One of the earlier columns was about Grandpa Gus’ oldest son, Uncle Pope and his business venture founding the Stevens, Martin & Company in Carlton.

Dear Editor: The proposed reduction of the number of seats on the county planning and zoning board does not make good sense.

The Georgia Guidestones were a 42-year-old “who done it?” without the murder, just tons of granite raised into shapes like massive tablets followed by years of “who did this?” and “why?”

My grandfather, who I called Joe-Daddy, was one of the most important and influential people in my early life. He was a partner in the Stevens Martin & Company in Carlton and a gentleman farmer, carrying on the tradition of Walter E. Whitehead, his father and my great-grandfather, who I …

Dear Editor: It was a surprise when our daughter phoned the other morning to tell us that "something was going on" at the Georgia Guidestones. Later we learned that the Guidestones had been severely damaged by a bomb and because of the damage had to be demolished completely.

Plant diseases are often a problem in the home garden, especially during warm, wet weather. Leaf spots, fruit blemishes, wilt, stunted or disfigured growth, and unusual colors can all be symptoms of diseases on vegetable plants. The cause of any plant distress can be narrowed down to two cat…

A number of years ago I worked at a local business establishment that didn't have air-conditioning at that time.

When a player hit a foul ball, a souvenir contest was sure to ensue. I generally stayed out of it. There were French fries to consume that came in miniature Major League helmets, and there were professional ballplayers in front of me. But sometimes I watched the ball rise quickly out of Maco…

Dear Editor: Many thanks to Peggy Perkins (LETTER: Vasectomies, 06/29/2022)! Everything gets dumped on women — by men. It's time they took some real responsibility by altering their own biology for a change. If men don't like that idea, then how about we women deny them the opportunity to ca…

Information regarding the Madison County Charter School System’s budget process has been expressed as a concern. The goal is to provide clarification to ensure the transparency and integrity of our school system’s budget process.

It’s difficult to write about abortion, but it feels negligent not to talk about it this week after Friday’s Supreme Court decision.

As I checked the U.S. Drought Monitor today, something jumped out at me, over 85% of the state of Georgia is labeled at abnormally dry or in moderate drought. Combine that with abnormally high temperatures and little to no rain in the forecast and that is a recipe for some serious weather co…

Dear Editor: Georgia Republican candidates for state and federal office are pledging to ban abortion even in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. Doesn’t matter that 68% of Georgia voters didn’t want Roe v. Wade overturned.

My second great grandfather Whitehead was the Oglethorpe County engineer, surveyor and a county commissioner in the 1800s. He was born 193 years ago in 1829 somewhere in northern Oglethorpe County. His father is buried in the Whitehead — O’Kelly cemetery one mile south of where the Watson’s …

Dear Editor: In Jim Baird's letter to the editor, “Just the facts ma’am,” last week he states that, "Climate alarm bell ringers do not think our weather is 100% controlled by CO2 emissions.”

“I’ll be there licketysplit.”

One of the most difficult ancestors to learn anything about is Aunt Martha’s brother Fred Whitehead. He wasn’t everybody’s uncle but all the stories I heard about him referred to him as “Uncle Fred.” The earlier “cheese” article mentions him. What little we know about him was told and retold…

Dear Editor: It has been a privilege and an honor to serve this county for the last 35 years as a volunteer firefighter, crash rescue, first responder, and for the last 25 years as your deputy coroner.

Dear Editor: Many are saying, “We must do something to reduce the number of murders and mass shootings taking place in our country.” Indeed, something needs to be done. However, before we can know what must be done, we need to identify the source of the problem. The problem cannot be solved …

Dear Editor: I am a long-time reader, and I do appreciate Mark Jenkins’ regular reports about his vigilant observations of the weather.

Dear Editor: The Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee is to guide the process and direction of the comprehensive land use plan from the viewpoint of Madison County’s citizens. It is to be representative of the community, according to the introductory presentation made by Hall Consulting at …

Sometimes being an Extension agent requires me to be a crime scene investigator. I typically get several calls annually from homeowners asking for help in identifying various holes in their landscapes. It’s a classic whodunit: you’ve got holes in your lawn and you need to find out who — or s…

There were bare hands, fists and teeth at the most basic level, then rocks and pointy objects, then fire, poisons, and slingshots and bows and arrows, metal weaponry, then firearms, explosives, gasses. The evolution toward more efficient killing has always been part of humanity and always will be.

