Arrest Report - Monday - May 13, 2024

Here is the latest arrest report from the Chattooga County Sheriff’s Office for Monday, May 13, 2024:

Trion Splash Pad Now Open

The Trion Recreation Department announced last week that the Trion Splash Pad is now open.  The splash pad is free of charge and is open seven days a week from 10:30 AM until 9 PM. The Trion Recreation Department reminds users to be careful and avoid running in the area.  Also, the splash pad operates on a timer; if it turns off, be sure to hit one of the activator switches located at each corner of the splash pad.

LaFayette's Honeybee Festival Returns June 1st

LaFayette’s Honeybee Festival is returning for 2024.  The event will be held on June 1st from 9 AM until 11 PM in downtown LaFayette and will feature arts and crafts vendors as well as food and entertainment.  The festival’s theme is the honeybee and there will be plenty of educational exhibits about the inspiration for the festival. Other activities will be a Kids Zone, a BBQ Competition, a Baking Contest, a Pageant, and a Cruise In including antique tractors, along with other activities. An education area will be filled with lots of learning opportunities.  Country Music superstar and Grand Ole’ Opry member Chris Janson will be the headliner for this year’s event.   The event is FREE and the whole family is encouraged to attend. For festival information or applications please visit the web page HERE.

Last Week Of Advanced Voting For May Primary

There have been 115 absentee by mail ballots issued and 70 of those have been accepted back by the registrars office.  In addition, 2 ballots were cancelled and there was 1 spoiled ballot.  No ballots have been rejected and there have not been any provisional ballots.  Voters may vote each day this week, until Friday, from 8:30 AM until 5 PM.  All advanced voting takes place at the Chattooga County Registrars Office located on Commerce Street in Summerville, just south of the Chattooga County Courthouse.

Election Day will be next Tuesday, May 21st and polls will be open from 7 AM until 7 PM.  All voting on Election Day will take place at local precincts.  Below, you will see a daily report on early voting so far in Chattooga County:

Summerville City Council Meeting This Evening

The Summerville City Council will hold their regular monthly meeting this evening at Summerville City Hall.  Mayor Harry Harvey and the Summerville City Council will present Chattooga High School Valedictorian Pippa Key with a proclamation for her academic accomplishments.  Also, Summerville resident Felicia Foster will be providing information about her after school tutoring program “Felisha’s Kids”.  The program meets at Summerville’s Fairway Recreation Center.  Also, Republican candidate for State Senate Angela Pence will addressing the meeting.  Pence will  be introducing herself and sharing her vision for the 53rd District.  Pence is challenging incumbent State Senator Colton Moore.  The city council meeting gets underway at 5 PM and the public is invited to attend.  You can see a complete agenda for this evening’s meeting below:

Good Outlook For Georgia's Peach Crop This Year

After a devastating year in 2023, Georgia’s peach farmers are hopeful about the 2024 peach season.  Most of Georgia’s commercial peach orchards are located in the middle part of the state and growers say that weather conditions have been optimal this year, which bodes well for Georgia peach lovers.

Many farmers last year lost almost their entire crop due to two March deep-freezes. The weather this year was favorably warm for the crop, and will be providing a bountiful harvest in a few weeks.  After a relatively cool winter and a warmer spring than average, peaches will be in abundance this season.

That’s good news for Chattooga County’s 4-H program’s Georgia Peach Fundraiser.  Each year, the local 4-H program sells peaches from Dickey’s Farms in Musella, Georgia.  The peach sale is one of the largest fundraisers for the 4-H program, and last year there were no peaches available.

Peach lovers should start seeing Georgia’s state fruit hit the shelves within the next few weeks.

GNN contributed to this story

Chattooga County Low-Cost Rabies Clinic This Saturday

A low-cost rabies vaccination clinic will be held coming up this Saturday, May 18th at Chattooga High School.  It’s the law in Georgia that all dogs and cats have their annual rabies vaccine. Dogs, cats, and ferrets must get rabies vaccination when they are twelve weeks of age or older. Rabies vaccinations are only recognized in Georgia when performed by a licensed veterinarian.  Cominut up on Saturday, the Summerville Veterinary Clinic, the Chattooga County Health Department and the Chattooga County Extension Office will host a rabies clinic from 9 AM until 5 PM.  The cost for each shot is $10.  Those bringing their pets to the vaccination clinic should access Chattooga High School by the Highway 100 school entrance.

