After a strong start to the new year as far as blood donations go, the local blood supply is beginning to shrink. As of last week, Blood Assurance was in urgent need of most blood types, primarily O-positive and O-negative.
The Chattooga County Saddle Club is getting ready for their first ride of the season, coming up the first weekend in April. You can see details below:
The Summerville City Council will hold a called meeting at 5:30 PM this evening at Summerville City Hall. The public is welcome to attend. You can see the agenda for tonight’s meeting below:
Last week, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr announced the indictment of Ugochinyere Anazodo, Dominique Beaulieu, and Willy Obena on two counts of Racketeering. The defendants are alleged to have participated in a criminal enterprise with the purpose of obtaining and laundering the stolen proceeds of cyber fraud schemes. Specifically, the defendants are alleged to have engaged in a Business Email Compromise (BEC) scam targeting the Georgia Department of Transportation and a romance scam targeting a private citizen.
Blackmon at the time of his arrest in Richmond County, Georgia in 2021
A twenty-year-old man who was convicted of child molestation in Chattooga County is headed to prison after violating the terms of his probation. Taylor Dakota Blackmon was living in Ider, Alabama when he was arrested on charges he molested family members between the ages of 4-9 years-old back in 2018.
A twenty-seven-year-old Chattooga County father lost his life in a tragic accident in the Welcome Hill area on Saturday evening. The Georgia State Patrol says that Michael Dylan Leming lost control of his vehicle while negotiating a curve while traveling southbound on Welcome Hill Road. Leming was not wearing his seat belt at the time of the accident and was ejected from the vehicle. The Georgia State Patrol Post in Rome is investigating the accident and says that the accident report is not complete and will be released at a later date.
Students in the Chattooga County School System will have to get up and get ready for school tomorrow. Normally, students are off on Mondays because of the school system’s four-day school week, but tomorrow is a makeup day due to school missed during the flooding in September of last year. In addition to the makeup day on February 27th, students will also have to go to school on Monday, March 27th and Monday, April 24th.
Homeowners in Georgia have until April 1st to register for homestead tax exemption, and Chattooga County Tax Commissioner Joy Hampton says that those who have not filed for homestead tax exemption will want to get that done, as the Georgia legislature is considering property tax breaks for Georgia homeowners.
A fifty-six-year-old Chattooga County woman was arrested last week after failing to register correctly as a sex offender. Angela Yvonne Culbreth was convicted of computer pornography in September of 2007 and was listed as an absconder on the Georgia Sex Offender Registry. According to the state registry, she had last updated her information with the statewide sex offender database in June of 2020. Culbreth was booked into the Chattooga County Jail on Thursday and was additionally charged with two counts of failure to appear in Superior Court.
A bill that would have pushed the weight limit on commercial vehicles from 80,000 lbs to 90,000 lbs in Georgia has met with strong opposition from local governments across the state that worry heavier weight limits for over the road trucks would lead to damage to roads and bridges.