Urban Pro Weekly

Roundtree, Kenner-McIntyre get salary boost More commissioners named in ethics probe

U W rban Pro NEWS • COMMENTARY

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Building The CSRA’s Community FREE

The CSRA’s FREE WEEKLY WEEKLY

Newspaper Newspaper VOL.2 NO.23 VOL.2 NO.18

ENTERTAINMENT FEBRUARY 21 - 27, 2013

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BUSINESS PROFILE Marian T. Ebron - M.D.

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BUSINESS PROFILE Marian T. Ebron - M.D.

Engaging in a healthy lifestyle is imperative and doing preventive screening can go a long way in maintaining good health and it helps to catch diseases in an early stage. – Marian T. Ebron, M.D. UrbanProWeekly: Where were you born and where were you raised?

DR. EBRON: I was born in Durham, North Carolina and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina.

UPW: We’re always pleasantly surprised when successful professional people have graduated from the local school system. Is that your case?

DR. EBRON: No, I did however do my Internal Medicine Residency at the Medical College of Georgia.

UPW: We see that as a youth, you did volunteer work in hospitals.

What led you to do that and was that experience the reason you decided to go into medicine?

DR. EBRON: I was a Candy Striper at Duke Hospital at the age of 11.

My parents worked at the hospital and I was always interested in helping people. As a Candy Striper you get the opportunity to see some of what the doctors do, I thought it was interesting. I decided at that point that I wanted to be a doctor. I didn’t know what kind, but I knew I wanted to be one.

UPW: Where did you receive your medical training?

DR. EBRON: I graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

UPW: What influenced your decision to go into Internal Medicine?

DR. EBRON: I had two interests, I really wanted to do something in Women’s Health and the other in Surgery. My initial residency was in OB/GYN. However, I was not interested because the hours were insane and I did not have an opportunity to form a relationship with my patients.

Our program did a rotation with Internal Medicine. I felt so much more in line with my dream as a physician, so I switched to Internal Medicine.

more unnecessary tests because we have the technology, and patients are more demanding at times because of the internet. Sometimes the tests may lead to an earlier diagnosis which will also increase costs to the system but at the same time this cause prevents litigation and the chance of miss-diagnoses. This is rare however, but no one wants the possibility of a lawsuit.

UPW: Do you feel that there is anything the average person can do to minimize the expense of staying healthy?

DR. EBRON: Certainly – engaging in a healthy lifestyle is imperative and doing preventive screening can go a long way in maintaining good health and it helps to catch diseases in an early stage.

UPW: The American Health Care System has been criticized for its continued rising costs. Is that a fair criticism?

UPW: The Affordable Health Care Act championed by President Obama is still in its early phases.

Do you see this as the solution to rising health care costs?

DR. EBRON: Not necessarily; improved technology will increase costs because we can evaluate more and treat more, which is more expensive, however, we may have to order

DR. EBRON: No – the reality is that some type of reform is needed.

The number of uninsured people in this country is increasing rapidly for various reasons and a solution to

2047 Central Avenue Augusta, GA 30904 706-738-7557 this problem is needed. But I do not expect a change in the cost of care.

UPW: Being a physician in private practice places one at the intersection of business, technology, the healing arts and science.

Do you find it challenging to balance all of those factors?

DR. EBRON: Of course, practicing medicine today is different than when I started 20 years ago. You have to understand improved technology and implement them in your practice to avoid the possibilities of being penalized by insurance companies.

UPW: Are you active in any religious, civic or professional organizations?

DR. EBRON: I am member of Good Shepard Baptist Church with Reverend Clarence Moore and I am a member of the American College of Physicians.

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UrbanProWeekly • FEBRUARY 21 - 27, 2013

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LOCAL NEWS

Roundtree salary set at level requested by outgoing sheriff

By Frederick Benjamin Sr. UrbanProWeekly Staff Writer AUGUSTA Sheriff Richard Roundtree’s request for a salary review was approved by the Augusta-Richmond Commissioners at Tuesday’s regular commission meeting (Feb. 19, 2013).

