On this week's Buzz: (click)
>Primary update: Advance voting begins; county-by-county of summary
>Ballots in Bartow, Gordon, Polk much busier than those in Floyd
>Tellus museum rising quickly at U.S. 411/I-75; look for 'late fall' opening
>By the numbers: Braves' attendance; Ruritan's big give; a record June
>Gas prices inch past the $4 mark in Northwest Georgia, state
>Continuing coverage of campaign financial disclosure reports
Campaign finance reports:
>District 11 challenger Betty Brady collects $7,795: Expenditures for the Summerville Republican are at $1,369 while she had $6,425 for fall showdown with Democratic incumbent Barbara Massey Reece> Brady
>House 14/D'Arezzo posts $2,755: Democrat Rick D'Arezzo reports contributions of $2,755 for the period, mostly from his family. Expenditures were at $637 leaving him $2,118 in the bank. D'Arezzo faces Republican incumbent Barry Loudermilk in the Nov. 4 general election. Loudermilk has until Tuesday to file his report> D'Arezzo
>Check on candidates as they file> State Ethics Committee
Sports
>Norman Arey's Sports Roundtable: A big what-if: Brett Favre to Atlanta to mentor Matt Ryan?> Arey
>Rome swept on the road; open eight-game home stand Monday> Sports
WeatherCenter
>High of 93, mostly sunny> WeatherCenter
Downtown Headlines
>What's ahead in downtown Rome this week> Downtown Headlines
Gas watch/Local, state prices in the $4 range (updated 7/6)
Statewide average 'steady' at $4.02: A year ago, we were paying $2.82 for a gallon of unleaded. Today, the state average is at $4.02, up four cents.
| Bartow | Chattooga | Floyd | Gordon | Polk | Georgia | |
| Range | $3.90- $4.70 | $3.95- $4.05 | $3.99- $4.11 | $3.90- $4.10 | $4.02- $4.10 | $4.02 |
| Links | Cartersville | Summerville | Rome | Calhoun | Cedartown | State |
New/Check gas prices in vacation destinations from GasBuddy.com:
>Average price in Alabama/Mobile area: $3.96 (click)
>Average price in S. Carolina: $3.91 (click)
>Average price in N. Carolina: $4.01 (click)
>Average price in Florida/Orlando area: $3.97 (click)
>Average price in Tennessee: $3.93 (click)
Primary begins: What to expect in Floyd, Bartow, Gordon, Polk
| County/Ga. | Bartow | Floyd | Gordon | Polk | Georgia |
| Who can vote | 47,961 | 43,614 | 23,851 | 18,938 | 4,741,498 |
By Mickey Seward
With advance voting in local and state primaries under way this week, Northwest Georgia election officials are gearing up for a busy season.
Election officials from around the region believe the interest derived from this fall's presidential election will bring record numbers to the polls, and not just in November.
Advance voting for the general primary kicks off today and lasts through Friday in Bartow, Floyd, Gordon and Polk counties. Below please find details on what to expect in each county:
Floyd voters can vote at two sites this week
Floyd County voters can vote in advance from 8 a.m.–7 p.m. at either the Floyd County Administration Building at 12 E. Fourth Ave. or at the Rome Civic Center at 400 Civic Center Drive. The primary is set for July 15. As of the registration deadline, 43,614 people were eligible to vote this month. Click Sample ballots
Floyd County Democrats will choose the nominee in the lone local contested primary, in which John Harkins and Barbara Penson face off in the race for nomination for Clerk of the Superior Court. With no Republican running for the position, this is a winner-take-all race.
The other contested seats on ballots in Floyd County are on the state and national level and appear on ballots throughout Georgia, with Democrats choosing a nominee for a Public Service Commission post and an opponent to face incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss in the fall; and Republicans voting for nominees for two separate Public Service Commission seats.
