Animal control officers and veterinarians in Jackson and Southern Hall counties are urging people to make sure their pets’ rabies vaccinations are up to date after authorities confirmed that a rabid cow had attacked its owner and rabid bobcat had attacked two dogs.

“Our pets are a buffer between people and wildlife, and if people get their pets vaccinated that helps protect people,” said Dr. Kinsey Phillips, owner of Commerce Veterinary Hospital.

On Jan. 20 a Gillsville man had to shoot a bobcat that went after his dogs in his yard near the Jackson-Hall county line. A week earlier, a Maysville farmer was attacked by one of his cows, and the animal later was determined to be rabid.

Experts are calling both cases unusual but are not ready to say what the early and odd rabies cases mean for summer in Northeast Georgia, when reports of rabies seem to increase.

There were 66 confirmed cases of rabies in animals in 2011 in the 10-county region served by the Northeast Georgia Health District. There were 17 confirmed cases in Hall County in 2011, which is served by a different health district, according to news release issued last month.

The bobcat was the first animal in Hall County to be diagnosed with rabies this year, and it is the first time animal control officers there have seen a case of rabies in a bobcat.

“Generally, we deal with skunks, foxes and raccoons,” said David Jones of the Hall County Animal Control Department. “We’re hoping that this will be an isolated incident, but only time will tell.”

Jones surmised that the bobcat had probably gotten into a scuffle with a skunk, fox or raccoon and became infected with the disease.

It is very rare to see rabies in a cow, Phillips said.

The Maysville farmer who called Phillips’ office had told the large animal vet working on the case that the cow knocked him down and attacked him. Both the veterinarian and the farmer had rabies shots after coming into contact with the animal, Phillips said.

“Farmers don’t generally vaccinate cows,” Phillips said. “It’s usually your carnivorous animals that get vaccinated because usually when your herbivores like cows and goats get exposed or get infected — they generally don’t expose people. It’s unusual that a person would get exposed from a cow.”

To be safe, pet owners should make sure their animals are vaccinated and stay way from any animal that is acting strangely. While some animals — like foxes, skunks and coyotes — act aggressively when they are infected, others, like raccoons just seem disoriented

RESERVOIR PLANS GET BOOST IN NORTH GEORGIA:  A new state law has reinvigorated plans for a new reservoir on a North Georgia site owned by the city of Atlanta.  Two competitors presented plans recently to the Dawson County Commission for a reservoir on up to 2,200 acres of the 10,130-acre Dawson Forest property the city bought in the early 1970s as a potential site for a second airport.

The project would yield up to 100 million gallons of water per day, enough to serve the rapidly growing Atlanta region either as a major complement or alternative to Lake Lanier, depending on the outcome of the long-running legal tug-of-war over water allocation between Georgia, Alabama and Florida.

“We’re going to have to impound water in North Georgia, not only to supply Atlanta but to supply ourselves,” said Gary Pichon, a Dawson County commissioner and reservoir supporter. “If Atlanta doesn’t have adequate water supply in the future, Georgia starts to look a lot like Mississippi.”

But to become reality, the Dawson Forest Reservoir still must await a final result in the tri-state water war.

Absent a settlement of that dispute, Gov. Nathan Deal and legislative leaders are hesitant to create additional water supplies in a river basin that Georgia shares with either of the other two states. The Dawson Forest Reservoir would be formed by damming a tributary of the Etowah River, which flows from Georgia into Alabama.

The proposed reservoir also must surmount opposition from environmental advocates worried about the effects of piping huge quantities of water out of the Etowah basin and from local residents against flooding the pristine property.

Atlanta industrial developer Jerry Daws, president of Republic Resources Inc., first proposed the reservoir more than two years ago.

At the time, he was working in partnership with the Dawsonville, Ga.-based Etowah Water & Sewer Authority. But since then, the two have parted ways and become competitors.

The General Assembly passed legislation this year allowing municipal water systems to form public-private partnerships to finance and build water improvements. In the spirit of that measure, publicly owned Etowah is now partnering with New Jersey-based American Water Co. on plans for a $650 million reservoir covering 1,200 acres.

