Qualifying for Independent candidates for
Chattahoochee County elective offices and for Non-partisan elective positions will be held Monday through Thursday, June 23-June 26, 2008 between 9 A.M. and 5:00 P.M., and on Friday, June 27, 2008
from 9:00 A.M. until 12:00 Noon.
All qualifying will be held in the Probate Court office
located at 379 Broad Street ,
Cusseta , GA 31805 .
In accordance with O.C.G.A. § 21-2-131(a)(1), the Commission
of the Unified Government of Cusseta-Chattahoochee County, Georgia has fixed
the following qualifying fees to be paid by candidates for election to each elective
office to be filled in the 2008 General Primary and General Election:
Sheriff—$1262
Judge of Probate Court—$895
Tax Commissioner—$895
Clerk of Superior Court—$895
Chief Magistrate--$578
Member, Chattahoochee County
Board of Education—$51
Coroner—$36
Member, Cusseta-Chattahoochee
County Board of Commission (non-partisan)—$108
All candidates must pay by cash, check or money order at the
time of qualifying.
For more information, please contact Judge Ken Van Horn at
(706) 989-3603.
Georgia Conservation Rangers have been
busy across the state since the arrival of 2008. Rangers rescued
six people and their pets from flooded homes in Brooks County along
the banks of the Withlacoochee River. Rangers patrolled hundreds of
miles of North Georgia in search of a missing hiker. Her body was
recovered as well as evidence of her murder. Rangers rescued two
duck hunters on Lake Seminole after their duck boat was swamped and
sank. In Camden County, a Ranger located and returned to safety a
boat and its occupants who had gotten lost in fog after dark. A
stranded boater with motor problems was located on the Coosa River
and towed to safety by Rangers. Rangers located two stranded
boaters and towed them to safety on the Spalding County Reservoir
during a 30 mph wind advisory. In Telfair County, Rangers recovered
a drowning victim from the Ocmulgee River after a two-week search
and recovery operation. With fewer Conservation Ranger positions
and the loss of experienced Rangers to other law enforcement
agencies, the resources to respond to calls for help from the
public are shrinking.
Conservation Rangers in 2007 conducted
search operations almost daily around the state for lost hunters,
lost or disabled boats, missing children, the elderly, abducted
victims, and individuals wanted for crimes ranging from sex crimes,
murder, armed robbery, to drug offenses. 118 of the searches were
land based primarily looking for lost or missing individuals
involving 750 hours. 276 of the searches were water based looking
for 612 people and 254 boats involving 2,477 hours. In addition,
Rangers responded to 6,819 complaints primarily called in by local
landowners, which required 20,076 hours of investigation. But with
fewer Rangers due to positions being cut and Rangers leaving for
other employment, response times to calls for help could be longer
with fewer Rangers available.
The Georgia Department of Natural
Resources, which was the first state law enforcement agency
organized in 1911, is experiencing problems in retaining
experienced Conservation Rangers. Salaries and benefits offered by
federal, local, and other state law enforcement agencies have
increased more than Ranger benefits and have resulted in a
retention issue and a loss of trained and experienced Rangers. In
recent years, 24 experienced Rangers have resigned primarily for
financial reasons. Prior to this nearly all vacancies occurred only
through retirement.
The DNR Law Enforcement Section has had
30 positions cut due to budget reductions since 2000, dropping the
number of Conservation Rangers statewide from 252 to the current
authorized level of 222. In addition, there currently are 15 vacant
Ranger positions. The work force has been reduced by 45 Rangers
while the state’s population continues to grow, and fewer
Rangers are called upon to do more. Georgia has one Conservation
Ranger for every 42,792 citizens compared to Florida which has one
Conservation Ranger for every 25,207 citizens and South Carolina
which has one Conservation Ranger for every 15,068 citizens. These
permanent cuts and unfilled vacancies have resulted in the
remaining Rangers having to cover larger patrol areas – in
some cases one Ranger covering three counties. This situation
reduces the Rangers effectiveness and efficiency, increases
agency-operating costs, and adversely impacts customer service.
If you would like to ask me some
questions you can e-mail me at dnr414@aol.com or write to me at
2024 Newton Road Albany, GA 31701. I will either send you a
personal response or if it is something I get asked often by other
people I will answer it in the newspaper. Until next time be safe,
have fun and take a child hunting or fishing.
It is a poor rooster who won't crow for his own barnyard. So today, I
wanted to crow a little about the dramatic growth in visitors we have
had to the Cusseta.net web site.
We experienced a 233% increase in the average number of visits per day to Cusseta.net from December 2006 to December 2007.
In December 2006, we were averaging 74 visits per day and in December 2007 we averaged 197 visits per day.
That is a big increase!
In a small town like Cusseta that is a pretty good level of walk in traffic.
In the coming year, it is our hope that we can double again the number of visits each day to the web site. We plan on a full upgrade of the web site in 2008 and we plan to expand the number of subdomains for various non-profit groups in the community. We will also be adding many of our Chamber of Commerce members to the Business Directory.
I won't reveal all of the things we plan on adding to the web site in this one article. This grand project to promote our community is limited by what can be accomplished at night and on weekends and I would rather do more than I promise than less.
We are always looking for ideas. If you have one (or several), let us know! Post in the forum and we will see what we can accomplish.
If we work together for the common good, anything can be accomplished.
