Rome commission calls Thursday meeting on water meter funding

10/24/05
Alan Riquelmy


The Rome City Commission will meet Thursday at 10 a.m. at City Hall for a special called meeting to vote on the funding for the water meter change out program.

According to City Clerk Joe Smith, the only item on Thursday’s agenda is the vote, which will allow the purchase of bonds to pay for the $9 million program.

The water meter change out program will put new or upgraded equipment on buildings that use city water. The more accurate meters could cause higher bills for some water users.

For many, electric is the way to keep warm this winter

Space heaters are a popular sale item in the face of rising natural gas and propane prices.

10/24/05
By Chris Marr, Rome News-Tribune Business Editor


Predictions of high natural gas and propane prices this winter have many homeowners looking for ways to keep their heating bills down, including buying electric space heaters to use instead of their gas-fired furnaces.

“We’re seeing a lot of those sell right now,” said Dwayne Wheeler, a manager at Ace Hardware on Turner McCall Boulevard. “I think more people are scared about rising fuel prices and plan to rely more on electricity for their heat.”

The electric heaters range in style and price, but Wheeler said the most popular sellers at his store are the medium-large $49.99 models.

“The ones that people are mostly buying are the ones big enough to heat up whole rooms,” he said.

Alabama resident Perry Cromer is looking to use an electric heater this winter instead of her propane-fired heat system, and she shopped at The Home Depot in Rome for the most efficient style.



“I’m moving into the back room (of my home), and I’m going to set an electric heater in there,” she said. She made the decision after she went to prepay for her propane supply.

“They wanted $1,300 to prepay, which was almost double what it was last year,” Cromer said.

Natural gas customers are concerned about the same kind of problem once cold weather arrives.



The U.S. Energy Information Administration has predicted that households using natural gas for their primary heat source should expect to spend $350 more this winter than last, or about a 48 percent increase.

Not only are people buying electric heaters in preparation for winter, they’re also frequenting “how-to” clinics at home improvement stores such as The Home Depot to learn about ways to weatherize their homes and save energy.

“People are concerned about energy costs,” said Bob Zumbrunn, manager of The Home Depot in Rome. “Everybody’s trying to save.”

According to product displays at Home Depot, the types of electric heaters available include fan-forced, convection, radiant and ceramic. Fan-forced heaters tend to spread heat efficiently around a room, while radiant heaters are designed more for spot heating of the area directly in front of them. Convection units are ideal for heating a space only while it’s occupied, and ceramic heaters are usually fan-forced and cool to the touch.

Wheeler said oil-filled, electric radiators are a popular form of space heater, but one disadvantage is that they tend to be hot to the touch, which can pose a danger for children in particular.

Wiccan priestess loses Supreme Court appeal

10/11/05
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court rejected an appeal today from a Wiccan priestess angry that local leaders would not let her open their sessions with a prayer.

Instead, clergy from more traditional religions were invited to pray at governmental meetings in Chesterfield County, Va., a suburb of Richmond.

Lawyers for Cynthia Simpson had told justices in a filing that most of the invocations are led by Christians. Simpson said she wanted to offer a generalized prayer to the “creator of the universe.”

Wiccans consider themselves witches, pagans or neo-pagans, and say their religion is based on respect for the Earth, nature and the cycle of the seasons.

Simpson sued and initially won before a federal judge who said the county’s policy was unconstitutional because it stated a preference for a set of religious beliefs.

Simpson lost at the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which found that the county had changed its policy and directed clerics to avoid invoking the name of Jesus.

The Supreme Court is already hearing one religious case this fall. That cases raises the question of whether federal agents can stop a church from using hallucinogenic tea in its religious services. But this case would have provided a better opportunity for the court and new Chief Justice John Roberts to deal with government and religion.

Simpson is a member of a group known as the Broom Riders Association.

The county “issues invitations to deliver prayers to all Christian, Muslim, and Jewish religious leaders in the country. It refuses to issue invitations to Native Americans, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Wiccans, or members of any other religion,” justices were told in her appeal by American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Rebecca Glenberg.

The county’s attorney, Steven Micas, said that the county’s practice was in line with the Supreme Court’s endorsement of legislative prayer as long as it did not proselytize, advance or disparage a particular religion.

The case is Simpson v. Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, 05-195.

Bartow to vote: 1 person or board?

The county now has a single commissioner, but a vote could switch it to a multi-member board.

10/11/05
By Diane Wagner, Rome News-Tribune Staff Writer

Bartow County voters are slated to decide next year if they will keep a sole-commissioner form of government or switch to a multi-member board of commissioners.

“We heard this as a top issue in our door-to-door campaigning last year,” said state Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassville. “So we decided to bring it up to the people.”

Bartow is by far the largest of the 10 Georgia counties operating under a single, full-time commissioner, and the

Georgia First Amendment Foundation notes that Georgia is the only state allowing that option. Commissioner Clarence Brown offered a change to a multi-member board in 1992, but voters rejected it and have continued to return Brown to the office. Now, with Brown planning to retire at the end of his term in 2008, the county’s state legislative delegation is again raising the question.

“There’s going to be a change,” said state Rep. Jeff Lewis, R-White. “We can swear in a new person or we can swear in a board of people, but there’s going to be a change.”

