24 MAY 06: HITTIN' THE ROAD, JACK

A seat on Columbus Council became open Tuesday, when Mayor Pro Tem Jack Rodgers announced he plans to retire. Do you think this is the real reason why his son left WRBL sports - to keep this seat in the family?

Jack Rodgers has been a Columbus Councilor 24 years. Now at age 63, he says he's ready to retire. He'll leave office in December -- which might be perfectly timed for the new Wal-Mart SuperCenter on Whittlesey Boulevard.

Jack Rodgers says he plans to stay in Columbus after leaving office. Doesn't it seem a bit silly to ask that sort of question to a 24-year Columbus Councilor? Well, no -- not if you remember Fire Chief Roy Waters....

Jack Rodgers says he's been so busy working and serving with Columbus Council that he only recently started traveling. Who knows how stunned he was to find Opelika has Spectrum stores, just as Columbus does.

At age 63, Jack Rodgers says he's even started playing golf a little in recent years. Maybe he started too late - because the PGA Champions Tour still hasn't come back to Green Island Country Club.

The retirement of Jack Rodgers actually creates two open positions - because he succeeded A.J. McClung as Mayor Pro Tem. Which Councilor is in line for that job? Red McDaniel, because he has the longest tenure? Or Evelyn Turner Pugh, to end the "good ol' boy" image?

But the more immediate question is who will fill Jack Rodgers's Columbus Council seat. District 5 is an area around Peachtree Mall and the airport - so a lot of fast-food managers could run, on a platform of providing quick customer service.

Meanwhile, Columbus Council had a spirited discussion Tuesday over where to put a "Goodwill Community Campus" development proposed by Goodwill Industries. Should it be put on Macon Road, as some suggest? Or is that too far away for Ben & Jerry's employees to walk, without their ice cream melting?

E-MAIL UPDATE: Our Monday item on Georgia's incarceration rate may have inspired this message -- but more likely an evening news item about Lee County's packed jail did:

The story about the jails overcrowded has come up again, and again, still - seems no solution is offered.

If memory is right,, same arguments from the sherriff last time elections came around..same problem exsist..does not seem that the State is listening..maybe a different plan is in order.

Wonder what the new cells will hold when finished - maybe....More state inmates...if there are enough cells built....we can just move the State system here...

Alabama's Corrections Commissioner actually has been threatened with jail time by a judge, because so many state inmates are in county jails. Perhaps the state candidates should go there, too - but Governor Bob Riley had a news conference Tuesday about the 2007 Bassmasters Classic.

(Hey, wait a minute. There IS one candidate in Alabama who could wind up behind bars - but it's a federal trial for Don Siegelman, so I guess federal prisons don't count.)

Let's see what else locked our attention, on a Tuesday when admittedly not much inspired us:

+ The Russell County School Board voted to move middle school principal Larry Screws to the elementary school. WRBL reported parents applauded the decision -- so I'll resist the cliched comparison to chairs on the Titanic.

+ A new mobile response center was dedicated for the Russell County Sheriff's Department. It has a bunk bed, a stove, a microwave - and who knows how many residents will see it and say, "Where did they get THAT double-wide?"

+ Georgia gubernatorial candidate Cathy Cox told GPB's "Georgia Weekly" if she's elected, she hopes to seek the "broad middle ground" of voters. I thought Sonny Perdue was trying to get rid of that - by having Georgians lose weight.

+ Columbus High School split a baseball quarterfinal series in Cartersville, forcing a decisive third game today. Cartersville's team is called the Purple Hurricanes. After what Hurricane Katrina, I thought they were colored green - as in big money.

+ Instant Message to the Ledger-Enquirer: About that front-page headline the other day: "BIBLE IDENTIFIES CRASH VICTIM" - you sure fooled me with that one. I thought you had found something not even "The DaVinci Code" had.

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