Small towns get a second chance
By Anne Marie Kyzer Staff Writer

STAFF - ANNE MARIE KYZER

Alexander is going back on the map, and Jackie Lovett is sure glad to see it.

Lovett, who owns a trucking company and sells horse trailers in Alexander, was sorely disappointed when the town lost its spot on the official state map.

Lovett said he depended on his community's designation on the state map for his businesses.

When customers, who often travel long distances or from out of state to purchase trailers, ask him how to get there, he tells them to drive seven miles from Waynesboro to the community of Alexander.

"We tell them to get a Georgia map and they can pinpoint us," he explained. "We use it quite often."

All that changed when the Georgia Department of Transportation omitted Alexander and five other Burke County communities from the map last year.

Alexander, Munnerlyn, Rosier, Saint Clair, Shell Bluff and Vidette, along with nearly 500 other communities across Georgia, were wiped off the state map in the DOT's effort to "declutter" the document and make it easier to read.

Since then, a number of citizens and elected officials from the missing communities expressed their dismay.

Lovett said his wife, Katherine, called the DOT and voiced her frustrations about the deletion of their town. He said she also contacted many other residents in Alexander and asked them to call the department as well.

"We regret that residents of these communities felt slighted by our decision," DOT Communications Director Vicki Gavalas said. "That was certainly not our intent. Indeed, our only intent was to make the official state map a more easily read resource."

Governor Perdue also sent a letter to DOT Chairman Mike Evans asking him to "restore the references to our state's small towns" in future printings.

"The Governor is correct," Gavalas said. "These communities are as much a part of the fabric of our state as our major metropolitan areas."

Fortunately for Lovett, a recent decision by the State Transportation Board will restore them to the map in the next printing.

According to the department, a large print edition of the map is due out in late spring and officials plans to restore the names of all 488 communities that were omitted last year.

So, Burke's communities, along with Funkhouser, Hopeulikit, Free Home, County Line, Dry Branch, Due West and the like, will all be back on the map in no time.