Harvesting fresh fruit from your home orchard can be a delicious way to add beauty and taste to your landscape and diet. The best time to plant fruit trees in Georgia is in the fall, according to a University of Georgia expert. “Growing fresh fruit can be rewarding and fun but can also provi…

Dear Editor: I recently watched part of the Georgia State House District 33 candidate online forum hosted by the Madison County Chamber of Commerce. Republican nominee Rob Leverett attended, but Kerry Dornell Hamm, the Democratic candidate, couldn't make it, according to the person who opene…

Dear Editor: I encourage a “Yes” vote on the two amendments and two referendums proposed on this year’s Nov. 3rd ballot.

Dear Editor: The current Republican Board of Commissioners has given us annual tax increases, a dangerously polluting industry, and a very large debt. We don't need yet another tax and spend Republican on the board.

Dear Editor: The leadership of Hartwell Rep. Alan Powell proved crucial as the Georgia House voted to take steps to improve access to healthcare for all Georgians by passing SB 321. This historic legislation removes outdated restrictions on the ability of your Nurse Practitioner (NP) to orde…

My son broke his glasses last week and we sat in a waiting room in Athens to order him another pair. Across from us, a man waited with his 20-something-year-old son. When the son’s name was called, the father stood up, turned his back to his son, who put his hand on his father’s shoulder. Hi…

The onset of cooler temperatures often brings unwanted pests into our homes. Several species of ants look to enter homes during colder weather to overwinter. Also, more pleasant temperatures outside bring people outdoors which can mean more interaction with wasps and yellowjackets. The follo…

Dear Editor: Margie Richards' column of Sept. 23, “Missing Inspiration and Leadership in our Country,” took me back to 1986. I was in surgery at the moment of Challenger's explosion (emergency appendectomy) after going to the emergency room at midnight. Two days later upon walking a bit down…

Dear Editor: An important referendum will be on the ballot in November in addition to the political election. This referendum has been in the works for almost two years and is a good thing for Madison County homeowners over 70. We encourage everyone to vote “Yes” on this referendum, which is…

Dear Editor: (This is an open letter to the Madison County Board of Commissioners.) As a follow up to my email of Aug. 31 to which I’ve received no reply, and further in light of board member statements made at the Sept. 14 BOC meeting, I am reaching out to members of the board once again.

“When the atomic bomb went off, everything in the trench was light. There were no shadows and there was crackling like electricity, the flash, then loud noise and out of the corner of my eyes, large boulders and dust went flying by, overhead tremendous wind. After awhile, they sounded all cl…

I am spending a lot of time at home now, probably more than I ever have since I was a stay-at-home mom with two small children. When I am busy and away from home a lot, it’s always something I look forward to. “Oh just to have a few days at home, with nothing to do, nowhere to go,” I think t…

Dear Editor: This letter is addressed to the person who took my sign supporting Biden-Harris in the upcoming presidential election, the one posted on my property on Hwy. 191.

Dear Editor: So commissioners Theresa Bettis, Brian Kirk and Derek Doster have agreed to revisit the noise ordinance. What took them so long?

Dear Editor: In response to Mr. Jim Baird’s comments in The Madison County Journal Sept. 17 paper. Where have you been for the last 3 1/2 years? You may not like President Trump’s personality, but he has done more positive things for you and me and America than President Obama and Joe did in…

Some educators work with actual kids, while some work with the idea of kids. The two things are quite different, which is sometimes a real problem.

Dear Editor: Frank Ginn doesn't have a public relations problem caused by Georgia Renewable Power (GRP). He has an ethical problem.

Dear Editor: Madison County Little League will be holding their annual board meeting Thursday, Sept. 24 at 7pm. The meeting will be held in the city hall room, at the Colbert Depot.

School has started back, football season is beginning, summer vegetable harvest is coming to an end and temperatures are starting to be more tolerable.

Dear Editor: The evermore rancorous tone of political discourse and the current slash-and-burn tactics of campaigns for office may well clear the ground for new sprouts of hope for a change to non-partisan status of every county level elected office.

Dear Editor: The traditional definition of noise is “unwanted or disturbing sound.” The fact you can’t see, taste or smell it may help explain why it has not received as much attention as other types of pollution such as air or water pollution.

Probably to no one's surprise around here, after our fourth wettest August on record, we have already reached our normal yearly rainfall.

Dear Editor: Like most people, I am sick of all the political calls that came along during the runoff.

Dear Editor: “Loving Our Country” (Sept. 3, by Melissa Tufts) was a very enlightening perspective from our veterans who really know and have lived that love. I always thought that when the year 2020 came around there would be a lot of play on the idea of 20/20 vision, a much sharper and seri…

Change is hard.