“We sought additional resources because this project is too big for us,” Jim King, Etowah’s board chairman, told Dawson County commissioners Sept. 22 during a public hearing at Dawsonville City Hall. “American Water is the largest private provider of water in the United States. They have the resources, the expertise and the funding to do this project without one red cent coming from Dawson County or the state.”

Etowah General Manager Brooke Anderson emphasized the water authority’s local connections in his pitch to the county commission.

“We are part of this community,” he said.

But Daws argued that his Atlanta-based company is the only competitor offering to make Dawson County a “true partner” in the project.

Under Republic Resources’ proposal to invest $800 million in a 2,200-acre reservoir, the county would receive a one-time $7 million “advisory fee” for its assistance with the project and estimated annual payments of $8.3 million to $10.2 million upon full operation of the reservoir.

“They’re the local guys,” Daws said of Etowah. “But they’re not giving [the county] anything. … All the money is going to New Jersey.”

The city of Atlanta, which also would partner with Republic Resources, would get $10 million in advisory fees.

One aspect of the plan the competitors share is that both are offering to preserve 8,000 acres at the Dawson Forest site as perpetual green space in exchange for the land they need for the reservoir.

Neither Dawson County nor the cash-strapped state government has the financial wherewithal to acquire and save Dawson Forest, Anderson said.

“There is no money to allow the state to develop this park in a meaningful way,” he said.

But Will Wingate, vice president of advocacy and land conservation for the Georgia Conservancy, said there’s an alternative to seeking local or state funds to preserve the property or cutting a deal with one of the reservoir developers.

He offered to work with Dawson County to raise the money needed to preserve the property through a SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) referendum.

He pointed to recent SPLOSTs for open space preservation in Paulding and Decatur counties that passed despite the current anti-tax climate.

“If the public knows there’s a specific piece of property that’s critical to a community, they’re willing to pay for it,” he said.

Besides the potential to lose increasingly rare forestland, Wingate and other environmentalists are concerned about the potential effects of withdrawing up to 100 million gallons a day from the Etowah River on downstream communities.

“This would be the single-largest interbasin transfer in the state,” said Joe Cook, executive director of the Rome, Ga.-based Coosa River Basin Initiative.

Cook also pointed to a legal obstacle to the Dawson Forest Reservoir. When the General Assembly created the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District a decade ago, lawmakers prohibited piping water from outside of the district to customers inside its boundaries.

Dawson County is outside of the metro water district.
The project’s supporters say all of the legal and environmental issues surrounding the project must be fully vetted before the reservoir could win approval.
Since Atlanta owns the property, the city will have a great deal of say in whether the reservoir ever gets built and, if so, who builds and operates it.
Pichon said that, for now, he would be satisfied if the Dawson County Commission passes a resolution he plans to introduce supporting the project.
“I’m just trying to tee this up,” he said. “It would give [Atlanta] and the water companies interested in doing this some notice as to where we are.”
New reservoir
Two proposals are competing to build a reservoir in Dawson County on 10,130 acres owned by the city of Atlanta.
Republic Resources Inc.
Size of reservoir: 2,200 acres
Expected yield: 100 million gallons per day
Cost: $800 million
Etowah Water & Sewer Authority
Size of reservoir: 1,200 acres
Expected yield: 90 million gallons per day
Cost: $650 million
Sources: Republic Resources Inc., Etowah Water & Sewer Authority

Jefferson County, Alabama ( Birmingham) has received a lot of attention lately.  The extent of their excess borrowing (aka ..spending) is almost unbelievable.   An individual homeowner’s sewer bill that is now $50 a month is expected to be more than $200 a month before the current sewer loan deal is paid off.  These folks will pay more the $2500 a year just to flush their waste!

Elise Le Guevel and her crew from national French TV were in Birmingham to “inoculate French viewers to our financial contagion.”  It seems that Europeans are horrified that if this can happen in the United States, if could happen in their country, too.

Elise Le Guevel wanted a simple, understandable explanation for what happened.  The writers struggled to find a simple explanation.  It boils down to:

• Jefferson County government was overextended by elected officials who ignored the risks of such a huge undertaking.

