-Demand for assistance grows as jobs, cash, benefits disappear
-Even the economy can't stop enterprising Berry students
-3-Dot Buzz: Delay at City Market? .. Braves' mall kiosk. V3 and Cagle
Weather Center/ Brought to you by Roman Court
-Sunny and 58 today; 20% rain chance tonight, lows in the upper 30s.
-Extended forecast: Lots of rain possible Tuesday night, Wednesday
-Click Weather center
Downtown Headlines
-Another busy week along Broad with college graduations, the final weekend of 'The Witch' and Sunday's Our Lady of Guadalupe celebration> Downtown Headlines
Norman Arey's Sports Roundtable / brought to you by Riverside Toyota
-Tim Tebow for Heisman for the second straight year. If not, then who? Seriously. For more, click Arey
Friday's High School playoffs / Brought to you by Printworks
-Calhoun prepares for Buford at the Georgia Dome, 5 p.m. Friday.
-Watch the game live on GPB television> Link
-Radio, Web coverage: WEBS 1030 AM, Webcast)
John McClellan's High School championship picks
-John takes a final look at this season's high school games, picking the winners in five state title matches. He sees Buford taking a 15-point win vs. the Calhoun Yellow Jackets for the Class AA title.
-All on The Football Report
The Road to Rome: NAIA National Championship
Rome NAIA premiere championship to host a rematch of 2007 teams
Carroll (Montana.) and Sioux Falls (South Dakota) are the teams in the Dec. 20 NAIA national championship here in Rome on Dec. 20. Both met in the 2007 showdown as well. Carroll (13-0) beat Lindenwood (Mo.) 38-37 to win its 28th straight overall game. Sioux Falls (13-0) returns to its third straight National Championship after taking out undefeated St. Francis (Ind.) 24-6> NAIA
-The game is at noon Saturday, Dec. 20> NAIA National Championship
-For more, click NAIA
-Barron Stadium and Maddox Track will be closed Dec. 15-22 because of the Dec. 20 NAIA college football national championship game and related activities, according to a release from the park and rec department.
-First Baptist, First Presbyterian to host NAIA team dinners Dec. 17> Rome
Demand for assistance grows as jobs, cash, benefits disappear
By Natalie Simms
You don't have to go far to see signs of our faltering economy. The recent layoffs at Mohawk's distribution center in Shannon and Temple-Inland's box plant pushed the number of local workers idled this year to nearly 1,000 (see chart). Other cutbacks were too "small" in number to require a job loss notice to the state Department of Labor. Large or small, more than 12,600 area residents were without jobs in October.
Earlier this month, more than 1,000 people lined up at The Forum for free clothes given out by Life Church. The Free Clinic of Rome is booked up on appointments for the remainder of the year with people who no longer have health insurance because of lost jobs or lost benefits.
Many are low on money and unable to meet their basic needs, especially food. Local relief agencies are feeling the crunch with increasing demand putting a strain on supplies.
Thanks to you, there is good news: Donations so far are keeping up with the need.
"With the way the economy is going, we have definitely seen an increase in the need for food, financial assistance and clothing," says Capt. Eileen Farrell, with The Salvation Army in Rome. "And with the generosity of our community, we have been able to help with the clothing need and our financial donations are running about the same as last year."
Year-to-date, the Salvation Army has provided 5,725 bed nights of lodging and 18,320 meals. It serves meals six days a week.
"We did run out of food in September and have had to supplement to get us through the year," Farrell says. The Salvation Army recently held its 26th Annual Can-A-Thon at State Mutual Stadium to collect food for the shelter. And the"Red Kettle" fund-raiser is going on through the holidays. Kettles and bell-ringers are based throughout the area at local stores.
Northwest Georgia layoffs so far this year
| Company | People laid off | Community |
| Mohawk | 89 | Shannon |
| Temple Inland | 91 | Coosa |
| Mohawk | 156 | Armuchee |
| Wheelers | 58 | Rome |
| Wheelers | 155 | Rome |
| Pierre Foods | 153 | Polk County |
| Mt. Vernon Mills | 250 | Chattooga County |
| Total since Jan. 1 | 952 | Northwest Georgia |
Source: Georgia Department of Labor
These agencies and others are seeing a lot of people who have "never set foot" in a food pantry before, mainly because of the faltering economy.
"This is unlike any other time we've seen before," says Cathy Aiken-Freeman with Rome Action Ministries, a local food pantry. "We have tripled the amount of people we have served compared to the last two years."
Just in October and November, the organization saw 4,000 people, all by referral only from other agencies such as the Georgia Department of Family & Children Services as well as area churches.
"We are seeing people who have never set foot in a pantry before," she says. "That is a real indicator of how difficult things are.
"We're not only seeing people who have been laid off but some who are working and because of gas prices over the summer and grocery inflation, they are just unable to pay the bills and don't have enough for food," she says.
"Creditors send collectors for their money but there isn't anyone at the door to collect for food, so it's the thing that gets put off but is the most vital."
Aiken-Freeman said there are less donors out there because of the situation but the agency is doing "OK" on meeting the needs of the community.
"If we run out of something, we send out an S.O.S. and get it over the weekend," she says. "Food Lion is a valuable contributor. They give us food seven days a week and if it were not for them, we would not have the quality or quantity of food that we have. We are not hurting as I feared we would be right now."
