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County Ledger (^our Hometown Source of Cocal flews Hometown Newspaper of James and Joby Dearing Volume XXIV - Number 10 Leesburg, Georgia -- October 18,2001 Fifty Cents fybm oj LEESBURG FIRE Ell ► STATIQfo ■~&*c ' -;'v> County Awards Bid For Courthouse Renovation Lee County officials held a ground breaking ceremony for the new fire station that is being built in Leesburg. The station should be open in the summer of 2002. Commissioner Billy Mathis stated that the new station would be named the “Charles Hardison/Leesburg Fire and EMS Station”. Pictured on the front row is Fire Chief Charles Hardison. On the back row are Commissioners Jackie McCorkle, Billy Mathis, Lewis Harris and Eddie Hinman. Lee County Board of Commis sioners accepted a bid from McDonald Contracting from Al bany for the renovation of the county courthouse. McDonald Contracting submitted the low bid of $376,805. However, the county commissioners will review pro posed changes to the original bids that may reduce the cost of the projects. Some of the possible changes include a different ceiling tile, metal door facing and a dif ferent glass in the proposed walls in the main lobby. The renovation project includes building a ramp on the north side of the building for handicap acces sibility, converting the existing public restrooms on the first floor into handicap accessible, building new public handicap accessible restrooms in the magistrate court area, repointing the exterior bricks to avoid water penetration, reglazing all windows, repainting the entire interior and exterior paintable surfaces, removing the entire old jail area and construct ing a new first floor courtroom in its place and upgrading the build ing to current life/safety and fire codes and adding a metal canopy between the courthouse and the administration building. Jerome Brown representing Golden Triangle R C & D Coun cil explained the benefits of membership in that organization to the commissioners. Annual membership dues for the county would be $400 and the county would have two members on the board of directors. Golden Tri angle R C & D is currently work ing with nine counties in the lo cal area with plans to expand to 14 counties. Mr. Brown high lighted several of the projects that his agency could assist the county with including dry hydrants pro gram, rural road projects and stripping road project. Golden Triangle provides technical assis tance to the local government bodies. Pamela Harris, a concerned citi zen, spoke to the commissioners concerning the Open meeting Act and the present fire station in the Smithville-Chokee District. Mrs. Harris questioned the length of time that the commis sioners were in executive session. Billy Mathis, Commission Chair man, told her that the commis sion would have their executive session at the end of the meeting for the convenience of the citi zens attending the meeting. Mrs. Harris requested that the commission look at funding sala ries of firemen to man the fire sta tions in the Smithville-Chokee District. Chairman Mathis ex plained that the commission plan to budget new fire and E.M.S. fa cilities for every district. The Palmyra and Century districts have facilities. Plans are for Lees burg and Redbone district to be gin construction on new facili ties. A new station is planned next year for Smithville. Commissioner Jackie McCorkle stressed the need for trained volunteer firefighters in the Smithville - Chokee District. He highlighted the efforts of the volunteers in other districts. ' l ' 1 Ml Hm * WO l i JrlMi II 1 ^*i. ■injl !i . •»i Colony Bank Holds Ribbon Cutting At New Facility Ronnie L. Middlebrooks, City President of Colony Bank Lee, proudly cut the grand opening ribbon on October 4,2001 to wel come the public to the newest Colony Bank full-service facility. Located at 2609 Ledo Road, Colony Bank officially opened to the public on Monday. August 13, 2001. Due to continuing growth in Lee County, Colony Bank felt it was necessary to offer its custom ers two full service branches. The staff would like to invite ev eryone to come in and visit our beautiful new branch. Lobby hours at the new branch will be Mon-Fri from 9-5. Drive through hours