Newspaper Page Text
Page 2C, The Lee County Ledger, Wednesday, December 20,2023
PUBLIC NOTICE
lee county The offices of the Lee County Board
ufe works we" twe 0 f Co m in i s s i o R c rs will be closed Mon
day, December 25,2023 and Tuesday, December
26,2023 in observance of Christmas. County
offices will reopen for regular business hours on
Wednesday, December 27,2023. Residential
garbage collection services will not run on Monday,
December 25,2023, but will be delayed by one day
for the remainder of the week.
Submitted Photo
Lee County Midde
School West
students, faculty,
and staff recently
collected 9,358
canned goods and
nonperishable items
for the Leesburg
Methodist Church
Food Pantry! We filled
up an entire trailer
plus three truck beds!
We want to give a
shout-out to Team
Extreme and Team
Impact for being the
teams that collected
the most! Thank you
to everyone who
contributed to make
this food drive a huge
success!
Holiday Travel Hit Record Numbers
for Christmas and New Year’s
HAPPY HOLIDAYS
FROM
GEORGIA’S OWN
CREDIT UNION
U
l
T
georgiasown.org
Federally
Insured by NCUA
AAA projects a re-
cord-setting 3.6 million
Georgians will travel
50 miles or more during
the upcoming year-end
holiday travel period*,
spanning from Decem
ber 23rd to January 1st.
The Auto Club Group
expects a little over
99,000 (2.8%) more
Georgia travelers than
last year.
“AAA has seen steady
year-over-year growth
in travel demand,
culminating with what
is expected to be the
busiest year-end holiday
travel season on record
in Georgia, and the sec
ond-busiest nationwide,”
said Debbie Haas, Vice
President of Travel for
AAA - The Auto Club
Group. “Despite various
inflationary pressures,
Americans are still will
ing to budget for travel.
With a record number
of travelers, the roads,
airports, and cruise lines
will be more crowded
than normal. So finalize
your travel plans now,
anticipate longer lines,
and give yourself extra
time to get to your desti
nation.”
AAA expects road
travel to reach an all-
time high. More than 3.3
million Georgians will
drive to their holiday
destinations, an increase
of 1 million compared
to 2022. As 2023 comes
to a close, drivers can
expect to pay about the
same or less for a gallon
of gas than they did last
holiday season, when
the Georgia average on
Christmas Day and New
Year’s Day was $2.70
and $2.76, respectively.
Air Travel Soars to
New Record Highs
Nationwide
Airports are expected
to be the busiest they’ve
ever been throughout
the Christmas and New
Year’s travel period. Na
tionally, AAA projects
7.5 million air travelers.
That’s 200,000 more
than the previous record
set in 2019. Meanwhile,
nearly 193,890 Geor
gians are forecast to
take a commercial flight,
which is 6,950 more
than last year.
Average ticket prices
are slightly lower than
last year. According
to AAA booking data,
the average price for
a roundtrip ticket to
Orlando this holiday
season is $613, down
from $735 last year.
“Seemingly every year
around this time we hear
about winter weather
that causes widespread
cancellations or delays,”
Haas continued. “That’s
another reason why we
encourage travelers to
get travel insurance,
which offers protection
for covered expenses
associated with flight
cancellations, lost
luggage, and on flights
with delays of as little as
three hours.”
The number of peo
ple traveling by other
modes, like bus, train,
and cruise, is projected
to surpass 2019. AAA
expects more than 4 mil
lion Americans will take
alternative transporta
tion over Christmas and
New Year’s compared
to 3.66 million in 2022
and 3.89 million in 2019.
Demand for cruises has
skyrocketed post-pan
demic, and the industry
is now preparing for the
wave of bookings that
traditionally happens at
the start of the new year.