12,634 area residents jobless, 8% of work force
| October employed | October jobless | October jobless % | |
| Bartow | 43,629 | 3,829 | 8.1% |
| Chattooga | 10,022 | 1,019 | 9.2% |
| Floyd | 46,303 | 3,799 | 7.6% |
| Gordon | 25,224 | 2,439 | 8.8% |
| Polk | 20,126 | 1,548 | 7.1% |
| Georgia | 4,553,508 | 343,733 | 7% |
Source: Georgia Department of Labor
But the agency continues to prepare for future needs. Rome Action Ministries is accepting food and monetary donations for 2009. Donations can be dropped off at one of their two locations:
>South Broad United Methodist Church from 10 a.m. to noon, Monday-Friday
>Garden Lakes Baptist Church from 5-7 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. For more information, please call 706-291-7731.
The Floyd County Baptist Association, which provides food and coats to county residents, also is seeing the increased need for services. "October and November have been busier than normal," said Brenda Baldwin with the Baptist association. "We're seeing more who have jobs but need supplemental help and we're seeing a lot who have been laid off."
The association also is seeing an increase in the number of first-timers seeking help, she said.
"Our donations are good. All of our food comes from our Southern Baptist churches," she says. "We could not do this without our churches."
Floyd's Southern Baptist churches fund the center through tithes and offerings. Each church pledges 3 percent of its budget for the center, which is at 17 Burnett Ferry Road.
"It is looking grim for faith-based organizations," Baldwin says. "One of the first things people cut back on is tithe and when tithe goes down, that affects us."
However, Baldwin is not worried about keeping up with the community's need for assistance.
"As long as we are doing what God wants us to do, He will take care of us," she says. "God has always provided for this ministry."
The Floyd County Baptist Association is accepting donations of food, coats and money. For more information, call 706-291-8181.
Even the economy won't stop enterprising Berry students
At 4 p.m. Thursday, the Dow closed down 215.45 points, landing with a collective thud at 8,376.24. It was another rough day in the business world, another collective bite of millions of dollars out of investors' hands.
Sixty minutes later, in an upstairs room at Coosa Country Club, groups of Berry College students finished final preparations on unique class reports.
For the next two hours, the students would talk about deer, beer, chicken biscuit deliveries and Unique Angles. They'd be peppered with questions about supply, demand, customer satisfaction, social media marketing and return on investment.
Thursday's close by the Dow was irrelevant to this class of Berry Entrepreneurs. Since late August, they'd been working mostly together to take $100 in seed money, perhaps some of their own funds and sweat equity to create business ventures powered by passion and purpose. The results--from product to profits--were presented during Thursday night's report to instructor Dr. Paula Englis (right) and several class advisors.
If you needed something to kick you out of the my- 401K-is-now-just-01K-doldrums, this was it.
The businesses ranged from Oh Deer (selling stuffed toy deer to the Berry faithful) to Clocktower Brewery (a Rome-brewed brew targeting local audiences to on-demand golf lessons from Berry students and colleagues to partners in The Breakfast Club who delivered Chick-fil-A breakfast biscuits to students, faculty and staff. And there were more.
Some of the businesses were temporary, created just for the class. Others will live on after the final grade, In the 10 years Englis has been teaching what is now known as "Intro to Entrepreneurship," she has helped students launch more than 40 small businesses that remain active today.
The program got an extra boost in 2005 when Berry alum Todd Nelson donated $2,500, funds used as seed money for the student businesses. As each makes a profit, the students return that seed cash plus 10 percent of their profits. The rest is theirs to keep. In most cases, the students retain the business and intellectual property.
Among the student-created businesses is operation today, says Englis, are:
-Jeff Jahn's Dynamix Web Design
-Brian Kase and Peter Pelosi's Premier Firewood
-Bobby Swarthout and Richard Pickering's Paperbackswap.com
-Carrie Jo Pinckard's TexturePhotographics
-Eric Cone's Lavender Mountain Adventures (specializes in team building and outdoor experiential learning)
-Laura and Bill Valentine's Wild Bill's Trading Post
-JP Selle's Seven Hills Trading Company (wine importing from Chile).
For more on the class, click Berry Entrepreneurs.
January debut for Rome City Market? That's what at least one tenant is estimating as work continues on the second most-anticipated opening on Broad Street. The most-anticipated opening? It will make sense hopefully sooner than later.
Rome Braves open kiosk at Mount Berry Square: You can pick up Rome Braves' gear (hats, shirts, pull overs) as well as ticket packages at a new kiosk at Mount Berry Square. The Braves will be at the mall through Christmas Eve. Anyone buying a special ticket six-pack (six games) gets a Braves' ornament, too> Braves
>Braves' annual Tradin' Post sale is this Saturday> Braves. . .
Latest issue of V3 magazine out today:
This month's cover features Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and the "war" on wasteful spending. Other features include a look inside the soon-to-open Tellus museum in Cartersville; a tour of Rhonda and Ronnie Wallace's holiday-styled home and other regular features. . .
Rome artist Cheryl Riner Hodge now online:
You've seen many of popular Rome artist Cheryl Riner Hodge's works around the community in recent years. Now you can see Hodge's collection online at www.cherylrinerhodge.com. The site features a portfolio of Hodge's water color creations, many with specific Rome themes. The site includes a retail/commerce side as well. The site was designed by Lamante Attaud of Tendo Technologies. . .
Business calendar
-Dec. 9: Young Professionals of Rome, Chieftains, 5:30-7 p.m., $10.
-Dec. 11: Greater Rome Chamber's Business Before Hours, Merrill Gardens, 7:30-9 a.m.
-Jan. 22: Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce, annual meeting, The Forum, 6:30 p.m. reception; 7 p.m. dinner/program. $45 per person; tables, $360> Click
-Jan. 29: Cartersville-Bartow County Chamber of Commerce annual meeting, reception at 5:30 and dinner at 6:30 p.m. Cartersville First Baptist Church, 241 Douthit Ferry Road. Guest speaker is Alan Essig, Executive Director of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.> Click
-Feb. 26: Cartersville-Bartow County Chamber of Commerce annual health expo> Click
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