Relay
For Life Is Friday
At BCHS
True Citizen Staff Writer
The fourth annual Relay For Life will kick off at 6 p.m. at the Burke County High School track. The event has steadily grown over the years, and this one should prove no different.
Twenty-seven teams will spend the night keeping a vigil as they walk the track for the 13-hour event. There will be no fears of growing weary, though, as there are numerous activities planned to keep walkers and participants running strong.
Opening ceremonies will begin at 6 p.m. with the Survivors’ Walk beginning at 7 p.m.. Survivors’ Walk registration begins at 5 p.m. Coordinators invite all cancer survivors to come and take part in the walk. There will also be a Survivors’ Reception sponsored by the Burke Medical Center.
Dr. Harvey Sanders Jr., of Medical Specialist, will be the guest speaker for the evening, and O. B. Poole will carry in the Olympic torch. Special guests will also include the K-9 Task Force of Savannah. This group of emergency technicians and their two cadaver dogs were the first to arrive at Ground Zero at the World Trade Center Disaster.
Throughout the night there will be various groups providing entertainment including the Burke County High School Chorus, various step dance teams, an Elvis tribute, Kelly’s Quicksteps, soloist Jessica Mooney, a presentation by the Jade Tigers School of Self Defense, soloist Al McClain, DJ Dwayne Hopkins and the Hushpuppies Band. There will also be a kid’s carnival with a $5 admission charge.
There will be various food tents offering all sorts of goodies, including one by the Waynesboro Rotary Club and the Burke County Cattleman’s Association.
There will also be various items given away throughout the evening including a patriotic quilt designed by Elva Raines. Best Office Solutions is currently selling tickets for a beach bag to be given away at the event; the bag is filled with all the essentials for a relaxing day on the beach.
Relay For Life T-shirts will be on sale at the event, or they can be purchased before Friday night at Story & Associates located at 625 N. Liberty St.
Coordinators would like to remind you that 100 percent of all the proceeds from the night’s events will be donated to the American Cancer Society. Monetary donations will be accepted throughout the night at the event’s registration table.
The following volunteers are available to answer any questions concerning the relay:
• Gloria Shivers, 554-3791, or Kim Arrington, 437-9293: general information;
• Melissa Redd, 554-6621: team information;
• Lynn Lovett, 437-2000: corporate donations (in-kind or monetary) and
• Telene Sylvester, 554-4259: Survivors’ Walk.
Porterfield
Rejects County EMA Pay Plan, Submits His Recommendation
True Citizen Editor
His proposal came on the heels of one presented a few minutes earlier by county administrator Merv Waldrop that would raise EMA salaries by an average of 8.9 percent. However, it would not be implemented until January of next year unless the county commission decided to do so earlier.
Porterfield branded Wal-drop’s proposal “inadequate.
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The county commission EMA committee composed of Wayne Crockett, Frank Williams and Woodrow Harvey has been studying the EMA manpower shortage for several months and have yet to come up with a solution.
The proposal by Waldrop came last Wednesday, April 17, several days after the EMA operated that past weekend with three fire stations out of service along with five ambulances. The duty chief was unable to get enough employees to come in and work overtime to man all the stations.
Waldrop said the proposal gives those employees who have been with the agency a larger salary increase in an effort to retain the veteran men and women. Waldrop said his plan would cost about $172,000 for a 12-month period. But Porterfield came back with a much more expensive plan which would drastically raise EMA salaries immediately. He estimates it would cost the county $29,000 a month to implement. “This is a pay plan that I believe will turn things around for the agency. If it has not turned around by the end of the year, I will submit to you all my resignation,” he told the committee.
Waldrop said as county administrator he has to look out for all the county’s departments and personnel. This prompted Porterfield to reply, “I don’t care about the other departments, I’m concerned about my department and people.” Porterfield said he studied the administrator’s plan and found “problems with it” and came up with “my computation which I feel is adequate and will help us keep people and get new people in.”
At one point, Porterfield compared his salary of $61,296 with 15 years experience in Burke County, to Waldrop’s salary of $65,000 with less than six months in the county as administrator. Waldrop replaced the veteran Billy Hopper who retired at the end of October but stayed until Dec. 31 as a consultant to Waldrop during the transition period. Under Porterfield’s plan, he would jump to $70,987 a year.
While not resolving the issue last week, the committee is scheduled to meet again today (Wednesday) on the issue. During the meeting, Crockett, the chairman, told Porterfield that he did not want to see any county fire station closed in the future. “The people pay a fire tax and they must get fire protections,” he told the chief. Later Porterfield said that all county citizens pay taxes and expect to get medical services as well as those paying the fire tax. During the weekend that the fire stations were closed, five of the county’s 10 ambulances were parked because there were insufficient EMTs on duty to staff them.
Porterfield said it takes 33 people to properly staff each of the 12 stations with fire and EMT personnel. Between the period of April 18 and Tuesday, April 23, a total of 50 officers were working overtime, some of them more than 24 hours, to staff the stations. Another 10 were part-timers who, work in similar capacities elsewhere and fill in Burke County when needed and available. Several of them work in neighboring Richmond County and live in Burke.
Ralph
Sandeford Family
Burke's '2002 Ag Family'
Burke's '2002 Ag Family'
Sandeford grows cotton, peanuts, corn, wheat and pecans
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Sandeford graduated from the University of Georgia in 1981 and came home to help his father on the family farm. Soon, a mutual friend introduced Sandeford to Jamie; they had been living just 12 miles from each other and had never even met.
Sandeford’s oldest son, Jacob, an eighth grader at Edmund Burke Academy (EBA), says he’s not sure if he’ll follow in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps. When posed the same question, Jim Sandeford, a fifth grader at EBA, simply shakes his head no.
Sandeford says the award is truly an honor proving that, “All our hard work has paid off.” The lifelong Midville resident went on to add a favorite personal saying, “We’re still trying to keep Midville on the map.”
The Burke County Chamber of Commerce was once again host for the sixth annual event held at Boll Weevil Plantation. This year’s sponsors included A & W Oil Company, Ag Georgia Farm Credit, Agro Distribution, BAS Inc., Blanchard Equipment, Burke Truck & Tractor, Capital City Bank, Collins Gin, Crawford Forest Products, Farm Bureau, First National Bank, J & B Tractor, Planters EMC, Regions Bank, Specialty Timber of Georgia, Southern Bank and The Waynesboro Bank.
Legal
Organ of Burke County, Waynesboro, Sardis, Midville, Keysville, and Girard
