About Author: khogencamp

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WhatCha-Say?

– May 22, 2012Posted in: WhatCha-Say?

 

 

THIS IS ONE for the books this morning. I was unfriended on FB by a city of Albany department head due to my benign comment about the lawnmower being left out by the road yesterday. Apparently he hasn’t lived here very long and doesn’t read the newspaper. If he is going to live here, he had better toughen up! We had a rental on Madison. The entire house was stripped of wiring, plumbing, appliances, a car, everything in the garage, even the mantles around the fireplaces. I DO know what I’m talking about.

 

THE ABUSES AND fraud in the welfare system should always be reported; however my observations are that these programs are always backlogged, whether it be administrative or investigations. I doubt that reporting these things will, in any way, slow down the paper mill and folks stamping them.

 

YOU ARE CORRECT, things are totally out of control and greed from the folks getting the benefits and merchants with no scruples will do us in. And there are too many votes in play for politicians to do more than keep feeding the fire. No one in a position to do anything about it seems willing to even try.

 

HOW IS IT that Joshua Murfree still has a job? If I pulled half of what he and Kenneth Goseer have tried to pull, I’d be standing in an unemployment line, begging for a new job.  It’s ridiculous that this is allowed to continue…and we’re expected to pay for it!

 

COACH LOWE REPRESENTS what education used to be in Albany. Yes, a feel good story for sure. One of the problems with getting older is we remember the past which was so different from what we now see, schools being a prime example.

 

ARE YOU ARMED and willing to use such force to defend your home in the event of an invader?

 

FOR NOW, I do not go to the door unless I am expecting someone and I will peek out and make sure it is who I expect. But you are not safe walking to the mailbox or taking out the trash in the wild west Albany has become.

 

 

 

Tags: Public comments, WhatCha-Say?
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The idiocy must end

– May 22, 2012Posted in: Outlook

 

 

 

It’s past time for the idiocy in the Dougherty County School System to come to an abrupt and sudden end.  In recent weeks, we’ve had a whistle-blower program that’s all but guaranteed to eliminate legitimate whistleblowing, a school system that pays the bond for a student arrest on school grounds, an assistant superintendent who expected the DCSS police chief to clear arrests with the superintendent’s office, and a superintendent who seems intent to run the school system in the ground.

A very old newspaper article uncovered by the Journal’s own Betty Rehberg reported the Dougherty County School System was among the most respected in the state and was reported to be made up of people “of the utmost integrity.”  Just proof that change isn’t always good.

Regardless, it’s time for some actual good change.  Dr. Joshua Murfree assumed the position of superintendent amongst a pile of controversy.  He was ranked poorly among the potential candidates, yet managed to get the job under accusations of cronism due to undisclosed relationships with members of the Dougherty County School Board.

Last week, his assistant superintendent, Kenneth Goseer, seemed oblivious to reality as board member Carol Tharin questioned his decision to pay the bond on a student arrested by the DCSS police department.  DCSS attorney Tommy Coleman had already declared Goseer’s actions as illegal.

Unfortunately, Goseer was about as clueless as an official could be.  He claimed that his actions were fine.  When Tharin pointed out that Goseer wasn’t an attorney, he fired back, “Neither are you!”

Of course she isn’t.  However, she was working under the assumption – a correct assumption I might add – that Tommy Coleman, an attorney, knew what he was talking about.

Murfree’s tenure as Dougherty County School superintendent needs to come to an abrupt and sudden end if there is going to be a prayer in hell of Albany becoming more than a ghost town in the making. Education factors importantly in any decision a business can make.  Either they want an educated workforce before they want to relocate, or they want quality schools for employees who relocate to a new community.

Murfree has clearly shown a complete and total lack of leadership ability.  Instead, we hear reports of micromanagement, and anyone with even a partially functioning brain can see that there is a profound inability to get anything right.

In reality, the only scandal that he can truly claim innocence on was the CRCT cheating scandal.  That occurred under Sally Whatley’s tenure.  Yet, despite the fact that there was no way he would be implicated, he still managed to act like he had something to hide.

