Growth will present challenges

We’ve been told for years Hart County will see significant growth as more and more jobs come to the area. It appears that time is now. Permits for new residential construction more than doubled in 2020 from 2019, a basic indicator that people are coming to Hart County. And why wouldn’t they?

Super-smart millennials ask, ‘What is that thing?’

With two auditors peering over my shoulder — watching every move — I should have been nervous. Instead, I was laughing. That wasn’t the first time it’s happened. Some millennials aren’t sure what that electric thing is, the one sitting on the small oak table, clicking and clacking.

HYDRA is a worthwhile cause

A long-running program in Hartwell has seen an injection of new life recently that we hope will help it grow.

Remembering the Goat Man & The Pig

If you grew up in small-town America in the 1940s and 1950s, chances are you remember Ches McCartney, a.k.a. the Goat Man. That’s what happened when Randall Aspinwall, his son Nick, and his son Myles visited our farm on a cold, rainy Saturday.

New jail is wise move for Hart Co.

Hart County’s jail crowding issues are on track to be alleviated following the most recent meeting of the board of commissioners.

Ga. Power: Be a good coal ash ‘citizen’

As sure as salt water licks the sands of our Golden Isles, we can expect the state’s largest utility to put a squeeze on Georgia’s Gold Dome. And if mythical sleuth Sherlock Holmes were stalking the halls, he’d say, in his British accent, “They don’t call it Georgia Power for naught.

Alcohol law change could aid downtown

Opinions about alcohol have changed greatly in the past few decades. It wasn’t long ago that selling alcohol of any kind was prohibited in Hart County and the city of Hartwell.

Gospel as good as grandma’s biscuits

My love of music was pounded into me. Not with a stick, but by the calloused fingers of my grandmother — pounding keys of her mostly out-of-tune upright piano. Nanny’s repertoire was scant, but she could make her secondhand Baldwin jump.

State should cast wider vaccine net

More COVID-19 vaccine doses are in Hart County and more will certainly be shipped, but as of last week, there were still a very small number of locations where the vaccine is available locally.

Distressed ‘meow’ brings pleasant surprise

On a cold, rainy Saturday, I sat on an upside-down 5-gallon plastic bucket. The farm’s to-do list was stuffed in my Carhart’s pocket, but I wasn’t getting up. My mind was too busy thinking about two things: • What happened in the past year. • What was making me laugh, six feet away.