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About The Oglethorpe echo. (Crawford, Ga.) 1874-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 9, 2025)
Page 2 THE OGLETHORPE Echo Thursday, October 9, 2025 SUBMITTED PHOTO This is the view from the top of the Oglethorpe Feed and Hardware Supply grain elevator facing east. The 125-foot structure can be seen from down the road and receives many comments from residents. Classroom to creations: Bridges finds success with floral business Grain elevator boosts efficiency at feed store By Makenna Reavis The Oglethorpe Echo The Sanders family, which has been running Oglethorpe Feed and Hardware Supply since 1998, intro duced a towering addition to their business this summer: a 125-foot- tall grain elevator. The system, which became oper ational in mid-July, cost an estimat ed $400,000-$500,000 to complete, but has since delivered promising results. “It’s done everything we wanted it to do,” Stewart Sanders said. Stewart runs the business with his father, Danny, and brother, Hud son, operating the only feed store in a county that ranks third in the state for agricultural products. The store cycles through up to 25,000 tons of feed a year, so the grain elevator was meant to im prove efficiency and allow the busi ness to expand its grain delivery op eration to new locations, they told The Oglethorpe Echo in July. Before installing the structure, unloading feed ingredients and mix ing them took 45 minutes to an hour. That’s since been reduced to 9-12 minutes, Stewart said. Loading trucks for deliveries is also quicker. The grain elevator has decreased loading time from 15 minutes to six minutes, and truck drivers can stay in their truck while feed is being loaded. With these decreased times, the Sanders said they can speed up and expand delivery range by get ting trucks on the road earlier in the day, allowing them to deliver to cat tle operations in Dahlonega, Cleve land, Sparta and several South Car olina locations. Beyond efficiency, the grain el evator is also more reliable and re duces waste by making spills easier for workers to recover. “When it’s faster and easier, things tend to get done,” Danny said. Danny said there’s also been pos itive community response, with many residents commenting on the installation and showing their sup port. “I think people like to see things going on in the county that contrib ute to the growth of what we’ve got going on here,” he said. As the family adjusts and ex pands their business with this new innovation, Danny hopes it will al low them to pursue new business opportunities. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to pick up new business as it comes along and go after some new business as well,” he said. “That will certainly help the bottom line.” LOCAL ROUNDUP Early voting for election starts at 8 a.m. Tuesday By Jacob Harper The Oglethorpe Echo What started as a contest in mid dle school has transformed into a successful business for Callie Bridges. Bridges, a senior at OCHS, began Callie’s Custom Designs in high school after competing in the Flo ral Design CDE through the Geor gia FFA. “I didn’t consider taking it any further until my freshman year of high school,” Bridges said, “I start ed doing homecoming flowers for my friends, which quickly turned into clients requesting flowers for other purposes.” Bridges, who recently won the Area 2 floral design competition, said her involvement in FFA and her agricultural education classes con tributed to her success as an entre preneur. Over the course of Bridges’ FFA career, she has competed and won four area floral design contests. She said her success in the competition can be attributed to her time in FFA. “In competitions, everything has to be balanced and symmetrical,” she said. “That has carried into how I design for my customers. I like my designs to look clean and tradition al.” Outside of holidays, Bridges ful fills nearly 10 full arrangements a month. However, during home- coming and prom season, Bridges, who was on the OCHS homecom ing court this fall, can fulfill nearly 25 orders per week. Bridges said sympathy flow ers are her most requested product. She provides casket sprays, stand ing sprays, flower baskets and water based arrangements for customers. Her flowers are sourced from Blossoms Wholesale in Athens. All of her business is run out of the shop in her home in Lexington. Jordan Paul, an agricultural edu cation teacher at OCHS, said Bridg es’ success is a direct result of her drive and professionalism. “Callie has always been driv en and detail oriented,” Paul said. “She has invested in her business — she bought a floral cooler this year, which was a huge step — and she treats every customer with respect. SUBMITTED PHOTO Callie Bridges works on a floral arrangement at her shop in her home in Lexington. Bridges has built a floral design business, which she named Callie's Custom Designs. People trust her because she genu inely cares.” Between her classes, entrepre neurial endeavors and FFA activi ties, Bridges’ certainly stays busy. But, she said she wouldn’t have it any other way. After graduation, Bridges plans on attending the Uni ¬ versity of Georgia to pursue a de gree in agricultural business or mar keting. “It is a lot to juggle,” she said. “But I love it. Flowers give me a way to be creative and make people happy. That’s what makes it worth it.” DESIGNING FLOWERS Follow Callie's Custom Designs on Instagram @calliebridges_custom_designs. For information or a quote on an arrangement, call 706-215-7965 or email cbridgescustomdesigns@gmail.com. Staff Report Advance voting for this year’s general election begins at 8 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 14 at the Oglethor pe County Board of Elections at 41 Fairground Road. Advance voting will be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and on two Saturdays: Oct. 18 and 25 prior to the general election on Nov. 4. The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the county’s three precincts on Election Day. For more details, go to oglethor- |pecountyga.gov/elections| FOL holds book sale at library The Friends of Oglethorpe Coun ty Library will host a book sale starting Oct. 17 and continuing through Nov. 5. Instead of putting out hundreds of books for four days, the FOL decid ed to have four tables full of books for three weeks. Prices are $1 for hardback and 25-50 cents for paperbacks. New books will be added every Monday and a $5 bag sale will be held every Saturday. The last three days of the sale — Nov. 3-5 — will also be $5 bag days. The book sale will be open during regular library hours: from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Wednes day, Thursday and Friday; from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Saturday. All proceeds benefit the library. Check out sale details on Facebook and at|oglethorpefol.org| Hunting for local news?! 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