About Barrow journal. (Winder, Ga.) 2008-2016 | View Entire Issue (April 15, 2009)
Barrow Journal www.BarrowJournal.com •r Read all over... Wednesday, April 15,2009 Vol. 1 No. 25 22 PAGES 3 SECTIONS A publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. WINDER, BARROW COUNTY GEORGIA 30680 250COPY • Prom Night for WBHS page 1C •In the kitchen with a Cook of Barrow County page 1C •BOE continues to pound out budget page 2A •Zoning dispute goes to state Supreme Court page 2A Opinions: • Hiding behind a computer .... page 4A •Perdue will grab more power under roads bill page 4A •Let schools teach and churches preach page 4A Sports: •Diamond Doggs pre pare for stretch run page 1B •AHS baseball looks to meet more goals page 1B •WB Speedway season continues page 2B Also Inside: •Classifieds page 7C •Church News page 5B •Letters to the Editor page 5A •Public Safety pages 6-7A •Obituaries pages 4-5C To subscribe, call today: 770-867-NEWS (6397). The Barrow Journal is delivered every Thursday. Child rapist gets lengthy sentence BY SUSAN NORMAN A Statham man who videotaped his rape and sodomy of a 9-year-old local girl was sentenced Monday to three life terms plus 20 years in prison. Alan Richard Konwinski, 40, of Dooleytown Road received one life sentence for rape and two life sen tences for two counts of aggravated sodomy, said District Attorney Brad Smith. The additional 20-year sentence was for the sexual exploitation of the child — a charge that was the direct result of Konwinski videotaping his crimes, Smith said. All of the sentences will run con currently, but Konwinski likely will be 70 years old before he becomes eligible for parole. “I believe he will not be eligible for parole for 30 years,” Smith said. Konwinski made a “blind” plea of guilt with no agreement worked out to reduce his sentence. “He knew he faced the possibility of a life sentence,” Smith said. By pleading guilty, he also for feited his right to appeal the sentence, which means the legal process is over for him and also for the victim and her family. The girl's parents were in court Monday. “We’re just glad it is over with and that the child will not have to go through the ordeal of a court process, and hopefully, the family can find a little bit of closure,” Smith said. Konwinski's crime was discovered five months ago when his girlfriend stopped by his apartment Nov. 17 and popped in a video to watch until he came home from work. Stunned by what was on the video, and recognizing the child, she went immediately to the family’s home and brought the girl's father to the apart ment to look at the tape. The father called the Statham Police Department and officers arrested Konwinski a few hours later as he was driving home from work. During a search of his apartment, officers confiscated two computer hard drives, VHS tapes, CDs, and High-8 videotapes. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation now has that evidence and is check ing it for possible additional victims, Smith said. Smith expressed appreciation for the assistance provided by Tree House Inc. in Winder, which provides services in child abuse cases. “I want to thank the people at Tree House for all of the support and help they've given,” he said. STORM DAMAGE Heavy rains caused trees to be uprooted and tumble onto power lines in Barrow County earlier this week. Here, Jackson EMC workers cut a tree off a power line in Northern Barrow County. Storm sweeps through Trees, power lines downed Monday BY SUSAN NORMAN A blustery storm swept through Barrow County Monday, bringing down trees and power lines and causing power outages and minor damage at Northeast Georgia Regional Airport. The National Weather Service reported sustained winds of 25 miles per hour and gusts of 39 miles per hour at 11 a.m. at the airport. No planes or hangars were affected, but lightning appears to have damaged a few taxiway lights and an electronic control panel for one of the gates, said assistant airport director Wanda Mitchell. In a five-hour period beginning at about 10:30 a.m., Barrow County Fire and Emergency Services received 34 calls that were storm-related, said Lt. Scott Dakin, public information officer. “This included two motor vehicle acci dents, and firefighters from Station 5 also responded to Easy Street where a tree fell and hit the back deck of a residence,” he said. The rest of the calls were for downed power lines and fallen trees. Nat Dukes, director of the Barrow County Roads & Bridges Department, said trees fell on 41 roads around Barrow County. His crews on Monday cut and moved the fallen trees to the sides of the roads and then on Tuesday picked up about 100 truckloads of debris. continued on page 8A In death of wife Man charged with vehicular homicide BY SUSAN NORMAN The husband of a Winder woman who died in a single-car wreck four months ago has been arrested and charged in connec tion with the accident that caused her death. Nicolas Stephan Overbey Sr. of 308 Woodview Drive in Winder was