Palin passes on offer to go hunting while in Augusta

When news broke that former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was coming to town Monday to stump for Saxby Chambliss , people started scrambling to make reservations to attend the event.

Rob Pavey , The Chronicle 's outdoors editor, had a different idea. He invited her to take a break from all that politicking to go deer hunting.

"Our whitetails aren't nearly as big as those Alaskan bull moose," he wrote in an e-mail to the governor, "but they're a lot sneakier and more fun to hunt."

"That's a terrific invitation," Mrs. Palin's press secretary Bill McAllister responded, "but unfortunately not practical given the governor's tight schedule. She's also going to Philadelphia to meet with the president-elect. She might want a rain check on that, though!"

FRED THE TIGER: When a man challenging the city's right to impose mandatory trash service called Solid Waste Director Mark Johnson "incompetent" and a liar during an Engineering Services Committee meeting last week, City Administrator Fred Russell didn't take it sitting down.

Noticeably agitated, Mr. Russell stood up at one point while calling the man out of order, advising commissioners to take his rude behavior into account and move on.

Enoch Ward said he was speaking on behalf of his son's company, which owns four one-bedroom apartments in south Augusta. He said they can hire their own trash hauler for cheaper than the $276 per unit per year the city charges.

Mr. Ward has apparently been battling the city on the issue ever since it extended trash service to the suburbs in 2002. He's told Mr. Johnson not to deliver cans to the property, and he's even managed to get refunds. He wanted more money back and the trash fees taken off future bills.

Commissioners agreed the company doesn't have enough units to be exempted from service.

In the hallway afterward, Mr. Ward said he might sue.

THE MAGNIFICENT TEN: It seems the community isn't over the Woody Merry -William Fennoy brawl just yet. Starting next month, it's going to cost taxpayers at least $72 per Augusta-Richmond County Coliseum Authority meeting so its members can feel safe from would-be assailants.

They're hiring sheriff's deputies -- who work off duty for $18 per hour with a four-hour minimum.

Mr. Fennoy broached the subject of security at last week's authority meeting. An armed deputy was at one meeting last year after the fight, which began when Mr. Merry, a community activist, taunted Mr. Fennoy in the hallway outside the meeting room. But not lately.

The discussion played out like villagers deciding to hire a gunslinger to protect them from bandits.

It was pointed out that building security attends the meetings, but authority members weren't reassured by the elderly gentleman armed with a walkie-talkie and cell phone.

Mildred McDaniel said having a deputy present would give the impression that bad things happen at coliseum authority meetings, so she suggested the officer be posted outside to find out who people are before they come in.

With no vote needed because there had been one to that effect earlier, the authority decided to bring back an officer. Chairman Richard Isdell said, if all goes well, maybe they can reconsider in a few months.

"Find one that knows how to paint, too, and they can paint hallways," he said.

STORM CLOUDS: A battle may be brewing over who will succeed Betty Beard as mayor pro tem on the Augusta Commission next year.

Both Don Grantham and J.R. Hatney want the job. One rumor said Alvin Mason wants it, too, but he says that's not true. Mr. Mason said he wouldn't dodge the duty if nominated, but he's not actively seeking it.

"I would hope that we get together and decide so we don't have a bunch of controversy," Mr. Mason said.

That leaves the two super district commissioners. Mr. Hatney said he's interested. Mr. Grantham said he is, too, especially considering that the post-consolidation "gentlemen's agreement" that the mayor pro tem be of the opposite race as the mayor was rescinded by a vote in 2005.

Aside from prestige, the job comes with an $8,000 pay raise, an office, a reserved parking space, the responsibility of running meetings when the mayor is away and being next in line to be mayor.

HOT SHIRTS: Souvenirs for President-Elect Obama are hot.

On Nov. 19, North Augusta police responded to the Hair Depot on Edgewood Drive to a report of someone attempting to shoplift an Obama T-shirt.

The man tried to run from the store, but a worker confronted him, a police report stated. That's when things got painful. The thief bit the store worker on the hand and escaped.

REDISTRICTING IDEA: Here's another one from State Sen. Eric Johnson , of Savannah, who spoke earlier this month to the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce Pre-legislative Breakfast.

While campaigning for state Senate. Mr. Johnson said he went to the door of one woman and introduced himself.

"I know who you are," she said, "and I wouldn't vote for you if you were Saint Peter."

"Ma'am," Mr. Johnson said, "if I was Saint Peter, you wouldn't be in my district."

SYLVIA SAYS: We caught up with former reporter and Ink columnist Sylvia Cooper last week as she was getting the house ready for Thanksgiving.

"Tell everyone I miss them," she said. "I miss my desk."

She said she and husband Ernie enjoyed the nice retirement reception the newspaper held for her and later that night celebrated with a bottle of champagne.

"We paid the price the next day," she said.

Rob Pavey, Johnny Edwards and Preston Sparks contributed to today's report.