Following the review (in legal session), the city, by a 6-4 vote, decided to adjust the incoming sheriff’s salary from $110,000 to $126,500.00. That amount is about the same that former Sheriff Ronnie Strength recommended for the incoming sheriff before he left office in December, 2012.

Sheriff Strength’s recommendation was in keeping with the precedent set by former Sheriff Charlie Webster who made $92,700.14 when he retired.

Strength came into office making the same amount as Webster.

However, when Sheriff Roundtree was sworn in, the recommendation of the former sheriff was ignored and his salary was set at $110,000, much lower than the amount that Strength recommended.

Solicitor General Kellie KennerMcIntyre also requested a review of her starting salary. State law provides a formula for setting the salaries of certain officials and provides for supplements to be added to base salaries. Both KennerMcIntyre and Roundtree qualified for these supplements. Some commissioners did not want to give it to them.

When the salary review for Roundtree and Solicitor-General Kellie KennerMcintyre came before the commission

a week ago, it failed by a vote of 5-4.

Commissioners supporting the salary upgrade included commissioners Alvin Mason, Bill Lockett, Bill Fennoy, Marion Williams, and mayor protem Corey Johnson. Those opposed, included commissioners Mary Davis, Donnie Smith, Joe Jackson and Wayne Guilfoyle.

Commissioner Grady Smith was absent from that meeting.

When the matter was revisited at this week’s meeting, Commissioner Grady Smith voted in favor of the supplements to the salaries of Roundtree and Kenner-McIntyre. The vote was 6-4, the addition of Smith was the deciding factor. Kenner-McIntyre’s salary was boosted from $97,000 (the minimum) to $106,700.

Commissioner Grady Smith was very complimentary toward the new sheriff.

“We don’t know each other, but one day we’ll meet. I’m on the same side that he is. I’m pro law enforcement and I’m pro Richmond County. We need to get in behind Sheriff Roundtree and let’s move forward because I think he got some good ideas,” Smith said.

Commissioner Alvin Mason thought the salary increase was the right thing to do.

“The key factor for me is that this is what our outgoing sheriff was making.

So why should we change this now.

Clearly, no one asked for a raise -- this is appropriate compensation. This is the largest full service sheriff’s department in the state,” Mason said. “In the Solicitor’s case, their case load has almost doubled and she also has the credentials.”

City’s Salary Policy for the past 2 Sheriffs New Sheriff makes same salary as outgoing Sheriff Webster Outgoing Salary Date: 12/21/12 Sheriff Strength Incoming Salary Date: 1/2/13

92,700.14 92,700.14

Sheriff Strength recommended that Roundtree Salary be equal to his, but city makes switch Ronnie Strength’s Recommendation Date: 12/21/12

126,075.56

City Law Department Override Date: 1/2/13

110,000.00

The Bottom Line Commission revises salary after review Date: 2/19/13

126,500.00

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By Frederick Benjamin Sr. UrbanProWeekly Staff Writer AUGUSTA Augusta-Richmond County Civil and Magistrate Court judges and the Clerk of Superior Court have joined the parade requesting salary reviews. And while their requests occurred within roughly the same time period as the more high profile requests made by Augusta Sheriff and Solicitor General, Richard Roundtree and Kellie KennerMcIntyre, their requests did not draw the media attention nor the public rancor and outrage that accompanied the requests of the sheriff and solicitor general.

Presiding Judge H. Scott Allen and Chief Judge William D. Jennings requested that the local legislative delegation consider raising their salaries. Also, Clerk of Superior, State & Juvenile Courts Elaine Johnson has asked for a pay increase.

Jennings currently makes $118,206 and Allen makes $116,706. Johnson

currently makes $115,665.

The judges and clerk argue that their salaries (which are set by state law) had not been upgraded since 1998 in the case of the judges and not since 2006 in the case of Johnson.

Johnson serves as clerk for three courts, Superior, State and Juvenile Court. She also assists with Jury Management. Johnson argues that she is underpaid. Her counterparts in Bibb County and Chatham County make $134,000 and $127,000 respectively.

Comparable judicial salaries in Bibb County and Chatham County are about $132,000 and $163,000 respectively.