Let’s end the idiocy, and let’s end the insanity.  Murfree, and his chief flunky Kenneth Goseer, need to be put out to pasture so we can find a superintendent who will restore the luster of a bygone era to the Dougherty County School System.

 

 

Tags: Carol Tharin, CRCT cheating scandal, cronism, DCSS, Dougherty County School System, Dr. Joshua Murfree, Kenneth Goseer, Outlook, Sally Whatley, Tom Knighton, Tommy Coleman, whistle-blower program
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Be on the look out for: Leroy Eugene Taylor (Wanted Person)

– May 21, 2012Posted in: Crime, Headlines

 

 

FROM: Detective Kandace Hird APD Investigation Division
DATE: May 21, 2012

SUBJECT: Leroy Eugene Taylor (Wanted Person)

The Albany Police Department’s Investigations Division would like to solicit the public’s assistance with locating the following person:

B/M Leroy Eugene Taylor –  Last known address: 2573 Crescent Dr.  Albany, Ga.

This offender is wanted for Aggravated Assault, Rape, Aggravated Stalking, Burglary, and Battery.

Anyone who has information regarding this incident should call Crime Stoppers at (229) 436-TIPS or they can contact Albany Police Department Investigative Division at (229) 431-3288.
 


Tags: crime, Wanted
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Obituaries

– May 21, 2012Posted in: Obituaries

 

 

Katie McMillan Gunter, 67

Katie McMillan Gunter, 67 of Albany died Sunday May 20, 2012 at Willson Hospice House.

Funeral services will be Thursday 11 a.m. at Kimbrell-Stern. Rev. Greg Davis will be officiating. Entombment will follow at Crown Hill Mausoleum Chapel.

A native of Nashville, Ga. Mrs. Gunter has lived most of her life in Albany where she was a member of Central Baptist Church and owner of The Tax Shop. Mrs. Gunter’s passion was travel, and she loved taking her grandkids to the beach. She loved to work in her yard and prided herself on keeping an immaculate yard. Mrs. Gunter was known for being very independent, social and having an outgoing personality. Most of all, she will always be remembered for the love and dedication she gave to her daughter and grandchildren.

Survivors include her daughter, Haley G. King of Albany, grandchildren, Mason and Savannah King of Albany, brother, E.D. McMillan of Nashville, Ga. and sister, Emma Jean Hendley of Tifton, Ga..

The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service at Kimbrell-Stern.

Those desiring, may make memorial to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research
Grand Central Station P.O. Box 4777 New York, N.Y. 10163-4777

An online guestbook is at www.kimbrellstern.com.

 

 

Tags: deaths, Obituaries
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Workless Wednesdays

– May 21, 2012Posted in: Amanda Denton, Columns

 

 

So in an effort to be more regular around here, I’ve upped my fiber intake (thank you Jamie Lee Curtis) and instituted things like Monday’s Mail and today’s offering, Workless Wednesdays.
Don’t worry, the cutesy alliteration is making me just as nauseated as you, but it is what it is.

So, what is Workless Wednesday’s you might ask? Well, simply, it’s where I’ll post about jobs that I have applied for in my many years of unemployment and have been denied; oh and one where I’m pretty sure I delivered drugs. With some the denial was a bit harsher than others and some, let’s be honest, I had no business applying for in the first place.

I’ve never been one for saving the best for last so let’s start off with a bang.

In a particularly low moment, I opened the paper and found what seemed like a great employment opportunity. I would be outside, with other people, in one of the greatest places on earth, could stretch the situation and call myself a member of a great baseball team’s “organization”. Really the only downside to this job was, really, the job itself.

But I applied anyway. I needed a job. I needed an income. Wishes and hopes don’t buy toilet paper, or pay the water bill and without those two things, life sort of sucks.

Waited to hear back. Waited and waited and waited. Finally after a week or two of waiting, I gave the contact number a call. Introduced myself, said I was calling to check that they had received my application with resume attached and they said they had indeed received it. Of course at this point I was so desperate for gainful employment (let’s hearken back to the toilet paper) that what little adherence to etiquette I’d had before had pretty much disappeared so I figured while I had the guy on the phone I’d just go ahead and ask him what he thought my chances of actually getting the job were.

