The Albany Herald - Headlines Archives

Headline Archives - October 2004

Sunday, October 17, 2004

It's good to be home

Albany State University sees record crowds Saturday at the first homecoming game in the Albany Municipal Stadium.

Elsbeth Willey

ALBANY — The smell of barbecued meat lingered in the crisp fall air as the Albany State Rams took the field Saturday afternoon, prepared to play the first homecoming game in the Albany Municipal Coliseum.

The 1:30 p.m. game was the hallmark event of the day, preceded by Saturday morning's Rec 'n' Ram Run and homecoming parade.

"We want to beat the bricks off Clark (Atlanta University)," said Atlanta resident and ASU alumna Ethel Johnson. "Then I can go back (to Atlanta) with the flags flying."

Johnson and her family headed from the parade in downtown Albany to set up their chairs outside the stadium. The 1976 graduate said she comes to almost every ASU game.

"It's too bad I live in Atlanta," she said, referring to the opposing team. "I'm a Ram."

A few steps away, standing over a smoker loaded with barbecued chicken, Albany resident and self-proclaimed "professional tailgater" Curtis Robinson was celebrating homecoming with friends.

"It's already different," Robinson said of the spirit exuding from the ASU fans on the first homecoming in the new stadium. "It's more like a real homecoming, because they are at home."

Giant blue and gold balloons floated against a brilliant blue sky as the crowd inside the stadium swayed to the music from the ASU Marching Rams Show Band.

Many fans wore shirts proclaiming "Welcome to our new home," boasting the sold out homecoming game and a "new era" for ASU football.

They crowded into the stadium and onto the grass surrounding the stands, even perching on the steep hill behind the north end zone's goal post.

The game against Clark Atlanta University's Panthers got off to a quick start, and fans waved their blue and gold pompons as the ball was run into the end zone for a touchdown just three minutes into the first quarter.

The ASU band and the gold-draped Passionette dancers took the field after a performance by Clark Atlanta's marching band and dancers.

Albany State Homecoming Queen Erika Estrada was escorted onto the field wearing a blue dress and hat, and her attendants, Teysha Richardson and Delisha Zellars, stood alongside, both dressed in gold.

"I think it's great," said ASU alumna Valerie Thomas as she exited the stands after halftime. "It brought a lot of people home."

Thomas, principal of Lamar Reese Elementary School in Albany, said she comes to every ASU homecoming game.

"Everybody has such a great spirit," said the 1977 graduate as she held her pink-and-green Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority jacket. "It's completely hyped up."

Bishop, Eversman tout job-creating records in contest

Candidates reveal differences on issues of job creation and tort reform.

Dave Williams

LAWRENCEVILLE — In the ninth poorest congressional district in the country, it's no surprise that the race to decide who will represent Southwest Georgia for the next two years boils down to jobs.

Six-term veteran Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop of Albany says a long list of federal grants, loans and other budget largesse he has helped secure from federal taxpayers for the primarily rural region has generated a net growth of 71,000 jobs since he's been in office.

"We've accomplished a lot, in spite of NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) and the closing of a lot of textile facilities," he said.

But Republican challenger Dave Eversman of Columbus, who spent several years on the job-recruitment front with a chamber of commerce, notes that poverty and unemployment are still dragging the region down a dozen years after voters first sent Bishop to Washington.

"I ran a small business for 15 years," said Eversman. "I was a public-relations manager. I was CEO of the Southwest Georgia chamber.

"I have a more diverse background that will be critical in revitalizing Southwest Georgia."

Bishop, 57, a lawyer by trade, spent 16 years in the General Assembly before being elected to Congress.

Since he has been in Washington, he said, his No.-1 priority has been doing everything he could to protect the district's economy.

Over the years, that has meant playing a leading role in the Georgia delegation's fight to save the state's many military bases — including the Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany and Fort Benning — from the federal base-closing commission.

With textile jobs being shipped overseas and tobacco sales on the decline, it's also meant helping efforts to diversify the economy.

Bishop said he has landed federal taxpayer dollars to help bring a vegetable freezing and packaging plant to Thomasville, a new industrial park and airport to Valdosta, a poultry plant to Camilla and — more recently — Albany's Riverquarium.

As a member of the House Agriculture Committee, he has helped draft the past two farm bills, which included buyouts to protect peanut and tobacco farmers from the worst effects of market-oriented reforms.