In Augusta-Richmond, state court judges make $140,000 and even General Counsel Andrew Mackenzie makes $136,860.00.

Judges Allen and Jennings are requesting that their salaries be increased to $135,000 each, phased in over a 24-month period starting in January 2014.

Mason: Mayor’s $65,000 salary ridiculous; vows to take lead in salary upgrade bid Commissioner Alvin Mason said that he will be the “point man” in getting the legislative delegation to make a comprehensive review of the salaries of any local officials who feel that they have justification for a pay increase.

Mason thinks that handling the requests on a case-by-case basis at the commission level is not the way to go.

“I think it should be done as a package deal,” Mason said. “The legislators can take care of that all by themselves, but they need to hear from us.”

Mason was especially critical of the mayor’s salary. “Even the mayor’s seat – $65,000 for the second largest city in the state. That’s ridiculous,” he said.

“You have smaller cities whose mayors make twice as much as he does.

There’s no way that he should make half the salary of the highest paid employee.”

Commissioner Alvin Mason will ask state legislators to do salary review. Photo by Vincent Hobbs

More commissioners named in “conflict of interest” ethics probe AUGUSTA Local media reports have added another commissioner’s name onto the list of those who may have tried to profit from doing business with the city while they were in office.

WJBF News Channel 6 reporter George Eskola named Commissioner Joe Jackson as another commissioner who may have violated city policy. Jackson took over ownership of Kirby Locksmith Inc. over 10 years ago.

Jackson joined the Augusta com-

mission in 2006.

According to Eskola, Jackson did $1500 worth of business with the city between 2008 and 2010.

Commissioners already named as possible violators of the city’s ordinance forbidding city officials and employees from profiting directly or indirectly from the city procurement process include Grady Smith and Wayne Guilfoyle.

According to the WJBF report, Smith did $19,000 worth of city business starting in 2011 through Nov. 2012.

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Guilfoyle admitted that his company was a subcontractor on a project at the Augusta Regional Airport.

The conflict of interest issue involving sitting city commissioners came to a head at a recent administrative services committee meeting (Feb. 11, 2013) when an agenda item offered by Commissioner Grady Smith asked commissioners to consider a new ordinance that would make it legal for city employees and city officials to serve as subcontractors on city projects.

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Her report is expected at the next round of committee meetings on Monday, Feb. 25, 2013.

At that time, the city must decide how it will deal with commissioners who have violated city ordinances forbidding city officials from doing business with the city. A discussion of changing the ordinance is also expected to take place at that time.

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Judges, clerk also sought salary review

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Benefit for family of John Thompson, the 2-year old who died in fire Commissioner Bill Fennoy is promoting a community Fish Fry to benefit the family of 2-year-old John Thompson who died on Saturday, Feb. 16, after succumbing to injuries suffered during a house fire in Harrisburg on Feb. 10, 2013.

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The Fish Fry will be held on Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013 at the East Augusta Community Center.

Proceeds from the event will be handed over to the family of Thompson to defray funeral costs.

The child’s life was uninsured.

GRU symposium to explore women’s health, human rights The Women’s Studies Program, Women’s Studies Student Association and Iota Iota Iota Honor Society of Georgia Regents University will present the third biennial Women’s Studies Symposium from Feb. 28 to March 2.

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Second Annual Augusta Literary Festival highlights finalists for Inaugural Yerby Literary Award AUGUSTA Augusta will honor Frank Yerby with a two day celebration of literary talent. There will be a small ceremony at the Yerby House on the campus of Paine College on Fri. March 1st, at 3:00 PM. The 5 finalists will be touring the house and taking pictures with Frank Yerby’s nephew Gerald Yerby.

Later on that evening at 7:00 PM at the main library on 823 Telfair St., there will be an author’s reception for all participating authors in the Augusta Literary Festival. (Media is invited as well.) The program will feature jazz by Karen Gordon, remarks

by Gerald Yerby, and Yerby Scholar Dr.

Eugene Stovall from California will also be on hand to share his expertise on Frank Yerby. The highlight of the night will be the announcement of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners of the Yerby Award for Fiction.

