About Barrow journal. (Winder, Ga.) 2008-2016 | View Entire Issue (April 20, 2016)
B * Wednesday, April 20, 2016 arrow il Journal \ai\ai\ai harmwini irnal mm Rarmw’c I anal Oman Nawsnanar www.barrowjournal. com Barrow’s Legal Organ Newspaper VOL. 8 NO. 26 32 PACES 3 SECTIONS, PLUS INSERTS A PUBLICATION OF MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. WINDER, BARROW COUNTY GEORGIA 30680 50« COPY Chamber to host candidate forum By Cliris Bridges Journal Editor Barrow County voters will have the opportunity to hear from the candidates Thursday during an “Evening With The Candidates” at the Colleen O. Williams Theater. The event, sponsored by the Barrow County Chamber of Commerce, will begin at 6:30 p.m. Candidates in contested May 24 primary races will get a chance to address local voters. Contested races include Barrow County Commission Chair (incumbent Pat Graham May 24 primary vs. challenger Billy Parks), County Commission District 2 (incumbent Kenny Shook vs. Bill Brown), County Commission District 3 (incumbent Roger Wehunt vs. challenger Jeff Hatcher), sheriff (incumbent Jud Smith vs. challenger Tim Walker), chief magistrate judge (open seat, Caroline Power Evans vs. Tim Sanders), Board of Education At Large (incumbent Rolando Alvarez vs. John McKay) and State House District 116 (incumbent Terry England vs. challenger Lucreita Conseula Hughes.) See Primary on Page 3A Barrow Briefs Masons to host pancake breakfast The Barrow County Masons will host a pancake breakfast on Saturday, April 23. The event will be at the Auburn Masonic Lodge in Auburn at a cost of $5 per plate. Breakfast will be served from 8-11 a.m. The event is a benefit for Relay for Life. Call 770-862-9214 for more information. Clean-up set for April 22, 23 A Great American Clean- Up will be held April 22 and 23 at the Jug Tavern Park Pavilion Area. Items accepted at no charge will include paint, batteries, scrap metal and wood, elec tronics, eye glasses, televi sions, monitors, prescription drugs, oil, furniture, appli ances (no freon), up to four standard tires ($5 per tire for more than four, tires must be off rim). The event will be from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Friday, April 22, and from 8 a.m. until noon on Saturday, April 23. The Clean-Up will be held rain or shine. Inside: Index: Church News 10A Classifieds 10-11A Legals 5-9B Obituaries 11A Pets of the Week 10A Public Safety 6-7A School News 9A Sports 1- m CM GO Contact Info: Phone: 770-867-6397 Mail: 77 E. May Street, Winder, Ga. 30680 Fax: 706-621-4115 ‘Like us’ on Facebook www.barrowjournal.com RAISING AWARENESS FOR CHILD ABUSE The pinwheels placed at the historic Barrow County Courthouse symbol ize 121 substantiated cases of child abuse locally in the past year. The pinwheels are placed as an encouragement to “take a stand against child abuse.” Spinning a special message Photos by Jessica Brown BCSS budget could top $110 million By Alex Pace Journal Reporter The Barrow County School System’s general fund budget is set to top $110.6 million next year. The Barrow County Board of Education discussed its tentative FY2017 bud get at its April 19 meeting. No tax hike is planned in the budget. The budget is $7 million larger than its original FY2016 budget. But the BCSS amended its FY2016 budget to include extra revenues and expenses. The FY2017 budget is $3.4 million more than that amend ed budget. The district expects to dip slightly into its reserves ($112,000) to balance next year’s budget, bring ing its reserves to $9.53 million. The BOE could vote on its ten tative general fund budget on May 3, and on its final budget (including federal program money and other funds) on June 28. See BOE Budget on Page 3A Statham officials begin ironing out new FY budget By Chris Bridges Journal Editor It’s number crunching time again for City of Statham officials. Preliminary figures for the new fiscal year are $2,897,404 in expen ditures and $2,913,944 in projected revenues. Recent years have been tough on the city but there are signs of improvements. Mayor Robert Bridges and city council members will consider vari ous requests for the new fiscal year, including an additional officer for the police department. Chief Allan Johnston is also requesting a full time administrative assistant to han dle public records requests that he has been handling. See Statham on Page 3A Mailing Label Below 4-H students overcome fears to win at Project Achievement A recent study found that the num ber one fear of American adults was public speaking and the second was death. Basically, adults are more afraid of giving a speech than they are dying. Barrow County 4-Hers however are facing that fear head on with Project Achievement. These students were challenged to create a 3-5 minute speech with visual aids covering whatever appealed to them and then present it to a pair of judges. Project Achievement is an annual competition for youth to participate in. The youth compete in different topic areas ranging from public speaking to history, companion animals, general science, sports archaeology and more. In Barrow County, this competition works in two stages, the first stage happens at the schools where teachers and students work together to create the speech and posters. The Barrow 4-H staff then listened to presentations from the schools and selected a first, second and third place winner in each category for the county. All total, 373 fifth and sixth grade Barrow County youth took part in Project Achievement at the county level. The county winners were then invit ed to compete at the District level (DPA) on April 2 at Rock Eagle 4-H Center near Eatonton. A total of 76 Barrow County youth attended this competition which is an eight percent increase over last year. See 4-H on Page 2A FIRST PLACE FOR CAT CARE Bethlehem Christian Academy fifth grader Amy Davison (left) placed first in the Cat Care project.