• In an effort to protect the current commission from bankruptcy, a $500-an-hour sewer receiver (and big bank representative) recommended a settlement that pleases the state and big business.

• The lenders (banks) are absolved from their responsibility for inept business decisions.

• Residents no longer trust their leaders, but they will still be stuck paying the bills.

Questions that remain include, “What will be the effect on future growth?  Will people choose to live in a place where they face exorbitant utility costs?   Will the benefits of this sewer system outweigh the costs?

No individual and no government should ever borrow money or enter into any contract without careful examination of the risks and recognition of responsibility to the other party.

Advice to voters:   Never vote for a candidate that you would not trust to put their hands in your pockets.  As an elected official, that is what they do.

Facts taken from a story published: Sunday, September 18, 2011   By John Archibald -The Birmingham News
(Tamika Moore — The Birmingham News)

John Archibald’s column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Write him at
jarchibald@bhamnews.com.
© 2011 al.com. All rights reserved.

With the economy in a mess, tolls set to go on the new express lanes on I-85 and Atlanta voters facing the choice of accepting still-higher water rates or voting to renew their special water and sewer tax, the timing is terrible for the metro district, which is key to the entire state’s transportation network. And it isn’t too much better for the other districts around the state.

Whether you were a fan of his work or not, the recent resignation under pressure of Vance Smith – the Department of Transportation’s third commissioner in four years – surely suggests to all that the state lacks stability in the agency responsible for putting asphalt on the ground.

But unlike the days when legislators had to go hat in hand to the powerful “Mr. Jim” Gillis, the DOT isn’t the only player in transportation anymore. It’s just one of several.

Since 2009, when the Legislature aided by then-Gov. Sonny Perdue clipped the DOT’s wings, we’ve had a director of planning – appointed by the governor – to design the state’s transportation vision and also to work with each of the state’s transportation districts to develop a list of projects that would be funded by the proposed 1 percent T-Splost (Transportation Local Option Sales Tax) should it pass in one or more or even all of the districts.

But I’m wondering where that has gotten us. It appears from news accounts that the biggest region – Atlanta – may be about to rip itself apart because of territorial concerns among its various cities.

The AJC reported recently that suburban mayors in the district are beginning to complain about Atlanta-centric projects like the Beltline boondoggle and the proposed rail line from Cobb County to midtown Atlanta – projects they say would suck needed dollars away from their own pet projects.

Finally, of course, we have the State Road and Tollway Authority in the mix. That’s the group that’s putting the tolls on express lanes on I-85. Those lanes formerly were free so long as you had two or more people in the car.

Taken altogether, this is a terribly disjointed way to deal with an issue as vital as transportation. It begs the questions of who’s in charge and do they know what they doing?

It didn’t have to be this way.

Back in the 70s, somebody should have whispered in the late Gov. George Busbee’s ear that the idea of growing Georgia through foreign investment was great but that we needed a planning system in place to get ready for the growth.

In the 80s, then-Gov. Joe Frank Harris proposed a sweeping plan to manage growth. Some of it was passed but some of the key components either weren’t passed or have been allowed to lie fallow. Impact fees, for example, always seemed like a good idea to me. The guys who built all the apartments and the homes at will across the state should have been required to pay a fee to help build the schools, hire the cops and manage the traffic their developments would bring. It wouldn’t have come out of the developers pockets, of course. It would have been passed along to the homebuyer. Why we didn’t do that I don’t know.

Former Gov. Zell Miller, who deserves kudos for much of what he did during his administration, didn’t do so good in planning. He let the Harris initiative drop without further attention.
So much for planning for growth.

As far as transportation governance, every governor has tinkered with it but in recent years former Gov. Sonny Perdue was in a unique position at one point during his term to build a lasting legacy by revitalizing the state’s road and providing a clear vision. It would have required much more political muscle and much more time from him to achieve that goal but unfortunately he didn’t provide it.

