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The ADVANCE, August 25, 2021 /Page 4A (Ttie Afruance Vidalia Council Recognizes Recently Promoted Public Safety Employees Photo by Makaylee Randolph PROMOTED — City Manager Nick Overstreet, right, congratulates Matthew Bell, left, and Micheal Howell, center, on their promotions within the Department of Public Ser vice and thanked the men for their dedication and work in the city. Not pictured is Lieutenant Timothy Coursey. By Makaylee Randolph Contributing Writer The Vidalia City Council, during its month ly meeting on August 16, honored three recently- promoted public safety of ficers. The City congrat ulated Timothy Coursey, who was promoted from sergeant to lieutenant, and Matthew Bell and Micheal Howell who both rose from corporal to sergeant. “These men work hard to ensure safety in our com munity, and I hope they know how truly apprecia tive we all are,” City Man ager Nick Overstreet said. Housing Authority During the meeting, the Council also voted to approve the reappoint ments of two Housing Authority members for five-year terms: Brandon Boston, until August 2026, and Darren McClellan, un til August 2024. The Coun cil also approved the ap pointment of Fred Godbee to fill the unexpired term of the late Hughes Threlkeld until August 2022. Housing Authority Ex ecutive Director Josh Beck praised Godbee’s abilities. “Fred has great leadership skills. He is community- oriented and has a servant's heart.” Beck added that Godbee has served on nu merous boards throughout the community, and he has a special desire to help the area's low to moderate in come citizens. “His lead ership qualities will be a huge asset for our Author ity and our community as a whole.” Beck also shared his thoughts on Threlkeld. “Mr. Threlkeld was instru mental in turning this Au thority around from a trou bled Authority in the early 1990s to what it is today.” Onion Festival Committee The Council also ap proved the addition of a new Vidalia Onion Festi val Committee chairper sons and members. These individuals are: Chairman Andy Woodruff Past Chair Josh Giles, Chair-Elect Jake Cleghorn, Member- at-Large Greg Hudgins, Advisor Dustin Booth, Convention and Visitors Bureau-Marketing and Advertising Alexa Brit ton, Vidalia City Manager Nick Overstreet, Finan cial Director Amy Murray, Entertainment Director Tim Jones, Chair of Events Flora Torres, Chair of Merchandising Liza New, Chair of Operations Billy Goodwin, Chair of Ven dors Kaitlyn Macker, and Chair of Airport Opera tions Billy Ragan. The Chair of Enter tainment position remains vacant; also, several sub committees will be formed in the future. Walking Events Two events were ap proved during the meet ing: the 9/11 Patriot Walk and Memorial Service at the City Park and the Big Boy Walk/Run on October 1. The 9/11 Patriot Walk and Memorial Service will begin at 8 a.m. on Sep tember 11. Durden Street and Jackson Street will be closed between Highway 280 East and West from 7:30 to 10:30 that morn ing. The location of the Big Boy Walk/Run has not been disclosed and will be shared closer to the event. Resurfacing Streets City Manager Over- street presented the list of streets to be resurfaced with the 2022 Georgia Department of Trans portation Local Mainte nance Improvement Grant (LMIG). This list of streets must be provided to the GDOT now that they are approved by the Council to initiate the road work. These resurfaced ar eas include: the entirety of Hannah Circle; Old Vidalia/Lyons Road from Highway 292 to Rigsbee; Linda Lane from Highway 292 to Sharon Drive; Es telle Drive from Hwy 292 to Jerry Street; Washing ton Street Extension from North Street East to the Dead End; and Brice Drive from Hwy 280 to Highway 292. City Projects Overstreet provided the Council with an up date on several ongoing city projects. The roof re pair at the Pal Theatre has been completed by Hollis Construction; the Ladson Library repair will be com pleted September 2. Work will begin on the reno vation of the Municipal Annex in October or No vember depending on the availability of supplies. He also told the Coun cil of his findings when reviewing the 2020 Cen sus results. He has only reviewed the preliminary numbers but has found that Vidalia’s population appears to have increased by 312 people while the