Trenton Cleans Up From Killer Tornadics

Scenes like this are becoming rarer as Trenton gets down to business on its nuisance ordinance.  This "tornadically damaged" Glenwood house, photographed in May 2013, is no longer around to drive its neighbors crazy.  Mayor Emanuel says two houses have been razed so far and possibly another four will have their date with the 'dozer before it's all over. 

Trenton City Commission Making Good Headway on Enforcing Eyesore OrdinanceBy Robin Ford Wallace

             The Trenton City Commission will hold a special election this Tuesday to fill its long-empty streets commissioner seat, but none of the three candidates for that post were present at the city commission meeting on March 10 to have their likenesses immortalized in the pages of The Dade County Planet.

Early voting ends today, Friday, at 4 p.m.; then the polls at City Hall will be open on Election Day from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.  Seeking the street commissioner seat – albeit from a distance –are Tommy Lowery, David Moore and Donald Taylor.

Mayor Anthony Emanuel began the regular meeting with his usual intimate tour through the city finances.  Though he was pleased with how well this year’s expenses have been kept in check, February revenues were below projections, said the mayor. 

Emanuel then called upon City Clerk Lucretia Houts to explain the figures:  The first quarter called for bills to be paid up front, said Ms. Houts, but the city has the rest of the year to recover, plus a hefty Georgia Power franchise check winging its way Trentonward even as she spoke to refeather any bare spots in the municipal nest.

“The message to our citizens is we’re not running in the red,” said the mayor.  “We’re in the black.”

Also on the agenda this month was opening bids for cleanup of 20 Glenwood Drive subsequent to realization of Trenton’s eyesore ordinance.  The city had received two bids for the work.  The commissioners voted to accept the low bid of $1200 and award the work to Mike Lawson, pending formal review to ensure the bid met requirements.

Emanuel explained after the meeting that work at the Glenwood site was mostly a matter of hauling away wreckage.  The home on the lot had been pretty much leveled by what Emanuel is pleased to term the “tornadic activity” of April 2011.  “But the debris is there, and the debris has created an unhealthy and unsafe condition,” said the mayor.

Drivers through the Glenwood and Edgewood areas of Trenton may have noticed how much sprucer the neighborhoods are looking these days.  The mayor says yes, for the most part, property owners are doing a good job of complying with the cleanup ordinance.

“They’ve responded very well,” he said.  “We started out with I believe 32 different locations and it’s down to less than 12 now.”

In a county so allergic to zoning or indeed any land-use restrictions that local politicians avoid saying the Z-word aloud, the Trenton city government passed the eyesore ordinance in early 2012 in the face of multiple buildings left in rubble by those killer tornadics.  It gives the city the power, after a long and careful legal process, to demolish properties if their owners will not clean them up, though Emanuel said that’s only as a last resort when all else has failed.

Only two buildings have been razed so far, said Emanuel.  “There are four, I believe, that we’re giving the homeowner time to address it,” he said.  “But there’s four more that we’ll probably have to knock down.”

  Eloise Gass addressed the city commission on behalf of Trenton Tree City, reporting that her group had planted a tree in honor of Edward Wilkie, former Bank of Dade president. 

The Trenton Arts Council had no representative at the meeting, but Marshana Sharp, manager of the Dade County Library, reminded all that TAC and the library were partnering to present a lecture on art books on Friday, March 14, at 7 p.m. and a workshop on making them on Saturday the 15^th at 1 p.m.  (See Writer’s Column entry below for more information.)

Ms. Sharp also said quilting and knitting classes were ongoing at the library, and invited listeners to sign up for beginning computer classes.   Readers may call the library at (706) 657-7857.

The Trenton City Commission meets at City Hall at 6 p.m. on the second Monday of every month.

robinfordwallace@tvn.net

Rick Breeden is thought well of at the Rising Fawn Hardware Store, said an audience member.  And how many people can say that?

