcham
The petroleum
picture
A main vein of the U.S. petroleum supply
runs through this county, a fact that we just don’t think
about very much since it’s buried beneath us.
SPORTS
Lady Raiders cross
country team wins MainStreet race
Madison County girls outlegged other
long distance runners at the MainStreet Newspapers Invitational
last week in Jackson County.
Debbie Ebalobo captured first place in the event with a time
of 23:35. Other Lady Raider runners were Danielle Baker, 26:39,
fifth; Michelle Wyatt, 27:14, sixth; Kyleah Young, 27:19, seventh;
and Lindy Cole, 27:22, eighth.
News from
BANKS COUNTY
Candidates
face off at forum
Banks voters test candidates on issues
Tues.
More than 100 residents of Banks County came out Tuesday night
to a political forum in Homer to questions candidates in the
Nov. 2 election on the issues they believe are relevant to the
county.
Baldwin receives
grant
$140,515 to aid with industry infrastructure
Rep. Jeanette Jamieson has announced a grant in the amount of
$140,515 has been awarded to the City of Baldwin.
News from
JACKSON COUNTY
Man booted from business over Evans sign
A Jackson County man who worked part-time for a tenant in the Jefferson Real Deals complex was reportedly kicked out of the business last week by a Jefferson policeman because he had a sign in his car supporting incumbent sheriff Stan Evans. He was subsequently fired from working at the business.
Chairman candidates tackle budget, courthouse issues
Mistrust in county government also a prime topicI
f there are a few things that Pat Bell and Roy Grubbs - candidates for chairman of the Jackson County Board of Commissioners - agree on, it's that county leaders are spending too much money and citizens don't trust their current elected county leaders.
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mainstreetnews.com
The Madison County Journal
Danielsville, Georgia
Telephone: (706) 367-5233
Fax: (706) 367-8056
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MainStreet Newspapers, Inc.
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MCHS Homecoming Queen
Latoya Cobbs is crowned Madison County High School’s
“2004 Homecoming Queen” during halftime of the Friday
night Raider football game against Salem as her father, Bobby
Edwards, watches.
See this weeks Madison County Journal for more Homecoming
pictures.
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What lies Beneath
A look at pipelines, problems,
politics in Madison Co. and beyond
Little goats run in their fenced-in pen off
Colonial Drive in Madison County, oblivious to the vast pipelines
just a few feet below them — lines that carry millions
of gallons of fuel to jetliners, factories and families from
Texas to New Jersey.
The interstates may be the most distinguished vein network of
the American economy, but it’s the out-of-sight petroleum
pipelines, buried several feet in the ground, that are this country’s
lifeblood, this nation’s fiscal intravenous system, supplying
the quick-stop service stations with gas for our cars.
Some Madison County residents can remember the loud booms of
decades ago when earth was moved and that vein network of pipeline
was introduced to this county in a route that curled around the
mountains and up the east coast.
In fact, there are three major pipelines that run through Madison
County — two petroleum: Colonial Pipeline Company and Plantation
Pipe Line Company; and one natural gas: Williams Transco Gas
Pipeline.
But the fact that this rural Georgia county is a link in the
nation’s fuel transportation chain is easily overlooked.
Naturally, what happens in the dirt below is not obviously relevant
to busy lives above.
So homes and businesses are located near those lines. And life
goes on. And many people give those lines no more thought than
the little goats in their pen on Colonial Drive.
Unless something goes wrong.
CONTAMINATED WATER
It’s been 10 years since Madison County discovered that
something had indeed gone wrong with well water in the Colbert
Grove Church Road area south of Danielsville.
While Jed Clampett found his fictional fortune with “Texas
tea,” the blue collar community of Colbert Grove met the
very real evil cousin of black gold: “Benzene.”
Benzene is a liquid that is “clear, slightly sweet smelling
and highly combustible,” according to the Benzene Information
Center on the web (www.benzeneinfocenter.com). It’s frequently
used in manufacturing rubber, paint, plastics, resins, drugs,
pesticides, synthetics and other products.
Benzene can be found in automobile exhaust, hazardous waste areas,
cigarette smoke, paint fumes — even condoms. It usually
enters the body in one of three ways: skin contact, consumption
of tainted water or food, or inhalation.
“Benzene is everywhere,” said Sharon Wilbur, an environmental
health scientist for the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease
Registry, Division of Toxicology in Atlanta. “You’re
exposed to benzene. I’m exposed. So to try to determine
low level exposure from a specific source is difficult.”
Smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke is “probably the
largest exposure pathway,” said Wilbur, adding that people
are also exposed to benzene while sitting in traffic.
The effects of exposure vary depending on how much is taken in
and over how long a period of time. Short-term exposure to benzene
can cause a person to become confused or sleepy. But long-term
exposure to the contaminant can lead to serious health problems,
such as “Acute Myeloid Leukemia,” a type of cancer
that affects the blood; “Secondary Aplastic Anemia; and
damage to the reproductive system.
A petroleum spill in a water supply is the type of incident that
can lead to long-term exposure. And while determining the root
source of benzene exposure in an individual provides numerous
challenges, establishing the source of contamination in the Colbert
Grove water supply is easier to determine.
It’s Colonial Pipeline.
COLONIAL IN
MADISON COUNTY
The Atlanta-based petroleum transport company has two pipelines
that run through Madison County. These pipelines are 36 and 40
inches in diameter and are made of steel — the 36-inch line
was installed in 1963, the 40-inch line in 1979.
Fuel in these lines gets sped up at 69 “booster stations”
along the Texas to New Jersey route. And one of those booster
stations is a fenced-in facility at the top of a hill at the
end of a narrow dirt road off Colbert Grove Church Road just
south of Danielsville.
