What's ahead this week:
-June 8: Bartow County School Board will have a called meeting beginning at 6 p.m. at the Board of Education central office. On the agenda: tentative budget for FY11 and school calendar for 2010-2011. Agenda-June 10: Chamber cookout at Taylor Lake, 5:30-8:30 p.m. Tickets are $35.
-June 12: Downtown Cartersville Summer Concert Series. 7-9 p.m. Caribbean Soul performs. Participating restaurant: Barbecue Street.
-June 12: Bartow Give a Kid a Chance Registration, 9:a.m. until noon, South Central Middle School, Euharlee Commissary, Cartersville Civic Center Parking Lot. Adairsville Manning Mill Park. First come/first served -- registration limited to the first 1,000; others will be placed on a waiting list and contacted. Each child receives a backpack with school supplies, jeans, T-shirt, a haircut and dental, hearing and vision screenings. Details: Bartow Collaborative, 770-773-7342.
The Buzz of Northwest Georgia: (Click)
-Madison Retail seeking tenants for would-be strip center.
-Riverside Gourment, Bussey Flowers, The Season due mid-month.
-Peaks & Valleys: Glenwood teacher; Shorter U.
-Thanks for a huge start to 2010 (nearly 30% more site visitors)
Campaign Watch:
-Have our voted yet? Seriously.
-Busy campaign week ahead plus special election in Gordon County.
Your latest forecast:
-Monday: Sunny skies, high of 88, low of 59.
-Tuesday: Even warmer, high of 93, low of 67.
-Extended forecast: Click / Regional radar
Norman Arey's Sports Roundtable. Arey
-Some college teams getting ready to grab their wheelbarrows and go to the bank.
Rome Braves. Sports
-Rome drops second in a row to Charleston, 4-2.
-Tonight-Tuesday: Braves at Charleston Riverdogs.
-Mills Fitzner's home game photos. Click
Sign of the times -- or is there some leveraging going on?
Photo by Jack Druckenmiller
The folks at Madison Retail are soliciting tenants for the Hight Homes site even though -- their words -- they're waiting for a go or no-go vote from Publix Super Markets Inc. The sign at Fifth Avenue and Turner McCall advertises a 110,000-square-foot grocery-anchored development with room for retail, restaurant and medical space. If interested, click Madison Retail
-Just to clarify: the alleged food store is not 110,000 square feet. Checking the Publix corporate site, that's twice the size of the largest Publix listed (54,000 square feet). The Rome Kroger is 62,000 square feet while the Publix at Main Street Shopping Center in Cartersville is just under 48,000 square feet. A Wal-Mart is around 100,000 square feet.
-The wild card in all of this is what could--and let's stress could--rise across from RiverWalk (Olive Garden, et al) at Riverside Parkway and Turner McCall. Even after the Ledbetters complete feasibility studies on the "duck pond" site, you can all but be assured some environmental litigation will surface should plans go forward to develop the site. (please see earlier site plan below).
-You don't suppose one player is possibly leveraging one site vs. another?
Signs of things to come:
-An "opening mid-June" sign is on the door of 248 Broad St., soon to be the downtown home of an expanded Riverside Gourmet as well as Bussey florist and The Season. From the outside looking in, the retail space is flying together in the one-time home of the Rome Area Council for the Arts.
'If you build it' scenario paying out at Barron Stadium:
-We're just dripping in cliches today and couldn't resist the quote from Field of Dreams, "If you build it, they will come." But what can you say about one of the biggest stories to slip under the community's radar last week?
-The storyline: "The Mid-South Conference announced Wednesday the selection of Barron Stadium, Rome/Floyd County and Shorter University as the host site of the 2012 and 2013 Mid-South Outdoor Track & Field Championships."
-What the real storyline is: During the 2009 SPLOST campaign, supporters were plugging what could come to pass at Barron Stadium if the $3 million-plus in enhancements were approved by voters. Among the pluses: more major track-and-field events. So now comes word of the first real pay day: two years of hosting the Mid-South tournament at Barron.
