There was an odd moment at last weekend's Christmas tree lighting ceremony at Augusta Common.

After the Common went dark in preparation for the big moment, the tree lighted up without warning, then went off. Moments later there was a crowd countdown, and the tree lighted up again.

Rick Acree , assistant director of Augusta's Public Services Department, said one of the city's "younger citizens" was to blame.

A boy who looked to be elementary or middle school-aged reached behind a worker and flipped a switch on a post near the snow machine, Mr. Acree said.

The boy immediately bolted, and he is believed to be the same one who tried to unplug light strands on last year's tree.

Mr. Acree said the incident is funny in retrospect, but it wasn't funny for the city employees who worked hard to make the evening go smoothly.

"That kind of messed up the moment," he said.

BAD DAY SUNSHINE: Until The Chronicle protested, the Augusta Commission had planned to hold a closed-door "legal meeting" Monday to approve a policy on layoffs, which would set the stage for 20 workers to have their jobs cut two weeks before Christmas.

State law allows governing bodies to meet in private to talk about personnel matters related to specific employees, the newspaper contended to City Administrator Fred Russell , but the layoffs had to do with budget, not workers' laziness or incompetence.

Mr. Russell took the issue to staff attorney Chiquita Johnson , and the meeting was opened to the public.

A good decision, we think.

CHAIN, CHAIN, CHAIN: Richmond County Superintendent Dana Bedden 's 16 months in Augusta might be beginning to weigh on him.

On Tuesday, his frustrations showed when he raised his voice during a committee meeting and put employees on notice about the chain of command.

Employees have been running to school board members with half-truths to complain, he said. Board members, in turn, have carried those concerns anonymously into meetings.

"If I had my way, some people would be fired right on the spot," Dr. Bedden said. "I'm not trying to scare them from talking. I'm asking them to be professional. People in this district want to throw their rock and then hide their hand.

"If it is that important and worth saying, they should stand up -- man up, woman up or whatever it is -- and speak. This superintendent has never punished anybody for speaking the truth."

The superintendent said there will be no more warnings. Anyone caught breaking the chain of command will be written up.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN: In these trying economic times, Richmond County school board member Frank Dolan , the chairman of its Finance Committee, urged fellow members Thursday night to think of ways to reduce transportation costs and reap the benefit of plummeting gas prices. His fellow members seemed to agree.

Ironically, the next agenda item was the National School Boards Association conference in San Diego.

Any board member interested in going was asked to sign up by the end of the month to meet the early registration deadline.

ERSKINE GETTING HIS DUE: In asking the Augusta Commission to dedicate $12.4 million in special purpose local option sales tax funds toward a new $16 million wing of the Augusta Museum of History on Thursday, Director Nancy Glaser mentioned several artists and athletes from the area she'd like to honor.

Among them: author Erskine Caldwell .

If the museum were to honor him, it would be a first for Augusta. His 1932 novel Tobacco Road , set primarily in south Richmond County and partially downtown, is considered one of the most important English-language novels of the 20th century, and in the national consciousness "Tobacco Road" is synonymous with rural squalor. That wasn't what Augusta wanted to be known for, and Mr. Caldwell became a reviled figure.

A Georgian by birth, Mr. Caldwell left the South when his writing career took off, and he railed against the region's racism, poverty and religious hypocrisy in such books as In Search of Bisco and Deep South , which did little to endear him to the area.

His 89-year-old widow, Virginia , was in talks with the museum about an exhibit after the 75th anniversary of Tobacco Road in 2007, but nothing came of it. She said she figured the museum ran up against opposition.

Ms. Glaser said installing a Caldwell exhibit is just a matter of budget and fundraising.

"It's not a question of if, it's a question of when," she said.

HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL: To get rid of a federal lawsuit and limit attorney fees, the city of Augusta settled a civil rights case last week for nominal damages.

Georgiacarry.org Inc. and Zachary N. Mead filed suit Oct. 6 in U.S. District Court against Sheriff Ronnie Strength and Deputy Kadum Townsend .

According to court documents, Deputy Townsend was patrolling the Kroger store at 2081 Washington Road when two shoppers and an employee asked him for help. They told the deputy a man wearing a gun holster was shopping inside and acting "bizarre and obnoxious."

When the man, Mr. Mead, came out of the store, Deputy Townsend stopped him, demanded to see identification, his carrying permit and proof of ownership for the gun.

The officer didn't arrest Mr. Mead, but he did take the handgun and 10 rounds of ammo.

Mr. Mead alleged the deputy's actions violated both his Second and Fourth amendment rights.

The gun was eventually returned, and the city agreed to settle the lawsuit for $1,000 in damages and $3,800 in the plaintiff's legal fees and costs.

LAST WORD: After Columbia County's school board members voted Tuesday night to eliminate the policy that allows corporal punishment, Board Chairman Regina Buccafusco joked, "We'll have a paddle-burning tomorrow."

Trustee Wayne Bridges responded, "Can't do that -- our campuses are smoke-free."

SYLVIA SAYS: Former political reporter Sylvia Cooper writes from retirement: "I am in the second week of an intensive diet and exercise program which involves eating all the Nutra System nobody wanted to eat the first time around ... and lots of huffing and puffing.

"One reason I immersed myself in this program is that I was browsing through a diet book one day that had a formula for calculating your ideal weight. It said multiply the number of inches you are over 5 feet by 5 and add 100 and the result would be it, which meant I was 40 pounds overweight although nobody would believe that, least of all me.

"The second reason for launching into this strenuous state of pain and deprivation is that you know how when they take your blood pressure there is a high number and a low number. Well, my low number is higher than my IQ, which is not good.

"So now I am on the floor every morning trying to focus like the voice on the record says to, but all I can focus on is all the dust I see under the furniture, and the last time I had mashed potatoes and gravy.

"Late every afternoon, I walk vigorously around the pasture until I'm exhausted.

"But there are some positives. Bloody Marys. And the sunsets are spectacular. I get to watch the sky turn from technicolor to just a pale yellow line above the trees.

"I miss everybody in Augusta."

We thank Johnny Edwards, Greg Gelpi, Sandy Hodson, Barry Paschal and Sylvia Cooper for their contributions this week.