Between the primaries and the November general election, Floyd County voters also will head to the polls Sept. 16 to decide the fate of an education-related Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
Gordon expects big turnout for primary
"We should see a 40-42 percent turnout for the July primaries," said Shea Hicks, Director of the Gordon County Board of Elections and Voter Registration. "In the same election in 2004, we had a 35 percent voter turnout. Our voter registration has grown quite a bit, too."
Hicks noted that voter registration in her county has grown by 21 percent compared to 2004. Some 23,851 people are eligible to vote in the primary. For more on advance voting and the primary, click Gordon
Gordon Democrats will decide on a nominee for Tax Commissioner while Republicans will choose their candidate for District Attorney (Bartow voters will cast ballots in this race as well), Sheriff, Tax Commissioner, Chief Magistrate and Coroner. Click Ballots
One word being used by election officials to describe the anticipated voter turnout in 2008 is "historic." While counties are projecting slightly different numbers from one another for the November election, they are all huge figures.
"Gordon County has seen a lot of growth," Hicks said. "This year will be a historical election; we are expecting a record turnout, and it could be as high as a 90 percent turnout in November."
Polk elections chief hopes for 30-35 percent turnout
Susan Williams, Polk County's Elections Director, says she's "hoping for 30-35 percent (turnout). We haven't had a lot of absentee ballots come in, but we've been getting lots of calls about advance voting.
"The state is predicting 80-90 percent turnout this November," Williams said. "Ours could be less or more. Normally we have a good voter turnout compared to other counties around us."
Some 18,938 people are eligible to vote in Polk for the primary. Click Polk
Polk voters will have plenty to decide in this primary. Democrats will chose among four nominees for sheriff and two nominees for each of two county commission seats.
No Republican faces opposition from a qualified opponent (one candidate in the lone contested commission race was disqualified).
"We could very well be headed into a runoff for the sheriff's seat," said Williams. "With four Democrats running, it would be difficult to get more than half the vote in that primary. I would also anticipate a runoff for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat."
20 percent estimate in Bartow County despite busy GOP ballot
Joseph Kirk, election supervisor in Bartow County, hasn't made a prediction on voter turnout in his county for the general election. "I am predicting a 20 percent voter turnout for the 2008 Bartow County General Primary Election," he said.
As of the registration deadline, 47,961 people were eligible to vote in Bartow County. For more, click Sample Ballot.
Bartow County's Democratic primary will not have any locally contested races but the Republican ballot features races for the party's nomination for District Attorney (Gordon voters will help decide this race as well) and Tax Commissioner and for a District 4 County Board of Education seat. Another big race: The District 15 House contest between incumbent Jeff Lewis and GOP challenger Paul Battles.
The GOP ballot also lists questions regarding topics such as off-shore oil drilling, the Georgia fuel tax, immigration, health care and state and federal income tax.
Floyd County, Bartow County and Gordon County election results will be available on each respective county's web site, and Williams said Polk County is looking into providing results on its web site as well. You'll find links to election results on Bartow, Gordon, Hometown and Polk Headlines on Tuesday, July 15.
Mickey Seward is a freelance writer who lives in Rome. His last story for the Hometown Headlines family of Web sites was on the new all-you-can-eat seats offered this year by the Rome Braves. For more samples of Mickey's writings, please click http://mickeyseward.blogspot.com/
Tellus, region's premiere science museum, just about ready
By Mickey Seward
As construction on Cartersville's Tellus Museum continues, museum officials are happy with the pace of the work but are understandably ready for the building process to end.
"We've gotten so much done, I can't be anything but pleased," Tellus Museum director Jose Santamaria said of the building schedule. "We're very excited to open, so it's never going to be fast enough; but all things considered, the process is coming along extremely well. We're at a pretty good place right now."
Santamaria said there is no concrete open date planned for the museum but "we are targeting the late fall," he said. "There's still plenty of work to do.
"Things are going well. We're still plugging along with construction and exhibit fabrication. We have a pretty large fossil gallery, and we're still acquiring more dinosaurs. We get them delivered as they are finished and more are slated to come in August. They come in crates and are very carefully packed. You don't want to assemble an 80-foot dinosaur and then put it in a truck."