-What's next? Hopefully word on an extension of the NAIA football championship each December at Barron and, as the Shorter media release on the Mid-South deal states:
"The addition of a high-quality track coupled with the hosting of a pair of conference championship track meets could make Barron Stadium a prime location for an eventual NAIA Outdoor Track & Field National Championship." Bring it. Details
You voted yet? Seriously.
-Don't laugh. You can cast your ballot for the July 20 primary candidates starting today even though the election itself is six weeks from Tuesday. Early voting begins today, to be followed by advance voting closer to election day. There's not that much difference to either one..
-In fact, this is a big political week, one that started with Saturday's 'A Day for Democrats' and continues with:
-June 8/Runoff election for the Ninth District congressional seat which includes a slice of Gordon County. It is Tom Graves vs. Lee Hawkins, both Republicans. What to watch in this one: First, whether Graves' embracement by the Tea Party group provides the momentum to fill the remaining months of Nathan Deal's term and second, whether the Bartow County Bank mess will sway the race in Hawkins' favor. Graves got the most votes in the May special election but not the needed majority. We'll post results Tuesday evening.
-June 8/Rome Young Republicans meeting with guests Doug MacGinntie, candidate for Secretary of State; and Max Wood, candidate for Attorney General. 6:30 p.m., 333 On Broad. Details: romeyoungrepublicans@gmail.com
-June 10/Rome/Floyd GA Tea Party 2010 Eggs and Issues Candidate Forum, 7 a.m., Landmark Restaurant. The forum will include candidates for state representative and state senator (House districts 11, 13,14 and 16, and Senate District 52). Details: Facebook
PEAKS & VALLEYS: The highs and lows of Northwest Georgia
-Peak to Glenwood Primary's April Cummings: The teacher at Glenwood Primary School was named Floyd County Schools' Distinguished Service Employee of the Year in recognition of some school yard heroics. Says the media release: "One day at recess, Cummings noticed the child having trouble breathing and indicating that she had something in her throat. She had swallowed a quarter that had lodged in her throat and blocked her breathing. Cummings dislodged the quarter and prevented a tragedy." Cummings is the type of teacher we want at all schools in our community, public or private. Dedicated--and quick thinking.
-Peak to Shorter University's rebranding celebration last week:
What we had here on June 1 with the celebration concerning the rebranding of Shorter College to Shorter University was a textbook case of how to do it right from the start. The sign unveilings (campus and this one at MidTown Crossing), the receptions, the concert, the Rome Braves' game: Shorter's name was everywhere last week and with good cause. The university has a huge impact on our community--estimated at nearly $90 million in 2007--and that's before you start looking at all the local professionals who proudly display degrees from the four-year school.
-What was key about Tuesday's celebration: It took place on campus, at the shopping centers (nursing school at Riverbend Center and the above), at the City Auditorium (concert) and at the ballpark (Shorter Night at the Braves). Basically, it was a community wide event. In more ways than one, that's covering all the bases.
Record year for Hometown thanks to your continued support:
-In May, the Hometown Headlines' family of websites clocked more than 2 million hits for the first time. We've flirted with that milestone before, ending two months in the 1.97 million-hit range.
-Those in the geek online community downplay "hits" with a quick caveat stating that other indicators are more important. And we partially agree.
-What is key is the unique visitor count for each day. That's one visit per site visitor, even if he or she returns a dozen times between 12:01 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. (and some do).
-So here's what's important: In the first five months of 2010, we're averaging 1,520 unique visitors per day (weekends and holidays included), which is up nearly 30 percent from the same period in 2009.
-Facebook, Twitter, radio exposure in Rome (WRGA 1470 AM) and Cartersville (WBHF 1450 AM) have all helped us grow but the real catalyst is word of mouth from you, our loyal site visitors.
-We're growing amid more online competition, including some "friendly fire."
-We thank our news partners, especially Natalie Simms, Norman Arey, Mills Fitzner, Bryan Mullins and others, including a great group of trusted "sources." And we thank our advertisers, some of whom have been with us for more than six years.
-And we especially thank you for choosing Hometown Headlines as your news source. We've got some enhancements and improvements on the way to make your time spent with us even more valuable. We appreciate both your trust and your time.
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