Georgia Senator Co-Sponsors Bipartisan Bill To Protect Children

A bipartisan bill to protect children from online exploitation has been signed into law. The bill law, which was sponsored by Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), will toughen penalties on websites and social media companies that fail to report crimes against children.

The REPORT Act will, for the first time, require websites and social media platforms to report crimes involving federal trafficking and enticement of children to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The law will increase fines for companies that knowingly and willfully fail to report child sex abuse material on their site.

It also requires that evidence is preserved for a longer period of time, giving law enforcement more time to investigate and prosecute crimes.

“My bipartisan law with Senator Blackburn will ensure tech companies are held accountable to report and remove child sex abuse material and to strengthen protection for kids online,” said Sen. Ossoff. “At a time of such division in Congress, we successfully brought Republicans and Democrats together to protect kids on the internet, and now our bill is law.”

Early Voting Continues In Summerville Special Election

Early voting continues this week in the special election that is being held in the City of Summerville.  Six candidates are running to fill the unexpired term of former City Councilman David Ford who passed away earlier this year.

The City of Summerville has had 110 ballots cast during Advance Voting and has issued 5 Absentee by Mail ballots. One Absentee by Mail ballot has been accepted.

All voting for the City of Summerville special election takes place at Summerville City Hall, located on Georgia Avenue across from Summerville First Baptist Church.  Voters may cast their ballots early through Friday of this week between 9 AM and 5 PM.  On Election Day next Tuesday, voters will need to come to Summerville City Hall to vote in the special election.

Below, you may see a report on early voting in the Summerville Special Election:

Arrest Report - Sunday - May 12, 2024

Here is the latest arrest report from the Chattooga County Sheriff’s Office for Sunday, May 12, 2024:

General Sherman's Sword To Be Auctioned Off

Bidders will fight with their dollars next week at an Ohio auction house for the sword of the Civil War Union general who led a scorched-earth campaign across Georgia and coined the phrase “War is hell.”

General William Tecumseh Sherman’s wartime sword, likely used between 1861 and 1863, are among the items that will be open to bidders Tuesday at Fleischer’s Auctions in Columbus.

Other items that will be auctioned off include Sherman’s uniform’s rank insignia worn during the Civil War, a family Bible and his personal, annotated copy of Ulysses S. Grant’s memoirs.

An experts say that General Sherman’s sword will bring a “conservative” estimated sales price between $40,000-$60,000 and an estimated sale of the entirety of Sherman’s collection could sell as high as $300,000.

General Sherman took Atlanta in September of 1864 and helped President Lincoln to win reelection.  Sherman and his troops came through Chattooga County and he made his headquarters in Gaylesville, Alabama in October of 1864 before beginning his march to the sea.

Georgia DNR: Avoid Wildlife Confrontations

While most Georgians treasure seeing backyard wildlife like songbirds and squirrels, the sentiment might fade if you find wildlife digging through your trash can or tearing open bags of pet food on your carport. Let’s look for ways to avoid the conflict. In most cases, wildlife invades our space because of access to a food source and that is something we can easily prevent, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division.

“Most wildlife species will take advantage of easy-to-get food source opportunities, but that is not what is best for wildlife,” says Kaitlin Goode, Urban Wildlife Program Manager for the Wildlife Resources Division. “When we make efforts around our home to ensure that we are keeping unnatural foods inaccessible, we are protecting our safety, our homes and our pets, and also protecting wildlife.”

Following are some basic tips:

• Keep items such as grills and pet food off-limits. Clean and store grills when not in use, keep pet food indoors and feed pets indoors.
• Refill bird feeders less frequently and in small amounts.
• Make trash cans inaccessible. Keep lids securely fastened or store trash cans in a secured location until the morning of trash pick-up.

Resources for resolving human-wildlife conflicts, including fact sheets, tips on managing land for wildlife, a list of professional nuisance trappers, wildlife rehabilitator information, and much more can be found at GeorgiaWildlife.com/preventing-wildlife-conflicts.

