County Commissioner Kim Edge Addresses Historical Society

County Commissioner Kim Edge

Tracing the evolution of the role of county commissioners in Georgia from a single commissioner to a board of commissioners, Edge provided a historical overview of significant roles of county commissioners in the State’s 159 counties. 

Citing the Treutlen Board of County Commissioners’ decision-making role in a wide range of policy, Commissioner Edge focused primarily upon the issues of law enforcement and waste disposal. 

Acknowledging the county manager’s role in the day-to-day operations of the Board of Commissioners, Edge pointed

to the county’s relationship to state and federal levels of government. 

Subsequent to her address, Commissioner Edge fielded questions from the audience regarding various issues now facing the Board of Commissioners.

Photo by Bill Ricks

Story by Larry Braddy

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Still a Cutter!

Outside the barbershop.  The barn is a part
of  Treutlen County's school history

James Willis has been cutting hair ever since he joined his uncle J. D. Webb at the barber shop on Main Street way back in the 60s, in the building which was the original home of the Bank of Soperton, next to the alley and last occupied by Anderson Barber Shop.

In recent years Mr. Willis has operated from a comfortable barber shop beside the Willis house on the Adrian Road (GA 15).  About a month ago he had a sign posted on his door that he was going out of business, but as recently as yesterday he was still cutting hair.

When we told him we planned to put him on the internet, he said, "Don't be sending me too many customers." It sounded to us like he would enjoy having a few customers,  but not a full time business anymore, and we don't blame him.

Some of the seniors at the Senior Center, where he has lunch most days, just quietly ask him if it's a good day for a haircut.  The question might work on a phone call, too.

The "Going Out of Business" sign
was not on the door yesterday.

The Willis place was formerly owned by Roscoe Sammons, who bought and moved the old vocational agriculture shop from the old school to its present location behind the barber shop.  The shop had stood on today's Primary School campus between the old first and second building and the duplex house, facing College Avenue, that is now bricked up.

It's good to know that part of school history is still preserved and used.  Mr. Glisson used his paddle many times in the old office, and a variety of young men learned to make cedar chests and other wood work.

James's  wife, Jackie, stays busy as an officer of the Altamaha Bank.  They enjoy their children and grandchildren.

Inside the barn: Other than a few cobwebs, the old ag shop looks
just as it did when high school boys learned skills there.

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Range Fuels finds its voice

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Khosla and Aldous letters demonstrate why Range Fuels should have had a full-time communications department.

As George Wallace said to Jesse Jackson, "You've got to put it  down where the goats can get it."  If Range had kept everybody informed at every step, with Soperton being the target audience, they may have promoted a better understanding. 

Read their letters to the Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703373404576148493142478596.html

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Congressman John Barrow Meeting at JENNINGS'S REPREVE Renewables

Congressman John Barrow took part of the holiday week to tour the rural areas of the 12th district.  Thursday evening he and staff met constituents at the Repreve Renewables office of Phillip Jennings.

See more photos on our Picasa slide show.

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Emilee Hooks Third Place in State VFW Essay

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Commander Cecil Clonts and Essay Chairman Paul Burns bestow honors
on Emilee Hooks at February 17 meeting of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10925 of Soperton.

In the annual, national essay competition sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Emilee Hooks won first place locally, first in the Sixth VFW State District, and third place for the state of Georgia.

Also see:

http://treutlenenews.blogspot.com/2010/11/vfw-honors-six-treutlen-students.html

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Lots of Important News Today

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Visit with Congressman John Barrow 

Thursday  4:30 to 6:30 pm

 at Phillip Jennings's  office 

Highway 86 between Blackville & Crooked Run

(Former Mimbs Farm)

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Bibb County Coroner Leon Jones said Justin Michael Taylor, from Soperton, was pronounced dead at 5 p.m. Monday

http://www.macon.com/2011/02/23/1461314/man-killed-in-bibb-prison-fight.html

GBI Identifies Prison-Beating Victim

http://www.13wmaz.com/news/article/115787/175/GBI-Identifies-Prison-Beating-Victim

