Tragic crash on bridge

I read in today’s Ledger-Enquirer about the stalled car on Oglethorpe Bridge which resulted in a tragic death. I immediately thought about my experience last year when I was crossing the same bridge going to Phenix City for a class and suddenly noticed a car stopped in the middle of the bridge in my lane. I leaned on the brake and squealed to a stop just inches from the car. I pulled around the car and had barely gone a short distance when it zoomed around me and took off.

Not long afterward I read an article about people who set up circumstances to provoke an accident to get the insurance and wondered if that had been the case with me. Now I am wondering if any other drivers in our area have experienced a similar situation.

Time has come

The vote to “thaw” the “freeze” on owner occupied property in Muscogee County will be on the ballot in the general election on November 8. As time has gone by, the disparity between “old timers” and new homeowners’ taxes has become dramatic.

The new proposal allows everyone whose value for tax purposes is frozen to keep that value until they sell their house. If you have the freeze, you keep the freeze. Period.

New homeowners will pay taxes based on their home’s current value as they do now, but that value can change as the fair market value goes up or down.

The net effect over time will be a fair way for homeowners to pay for the goods and services that the city provides. It will also encourage our children and grandchildren to stay and invest in Columbus when they reach adulthood. Also, potential new businesses to Columbus need to know that our tax structure is fair to their employees.

There will be a lot of conversation on both sides of this issue before November 8, but I believe a yes vote is crucial to the future vitality of our great city.

Fond memories

I just read in the paper about the untimely demise of Veri Best Donuts. The donut shop has been an icon of delectable delights for denizens of River City for over four dozen years.

One of my first and fondest memories was with those donuts and my dad. Selling donuts was a fundraiser at my school when I was growing up at St. Anne’s Elementary. My dad, Al Eversman, was tasked with procuring that precious cargo in our family station wagon that had a steering wheel the size of a hula hoop. Our top priority mission was to deliver the delicious donuts early on Friday mornings for classes to sell before school began. The aroma of that oversized wagon packed with donuts was surely a natural sugar high.

We lived in East Columbus, but my dad would always travel across town to South Columbus to a very special donut oasis called Veri Best Donuts. We had to leave extra early to make the longer trip. I remember one day asking my dad why we had to go all the way across town when we were passing other donut places much closer.

My dad didn’t hesitate, “Dave, life is like this trip. Sometimes you gotta go a little further to get the Veri Best.”

He wasn’t just talking about donuts.

Veri Best Donuts has been a family tradition since the 1950s. My brother Mike from Maryland has made it one of his first stops every time he gets back in town.

I will always remember Veri Best Donuts and my dad, for pushing on a little further to strive for the Veri Best — in donuts and in life.

Too high a price

Georgia Power is conducting preliminary feasibility studies of building additional nuclear plants in Columbus. Bad idea.

The original promise (1970s) of the nuclear industry was safe, reliable energy at low cost. Didn’t happen.

Instead, every nuclear facility in the U.S. is now a nuclear waste disposal site, and construction costs keep escalating. Vogtle 1 & 2 costs soared from $285/KW to $3,800/KW. Vogtle 3 & 4 escalated from $6,450/KW to $8,000/KW (and rising — $660 million to $17.5 billion).

Despite consistent mistakes, Georgia Power is treated with reverence by regulators. Conversely, public critics, who have been much more accurate, are treated with hostility.

It would be of great public benefit for Georgia’s press to fully investigate all aspects of Georgia’s nuclear programs and regulatory oversight. Suggestion: review Boston Globe investigative model (movie “Spotlight”).

This story was originally published March 31, 2016 at 3:39 PM with the headline "Tragic crash on bridge."