“Well I have to say, I don’t think we’ve ever had anyone include a resume when applying for this job before.”

“Oh no? Well I’m in a bit of a groove with applying for jobs so I probably just included it out of habit. So listen, thanks for considering me and I look forward to hearing from you soon.”
(I went ahead and used a period at the end of that sentence but in reality there was a definite lift at the end of soon that pretty much meant “for the love of god will you please give me at least a little hope, even if it is completely false?”)

The poor guy let out a long sigh and in the most apologetic voice said, “See here’s the thing, I really don’t think you are qualified for the job. That’s to say, I don’t know that you would really find fulfillment in the job. I’m sure there is another job out there that you are much more suited for than this one.”

I choked back my tears and heartache, all while quickly trying to calculate how much toilet paper I had left for the rest of the month and managed to eke out a “Oh, okay. Thanks so much. You’re right. Maybe scraping bird poop isn’t the best job for me right now.”

That’s right folks, the job was SCRAPING BIRD POOP FROM SEATS!

I applied for a job to scrap the copious amounts of bird poop from the seats and railings and basically every surface of a baseball stadium.

And I didn’t get the job.

Who knows what my life would look like now had I gotten that job? I think enough time has passed that I could conceivably be the head poop scraper. I could be entrenched in poop scraping middle management. Waking up every morning ready to face another day of poop.

But instead I sit here and write poop about my mail and jobs I didn’t get.

Apparently I’m qualified for that job.

Amanda Denton

Tags: Amanda Denton
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Voters should decide Consolidation

– May 21, 2012Posted in: Columns, Jim Wilcox


 

We hope Commissioners will finally allow voters to decide the City / County Consolidation, issue, as one obvious answer to our budget shortfall.

The City now struggles with financial problems, which may mean a 1.33 mil tax increase for property owners.  City Manager James Taylor says he can balance the budget without a tax increase, but they must find $2 million somewhere else to do that.

Even city leaders, including our new Mayor, agree with us, they should not be subsidizing our budget with  MEAG dollars. Those dollars expire in 2018, creating a $3 million annual shortfall.

Ward 4 commissioner Roger Marietta suggests a task force to consider eliminating duplication of services. This study has been completed for years!

Beginning in 2003, two study commissions spent years and thousands of dollars looking into the savings of combining Albany and Dougherty County governments and services and decided it should go to the voters.

Duplications were clearly identified in: finance, information technology, procurement, human resources, fleet maintenance, and police departments.

Again in 2008,  the Dougherty County Grand Jury was unanimous among the 23 community representatives, in public presentments, saying:

“The citizens of Dougherty County have the right and are qualified to determine the form of government that will represent them now and in the future”.

Also, the Chamber of Commerce, representing all our local businesses, voted to support our right to vote on this issue.

But then the vote of a few arrogant Commissioners’ , completely dismissed all  these efforts. Commissioners attempted to give an explanation for their vote to the media. One even said that: you the voters, are not bright enough to understand the complexities of the charter issue.   Don’t you believe that for a minute.

Let’s remind them, that in recent years, one City Commissioner went to prison and one County Commissioner pled guilty to theft by taking.

If the voters are wise enough to keep themselves out of prison, they are wise enough to vote on consolidation.

 

Prom Dress Code

 

Lee County High made national news recently, with its prom dress code.

The school enacted and enforced rules that prevented teen girls from wearing plunging necklines and super-short dresses.

While some disagree with the policy, we think it’s appropriate.

But the burden shouldn’t be on the school to make sure teen girls aren’t “showing it all.”

Where are the parents?

Mothers, fathers, any adult guardian should make sure a teen is appropriately dressed, before he or she leaves the house.

And this doesn’t just apply to proms!

Come on, adults.

Set a good example, and reinforce in your child that she doesn’t have to dress trashy to have a good time, make friends, or be accepted.

Class trumps trash any day!