will be extended until 6 pm Mon-Thurs., 7 pm on Fri. and Saturday 9-1. Doherty Duggan zrRouse Insurors Home • Auto • Business • Life/Health P.O.Box 71628 (912) 888-2040 Albany, GA 31708-1628 800-628-2040 2301 Dawson Road (31707) Fax (912) 435-3036 www.ddrins.com High School Homecoming Parade Thursday November 1 Game Friday November 2 Kathy Ludwig Promoted To Branch Manager Luke Flatt. President and CEO of Regions Bank, South Georgia, announced the promotion of Kathy Ludwig to Banking Officer and Branch Manager of the Leesburg office. Ludwig joined the former First State Bank & Trust Company in 1997. Her banking experience includes customer call center su pervisor, deposit operations, branch customer service represen tative, Assistant Branch Manager and Retail lender . She recently served as Assistant Branch Man ager and Retail Lender at the Daw son Road Office in Albany. Ludwig is a member of the First Assembly of God Church, the Lee County Chamber of Commerce, Kathy Ludwig the Albany Civitans and the Lee County Athletic Booster. BUFFALO ROCK Veterans Appreciation Day 10:00 a.m. October 20 Sponsored by VFW Post 2785 315 Philema Road Giddens Named Firefighter Of The Year Albany Fire Department Captain Pete Giddens (right) was named the Albany Exchange Club’s firefighter of the year for the third time in his 23 year career. Captain Giddens was honored last Friday for attempting to save the life of Christopher L. Schafer, a Cairo man, last October. Mr. Schafer was accidently electrocuted while working. Presenting Giddens with the award is Exchangite Bobby Jones (left). Colony Bank continues to build on its reputation of providing ex cellent customer service with fast local decisions and friendly, cour teous personnel with a full range of products and services avail able. Among these are loan pro grams, investment services, inter net banking, mortgage services, a variety of savings and deposit accounts and safe deposit boxes. Colony Bank first came to the Lee County area five years ago with the supermarket branch in side Winn Dixie followed by a loan-processing center. The Lees burg full service facility opened in the fall of 1998. The tremen dous growth and demand of our customers necessitated an addi tional full service facility. Staff- Smithville Improvement Group will sponsor the Sixth Annual Chicken Pie Festival Saturday, October 27. Pictured are Charlene Usry, Zaida Poupard, Marinelle Hickman, Jennelle Larkins, Barbara Pines, Beverly Veal, and Smithville Mayor Jack Smith. Smithville *s Annual Chicken Pie Festival To Be Held October 27 ing at the Ledo Road branch in cludes: two loan officers, an ad ministrative assistant, customer service representatives, branch manager, Georgia First Mort gage originator, head teller and three full-time tellers. Colony Bank Lee posted as sets of $65.6 million, loans of $61.8 million and deposits of $50 million period ending 9/30/ 01. Colony Bankcorp, Inc. ser vices a fourteen county area in South Georgia through a net work of twenty offices located in Leesburg, Albany, Ashbum, Broxton, Chester, Cordele, Dou glas, Eastman, Fitzgerald, Moultrie, Pitts. Rochelle, Soperton, Sylvester, Tifton and Warner Robbins. The sixth annual Chicken Pie Festival will be held Saturday, October 27. The festival will start at 10:00 a.m. and end at 5:00 p.m. Activities include arts and crafts, horseshoe tournament, chicken pie contest, entertainment, children’s activities and entertainment. The Chicken Pie Cafe opens at 11:30, the chicken pie contest is at noon and the horseshoe tournament be gins at 10:30 a.m. The Chicken Pie Festival is spon sored by the Smithville Improve ment Group. It is held annually in Smithville on the last Saturday in October. From the nostalgic past comes memories of Smithville’s famed McAfee Hotel. Nationally known as the “chicken house”, it was a legend in its time. The hotel was a regular stop for the Central of Georgia Railroad for breakfast and dinner William Madison McAfee, who was a founder of the hotel before the Civil War, left a scrapbook with pictures and many stories about the hotel. The hotel burned in 1933. leaving behind memo ries of its crusty pies and an era of time dear to those who visited the famous McAfee House,