tra X Times-Herald
DECEMBER 6 - DECEMBER 12, 2017
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Howard Warner Community Center playground fund still needs $25,000
BY W. WINSTON SKINNER winston@newnan.com
The Newnan Times-Herald’s drive to raise money for the playground at the Howard Warner Community Center needs to raise $25,000 during the next few weeks. The newspaper is sponsoring the project with funding going through the Coweta Community Foundation. Ginger Jackson Queener of CCF said the playground fund currently has $44,460 in donations and pledges. The goal is $70,000. “We need to have the funding finalized by Jan. 15,” Queener said. Community work dates are set for April 27-28. The fund drive got started several months ago. In the summer, donations plateaued at $31,470, but there has been a boost in contributions since. The playground will be located at the community center on Savannah Street, which is located in a historic school building named for Howard Warner, a prominent black educator in Coweta County. Contributions so far have come from community organizations, from individuals honoring their grandchildren and from people who knew members of the Warner family. Checks payable to CCF may be sent to NTH Playground Fund, Coweta Community Foundation, P.O. Box 236, Newnan, GA 30264. Donors should include information if the gift is in memory or in honor of someone. Donations can also be made online using a credit card. When donating online, be sure to specify the Howard Warner Playground Fund. The site is: www.cowetafoundation.org/gift/ donate
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PHOTO BY BETH NEELY
The Newnan Times-Herald’s fundraising campaign to build a playground at the Howard Warner Community Center needs to raise $25,000 in the next few weeks.
Ferguson wants changes to student loan repayment BY SARAH FAY CAMPBELL sarah@newnan.com Congressman Drew Ferguson has introduced legislation making major changes to student loan repayment plans – including doing away with time-based loan forgiveness for lower-income borrowers. The “Help Students Repay Ac t ” a f fe c t s t he va r iou s i ncome-driven repay ment plans, and, if passed, would only apply to new loans. Ferguson’s legislation, House Resolution 4372, does away with an abundance of student loan repayment options and allows only two: the standard, 10-year repayment plan and a single income-based plan. Currently, borrowers making loan payments under the five existing income-driven plans make payments for 20 or 25 years – depending on the specific repayment plan. After that time, any remaining loan balance is forgiven. Ferguson’s plan does away with the time-based loan forgiveness altogether. Instead, borrowers would be responsible for paying the entire loan, but interest would stop accruing after 10 years, according to Ferguson’s staff.
My bill would simplify the repayment process and give borrowers the opportunity to pay down their loans based on their income, reducing their risk of default. The plan doesn’t affect public service loan forgiveness, or other loan forgiveness options. “Our current student loan repayment process is too complex, which only makes it more difficult for borrowers to successfully repay their loans,” Ferguson, R-West Point, said in an emailed statement. “We must empower borrowers to make active progress towards repayment. My bill would simplify the repayment process and give borrowers the opportunity to pay down their loans based on their income, reducing their risk of default.” Ferguson was asked why he wants to do away with the time-based forgivingness. Forgiveness “does not incentivize student borrowers to make significant progress on their loans, when they know
that once they reach an arbitrary cut-off year, all borrowers funds will be forgiven,” he said. “And time-based forgiveness certainly does nothing to put downward pressure on the very real problem of rising college costs, when institutions know that students can borrow past their means.” Capping the interest after 10 years “gives borrowers a better likelihood of paying down the principle on their loan, rather than simply paying down interest that continues to accrue until the loan is forgiven.” According to the congressman’s office, the repayment amount of a loan will be the same whether it’s under the 10-year standard plan or the income-based plan. The actual language of the bill states that interest will
cease accruing “after the borrower has made payments… in an amount equal to” the amount the borrower would have made based on a 10-year repayment plan, plus any capitalized interest. Members of Ferguson’s staff checked with legislative counsel after being asked whether the bill caps interest after 10 years or only after the original principal and interest have been paid. The staffer said that the legal experts assured her the legislation caps interest after 10 years. Under the legislation, borrowers on the income-based plan would have payments set at 15 percent of discretionary income. The plan calculates discretionary income as federal adjusted gross income minus 150 percent of the poverty level. Currently, some incomedriven plans set payments at 15 percent of discretionary income while others set the payment at 10 percent. Before the legislation was introduced, surveys on the issue were sent to everyone on the congressman’s email list. There were approximately 3,000 responses, according to the congressman’s office.
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Coweta starting ‘Reverse 911’ system BY SARAH FAY CAMPBELL sarah@newnan.com Coweta County will be implementing a “Reverse 911” system to notify residents in the event of emergencies. Tuesday night, the Coweta County Board of Commissioners voted to move forward with the system, which will be done through Code Red Mobile Alert. When the system goes active, likely in January, Coweta residents will be able to sign up to receive the alert phone calls when an active tornado warning is in their area. The alert phone calls will consist of a recorded message. Coweta Emergency Manager Director Jay Jones said that, at first, the alerts will be limited to tornado warnings. The system can give the county the ability to send out other types of emergency alerts, as well. Jones said he wants to get the system running before deciding if other types of alerts will be added. People can sign up to have the alerts sent to mobile phones or land lines, but the only way to
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