"The new farm bill brought billions of dollars to our rural communities," he said. "It's a tremendous boost."

Eversman, 48, said he won't take a back seat to Bishop when it comes to creating jobs.

After spending the first portion of his career in broadcast sales and public relations, Eversman got involved directly in economic development as CEO of the Southwest Georgia Chamber of Commerce, which represents five counties west of Albany hugging the Alabama line, perhaps the poorest part of Georgia.

He said he worked to overcome the area's disadvantages in incomes and educational attainment with some innovative approaches to luring new businesses.

Those efforts included his Southwest Georgia Peanut Project, which involved finding new markets for Georgia peanuts, and a loan program encouraging people who rent apartments in the region's larger, more prosperous cities to buy homes in nearby smaller cities burdened with high poverty rates.

"When you start growing these small communities, these people become your baseball coaches, city councilmen and PTA presidents," Eversman said. "They're middle-class families that can develop these communities."

Besides touting his experience, Eversman also is attacking Bishop's voting record as out of step with the district's mainly conservative voters.

Eversman said Bishop spends most of his time voting against such Republican initiatives as tax relief and medical-liability reform, then protects himself politically when it gets close to Election Day by supporting popular measures such as banning gay marriage.

"For 20 months out of every two-year cycle, he votes how the lobbyists want him to," Eversman said.

But Bishop said he has built a centrist voting record in the tradition of Southern "Blue-Dog" Democrats. He has supported legislation banning desecration of the American flag and allowing prayer in public schools, and helped draft the welfare-reform bill in the mid-1990s.

He said he supported President Bush's tax cuts until the combination of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the recession drove up the federal deficit.

Bishop said he also favors reforming the legal system governing medical-malpractice lawsuits, but only up to a point.

"We should be eliminating frivolous litigation," he said. "But capping pain-and-suffering awards for victims who have been injured is not the answer."

While Republicans have made some inroads into historically Democratic Southwest Georgia in recent years, the 2nd Congressional District is still an uphill climb politically for Eversman.

Bush carried the district by a slight margin in the 2000 presidential election, winning 50.6 percent of the vote.

But in an historic year of achievement for the GOP in Georgia in 2002, Southwest Georgia native Saxby Chambliss captured less than 46 percent of the vote in the 2nd District in winning his U.S. Senate race.

That same year, fellow Republican Sonny Perdue captured the governorship without the help of Southwest Georgia, winning only 45.7 percent of the 2nd District's vote.

Mudslinging hits new lows

Jim Hendricks

Every presidential election, I think the political mud has gotten about as deep and about as sticky and about as smelly as it could possibly get.

And then we go and have another presidential election, and I find out that it can, indeed, get much, much deeper and much, much stickier and much, much stinkier.

Here we are, just a couple of weeks away from the Official 2004 U.S. Presidential Sweepstakes and a single thought has to be hitting a lot of would-be voters like it's hitting me:

Is this really — in a land of 230-some-odd-million people, the most affluent country in the world, the very last superpower on the planet — the very best we can do when it comes to electing a president?

It's probably just another case of where memory is selective, but it seems like even national politicians at one time stood for something besides pithy little 30-second sound bites designed to take facts completely out of context, twist them up tightly with various exaggerations and blatant lies, and shovel them out on an unsuspecting and, at times, willingly misled public.

I'd like to say at least one side is above the fray here, but both President Bush and Senator Kerry are slinging mud patties as fast as their respective parties, donors and cohorts can wet down the dirt and hand it off to them.

Look at the picture each camp has painted of its opponent.

Bush? Kerry's bunch says he's a draft-dodging cowboy who's ignoring terrorists so he can pad the wallets of his rich friends and oil barons.

Kerry? Bush's crew says he's a snooty flip-flopping flower child who'll let terrorists run amok while he picks the wallets of hardworking Americans.

Both sides ought to have their artistic licenses revoked.

And it'll get dirtier over the last couple of weeks. One TV chain is going to show an anti-Kerry documentary on its 62 stations, while Michael Moore's peddling his profitable propaganda on DVD, though Moore hit a snag Friday when his pay-per-view, scheduled for a day or two before the election, was shelved by the satellite provider.