Dade Commission Taps Breeden to Replace Goff in District 3

by Robin Ford Wallace

            At a brief meeting on Thursday called for the purpose, the Dade County Commission voted to appoint Rising Fawn’s Rick Breeden to fill the District 3 seat left vacant by Robert Goff, who resigned the commission last week in favor of a run for the Georgia House of Representatives. 

            “It’s a group decision,” said County Executive Chairman Ted Rumley.  “It’s not a one-person deal.”

            Rumley and the other sitting commissioners noted that the law allowed them only 15 calendars days from Goff’s resignation to fill the empty slot.  Thus they had been obliged to act as quickly as possible while at the same time satisfying Sunshine Law requirements for transparency.   

            “One thing I know,” said District 2 Commissioner Scottie Pittman.  “If you’re doing something that people aren’t happy with, the room’s going to be totally full.”  

            The room was not totally full.

            But the commissioners did solicit such public opinion as was on tap in the person of Wildwood’s Rex Harrison, who was among the scanty audience.  Harrison gave Breeden his blessing, pronouncing him “a good Christian man,” and opined:  “Well, they must have went down to Rising Fawn Hardware and gotten him from there.”

Breeden was generally esteemed at the hardware store, added Harrison, and added:  “If you want to know anything from that end of the county, that’d be the best place to go.”

Breeden, retired from a career as estimator for a fabrication company in Chattanooga, is currently a poultry farmer in Rising Fawn.  He has never sought elected office before.  “It sought me out,” he said.

Breeden said Rumley asked him on Sunday to accept the post.  “Let me mill it over through the night,” he replied.  In the morning he asked Rumley:  “Tell me a worst-case scenario that goes along with this job.”  Presumably Rumley did not describe a case bad enough to daunt his draftee because Breeden in the end accepted.

Breeden will serve out this year, after which the District 3 seat will be filled via a special election which will be appended to the general midterm election this November.  Breeden specified that he has no idea yet whether he’ll seek election to keep the job himself. 

“I’m not a politician but I can be a public servant,” he said.

robinfordwallace@tvn.net

Trenton Tree City is spring-cleaning city flowerbeds and could use a little help!  Volunteers cheerfully accepted, strong backs not required but seriously appreciated, nobody’s getting any younger here!  Call Tree City President Eloise Gass at (423) 883-6388 to volunteer.  Pictured here are Ms. Gass (foreground), her faithful amanuensis, Mary Petruska (background) and jail trusty Adam West, who was on carwashing detail at the Dade Sheriff’s Department across the street and brought the thirsty pansies a pail of water.

Artist's Book Lecture and Workshop

WRITER's COLUMN

Artist’s Book Lecture and Workshop This Friday and Saturday
By Robin Ford Wallace

I was about to start this piece by telling you that the first time I met Bob Dombrowski he gave me an artist’s book.  Then I realized I was understating the memory:  Actually, I met the artist’s book before I met Bob!  He sent me one through The Dade County Sentinel, as a kind of calling card, back when my only connection to the newspaper was the “Bob’s Little Acre” columns I contributed sporadically.

I remember wrinkling my brow over it, puzzled.  I had never seen an artist’s book before, even though (through a series of circumstances too complicated to explain) I myself am married to an artist, as opposed to something sensible like an orthodontist, or tax attorney. 

But I digress. The artist’s book was small, about the size of the little tracts proselytizers used to hand you on the sidewalk, but instead of cartoony pictures of what was waiting for you in Hell if you didn’t shape up, it contained Bob’s line drawings and short poems. 

I was interested in the concept but turned up my nose at the idea of “modern poetry.”  I hated everything later than T.S. Eliot!  My philosophy was:  They can make me work for a living, they can make me pay taxes, and sooner or later I will have to die; but there is no power on earth that can make me sit here and endure modern poetry. 

Well, that was just one of many of my core tenets that have been proven wrong.  I stuck that first little booklet on a shelf somewhere and might have forgotten it, but shortly after that I became acquainted with Bob and his life’s partner, Mary, and their zany friends and their sculpture and their paintings and the wild, wonderful dripping-with-color pastiche of their relocated-loft-artist lives. I’ve always thought of it as walking into a Hemingway novel, back during the Paris days when there were cafés and dancing.  Once you walk in no way you’ll ever want to leave – even if it means learning to enjoy a little blank verse here and there at Beatnik Poetry readings!

