Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 2023
THE JACKSON HERALD
PAGE 3A
MedLink Georgia has announced the remodeling and opening of its new
healthcare center in Commerce, located at 611 Hospital Road. It also celebrat
ed the launch of its new mobile health clinic. To commemorate this milestone,
Jackson County Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on
June 28.
Ribbon cutting held for new MedLink
Commerce office and mobile clinic
1818 Brewing Company
submits brewing application
MedLink Georgia has an
nounced the remodeling and
opening of its new healthcare
center in Commerce, located
at 611 Hospital Road. It also
celebrated the launch of its
new mobile health clinic. To
commemorate this milestone,
Jackson County Chamber of
Commerce held a ribbon-cut-
ting ceremony on June 28.
“Our goal is to provide
high-quality, patient-centered
care that gives our patients the
opportunity to live their health
iest lives,” said Dave Ward,
MedLink Georgia CEO. “Our
mission is to promote health
and wellness in our communi
ty, and we are dedicated to pro
viding compassionate care to
all patients, regardless of their
By Stanley Dunlap
Georgia Recorder
Georgia conseivationists are
putting hunters on high alert
about the possibility of a dead
ly deer disease crossing the
state border after the discovery
of a case in north Florida.
The Georgia Wildlife Re
sources Division will cany out
an emergency response once
the state has its first detected
case of Chronic Wasting Dis
ease. It can take as long as two
years before an infected white
tailed deer shows zombie-like
symptoms of listlessness,
droopy head, severe weight
loss, repetitive walking and
drooling.
In June, a road-killed doe
found 38 miles from Georgia’s
southwest border made Florida
the 31st state to report a con-
filmed case of a condition that
has no treatment or vaccine and
always results in death of the
infected deer, moose and elk.
Public health and state wild
life officials are conducting a
public awareness campaign to
inform hunters and others how
to react if they see deer in an
area with the disease, which is
similar to the affliction known
as mad cow disease that spread
in the 1990s.
The strategy for Georgia’s
wildlife division is to establish
a 5-mile radius where there is
a confirmed presence of CWD,
with the boundaries shifting as
more infections are discovered.
An outbreak can present
more challenges for game hunt
ing inside the infected zones.
Hunters in the affected areas
are being recommended to get
their deer and buck carcasses
tested so the wildlife agency
knows the location of the out
break and what percentage of
animals are infected.
Scientists have not found
any evidence that deer wast
ing syndrome can spread to
humans or livestock under nor
mal conditions. However, the
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention warns against
eating venison and urges limit
ing contact with potentially in
fected animals until the extent
of the health risks are better
known.
Prior to eating deer meat,
hunters are also advised to
store their venison in the freez
er and wait to see if test results
come back negative. The pub
lic is also encouraged to report
roadkill deer and deer display
ing unusual behavior to their
local wildlife district office.
“There will be a response
plan that goes in place that
is geographic,” Wildfire Re
sources Division Director Ted
Will said at a recent Board of
Natural Resources meeting.
“It’s a 5-mile radius, intensive
sampling within one mile and
hunters are probably bringing
(deer) heads to (service drop
oft) sites. We’ve got it all laid
out.”
background or circumstances.
We believe that eveiy patient
deseives access to quality
healthcare, and we are commit
ted to making that a reality.”
The health center offers a
wide range of services, includ
ing general checkups, preven
tive care, and treatment for
acute and chronic illnesses.
The MedFink Commerce Fam
ily Foot Care office located
next door offers podiafiy ser
vices. The mobile health clin
ic will visit various locations
throughout the many commu
nities MedFink Georgia serves
within its 20-county footprint.
MedFink Georgia is a Fed
erally Qualified Community
Health Center providing qual
ity, professional healthcare to
The biggest defense to mit
igate the spread in the earliest
stages of detection involves
intensive testing and limiting
the movement of deer to other
places. The long-term afflic
tion can only be diagnosed by
examining the animal’s brain
after its death.
Findsay Thomas Jr., spokes
man for the National Deer
Association, said that since it
takes so long for deer to show
symptoms, it is difficult to per
suade hunters that it is a prob
lem.
“The people who are in de
nial about this will say ‘I don’t
see a problem. This isn’t some
thing to worry about,”’ he said.
“That’s the way it works. You
don’t walk in the woods and
see sick and dead deer laying
everywhere.”
“The message we give hunt
ers is this is not the end of the
world. It’s nothing to panic
about,” Thomas said. “Hunt
ing goes on in these zones. It’s
just a time for hunters to plug
in and get informed and partic
ipate in the effort to manage the
disease locally.”
Georgia has banned the
transportation of live deer spe
cies from other states since
2005 and has other restrictions
on how deer, moose and elk
carcasses are handled.
Among the safety guidelines
are not moving deer carcasses
outside of a designated CWD
boundary or leaving them to
rot in the wild.
In areas where the CWD
exists, public health officials
also recommend more strin
gent deer processing, which
involves gutting, skinning
and aging meat and removing
a white-tailed deer’s head to
mount as a trophy.
