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y CARROLL COUNTY, GE
CARROLL COUNTY, GEORGIA'S ONLY LOCALLY OWNED LOCALLY OPERATED NEWSPAPER
Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan,
U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler,
others visit Carroll County
| NEWS REPORTING / NEWS RECAP / NEWS ANALYSIS
www.starnewsgaonline.com |
SEPTEMBER 13, 2020 • VOLUME 26 NUMBER 9
StarNews monthly traditional print publication /StarNews Online daily local news
As labor department begins another
round of unemployment ($300 week)
Commissioner Butler asks for
public’s help to stop/prevent fraud
Long time StarNews
investigative reporter
Prissi Sullivan dies
from injuries following
two car collision
Life flighted to Atlanta trauma center,
she was on life support for three days
by Sue Horn
Marian Elizabeth
“Prissi” Sullivan, age
69, Villa Rica,
Georg i a, died
Thursday evening,
September 3, 2020 at
Grady Hospital in
Atlanta, Georgia.
She had been on
life support for sev
eral days following a
two car accident that
occurred Monday
evening, August 31st, in which she suffered
serious and numerous injuries. Immediately
following the accident, she was life flighted
to Atlanta Medical, a trauma center, then
transferred to Grady, also a trauma hospi
tal, where her condition continued to deter
iorate. She died surrounded by family.
Sullivan began working for the The
Carroll Star News, Carroll County, in 2004,
having been hired by then publisher Bill
Chappell. She was an investigative reporter
covering local school boards, city councils,
and the water authority, among other news
beats. She continued working for the news
paper, transitioning seemlessly, when her
editor, Sue Horn, became publisher in 2007,
and, again, when, the newspaper made
changes in 2010 becoming the StarNews
and StarNews Online.
Her news beat expanded over the years to
include political races and candidates.
Mostly limited to local races, she did cover
Governor Brian Kemp during his many
See PRISSI SULLIVAN page 13
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750jobs promised with
new “Hello Fresh”
facility in Newnan
Facility to be located a short
driving distance from Carroll County
from press release
Governor Brian Kemp announced August
10th that the meal kit company HelloFresh will
establish their first Southeastern United States
distribution facility in Newnan, Coweta County,
bringing more than 750 jobs to the area. The
208,930-square-foot facility, 510 International
Park, would be located within driving distance
of Carroll County, approximately 15 miles from
county’s line south of Whitesburg.
Headquartered in Berlin, Germany,
HelloFresh is the largest meal kit provider in the
United States. In 2019, HelloFresh delivered
more than 281 million meals to customers in
thirteen countries and across three continents.
HelloFresh jobs will include meal distribu
tion, assembly positions, associate, lead, super
visor, and management. Applications at: hellof-
resh.com/careers/locations/us
Carrollton City schools
announce 100% of students
now eligible for free meals
from press release
Due to an extension of the USDA summer
feeding program that ensured children had
access to nutritious food as the country recovers
from the COVID-19 pandemic, all students now
attending Carrollton City Schools will automati
cally be eligible to receive free school meals,
potentiall through December 31, 2020. All four
schools in the district qualified for the extension.
See FREE MEALS page 13
by Sue Horn
The Georgia Department of Labor is
set to begin the “Lost Wages Assistance”
(LWA) program that will distribute an
additional $300 weekly supplement to eli
gible individuals receiving UI benefits
from Georgia’s state and federal unem
ployment insurance programs. The
GDOL anticipates testing to be completed
soon and the issuance of payments to
begin by mid-September. LWA is cur
rently time-limited to an initial five-week
period and not everyone who has filed an
unemployment claim will be eligible.
This funding will come from FEMA’s
Disaster Relief Fund. Georgia has quali
fied for all five weeks that states are eligi-
from press release
The University of West Georgia
Foundation announced today the addition
of seven new members to its board of
trustees. Joining the board are Bruce
Bobick, Dick Ingle, Tonya Jackson,
Amanda Lucey, Honey Shackelford,
Zach Steed and Jason Thogmartin. The
returning board chair for the UWG
Foundation is Luis Planas, a retired
executive of the Coca-Cola company.
Foundation Trustees are elected to
four-year terms and serve on various
ble to apply for. The period of assistance
is Aug. 1, 2020 to Dec. 27, 2020 or at the
termination of the program, whichever is
sooner.
Individuals do not need to call or apply
separately for this benefit. This additional
payment will automatically be issued to
eligible claimants.
During a public zoom meeting held
August 27th, Labor Commissioner Mark
Butler spoke extensively on the increase
of fraud around the nation with the issu
ance of unemployment benefits. He
asked for the assistance of the public in
helping to identify and prevent fraud.
The commissioner said, “Our depart-
committees, including board develop
ment, finance and investment, resource
development, audit and others.
Dick Ingle is also a retired UWG pro
fessor and principal research scientist. An
active member of First Christian Church,
he serves as missions chair and is part of
the FCC finance team.
Ingle is also a member of the Carroll
County Board of Equalization, past chair
of Carrollton Development Authority
Appeals Board, and boasts an extensive
See NEW TRUSTEES page 16
Carroll County Correctional Institute Warden Jeff Richards
speaks on his hope for a transitional center to be built here
Prison Warden Jeff Richards
story> and photos
by Daniel Jackson
The Carrollton Kiwanis Club held
their weekly meeting at the Courtyard
by Marriot hotel, downtown
Carrollton, Friday, September 4, 2020.
Due to CoVID, this club alternates
between an in-person socially dis
tanced luncheon meeting on one
Friday, and then to a strictly internet
“Zoom” meeting the next. One of the
oldest civic clubs in Carroll County, it
was founded in 1947. The September
4th guest speaker was Carroll County
Prison Warden Jeff Richards.
Richards, who has become well
known to the public in the West
Georgia area due to his 35 year law
enforcement career, was appointed
warden by Carroll County Chairman
Michelle Morgan. He has been warden
for almost one full year, with his first
day on the job October 11, 2019. Most
recently, she appointed him as interim
Carroll County E-911 Director in the
wake of the simultaneous “resign
ations” of E-911 Director Trisha Orr
and E-911 Operations Manager Tyler
Shadix (indicated by a statement issued
by Carroll County public relations
approxinately one month ago.)
Opening with a bit of humor,
Warden Richards asked the roughly 40
members in attendance (approximately
half were CoVID masked) if they
knew the difference between a prison
and a jail, poking friendly fun with
club member (and past club president)
Sheriff Terry Langley, likening the
sheriff”s jail to a hotel.
Richards went on to say that despite
being a county agency, he houses state
inmates, all of whom are already con
victed, and none coming from Carroll
County. In fact, the warden said no
See WARDEN RICHARDS page 4
Sullivan
See FRAUD page 12
University of West Georgia announces
seven new trustees to the board