And so we are at a point when SRTA is about to put tolls on 16-miles of hitherto-free lanes on I-85, the DOT is hunting for a new commissioner, the metro area’s cities and counties are sniping at the proposed list of projects to be funded by the 1 percent local option sales tax (should it pass) and the economy is lousy.But maybe there is hope.

Gov. Nathan Deal recently formed a transit task force to look toward streamlining and coordinating the individual transit systems in metro Atlanta, and that surely indicates an interest in transportation as a whole.
Maybe he’s the governor who will fix our transportation problems and thereby ensure a lasting legacy. He could do worse.

That’s the view from the ridge.

Editor’s Note: Dick Pettys covered the Georgia Capitol for The Associated Press from 1970 to 2005 and then served as editor of this publication for five years. He is now editor emeritus and has moved to the northeast Georgia mountains, where he has built a house on a ridge. He will be contributing a column a week, appearing every Monday. The opinions are his own and may or may not represent the views of InsiderAdvantage, its staff and its management. Agree or disagree with this or other columns? <dpettys@windstream.net>

Three Cumming families won a $2.5 million judgment against Pulte for property damages they incurred as a result of a the company’s 733-home development upstream. A Forsyth County jury found the builder guilty last week of common law nuisance, trespass and negligence and of repeated violations of Georgia environmental laws.

It is one of the largest storm water pollution judgments in state history, eclipsing a $2.3 million award against D.R. Horton builders in Cobb County six years ago.

By Patrick Fox    The Atlanta Journal-Constitution   September 15, 2011

Find this article at:

http://www.ajc.com/news/forsyth/builder-must-repair-erosion-1181923.html

The decisions are the first signs of progress for the newly formed stakeholders group, which rounded out its second year together in meetings at Lake Lanier Islands earlier this week.  And they are signs that the group doesn’t plan to be taken lightly.

Made up of stakeholders from all ends of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river basin, the ACF Stakeholders seeks to find a water-sharing solution that all can agree on outside of court.  The group works by consensus, meaning one “no” vote defeats a proposal before the group.  “Everything we do is 100 percent unanimous,” said Wilton Rooks, a member of the group’s executive committee.

Government leaders in the three states have been tied up in litigation for years over rights to water flowing through the basin.

As of this week, consulting firm Atkins and another, Black and Veatch, have been brought on by the ACF Stakeholders to help the group begin developing what it says will be a sustainable water management plan for the basin.

Water in the basin is controlled by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which controls the water’s every move from a series of dams starting at Lake Lanier and ending at Jim Woodruff Dam in Chattahoochee, Fla.

In the coming months, Atkins will begin work on a project that will assess stream flows throughout the basin to determine how the ecological systems in the region operate best. The information will be used in the larger project to explore alternative management plans for the river system that will best serve all the stakeholders, Rooks said.  “The hope for that process is that we will come up with management alternatives that will result in more efficient use of the water that we’ve got in the basin,” Rooks said.  At the moment, Rooks said the initial phases of the project are expected to last between a year and a year and a half, but details have yet to be determined.

So far, the group has committed $50,000 to the initial phases of the project, but is embarking on a campaign to raise $1 million to complete the study and hire an executive director, Rooks said.  Part of its search for solutions will be an effort to involve four universities from Georgia, Florida and Alabama to discover other approaches to manage the basin.  Involved would be the University of Georgia, the University of Florida, Florida State University and Auburn University in Alabama.

As the group begins to explore management of the water system, members are also beginning to seriously consider a plan to raise the full pool level of Lake Lanier. The group formed this week is made up of representatives from each of the three states and will establish project goals, constraints and methods for proceeding with the prospect of raising the lake’s level, Rooks said.

“It’s not just kicking the can down the road, it’s actually putting some plans for a work group to get started on it,” Rooks said.

The group’s next meeting will be held in the Flint River basin in early December.  “The real takeaway from the meeting was that this diverse group of water users in all three states are working together to share a common resource,” Rooks said. “That is our byline and we are pleased that it still informs our decision process.”

Ashley Fielding     afielding@gainesvilletimes.com     September 15, 2011

http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/6/article/56057/

A letter dated five days before the event alleges that a Tea Party event would endanger their 501 (c) (3) tax exempt status.