That petroleum moves about three to five miles an hour and takes
some “14 to 24 days for a batch to get from Houston, Texas,
to the New York harbor,” according to Colonial’s website.
The company transports 38 different grades of gasoline, seven
grades of kerosene, 16 grades of home heating oil and one grade
of “transmix.”
Click here for the rest of
the story
Burdette files suit against county
Local developer Gerry Burdette has filed
suit against the Madison County Board of Commissioners for the
group’s August denial of his proposed subdivision on 45
acres on Sanders Road.
Burdette sought a rezoning from A-1 to R-1 for a planned 30 to
35 lot subdivision, but his request was unanimously denied by
the county commissioners.
Burdette’s attorney, Victor Johnson, said the denial was
unreasonable.
“The present zoning of the subject property is arbitrary
and capricious and has no rational basis, is not reasonably related
to the public interest and constitutes an abuse of discretion
which unreasonably restricts the development of the subject property,”
wrote Johnson in the suit’s complaint.
Burdette’s proposed lot sizes of three-quarters of an acre
were deemed too small by the BOC, which asked Burdette at the
August meeting if he would agree to increase lot sizes to two
acres, the minimum lot size currently allowed for the property.
Burdette, a BOC-appointed member of the county industrial authority,
told commissioners that he would increase the lot size to one
acre, but maintained that an increase to two acres wouldn’t
be financially feasible. And he said the BOC should look at the
big picture, contending that even though the development is in
a medium density zone under the land use plan, the proposed subdivision
is really in the county’s high-growth area. He told the
board that the area between Hwy. 29 and Hwy. 106 in southern
Madison County is “ideal for residential development.”
Those who opposed the rezoning said there is “already an
excess of available lots” nearby and that adding new homes
will only worsen traffic problems.
In his complaint, Johnson wrote that the BOC has “already
approved applications for rezoning of other similar properties
to R-1 classification with .75-acre lots.” And he listed
five examples.
“Therefore, refusal of the defendants to permit zoning of
the subject property as requested has violated plaintiff’s
rights to equal protection under the United States Constitution
and Constitution of the state of Georgia,” wrote Johnson.
COUNTY ZONING ORDINANCE
UNCONSTITUTIONAL?
The suit is also challenging the Madison County Zoning Ordinance,
contending that the 1993 passage of the ordinance did not meet
advertising guidelines required by law.
“A notice of the Dec. 14, 1993 hearing stating the time,
place and purpose of the hearing was not published within a newspaper
of general circulation within the territorial boundaries of Madison
County at least 15 but not more than 45 days prior to the date
of the hearing,” wrote Johnson. “...Therefore, the
zoning ordinance does not comply with the minimum requirements
for procedural due process, and its enactment is therefore unconstitutional
and the ordinance and any amendments thereto should be declared
void.”
Burdette is asking the court to require the board of commissioners
to rezone the property to R-1 in a reasonable amount of time,
or in the alternative, to declare the entire county zoning ordinance
void because of improper advertising in 1993.
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To read more about the local events in
Madison County, including births, weddings, sports news and school
news, see this week's Madison County Journal.
MainStreet
real estate guide inside
This issue of The Madison County Journal
includes the inaugural edition of a new, local real estate guide,
MainStreet Homes. The initial distribution of this guide will
be over 24,000 copies, 19,000 of which will go out as paid circulation
in The Jackson Herald, The Commerce News, The Banks County News
and The Madison County Journal. It will be published in this
newspaper on the third Wednesday of each month, will be available
at local businesses and will also be viewable online at www.mainstreetnews.com.
“We developed this product for the purpose of reaching local
homebuyers,” said Scott Buffington, advertising director
for MainStreet Newspapers. “Many real estate professionals
tell us that as much as 50-60% of their home-buying prospects
are local people that already live in this community. People
who are wanting to move into larger homes for expanding families
or to relocate to a neighboring town because of jobs or schools.
We realize that there are several good real estate guides in
northeast Georgia but this is the first that focuses primarily
on Banks, Jackson and Madison counties.”
Sales and production of MainStreet Homes is being handled by
publishers Andy and Susan Forde. They can be reached at (770)
480-9227.
Flu shots not
yet available at county health dept.
The Madison County Board of Health announced
Monday that the Madison County Health Department does not have
flu vaccine at this time.
“The situation continues to evolve, and we are not sure
when or if we will receive flu vaccine, or how many doses we
may receive if we get it,” said Wesley Nash, chairman of
the Madison County Board of Health and chairman of the county
commissioners. “We are waiting to find out. The good news
is that there is no reported flu in our community at this time,
so there is no urgency to get the shot. Even getting it as late
as December usually gives you plenty of time for protection.”
If and when available, flu shots will cost $18 or less. The vaccine
will be reserved for people who are at the highest risk for serious
flu complications, following guidelines set by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention:
•People ages 65 or older
•Children ages 6 to 23 months
•Adults and children with chronic health conditions, such
as heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease, asthma, cancer or
HIV/AIDS.
•Women who will be pregnant during flu season
•Residents of nursing homes and long-term care facilities
•Children ages 6 months to 18 years who are on chronic aspirin
therapy
•Healthcare workers involved in direct patient care
•Out-of-home caregivers and household contacts of children
under age 6 months.
The latest flu vaccine information will be posted at www.publichealthathens.com
and will be available on the Public Health Information Line,
1-800-4PD-HELP.
“Please do not call the health department to ask about flu
shots. Our staff has been overwhelmed by the phone calls,”
Nash said. “When we get the vaccine, we will announce flu
shot availability well in advance through the local media.”
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