Tellus is being billed as the "Northwest Georgia Science Museum" and for good reason. It has been rising since July 2006 at the intersection of I-75 and U.S. 411 on the site of the Weinman Mineral Museum (which is being incorporated into the 50-acre Tellus campus. In all, look for 125,000 square feet of display space.
Tellus will feature a scale cast of an Apatosaurus, the largest dinosaur to walk the earth, according to Tellus' Web site. The fossil gallery will focus on the paleontology of Georgia and the Southeast, and will include a 40-foot replica of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Tellus will be much more than a fossil gallery, though.
"This museum is like having four museums under one roof," Santamaria said. "In addition to those four museums, we'll also have a planetarium and observatory."
Along with the fossil gallery, Tellus will also house a mineral gallery, a science-in-motion area that focuses on transportation and an area called the Collins Family My Big Back Yard.
"The Collins Family My Big Back Yard is going to be something really special," Tellus marketing director Joe Schulman said. "It's built something like what we would imagine a mad scientist's back yard to look like. It is very hands-on and allows visitors to perform experiments with light, sound and electronics, and to learn about weather patterns from inside a giant walk-in tree. Elementary school-aged kids and their families will love this area."
Schulman said that the all-in-one flavor of the museum is unique.
"The key thing for us is that there's nothing like it," Schulman said. "There's something for everyone. There's nothing in our area where all these things are under one roof. There are a lot of hands-on items and it's going to be very engaging."
Visitors will learn a lot, be able to touch a lot of stuff and learn how things work in our world.
"The planetarium will have a digital projector that can simulate flying around Saturn or to the moon," Santamaria said. "It's a very theatrical type of science. It's very dynamic, similar to the experience you would get at an Imax theater, where the dome allows you to be completely surrounded."
Added Schulman: "Another interesting aspect is that we'll be able to pipe in whatever the telescope from the observatory outside is seeing into the theater so visitors can see it on the giant screen in the planetarium. If you don't want to wait in line to look through the telescope, or if it's a bit too chilly outside, you could see its views from inside."
The inside of the museum will benefit from the outside in an extra small way, too.
"We'll have a solar panel array outside, which is there for educational value, but also in an effort to maintain a green facility," Schulman said. "The panels will bring in some solar energy. Not enough to power the whole facility, for sure, but families can see how solar energy panels work."
Schulman says Tellus' staff is looking forward to the day the doors open. "Everybody here at the museum is very passionate. We all have our favorite area that we can't wait to see when it's ready."
Anyone interested in being added to the museum's e-mail list or receiving information on membership when it becomes available can email Schulman at jschulman@tellusmuseum.org.
By the numbers:
3,541: Per-game attendance for the Rome Braves through 39 home games so far this season (138,122). Average for all home games in 2007: 3,372. The Braves open an eight-game home stand tonight.
$10,000-plus: That's the amount the Armuchee Ruritan Club donated to charitable causes in 2007 and the group's big fund-raiser of the year is on the way. The club is sponsoring its seventh annual classic car show at the Church at Northside, U.S. 27 across from Armuchee High School. Admission is free. Gates open at 8 a.m.; registration ends at 11:30 a.m. Registration is $25 per vehicle. Awards will be presented at 2 p.m. and plaques will be presented to the top 75 vehicles as well as to the Best of Show. Concessions will be available. For more: www.romecarshow.com.
4: That's the length of this year's sales tax holiday for back-to-school needs. The dates run right into the start of the new school year in some communities. Those dates: Midnight, July 31, through midnight Aug. 3.
1,515,594: The record-setting hit count for the Hometown Headlines' family of Web sites in June, up 65 percent from the same month in 2007-- and our second consecutive month with more than 1.5 million hits. We thank you for your continued support of our Web sites and promise continued upgrades in coming weeks.
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