Culberson Fire & Rescue seeking help
Dear members of the Culberson community:
Fire and rescue are services that Cherokee County provides to all taxpayers. However, the county does not provide men and women to the Culberson Fire & Rescue Department. Culberson depends on volunteers who serve without pay. This letter is an appeal to you to volunteer your services.
The Culberson Fire & Rescue Department has worked structure fires and grass fires. It also assists with highway accidents and runs emergency calls for other fire departments.
The department is well-equipped with a 5,000-gallon tanker truck, the largest in the county; a rescue truck; and a quick response vehicle. The department has also recently installed a helicopter pad for emergency transports, and the training facility is climate
controlled.
Volunteers learn many leadership skills while making a strong contribution to the community. Financial benefits include life insurance at no cost, the option of contributing to a state pensions fund and discounts with local businesses while wearing your badge.
Volunteers, men or women above age 18, must be a resident of Culberson or live nearby. Retired persons are welcome. Drug tests or background checks may be required. A member of another fire station may not volunteer with the Culberson department.
All volunteers must take fire and rescue training, which requires 36 hours per year. This training is available during regularly scheduled fire station meetings or through Tri-County Community College in Peachtree at no cost.
If you would like more information or would like to volunteer, please call Fire Chief Kasey Carter at 828-557-5008.
We sincerely hope that you will join the Culberson Fire & Rescue Department and work with us to help our community.
The board of directors
for the Culberson Fire
& Rescue Department
Kasey Carter, fire chief
Gary Anderson, president
John Shields, vice president
Lori Carter, secretary
Steve Forrister, treasurer
Charles Forrister,
community member
Just thinkin’ out loud here
In my life, there have been comments made that would suggest a misunderstanding of what I was trying to share or what I was doing. Now, we have all had this happen to us and by us. We are all made of dust, what do you expect to happen?
Lord, we are destined to fail. “Yep, I knew what would happen when sin entered and My children got a hold of the knowledge of good and evil. They would run with it their own way. Many will still decide they no longer need Me.”
Lord, I need to be polished when I speak. People won’t listen if I share where I have fallen short. “I want you to speak out of your weakness, so I may be made strong.”
Oh, no, Lord, that makes me vulnerable and an object for misunderstanding.
“Remember Peter? I told him he would deny Me three times, he did and then he wept bitterly.” Yes Lord, I remember.
“I left that in My book for a reason. So My children who are called by My Name could relate to the fallen nature of dust. In My perfect time they would come with heads bowed and hearts broken to receive …My gifts, from My Hands. They would be restored and renewed to continue on the path to Home ... with Me!”
May we all remember, when we get an opportunity to critique or correct a testimony, the speaker may be speaking or doing from a place of vulnerability or obedience. If words are necessary, only His words will do.
Houston, we have a communication problem. I heard it said, “We do not listen to understand, we listen to reply.”
Forgive us Lord, and help us all to do better.
Geri Poirier
Hayesville
Holding on to those horses
As I read our local newspaper, I can’t understand why Murphy has lots of issues that are simple to solve for less money.
No. 1: We would not have to combine our schools if the schools were built as two stories instead of one and had better construction done to them. I believe Murphy Elementary School was once a two-story building. Has any of our county school board members or commissioners took time to ask the children what they want?
No school around here can prepare a child for a heartache if that child becomes disabled much later in life.
I should know, I am living proof.
No. 2: Why does Murphy have two welcome centers? One is downtown, while the other is still in town but on the highway.
Get real. We just need one. Use other for driver’s license office and hire some more people. Simple.
Please get rid of the flowers in front of Rumors. They are dangerous to short drivers, or put up “No turn on red” signs all around the square for all our safety.
Please cut the hedge down by Murphy’s Chophouse, where people can see someone stepping into crossover or put push buttons there. Three places I can name that need this.
No. 3: This goes to the Cherokee County Saddle Club. If you are going to have electric to that covered arena, please make sure the work on that or those covers can withstand the weight of the electric company heavy equipment trucks, or your project can become a similar sinkhole a few years down the road again.
I know, I have proof. I even have a way to help more, so please feel free to write to me for details.
Willena Helton
Murphy
‘Lake Grace’ needed today
In 1830, our forefathers in the U.S. Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, inaccurately and unfairly removing Cherokees from this their ancestral homeland.
A subsequent 1835 Treaty of New Echota, reportedly signed by unauthorized Cherokee leaders, was federally ratified (an appropriate verb) in 1836, despite Chief John Ross, along with 15,000 Cherokee signatures, petitioning nonratification. This treaty gave all Cherokee lands in the South to the federal government and gave Oklahoma to the Cherokees. What a deal.
President Martin Van Buren ordered Cherokee evacuation which was carried out by Brigadier General Winfield Scott’s May 10, 1838, military order ultimatum:
“Cherokees! The president of the United States has sent me, with a powerful army, to cause you, in obedience to the Treaty of 1835, to join that part of your people who are already established in prosperity, on the other side of the Mississippi … The full moon of May is already on the wane, and before another shall have passed away, every Cherokee man, woman and child … must be in motion to join their brethren in the far West.”
Thus began the Trail of Tears, a very sad, long and deadly chapter of American history.
Though this was apparently many men’s doing, and granted that Scott contributed significantly to winning the War of 1812 against the British and also the Civil War for the North, I suggest his name has been revered for a sufficient amount of time.
I therefore propose that we, as a Southern region, petition to change Federal Park Lake Winfield Scott, renaming it as “Lake Grace,” a lovely name signifying a brand new chapter of forgiveness and a very real progression of renewal in our land.
With sincere thoughts and petitional prayers,
Deena Allison Handy
Cleveland, Ga.
Statistics were gleaned from the N.C. Department of Natural & Cultural Resources at ncdcr.gov.