If you can’t make it to the festivities for Friday night, then make sure to attend the 2nd annual ALF at the main library from 9:30-3:30 PM. This year will feature 100 authors from several states, genres and walks of life. Authors will be selling , signing and talking about their books throughout the day.

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Laney High School cheerleaders rally the crowd during the region 3AA championship game against Dublin Hgh School.

Photo by Vincent Hobbs

BELOW Laney High School basketball fans show their support during the region 3AA championship game against Dublin Hgh School.

Photo by Vincent Hobbs Laney’s Aliyah Collier (center) goes for the rebound during the Region 3AA championship game against Dublin Hgh School. The Lady Wildcats triumphed over the Lady Irish and won the Region 3AA Championship on Saturday night at the Laney gym. Photo by Vincent Hobbs

Region 3AA Championships BOYS - Westside 63 vs. Laney 59 GIRLS - Laney 65 vs. Dublin 59 Saturday, February 16, 2013

Laney baskeballl guard Tommy Smith attempts to score during the Region 3AA Championship game on Saturday night at the Laney gym against the Westside Patriots. The Patriots defeated the Wildcats 63-59 to clench the 3AA championship. Photo by Vincent Hobbs

A Westside High School cheerleader watches the game during a championship match against Laney at the Laney gym. Photo by Vincent

Westside High school basketball coach Marvin Fields has a timeout with his team. Photo by Vincent Hobbs

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AUGUSTA Students in the Theatre Program at Georgia Regents University have been invited to perform Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” at the 64thAnnual Southeastern Theatre Conference, the largest theatre convention in the United States, March 8 in Louisville, Ky. Conference officials invited 16 GRU students and four actors from Le Chat Noir, an Augusta theater company, to perform after watching a DVD of the university’s Spring 2012 adaptation of the play.

The production is directed by Doug Joiner, GRU Lecturer and Artistic Director at Le Chat Noir. A collaboration between the GRU Theatre Program and Le Chat Noir, the play is set in an action-filled, Mad Max post-apocalyptic world. Twenty percent of the play’s lines have been modernized so that “real people” can understand and enjoy Shakespeare. Last spring’s performance earned a standing ovation from hundreds of Richmond County high school students.

“I think this is the greatest opportunity to showcase Augusta student theater that the university has ever had,” said Dr. Walter Evans, GRU English Professor.

“We’ll be appearing before the most knowledgeable and demanding audience that has ever witnessed a theater performance at our university. President Azziz wants to establish the brand. This is going to be one big step in that direction. People from all over will see an excellent production and come away really impressed with the kind of quality that we can produce.”

Charles W. “Skip” Clark, Dean of the GRU Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities

and Social Sciences, has funded the student conference registration fees, and GRU Vice President of Academic and Faculty Affairs Carol Rychly has supplied funds for the set and props. Le Chat Noir is donating material and services, and additional support is expect-

ed from the Center for Undergraduate Research and Scholarship committee and the Pamplin Student Research and Travel Committee, but $2,000 is still needed to cover travel costs, Evans said.

To raise money for the trip, theatre students will perform “Julius Caesar”

at 5 p.m. Saturday, March 2 at Le Chat Noir, 304 8th St. Tickets are $15. The Theatre Program will hold free performances Feb. 27 at 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 28 at 10 a.m. in GRU’s Maxwell Theatre for the campus community and over 400 local high school students.

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Commentary

Has the South outgrown the need for the Voting Rights Act?

By Adam Liptak EVERGREEN, ALA. Jerome Gray, a 74-year-old black man, has voted in every election since 1974 in this verdant little outpost of some 4,000 people halfway between Mobile and Montgomery.

Casting a ballot, he said, is a way to honor the legacy of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a civil rights landmark born from a bloody confrontation 70 miles north of here, in Selma.

The franchise remains fragile in Evergreen, Mr. Gray said. Last summer, he was kicked off the voting rolls by a clerk who had improperly culled the list based on utility records.

A three-judge federal court in Mobile barred the city from using the new voting list, invoking Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires many state and local governments, mostly in the South, to obtain permission from the Justice Department or from a federal court in Washington before making changes that affect voting.