A letter dated three days before the event alleges that the non-profit status would be violated by the Glenn Beck broadcast being held in the theater.

It appears the Holly Executive Board had a difficult time deciding just exactly why it is they had to cancel the Restoring Courage event.

One member of the executive board stated to the Tea Party representative, “This is, after all, a theater; you won’t find any Republicans here.” Could it be that the Holly Executive Board members are discriminating against a group or event due to perceived political leanings not to their liking? You be the judge.

They are not well informed:

• Both Glenn Beck and the Tea Party are nonpartisan.  Beck’s event is organized in support of Israel, an important US ally, and Glenn is well known for his criticism of both parties. The Tea Party would like to see both parties stop spending money we do not have and operate in compliance with the Constitution.

• An IRS regulation cannot be used to discriminate against any one group.  The regulations specifically state that they are “not intended to restrict free expression on political matters” or curtail programs that are educational in nature. In fact, it is such discrimination that could endanger the tax-exempt status of the Holly.

The fact remains, the Holly Executive Board violated the Holly’s agreement with the Dahlonega Tea Party by illegally cancelling a contract without the required 30 day notice.

By Ivana Pelnar-Zaiko, Ph.D., retired in 2008 from a career as non-profit executive that included positions at private colleges and a major international consulting company in non-profit management.  She has advised universities and arts non-profits in the US, Germany, Denmark, Bulgaria, and the country of Georgia through a program of the US Department of State.

Questions that were not asked, but should have been asked:

• What is it going to cost?

• Where is the money coming from?

• What are the long and short term benefits for Dahlonega and Lumpkin County?

The presentation focused on irrelevant, technical data to the exclusion of real world information that would convince anyone that the project should receive public support.  Their discussion of inter-basin transfers required for the project did not convince the public that this would be a good thing or that it would be in compliance with state law.

These folks have been trying with little success for some time to get this project off the ground.  Special offers to those who give up their land for the reservoir would be:

• a right of first refusal of newly created lake lots and

• their names on a plaque.

Whopee!  Don’t you know the landowners will be standing in line for these goodies.

Prior threats to obtain land using eminent domain have made all area landowners suspicious of the project.  Denials of such efforts by current promoters fall on deaf ears when those folks have once been threatened with the use of eminent domain.

As members of the public were leaving the meeting, numerous comments were made relative to snake oil salesmen and P.T. Barnum’s quote,  “There is a sucker born every minute.”

This is the first in what will be a series of posts about PAWS and the Lumpkin County Animal Shelter.  The shelter belongs to residents of our county.  We pay the bills and we are responsible for what goes on there.  Good things are happening.  You will soon hear  about more options becoming available for low cost spay/neuter.  You will be asked for your suggestions on how to get the message out about pet over-population and improvements to our county shelter.

Difficult economic times are being felt at the Lumpkin County Animal Shelter.  Families losing their homes and folks losing their jobs is not good for the family pet.  A lot of animals are finding themselves on the street or turned in to the shelter.

Our county and the shelter staff are doing the best they can in an impossible situation.

As the president of PAWS, I am not pleased with the situation.  Shelter staff cannot begin to do the job as it needs to be done because too many animals pass through.

About half the animals that come in are brought in by Animal Control.  The rest are brought in by owners or someone who finds an animal and turns it in to the shelter.

Those brought in by Animal Control are held for five days before coming under control of the Shelter unless they are in such bad shape that they are euthanized.  Found animals are also held for five days during which time attempts are made to locate the owners.  After five days, these animals become available for adoption, transfer to rescue groups, or euthanization.

Owner surrenders become available for all options as soon as a release is obtained.  If there is no space for the animal, it can be euthanized immediately.

Let’s be very clear, the desirable outcome for all animals is a loving home.  Reality is there are no homes available for many of these great animals.  When PAWS takes animals to off-site adoptions, we find that most local residents already have as many pets as they can afford.  We work with shelter management to arrange as many transfers to rescue groups as we can …but there are never enough.  Many healthy, adoptable pets are euthanized because there is no space to hold them.  During July, adoptions and transfers were down.  A dog that had been in the shelter for just two weeks could be on the list for euthanization to make room for those being brought in.

