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Vol. 126 Issue No. 26
Legal
PCHS 2011-
2012 Class
Schedules/
Open House
faculty
'i ch County High School
o year of teaching and
ts in grades 9 -12 will
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County High School Medio Center from
8:®} a.m. -12:00 pm. Thursday, July
28,2011. In the evening, parents and
students are invited to Open House to
meet the teachers from
4:00- 7:00 p,m.
David Ragan in
Winner’s Circle
at the Coke Zero
400 at Daytona
’V
NASCAR DRIVER DAVID
RAGAN will be in Perry Saturday
July 23rd as part of David Ragan
Ford’s Wrestling N Racing promo¬
tion. Ragan, winner of the Coke Zero
400 at Daytona, will be displaying
his new Daytona 400 trophy at the
dealership as well as inviting race
fans to get in-line for an autograph.
He is scheduled to meet with fans at
11 AM, do a Q&A later that morning
with WDEN Morning Show person¬
ality Laura Starling, and be part of a
drawing sometime after I PM to give
away a David Ragan Cap plus (2)
tickets to 12 lucky winners to see him
race Saturday night at 441 Speedway
in Dublin.
The new dealership was too busy
to have a Grand Opening back in
September, but they are doing every¬
thing but calling this their Grand
Opening. The huge service area is
being emptied out to make room for
bleachers and a wrestling arena. Get
there early for a Extreme Autograph
session with wrestling stars like; Road
Dogg, Barbarian, Ricky Morton. C.
W. Anderson. Lodi, Chris Hambrick,
Georgia South, plus Rick Flair's son
Reid Flair.
David Ragan drives for Roush
Fenway, and the Roush rcp(s) will be
on-hand with a special display of their
high performance Roush Mustangs.
In addition, David Ragan's Shriner
Chopper will be there all week along
with David's 2009 Cup Car, spe¬
cial guests, and truck loads of racing
memorabilia.
Live music will be provided by
the Vespers Blue Grass Band from
Nashville.
Plus buckets of ice coW Coca-Cola.
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Peach County's « Newspaper
Organ For Peach County ; C/fy of Fort Valley and City Of Byron
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BOE Taps Home-Grown School Chief
Joe Ann Denning Is Unanimous Choice
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JotTXnn Dinning, the new approved Superintendent of the Peach County Clark. Public Photo Schools. by The Peach Kulkosky CounffiS&cJfd
of Education unanimously her to succeed Dr. Susan Victor
Signs, But No Life at
Coach Works Plant
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TATSA building (former Wanderlodge Coach Works building)
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By Victor Kulkosky
News Editor
Ever since the Blue Bird Coach
Works plant closed. Peach County
has been waiting for the doors to
open again. For years, the plant pro¬
duced the Wanderlodge, a luxurious
motor home favored by entertainers.
Wanderlodges also housed mobile
medical imaging services.
In an effort to consolidate. Blue
Bird sold the Wanderlodge division,
which subsequent owners failed to
keep going.
Hopes rose last year when TATSA. a
bus manufacturer based in Argentina,
bought the Coach Works building
and its remaining equipment. TATSA
builds a line erf buses for mass tran-
sit, with customers in South America,
Europe and Asia, so the Wanderlodge
plant was an ideal Find for a com¬
pany wanting to break in to the big
North American market. The plant is
already set up to build similar prod¬
ucts. and the area has plenty of poten¬
tial workers with the right skills.
Unfortunately for Peach County and
TATSA, the market isn't friendly. The
US. economic downturn and slow
recovery left cities, counties and tran¬
sit authorities without much money
for major new purchases So the plant
opening, and the jobs that go with it,
are on hold.
Signs bearing the TATSA logo have
been placed on the building, but a
recent visit to the site found doors
locked and no lights on or any sign
that anyone was in the building. A
paper sign in a window near the old
service entrance said the company is
not taking job applications now. A
look through a grated window showed
the vast factory floor in good condi¬
tion but empty with no equipment
visible.
According to Mayor John St umbo,
who keeps in touch with TATSA offi¬
cials. the company is waiting for better
(Continued to page 3)
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Youngblood USA Powerlifting
Head Coach in Athens, Greece
y W-‘
TEAM USA visits Athens, Greece to participate in the 2011
Special Olympics World Games
On June 17, 2011, TEAM USA
began its long journey for Athens,
Greece and the 2011 Special Olympics
World Games. The long hard work
began about year and half earlier with
the athletes and coaches picked for
the games. Once the head coaches
were picked the coaching staff had
to be put in place. Once the staff was
complete, each coach began working
with athletes from around the USA to
make sure they were training for the
event they would take part in Athens,
Greece. The coaches had to make
contact with the athlete’s local coaches
monthly to follow up on the training.
TEAM USA came together in March
2011 at San Diego State University for
a one week training camp. Now back
to June 17 and time to begin the trip.
1 had the opportunity to pick a great
group of coaches to work with 16
athletes from 14 states. Mark Keesee
from GA, Mike Younie from 1L, and
Nicole Knighi from MT made up the
coaching staff. The biggest part erf the
team was the Sports Manager Chaka
Sutton from CO and Assistant Sports
Manager John Lair from KS. The
coaching team had the responsibility
for the 16 member powerlifting team
24 hours a day taking care erf all needs
that came up. On June 18the and 19th
TEAM USA met in Baltimore, MD for
July so, 2011
By Victor Kulkosky
News Editor
_
“It's my time. I felt we could bring
back the pride we had in the sys¬
tem," Joe Ann Denning said in a
candidate forum earlier this month,
explaining why she chose to apply
for Superintendent of Schools after a
24-year career in Peach County.
At a called meeting last Thursday,
the Peach County Board of Education
agreed and unanimously chose
Denning to succeed the retired Dr.
Susan Clark. Board member Robert
Hammack made the motion to hire her
as the new Superintendent of Schools,
to begin the following day, Friday, July
15, at an annual salary of $140,000,
including benefit. Without further
debate, the board approved the motion
by a unanimous 5-0 vote. The vote
followed a closed session that lasted
about three and a half hours.
The BOE chose Denning over two
other finalists, Dr. Dennis Carpenter.
Deputy Superintendent of Operations
for the Newton County Schools;
and Dr. Christie Johnson. Assistant
Superintendent of Administration
and Student Services for the Carroll
County Schools.
“I want to publicly thank the board
for this vote of confidence in me,”
(Continued to page 3)
a team send off for Athens, Greece.
The team was scheduled to leave on
the 19th at 8:00 p.m. but mechani¬
cal problems delayed the flight until
LOO a.m. Monday morning. A pan
for the plane had to be flown in from
of all places Atlanta, GA. All travel
arrangements were handled by the
Department of Defense and they did
a great job in taking care of TEAM
USA. Once the flight left Baltimore
it was a smooth four hour flight to
Shannon, Ireland and six hours from
Ireland to Rodos, Greece. In Rodos
the athletes began getting acclimated
to the time change and began training.
Each morning coach Youngblood and
Younie took two athletes that need to
drop weight out for a 6 a.m. jog for
about 45 minutes. After breakfast the
remaining team members would take
a 30 minute bus drive to the training
facility to work on the three lifts that
would take place in Athens, Greece.
During the time in Rodos. the athletes
were taken to different sites around
the Island and took part in the torch
ceremony. On June 23rd, TEAM USA
and several other countries began a
long ferry ride from Rodos to Athens,
Greece. The trip was to take between
12-14 hours but turned into an i8 hour
(Continued to page 5)