That provision is also at the heart of one of the marquee cases of the Supreme Court’s term, Shelby County v. Holder, No. 12-96, which will be argued on Feb. 27. It was brought by Shelby County, near Birmingham, and it contends that the provision has outlived its purpose of protecting minority voters in an era when a black man has been re-elected to the presidency.

The Voting Rights Act was a triumph of the civil rights movement. It was a response, the Supreme Court said in upholding it in 1966, to “an insidious and pervasive evil which had been perpetuated in certain parts of our country through unremitting and ingenious defiance of the Constitution.”

Congress was entitled, the court went on, “to limit its attention to the geographic areas where immediate action seemed necessary.”

Lawmakers chose the areas to be covered based on a formula that considered whether they had used devices to discourage voting, like literacy tests, and data from the 1964 election.

The court in Mobile this month said the case before it, concerning Evergreen, was simple: because the city had not obtained preclearance from federal authorities, it could not revise its voting list using utility records. Nor could it use a municipal redistricting plan enacted by the City Council that had concentrated black voters, who are in the majority, into just two of the five districts, limiting black voting power.

It is not clear when the municipal

Voting Rights Act of 1965

“No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.” ~ Section 2, Voting Rights Act of 1965 election, originally scheduled for last August, will be held.

A lawyer for Evergreen, James H. Anderson, said the ruling was justified. “The way the voter list was recomposed was improper,” he said.

He added that the redistricting plan “could possibly be adopted by the Justice Department, but we need to tweak it a little bit.” In a court filing on Feb. 11, the city announced that

makers could in theory re-enact the law using more current information.

In practice, a decision striking down the coverage formula would probably amount to the end of the preclearance requirement.

In the rest of the country, objections to changes in how elections are run take the usual course, with after-the-fact lawsuits under another part of the law. “In many plac-

“We had no black elected officials anywhere,” he said. To vote, “blacks had to get a written statement from a white businessman to say they were ‘a good Negro.’ ” Whether the statement was thought adequate was up to the whim of a white sheriff. it would create a third majority-black district “to have a total black population in the vicinity of 65 percent.”

Critics of the Section 5 preclearance requirement call it an unwarranted and discriminatory federal intrusion on state sovereignty and a badge of shame for the affected jurisdictions that is no longer justified.

But Mr. Anderson said he welcomed the process, to a point. “I think it plays a very valuable role, and I think we need it,” he said.

“Personally, I think we need it nationwide.”

The problem, he said, is that the provision applies in only some parts of the country. “I think it’s discriminatory because it picks on us Southerners,” he said.

Congress has repeatedly renewed the law, and for a while it used fresher data with each renewal. But when Congress renewed the law for 25 years in 2006, it made no changes to the list of jurisdictions covered

by Section 5 and used data from the 1972 election as a baseline.

The law applies to nine states — Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia — and to scores of counties and municipalities in other states.

Should the Supreme Court rule that Congress was not entitled to rely on old data to decide which jurisdictions should be covered, law-

es,” said Debo P. Adegbile, a lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, “the case-by-case method of vindicating voting rights for minority citizens was not up to task.”

Section 5, he said, “shines daylight on the dark rooms where these political redistricting decisions are happening” and “it makes sure you’re dealing the cards off the top of the deck.”

Mr. Gray is a slender, intense man with wiry gray hair and a slight goatee. He served for almost 30 years as state field director of the Alabama Democratic Conference, and he has seen his share of history.

He lives across the street from the high school he graduated from in 1955, when it was reserved for blacks. The movie theater was segregated, too. “You had to go down an alley and up the stairs” to a balcony reserved for blacks, he said. “We called it the buzzards’ nest.”

“We had no black elected officials anywhere,” he said. To vote, he said, “blacks had to get a written statement from a white businessman to say they were ‘a good Negro.’ ” Whether the statement was thought adequate was up to the whim of a white sheriff.

Things are better now, of course, but Mr. Gray says intimidation can take many forms. “As recently as

s T i

g t o I o v e p the 2008 municipal runoff electiont between a white candidate and ae black candidate for mayor,” Mr. Grayt said in a recent court filing, “I wit-t nessed white men standing in the beds of pickup trucks systematicallyu photographing black voters as theya approached the polls at each votingt location in Evergreen.”

