By Kathryn Schiliro
Managing Editor

Bostwick is set to be the first community its size in the state to host a bioterrorism drill.
Representatives from the Morgan County Health Department and the 10-county, Athens-based Northeast Health District, of which Morgan is a part, appeared before the Bostwick City Council Monday night to ask the governing body to approve a practice scenario involving an anthrax bioterroristic attack.

Born in 2006, part of homeland security, each county in the nation has local representatives on an emergency management board as well as established dispensing sites should the worst happen. In Morgan County, Gwen Ruark, county emergency manager, is head of that board (which includes representatives from emergency services, city and county governments and the health department), and the dispensing sites are the Morgan County High School new gym, Buckhead Baptist, Rutledge Baptist, Gibbs Memorial Baptist and Bostwick Methodist churches.

The drill, set to take place in May at Gibbs Memorial, involves the about 30 volunteers it would take to set up the dispensation site as well as the emergency management board and the Morgan County Sheriff's Office, between 30 and 50 people total. The goal is to see how long set-up would take.

Nearby, Walton and Newton counties have run such drills, but no one in the state has run a drill in a small, rural community such as Bostwick using a church as a dispensation site, Ruark said.

"No one has tested a rural community," Ruark said. "No one has tested a rural community using a church and volunteers from the community."

Next year, Ruark and the emergency management board hope to run a full-scale drill that will involve actually moving citizens through the site, an effort to determine how long it would take to distribute information, get people in and move them through the station. The situation surrounding parking and citizens' comfort level (those in charge are betting residents will be more likely to come to get a vaccination if they know the ones doing the vaccinating) will also be observed as part of this drill.

The city council didn't take a vote, but did grant their permission to Ruark and the emergency management board to hold the drill.
In other news:

• The city council looked at potential plans for Bostwick Park, provided by The Jaeger Company. (The governing body is pursuing a grant that would allow them the funds to revamp the downtown greenspace, but they must first provide a blueprint of what they want to accomplish.) Council members favored an option that provided a playground, picnic area, walking trails, tennis and basketball courts as well as increased parking (32 in a lot, 15 angled spaces on Church Street and nine angled spaces on Railroad Street). However, the council talked about eliminating one basketball court (possibly in favor of a soccer field), moving the playground, adding a veterans memorial and making even more parking available.
• Potential new codes for the city were discussed. Council member Angie Howard expressed concern that a code governing sales of food on the day of the Cotton Gin Festival be established, as in the past non-approved vendors have set up shop on that day, possibly threatening the health of festival-goers.
"If there's food vendor here who didn't pay and people get sick, who's that going to come back on? The city," Howard said. "Liability is a concern to me."
• The council approved $500 be spent on holiday lights for the downtown area, as such decorations are presently on sale.
• Council member Troy Dobbs donated Bostwick's bell, which he salvaged years ago, back to the city, provided it is displayed.