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closeWe mark time not just by a clock or calendar, but by events.
And for many in Middle Georgia, 2008 will be remembered as the year of the Mother’s Day tornado.
The economic downturn may affect more people and a historic election will surely hold greater sway, but few things say 2008 in the midstate like twisted pine trees and blue tarps covering homes in south Macon.
Nothing else came close to being the local story of the year in The Telegraph’s annual poll of newsroom reporters and editors.
Layoffs at the hospital, a summer of violence in Macon’s streets, massage parlor raids, big political visits and an end — maybe — to the investigations of City Hall finances are all a part of what we were in 2008.
1. Mother Nature lashes out on Mother’s Day
Packing winds of 130 mph, a tornado ripped through the Macon area in the pre-dawn hours of Mother’s Day.
South Macon homes were chewed up. Massive trees crushed roofs. Storms spawned other tornadoes across Middle Georgia.
The neighborhoods around Lake Tobesofkee were hit hard. Bibb County’s tree canopy was decimated. At Macon State College, officials said 90 percent of the trees were gone.
A Laurens County couple, Tracey and Lisa Clements, died after a tornado hit their mobile home. Miraculously, the two grandchildren inside were not hurt.
In the final tally, government surveyors listed 97 Bibb County homes destroyed. Statewide, insurance companies doled out about $125 million for damages. Debris cleanup took months. Snapped tree trunks will remain for years.
But maybe we were lucky.
A storm tore off a church top in Dry Branch. A few hours later, the church would have been full.
A sleeping Eisenhower Parkway was ravaged by some of the highest winds. A few hours later, thousands would have been on the road.
Across the midstate, those in Mother Nature’s path reported waking up, then huddling with their families as the fury passed above.
“I grabbed (my grandson),” Brenda Walton said in the aftermath of the storm. “I ran through and grabbed the other one. The roof lifted off in the bedroom, and I ran into the closest closet. We stayed in the closet and I held the door until it passed,” she said.
Her house was among those destroyed.
2. Economic hard times take their toll
Times were tough all over in 2008, including here in Middle Georgia.
Jobless rates soared by year’s end. Two major midstate employers cut more than 600 jobs. Retail stores closed. Even the YMCA in Houston County shut its doors.
When fuel prices skyrocketed during the summer — climbing above $4 per gallon — the local tourism industry took a hit. From July through September, traffic to both Convention and Visitors Bureau visitors centers in Bibb County was down 14 percent, while convention business was down about 33 percent.
The news only got worse.
In October, the Rheem air conditioner plant in Milledgeville and The Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon had major layoffs. In November, electronics retailer Circuit City announced it would not open its new store at The Shoppes at River Crossing in north Bibb County and that it planned to close existing locations in Macon and Warner Robins. Meanwhile, the Goody’s clothing store at Macon’s Eisenhower Crossing shopping center also said it would close.
The economy’s downturn also delayed construction of the Kumho tire plant in Bibb County. The Korean-based company had planned to open a $225 million plant in late 2009, but officials said the project would be delayed nine to 12 months.
A snapshot of the times might have come in the wee hours of the morning in mid-December, when more than 800 people braved the cold outside a Macon church, hoping to sign up for government help in paying their heating bills. More than 500 were turned away.
3. Hospitals feel the pain
With both the hospital industry and economy ailing, Bibb County’s largest employer, The Medical Center of Central Georgia, cut 208 jobs to help trim operating costs. Meanwhile, another midstate hospital borrowed money to stay afloat, while a third shut its doors for good.
The cuts at The Medical Center came in October and were said to have been spread evenly throughout the hospital. Eighteen management jobs — about 15 percent of the hospital’s leadership — were eliminated.
The move was part of restructuring and cost-cutting efforts aimed at reducing expenses by about $33 million. Officials said a task force studying the strategic performance initiative had actually identified $43 million in expenses to be cut.
The hospital said the cuts were needed due to shrinking operating margins, flat patient volumes, state budget cuts and the poor condition of financial markets. Before the cuts, The Medical Center employed about 4,700.
Strapped for cash, Peach County Hospital borrowed money from the county commission and in October received a $112,500 advance on county funding to cover indigent care costs. The hospital authority had said it needed as much as $2 million to stay in operation. The county commission loaned the hospital $380,000 to pay preconstruction costs on a new replacement hospital planned in Byron.
In McRae, Telfair Regional Hospital closed in April after the county commission there refused to loan $500,000. The facility served about 15,000 patients each year. The not-for-profit hospital finished 2007 with a $2 million deficit.
4. Feds find problems with Macon grant
Questions about financial controls during former Macon Mayor Jack Ellis’ administration came back to bite the city this year to the tune of $315,000.
That’s how much the U.S. Attorney’s Office forced the city to pay back this year from a $1 million “Safe Schools Initiative” grant the city used during Ellis’ tenure to run children’s programs through area churches.
A few details filtered out as the Justice Department spent nearly three years investigating this grant, and possibly other city spending. But for the most part, U.S. Attorney Max Wood and other department officials wouldn’t say specifically about what went wrong.
The Safe Schools Initiative was marred by poor record keeping and a limited understanding of how the money was supposed to be used. Wood said there was no proof of outright theft, but there were just enough questions about the money to ask for some of it back.
The city, with new Mayor Robert Reichert, agreed to take the hit after negotiations with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and threats of a lawsuit. There are no plans to seek a refund from any of the churches involved, which Reichert has described as innocent in the matter.