arrested Sunday and was charged with failure to drive within a single lane and misdemeanor homicide by vehicle. Overbey, 43, was charged following a Georgia State Patrol investigation, said trooper Chris Matthews. Because the misdemeanor charges were not filed at the time of the accident, warrants were issued and Overbey turned himself in at the Barrow County Detention Center, Matthews said. The investigation showed that the single-car accident occurred after Overbey became provoked by another driver. “He was parked on Pierce Road at Cedar Ridge Drive and he and his son were collecting cans,” Matthews said. “Somebody drove by in a pickup truck and made a comment about his vehicle being in the road. He got upset and jumped in the truck with his son. His wife was in the front passenger seat.” Intending to catch up with the other driver and speak to him, Overbey instead lost control of his vehicle on a curve, dropping two wheels off the right side of the roadway. “He overcorrected and shot back across both lanes, struck some trees on the other side of the road and flipped the vehicle over,” Matthews said. Ann Marguerite Overbey, 35, was ejected from the vehicle and died at the scene, and the couple’s two children in the back seat received minor injuries. The investigation showed that speed was not a factor in the wreck so a felony charge is not being pursued, Matthews said. May foredosures skyrocket Foreclosures in Barrow County for the May sale date sky rocketed to a new monthly record of 213, up 66 percent from May 2008. It is the first time over 200 foreclosures have hit in a single month in Barrow County. For the first five months of 2009, some 782 foreclosures have slammed Barrow County, up 40 percent from the first five months of 2008. In 2008, some 1,400 foreclosure actions took place in Barrow County. Barrow County Foreclosures Virus no joke to Barrow officials BY SUSAN NORMAN Someone played a nasty April Fool’s joke on the county government. Thinking county com puters had escaped infec tion by the well-publicized Conflicker virus that was to attack computers worldwide April 1, county employ ees exactly one week later watched helplessly as one computer after another fell victim to the IT plague. “I’ve been here almost five years and I tell you what, I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Sebastian Ododa, the coun ty’s information technol ogy manager. “It hit us on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. and everything went hay wire. It was a bunch of Trojan horses, viruses and worms.” Employees could not access the county’s server. send e-mail, or access cer tain applications to serve the public, Ododa said. “I’m using pencil and paper right now,” said pur chasing manager Bob Hohe last week. “It acted differ ently on different comput ers. Some computers didn’t get touched, some were mildly affected, and some were absolutely eaten up.” continued on page 8A Barrow schools apply for charter status BY CHRIS BRIDGES The Barrow County School System is hoping to be granted charter school status, officials announced last week. The petition would request consideration for Barrow County Schools to be approved as a charter school system beginning the 2010-2011 school year, assistant super intendent for curriculum and instruction Claire Miller said. The school system plans to submit the request to the State Board of Education by Nov. 1. “I believe it is very important for our school system to seek as much flexibility from certain state mandates as we continue educating the students of Barrow County,” said Barrow County superintendent Ron Saunders. “The Charter System status would allow Barrow County Schools to not only think outside the box, but also act outside the box in delivering a quality edu cation to all students.” The Georgia Charter Systems Act of 2007 gives school systems the option to convert to system charter status. A system charter petition is a contract between the State of Georgia and the local school district designed to improve student achievement. continued on page 8A 2009 2008 January 111 76 February 131 117 March 158 121 April 169 115 May 213 128 YTD 782 +40% 557 Unemployment insurance claims rise during March Unemployment in Barrow County showed no signs oJ relenting in March as 594 people made first time unemploy ment insurance claims. That number was up 85 percent froir March 2008 and was a slight increase from February this year. As an economic indicator, rising first time unemploymeni claims often portend a rise in the overall unemployment Barrow County was at 11 percent unemployment in Februar> and March's rate won’t be released until later this month. While unemployment insurance claims were up in March they were below December and January numbers. Ir December, 763 people filed for unemployment insurance while 680 filed in January. Barrow County First Time Unemployment Insurance Claims November 2008 — 457 December 2008 — 763 January 2009 — 680 February 2009 — 576 March 2009 — 594
