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It takes an outdoor store to save a Village

Thank you for the thank yous

Many readers related to my recent homecoming story.

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Red Carpet Tour goes confidential

New cars, new homes

There's more than smoke in the air at the course

Cigars, Blackberry addicts, $10,000 paintings and some home-cookin' can be found on Azalea Drive

Masters Roundup: Gas, food and lodging

A ghost in the (wrecking) machine

The 'other side of Augusta' is like your city

The first week of April is nearly on us, and you know what that means.

Motorists: Don’t say 'egad' over E10

If you think alcohol is made for drinking and not for pumping into your gas tank, you might be a little miffed at what’s going on around town: Ethanol-blended fuel has arrived.

Many fuel pumps in the area are sporting stickers proclaiming that the fuel they dispense might contain up to 10 percent ethanol, a blend known in many parts of the country – mostly the Midwest – as E10.

Ethanol, a type of alcohol produced mostly from corn, has been blended with gasoline for years but is just now beginning to become commonplace in the Augusta-Aiken area – and most other parts of Georgia – because of the federal Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.

The legislation, approved in December, requires companies to sell 9 billion gallons of renewable fuels this year – 36 billion by 2022.

“You’re going to see ethanol blends in gasoline everywhere,” said Davis Cosey, the president of Perry-based Davis Oil Co. and board member of the Georgia Oilmen’s Association.

Andy Jones, the president of M.B. Jones Oil Co. in Wrens, which operates the Augusta-area Sprint stores, said customer response to E10 has been positive.
“We have not had any issues,” he said.

Regardless of how you feel about the political ramifications of ethanol (driving up the cost of food; not producing as much power as straight gasoline; etc.), it’s here to stay.

Here’s what you need to know about E10:

a) It’s not going to damage your gasoline-powered car, boat or lawn mower (pilots, stick to aviation fuel). All major automakers warranty their vehicles for the fuel, and some even say the cleaner-burning fuel can improve engine performance.

b) E10, as its name implies, is not E85, a high-ethanol blend that can be used only in flexible-fuel vehicles, or FFVs.

c) You’re not getting cheated. Though it’s true that ethanol produces less energy than gasoline, numerous government and private-sectors tests have shown E10 blend has virtually zero impact on a vehicle’s fuel economy. Only vehicles burning E85 get lower mileage than straight gas.

d) You won’t be paying any more for your gas … but you won’t be paying any less, either. That is, until the alternative fuels industry finds a way to mass-produce ethanol using something other than corn as a feedstock.

As to when that occurs … your guess is as good as mine.

Remember the Xethanol folks? The ones who said they were going to produce cellulose-based ethanol from paper mill waste at the former Pfizer plant in east Augusta?

The one thing they did, besides scrap a perfectly good pharmaceutical plant, was prove that making ethanol from low-cost feedstocks is easier said than done.

NOW THIS IS MY KIND OF ALCOHOL: I like bourbon.* I like jelly.

So, when Aiken resident Sheila Bowers sent me a jar of City Grocery Bourbon Jelly, what was I going to do, donate it to a soup kitchen?

The jelly is made by her brother, Jim Boklage, and his wife, Constance, in their hometown of Frankfort, Ky., a place any bourbon lover calls Valhalla.

It has already garnered somewhat of a cult following since they began selling it in October – Louisville’s landmark Brown Hotel carries it, and the governor of Kentucky includes it in his gift bags.

“It’s another connection between Aiken and Kentucky,” Ms. Bowers said, alluding to thoroughbred horses, the other link.

With a 7 percent alcohol content, I think the jelly makes a better ham glaze than a spread on your morning toast, but to each his own. Just don’t let your boss smell it on your breath.

Get a 9.2-ounce jar for $7 at ww.citygroceryfoods.com (you can also check out recipes there).

Or,you can actually move away from the computer and get a jar in “real time” at Aiken’s Plum Pudding store on Laurens Street or the Old Aiken Market & Smokehouse on Park Avenue.

NOT EXACTLY BREAKING NEWS, BUT ... : Hawk & Simpson Real Estate has merged into Larry Miller Realty.

That’s probably not a shock – the two Augusta Century 21 franchises have been in negotiations since last year – but hey, it might be news to you.

“I’ve known both Jerrell Hawk and Dennis Simpson as first-class real estate executives and honorable, worthy competitors for over twenty years,” Mr. Miller said in a prepared statement.

In the same statement Mr. Hawk said, “we can all now enjoy greater operational efficiencies and increased performance, primarily because of economies of scale and the seamless nature of our merger.”

HERE’S A DEAL THAT’S NOT QUITE DONE: Augusta’s Hull Storey Retail Group’s proposed sale of 11 shopping mall properties, originally set to close in January, has still not been completed.

Company principals said they are still working out the reported $214 million deal with Atlanta-based Hendon Properties, and said they are confident the sale will occur as announced in November.

None of the malls is in the Augusta-Aiken area.

ONE POINT OF VIEW: So, how do you feel about Augusta’s being in a recession? Huh?
A recent report from Moody’s Economy.com said the Augusta metro area is in a recession based on the market’s employment, income, industrial production and retail sales.

Augusta State University Economist Mark Thompson, who follows the same stats, disagrees , arguing that employment growth is still solid and unemployment has not skyrocketed.

Who’s right? Because federal gross domestic product figures for metro areas have a three-year lag, we won’t know until 2010.

In case you were wondering, Moody’s says Rome and Dalton are also in a recession, while Atlanta, Athens and Savannah are in the midst of an expansion.

SINCE WHEN IS RICHMOND COUNTY 'Rural’ ? Gov. Sonny Perdue’s office recently announced that Richmond County has been awarded $1.5 million in Economic Development, Growth & Enterprise grant funds to purchase equipment at the new(ish) T-Mobile call center off Wheeler Road.

The grants, administered by the OneGeorgia Authority, are “aimed at spurring economic development in rural Georgia.”

I don’t know anybody who would consider Wheeler Road a part of “rural Georgia” except for maybe folks in Atlanta. That being said, I don’t think we’re going to give the check back.

* I find Ezra Brooks and Old For ester to be exceptional values; however, if I’m over at your house, I’ll be looking for Buffalo Trace or Maker’s Mark. And a glass of ice.

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Vogtle should worry about cost, not water

Talk of regionalism is breath of fresh air

If I were a woman, I’d be Claire Voyant

I’m leavin' (from Columbia) on a jet plane