Dear Editor: I would like to say thank you to the following churches and business for their generous support of our class of 2022 McKinney-Vento graduates: Anchor Church, Colbert First Baptist Church, Gordon's United Methodist Church, Meadow Baptist Church, Jones Chapel United Methodist Chur…

Dear Editor: I am very unhappy about the permit to discharge wastewater. It is my understanding that the stream that the wastewater will flow into runs through our property, the same stream that I irrigate my garden from.

The Stevens family in Georgia goes back seven generations from me to Joseph Stevens, who came to Oglethorpe County with his mother, Deborah (Johnson) Stevens, from Mecklenburg County, Virginia around 215 years ago; sometime prior to 1805. The first recorded deed we can find is his purchase o…

I remember the quilt pallet my mom laid out for me on the floorboard for the seven-hour trip to Daytona. There were seven of us packed in the car, including my parents, my aunt and uncle, their son, and my baby sister.

May 2022 continued the course of a drier weather pattern for our part of Georgia started back in mid-April.

Dear Editor: To the parents and community members of Madison County. The members of the Madison County Board of Education and Superintendent, Michael Williams, would like to extend our gratitude and appreciation for voting to continue the ESPLOST (one-cent education special purpose local opt…

Sadly, on Friday, November 27, 2020, I was an honorary pallbearer at the funeral of my close friend Turner Harris of Carlton. If you are old enough and from the northeast corner of the county, you know who I am talking about. He was the mail carrier for the 84-mile Carlton, Goose Pond, Vesta…

Aquatic plants are natural and important components of the pond environment. Microscopic plants (algae) form the base of the aquatic food chain. Larger algae and plants provide habitat for fish and food organisms, and all plants produce oxygen as they photosynthesize during the daylight hour…

When it comes to housing, I feel we’re on the other side of rope that was jerked on one end back in 2007-2008 and felt now 15 years later. We had one kind of crisis, and now we have its flip side, a different kind of crisis, but one connected to the first.

Sadly, on Friday, November 27, 2020, I was an honorary pallbearer at the funeral of my close friend Turner Harris of Carlton. If you are old enough and from the northeast corner of the county, you know who I am talking about. He was the mail carrier for the 84-mile Carlton, Goose Pond, Vesta…

Dear Editor: The Madison-Oglethorpe Stream Team (MOST), a group of certified Georgia Adopt-A-Stream volunteers, recently went to a small stream on Waggoner's Grove Church Road to perform monthly water quality monitoring tests.

I saw a headline in Rolling Stone last week that read, “The Buffalo Shooter Isn’t a ‘Lone Wolf.’ He’s a Mainstream Republican.” The headline did its job, and I clicked.

Dear Editor: For the class of 2022, the best advice I can give is to run. It seems that every year when it is time for a new group of young graduates to enter the world, things are getting worse, with this year being no exception. But there is no need to go through the headlines. Everyone kn…

The Madison County Charter School System has grown in so many ways over the past several years, not just in student numbers. We have opened a new high school, added an Early Learning Center, implemented a one-to-one technology initiative and are completing a new transportation facility. Duri…

Dear Editor: The Madison County Charter System’s motto is to graduate independent, productive citizens.

My great uncle George was the first child of Walter Everett Whitehead and Luna May Stevens (Grandpa Gus’ daughter). He died when he was only 50 in 1946, four years before I was born. There were many stories about him but the most prominent one was about his scholastic achievements. He gradua…

May means it is time to celebrate Mental Health Awareness Month. Harmony House Child Advocacy and Sexual Assault Center provides therapeutic services to alleged victims of child abuse and sexual assault. Here at Harmony House, mental health is a very important aspect of the care we give to o…

If you were like me growing up around the farm, you couldn’t wait till you got old enough to have the responsibility of cutting the hay crop. Riding that tractor and mower, smelling that fresh mowed grass, knowing that the livestock were going to enjoy that hay when winter arrived. It became…

There’s the sign with a medieval font that just says “Dentist” next to a small, white building in Monticello, which has always made me chuckle, because I don’t think medieval fonts are a good choice to advertise dentistry — makes me think of pliers and crude instruments. There’s the break in…

Dear Editor: The Madison County Comprehensive Plan is being updated. The Comprehensive Plan is basically a road map for county leadership to use when making decisions about land use and development.

Dear Editor: Primary elections give you, the voter, the opportunity to decide who from a pool of candidates should ultimately be nominated by the political party you align with to run in the general election.

I've been saying for a year or more that we need to get ready for drier and hotter summers than what we've had for the last several years.

Dear Editor: In 2020, concerned citizens of Franklin and Madison County banded together to fight the pollution resulting from burning creosote railway ties at “twin sister” biomass plants near Carnesville and Colbert. Georgia House Rep, Alan Powell (District 32), heard our pleas for help, wr…