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About The Oglethorpe echo. (Crawford, Ga.) 1874-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 2, 2025)
The Oglethorpe Echo Volume 152, Number 1 October 2, 2025 ■ Oglethorpe County, Georgia $1 From Dawgs to hogs SUBMITTED PHOTO Smithonia's Ryne Rankin, owner and operator of Boars N' Broads, shows a 391.6-pound feral hog that he helped kill in the eastern part of Oglethorpe County on Sept. 1. Boars N' Broads uses dogs to hunt and harvest feral pigs. 5. blns Former UGA football player builds business bagging feral pigs By Jacob Harper The Oglethorpe Echo Ryne Rankin said he knew the hunt that day was going to be one for the books, and he was right. He and his team took down a 391.6-pound hog be tween Lexington and Rayle on Sept. 1. Business partner Carter Shultz said the size of the hog was impressive, but catching any size feral pig is just as riv eting. “It is always awesome to catch a hog like that,” he said. “Everybody talks about catching the true giant, and it’s nice to have something to show for it. But honestly, I’m just as happy when our dogs do the hard work to find even a 100-pounder.” This wasn’t a one-time event for Rankin. He’s made a business hunting feral pigs. Rankin, who lives in Smithonia, started his hog-hunting business, Boars N’ Broads, during the pandemic. In 2020, Rankin built a team of hunt ers who specialize in hunting and cap turing wild hogs. Along with Rankin, 660lb/300kg SUBMITTED PHOTO A scale shows the final weight of the hog that the Boars N‘ Broads team took down on Sept. 1. the Boar’s N’ Broads team includes Dave Williams, Daniel Bradberry, Trae Lovin, Hunter Haynes and Hunt er Bright. He has also crafted a social me dia presence that highlights Boars N’ Broads online. The platform has grown exponentially across social media chan nels, including TikTok and Instagram. “At first, it started as a joke,” Rankin said. “We were just posting videos to OCHS grad rate above state level Staff Report Oglethorpe County High School’s graduation rate for the class of 2025 was 91.7%, lower than last year’s 95.5%, but the most recent class included students at the Foothills Regional High School, which is for stu dents who are at-risk of dropping out of a traditional high school. “We were a little nervous, as for the first time this past year, students who attended Foothills counted for us based on the new law that passed,” Superintendent Bev erley Levine wrote in an email to the Board of Education and provided to The Oglethorpe Echo. “In the past, students who enrolled in the Foothills program were withdrawn and became full-time Foothills students.” Oglethorpe Coun ¬ AREA RATES ■ Oconee: 99.7% ■ Madison: 93.9% ■ Oglethorpe: 91.7% ■ Greene: 88.8% ■ Wilkes: 87.1% ■ Elbert: 86.5% ■ Clarke: 81.9% Hunting HOGS To learn more about Boars N‘ Broads, go to boarsnbroads. com, or follow them on Insta gram (@boarsnbroads), Face- book (Boars N‘ Broads) and on TikTok (@boarsnbroadsxi). make people laugh. Then it took off.” Boars N’ Broads has amassed more than 150,000 followers on Facebook, 55,000 followers on Instagram and 10,000 followers on TikTok. The team has even built a merchandise line, oper ated hunts with brand sponsorships and travels all over the country, all for the thrill of the hunt. Rankin said the hunting strategy re lies on two types of hunting dogs. “You hear what we call the bay dogs light up first,” Rankin said. “Then you send in the catch dogs, usually pit bulls or mixes, and that’s when you know that it is time.” See HOGS, Page 2 County budget on agenda for commission meeting County budget rises each year The overall Oglethorpe County budget has increased 32% from 2020 to 2025 10 2M 9.6M 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 7.9M 7.8M_ Chart The Oglethorpe Echo • So Datawrapper By Sophia Eppley The Oglethorpe Echo Oglethorpe County usually allocates the majority of its budget to public safety, specif ically to the Sheriff’s Office, jail and emer gency medical services (EMS). The FY26 budget, which is being final ized and will be on the agenda for the Board of Commissioners at their Oct. 6 meeting (6 p.m.), follows the same pattern. The 2026 budget is projected to increase about 9% from FY25’s $10.22 million bud get, county administrator Jason Lewis said, which would mean approximately $11.14 million. The commission also plans to move the millage rate to the rollback rate at the meeting, Commission Chair Jay Paul said. Since 2020, the Sheriff’s Office, jail and EMS have accounted for more than a third of the county’s total expenditures in the an nual budget. In 2022, funding for these pub lic safety areas increased, making up 45% of the budget. “Around 70% of each department’s bud get is spent directly on the employee,” Lew is said. “It’s largely influenced by the amount of employees that the department has.” Public safety tends to get the most money because it has the most employees and is al ways open. Public works was the fifth-high- est funded department in 2025, behind the Sheriff’s Office, EMS, the jail and the com missioner’s office. “Any of your emergency services, if you think about it, they’re 24/7 (and) 365,” Paul See BUDGET, Page 2 Index News 2,3,5,6,7 Obituaries 3 Opinion 4 Classifieds 9 Calendar 10 Legals 11,12 Sheriff's Report 12 Sports 13,14 Classic RIDE David Lowe's 1965 Fo Mustang named 'Little Blue" was one of many vehicles at the Firefly Cruise- in in Lexington on Sunday. ... Page 6 ty’s graduation rate remained higher than the state av erage of 87.2%, an increase from the prior year, when it was 85.4%, according to data released by the Geor gia Department of Education on Monday. The state’s graduation rate has increased by 19.8 percentage points since 2011. “We are very pleased with our graduation rate,” Levine wrote in an email. “We are particularly proud of our five-year grad rate, which is 96%. This means students are persevering and willing to stay to get then- high school diploma.” Among neighboring counties, Elbert’s gradua tion rate was 86.5%, Greene was 88.8%, Wilkes was 87.1%, Clarke was 81.9%, Oconee was 99.7% and Madison was 93.9%. This year’s percentage for OCHS was based on 154 graduating students out of a class of 168. “We attribute the strong graduation rates to a sys tem-wide approach that begins in pre-kindergarten,” Levine wrote. GOING ALL OUT EMMA PETERSON/THE OGLETHORPE ECHO Oglethorpe County cheerleaders Lili Holt (left) and Nevaeh Calhoun show their exuberance with a high-flying chest bump before the Patriots' football game against Athens Academy last Friday night. Unfortu nately for OCHS, the Spartans knocked off the Patriots 43-21, sending them to their third consecutive loss. The OCHS football team is off this week and will host Rabun County on Oct. 10. — For more sports, see Pages 13-14 To start your subscription or to donate to The Oglethorpe Echo, see Page 2 Pasture 0 Real Estate Southern Select Properties HUNTING PROPERTIES 67 REALTREE