The Trenton Arts Council, which Bob and Mary founded, is perhaps best known in the Dade community for those Beatnik evenings, as well as for the Downtown Banner project that for several years made Trenton a more interesting town to drive through; but you can’t think of Bob without thinking of those little books.  He continues to make them and not every time you see him, but not infrequently, either, he will hand you one a new one.

Here is a picture of Bob and Mary in 2010, doing their American Gothic impression for a
n article about their performance art festival, "Happenings."

So Bob and artist’s books are inextricably entwined in my mind; but as it turns out the artist’s book tradition is a lot older than Bob (although Bob is no chicken!).  They were around long before 19^th -century poet William Blake found fame with the elegant little volumes he hand-painted, printed and bound with the sole help of his wife.    They date back at least to the Middle Ages.

Artist’s books are not catalogs of an artist’s work.  They are fully realized pieces of art in themselves.  They may contain just images or just words or both.  They can be printed in small editions but the usual case is that they are handmade.  They can be made in batches or each one can be unique.

Avant-garde artists have always used the artist’s book medium to get their work out to the world without the help – and sometimes despite the indifference – of publishing houses and galleries.  The whole point of the artist’s book is that it takes the publishing houses and galleries out of the equation.  It doesn’t matter what the publishing house is looking for right now or what kind of art the gallery is currently showing.  They can shove it up their nose.  The artist is calling the shots here!  

You might compare it to writing a blog …

ANYWAY, Bob Dombrowski has not only been producing artist’s books himself for decades, he has also collected those of others, and this Friday, March 14, he will lead a discussion about them at 7 p.m. at the Dade County Library.  Then, at 1 p.m. on Saturday, there will be a hands-on workshop in which guests will learn to make artist’s books themselves.  Library manager Marshana Sharp will be conducting a session for young children, helping the smallest artists to make books of their own.  After the event, a collection of artist’s books will remain at the library for public display.

The library is partnering with the Trenton Arts Council for this project through a grant the two organizations obtained through the Georgia Council for the Arts, which partners with the National Endowment for the Arts.

Bob was interviewed about the artist’s book event by both the Chattanooga Times Free Press and the local public radio station.  Readers may find the newspaper article online (March 2 edition) but the radio interview is yet to come – it will be aired tomorrow, Friday, at 10 a.m., on WUTC, 88.1 FM.

Both the lecture and the workshop are free and both adults and children are welcome.  Guests may register for the workshop by calling the library at (706) 657-7857, but they are also welcome to drop in. 

The Trenton Art Council and the Dade County Library invite all to attend – to listen, to discuss and perhaps also to create something small and perfect of their own.

Robinfordwallace@tvn.net

Dade School Board Advertises For New Superintendent

Chairperson Carolyn Bradford (center) reads a job announcement for a new schools superintendent at Monday's work session of the Dade County Board of Education.  From right to left are board members Johnny Warren, Cindy Shaw, Bradford, Acting Superintendent Cherie Swader and board member David Powell.  Missing is member Jeff Forester, who is not seeking reelection in this year's midterms.

SWSS (Straight White School System) Seeks Enthusiastic Super For LTR.  Possibly.

By Robin Ford Wallace

Are you a certified Georgia academic leader, or in any case eligible for certification, a strong leader and able to work well with others?  If so, you may also be eligible to be the new schools superintendent the Dade County Board of Education is seeking – as long, that is, as you are also enthusiastic.

The Dade Board of Education officially launched its search for a new school system boss at an informal work session on Monday afternoon.  BOE Chairwoman Carolyn Bradford saved the announcement for last, waiting until acting Superintendent Cherie Swader – the former second-in-command appointed to fill the gap left by the early contract buyout of former Superintendent Shawn Tobin, effective last month – had taken board members through a laundry list of routine agenda items before reading a prepared release about the search.

