August 3, 2006---- Former congressman Max Burns came to Vidalia on an Agriculture listening tour this week. Max Burns is a Republican running for Congress in the newly drawn 12th Congressional District of Georgia. He represented the former 12th District in the 108th Congress. During this time Burns served on the House Committees on Agriculture; Education and the Workforce; and Transportation and Infrastructure. Prior to his election, he served twenty years as a professor of Information Systems at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro. "I'm a small town person. I grew up out in the country near Sylvania, so I?ve been there before. Infrastructure is extremely important to growth in any community. Vidalia and Toombs County and Lyons and Montgomery County have enjoyed some really strong growth largely because you were prepared for it. You had the infrastructure in place and had a far-sighted group of leaders down here who helped us move forward. When we were in Congress on the Transportation Committee, I proposed two new interstates. Eighty percent, EIGHTY PERCENT, of all jobs are created within ten miles of the interstate. And I tell you what, we have to have more interstates outside of metro Atlanta to give the rest of Georgia a chance of growth and opportunity."

Burns says that if elected, four major issues will be his focus in the upcoming congressional year. "Immigration is on the mind of folks, and certainly that?s a big issue in Toombs County and onion country. I support a legal workforce. I do not support illegal immigrants gaining citizenship or amnesty. The second thing everyone is focusing on domestically is energy costs. When you?re paying three dollars a gallon for gasoline, it hurts. And it hurts big time! Iraq is still there, and what you see in Israel and Lebanon right now is a real challenge for all of us. We?ve got to continue to aggressively engage terrorists. We cannot allow them the luxury of re-grouping, and re-arming, and re-attacking us. So, I'm going to continue to support an aggressive pre-emptive position against terror. And I think the last thing that folks want to hear about is how we are going to solve our deficit problem. We can?t spend your future away. We can?t spend my children?s future away."

Burns?s opponent in the General election on November 7th is Democrat Congressman John Barrow. For more information on Max Burns and his campaign, visit www.maxburns.com.

August 2, 2006---- Last week, Toombs County had a visitor from Japan. The Toombs County Future Farmers of America sponsored Kenta Nyaoka as exchange student in a partnership with Future Farmers of Japan for two weeks. Toombs County FFA Advisor Mark Montford says that twenty-two students from Japan came to Georgia through an exchange program. "Our state director, Mr. James Woodard, toured some agriculture schools last year in Japan and he worked up an exchange program with FFA and FFJ for the summer. So this year we have 22 students who are in Georgia and our chapter was very fortunate to host one of those students. Kenta has kind of experienced American life on the farm. And so I think it's been a really neat experience for him. He's taken a tour of the DOT and the one-way pairing in Vidalia because his actual major is civil engineering. So we tried to do our very best to show him some different opportunities here in American that he can take back with him to Japan."

Kenta stayed with the Beckum family for his first week in Toombs County. Lucus Beckum, also the reporter for FFA, tells us about his experience. "While he was with us, he learned things like riding 4-wheelers and shooting shotguns. We took a tour of agriculture at Ben Sander's farm. He was nice enough to go out there and look around his farm and onion cooler and onion grader. It pretty much showed him what Toombs County was about and all the agriculture and how it brings in revenue to Toombs County. I think he's going to go back over to Japan with a little bit more knowledge than he came over here with.

Kenta also stayed with the Jones family. Jessica Jones, who is the President of FFA tells us that although the language barrier was hard, both Kenta and the FFA students were able to learn a lot from each other. "Kenta has been a great experience for us. It's kind of hard to talk to him. We have a translator, so we talk to him the best we can. He's taught us a couple of words, so it's been really cool to have him here." TreutlenCountyBoardofEducationKeepsCurrentMillageRate, Treutlen County Board of Education Keeps Current Millage Rate August 1-- If you live in Treutlen County, your taxes may be going up next year. Despite property revaluations in Truetlen County, the Treutlen County School Board has decided to keep the school millage rate at 12 mills. Superintendent Charles Ellington says that the school’s budget had to be increased due to state mandated salary increases and increasing fuel costs. Also, Ellington says that by rolling the millage rate back, the equalization funds received from the state would be much less than last year. Treutlen County also is looking into building new school buildings, and for the possibility of receiving a low wealth grant, Ellington says the school’s millage rate must be at least 12 mills. "The schools in Treutlen County were constructed in the mid-1950s but we're reaching a point now where an architect has determined that it would be more economically feasible to construct new facilities than to continue trying to renovate and repair the ones that we have. In order for us to take advantage of all possible avenues of funding, in addition to regular capital outlay funds that are available to us, we need to qualify for what is called a low wealth grant and in order to do that we need to be at 12 mills plus have in place a Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax dedicated to the construction of new schools."

Two public hearings have already been held and the final hearing is on Friday at 11am at the Dicey Kate Gillis Auditorium in Soperton.