Toombs County Unin corporated Area’s popula tion has decreased by 193. Overstreet plans to appeal these findings to ensure validity and accuracy in the report. The Council autho rized the purchase of 21 six-foot holiday scrolls and hardware for the City. This purchase is a part of a series of four purchases to provide holiday lights for all 84 light poles in city limits. With the addition of 21 more scrolls, the proj ect is halfway completed. This purchase costs $9,856 and will be paid for using SPLOST money. The addition of a game room to the Pine Gift Store at 111 Pine Street was ap proved through the Coun cil’s issuance of an amuse ment machine license to Dilipkumar Patel. The Police Department, Fire Department, and Zoning Board all approved this en deavor. Elections continued from page 3A cil member. The Ward 2 seat on the Council was left vacant with the death on December 5, 2019 of longtime Councilman Ben Mitchell. City of Santa Claus Elec tion Two at-large posts are up for election in Santa Claus; however, only one candidate, incumbent Wil liam Powell, has qualified as of Monday. The election has been extended until Tuesday at 5 p.m. In the event no one qualifies for this seat, the city will call for a special election and set a new qualifying date, said Toombs Elections Su pervisor Carey Alligood. City of Alamo Election In Wheeler County, incumbents in two at-large Alamo City Council posts who qualified last week are unopposed. These seats are occupied by Bobby Cox and Patricia Woodard. Woodard ran for and won election to the post held by Tommy Spell in 2020. City Council seats are four-year terms. As of Monday morn ing, incumbent Council man Harry Lewis had not qualified and no one else had qualified to seek his post; therefore, the quali fying period for the Coun cil election was extended through Tuesday at 5 p.m., said Wheeler County Superintendent of Elec tions and Registrar Sheila Cheek. Cheek explained that write-in candidates may seek election, but they must qualify by August 27. The write-in candidate’s in tent to seek election must be submitted to the Board of Elections and published publicly prior to the elec tion. The City of Alamo election ballot will include a referendum to issue a license for the sale of al cohol by the drink, to be consumed on the premises only, at any qualifying es tablishment within the city limits of Alamo. Montgomery County Elections In Montgomery Coun ty, posts 1-4 are up for elec tion in the City of Alley. The incumbents, L.C. Wil liams, Post 1; Curtis Smi ley Post 2; Earl Bell, Post 3; and Rhett Thompson, Post 4, have no opposition. In Mount Vernon, the four qualifying candidates, William “Bill” Black, Har old Quarterman, Sr., Craig Snead, Sr. and Jerry “Hop- py” Sikes are unopposed. According to local of ficials, these municipali ties do not plan to hold elections because most candidates are unopposed and incumbent; thus, it is understood that the candi dates would vote for them selves to receive the single vote needed to be elected. Georgia code was cited in a notice to cancel these elec tions. Sikes's special election is to fill the unexpired term of the late John Roller, who had two years left in his term. The City of Uvalda is holding an election for the Mayor and three City Council seats, but at press time had not provided further information. The City of Alston could not be reached for information. SIADO KIA Solution ’ page 12A Fun By The Numbers Like puzzles? Then you'll love sudoku. This mind-bending puzzle will have you hooked from the moment you square off, so sharpen your pencil and put your sudoku savvy to the test! Level: Intermediate Here’s How It Works: Sudoku puzzles are formatted as a 9x9 grid, broken down into nine 3x3 boxes. To solve a sudoku, the numbers 1 through 9 must fill each row, column and box. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and box. You can figure out the order in which the numbers will appear by using the numeric clues already provided in the boxes. The more numbers you name, the easier it gets to solve the puzzle! 