“The Board has devoted extensive time to discussion of qualifications desired of the next Superintendent,” reads the statement.  “Qualifications and traits identified by the Board include enthusiasm, strong leadership, and the ability to work closely with the system’s current employees.”

“Extensive time” in this case boils down to the three weeks or so since, at a special called meeting on Feb. 20, the board gave Tobin the shove and a $44,500 check to buffer it; and the schedule Ms. Bradford provided in the release made it clear that the board intends to proceed just as briskly with replacing him.  Deadline for receiving applications is about a month from now, 4 p.m. on April 14, and after conducting interviews through May 10 the board hopes to name a new super in the week of May 12-19, installing him or her in his or her spacious new Tradition Lane office by July 1.

If it seems like a matter of marrying in haste, Dade County has not of late been in the habit of cultivating long-term relationships with its school superintendents.  The new hiree will be the fourth since the beginning of the century.  Tobin’s bare three years at the top, riddled with controversy almost from the beginning, were preceded by the less turbulent administration of Patty Priest, who left the job amid general approbation to seek a planned retirement; but her predecessor, Judy Bean, departed under darker auspices after a series of well-publicized wrestling matches with the board.

Superintendent Tobin drew attention to the school system through banning a National-Book-award-winning novel from the high school; defunding the already struggling Dade County Library; and, latterly, campaigning to amend a local tax break that allows seniors to exempt their houses of however high a value from school taxes.

The release issued by the school board says student enrollment systemwide in Dade is 2,237, with a teaching and support staff of 310.  There are four schools in the system.

The school board will post its advertisement for a new superintendent through the Georgia School Board Association, the Georgia School Superintendents Association, the Regional Education Service Agencies (RESA), and mailings to school systems.

To qualify, applicants must submit a cover letter, resume, references, completed job application obtained from the school system, and copy of Georgia leadership certificate or evidence of eligibility for same.  An application and job description are available at the school system’s website, dadecountyschools.org. 

The website also invites interested parents to participate in a “Dade County Superintendent Search Survey.”

The advertisement does not specify salary but a Georgia open records website lists the outgoing superintendent’s fiscal year 2013 salary as $106,904.33 with travel allowance of $1550.

At the work session were candidates Alan Painter, who is running for the Georgia House of Representatives, and Summer Kelley, who is vying for the District 2 school board seat to be vacated by Jeff Forester -- but who was at the meeting in her role as journalist, videotaping the meeting for the local television station. 

Other agenda items considered at the Monday school board session included proposed school calendars for the upcoming 2014-15 school year.  Acting Superintendent Swader presented the board with three, explaining that start and stop dates for the new year depend on how many instructional days financial reality will permit to be added back into the system’s foreshortened schedule.

Proposed schedules include instructional days of 171, 170 and 169, down from the 180 days of yore but improved over the budget-shaved roster of 168.  Ms. Swader said the system will add one, two or three days back in, depending on what news comes up from Atlanta after the Georgia legislative session concludes in coming weeks.         

Proposed starting dates for the school year are Aug. 20, 21 or 22, with end dates of May 27 through 29, depending on funding.  

Ms. Swader said funding may one day be available to restore schools to the full 180 days, which after years of calendar slashing may – in Shakespeare’s words, not Ms. Swader’s – make “summer’s fair have all too short a rent” indeed.  “That’s going to be pretty much a shock on everybody, so this is more a gradual movement on that,” she said. 

 Otherwise, Ms. Swader asked the board to consider spending for various capital projects, including a new roof for the high school, new equipment for the nutrition program and purchase of a new car for staff travel.

Staffers are currently saving the system mileage money by using for their required job travel two 2007-model automobiles the system bought for since-discontinued driver’s education classes, said Ms. Swader; but drivers of one of the vehicles, a Taurus, are experiencing mysterious noises and distressing dashboard lights.

Ms. Swader also said she hoped to have available for next week’s regular meeting of the board an Atlanta expert to advise board members about seeking funds to replace its ailing heating and air conditioning system.