A company hired by Republicans to register voters in Nevada is being accused of refusing to sign up Democrats. The GOP, in turn, is accusing the Democrats in their election manual of urging accusations of minority voter intimidation even if there's no evidence it's happening.

The way it's shaping up, there won't even be a need for most of us to go to the voting booth.

Polling companies have already decided, for instance, that Georgia will go for Bush and give him its electoral votes. Most states already have been conveniently labeled and placed in either Bush or Kerry's corner, leaving a few "battleground" states that will likely live up to the name, at least in the courtroom shenanigans and shear volume of attack ads.

Civility, issues, statesmanship ... all anachronisms of a bygone era. Politics today is truly a dog-eaten-by-a-bigger-dog world, where the barking and growling count even more than the actual bite. It's loud, confusing and no small wonder that fed-up voters will stay home in droves.

The sad thing is it got like this because of a single reason. It works. You do it the best, and you're our nation's chief executive for the next four years. Hail to the chief.

And four years from now, it'll be muddier, stickier and stinkier.

Welcome to presidential politics of the new millennium.

Only two districts contested

Drama is lacking in a majority of state congressional races.

Dave Williams

LAWRENCEVILLE — U.S. Rep. John Linder is doing what most unopposed members of Congress are doing this fall.

Guaranteed to return to Washington in January without a fight, the Gwinnett County Republican is giving thousands of dollars sitting unused in his campaign treasury to other GOP candidates for the House, which Republicans control by a margin of 228-206, with one independent.

"That's how you keep the majority," said Linder, of Duluth.

But he's being selective with his largesse. Linder told reporters recently that, among Georgia's House races, he's putting his money on freshman Rep. Max Burns of Sylvania and challenger Calder Clay of Macon.

Linder knows what other politicians and political observers know: The race for Burns' 12th Congressional District seat and Clay's bid to upend Democratic Rep. Jim Marshall — another freshman — in the 3rd District are where the action is in a state with a congressional delegation otherwise dominated by entrenched incumbents and lopsided districts.

Republicans currently control the delegation 8-5, and little if any change is expected this fall. The lack of compelling congressional contests in most of Georgia is no accident.

When Democrats then in control of the General Assembly drew the current congressional map in 2001, they sought to maximize Democratic voting strength in a Republican-trending state by stretching and twisting some districts to grab as many Democratic voters as possible. In so doing, however, they also created a series of heavily Republican districts virtually guaranteed to elect GOP candidates.

Statistics Tell Story

The evidence is in the numbers. With the new map in effect for the first time two years ago, voters in six of Georgia's 13 congressional districts supported Republican U.S. Senate candidate Saxby Chambliss and GOP gubernatorial candidate Sonny Perdue by margins that ranged from 59.4 percent to 68.8 percent.

Conversely, support for Chambliss and Perdue in five heavily Democratic or Democratic-leaning districts ranged from a dismal 22 percent to 45.8 percent. Only in two districts — the 3rd and the 11th — were the numbers closer.

Marshall, also from Macon, won the 3rd District seat in 2002 over Clay by just 1,528 votes out of 149,260 cast.

Republican Phil Gingrey took the 11th District race, also for an open seat, by a more comfortable margin over Democrat Roger Kahn, winning by 4,338 votes of a total of 134,182 cast.

While Georgia Republicans have made Marshall their top target in this year's congressional races, Democrats have their sights set not on Gingrey but on Burns.

As far as Democratic operatives are concerned, Burns is in a seat that should belong to them. The 12th District, which stretches from downtown Savannah to Athens by way of Augusta, was drawn to elect a Democrat.

Chambliss barely got 41 percent of the vote there two years ago, and Perdue polled slightly lower than that.

The district has a black voting-age population of 39 percent, by far the highest among the Georgia districts in Republican hands. Black voters tend to support Democrats.

"This is the highest performing Democratic district in the country that is held by a Republican," said Stacy Kerr, spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "It's a great opportunity for us to pick up a seat."

Democrats are convinced they would have won the 12th in 2002 with a better candidate. Champ Walker ran a poor campaign and was saddled with the baggage of his famous father, former state Senate Majority Leader Charles Walker, who was under an ethical cloud at the time that has since led to a federal indictment on corruption charges.

Burns, a former professor at Georgia Southern University, has stumbled during his two years in the House. Early on, his office went through some highly publicized staff turnover.