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Range Fuels Associate "Merrick" Cited in National Engineering Competition

http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/22766/2/

Range Fuels Is a Good Energy Investment for Taxpayers, 

says Range's CEO David Aldous

http://www.southeastgeorgiatoday.com/index.php option=com_content&task=view&id=5764&Itemid=117

Biofuel dreams running on vapor - AJC

● Range Fuels. The $225 million factory closed last month after reportedly making only a small batch of cellulosic ethanol. The Colorado-based company planned to turn tree limbs, grasses, cornstalks and garbage into ethanol.

http://www.ajc.com/business/biofuel-dreams-running-on-845892.html

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Austin Scott meets with 8th district farmers in a private session

http://tiftongazette.com/local/x62853080/Austin-Scott-meets-with-area-farmers

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Very Interesting

1982 Pinevista online

http://www.e-yearbook.com/sp/eybb?school=20858

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Say what? Range Fuels to produce how many millions of gallons?

Recent Story:
"In November, the U.S. EPA included Range Fuels as one of a handful of cellulosic biofuel producers that it expected to actually produce measurable amounts of fuel this year. When it finalized the 2011 renewable fuel standard (RFS) volumes on Nov. 29, the EPA said it expected Range Fuels to produce 2.3 million ethanol equivalent gallons of fuel this year—100,000 gallons of cellulosic ethanol and 2.9 million gallons of cellulosic methanol."

(EPA  must not have ever visited the Soperton plant.)

"The EPA… is unaware of any company other than Range Fuels pursuing the production of cellulosic methanol."

http://www.ethanolproducer.com/articles/7496/what-happened-to-range-fuels

Almost a year ago (March 2010) Range Fuels had completed equipment installation with plans to produce 4 million gallons per year. 

"Meanwhile, Range Fuels Inc. has lowered initial expectations for its cellulosic ethanol facility near Soperton, Ga. The plant, which completed installation of equipment this month, plans to begin operating this summer with an annual capacity of 4 million gallons, down from an original goal of 10 million gallons."

Read more: Ethanol makers see bumpy road | Atlanta Business Chronicle 

Last summer, from Progressive Farmer:

"Robert Rapier, chief technology officer for bioenergy holding company Merica International, a former engineer at ConocoPhillips, and author of R-Squared Blog, said he believes the Broomfield, Colo.-based company is the poster child for an industry that has over-sold itself and under-performed."

Rapier has been giving Range a skeptical from the beginning.

"Range Fuels had initially intended to start producing in 2008, but that was delayed to 2009 and now production isn't forecast to begin until 2010." - Rapier, December 2008

If you don't read anything else, check out Rapier's article in Forbes magazine almost exactly a year ago (Feb. 25, 2010):

http://blogs.forbes.com/energysource/2010/02/25/diminishing-expectations-from-range-fuels/

We can only wonder why Rapier's viewpoint was ignored.  It proved to be exactly accurate.

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Saturday Fire, Wadley House, 1217 MLK Drive

Burning cinders were still falling from the rafters when this shot was made.

Go to our Picasa web albums to see unedited photos of our firemen in action at a late-reported fire of an old house on MLK Drive near the high school.

As early as 11:45 a.m., the dark smoke was boiling and could be seen from downtown Soperton.  The photos were made starting at 11:58 and ending at 12:15.  There was a fire two weeks earlier at the same house.  A neighbor called it in as soon as she saw it, and she said that (apparently)  nobody had been home and nobody had been outside to see that the house was on fire. 

Link to all 36 pictures:

https://picasaweb.google.com/jamesreese8/110219WadleyFire72#

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Valentine Kings and Queens

Treutlen Nursing Home's Valentine King and Queen for 2011 are Larry Walden and Judith Carson.

Treutlen Living Center's Valentine King and Queen for 2011 are Cue Walker and Vickie Mackey.

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Happy Birthday, Connie Sumner, Treutlen County's Clerk of Court!

