early voting saturday voting successful the albany...
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Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.
Mark Twain, author, 1835 - 1910
Vol. CXX No. 268 $1.50 Contents © 2012 Page Editor: Casey Dixon
The Albany
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EARLY VOTING Saturday voting successful in Dougherty County, 3A
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Sunday, July 22, 2012
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CLASSIFIED 1D CROSSWORD 7D OBITUARIES 6B SOUTHVIEW 1C SPORTS 1B SUNDAY INC. 7B
Postell draws race into Aviation board talk
The Albany City Commission has tenatively �voted to fill two vacancies on the local aviation board.
J.D. [email protected]
ALBANY — While attempting to make a com-ment about keeping the city’s aviation board diverse, Ward VI Commissioner Tommie Pos-tell sparked a racially-charged conversation during this week’s Albany City Commission meeting.
City Commissioners tenatively voted to approve the recommendation of the avia-tion board to reappoint Keith Fletcher to fill a vacancy left in the wake of the death of board member Eugene Jeter with Dr. Frank Middleton.
Postell said he took issue with the recommendation to appoint Middleton, who is white, because he believes Jeter, who was black, should be replaced by another African-American.
“I would like to see a black replace that black member,” Postell said. “I don’t want to see no Utopia where the board is all white males. ... It sounds like the good old boy system to me, and we need to end that.”
Postell asked Yvette Aehle, the director of the Southwest Georgia Regional Airport, why Henry Davis, a black man, wasn’t considered for the position while Middleton was.
“Mr. Middleton is a pilot who ...” Aehle said, before being cut off by Postell.
“I don’t care if they can fly. I want to know why Henry Davis wasn’t considered,” Postell said.
Mayor Pro Tem and Ward V Commissioner Bob Langstaff, who sits as the City Commis-sion’s representative on the aviation board, answered, saying that Davis didn’t submit a letter of intent or resume and that the board only considered two new applicants: Middle-ton and former City Commissioner Henry Mathis.
“I don’t have anything against Dr. Middle-ton, I just don’t want to overload (the aviation board) with Caucasians just like I wouldn’t want to overload it with blacks. It needs to be a diverse board,” Postell said.
Ward IV Commissioner Roger Marietta defended Middleton and called Postell out on his comments.
“I think he’s a good candidate, and I think it’s inappropriate to dwell on the race of the applicant. In a way, I sympathize with Com-missioner Postell. If he feels African-Amer-icans should be better represented on the board, then he should encourage someone to apply when there is a vacancy,” Marietta said.
“Point of reference: I did, and your com-ments are out of order,” Postell returned.
The vote won’t be official until Tuesday’s night meeting.
Early County man uses the sun to water crops
For a total cost of about $250, an �Early County man irrigates his garden by solar power.
BLAKELY — On a sunny morning in Early County, muscadines, fruit trees, melons, grapes and paw paws receive life-giving irrigation — water pumped through soaker hoses from a nearby tank of rain water. What makes the scene unusual is that the pump is fu-eled by a source some 93 million miles away.
Joe Powell, 60, a transplanted Pennsylvanian, came to Early County “to do the work of the Lord” and to do
what he could to assist the congrega-tion of the local Seventh Day Adventist Church. Director of prevention and treatment for addictions in his former state of residence, Powell has family roots and land near Blakely.
“I have always had a garden of some sort, whether I was in the city or any-where,” Powell said. “My aim right now is to develop hands-on acreage where people can learn to work with soil and have their own gardens. I was a walk-ing resource for the state when I lived in Pennsylvania, and I’m going to be a resource here to teach whoever wants to learn.”
A few months ago, Powell attended an irrigation workshop in Newton, sponsored by StrikeForce, a cross-
agency program of the USDA designed to accelerate assistance to minority and underserved communities and farmers in high-poverty counties of Georgia, Mississippi and Arkansas. The information Powell gained spurred his experimental nature, and soon he had put together a solar power “kit” from a company called Harbor Freight.
Powell’s simple system involves small solar panels, a regulator, inverter and an electric cart battery. For a total cost of around $250, Powell says the system is sufficient to provide water for the 1/4-acre or so he calls Pleasant Acres. StrikeForce area coordinators are tak-ing Powell up on his willingness to
Joe Powell, originally from Pennsylvania, came to Early County to “do the work of the Lord,” and makes himself available as a resource for gardening. Powell has installed a simple system for providing light and small-scale irrigation using solar power.
FUN IN THE SUN: Sisters Shakira, 6, left, and Jamilla Turner, 4, enjoy a daring swing ride as they play on the tire swing at Turtle Grove Play Park on a recent sunny afternoon. Sunshine will be plentiful today, but rain chances will begin moving back into the area during the first part of the week.
Postell
n SPORTSBRAVES SPLIT DOUBLEHEADER WITH NATIONALS
with ...Carol Rathel
OTJOn the jobFind out about Carol Rathel, the owner of Stonehaven Stables in Lees-burg in today’s On The Job feature in Sunday Inc. on Page7B.
n SOLAR POWERED IRRIGATION
Play ‘mEASuRES’ up 1C
Please see Sun, 4A