Perhaps a more damaging incident took place when one of his biggest financial supporters made an anti-Semitic comment during an event attended by Burns, and the congressman did not immediately rebuke the remarks.

Amy Walter, a political analyst with The Cook Political Report in Washington, said Burns also has amassed a very conservative voting record that leaves him vulnerable to attack in such a Democratic-leaning district.

"He hasn't taken many opportunities to distance himself from the Republican leadership, which you'd think someone in a district like that would do," she said.

But Chris Paulitz, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said Burns' voting record includes support for several Bush administration initiatives that have proven popular with voters of all stripes, like tax cuts and a prescription-drug benefit for Medicare enrollees.

During the campaign, Burns has taken aim at Democratic candidate John Barrow of Athens for raising taxes as a Clarke County commissioner, and for flip-flopping on a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning gay marriage.

Record Dispute

While Republicans defend Burns' voting record, they're painting Marshall's record as out of step with the conservative 3rd District, including his opposition to eliminating the federal inheritance tax.

Several Republican heavy hitters have been into the district to campaign for Clay, including Vice President Dick Cheney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

NRCC spokesman Bo Harmon said Georgia's 3rd District is among just a handful across the country where the campaign committee is running TV ads. The district tilts Republican, having supported Chambliss with 50.3 percent of the vote in 2002 and Perdue with 53.8 percent.

"It's a district that people expect is going to go for President Bush and (Republican Senate candidate) Johnny Isakson," Harmon said. "We feel like the environment is certainly favorable."

But Merle Black, a political science professor at Emory University, said Marshall has helped his re-election chances by building a centrist voting record. The former Macon mayor, who volunteered for a tour of duty in Vietnam, has been active on veterans' issues in a district that is home to a large population of veterans.

"He's been to Iraq and supported the administration there," said Black. "He's taken some issues away from his opponent."

Gingrey Favored

Like Burns and Marshall, Gingrey represents a congressional district that skews toward the other party. Yet, the freshman Republican from Marietta is widely considered a heavy favorite to defeat Democratic challenger Rick Crawford of Cedartown.

Walter said Gingrey may have cowed Democrats in two ways. Not only had he raised more than $1 million by June 30, giving him one of the largest war chests among freshman Republicans. He also had defeated a self-funded millionaire in Kahn in 2002.

"There's a little post-traumatic stress syndrome going there when you look at how much the Democrats spent last time and came up short," said Walter.

Gingrey got plenty of company in the group of Georgia congressional candidates expected to have little or no trouble winning re-election. Besides Linder, Reps. Jack Kingston, R-Savannah; John Lewis, D-Atlanta; Nathan Deal, R-Gainesville; and David Scott, D-Atlanta, are unopposed.

Former state Sen. Tom Price of Roswell having won a hard-fought Republican primary campaign in Isakson's old district, is unopposed in the general election.

Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Albany; Rep. Charlie Norwood, R-Evans; and former state Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Sharpsburg face major-party opponents but are considered solid favorites in their respective districts.

And former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, D-Decatur, is expected to easily retake the 4th District congressional seat being vacated by Democrat Denise Majette, Isakson's opponent in the Senate race.

Tracking system highlights Expo

An annual farm show in Moultrie expects to draw more than 200,000 visitors over three days.

Alan Mauldin

MOULTRIE — DNA tests that can tell how tender a steak will be — before the animal hits the slaughterhouse — and an animal tracking system to thwart disease outbreaks are among the newest technology that will be on display this week in Moultrie.

The U.S. Animal Identification plan will allow officials to trace all animals and locations potentially exposed to an animal with a foreign disease within 48 hours of discovering a disease is present, the University of Georgia said.

If an animal is found to be contaminated with hoof and mouth disease, officials can determine every place it was held from birth and track every other animal it had come in contact with over its lifetime.

At the 27th Sunbelt Agricultural Exposition a simulation of how the program will work will be among the new technology on display for farmers.

The annual farm show kicks off Tuesday and will run through Thursday.

While the animal tracking system is designed for animals' health, people also will benefit, said Curt Lacy, a UGA cattle economist who works in Tifton.

States are deciding how to assign and manage tags for animals, and by July 2006, the system is scheduled to be in place.