 

Jim Wilcox1Written by Jim Wilcox, general manager of WALB.

Tags: Albany City Commission, chamber of commerce, City Manager James Taylor, consolidation, Dougherty County Commission, Dougherty County government, Dress Code, Jim Wilcox, MEAG Funding, Prom, roger marietta, WALB
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VINTAGE ALBANY- Baseball and Albany

– May 21, 2012Posted in: Betty Rehberg, Headlines, Vintage Albany


 

The game of baseball became a craze in the US by the mid 1850’s when it was introduced in New York. Baseball has a long history with Albany as well. Going back at least to the 1870’s when Albany had the D. E. Smith ball club.  One of Albany’s early baseball parks was out near the site of the current airport and was even used in 1911 to land the very first airmail plane in the US. The first minor baseball league this writer has been able to find in Albany was in 1906. The Georgia State League in Albany played such teams as the Americus Pallbearers, the Columbus/Brunswick River Snipes, Cordele, Valdosta Stars and the Waycross Machinists. E. D. Alexander of Albany is the only team member mentioned and no statistics have been found as of this writing.

By 1911 Albany had a team in the South Atlantic League, also called the “SALLY” league. The team was called the Albany Babies. The Albany Babies played through 1916. Erskine Mayer played for the Albany Babies in 1911. Mayer went on to a career in Major League Baseball playing for Philadelphia Phillies, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Chicago White Sox.

There was a ten year gap between leagues, at which time the new team called the Albany Nuts (Southeastern League) was formed. The Albany Nuts played from 1926-1928. The Albany Nuts team was managed by Thomas Law (Rebel) McMillan. McMillan had played Shortstop and Centerfield for Superbas/Red/Highlanders from 1908-1912.

According to the Albany Dixie Website, it was sometime during this time period, in 1923, that “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, of the “Black Sox Scandal” of 1919,  played for the  Americus, Ga. independent minor league baseball team which played games against the Albany Nutcrackers. The scandal involved 8 members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of trying to “fix” the World Series. Though acquitted, Jackson was not allowed to return to MLB.

This writer has been unable to determine if the Albany Nuts changed their name to the Albany Nutcrackers or if this was a different team. The Americus team and the Albany Nut Crackers played each other for the independent South Georgia League championship.  John “Jack” Slappey of the Albany Nut Crackers pitched against Shoeless Joe Jackson and his famous bat “Black Betsy” in the championship series. Also according to the Albany Dixie Website, John Slappey may have been the first player in Major League Baseball history from Albany.

By 1935 Albany had a new team, the Albany Travelers. The travelers played the Americus Cardinals, Moultrie Steers and other teams. By 1939 the Americus Cardinals had moved to Albany. The Albany Cardinals, a St. Louis Cardinals minor league baseball team of the Class D Georgia-Florida League played their first game in Albany in 1939. The first games were played at the old field just off Monroe Street. The team soon moved to Hugh Mills Memorial Stadium. By 1949 the team had moved once again to the newly constructed Cardinal Park, which was located just north of the old Victory Club on Newton Road.  Cardinal Park was constructed at a cost of $115,000.

The Albany Cardinals did not play during many of the WWII years. The games stopped from 1942 and picked up again in 1946. Several of the Albany Cardinal Team members fought and some even   died in WWII. Albany Native Phil Clark played for the Albany Cardinals in 1953 and later when on to pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals. The Albany Cardinals played their last game in 1958 in Cardinal Stadium.

Albany has been home to or hosted many well known and locally known baseball players over the decades. Most Albanians recognize the names, Paul Eames, Merritt Ranew, Ray Knight, Ace Adams, to say nothing of Buster Posey; the names go on and on. Albany has also had many championship little league teams and highs school teams. Though the Paul Eames Stadium now stands empty, it too once hosted the Polecats, the Alligators, the South Georgia Peanuts the South Georgia Waves and even a female baseball team, the Silver Bullets. Baseball has come and gone from Albany over the years but it is likely that someday the “Boys of Summer” will once again return here.

