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Pickleball Clinic At Ed Smith See Sports, page 3B The Vidalia Advance Established 1901 nee The Lyons Progress Established 1894 SALES FLYERS INSIDE! SAVE OVER 1*200 i ON FAMOUS BRANDS I I I I I Vol. 123 No. 15 Your Newspaper - Toombs, Montgomery & Wheeler County, Georgia April 14, 2021 One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure. - William Feather News BYTES Sweeten Your Ride Downtown Vidalia Association is sponsoring Sweeten Your Ride on Friday, April 16, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., on the grass lot across from Palmer's Furniture on East First Street. A $10 donation will purchase a window decal with proceeds benefiting Safe Kids Toombs County. Earth Day Appreciation The Greater Vidalia Chamber is sponsoring an Electronics Recycling Event in honor of Earth Day on Thursday, April 22, from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. at Chick-fil-A in Vidalia. Bring old electronics for recycling. Presented by Chick-fil-A, Sikes Brothers and The Advance. Visit the chamber website for more information. Ribbon Cutting and Renaming Event The public is invited to attend a Faison Park Ribbon Cutting and Ben Mitchell Avenue Renaming Ceremony at Vincent Faison Sr. Park Pavilion in Lyons on April 24 at 3 p.m. Food Drive for Seniors Tri-County Connection is accepting donations of nonperishable food for Senior Citizens Centers in Treutlen, Montgomery and Wheeler Counties through April 16. For more information, call 478-697- 3782. IN THIS ISSUE Editorials Page 4A Obituaries Page 6A From the Record Page 5A Your Mind On Line Page 6A Sports Page 1 B SUBSCRIBE AND SAVE 30% OFF NEWSSTAND PRICES! Call 537-3131 (or delivery! Making Vidalia a Better Place One House At a Time By Deborah Clark Regional Editor dclarkadvance@gmail. com Vidalian Debra Brown moved into her new home on Fifth Av enue this week. After 15 years of renting, she finally has a place of her own. “It’s like a dream,” she said. Brown’s hope of own ing a home was realized in part due to her own merit—she has been a re sponsible citizen and an employee at McDonald’s in Vidalia for 17 years— but also because a group of local citizens who have a vision to make the world a better place took note of her worthiness and included her name on a list. She would become the first person to ben efit from the work of the nonprofit Urban Revital ization Group (URG). On Wednesday, April 7, Brown, several City of Vidalia officials and members of URG gathered at the home site on Fifth Avenue to celebrate the completion of URG’s initial project. Among those attending the ceremony was Ber nard Stanfield, a regional McDonald’s represen tative who had worked with Brown for 14 years when he managed the Vidalia store. “She is an excellent employee,” he said of Brown. The Brown house is the first house in an entire block of derelict houses Please see URG page 9A the iloor of home ownership! tl ! i < Photo by Deborah Clark WELCOME FIOME - Among those gathering to welcome Debra Brown into her new home on Fifth Avenue last week were, from left, James McClendon with the Urban Revitalization Group (URG); Vidalia City Councilman Raymond Turner; Leo Peeples, URG; Rodney Williams, URG; City Councilman Bob Dixon; Debra Brown; McDonald's regional representative Bernard Stanfield; Vidalia Mayor Doug Rop er; and City Councilman Lloyd Mobley. Detective Recognized for Work Leading to Murder Conviction Photo by Rebekah Arnold DETECTIVE RECOGNIZED - Lyons Police Department Detective Andrew Britton, left, listens as Chief Wesley Walker shares a letter of thanks from Middle Circuit District Attorney Tripp Fitzner with the Lyons City Coun cil. Fitnzer praised Britton's perseverance in leading the investigation of the 2019 Colson murder case. By Rebekah Arnold Contributing Writer The diligence of a Ly ons Police Department Detective in October of 2019 has resulted in a conviction in a murder case. At the Lyons City Council meeting on April 6, LPD Chief Wesley Walker recognized De tective Sergeant Andrew Britton for working tire lessly from day one, and for several weeks, not giv ing up until a break led Please see Lyons page 2A Georgia Tech finishes tops among Georgia universities for value By Dave Williams Bureau Chief Capitol Beat News Service Georgia Tech provides the best value among the Peach State’s public and private universities, according to a new study by a New York-based financial technology company. The Atlanta school scored a col lege education value index of 83.71, well above the second- highest score of 57.90 posted by the University of Georgia, the report by SmartAsset found. The scores were based on factors including student living and tuition costs, student retention rates, the aver age starting salary of graduates and the availability of scholarships and grants. The main category that separated Georgia Tech from the rest of the pack was the aver age starting salary of $74,500 for Tech gradu- w ® Closest to that figure was $63,500, the average starting salary for graduates of Atlanta’s Emory University. How- Please see Tech page 4A FBI Offers Reward For Information In Laser Strike Incident The FBI, in coordi nation with the United States Air Force, is of fering a reward of up to $2,500 for information leading to the arrest of the suspect(s) respon sible for a laser strike on an aircraft approaching the Savannah Air Na tional Guard Base on March 9, 2021. On that date at ap proximately 9:50 p.m., a United States Air Force aircraft was deliberately struck by a high-pow ered laser for about one minute. The laser caused temporary eye damage to a member of the flight crew and put the entire crew at risk, according to a news release from the FBI. Investigators be lieve the laser strike originated from an area Please see Reward page 4A CLEANING UP VIDALIA - Angela Lane, her husband Charlie (above) and son Brady, 12, joined the Vidalia Rotary Club Saturday as they and other volunteers fanned out across the community for Cleanup Day in Vidalia, The event was sponsored by the City of Vidalia with assistance from Repub lic Services, Inc. and ESG Operations, Inc., which helped with pickup of collected trash, Chick-til -A provided lunch for participants at the Vidalia Community Center. A total of 5.92 tons of trash were collected by 13 teams. 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