Folkston City Government, in the 1960s, Pushed Through a City Sewer System, Despite Voters Wishes.

Cutlines Shown in this 1960 era photo is some of the Folkston City Government members who pushed through Folkston's first sewer system, in spite of two votes against it by city voters. Left to right, Council member Oscar Raynor, Council member R. Ward Harrison, Mayor Jack Mays accepting check from FmHA Director Seth Kellum, Council Member Jesse Crews, Sr., and Folkston City Attorney Robert W. Harrison. Many other changes were pushed through by the "Young Turks" members. Only Mays and Robert Harrison are alive today.

The question had twice been placed before the voters of the City of Folkston: Should Folkston go into debt to put in the city's first sanitary sewer system? Twice the voters turned thumbs down on that proposal and the mayor and city council put the project into the garbage can. Folkston's mayor, in that last city election on the question, was Malcolm Wade.

On rainy days one could smell the stench of overflowing cesspools all through the town, and on several occasions restaurants were forced to close their doors because of the inability to use their rest rooms.

These were the same voters who twice turned down a local election to remove cattle from the county's highways in "no-fence" elections. Charlton was one of only two counties never to approve that law. The cattle were taken off the highways only after an act of the Georgia Legislature forced the remaining two counties to comply and fence their livestock off public highways.

Something unusual happened in the mid-1960s, Folkston voters chose what was later called an "upstart" city council and mayor. On the Folkston City Council were R. Ward Harrison, Sr., James Carl Jones, Jr., Jesse A. Crews, Sr., Donald Prescott and Oscar Raynor. The mayor was Jack Mays. It was 1964.

Not content with the town's lack of a sewer system, the council decided to take action on its own…despite the wishes of the voters in two elections. The council would not again put the question on the ballot. It would "just do it."

In a two-year effort, the mayor and council sought help from the Farmers Home Administration, agreeing to pledge revenue raised from the sewer system to retire the debt.

After months of arm-twisting, the Farmers Home Administration agreed to a grant to Folkston of $375,000, to be combined with a 4 percent loan of $400,000. The $775,000 dollar project overwhelmed many city voters, some of whom pledged to turn the upstart mayor and council out to pasture in the next city election.

Easements had to be secured for the sewer lines from private homeowners. This was a task that sometimes came hard because the city fathers had not put the question of a sewer system again to city voters.

Nevertheless, with the loan and grant in hand, the city government proceeded to take bids for the system. In many cases, easements came only through condemnation action. This, too, left a bitter taste in the mouths of many, especially some of the town's old timers who had a deep resentment at what they called "dictatorial methods" of the mayor and council.

Members of that town council had been told by industrial prospects that their company could get along without a city sewer system, but the lack of such indicated a "backward" town. One industrial prospect, which turned down locating in the city, cited the town's clock on the Charlton County Courthouse. It was four hours slow. The prospect said that too, indicated a backward town as well as the city's Christmas lights still hanging across the town's streets in July. " I don't want my factory located in a backward town," the prospect said. Those comments embarrassed the mayor and council and sparked a move forward to make the town more attractive and livable. The town's six-month old Christmas lights were taken down. The Courthouse clock was repaired and set, and the town set about getting its sewer system in as quickly as possible.

The people of the town liked the changes. They wondered how they ever got along without a sanitary sewer system. The mayor and council took this mind-change as a charge to continue its improvements.

In four short years, that city government paved all the city's unpaved streets. It build a 54 unit public housing project, created an industrial park and landed its first manufacturing plant: Stephenson Enterprises. Union Camp Corporation soon was enticed into locating its Building Supply business and Chip Sawmill in the Industrial Park. Folkston was off and running.

Tired of many senior citizens having to go to Folkston's Post Office each day for their mail, the council asked for, and got, city mail delivery. First the homes and businesses had to be numbered. That too, came as a pleasant change, especially for the town's older citizens.

The "upstart" 1965 City Council had taken heart when they learned that Folkston city leaders had been vilified in the 1920s when the town's first water system was installed. Bitterness was slow to leave.

The list of accomplishments, which the "brash Turks" brought about, was long. Mercury vapor streetlights replaced the old incandescent lamps. A city-owned Police Cruiser was bought, doing away with the police officers having to furnish their own vehicles. Folkston adopted its first annual budget. Prior to that, if the city had money in the bank, it bought whatever it wanted.

A firehouse was turned into a Folkston City Hall, replacing a small cubicle building that had, at one time, served as a police post.

That Folkston city government kept the airlines hot between Folkston and Washington, seeking funds for the first development at the Okefenokee Swamp's Camp Cornelia entrance. Senator Richard Russell, agreeing with the Folkston Council, marked into the appropriations bill, in a budget hearing, over $400,000 to be used by the Department of the Interior to begin improvements at the swamp entrance. The boat basin, the welcome center, boardwalks and observation tower were built with those funds. Later appropriations brought further improvements.

That council of "young Turks" gave Folkston city residents a fast ride into the 20^th Century. All this was ignited when a Jewish garment manufacturer told them he would not locate his factory in a backward town.

The voters returned most of the members of that city council to office. By Election Day, the voters had liked the changes; changes many had fought when first proposed.

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