~ »i\ m\ vy *_«_ \_ vy ty i v i i ^
StarNews
CARROLL COUNTY, GEORGIA'S ONLY LOCALLY OWNED / LOCALLY OPERATED NEWSPAPER
t
Christmas Messages 2021
Inspirational messages of the season from area
pastors and spiritual leaders - see beginning Page 9
NEWS REPORTING / NEWS RECAP / NEWS ANALYSIS
DECEMBER 12, 2021 • VOLUME 27 NUMBER 12
StarNews monthly traditional print publication / StarNews Online daily local news
www.starnewsgaonline.com
l Tund
SPONSORS
- see beginning Page 32
Barnes Store
CR&I Insurance
Hightower Family Funeral Homes
John Thornton Cadillac Buick GMC
Jordan Truck Sales
Marsh & McLennan Agency
02 Plus
ProSource Utility Contractors
Security Solutions
Carroll County Soup Kitchen works at closing
the gap on hunger with an all-volunteer staff:
more helping hands this holiday would be appreciated
by Wayne J. Reynolds
According to feedingamerica.org, 1,279,310
people are lacing hunger in Georgia, which is one
in eight. This sobering statistic indicates you
probably have a friend or neighbor who may be
hungry on a daily basis.
For three days a week year round, volunteers at
The Carroll County Soup Kitchen, Inc, work to
address the problem of hunger in Carroll County.
The Soup Kitchen is all-volunteer: no one is paid.
During the recent month of October, they served
1,802 hot meals, an increase of 23 meals over
September. The energetic volunteers delivered
453 sacks of nutrition - and within each sack were
4 meals - for a total of 1812 meals. They picked
up 18,502 pounds of bread products which
included breakfast items and sweets, and distrib
uted it to 17 other giving organizations throughout
West Georgia and East Alabama.
The Soup Kitchen began in 1982 as an out
reach program of St. Margaret’s Episcopal
See ALL-VOLUNTEER page 3
Carroll Tomorrow’s
small business incubator
building and property
sold to a Carrollton-
based private business
from press release
Carroll Tomorrow, a private/public
economic development agency
(founded 2001) announced Nov. 3,
2021, it finalized the sale of Burson
Center building (365,904 sq. ft.) and
property (8.4 acres) to Carrollton-
based business Crescent Kayaks. Sale
price was not disclosed. According to
county records for that address: 2021 Carroll County Soup Kitchen volunteers are shown above steadily handing out large
valuation at $ 1,064,250. prepared bags of food on a recent Wednesday. Due to CoVID, recipients stay in their vehicles
In 2004, the property and building and bags are handed to them. Photo by Wayne J. Reynolds
that became The Burson Center was
donated to Carroll Tomorrow by owner Southwire acquires Alpharetta software company: OBI Partners
and area physician Dr. John Burson. 11 1 *
The center was a business incubator “OBI will serve as a foundational element for development of digital services beyond utility”
and resource center, assisting the start from press release unique suite of advanced analytics and modules
up of approximately 100 businesses in Southwire announced the acquisition of OBI designed to extract, aggregate and optimize elec-
seventeen years. Partners, Inc. of Alpharetta, Georgia - a digital trical grid data into intelligent information for util-
Crescent Kayaks is owned by James solutions provider focused on electric utilities to ity operators and managers. OBI will serve as a
Derbecker and is currently located at enhance digital services, provide utility solutions foundational element for the development of digi-
205 Industrial Court, Carrollton, was and accelerate innovation. OBI is recognized for tal services beyond utility at Southwire.
founded in 2009. its portfolio of software-as-a-service (SaaS) and See SOUTHWIRE page 21
2020 Census data:
County commission
district lines adjust
County population officially at 119,148
Six commission districts to remain as equal as
possible: 19,858 residents, or so, per district
See proposed commission map page 38
by Janice Daneil
The Carroll County Board of
Commissioners met for a work session on
Thursday, December 2, 2021. All commis
sioners were present with the exception of
District 3 Commissioner Tommy Lee.
Numerous items of business were dis
cussed to be grouped into a “consent
agenda” to be considered for a single vote
See COMMISSION page 38
Phase I of broadband
project begins with
Carroll EMC customers
Crossbeam to assist with 800 miles of
fiber broadband over next 2-3 years
from pi-ess release
In June 2020, Carroll EMC and
SyncGlobal of Bremen received a grant
from the USDA’s Broadband Reconnect
Program to bring broadband to rural areas
in West Georgia and East Alabama. Along
with capital investments and other actions,
this project has progressed on schedule.
Most recently, SyncGlobal created a new
residential broadband company,
Crossbeam, and will begin constmction of
the mral fiber network in West Georgia.
The first phase of the residential project
unites SyncGlobal/Crossbeam with Carroll
EMC to deliver fiber broadband to Carroll
EMC members. Phase 1 of this project is a
24- to 36-month network buildout totaling
more than 800 route miles of fiber. When
complete, Phase 1 will make high-speed
broadband available to nearly 10,000 loca
tions across 200 square miles in parts of
See BROADBAND page 23
© DON’T MISS AN ISSUE!
READ DIGITAL MONTHLY
iSSUU PRINT EDITIONS on
www.starnewsgaonline.com
LIKE US at
facebook.com/
StarNewsGaOnline
PINTEREST
Sherryreynolds.StarNews
FOLLOW US on TWITTER
@starnewswga
contact us at:
suehorn.starnews@gmail.com
waynereynolds.starnews@ gmail.com
