MY MOTHER JUST MOVED out of one of the apartments where a murder recently happened in Albany. It infuriates me to know that she could have so easily been in the victim here. To any criminals who are reading this: Stop breaking into our homes. Stop robbing and stealing. Stop using drugs. If that fails, kill yourself. We don’t need you at all.
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I THINK THIS YEAR’S big local stories will be (no particular order): 1) ADICA, Al Lott, and the government sponsored programs at taxpayer’s expense. Are we really going to see PRIVATE hard earned money spent downtown? 2) The DCTPA and their litigation, and also their involvement in local affairs. 3) The School Board fiasco. Also, did anybody really ever find out what happened to the lunchroom millions that went missing? 4) The CRCT Cheating Scandals (keep monitoring this). 5) The APD. Period (Always monitor them) 6) WG&L and their potential increases and the way the city uses their reserve money. 7) The city bus transfer station (Mr. John Sherman’s lawsuit. This project should be built where the old Greyhound station sits today) 
The budgets — city, county, board of education 9) The local economy and housing market 10) Is there another SPLOST vote coming up? If so, I’m against. SPLOST funds projects that require future taxpayer bailouts!
Potential Bright Spots: 1) Look at all the fundraisers in the local community. Albany is a generous community. Look at the local civic clubs too. 2) Possibly the Albany Fire Department 3) The area arts council
4) Possibly the Sheriff’s Office (Sherriff Kevin Sproul) 5) Our community oriented neighborhoods like Lake Park, Rawson Circle Garden District (historic), Stonebridge, Hidden Lakes, Woodland (historic), and others. 6) Conventions and events that come to town like The Snicker’s Marathon and Quail Unlimited. 7) The Tea Party movement growing in Albany! Private schools 9) Dixie Youth Baseball, Little League Baseball, and other local youth sports. 10) The Thronateeska Heritage Foundation 11) Free indigent health care that Phoebe Putney provides annually. Not sure if this is a bright spot in the overall perception of things for Albany. Brings more indigents to our area as well. 12) Lee County and their local government not acting like ours. Chairman Ed Duffy was one of my city league football coaches in Albany back in the early 1980’s. I hope he keeps Lee County government lean and mean. 13) MCLB, P&G, etc. 14) Find someone for the old Merck Plant, Cooper Tires, etc.
Things I’d like to see addressed or changed: 1) I’d like more accountability and lower millage rates from the city, county, and board of education. The millage rate is the real issue. The assessments are secondary. 2) Phoebe and Palmyra to get along and do what’s best for Albany and SW Georgia. Both hospitals are true assets in my opinion. 3) Keep WG&L rates and fees for customers as low as possible with no increases. 4) A new Pony League-Dixie Boys baseball park in NW Albany. 5) New Minor League baseball park somewhere in southern Lee County or NW Albany. If you build it in the correct family friendly area they will come. Like it or not Paul Eames and downtown won’t attract the baseball fans that will sustain the minor league franchise. 6) I’d like the school system to go back to getting out on Memorial Day weekend and going back to school after Labor Day weekend. This would probably be a state issue. Give the kids a three-month vacation. Let them out of the schools of indoctrination for 3 months! Kids need time to explore and live freely for a certain amount of time each school year. This will help them be innovators and entrepreneurs one day. 7) Local cuts to programs and salaries that aren’t effective at the city, county, and school board of education. No more recruiting public school kids to local private schools for athletic reasons. The local public high school athletes control the four major high schools already. 9) Crime issues and make sure the local police agencies are reporting accurate crime stats. 10) Less local government 11) More small businesses opening. Keep the city and county from being hostile towards taxpaying small business owners. I know they’re not friendly right now. 12) No more duplexes, apartments, or any other rental properties being built. This includes HUD and other government housing. Albany is overflowing with rentals! We need ownership in our community. 13) The local chamber of commerce to promote and focus on the small business community. Bringing Call Tech Center like jobs to Albany is not helping our community. We need more white collar jobs. We need to focus on real high tech sector jobs and small businesses. We need to bring back our best college graduates to Albany. 14) New mayor and vote out local politicians on a regular basis. This will help our tax money from getting looted by ethical and unethical politicians. 15) Of course promote Albany. You know the spill. 16) More local history books.
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PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU keep the DCPTA and other groups or individuals in the news as much as possible. These folks are the only people challenging our corrupt local government.
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AS A FORMER EMPLOYEE of FedEx in Valdosta, where Gary Acker was also a manager: He was not a bad guy but wasn’t always the fairest either. He knows how to make a worker’s life really bad if you crossed him, didn’t make your numbers, or got sick or hurt on the job. He was good to work for as long as your nose was brown. Are there any cameras in Albany? Might just want to consider investing in them.
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MY HEART GOES OUT to all “at will” employees who are subjected to a right-to-work for less and a right-to-work without rights. I well remember what it felt like to be forced to endure abuse and mistreatment, in addition to performing my job assignment, in order that I may remain gainfully employed. Thankfully, I’ve discovered there is a better way to make ends meet. The work, itself, is just as difficult and demanding, but the environment is safer and less hostile, the job security is more comforting, the benefits are much more rewarding, even the wage is greater, as is morale and productivity. While it’s true that my employer is in direct competition with Fed-Ex, it doesn’t mean that I don’t give a flip about their employees, whether I know them by name; they are neighbors in my community and members of my Church; whom I count as friends. Must Fed-Ex mistreat my friends, neighbors and Church family in order to remain competitive in a market so large that all businesses in that sector can barely keep pace with the growth. Are we honestly in a RACE TO THE BOTTOM with each other? For if we are, you can win. “Do not oppress the hired laborer, who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your people or one of the sojourners in your land within your gates. Give him his wages in the daytime, and do not let the sun set on them, for he is poor, and his life depends on them, lest he cry out to God about you, for this will be counted as a sin for you.” – Deuteronomy 24:14-15
