The BOC met on 2/1/10 in relation to the Broadband Fiber Optics presentation. Companies presenting were Rural Broadband, LLC and Cisco. Mr. Clark Rainer presented for the IT department of Henry County. The intent for the next meeting that has since been removed from the agenda for 2/2/10 was to sign a resolution allowing the county manager, finance manager and the IT department to review and come up with a proposal of financing the project, what type of services would be installed and would the service be maintained in house or out sourced. Also the IT department would be posting a public notice of accepting bid proposals from other providers of this service.

In my opinion and I assure you that it is my personal opinion: Mr. Holder, Mr. Jeffares and Mr. Stamey seem through their current approach on this issue, that they desire to proceed with Broadband Fiber Optics, which will place all taxpayers in direct danger of being taxed to pay for this project. Whether all the private suppliers of this service are invited to participate and bid on this project or whether they have the highest or lowest bid or not, should be irrelevant. This is not the time in our Nation nor county economy to go forward with this project which will take our county into an over 14 MILLION dollar debt that requires financing.

Therefore, it is also my personal opinion and the opinion of many other concerned voters that perhaps the current research and future research of this project requires a microscope effort from another independent specialist in this field. It is unrealistic to come to a conclusion that the very people directly requesting this project are capable of a non bias effort regarding the research into this project. This HUGE out pouring of money for this project, in all probability will be left for the tax payers of Henry County to pay back.

Unemployment by the way is still at 10.3%, just this morning on Good Day Southside, I was watching BJ Mathis, Chris Vaughn and Marjory Lacy regarding the increase in the amount and severity of domestic violence cases coming through Haven House due to our economy.

This is what was said:

Question from BJ Mathis to Marjory Lacy (Executive Director of Haven House):”Has the economy caused an increase in domestic violence cases you see?”

Answer: “We have seen an increase in the severity and people are staying longer due to the economy”.” It is a serious situation due to the economy”. “The amount is phenomenal in light of the economy.”

Marjory Lacy went on to state that one of there programs was able to aide families by providing monies for extended stay hotels and getting some families into rental homes on the basis of their income. In September they were able to settle 22 families. (This is a good program in my opinion and worth additional recovery monies. A program that the Henry County residents and tax payers really NEED) Marjory Lacy went on the state that the school system also notifies them of families of children that are homeless.

Do you think these families need Broadband? Food, shelter and jobs would be their priority! Chris Vaughn also added that he knew of families that had to move out of Henry County due to the economy. We have strip malls sitting empty among other foreclosures and ETC., no revenue there! We should as a county spend on the items we need and not what we would like to have.

I do not think any portion of Economic Recovery assistance through the Federal Government should be used to allow "any" county to go into the Fiber Optics business.

In one breath during the presentation, it was stated that this broadband project is strictly for the county infrastructure and that they will not be selling service to other than the utilities, schools, water and other? HC government operated facilities. In the second breath they stated that this project would be CAPIBLE of generating revenue BECAUSE they could sell the service to businesses and businesses locating into Henry County. If you sell products to the public, be it commercial or otherwise YOU ARE A BUSINESS.

A point was brought up that "what if a pole was hit" who is going to fix it? I have it on very good authority that the cost for initial installation is 200.00 on average to attach to a utility pole. The annual cost is $8.00 to $10.00 per pole. If a pole were to be damaged, the electric companies would repair or replace the pole, however: Every service provider that is attached to that pole has to send their maintenance crew to repair and re attach to these poles. I also have it on good authority that it can take up to 8 hours to repair just split cable. I would like to know where Mr. Clark Rainer got the idea from that this type of damage would have a back online time frame of 2 hours.

I saw an ad on channel 14 today. If you have Charter cable. It stated if you eat at Chili’s restaurant in McDonough 10% of your bill will be donated to NASH FARM PARK for FIREWORKS! Why WOULD they need donations?

The BOC are already contemplating asking for more stimulus monies for this drain on the tax payers. Did BJ Mathis or any other commissioners ask the citizens of this county BY A VOTE if they wanted to purchase this HUGE PARK? and by eminent domain!

Commissioner/commissioner’s have stated that they “already” can not take care of the parks within the county as they should be kept.

Will these sitting commissioners insist that a vote by the tax payers of Henry County be required before they go into debt for over 14 millions dollars for a Broadband Fiber Optics project? We shall see what transpires. As of today no one knows what will happen. The BOC agenda has not been updated yet to reflect whether this project will be heard from again or not.

Citizens as well as business owners are watching, they are banding together in a joint effort to take this county back to the people where it belongs. We have a voice, we have rights and we will be heard one way or another.

The BOC heard from 2 of these tax payers through the public comment portion of their meeting on 2/2/10, if you have not seen this, it is a MUST SEE! More and more citizens are coming forward related to tax practices within Henry County among many other pressing issues affecting all citizens of our county.