That meeting is at 6 p.m. Monday in the school board office in front of the high school, off Highway 136 East.

robinfordwallace@tvn.net

More Than You Ever Wanted To Know About Local Option Sales Tax

Dade Commission Ties Up Loose Ends For SPLOST Question on May BallotBy Robin Ford Wallace

The Dade County Commission at its regular March 6 meeting finalized formalities to make renewal of its longstanding special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) a referendum item in the May primary elections. 

A lot rides on the referendum results:  The county depends on funds generated by this 1-cent to a dollar tax on purchases to buy everything from road equipment to fire trucks.

Dade has in fact already borrowed, through a 2013 bond issue shared with the independent Dade Industrial Authority Development Authority (IDA), against anticipated SPLOST collections to pay for emergency road repairs necessitated by last year’s heavy rains. 

But Dade voters have historically returned a consistent yes to the SPLOST, which must be reapproved very five years.  “I know I’ve got records going back to 1998,” said Townsend.

This year’s SPLOST project list is largely a continuation of the one adopted in 2009, which in turn had carryovers from the 2004 list.  “Everything, pretty much, on this one was on the other one,” said County Clerk Don Townsend.  “They run out and we just continually renew it.”

An exception is the new county courts facility, which is now a fait accompli and thus off the to-do lineup, he added.

But many other projects are ongoing, such as roads, which require constant upgrades and maintenance, and capital safety investment such as equipment and vehicles for the county’s 911 Emergency Center and volunteer fire departments, which must also be updated, repaired or replaced periodically.

The SPLOST language also gives Dade permission to spend for relocation of county offices in case of a “major disruption,” such as a tornado or flood, said Townsend, but he added that at present no county employee was in need of any such relocation as far as he knew.

Dade commissioners, like other county leaders statewide, tout local option tax as a “fair tax” paid by citizens as well as by travelers passing through and buying gasoline or other incidental purchases.

In Dade, sales tax is 7 cents on the dollar.  In addition to the 4-cent state sales tax imposed by Georgia and the 1-cent SPLOST, buyers pay another penny for LOST, or regular local option sales tax, and one more for ESPLOST, an educational special purpose local option sales tax that goes directly to the county school system.

ESPLOST is imposed and renewed separately every five years, in Dade’s case, most recently in 2012 – after it was allowed to elapse for three months because of the school system’s failure to get it on the ballot in time.

But LOST needs renewal only every 10 years.

SPLOST funds by Georgia law must be used for capital expenditures as opposed to general operating costs.  LOST money, by contrast, explained Townsend, is used in Dade entirely to offset real estate tax collection.

The county LOST portion, that is – “I’m not sure what the city does with theirs,” he added.

He elucidated that in Dade County, LOST funds are shared between Dade and the Trenton city government in a simple, population-determined 80/20 split.  In larger counties that contain more than one town, added Townsend, that sharing between county and municipality can get more complicated.

Georgia adopted the LOST initiative for counties in 1978 and SPLOST in 1985.

Other concerned parties to Dade’s SPLOST referendum, the Dade Water and Sewer Authority and IDA, had already signed off on this year’s version. 

And the Trenton City of Commission held a special called meeting, also on March 6, to approve an intergovernmental agreement with the county required for the SPLOST question. 

robinfordwallace@tvn.net

Citizen Asks For Explanation of School Board's Actions

Carol Varnell (center), pictured here at an earlier Dade County Commission meeting, asked the body Thursday for an explanation of the school board's recent doings.  The commissioners explained they weren't kept in the loop themselves.

Will School Board Explain Itself?  Probably Not, Says Powell
By Robin Ford Wallace

One Dade citizen attending Thursday’s March meeting of the Dade County Commission asked the commissioners to explain recent doings of the county school board.

Why, asked Carol Varnell, had the Dade County Board of Education chosen to pay Superintendent Shawn Tobin $44,500 to leave early rather than letting him serve out his notice?  “We have to pay extra money because of what the school board did.  I don’t understand,” said Ms. Varnell.