The challenge in the Supreme Court was brought by Shelby County.

It is 90 percent white and as prosperous as Evergreen is poor.

In its brief in the case, the county acknowledged that “the Voting Rights Act of 1965 changed the course of history in the covered jurisdictions” but said the disputed parts of the law “have accomplished their missions.”

In a supporting brief, Alabama said it had “more than earned its spot on Section 5’s original coverage list in 1965” through “violence and willful defiance of federal law.”

“But that was a long time ago,” Alabama’s brief said. Black voter registration and turnout are high, it said, and the racial mix in the Legislature reflects the state’s population.

In 2009, when the Supreme Court last considered the issue in Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Holder, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. made similar points. But that 8-to-1 decision did not end up ruling on the larger questions in the case.

Instead, the court ruled on a narrow statutory ground, saying the utility district in Austin, Tex., that had challenged the constitutionality of the law might be eligible to “bail out” from being covered by it. Still, Chief Justice Roberts seemed skeptical about the continued need for Section 5.

“Things have changed in the South,” he said.

“The statute’s coverage formula is based on data that is now more than 35 years old,” he added, “and there is considerable evidence that it fails to account for current political conditions.”

In the last presidential election, courts relied on Section 5 to block voter identificationrequirements and cutbacks on early voting in covered jurisdictions.

Mr. Gray, for his part, said recent events in Evergreen proved that there was still a vital role for the Voting Rights Act’s central innovation.

“Section 5 allowed us to stop an election that would have been a disaster,” he said. “We need Section 5 because there are still bad actors, and Evergreen is one. They had removed almost 800 people from the voting rolls, including Jerome Gray.”

GUEST COMMENTARY By Brother Trav

These words are directed at the offspring of the Civil Right’s Movement.

The message I bring to you is this: “It is on us”.

Your parents, like mine, probably grew up during a period in which there was no such thing as equal opportunity for blacks in the south.

If not for the courage and bravery of a few strong-willed leaders and visionaries, perhaps we would still be enduring such injustice today. Our parents accepted the responsibility to become catalysts in bringing forth equality. They realized that it was on them to be the change they wished to see.

Our parents then gave birth to us, a new generation of black boys and black girls that were born with the freedom and equal opportunity

Making Black History with 10-10-50 In an effort to make Black History every month, to celebrate the legacy of community service by this nation’s first African-American President, and to follow the example of our Ancestor’s works, to liberate us from oppression, we submit the monthly community service action plan of 10-10-50. This action plan represents a golden opportunity to put people building principles into a perpetual practice.

10-10-50 is a monthly way for concerned individuals to gauge monthly community participation by volunteering time, making a donation, and spending in cooperative economics. It is a standard by which we can measure and calculate our personal responsibility and collective progress. This basic plan of action is detailed below: 10: volunteer a minimum of 10 hours each month with an organization or institution of your choice and interest area.

10: donate a minimum of $10 each month to whom you give your time or to some good work being done to enhance our community.

50: re-direct a minimum of $50 from your monthly budget that you normally spend outside of our community, to a black-owned business or service provider. +Imani (Faith): exercise your faith, to play a role in self-improvement and community development.

Envision the massive growth and energy created, with millions of our people united around working and promoting a clear plan, to realize the change we believe in and can achieve.

The ultimate objective is, to create a reality where vital areas are consistently supported and everyone does a little, then no one has to do a lot.

We encourage you and your leadership, members, partners and supporters to see the value and immediately adopt the monthly practice of 10-10-50.

Stephen Biko Problem Solvers United /404-625-8872 706-590-0682, Psu101050@gmail.com richmondcty101050@yahoo.com

our United States Constitution guarantees. We also identified with the struggle vicariously through the first hand accounts of our parents. The tremble of their voices and the tears in their eyes reflected the horror of being chased by blood thirsty canines and being at the receiving end of a hate-filled police officer’s wooden club. Intertwined in these tales would also be fond memories of strong families, united communities, optimism, and hope.

