Augusta got snowed on three times last week.

First came consultant Tripp Umbach's report to the University System of Georgia Board of Regents on expanding medical education at the Medical College of Georgia and in Athens. It was a 48-page blizzard of words with warnings of a doctor shortage crisis in Georgia unless they start training doctors all over the place ASAP, especially in Athens.

The report also generated a blizzard of words, skepticism and questions from folks in Augusta who strongly suspect University of Georgia President Michael Adams is out to start his own medical college and eventually leave Augusta out in the cold. Chief among the skeptics are members of the Richmond County legislative delegation, including state Sen. Ed Tarver .

"A year ago, MCG told us they were going to offer a four-year program for a class size of 40 students in Athens that would be sufficient to meet the state's shortage," Mr. Tarver said. "Now they're proposing to go up to 240 students using the same faculty.

"The initial reason for going to Athens was that we didn't have the clinical resources to expand in Augusta. This report now says not only do we have sufficient capacity to expand in Augusta but we can increase the size of the class by over 100 students. So I'm trying to reconcile what happened in a year to cause two proposals that are so different in terms of structure and cost to the taxpayers."

We don't know, either, senator, but it looks like this snow is going to stick.

SNOW JOB TWO: Augusta commissioners voted to pay attorney Ben Allen $7,865 to represent city clerk Lena Bonner in an open-records lawsuit filed by the Association for Fair Government. Mrs. Bonner asked for and received separate counsel apart from the Shepard Plunkett Hamilton & Boudreaux firm, which is representing the other city officials.

Commissioners voted to pay Mr. Allen the outrageous fee of $275 an hour, rejecting Commissioner Jerry Brigham 's motion to pay him $175 an hour, the rate they pay their city attorney for litigation work.

Why did they not go the cheaper route with your money? Well, getting a truthful answer to that is a lot harder than you might think. Here's the best I can do, seeing as how attorney Dan Hamilton did not respond to my phone call or written request to confirm or deny that he made the arrangements to hire Mr. Allen without discussing a fee. Mr. Allen said he doesn't remember whether they discussed one, but he did not submit the customary engagement letter stating what his fee would be.

So when commissioners went behind closed doors last week to discuss the bill, some said they had to pay Mr. Allen what he billed. Mr. Brigham disagreed. He said because the fee was never approved, Mr. Allen should be paid in line with the other attorneys in the Shepard firm.

Here's the kicker -- Commissioner J.R. Hatney 's motion to pay the bill included the words "and any other compensation that's necessary."

Can you spell blank check?

The total so far is $50,535 in legal fees over the issue of public inspection of public documents.

On behalf of the association, attorney Robert Mullins has fees of $26,883; on behalf of the city, Mr. Shepard's firm has fees of $15,787. The Augusta Chronicle , which joined the suit, will pay its own fees.

That one is going to stick, too.

SNOW JOB THREE: The real thing came Wednesday night but didn't stick.

A DECADE TOGETHER: Congratulations to Commissioner Joe Bowles and his wife, Sandy , who celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary last week.

You know what they say, kids. The first 100 years are the hardest.

NOW HE CAN THROW THE BOOK AT 'EM: Congratulations also to District Attorney Danny Craig, who was picked to be the Augusta Judicial Circuit's newest Superior Court judge.

A HEROINE WITH A BROOM CAN'T UPSTAGE A DAWG FAN: Carmen Bryant uses her broom for more than cleaning her big yellow school bus.

The Richmond County bus driver was commended by the school board recently for stepping up to protect a pedestrian, the woman's dog and the children at the driver's bus stop. She was picking the children up when a pit bull and another dog began attacking the woman and her dog.

Ms. Bryant grabbed her broom and beat the dogs while the woman, her dog and the children boarded the bus.

Not wanting to miss the chance to take a playful jab, school board President Jimmy Atkins slid in the comment that obviously the broom wasn't made in Florida, home to Superintendent Dana Bedden's alma mater, the University of Florida.

Why? Because no broom made in Florida could beat a Georgia Dawg, Mr. Atkins said.

NOT EXACTLY PREACHING TO THE CHOIR: Congressman John Lewis delivered an inspiring speech at Augusta State University on Friday, but the civil rights leader also slipped in a bit of humor.

He recalled growing up on a farm, where each family member had a responsibility. His was the chickens.

As a child, he wanted to be a preacher, so each Sunday he would gather up his family and the chickens to deliver a sermon.

Mr. Lewis would be speaking and preaching, and the chickens would just be shaking their heads.

"They never quite said 'Amen,' but when I look back, the great majority of those chickens tended to listen to me much better than a majority of my colleagues," he said.

"In fact, the chickens were a little bit more productive. At least they produced eggs."

If not for the inspiration and leadership of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Mr. Lewis said, he might still be preaching to those chickens.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has called Mr. Lewis "the conscience of the U.S. Congress."

MAYBE WE COULD GO TO THE MOVIES: If there's ice or snow on the ground today, pity me.

Sister June and her husband, Roger, from Virginia, are wending their way back north from their annual January pilgrimage to all the relatives in Florida and south Georgia and are spending a few days with me and Ernie. Oh, and our houseful of dogs.

We've been cleaning out closets, pulling out furniture and vacuuming up fur for the past few weeks. But if it snows, we're in trouble because the dogs refuse to go outside when it's raining, thundering, lightning, snowing or the temperature is below freezing -- except for very brief forays.

So there we'll be, cooped up together, and Mickey will already be out of sorts because he has to give up his bed. All night long, he'll whine and scratch on their bedroom door while the rest of them sniff under it trying to get the skinny on the strangers in the house.

Then there's Joe, who Roger insists on making friends with in spite of the fact that every time he sticks his hand out to pet him, Joe backs up and barks at him. So I say to June, "Joe would love to bite Roger." And June will say, "Roger, leave that dog alone. He would love to bite you."

Finally, June will say, "I can't believe you have all these dogs."

And I'll say, "I can't, either."

About the third time she says it, I get a little resentful.

It never fails.

City Ink thanks Staff Writer Greg Gelpi for his contributions to this week's column.