Four area law enforcement officials will learn how to safely dismantle a methamphetamine lab during a weeklong training session at FBI headquarters in Quantico, Va., in January.

The Lookout Mountain Judicial Drug Task Force is sending deputies Donnie Brown and Alan Ellenburg from the Walker County Sheriff’s Office, Lt. Randy Hicks of the LaFayette Police Department and investigator Scott Jordan from Catoosa County Sheriff’s Office to the course, which is funded through federal Homeland Security tax dollars.

Task Force Commander Pat Doyle said the region had 31 of the 130 meth labs reported in Georgia in 2011 and could be responsible for dismantling as many as 40 from this year.

Clean-up costs for a meth lab averaged $2,500 to $5,000 each, with some of the bigger ones running as high as $10,000 — but a new disposal method is saving money.

Doyle said the Task Force adopted a plan used in Tennessee, Missouri and Kentucky in which separated components of meth labs are stored in an explosion-resistant, steel, hazardous materials container until a scheduled incineration.

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A northwest Georgia homeowner says she was surprised to learn that armadillos were responsible for damage to her lawn, though many of her neighbors didn't know the critters were living in her county.

Vicki Ferguson of Rockmart tells the Rome News-Tribune that she first noticed her lawn was dying in patches. There were holes everywhere. She thought the damage was the work of grub worms, moles or gophers.

She says a landscape specialist, Brent Cooper, was the first to tell her that armadillos were responsible. The unwanted visitors had built several tunnels around her home.

Rockmart is about 45 miles northwest of Atlanta, in Polk County

Listed on the Arrest Report for December 29-December 31 by the Chattooga County Jail are:

William Andrew Bartlett, Summerville — Possession of less than one ounce of Marijuana; VGCSA/Sale of Marjuaba; VGCSA/Possession of Marijuana with Intent to Distribute

Clayton Michael Boyd, Summerville — VGCSA/Possession of Marijuana with Intent to Distribute; VGCSA/ Sale of Marijuana

Cortez Dejuan Freeman, Summerville — Financial Indentity Fraud

Michael Allen Noles, Trion — VGCSA/ Possession of Methamphetamine; Possession of Drug Related Objects

Jeffrey Adam Bishop, Centre, Al — Public Drunkeness

Timothy Brandon Jackson, Lafayette- Burglary 2nd Degree; Theft  by Taking

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The end of the year brings an end to state Rep Barbara Massey Reece's 14 years of service in the Georgia General Assembly. 

Friday's Rome News highlights the career of  the Menlo Democrat who  lost her bid for re-election in November. The  article says the knowledge that Reese won’t be on the House floor in January hasn’t kept her from answering calls and emails from constituents.

Paul Smith, a former state House representative who was already a veteran lawmaker in 1998 when Reece was sworn in, said she’s always been known for her dedication.

Reece  was a retired educator when she decided to run for the seat that represents Chattooga and part of Floyd counties. During her first year in office she instituted her signature annual Women’s Day at the Capitol visits. She said she thought women from the district should get a chance to learn about their government, so I arranged for tours at different agencies. She told the Rome newspaper, she supposes the idea came from just being a school teacher. Field trips.”

Since then, more than 1,100 local women have participated in the daylong trips and heard from leaders of agencies as diverse as the Georgia Supreme Court, Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Georgia Department of Transportation. She says not one dime of taxpayer money was spent. It was all sponsored.

She also started arranging trips for military veterans, to get the men involved, but most couldn’t take a whole weekday for themselves. The outing turned into an annual veterans reunion in the Gore community, with help from area leaders and high school students.

Other ways she boosted her district include getting a new veterans service office in Summerville, pushing to keep Floyd and Chattooga out of metro Atlanta’s air quality non-attainment zone and working to convince Tour de Georgia officials to route the race through Rome, Sloppy Floyd Park and Lookout Mountain.

Down in Atlanta, Reece gravitated naturally to the House Education Committee and focused much of her energy on protecting public schools and their employees.

She vetted Gov. Roy Barnes’ 2000 education reform package closely, and said she backed it only after the state Senate committee chaired by Rome’s Richard Marable made changes “that straightened out her concerns.”

Reece also threw herself into her duties on the House State Institutions and Property Committee, becoming an advocate for public safety and mental health as she learned more about prison and hospital facilities.

State Rep. Katie Demp­sey, who was elected to the Floyd County delegation six years ago, said Reece is an example of unselfish public service.

When the state announced plans to shutter Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital, its mental health facility in Rome, Reece fought the move until the 2011 closing. Since then she’s been traipsing from agency to agency with piles of documents, trying to convince officials there’s still a use for the vacant complex.

A favorite idea, she said, is a National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Academy that offers a second chance to young high school dropouts. It’s a program she’s long supported, and she said she intends to remain an advocate even now.

In the article Reece is quoted as saying she has much to do at home and she loves to work in the garden, but she intends to keep up with that's going on in the legislature and what needs to go on, especially in education.

Instead of simply counting down to 2013, some people will be in church on New Year’s Eve counting their blessings and giving thanks to the Lord.

Fellowship Baptist Church will host a Night Watch Service tonight beginning at 8 p.m. with Bro. Wayne Hindman and Bro. Justin Ward . There will be  singing and fellowship…The Pastor of the church is Malcolm Harris.

According to an article by the New York Times, the tradition of Watch Night services dates back to the mid-1700s when the founder of the Methodist Church, John Wesley, adopted a 17th-century covenant service to renew religious faith on New Year’s Day.

Eddie Lumsden, a Republican of Floyd County, will be sworn in as State Representative January 14. Julie Steele recently spoke to Lumsden about his new post. Lumsden says has been actively getting to know people in the county for the past year and discusses what he has learned. He says people in Chattooga County, like everywhere else, are concerned about the economy. He says Chattooga County has seen high unemployment rates due to the downturn in the  national economy.  Lumsden sais he wants to talk to people and is here at least once a week and is accessible. He says constituents can feel free to call him at home at 706-232-1870 or at his State Farm Insurance office in Rome. 

The Georgia Tax Tribunal will convenes for the first time Jan. 2.

Created last year by the Legislature, the specialized court is intended to resolve tax disputes in a more efficient and predictable manner.

The court will consider complex and weighty tax disputes between large businesses and the state. It will also have a small claims division where individual taxpayers can bring their accountants into court to assist them with appeals involving any state tax issue.

The new court is intended to provide taxpayers the opportunity to bring their cases before a judge with an expertise on tax law, Brian Robinson, the governor's spokesman, said.

Tax disputes often take months, even years, to resolve and can run up costly attorneys' fees.

Now, aggrieved parties can take their tax appeals directly to the new court.

As it now stands, taxpayers who go to court to challenge their assessments face great uncertainty as to how long it will take to get a final resolution.

Some taxpayers choose to file their cases in local Superior Courts. But tax disputes rarely get top priority before these judges, who oversee serious felony cases, which bring speedy trial demands, and contentious divorce and child custody proceedings.

Parties also can bring challenges before a state administrative law judge. But this judge's decision can be either accepted or reversed by the state revenue commissioner. An unsatisfied party can then take the dispute to a Superior Court judge, who must consider the tax dispute anew.

Beginning in January, taxpayers can no longer bring their challenges before an administrative law judge. The court's creation was recommended two years ago by a special tax reform council created by the Legislature. It was enacted this past legislative session in House Bill 100, which sets up the new court as a 10-year-long pilot project. Beaudrot's initial appointment, for four years, can be renewed.

The new court could help attract businesses thinking about moving to Georgia, said Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, the bill's sponsor.