Connie's Secretary Week photo early in her career.
She began work with Buddy Rogers, January 1985.

Enjoy your birthday Saturday, Connie.

Oh, go ahead and take the day off!

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Senior Center King and Queen

The Treutlen County Senior Center celebrated Valentines Day last Monday, and in the secret balloting the King and Queen were chosen:

King: Harold Powell

Queen: Dorothy Odum

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The Stories Keep Coming, Nationwide, Range Fuels

THIS IS OUR 500TH POST

Government Loses Bet on Range Fuels

Bless their hearts indeed!

Read it and weep:

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2011/02/government-loses-bet-on-khosla-and-range-fuels

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How to increase your ethanol

This looks like an article that we've already posted, but thought you might enjoy the humor in the photo.

The ajc article shows the ethanol Range Fuels made.  Want to increase the output at no cost, just click on the "Enlarge photo".  Reckon Range did it that way?

http://www.ajc.com/business/plant-closure-bursts-ga-838588.html

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James Fowler's Pines - 80 Years Later

James Fowler began setting out slash pine seedlings in 1926, and by the time that the first newspaper ever printed on paper made from pine trees (The Soperton News, March 31, 1933) he had planted 1,500,000 seedlings.

Jim Ellington recently made pictures of one the old trees that had four catfaces.  Jim said that recently another tree was found to have 75 rings.

Check the Bill Ricks of Soperton blog that mentions the reproduction of the "Slash Pine" issue, which was done February 18, 1976.

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The Most Comprehensive Article Yet on Range Fuels and the Closing

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The original article was published by the AJC, dated today, February 12, 2011, but when we searched for it, it was already in the archives.  Follow this link to see what we found:
http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AT&p_theme=at&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_hidethis=no&s_dispstring=Plant%20closure%20bursts%20Ga.'s%20biomass%20bubble;%20Millions%20spent%20on%20hope%20Range%20Fuels%20would%20make%20state%20a%20major%20producer.&p_field_advanced-0=&p_text_advanced-0=(Plant%20closure%20bursts%20Ga.'s%20biomass%20bubble;%20Millions%20spent%20on%20hope%20Range%20Fuels%20would%20make%20state%20a%20major%20producer.)&xcal_numdocs=20&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&xcal_useweights=no



Excerpts we found most interesting:

more than $162 million in local, state and federal grants, loans and other subsidies committed to the venture.

But critics say the shutdown is a case of good money thrown at unproven science and lofty promises.

Vinod Khosla, the dot-com billionaire behind Range Fuels, vowed in 2007 to "declare a war on oil" and said "cellulosic ethanol is the weapon we need."

Treutlen County, one of the state's poorest, offered 20 years worth of tax abatements and 97 acres in its industrial park.

Ryan Alexander, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense in Washington, said the government should seek to get its money back.

Tree limbs, grasses, cornstalks, hog manure, municipal garbage and other limitless supplies would be transformed into fuel to be blended with gasoline. Less oil would mean fewer greenhouse gases. Because the process doesn't use corn, food prices wouldn't be affected.

A University of Georgia economic impact study concluded that Treutlen County alone would gain 194 direct (factory-related) and indirect (restaurant, hardware store, etc.) jobs with an annual $5.8 million payroll. UGA pegged the statewide economic impact at $150 million.

Georgia awarded Range $6.2 million from the OneGeorgia fund

Range has until 2015 

Read the whole story:

http://www.elp.com/index/from-the-wires/wire_news_display/1358170423.html

Again we contend that the main problem was lack of oversight by federal, state, and local entities.

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Soperton's Range Fuels mentioned with Camilla bankruptcy

The Albany Herald writes about ethanol industry in Georgia: Range Fuels closing in Treutlen County and the corn ethanol bankruptcy in Camilla.

At least Treutlen Development Authority didn't put millions in the Range Fuels development as the authority in southwest Georgia did.

Corporate Greed at Work

http://www.albanyherald.com/news/headlines/Ethanol_facing_cloudy_future_in_Georgia_115819234.html?ref=234

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