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Lake Oconee News
Your official newspaper serving Greene, Morgan and Putnam counties in Georgia’s Lake Country \ wum.LakeOconeeNews.us
FRIDAY DECEMBER 112015
VOL. 17
75 CENTS
GINGERBREAD
WORKSHOP
HELD AT MMCC
community » B2
TIGERS WIN
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HOLIDAY TOUR
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Calendar B5
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Community B1
Obituaries A6
Opinions A4
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Published by
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GREENE COUNTY
UPSA wants to collaborate with L0A
GCSS offering stipend for collaboration between GES, CMS, UPSA
Jackie Gutknecht
jackie@lakeoconeenews.us
Union Point STEaM Academy
Governance Board Chairman Steve
Kilgore said he wants to be collab
orating with Lake Oconee Academy
after the Georgia Milestones Assess
ment results were released.
UPSA Principal Dr. Delmon
Moore said the school system has
gotten together and started a col
laborative effort between teachers
at UPSA, Greensboro Elementary
School and Carson Middle School.
The system realized, because the
schools’ small staff sizes, teachers do
not have anyone within their school
building teaching the same subject
to bounce ideas off of during lesson
planning. A monetary stipend will
be issued to participating teachers.
The teachers will collaborate two
times per month over a three month
period starting in January, Rotonya
Rhodes, assistant superintendent,
said in an email Tuesday afternoon.
She said the school system is cur-
SEE UPSA » A9
UPSA Principal
Dr. Delmon
Moore explains
the school's
plan to improve
its Georgia
Milestones
Assessment
results in the
upcoming year.
Jackie
Cutknecht/Staff
Contributed
Greensboro's 30-foot Christmas tree is lit for the holiday season. See page B1 for more photos of the
tree lighting event.
Greensboro gets in holiday spirit
Kendrick Ward
Greensboro Main Street
The weather was perfect,
and the spirits were high as the
Greensboro community gathered
together to light the Community
Christmas Tree, officially kicking
off the holiday season.
Friday, Dec. 4, Santa and his elves
arrived in Downtown Greensboro
on a big red tractor driven by Ray
Foster. He was surrounded by a
parade of children who were eager
to visit with him and to give him
their list. Little Scholars Academy
kicked off the evening by perform
ing holiday favorites. The cute little
Angels performed holiday favor
ites to a large crowd.
Area choirs provided live music
for the evening as young and old
took part in the singing of Christ
mas carols.
After Little Scholars Academy
performed, Pete Nance Boys &
Girls Club sang some holiday favor
ites that they will present to their
parents this month. Next, Mayor
Glenn Wright welcomed everyone
to Greensboro, thanked the Webb
Family for donating the beautiful
tree and did the famous “Christ
mas Countdown” to light the big
tree. The Countdown began, and
the Cypress was lit with hundreds
of old-fashioned red, green, and
white lights as the crowd applaud
ed!
The ladies of the Eatonton
Harmonettes took the stage and
wowed the audience as they sang
“O-Holy Night” as the tree was
being lit. Up next was a collection
of dancers from the Southern
Spice Dance Academy. These tiny
dancers pranced on the stage to
“Ruldolph the Red Nose Raindeer”
and other holiday tunes.
By far, the most popular visitor
to downtown Greensboro was
none other than Santa Claus
himself! Children lined up to
visit Santa as he received guests in
Santa’s Workshop in Downtown
Greensboro. Santa graciously took
Christmas lists and heard holiday
wishes from both young and old.
SEE TREE » A2
On Thursday, Dec. 3, some
of the biggest voices in Morgan
County education traveled to
Gwinnett Technical College to
sit in on the Technical College
System of Georgia’s State
Board meeting. Three school
systems were awarded grants
to build College and Career
Academies - and among them
was Morgan County Charter
School System.
“We are committed to pro
viding our community with
the best opportunities through
a College and Career Academy
for all students,” said Morgan
County School System Super
intendent Dr. James Woodard.
“Our vision is that our high
school/ middle school campus
will become a “move on when
ready campus” where students
will graduate receiving their
high school diploma and at the
same time be awarded college
credits, technical certificates,
industry certificates and
where appropriate associate
degrees.”
After months of hard work
and a collaborative efforts,
the Morgan County team the
SEE CCA » A9
MORGAN COUNTY
Morgan gets
$ 3.3 million
grant to
open CCA
Leila Scoggins
leila@lakeoconeenews.us
PUTNAM COUNTY
GREENE COUNTY
Man pulls pistol on officer during
downtown Eatonton traffic stop
Taser, eight officers needed
to subdue combative passenger
Lynn Hobbs
lynn@lakeoconeenews.us
It took eight grown men to take a con
victed felon into custody after he started
to pull a gun on an Eatonton police officer,
and then fought with an unusual amount of
strength during attempts to take him down.
Eatonton Police Officer Matthew Munger
turned on his blue lights and attempted
what he thought was a routine traffic stop
for failure to maintain lane and no seat belt
around 9:40 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 2. But
the green Isuzu Rodeo continued traveling
for several blocks along West Marion Street
in downtown Eatonton with “the passenger
moving around a lot within the vehicle,” ac-
SEE PISTOL » A8
Contributed
A Jiminez semi-automatic 9 mm pistol, cash
totaling more than $2,000, marijuana and
cocaine — along with other items — were
confiscated by Eatonton Police officers after a
traffic stop turned into a fight between a gun-
wielding Eatonton man and multiple officers.
Union Point's 911
Problem critical
Mark Engel
news@lakeoconeenews.us
“Gun Shots fired at 123 Main Street.”
That’s about all that Union Point Police
Chief Edward Sanders says his officers will
hear from Greene County 911, if a dispute
between the county and the City of Union
Point isn’t resolved by Tuesday, December
15.
He said not only would there be no fol
low-up information from the county, but
city police will not be able to communicate
with each other because their access to the
county radio system would be shut off.
The Union Point City Council Tuesday
night, after almost an hour of discussion
with their attorney in executive session,
approved a temporary agreement that they
will propose to the Greene County Com
mission, hoping it will avoid this serious
scenario from playing out next week.
SEE 911 » A9