5. Gun violence escalates
The sound of public concern echoed for weeks following a spate of summer shootings highlighted on Aug. 24, a single day when six shootings were reported to Macon police. In all, police were busy dealing with at least a dozen shootings — three of them fatal — from late August to early September.
Two people were killed in the Aug. 24 shootings.
Shane Davis, 29, was fatally shot while driving near the Interstate 16 and Interstate 75 split at 4:42 a.m. that day. About an hour later, 37-year-old Michael Gibson was shot on Pansy Avenue near Mercer University Drive.
Then, in early September, 13-year-old Edonis Howard was accidentally shot and killed by a teenage relative, police said.
Authorities and city leaders searched for ways to curb the violence. The local chapter of the NAACP suggested imposing a curfew, and a city councilman suggested calling in the National Guard. A special task force to investigate the shootings was expanded from 19 to 42 officers.
6. Police raid Macon massage parlors
A series of summer raids targeted 11 Macon-area massage parlors and spas that police suspected of being houses of prostitution.
Conducted in three phases between late June and mid-August by Macon police officers and Bibb County sheriff’s deputies, the raids resulted in the arrests of more than 20 men and women on various sex charges.
The incidents aroused the city’s conscience and divided it.
Business owners keeping shop near the parlors voiced an image-driven complaint: The stigma of the local industry would cause a decline in area commerce.
Licensed massage therapists feared the unraveling of their professional standard.
“I meet somebody out, or they see the sign on my car, and it’s, ‘Ohhh, you do massage. I see those places around. Wink, wink,’” said Melissa Walsh Hamlin, who owns a therapy practice specializing in sports massage.
There were people who called the businesses harmless and the raids unnecessary.
Most of the employees arrested were young Asian women, who appeared to be living at parlors that an older woman managed.
Macon City Councilman Erick Erickson led a front of human rights advocates who condemned the businesses as midstate posts for sex slavery and human trafficking. Macon police received training from an Atlanta-based nonprofit social service agency on recognizing the signs.
To date, there haven’t been any legal charges that trafficking has happened in Macon.
Months later, most of the parlor doors are closed — some boarded up with wood planks — showcasing nothing more than bare storefronts and blank neon lights.
7. Middle Georgia visited by political heavyweights
This year’s presidential election brought a slew of political faces to Middle Georgia.
Former President Bill Clinton was the first to arrive in January to stump for his wife, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, at Mercer University. About one week later, Democratic presidential candidates John Edwards and Barack Obama visited Middle Georgia simultaneously. Edwards rallied supporters in Dublin while Obama preached unity at a south Macon church.
In February, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee visited downtown Macon and brought with him martial arts icon and actor Chuck Norris, a Huckabee supporter.
Other races brought out high profile supporters as well. In June, Vice President Dick Cheney came to Perry for a private fundraiser for Rick Goddard, a Republican who hoped to unseat U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall, D-Macon, in the 8th Congressional District.
The year was capped off with a visit to Perry from Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who gained instant celebrity status as the vice presidential running mate to Republican presidential nominee John McCain. Palin helped rally the vote for the re-election of U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss.
8. Bishop ousted as Bibb commission chairman
Voters turned Bibb County Commission Chairman Charlie Bishop out of office in November in a hard-fought race with former Commissioner Sam Hart.
Hart, who already had 10 years of experience on the commission, took 60 percent of the vote. He rejoins the commission Jan. 1 after leaving his District 1 post in 2007 because he moved out of the district.
Both candidates competed hard for endorsements and money during the campaign, each racking up a who’s-who list of contributors.
Bishop, a Republican, earned endorsements from top Republican brass, including Gov. Sonny Perdue, who came to town for a Bishop fundraiser. Hart, a Democrat, had endorsements of his own, including Macon Mayor Robert Reichert and Theron Ussery, Bishop’s Republican challenger in the primary.
Combined, both candidates raised more than $130,000.
This ends a total of eight years in office — four as chairman and four as District 4 commissioner — for Bishop.
9. Macon mayor fails to annex chunk of county
Robert Reichert’s first major initiative as Macon’s new mayor was a bold one.
Reichert proposed annexing 26 square miles from surrounding Bibb and neighboring Jones counties into the city. The proposal also would have added about 13,300 new residents, according to figures from the 2000 U.S. census.
The annexation would have nearly doubled Macon’s geographical size and added an estimated $4.4 million in annual revenue to the city’s coffers. Reichert, however, said the plan was about more than money. A stronger, more stable Macon would benefit the entire region, he said.
The mayor’s plan met heavy opposition from the public and cool indifference from county leaders and state lawmakers, and the proposal died.
10. The Shoppes at River Crossing opens
Light rain and chilly, stiff March winds canceled a skydiving demonstration but failed to keep away hundreds of shoppers who turned out for the grand opening of The Shoppes at River Crossing in north Bibb County.
The sprawling, 750,000-square-foot open-air shopping center was billed as the biggest economic development in Bibb in the past three decades. Anchored by department stores such as Dillard’s and Belk, the center offers dozens of retail shops and restaurants, including Barnes & Noble Booksellers and Bonefish Grill restaurant. More than a dozen of the businesses there are new to the Macon area.
The shopping center’s development hit a snag this fall when Circuit City filed for bankruptcy and announced it would not open its store at River Crossing. The electronics retailer had planned to relocate from its Eisenhower Parkway location. Construction on the new building was already complete.
Telegraph staff writers Travis Fain, Rodney Manley, Ashley Tusan Joyner, Jennifer Burk and Amy Leigh Womack contributed to this report.
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