Left column: Erskine Mayer, Tommy (Rebel) McMillan,Shoeless Joe Jackson & Phil Clark. Right: 1949 Albany Cardinals.

 
Betty Rehberg is the historian for the Albany Journal and maintains a group on Facebook called Vintage Albany Georgia.

 

Tags: Ace Adams, Albany Travelers, Baseball, Betty Rehberg, Buster Posey, Cardinal Park, Class D Georgia-Florida League, Georgia State League, Major League Baseball, Merritt Ranew, Minor League Baseball, Paul Eames, Ray Knight, Shoeless Joe Jackson, South Atlantic League, South Georgia Peanuts, South Georgia Waves, The Albany Alligators, The Albany Babies, The Albany Cardinals, The Albany Nutcrackers, The Albany Nuts, The Albany Polecats, The Silver Bullets, the “SALLY” league, vintage albany, Vintage Albany Georgia Facebook Group
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Cartoon

– May 21, 2012Posted in: Cartoon

Tags: bail, cartoon, DCSS, Drew Sterling, Goseer, Jailed student, Murfree, political humor, School board bails out student, taxpayers
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Click It or Ticket Comes To Albany

– May 20, 2012Posted in: Press Releases


Encouraging Drivers to Buckle Up To Keep Crash Deaths Down

 

Who:               Governor’s Office of Highway Safety

 

What:              The statewide safety belt enforcement campaign Click It or Ticket is kicking off on May 21st and will run through June 3rd. If motorists don’t click it, they can expect a ticket.

 

When:             Monday, May 21st, 2PM

 

Where:            Veterans Memorial Park

West Oglethorpe at Front St

Albany, GA

Why:              Because far too many people in Georgia, and across the country, are still being killed in traffic crashes where their lives might’ve been saved if they were wearing a seatbelt. Across the state in 2010, 423 people over the age of 5 were killed in crashes where they were unrestrained.

Tags: Buckle Up, Click It or Ticket
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Singing in the presence of the Lord

– May 20, 2012Posted in: Faith, Rev. Hood

 

 

“You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image–any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” (Exodus 20:2-3)

My wife and son had gone out to the airport to welcome Phillip Phillips from the private jet, something spontaneous, she said. A snapshot was taken as he walked away from the plane. Phillip Phillips made in Leesburg and the Gulfstream jet made in Savannah. It was a pretty good picture of Georgia craftsmanship.

My son watched him through the plate glass window as Phillip took his nourishment. It struck him that with all of the pomp and circumstance that Phillip would do something so mundane as eat a Little Caesar’s pizza. That faded tee shirt was apropos for the Lee County ambiance. But then that million dollar smile…

And now there was to be this parade on Saturday. My family had scheduled several weeks in advance to sing in Cordele for the Abundant Faith Worship Center. We would have come out to the parade to support our latest Lee County phenom and consequently our Lee County. We were disappointed that we couldn’t do both. Then I began to embrace the opportunity as a very special meeting God had for us. I would rather sing for God in a room worshiping Him than to sing to 20,000 people hoping they would like me.

The comment was made that we had come from Leesburg where the big event was. I stated trying to make a little humor, “We’d rather be here with Jesus high than Jato!” We had a really special time in the presence of the Lord. You could sense His presence with us. If we could just realize that singing before the one God is much more important than singing before all the people in the world at one time would be even if it were possible.

We finished the concert and headed back to Leesburg. We knew the concert would probably be over but decided to head toward the event anyway. My daughter texted a friend to ask how the concert was going. “It hasn’t started yet.” That was at least two hours late! We parked over a mile away. Cars were parked that far out. We started walking. People were leaving. “Did we miss it?” “No. It started about 15 minutes ago. We’re just worn out from standing at the parade all day long.” We were like salmon swimming upstream.

Sure enough, we walked straight up to the front on the football field where the stage was and watched the concert. We weren’t even worn out like everybody else! I talked to one guy who didn’t even go to the field because the process was so drawn out before the concert. His kids had had it. We, however, were right on time.

 

 

Tags: church, Faith, Religion, Rev. Hood
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