WHAT'S AHEAD FOR SHADY DALE

By John Harvey

Over the past few weeks we have been looking at the town of Shady Dale and its past. This week we thought we might look at the present and get some idea of plans for the future.

To do this we dropped in for a talk with the mayor, Junior Champion. We found Mr. Champion very happy to talk about the town and some of the plans he and the council have for the future.

Mr. Champion was elected to the council in 1969 and after serving for four years in that body he was elected to the office of mayor six years ago.

When asked what he felt was the high point of his years as mayor, he stated that it would be hard for him to really pick one thing which he could call the "most important" but he would consider two things are high points of his years as mayor at the present time.

The recreation center, begun in 1974 and completed in 1976 ranks high in projects completed. A nice building for suppers and community events with a near-by ball field and a tennis court in the process of being completed. It give townspeople a place to get together year round.

Ranking just as high is the fire department with its trained volunteer firemen and its EMT program. The addition of the fire department has brought about a lowering of fire rates within the town. This has also been helped by the addition of a number of new fire hydrants in parts of the town that had not been covered previously. The town is now in the process of trying to obtain a class "A" pumper and it is hoped that with the addition of this truck the fire rate can be lowered to a class eight.

In recent months the lighting system has had 15 new street lights installed and plans are to install about five more. The water system is also due for expansion. The addition of a section of the town between Georgia Highway 142 and the little town of Machen and the Stock Farm to the system, and with at least one new industry, it has become necessary to add a new well full time.

The new industry coming to town is the Southern Empire Egg Farms, formerly of Lithia Springs. This business, soon to open in the old Con-Agra building, will supply egg farmers over an approximately 30 county area with laying hens. It will employ about 20 people and have an approximate payroll of $30,000.

With all these things happening, there seemed to be only one "cloud" on the horizon. For the past number of years Shady Dale has had an annual Fourth of July picnic but this year no one volunteered to head up this activity. Mayor Champion said, "It's too late now, so I guess we won't have one this year".

Additional Comments:
Transcribed by Suzanne Forte (suzanneforte@bellsouth.net) April 2005, from copies of articles contained in the Monticello News. There articles were prepared by Mr.
John Harvey and published in this newspaper during the 1970's and 1980's time frame. Some were under the title "Jasper Reflections", others "Bicentennial Bits".
Permission has been granted by Mr. Harvey for use of these very valuable and informative articles.

Copies of articles provided by Benny Hawthorne.