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

A rabies alert has been issued for the Julian Baugh Road area of North Hall after a rabid skunk came in contact with a dog.  Animal owners are encouraged to vaccinate their pets and livestock for rabies.

Vaccines are available for $10 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday at the Hall County Animal Shelter at 1688 Barber Road in Gainesville and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Humane Society of Northeast Georgia at 845 W. Ridge Road in Gainesville.

The skunk was shipped to the Georgia Public Health Lab, Virology Section in Decatur and confirmed positive for rabies on Monday. This is the 15th confirmed case of 2011.

Alert signs have been posted in the area where the rabid skunk was found. If you live in this area or you see an animal acting abnormally, contact Hall County Animal Services at 770-531-6830 or during non-working hours call Hall County Dispatch at 770-536-8812.

Animal owners are encouraged to vaccinate their pets and livestock for rabies.

Vaccines are available for $10 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday at the Hall County Animal Shelter at 1688 Barber Road in Gainesville and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Humane Society of Northeast Georgia at 845 W. Ridge Road in Gainesville.

The skunk came in contact with two dogs Oct. 31. The skunk was shipped to the Georgia Public Health Lab, Virology Section in Decatur and confirmed positive for rabies on Thursday. A man then came in contact with a raccoon in the same area later that week. The raccoon was confirmed positive for rabies on Tuesday. The man started rabies treatments immediately.

These are the 11th and 12th confirmed rabies cases of 2011.

Alert signs have been posted in the area where the rabid skunk was found. If you live in this area or you see an animal acting abnormally, contact Hall County Animal Services at 770-531-6830 or during nonworking hours call Hall County Dispatch at 770-536-8812.

Animal owners are encouraged to vaccinate their pets and livestock for rabies. Vaccines are available for $10 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday at the Hall County Animal Shelter at 1688 Barber Road in Gainesville and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Humane Society of Northeast Georgia at 845 W. Ridge Road in Gainesville.

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

Stories, essays, poetry, drawings, photographs, and recipes from animal lovers of all ages are being solicited.  All entries will be reviewed by a PAWS panel of editors.  Selected entries will be edited as needed and published in the book. The name of each author will be published.  At the author’s discretion, their age, business, school and a dedication may also be published.

Go to pawsdahlonega.com for rules and entry forms.

Submissions are needed right away!  Send to pawsdahlonegaofga@gmail.com or mail to PAWS, P.O. Box 1955, Dahlonega, GA 30533.

GOURMET DINNER & ENTERTAINMENT on Friday, October 21 at Three Sisters WineryPANCAKE  BREAKFAST

Le Petit Café located at 259 Church Street will sponsor a pancake breakfast for PAWS on Saturday, October 8.  Adoptable shelter cats and dogs may be seen there.

GOURMET DINNER & ENTERTAINMENT

PAWS  honors  Dan Bowers with a Gourmet Dinner provided by Le Petit Café & the PAWS ladies at THREE SISTERS WINERY on Friday, October 21, 2011 beginning at 6:00 PM.   Fabulous door prizes and entertainment.  Tickets may be purchased from PAWS members for $30/person.

The Atlanta Humane Society spay/neuter mobile unit will be at the Lumpkin County Animal Shelter on Wednesday and Thursday, September 28 and 29.  If you know anyone who has a dog or cat that has not been altered, please tell them about this opportunity.

The efforts of PAWS and TLC to create a North Georgia Spay/Neuter mobile unit ended when we learned that Atlanta Humane was developing a mobile unit that could serve our area.  Atlanta Humane already has funding sources to accomplish this goal and by serving rural areas, they will be immediately eligible for additional funds from grants.

My only concern is that we must get the word out to everyone who could take advantage of the service.  If Lumpkin residents fail to take advantage of this clinic, Atlanta Humane can be expected to go elsewhere.

Atlanta Humane’s original proposal was for them to place ads in The Dahlonega Nugget providing contact information for appointments made directly with them.  Now that the county has taken responsibility for appointments and scheduling, we must all do everything we can to make certain that local residents know about the program.

Appointments must be made in person at the shelter prior to the clinic dates.  Availability will be “first come, first served.”  The shelter number is 706-867-7297.

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>