(Sep 30)-- Meadows Regional Medical Center CEO Alan Kent announces settlement of a federal civil action brought against the hospital under provisions of what's called the "Federal Whistleblowers Act." Kent says the hospital is repaying $1.2 million dollars in overpayments the government made to MRMC for claims filed on behalf of Medicare patient care. The case grew out of a whistleblower case filed in April, 1998 by Vidalia Dr's. Ronnie Smith and James Barber. Part of the settlement dismisses the allegations made by the physicians against Meadows and relieves MRMC of any punitive fines. The act entitles "whistleblowers" to receive from 15% to 23% of any amount recovered by the government. Patrick Crosby of the U.S. Attorney's office, Northern District, says the two doctors will share $190,800 for blowing the whistle on the hospital's overbilling.

In a coincidental announcement, Kent also reports that Meadows is expected to receive an estimated $600,000 in refunds from the Georgia Department of Community Health for Medicaid care. MRMC and six other Georgia hospitals filed suit in Fulton County Superior Court alleging the state failed to pay the proper rates for care the hospitals provided to Medicaid patients. The court ruled in favor of the hospitals and the decision has been appealed to the Georgia Court of Appeals.

(Sep 28)-- Toombs County Sheriff Junior Kight reports five arrests after drug agents discovered marijauna plants growing in two Toombs County residences. Sheriff Kight says 31 marijuana plants and about one-and-half pounds of harvested marijuana were found when officers executed search warrants. He esitmates the street value of the find at $78,000. Arrested and facing felony drug charges are Denton Brantley Jr. and Barbara Brantley of 596 George Morris Road, James and Susan Register of 799 George Morris Road, and Leslie Anne Thornton of Glenwood.

(Sep 27)-- The city of Vidalia is considering an investment of up to $10 million to bring the city broadband access to the Internet. Mayor Ronnie Dixon and members of the city council were briefed on a business plan for such a system Tuesday during a meeting at city hall. Dixon says high speed access to the Internet will provide local companies with state of the art links to data, video and audio in order to compete in the new e-commerce economy. Officials believe broadband telecommunications access is as important as access to an interstate in terms of economic development. The city of Tifton has already embarked on such an enterprise and Tifton's mayor attended Tuesday's session. Vidalia officials plan to visit Tifton to observe that city's operation. A key ingredient to the system would be city ownership of a cable system and the city is being advised to discuss a buyout of Northland Cable In other actions Tuesday, the city council okayed over $200,000 in paving for nine city streets including Slayton, Third Street, 5th, 10th and 12th Avenues, Katherine Drive, Southgate, and Irvin Place plus a pseudo-paving treatment for Page Lane.

(Sep 21)-- Toombs County Commissioners are raising taxes by one mil, and Thursday complied with state law by holding the last of three public hearings required when there is no rollback of taxes to offset increases in the value of the county tax digest. Before the new Taxpayer Bill of Rights law in Georgia, many governments held the line on the millage rate but received more revenue when revaluation of property caused an increase in the tax digest. This amounted to a "stealth" tax increase for property owners, and the legislature sought to eliminate this practice with the new law. However, even though the Toombs County tax digest increased this year, Toombs Commissioners are in a financial hole and could not afford a rollback. Instead they are levying 11 mils for county operations and one mil earmarked for the Toombs County Development Authority, a net increase of one mil over last year. At the same time, county commission office manager Roy Stewart estimates the county is some $700,000 dollars short of what it will take to meet budget requests from county consitutional officers and department heads. As a result, the commission is looking for areas to cut, including personnel, in its budget for 2001.

There is one caveat for taxpayers outside Vidalia. Because they pay school taxes levied by the Toombs County Board of Education, they will see a net decrease of one mil in their annual property tax bill. That's because the Toombs school board reduced its annual levy from 15 to 13 mils. After paying the one mil increase from the County Commission, they will still save one mil from last year's rates.

(Sep 20)-- Treutlen County voters elected a new county commissioner Tuesday to fill the unexpired term of District 5 Commissioner Willie B. McLendon who resigned due to ill health. In a close race, voters elected William Baker over Floyd Mincey, 191-184.

(Sep 20)-- The Georgia Department of Transportation has approved funding for resurfacing of roads and streets in Toombs County, Lyons, Santa Claus and Vidalia. Commissioner Tom Coleman says the projects include 1.68 miles of the Liege Gay Road (County Road 146) from State Route 178 to the Ross Bowen Road; .181 mile of Holly Hill Drive, .08 mile of South Tenth Street, and .1 mile of West Stuart Street, all in Lyons; .07 mile of Reindeer Street in Santa Claus; and 1.32 miles of Thompson Pond Road from Highway 292 to the Vidalia City Limits. Estimated completion dates for the projects is May, 2001.

(Sep 20)-- State School Superintendent Linda Schrenko says Georgia is showing the most improved SAT scores in the Southeast even though the state average of 974 is nearly the lowest in the nation, only South Carolina ranks lower. Local educators are quick to point out that many states, like Iowa for example, only test the top 5% of their students with the "SAT" and, as a result, the rankings are misleading since Georgia allows all of its students to take the test. Listed below are average scores of the SAT for area schools as compared to the state average. One column shows average scores for all students who took the test, while the other column shows scores of students in college preparatory classes.

                   State       VHS              TCHS                  MCHS                 TREUTLEN
                Average  All     Coll Prep  All   Coll Prep     All   Coll Prep       All    Coll Prep

Verbal         488     474      512         473     497        461      475            467       516

Math          486     486      524         471     498        456      467            467       524

Total          974     960     1036         944     995        917      942            934      1040