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closeNot everyone in Macon will be watching Tuesday as President-elect Barack Obama is sworn into office, officially becoming the nation’s 44th and first black president.
It seems some Bibb County parents took offense to schools wanting to show their children the live inauguration during valuable learning time.
“We have some parents who do not want their child/children to view the oath of office and inaugural address as they do not feel it is an educational activity,” according to a central office e-mail that was sent to Bibb County school principals Thursday.
Diana Rodgers, Bibb’s deputy superintendent of teaching and learning, said Friday the actual number of complaints were few, but the school system wanted to be proactive.
Parents who object are to contact their child’s principal. All principals were asked to provide a location for these students to gather and have an appropriate educational activity for them to do while others watch the inauguration.
Courthouse location remained secret for six months
Bibb County commissioners were able to keep the new courthouse location under wraps for six months as they went about acquiring property in downtown Macon.
Commissioners, the clerk, the county attorney and Conie Mac Darnell, who is acquiring the property, were the only ones who knew about the location, which was discussed in meetings closed to the public, Commissioner Elmo Richardson told the Telegraph’s editorial board Thursday.
Georgia law allows public officials to close meetings when discussing property acquisition. Richardson said commissioners hoped to buy the property at fair market value, not inflated prices that might have resulted had word gotten out they were looking in a specific area.
The commission plans to spend $3.1 million to purchase property between the county jail and the Department of Family and Children Services on Oglethorpe Street in Macon. That amount also includes the purchase of the Macon Transitional Center on Second Street, and about $1.6 million already has been spent.
The new courthouse location was made public Wednesday.
The little things that matter
State Rep. Doug Collins has returned from his post in Iraq, and he took his seat Friday in the Georgia House of Representatives.
The Gainesville Republican spent the past 4 1/2 months serving overseas as a chaplain in the Air Force Reserves. From the well of the House, he said he was struck by the change in surroundings.
One day you see nothing but concrete barricades surrounding you. A week later you’re walking marble floors at the Capitol and sipping coffee with state leaders.
In a rare moment for the House, the entire chamber fell silent to listen as Collins, his voice wavering, spoke on the importance of “the little things” in life.
He said e-mails served as “daily reminders of a world far away” during his tour.
“It was always a pretty good day when I saw some e-mails,” he said, thanking three House members who wrote him routinely.
“And to the rest of you, believe me, there’s something to be said about an e-mail,” Collins said. “Maybe you need to find somebody that you haven’t talked to in a while and send them an e-mail.”
Cairo: Now safe from explosion
Buried within the more than $2 billion in budget cuts Gov. Sonny Perdue has recommended this year is an odd little item: “Remove one-time funds provided in fiscal 2007 to construct a bomb shelter in Cairo.”
Egads! Has the Cold War begun again? Has the state dismantled a north Florida plot to bomb lovely Cairo, Ga., and thus avoided the need to build an emergency shelter for the citizenry?
Alas, as it often is in state government, the answer is less interesting. The line item refers to a “shelter” that houses a GBI bomb squad truck, according to state Rep. Gene Maddox, who represents Cairo and much of the surrounding area in deep south Georgia.
The state has about seven bomb-dismantling robots, Maddox said. One of them, as well as the truck that delivers it, is stored in a building in Cairo.
But there remains some intrigue behind this deleted $60,000 line item.
“I thought it had already been paid,” Maddox said. “The shelter’s been built for two years.”
That’s H-O-E
Grumbling at a committee meeting this week about officials wanting to purchase a backhoe with too many bells and whistles — as in an air-conditioned cab with AM/FM radio — Macon City Council Appropriations Chairman Mike Cranford wondered aloud why an “extendahoe” had been added to the deal.
Before anyone could provide a suitable response, a loud guffaw erupted from Councilwoman Nancy White, and soon most of the room was chuckling. Evidently, the term’s homophonic resemblance to a lady of the night was just a little too much for them.
“I’m just reciting the language, folks,” Cranford protested. “Children...”
Telegraph staff writers Matt Barnwell, Julie Hubbard, Jennifer Burk and Travis Fain contributed to this report.
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