A town hall meeting to discuss the issue drew nearly 50 people to Cartersville City Hall on Monday. The session was the fourth of six gatherings scheduled around the county. The final meetings, which both start at 6 p.m., will be at the White United Methodist Church on Monday and Adairsville City Hall on Oct. 24.

Although the delegation has the power to design the proposal that will appear on the ballot, the five legislators want input from the community. Issues yet to be settled include: How many board members? Will they be elected at large or by district? Will the chairman be chosen by the people or the board? Will any of the positions be full-time? How will the terms be staggered? What is the salary? Will there be a county manager?

State Rep. Bill Heath, R-Bremen, said he calculated close to 800 different forms a board of commissioners could take.

His home county of Haralson was thrown into confusion in January when its first multi-member commission took over, he said, because the structure was unclear when the vote occurred in 2002. Heath said he doesn’t want that repeated.

“My commitment in this is making sure you know what you’re voting for,” he told the crowd on Monday.

The other members of Bartow’s delegation are state Sen. Preston Smith, R-Rome, and state Rep. Tom Graves, R-Fairmount. All five are urging residents to weigh in on the issues by contacting them or attending the public meetings.

A 40-member citizen advisory committee appointed by the legislators also is researching options and gathering public opinion. Its next meeting is Oct. 19 at the Cartersville Chamber of Commerce.

“We have a very diverse group of people on the advisory committee, from all over the county,” said Adairsville Councilman Tommy Young, who is one of the appointees. “We’ve already had a few meetings, but it’s premature to say how we’re leaning.”

The committee has a deadline of Jan. 31 to present its recommendations. Then the delegation will draft the legislation calling for a November vote and present it for General Assembly approval before the session ends in March or April. If local voters approve, a board would be elected in 2008 and take office in 2009. The change also would require approval from the U.S. Department of Justice.

1-COMMISSIONER COUNTIES

Number of Georgia counties with sole commissioner governments: 10 out of 159

Estimated 2004 population of sole-commissioner counties:

Bartow: 86,972

Bleckley: 12,047

Chattooga: 26,552

Lumpkin: 23,925

Murray: 40,556

Pickens: 27,771

Pulaski: 9,837

Towns: 10,133

Union: 19,607

Walker: 63,379

Source: Association County Commissioners of Georgia

Citizens discuss future of Floyd

Industry, traffic and an arts center are big topics during a meeting on the comprehensive plan.

10/11/05
By Alan Riquelmy, Rome News-Tribune Staff Writer


Most everyone has a worry when it comes to the future. Kay Whatley’s happens to be about industry on Ga. 53.

“We want it livable,” Whatley said at a public meeting Monday night on a comprehensive plan for the next 20 years. “They have spot zoning. They’ve taken our agriculture and made spot zoning.”

Another Ga. 53 area resident, Janice Holley Houck, nodded her head. “Fifty-three is all heavy industry and no planning.”

Whatley and Houck were two of some 50 people who spent their Monday evening looking over maps of Rome and Floyd County. The members of the crowd, broken into smaller groups for discussion, talked about their problems, dreams and the current realities of a county everyone calls home.

The exercise, which will be repeated today from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Hearn Academy building in Cave Spring, is an essential component of a comprehensive plan currently in the works. The state-mandated plan will serve as a blueprint for development. While the Unified Land Development Code is a set of rules for development, the comprehensive plan helps shape what those rules should become for years.

That is, if it’s done correctly.

“People will say, ‘We want high-paying, clean jobs,’” said Michael Lauer, principal of Planning Works. “Who doesn’t?”

“Comprehensive planning is a process,” Lauer continued. “It’s a document you need to open regularly, or else it’s going to be a dust collector.”

In order to provide public input to the plan’s creation, people discussed questionnaire points in small groups. Frank Murphy of Rome pointed to traffic congestion, unplanned growth and spot variances as some problems.

“We have a very high high school drop-out rate,” said Frank Beacham.

Each group wrote down discussion points. Moving on to the strengths, Murphy pointed to the county’s rivers and colleges. Allen Bell, executive director of the Rome Area Council for the Arts, added its medical facilities and cultural environment.

Debra Cook, the new director of the Rome Symphony Orchestra, agreed. “I think the arts play a major part of what needs to happen in the next 20 years,” Cook said. “I want to see more in the way of arts, in the collaboration with RACA, Rome Little Theater and the orchestra.”

Both Cook and Dan Bishop, Darlington School’s fine arts department chair and chorale director, want a performing arts center in town. “That’s something we are badly in need of,” Bishop said.

Planners now will take Bishop’s desire for a new arts center, Murphy’s traffic congestion and Whatley’s industry concerns, along with everyone else’s completed questionnaires, and use them in developing a community assessment.

The assessment will include the public input as well as information such as current and future population and the number of buses in the community and their routes.

Rome-Floyd County Planning Department Director Sue Hiller will work on the assessment during the next month. The comprehensive plan process could take as long as 18 months, though two more sets of public meetings are planned.

“We don’t know your problems,” Lauer said. “That’s why your participation is essential.”

IF YOU GO

What: Comprehensive plan workshop/ice cream social

When: Today, 7 to 9 p.m.

Where: Hearn Academy building, Cave Spring