1 2 5 4 7 8 1 5 9 7 8 9 3 5 4 7 6 9 9 4 8 0 3 4 1 Shaw continued from page 1A open. When the officer ex ited his vehicle to investi gate, he found Dr. Shaw’s body in the adjacent ditch. Chief Walker said there was no evidence at the scene to indicate why Dr. Shaw left her vehicle. Based on the wounds on Dr. Shaw’s body, the investigating officers sus pected that Dr. Shaw sus tained fatal bites inflicted in an animal attack. A pre liminary report following an autopsy conducted at the State Crime Lab con firmed the cause of death as multiple bite wounds, the chief said. Further testing conclusively deter mined the cause of death and that the animals se cured by law enforcement were involved, Walker said. Three of the four dogs thought to be responsible for the death were located soon after the body was discovered. Two of the dogs were wearing collars with their owner’s name. The chief confirmed that the three bulldog mix dogs are still being held at the Lyons Animal Control facility and are considered Dr. Nancy Shaw evidence in the case. The chief said the fourth dog was shot and killed by a Lyons resident when it attempted to break into a chicken pen at his neigh bor’s property. The chief said both the City of Lyons and Toombs County have leash laws that prohibit animals from roaming. “Animals must be in a pen or on a leash,” he said. He said Dr. Shaw, who lived alone, died about a mile from her home on Skyline Boulevard. A na tive of Providence, Rhode Island, Dr. Shaw relocated to Vidalia after being re cruited by Meadows Re gional Medical Center. She was a member of the MRMC hospitalist team from 2012 until her death. Georgia PSC to put off deciding who pays for Plant Vogtle cost overruns By Dave Williams Bureau Chief Capitol Beat News Service The state agency that regulates Georgia utilities is no longer going to ap prove incremental costs associated with the Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion. The Georgia Pub lic Service Commission (PSC) voted unanimous ly Tuesday to postpone further decisions on the mounting costs of the long-delayed project and whether those expenses can be passed on to cus tomers until after the work is completed. Under a stipula tion agreement the PSC staff and Georgia Power reached late last month, the commission approved $670 million the Atlanta- based utility spent on the project during the last half of last year. While the PSC will continue reviewing Georgia Power’s spend ing at the plant south of Augusta every six months going forward, it will not vote on those costs. Tuesday’s vote came after it became clear that Georgia Power’s share of the project’s capital costs have exceeded a $7.3 bil lion cap the commission set in 2017 when it agreed to let the utility finish the project despite massive delays and cost overruns. Georgia Power an nounced last month that its share of those capital costs had increased to $9.2 billion. The overall price tag for the Vogtle expansion being shared by Geor gia Power and three util ity partners has nearly doubled from the original estimate of $14 billion approved by the commis sion in 2009 to about $26 billion. The first of the two new reactors originally was scheduled for comple tion in 2016, with the sec ond reactor to go into ser vice one year later. But the work has run into signifi cant delays, partly due to the bankruptcy of prime contractor Westinghouse and, more recently, to workforce shortages aris ing from the coronavirus pandemic. Under the latest revi sion to the schedule, the first new reactor is ex pected to go into service in the second quarter of next year, with the second to follow in the first quar ter of 2023. Tuesday’s vote by the PSC not to make any de cisions on the rising costs of the project until after it is completed doesn’t take Georgia Power customers off the hook for picking up the bill eventually. “This stipulation in no way limits or prohib its Georgia Power from bringing expenditures above $7.3 billion to the commission for verifi cation and approval, or for inclusion in [the cus tomer] rate base, at a lat er time,” the agreement states. Still, putting off a de termination on how much of the cost overruns cus tomers will have to absorb is good news, said Kurt Ebersbach, senior attor ney for the Atlanta-based Southern Environmental Law Center. “[Georgia Power] could have come in again and sought commission approval for the $9.2 billion,” he said. “[But] they’ve got quality con trol issues. ... It was not a good time for them to come forward and seek approval for an additional $2 billion.”