I have been blunt in stating to management that twice as many animals are going through the shelter as they are capable of properly handling.  Two weeks is not nearly long enough to hold a lost pet or for new owners to be found.

The response to my concerns has been a proposal to charge a $25 fee for anyone bringing in an animal or animals.  Although I personally support the fee, many are concerned that people will just dump the animals instead of bringing them to the shelter.

One way or another, this community must get the message out that it is unacceptable to allow pets to run loose, especially when they have not been spayed or neutered.

I don’t know about you, but I consider it morally reprehensible to allow puppies and kittens to be born just to be killed.  I cannot believe that the people of this county want their children to grow up accepting such cruelty.

PAWS  www.pawsdahlonega.com and the Lumpkin County Animal Shelter already offer help for those who cannot afford to have their pets spayed/neutered.  Help us get the word out.  Post comments about this article.  Let your county commissioners know what you think.

The responsibility belongs to all of us.  The concern we all have for “Nugget,” the community dog, is needed for the many hundreds of animals that have no home.

Emily Lewy, PAWS President

“You mess with my fishing and you’re messing with me,” said Representative Chuck Sims of Ambrose, Georgia, the author of the bill.  Sims, who lives on the Satilla River in Coffee County and who is a member of the Coffee County Fishing Club had been noticing ATVs eroding the banks of his local river for years and decided to do something about it.

“People would ride the river bank from highway bridge to highway bridge–you know what kind of erosion that was causing.” Sims said. “It just made me so mad that they could do that. I love to fish and the river is part of life for me—and really the whole region.”

Sims wasn’t the only person who was angry about the way the Satilla was being treated.  In 2009 the Brantley County commission passed a local ordinance that prohibited the use of ATVs in the Little Satilla and Satilla Rivers of Brantley County.  State law at the time prohibited ATV use on roads or road shoulders statewide, but the penalty for this activity was a fine of only $25.  The Brantley County commission (all five of whom were members of the Satilla Riverkeeper) passed an ordinance that changed the fine structure to $250-$1000 for violating the existing state law, and expanded upon it to protect over 100 river miles in the county.

“This came about for a few different reasons,” says Gordon Rogers, who was the Satilla Riverkeeper at the time the Brantley County Ordinance was passed.

“For one thing, the Brantley County commission was a group of people that cared about the river and they knew that this was a problem that needed a solution. For another, people were using the Satilla and Little Satilla as highways to get to private property they wanted to ride around on. They’d put in the river at a bridge and drive a long way—5 or 6 miles—down the channel to trespass on somebody’s property.  This ordinance made all that illegal.”

It wasn’t long before Brantley County’s new ordinance got statewide attention.  It wasn’t just South Georgia rivers that were being affected by irresponsible ATV use. Trout Streams in North Georgia were being treated poorly by ATV riders as well.

According to Gordon Rogers, “Trout Unlimited really kicked in support for the statewide bill and brought the support of some state Senators from North Georgia like Chip Rogers and Jim Butterworth.”

“Down in South Georgia, people were riding their ATVs on the banks and in the river when it was low enough in the summer. Up in those north Georgia trout streams, people were riding in them all year long and just destroying the trout habitat.  HB 207 passing is a win-win for everybody,” said Representative Sims.

Passage of this measure took four years of diligent work by House and Senate legislators, the Satilla and Flint Riverkeeper organizations, the Georgia Wildlife Federation, Georgia Trout Unlimited, along with many others, including DNR commissioner Mark Williams (who was a Brantley County legislator for much of the process).

Now that HB 207 is a law, enforcement is the key to keeping motorized vehicles out of Georgia’s rivers and streams. If you see someone riding an ATV on a road, the shoulder of a road or in a river or stream, chances are they are breaking the law (although it should be noted that the law does not apply to roads or streams on private property and there are exemptions for certain types of ATV use). This activity can be reported to any state enforcement agency—local police, the DNR, highway patrol, etc.  So keep an eye out and thanks to everyone from the grassroots to the grasstops who made this happen!