Thumbs Up! May 9, 2016

River Mill Data Management, under the sponsorship of Keep Albany-Dougherty Beautiful, will be offering free paper and document shredding on Saturday morning. This event keeps personal information out of the trash where it could be removed and used for ill-gotten gains. Business records, credit card statements, banking information and even medical records can offer the right crook just enough info to cause the owner major personal and financial problems. When this service was offered in January of this year, about 30,000 pounds of paper ran through the shredders. After that, River Mill attends to the mountain of illegible documents, all of which is recycled. There is no better time to weed out and haul off what paper and records you no longer need. The shredding will take place in the parking lot of the Judicial Building in the 200 block of Flint Avenue from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m.

Albany Technical College has yet another feather in its busy hat. The National Fire Academy has awarded the Fire Science program its Fire and Emergency Services Higher Education certification.To be considered for the certification, degree programs must emphasize firefighting response, fire prevention, fire administration and emergency medical services management as well as demonstrate a commitment to a national model of standardized fire science education. Just how prestigious is this certification? ATC is the only two-year college, from within the University System of Georgia and the Technical College System, to receive the award. Congratulations!

Last week, the Georgia Department of Education released the most recent data available regarding the Georgia Milestones Assessment, a tool used to measure the effectiveness of schools across the state. Dougherty County schools are slowly, but surely, beginning to show improvement. The College and Career Readiness Performance Index (CCRPI) went up in nine of the local schools. The greatest increases were seen at Albany High School and West Town Elementary, both improving overall scores by more than 10 points. Dougherty High and Monroe High improved enough to be taken off the list of schools that could be taken over by the state if Gov. Nathan Deal’s Opportunity Schools proposal passes the voting public in November. Use of the CCRPI is a more rigorous tool than any previously used but the Dougherty County School System students in grades 3-12 stood up to the challenge. There is still ample room for improvement, a task that will be taken up when school resumes in August.

As with any student working on a higher education, the cost of housing has been and always will be a factor when deciding where to pursue such goals. By the time a medical student gets to the residency level, life is stressful enough and the expectations placed on them have skyrocketed. Many times a student has very short notice of just where he or she will spend their residency. Cost, convenience and safety are all issues that must be considered. Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital will soon make participation in the newly re-branded Phoebe Family Medicine Residency Program much more enticing. A housing complex will provide students an affordable and safe environment within walking distance of the hospital’s main campus. This long-awaited amenity will break ground tomorrow at its 225 W. Fourth Avenue at 11 a.m. , a cause for much celebration among the Phoebe family and all of Southwest Georgia.

— The Albany Herald Editorial Board