Also, she asked, what had happened with Tobin anyway?  Had he resigned?  Everything had seemed to be moving smoothly along, she said; then suddenly, it came out Tobin was leaving.  “Did something bad happen that they couldn’t get along?” she asked.   “To me, it was like a hush-hush thing,” she said.

The commissioners explained that the school board was a separate entity and didn’t have to give them a reason for its actions.   “I can’t really demand that they share it with us,” said Dade Executive Chairman Ted Rumley.

Ms. Varnell wasn’t having any of that.  Rumley was the head of the county, wasn’t he?  “How come you don’t know that when people in Dade County want to know it?” she asked.

Rumley and the other commissioners explained that what the board of education had done was buy out Tobin’s contract, and that part of the $45,543.98 it paid him was for salary already earned as well as accumulated vacation time.  “I think it ended up being around 20, 25 they paid him to go away,” said District 2 Commissioner Scottie Pittman.

“I believe we could have stomached to give him another nine weeks for that,” commented a man in the audience.

“That’s a lot of money coming out of Dade,” said Ms. Varnell.  “I think the people of Dade County have been done wrong by the school board and I’ll tell them that.”

Rumley couldn’t answer Ms. Varnell’s questions but speculated school board members themselves would oblige.  “Surely they’ll come out and have a briefing,” he said.

 But board of education at-large member David Powell says no, they probably won’t. 

“I doubt they’re going to come out and give their reasons,” said Powell, contacted by phone on Friday. 

Board Chairperson Carolyn Bradford had issued a written statement at the time of the buyout, he reminded, thanking Tobin for his service and saying the move would allow the board to appoint an interim superintendent and begin a search for a permanent replacement.  “That’s all the information that’s going to be given,” said Powell.

And Powell – the only one of the five-member board to vote against the buyout – says he’s as much in the dark as anybody as to why his fellow board members acted the way they did.   “I’ve asked the same question,’ he said.  “I can’t tell you why because they haven’t told me why.”    

Powell said he’d learned about the buyout pretty much “through the grapevine.”  “Why there was even a mention of a buyout, I don’t know,” he said.

He said that in earlier executive sessions – executive sessions are closed-door conferences the board uses to discuss personnel matters – it had become clear that Tobin was not going to be asked to stay on.  “Shawn was not getting his contract renewed,” he said.  “He knew he wasn’t getting a renewal.  It never went to a vote because it wasn’t going to get the numbers.”

And Powell, who continues to champion Tobin – “He’s not perfect but I believe he’s done a good job running the system” – says he didn’t understand that, either.  Powell said he’d solicited input from the community and the other board members about what Tobin had done to earn their disapproval.  “My phone never rang,” he said.

In any case, said Powell, Tobin had accepted that his Dade tenure was over and had been able to use credit for his years of military service to qualify for an early retirement.  But as to the early buyout, Powell said the idea for that appeared to have evolved from a chance remark the superintendent had made earlier after learning about a colleague in another county being offered a similar deal. 

“Shawn made a comment in passing about, ‘If you want to buy me out,’ ” said Powell.  “People took it upon themselves to run with that.”

Powell explained a contract buyout was a good thing for an employee, because he could take his lump sum and leave, perhaps accepting another position, as he understood Tobin to have done.

 The Planet emailed the other board of education members for comment on the buyout but by the time of this writing had not received a reply.

And indeed, the Dade Board of Education is not traditionally an overwhelmingly forthcoming body.  Ms. Varnell was able to ask her questions directly to the Dade County Commission, and receive face-to-face such answers as the commissioners were able to furnish.

But at public hearings at the Dade Board of Education, the board has invoked written guidelines specifying it will listen to the public but not answer.

Yet it is to the board of education that the lion’s share of the public’s local tax dollars go.  Chief Appraiser Paula Duvall of the Dade County Tax Assessor’s office confirmed Monday that of each Dade real estate tax dollar, the school board receives about 75 cents and the county commission 25.

The school board is to hold a work session this afternoon at 5 p.m. at which it is slated to take up the matter of finding a new superintendent.  Associate Superintendent Cherie Swader has been appointed interim head of the system.

robinfordwallace@tvn.net