Newspaper Page Text
-v- CARROLL COUNTY, GE
Star News
CARROLL COUNTY, GEORGIA'S ONLY LOCALLY OWNED LOCALLY OPERATED NEWSPAPER
2020 Carroll County’s
The YEAR in top news stories
PPI//PM/ of the past year
V V V beginning page 10
NEWS REPORTING / NEWS RECAP / NEWS ANALYSIS
JANUARY 17, 2021 • VOLUME 27 NUMBER 1
www.starnewsgaonline.com
StarNews monthly traditional print publication /StarNews Online daily local news
StarNews 2021 publication dates
StarNews subscribers receive their print
copy each month through the United States
Post Office on the Saturday prior to
publication date.
If you do not receive your StarNews in a
timely manner for any of the dates listed
below, please contact Sue Horn, publisher at
suehorn.starnews@gmail.com
StarNews is the only locally owned
newspaper in Carroll County, GA, supported
by subscribers and local advertisers. If you
would like to support your local newspaper,
please send $20 (one year subcription price)
to: StarNews, PO Box 680, Carrollton, GA
30112. Publication dates for 2021 are:
Sunday January 17, 2021
Sunday, February 14, 2021
Sunday, March 14, 2021
Sunday, April 11,2021
Sunday, May 16, 2021
Sunday, June 13, 2021
Sunday, July 11, 2021
Sunday, August 8, 2021
Sunday, September 12, 2021
Sunday, October 10, 2021
Sunday, November 7, 2021
Sunday, December 12, 2021
Carroll County
CoVID-19 stats
120,119 total county population
• As of July 2, 2020:
741 total positive tests *
40 total deaths attributed to CoVID-19
• As of October 6, 2020:
2882 total positive tests *
70 total deaths attributed to CoVID-
• As of January 4, 2021:
5392 total positive tests *
97 total deaths attributed to CoVID-19
* Note: One person may have been
tested more than one time. Total
number of positive tests do not
necessarily correlate to total
number of persons tested.
Source: Georgia Department of Public Health
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Both of Georgia’s
U.S. Senate seats
go to Democrats
Democrat Raphael Warnock becomes first black
congressman to be elected in history of Georgia
4.4M+ vote in historic runoff
by Sue Horn
The Georgia Secretary of State has reported the results
of the Tuesday, January 5, 2021 Runoff Election. The
two hotly contested Congressional Georgia seats go to
both of the Democrat can
didates, unseating the two
Republican incubents.
The razor thin margins
echo the November presi
dential election in which
Democrat candidate and
See SENATE page 23
January 5, 2021
RUNOFF ELECTION RESULTS
for GEORGIA SENATE SEATS
Jon Ossoff (D) 50.57%
David Perdue (R) 49.43%
Raphael Warnock (D) 50.99%
Kelly Loefflor (R) 49.01 %
County commission asks voters to
approve newest
Tuesday, March 16th vote:
collections would begin April
1st continuing for six years
ceasing at end of March 2027
by Sue Horn
The Carroll County Board of
Commissioners asked the voters
of Carroll County to approve the
newest SPLOST with a unani
mous board vote during the regu
lar meeting held Tuesday, January
5,2021.
Item 8.3 was a resolution
requesting that the Board of
Elections and Registration call for
See NEWEST SPLOST page 17
$119M SPLOST
Longtime chamber
resident Daniel
ackson to retire
from press
release
Daniel Jackson,
president and
CEO of Carroll
Tomorrow and the
Carroll County
Chamber of
Commerce, has
announced that he
See RETIRE
page 17
,,IK V
Jackson
Carrollton begins new year
with new assistant city manager
Patrick Eidson was Rome, GA’s assistant city manager
by Brandon Kerr
Carrollton City Council and Mayor held its first meeting of
2021 on Tuesday, January 4th at the Public Safety Complex on
West Center Street in Carrollton. (The meeting was also available
online in real time.) Mayor Betty B. Cason called the meeting to
order at 6:00 p.m., followed shortly by the
customary standing and recitation for ‘The
Pledge of Allegiance” to the flag. An invoca
tion was led by Council member Jacqulene
Bridges where she thanked God for “brin
ging us out of 2020 into 2021” and prayed
for unity both in the community and the
world.
During mayor and council announce
ments, Mayor Cason announced that the
Carrollton Water Department was recently
Patrick Edison See CITY OF CARROLLTON page 3
Carroll County government
has healthy on-hand cash of
$28,356,499; representing a
51.02% “rainy day” reserve
185 days of operating cash on-hand
Other business includes tabling whether to continue to
allow Georgia driver services to rent from the county
by Brandon Kerr
The Carroll County Board of
Commissioners convened on
Tuesday the 5th for their
January 2021 meeting at the
Historic Court House on
Newnan Street in Carrollton. In
attendance were Chairman
Michelle Morgan, and five of
the six district commissioners:
Montrell McClendon, District
1; Clint Chance, District 2;
Tommy Lee, District 3; Ernie
Reynolds, District 5; and
George Chambers, District 6.
Steve Fuller, District 4, was
absent due to a death in the
family. The meeting opened
with the customary “Pledge of
See COMMISSION page 7
Continuing the expansion of broadband in rural Georgia
areas through reduced pole fees and reverse location auctions
Georgia Public Service Commission approves
lowering EMC pole fee to $1 to help spur
broadband expansion into unserved areas
Carroll EMC CEO Tim Martin: “This decision. . . creates a
pathway. . . to serve those unserved areas”
from press release
Efforts to provide broadband in unserved areas of Georgia took
another step forward following a Public Service Commission
(PSC) decision which determines the fee paid by cable companies
to attach wires and cable to electric membership cooperative
(EMC) utility poles.
During an administrative session in December, the commission
unanimously approved a motion requiring EMCs to lower the
pole attachment rate for new attachments in areas of the state that
are unserved by broadband to $1, per pole, per year, for six years.
This financial incentive, called the One Buck Deal, will be given
to any qualified broadband provider that will agree to deliver new
high-speed internet service in an area that is determined to be
“unserved” by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs
(DCA) Broadband Initiative Maps.
See REDUCED POLE FEES page 4
Federal Communications Commission hosts
location auctions to help 179,455 unserved homes/
businesses in Georgia gain broadband access
Carroll County to gain 4,668 locations; Haralson County 4,720;
Heard County 614; Coweta County 1,108; Douglas County 412
from press releases
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced
in December 2020 that an estimated 373,000 rural Georgians will
gain access to high-speed broadband through the Commission’s
“Rural Digital Opportunity Fund” Phase I reverse auction.
In Georgia, the auction allocated $326,454,112.20 in support to
expand broadband to 179,455 unserved homes and businesses
over the next 10 years. Nearly all locations in Georgia that were
eligible for the auction will be receiving access to broadband with
speeds of at least 100/20 Mbps, with an overwhelming majority
(85%) getting gigabit-speed broadband. The auction unleashed
robust competition that resulted in more locations being awarded
at less cost to Americans who pay into the FCC’s Universal
Service Fund.
For Carroll County, two companies won location bids: Charter
See REVERSE LOCATION AUCTIONS page 4