In addition to cattle, the system will track bison, swine, sheep, goats, equine, poultry, game birds, farmed fish and domestic deer, elk, camelids (such as llamas and alpacas) and ratites (ostriches, emus and rheas), UGA said.

At Expo, farmers can see how it will work for a simulated calf getting an identification at its home farm and how it is tracked through each stage of life up until the slaughterhouse, said Jim Collins, executive vice president of the Georgia Cattlemen's Association.

The Georgia association has teamed with other Southeastern states and is awaiting funding from the United States Department of Agriculture, Collins said.

"We're basically in a holding pattern in that we have no funding," he said. "We're waiting to know a little more from USDA."

The DNA test will be displayed by Paul Swisher, tenderness coordinator for the American Pinzgauer Association. The test can find a genetic marker for potential tenderness, which Swisher said is an inherited trait.

The testing starts with a low-tech sample of 15-20 tail hairs, which is sent to a laboratory, which uses a process identical to that used in humans, for a DNA mapping for tenderness, Swisher said.

The technology can help cattle producers by identifying cattle likely to produce tender offspring and bring better prices for meat, Swisher said.

About 1,200 exhibitors will be showcasing their goods on the 100-acre exhibit area, Expo Director Chip Blalock said.

"With everything that we've been through with the hurricanes coming through ... hopefully this will be a good chance for (farmers) to take a break and see the latest technology," he said. "It's also a good time for consumers to come in and see the technology farmers use to produce the most abundant and safe supply of food, fiber and shelter."

Airport awaits UPS contract

Danny Carter

Officials at Southwest Georgia Regional Airport are expecting a signed contract to arrive this week from United Parcel Service pledging to keep its nightly cargo service at the airport.

Airport Director Yvette Aehle says all the details have been agreed to and the formal contract is expected soon.

UPS flies three 757s into Albany each evening to handle cargo from southwest Georgia and pockets of north Florida. Aehle and UPS representatives are expected to gather in November to discuss the cargo company's needs in a new facility.

UPS operates in a World War II era hanger where the nearby pavement is crumbling. Albany has pledged to build a new facility for UPS. This will enable UPS to expand its operation in Albany as needed, possibly flying more and bigger jets into the city. The local runway may be lengthened. The airport generates income from UPS based on the amount of cargo processed here.

••HEADED TO COURT: Frances Waddell Douglas of Columbus, a former Albany resident, is trying to get a parcel of land on Meredyth Drive just behind the Talbots, Pizza Hut and Wagner's area rezoned which would allow her to sell the property.

The strip of land originally was part of a 46-acre tract rezoned to C-2c (general business-conditional) in 1989. The land was owned at that time by the Cross estate and was being rezoned to allow development of a regional shopping center.

Those plans never evolved, and most of the land has been sold for other development. The buffer remains. It was designated a buffer to protect homeowners in the Dawson Heights subdivision from commercial encroachment.

While the other property has been marketed, the need for the buffer remains. Douglas wants it rezoned to C-2 (general business) which would allow a 4,000 square foot facility to be constructed on the lot. Meredyth Drive is within 108 feet of the alley adjoining the Dawson Heights subdivision The building, if approved, could come within 20 feet of that alley.

The Albany-Dougherty Planning Commission has recommended that the rezoning be denied. It still must be acted on by the city commission.

It's understandable that the Dawson Heights residents want the city to continue giving them some protection from Meredyth Drive development.

••COFFEE HOUSE: Robert Beauchamp has purchased property at 1522 W. Third Ave. which formerly housed the Regions Bank office.

Beauchamp plans to renovate the bank building and turn it into a coffee shop. A new building will be constructed behind the coffee house to be used for professional offices and small shops. He plans to build two two-story structures with a promenade between them. The types of stores being recruited include small apparel store, jewelry store, electronics shop,. picture frame shop, boutique, gift shop or floral shop.

Many lots along Third Avenue between Slappey and Dawson have been converted to office or commercial use during the past decade.

••RIVERQUARIUM VISIT: Georgia Speaker of the House Terry Coleman of Eastman will visit the Albany Riverquarium Monday morning. Coleman is credited by local Albany Tomorrow with supporting funding for the center. In addiition to his government service, Coleman has Huddle House franchises in Eastman and McRae and is on the board of Colony Bank Corporation.

Trucking company brings jobs

A new trucking company is expected to mean more jobs for Albany.