There are many pieces of equipment that farmers utilize to distribute either plants, fertilizers or pesticides to their fields and crops.

Dear Editor: Like most people, I am sick of all the political calls that came along during the runoff.

Dear Editor: The issue of noise associated with Georgia Renewable Power (GRP), along with other environmental concerns, has been publicly discussed with members of this board since at least August 2019, correct? Despite this, Commissioners Tripp Strickland, Theresa Bettis, Brian Kirk, and De…

The footage of that huge explosion in Beirut earlier this month was startling and has stuck with me. It looked almost like a nuclear detonation in an urban area.

Dear Editor: This is in response to Carey Davis, Executive Vice President of Georgia Renewable Power (GRP). The citizens of Colbert would appreciate it greatly if you would quit making statements like the ones listed below. It's insulting and infuriating.

Dear Editor: “….in dedication to being a good steward to the community.” This line is from an article by Georgia Renewable Power executive vice president Carey Davis that appeared in the August 20th Madison County Journal.

Dear Editor: My husband and I attended a hearing at the Madison County Government complex Aug. 13. We wore our COVID-19 masks entering the building and for the 1.5 hours we were inside. We were surprised and alarmed that of the approximately ten people working in the building that we interac…

Dear Editor: It is time for rural America to act by contacting our elected officials. My neighbors and I are deeply concerned about the actions of the new Postmaster General of the United States to dismantle and privatize the Postal Service. We feel the U.S. Mail is the lifeblood of us who l…

Dear Editor: I would like to respond to the response that Carey Davis executive vice president for Georgia Renewable Power (GRP) made in his article in the Aug. 13 issue of The Madison County Journal. Davis wrote, "EPD determined that these railroad ties could be burned in a safe and respons…

Pollination, or the transfer of pollen from male to female parts of the same or a different flower, is necessary to produce fruit and seed in many horticultural crops. Somewhere between 75 percent and 95 percent of all flowering plants on the earth need help with pollination — they need poll…

I walked across the living room the other morning and my foot tapped a yellow rubber ball that had rolled out from under something. They seem to be everywhere, painful reminders of a sweet face that is no longer in our home.

My best self is not the person cut off in traffic. When I’m strangling the steering wheel, I’m a different me. I don’t think straight. This is not the person I want to be in this short life.

Dear Editor: I have been voting since 1966, but I have never encountered interference in my exercise of that right until this year of 2020.

Dear Editor: I write in response to the letter by Carey Davis, executive vice president of Georgia Renewable Power (GRP), in the August 13 edition of The Madison County Journal.

I watched my children speed along ahead of us on a trail at Amerson River Park in Macon Sunday, my daughter on a bike, my son on an Ezyroller. I was thinking about watching them go out into the world, and how parenthood is a gradual letting go of control as they move beyond us.

One of the more bizarre aspects of summer weather, particularly here in the South, is the thunderstorm outflow.

Dear Editor: This is in response to concerns expressed by Julie Buffalo.

I saw the recent picture of one of our county commissioners in last week's newspaper and wonder what Federal regulations that group was so happy about dismantling/ deregulating. Our county depends on federal aid for quality of life, water, air, soil, federal monies for schools, EMS, roads an…

Dear Editor: Victory is defined in the Random House Dictionary as follows: 1) A success or triumph over an enemy in battle or war. 2) The ultimate and decisive superiority in any battle or contest. You may have heard that the signing of HB 857 By Governor Kemp on Aug. 4, which bans the burni…

Dear Editor: Over the past several weeks, Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center — like many hospitals across the state and most of the country — has seen an increase in coronavirus (COVID-19) positive patients as well as an increase in overall patient volumes for reasons other than COVID-19.

Dear Editor: I appreciate Michael Hill’s letter about the recent Strickland campaign mailing. Mr. Hill is very generous in his interpretations of this group’s intention. Name calling, fear mongering, and slander are the hallmarks of small minded, poorly informed groups through out time. A be…

Dear Editor: Zach Mitcham’s “What Now?” article in the July 30th Madison County Journal (MCJ) about GRP was incredibly revealing about the true character and intent of the owners and management at Georgia Renewable Power (GRP). Steve Dailey, GRP President, and David Groves, plant manager, so…

Dear Editor: This letter is in response to The Madison County Journal July 30 article, What Now? Power company Georgia Renewable Power (GRP), residents wait for action from Gov. Kemp on HB 857.

Dear Editor:

I’m sitting on the front porch, and I broke my own rule: I brought my phone out here. When I sit outside in the evening, I know a phone shouldn’t be a part of that. It kind of defeats the purpose, but here I am, thumb-typing a column.