Summerville City Council Meeting Tomorrow Evening

The Summerville City Council will be having their meeting for the month of May coming up tomorrow evening at 5 PM at Summerville City Hall. City Council members are expected to approve payments for public works projects and annual payments for Summerville firefighters.  Also, they will be asked to approve a request from Connect City Church to close East Washington Street on Saturday, September 7, 2024 for an event.  The council will also have a first reading of the fiscal year 2024-2025 budget.  The public is invited to attend.

Deep South Gets A Taste Of The Northern Lights

Photo Credit: Larry Simpson – Silver Hill Road area in the Gore Community

Residents of Northwest Georgia and Northeast Alabama have been treated to a rare sight the past two nights – the Aurora Borealis – or “Northern Lights”.  It’s not every day that residents in the Deep South see the displays that are normally relegated to areas closer to the North or South Poles. 

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Aurora Borealis are the result of electrons colliding with the upper reaches of Earth’s atmosphere. The phenomenon is primarily seen in the polar regions.

However, during major geomagnetic storms, these ovals expand away from the poles such that aurora can be seen over most of the United States.

When space weather activity increases and more frequent and larger storms and substorms occur, the aurora extends equatorward. During large events, the aurora can be observed as far south as the US, Europe, and Asia.

Photo Credit: Belle Jennings Templeton – Telgoa Community

GHC Names Nursing Award in Honor of Sheila Bennett

You might find Sheila Bennett up late Friday night grading papers or teaching online in the Bachelor of Health Science program at Georgia Highlands College. The senior vice president and chief of patient services at Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center is, at heart, both a nurse and a teacher of nurses.

Dr. Lisa Jellum, dean of the Atrium Health Floyd School of Health Sciences at GHC, said Bennett’s passion for nursing is why the Dr. Sheila Bennett Excellence in Nursing Education Award was created.

The award was announced Thursday during the college’s nurse graduation ceremony.

Bennett “has dedicated herself as a visionary leader whose impact on nursing education transcends time,” Jellum said in announcing the award. “Her unwavering commitment to the advancement of nursing education has left an indelible mark on countless students, colleagues and healthcare institutions around the world.”

Bennett has even created curriculum for the patient safety course at Georgia Highlands.

“I am humbled and so appreciative of the recognition,” she said. “I feel I am at a point in my career that investing in future nurses or other clinical disciplines is very important to me. The ability to help prepare future healthcare workers is an honor and worth giving up my off time and weekends to do so.”

Jellum said Bennett will occasionally call her about students who are excelling.

“I can’t even fathom that she has the time to do that,” Jellum added. “She really is a friend to the college. Her compassionate spirit, unwavering integrity and tireless dedication to the well-being of others has served as a guiding light for all who have had the privilege of crossing paths with her.”

Trion Mayor Explains Siren Warning System

Trion Mayor Lanny Thomas told WZQZ News this past week that several people had been questioning how the town’s tornado warning siren works.  Mayor Thomas explained, “With the recent storms and tornado warnings, I have had several people reach out to me asking how the siren system works and who decides to set off the alarms. The Mayor nor anyone working with the Town of Trion is responsible for setting off the alarm. The tornado siren works in a polygon format that is sent out from the National Weather Service, Peachtree City, Atlanta, GA. If the system were to be down and the polygons cannot be defined 911 is alerted and they will manually set off all sirens throughout the county. I hope this explains how the alarm system in Trion works. Hopefully, we will be hearing less of it. Please, if you do hear the siren, find safe shelter immediately.”

Arrest Report - Saturday - May 11, 2024

Here is the latest arrest report from the Chattooga County Sheriff’s Office for Saturday, May 11, 2024:

Rep. Lumsden Backs DDS Office In Chattooga County

State Rep. Eddie Lumsden (R-Armuchee) is supporting the idea of a Department of Drivers Services (DDS) Office being built in Chattooga County.  Lumsden sent a letter to the Department of Drivers Services outlining reasons why a new facility should be built in Chattooga County.  Chattooga County Sole Commissioner Blake Elsberry is also backing the idea.  Elsberry says that the county would be willing to donate property for the new facility off Stockade Road.  Rep. Lumsden urged the Department of Drivers Services to, “prioritize and support the funding needed to realize this initiative”.  The closest DDS offices are currently in Rock Spring and at the Georgia State Patrol Post in the Armuchee Community.