Lee Ann Livesay

ALBANY — A new company will be opening up in Albany that will help connect truck drivers to shipping companies.

Albany native Billy Smith and Russell Smith of Gainesville are merging to create Smith Transport and Logistics Inc., which will operate out of both Albany and Gainesville bringing about 50 new jobs, Billy Smith, the company's president, said. The two are not related.

Around 20 of those jobs will be in South Georgia, mostly for truck drivers, although it is likely one to three general office staff will also be needed. Smith said.

"We are one of the first companies to offer such a full service package for the owner operator," Smith said.

The company will act as a broker, bringing shipping companies together with truck drivers that meet their needs and vice versa, he said.

"We're an intermediary organization," he said.

Smith said he expects the company's revenues to exceed $1 million in its first year of operations. The company also hopes to expand north and west as it grows.

Tim Martin, president and CEO of the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce was excited about the development.

"It's a wonderful business niche for this community," Martin said.

About $7.7 million will be invested to start up the new company, about half of which will be spent in the Albany area, Martin said.

"I think these folks have a proven track record that they'll be successful hear," Martin said.

Billy Smith is a native of Albany, having graduated from Albany High School, although currently living in Marietta. He owns several warehouses in Albany, Martin said, and he has been in the trucking industry for more than 35 years.

He founded CC&S Transportation in Augusta in 1980, selling his interest in that in 1991.

Russell Smith will serve as the company's chief financial officer and will operate the Gainesville office.

Portfolio

PROFESSIONAL

Jay Smith and Janice Allen Jackson have been named to the Albany Technical College board of directors for a three-year term.

Smith has been with Georgia Power Co. for 25 years and serves as area manager. He is responsible for design, construction, operation and maintenance of Georgia Power's distribution system in Worth, Dougherty, Lee, Mitchell, Baker, Calhoun, Randolph, Clay, Quitman and Terrell counties. The Thomasville native received a degree in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech.

Jackson has been city manager in Albany since 1996. The Augusta native received a bachelor's degree in public policy from the College of William and Mary in Virginia and a master's degree in public policy and management from Duke University.

••

Larry Smith, TV operations manager, has been named Darton College's staff employee of the month.

Smith has been with Darton since 2000. Under his leadership, Darton has increased the number and quality of its televised course offerings, college officials said.

INSURANCE

Rushton "Russ" Allen has been appointed as a sales associate with American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus.

Allen, whose office is at 1121 Dawson Road, is a 1990 graduate of Westover High School and received his bachelor's degree from the University of Georgia. He and his wife, Angie, live in Albany with daughter, Annalise.

CONSTRUCTION

Don Barfield, president and chief operating officer of AAA Concrete Products Corporation in Albany, has been elected president of the Georgia Onsite Wastewater Association.

Barfield was chosen during the group's annual conference in St. Simons Island. He also is a member of the board of Georgia Concrete and Products Association and has worked with the Georgia Department of Human Resources on drafting the current onsite wastewater manual. He is former vice chairman of the Certification Review Committee that works to ensure compliance by onsite contractors, pumpers and septic tank manufacturers.

Barfield and his wife, Rosemary, work with the single adult program at First Baptist Church. He is a deacon and former deacon chairman, as well as chair for the Building Relation Committee. They have seven grandchildren.

CHAMBER

The Albany Area Chamber of Commerce has several new members including Quailridge Plantation, Regency Distribution Ltd., Checkers, Health Choice, Southwest Georgia Regional Airport, Ashley Riverside, Advance Auto Parts East Oglethorpe and Advance Auto Parts South Slappey.

••

Several representatives of the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce recently attended a Washington fly-in conducted by the Georgia Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives.

Attending were Tim Martin, president and CEO of the Albany chamber; Len Dorminey, 2004 chamber chairman of the board, and Bobby McKinney, chairman-elect.

Martin serves as chairman of GACCE.

Business Portfolio is a column on business people in Southwest Georgia that appears weekly in Sunday Inc. To submit an item, mail it to Business Portfolio, P.O. Box 48, Albany, Ga., 31702; e-mail danny.carter@albanyherald$#46;com; fax to (229) 888-9357 or visit our office at 126 N. Washington St. Photo submissions are encouraged. The deadline for submissions is 5 p.m. Wednesday before Sunday publication.