i was traveling from out of town, of course. I never saw the 45mph sign. The officer said i was going 75, i was traveling at 55mph! He also gave me a ticket for failure to pull over in a timely manner. My fine was $1,300! I intend to fight this. This officer is a disgrace to police officers. Beware of this town of 144, they can do just about anything they want to anyone with out of town tag. They are doing nothing more than stealing from people.

I agree this is one of the worst towns to travel through but they don't discriminate on who they steal from my father lives 7 miles down the road and has had three tickets in this town two of which were for speeding @ 62 in a 45. Both times the officer clocked him when he was not yet in the 45 mph zone. This last ticket was when they had road construction signs posted and 35 mph speed limit. I spoke with GDOT due to there was no construction going on at the time and these were posted like this from MIllen to hwy 301. GDOT had someone over the local area meet with the cheif of police and the mayor and inform them that these 35mph signs were not enforecable instead advisory signs. People need to get togehter and petition the govenor on this abuse of power in this town it is completly uncalled for to allow this to continue.

The hits just keep on a-coming: Note that their patrol car has no insurance and their police need to write $15,000 in speeding tickets per month in order to meet town expenses. Also, the FBI, IRS, and GBI is looking at their books. Rocky Ford had its first regularly scheduled meeting since May 6 to discuss everything from adopting their budget to their debt to their dangerous tree situation and more. Rocky Ford now has a budget in place after their more-than-two-hour-long meeting, despite concerns Georgia officials or maybe even federal officials could come in and put a halt to the town’s entire business. “The further we get into this investigation (Rocky Ford’s audit) the deeper we’re going,” Councilmember Willette Mock said. Mock said several parts of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation audit have turned up bigger concerns and she would not be surprised if the FBI came in to investigate. Parts of the audit are now looking at payroll taxes, property taxes, and other federal taxes that could bring the Internal Revenue Service looking into the town’s business. The discussion about the FBI came from an argument over cutting down trees that are endangering the historic church/town hall and another historic neighboring home. Greta Newton said she had talked to Mayor James Hankinson more than a year ago about removing the trees and was asked to collect bids for the town to remove the three pine trees. Lewis Tree and Stump, of Statesboro, submitted the lowest bid of $1,500 to cut down the massive, partially dead pine trees. Greg Lewis is doing the job at a deep discount, Newton said. The debate came after the council and mayor said the trees were on city property and they would not authorize someone to cut them down without legal documents and could not guarantee they would never pay the $1,500 back. Private donations keep town paying bills Jane Rahn approached Hankinson and spoke in private with him during the meeting; after they spoke he announced Rahn would donate $1,000 of the $1,500 tree removal bill. Newton and Charley Brunken said they would gladly pay the other $500. The council then approved accepting the donations to go towards removing the trees and accepted Lewis’ low bid, given he is insured and bonded for possible damage. The two donations were not the only ones of the night for Rocky Ford. Newton gave Councilmember Ken Mock two checks worth $250 in anonymous donations for his work at the Rocky Ford Recreation Department for striping the ball field and other needed projects. “I’ve spent a lot of personal time down there and everyone uses the property,” Mock said. “We can carry our grandkids there. We really do appreciate (the donations).” Two other anonymous donations worth more than $750 paid for their Georgia Municipal Association membership costs and part of their gasoline bill. Ken Mock was vocal about his and the council’s appreciation of the generous donations. Budget/speed-trap concerns Rocky Ford’s budget was unanimously passed with the stipulation it would be reviewed in three months time and likely altered based on their situation. City Clerk Mike Arrieta said the town’s revenue would largely come from the Rocky Ford Police Department writing tickets and fines. Brunken commented the town would need close to $15,000 a month in tickets and fines to cover their costs, and he said that would disrupt the city’s businesses and tenant opportunities as the town could be viewed as a speed trap. “Rocky Ford is already known as a speed trap,” he said. “I’m concerned as a taxpayer and commercial property owner this could make it worse.” Rocky Ford Police Chief Pat Kile said the police do not write a speeding ticket unless the driver is going 15 miles per hour over the posted speed limit and claimed the town has an unfair reputation. “It’s not a speeding trap, it’s an idiot trap,” Kile said. “Bulloch County writes tickets for 10 miles per hour over, and we have never written a speeding ticket for less than 15 miles per hour over.” Kile said he may stop someone going over the posted speed limit for lane infractions or coming close to causing an accident, but all of his speeding tickets are for 15 miles per hour or more over the limit. In the police report before the meeting, Kile said there were 19 citations for the past month that projected an estimated $9,775. He said it was a slow month. Councilmember Ken Mock said the town would need to update their debts after the GBI audit. “We don’t know where we’re going to stand after the GBI audit,” he said. “We will have to adjust.” The town’s unpaid bills The town already has several unpaid bills – workers compensation, legal fees, radio purchases, public defender costs, and more totaling $12,539.55. Whatever costs from the audit, additional fees on tickets, and other fines will have to be assessed after the investigation is complete. Chief Kile is currently being paid, but is owed two months of salary – approximately $7,500 – from the town. Council members are also owed more than four months worth of salary. No car insurance on patrol car Hankinson revealed Rocky Ford did not have car insurance for a long period of time on Officer Tom Kile’s patrol car until April 1, 2013. The town now has no coverage on two work trucks and cannot afford to pay the liability insurance bill at this time. Willette Mock suggested the town get rid of the lesser used vehicle, but the council wanted to wait until they figured out which truck would be better in the long run. The council unanimously approved to purchase a generator belt at a cost of $14 to fix one of their trucks, even though they cannot let an employee drive the truck. Employees have been driving their own vehicles to do city work for a while now, Ken Mock said. Tax collection agreement