Once we entered into adulthood and accepted the responsibility of becoming parents, our parent’s charge was passed on to us. It then became our responsibility to ensure that our offspring could relate to our parent’s plight. It was on us to continue to stress the importance of

education. It was on us to desire a better life for our children than that of our predecessors.

However, current trends reflect many of us do not own up to our obligations. The destruction of the black family accounts for many of the issues that currently plague our people today.

By failing to share our parents’ stories with our children, by failing to inform them of the many contributions our forefathers made to society, and by failing to show them what true love looks like, we have practically squandered the entire cause in which our ancestors shed blood for. For the current state of our youth, I say we take responsibility. We must admit that it is on us to repair what has been destroyed and to help restore all that has been

RICHMOND COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION Bond Issue Program

lost. This can be done by re-establishing bonds with our own children and by being mentors for those less fortunate. We can be role models for an entire generation by handling our responsibilities and by loving our mates and children. We must honor and respect the elderly and see to it that our children do the same. We must become involved in our communities as it truly does take a village to raise a child.

The escalating trends of today may seem impossible to reverse, but we must view life through the eyes of our predecessors. They saw no mountain that couldn’t be moved. Now, it is on us to break these self-destructive cycles and play our parts in restoring our people to their original positions of greatness.

RENOVATIONS AND NEW GYMNASIUM FOR WESTSIDE HIGH SCHOOL

COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION INVITATION TO BID Sealed proposals from contractors will be received for Renovations and a New Gymnasium for Westside High School by the County Board of Education of Richmond County at the address below until 3:00 p.m. local time, Tuesday, March 26, 2013, at which time the bids will be publicly opened and read. No extension of the bidding period will be made.

A Pre-Bid Conference will be held on Thursday, March 14, 2013 at 2:00 p.m. local time in the gymnasium at Westside High School, 1002 Patriots Way, Augusta, Georgia 30907.

Drawings and project manual on this work may be examined at the Department of Maintenance and Facilities, Richmond County Board of Education, 1781 15th Street, Augusta, Georgia 30901.

Bidding documents may be obtained at the Office of the Architect, Harley and Associates Architects, P.C., 718 Broad Street, Augusta, GA 30901 (706-724-2475). Applications for documents together with refundable deposit of $350 (payable to the Architect) per set should be filed promptly with the Architect.

Bidding materials will be forwarded (shipping charges collect) as soon as possible. The full amount of deposit for one set will be refunded to each prime contractor who submits a bona fide bid upon return of such set in good condition within ten (10) days after date of opening bids. All other deposits will be refunded with deductions approximating cost of reproduction of documents upon return of same in good condition within ten (10) days after date of opening bid.

Contract, if awarded, will be on a lump sum basis. No bid may be withdrawn for a period of thirty-five (35) days after time has been called on the date of opening.

Bid must be accompanied by a bid bond in an amount not less than 5% of the base bid. Personal checks, certified checks, letters of credit, etc., are not acceptable. The successful bidder will be required to furnish performance and payment bonds in an amount equal to 100% of the contract price.

The Richmond County Board of Education reserves the right to reject any and all bids and to waive technicalities and informalities.

BID LIST: The Richmond County Board of Education maintains a bid list for many categories that are let for bid each year.

Contact Amy Bauman in the Business Office (706) 826-1298 or at baumaam@rcboe.org if you need additional information concerning the bid list.

To promote local participation, a database of sub-contractors, suppliers, and vendors has been developed by the Program Manager, GMK Associates. Contact Jeanine Usry with GMK Associates at (706) 826 -1127 for location to review and obtain this database.

Bids shall be submitted and addressed to:

Dr. Frank G. Roberson, Superintendent County Board of Education of Richmond County Administrative Office 864 Broad Street Augusta, Georgia 30901 c/o: Mr. C. Gene Spires, Controller

UrbanProWeekly • FEBRUARY 21 - 27, 2013

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Be a Team Player Valid Driver’s License For additional information contact the Human Resources Department at 706-821-2303.

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The deadline to apply is March 31, 2013 Apply online at www.augustaga.gov.

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