The tips include not using
a bone saw to cut up a deer,
wearing latex gloves, washing
hands frequently, and for pro
fessional processors to prepare
each deer meat separately from
other animals.
“This is not a bacteria or vi
ms,” Thomas said. “It’s a prion
protein and it’s veiy durable in
the environment. If you take
the deer to process at home and
don’t leave bones, hide, innards
in the woods. That’s a hotspot
of CWD prions that if healthy
deer come in contact with then
they can become infected.”
Georgia’s upcoming deer
hunting season for archers be
gins on Sept. 10. while hunters
using firearms have from Oct.
22 through Jan. 8 to bag up to
12 deer.
Mike Worley, president and
CEO of the Georgia Wildlife
Federation, said that CWD
poses a threat to the state’s
healthy and stable deer pop
ulation if not taken seriously
enough. The state spent up
wards of $300,000 on testing
for the disease last year.
“It’s a big deal because virtu
ally all our conseivation is paid
over 60,000 Georgians in rural
areas and seiving Northeast
Georgian communities since
1979. As part of their mission,
they are dedicated to their pa
tients, their needs, and their
communities within the North
east Georgia region. MedFink
Georgia has 29 convenient
locations providing a wide va
riety of patient care tailored to
the needs of the community in
which it selves.
The new MedFink Com
merce and MedFink Commerce
Family Foot Care facilities are
welcoming new patients. For
more information on MedFink
Georgia or to schedule an ap
pointment, contact 706-521-
3113 or visit www.MedFink-
GA.org.
for by hunters and anglers,”
Worley said. “By far the most
popular of our game species is
white-tailed deer.”
“We have a lot of deer and
our deer quality is good,”
Worley said. “We have people
coming from around the coun
try to hunt, particularly from
Florida.”
NEW PROTOCOLS FOR
HUNTERS AS DISEASE
SPREADS EAST
Originally reported in the
western United States in the
1960s, CWD has slowly spread
to the Southeast in recent years
leaving Georgia, Kentucky,
and South Carolina as the last
states in the region without
documented cases.
Chronic Wasting Disease is
similar to the fatal mad cow
disease that briefly caused a
public panic after an outbreak
in the United Kingdom during
the 1990s that eventually re
sulted in the first North Amer
ican case in 2003.
However, in contrast to
CWD, mad cow can make hu
mans sick if they eat infected
beef.
In addition to being spread
by an animal’s bodily fluids,
the current threat can also re
mains highly contagious for
many more years in soil and
plants.
As part of Georgia’s efforts
to minimize an outbreak, law
makers in 2022 gave the state
wildlife officials more pow
er to limit the movement of
deer, moose, elk, and caribou
carcasses around the state and
counties bordering Georgia
where positive tests have been
confirmed.
Currently, there is no plan by
the state to restrict feeders used
by many landowners to attract
hungiy deer near a CWD in
flicted area.
“When we have a pop (case),
we go into a very small area
and try to act quickly,” Will
said. “ We don’t want to break
relationships with local buy-in
and helping us hopefully erad
icate it or get it back enough to
drive down prevalence in an
area.”
Some state wildlife agencies
will also look to reduce the
deer population within a given
area in order to keep the spread
of disease to a minimum.
If certain harvesting quotas
aren’t met within the deer hunt
ing season, then state wildlife
agents might ask for landown
ers’ permission to go onto their
property to hunt more deer,
said Thomas, with the deer as
sociation.
“It’s kind of a surgical
strike,” he said. “Even though
it’s a small number of deer, it
is ultimately proving useful in
maintaining low prevalence
rates. Missouri and Illinois are
two examples that have used
that approach and they’re hold
ing disease prevalence in the
low single digits across years.”
By Alex Buffington
a!ex@mainstreetnews. com
Commerce leaders are
slated to take action on a
request later this month
that would be a big step
toward the opening of the
1818 Brewing Company.
1818 Brewing has sub
mitted its request to allow
the company to manufac
ture and sell beer at the fa
cility. The Commerce City
Council is slated to take
action on the matter at its
July 17 meeting.
The 1818 project on
State Street has faced
several delays since work
began, but work seems to
Five people have been
charged following a months-
long drag investigation into
a fentanyl distribution orga
nization operating in Jack-
son and Banks counties.
The following were
charged:
•William “Faye” Lo-
mack, 48, of Maysville —
charged with trafficking
fentanyl, possession with
intent to distribute fentanyl,
possession of a firearm by a
convicted felon and posses
sion of a firearm during the
commission of a crime. Lo-
mack was booked into the
Banks County Jail.
•Tony Clough, 54, of
Marion, Va. — charged with
trafficking fentanyl, posses
sion with intent to distribute
fentanyl, possession of a
firearm by a convicted felon
and possession of a firearm
during the commission of a
crime. Clough was booked
into the Banks County Jail.
•Chante Presley, 28, of
Richland, Va. — charged
with trafficking fentanyl,
possession with intent to
distribute fentanyl and pos-
have picked up in recent
months. A sign has been
installed outside the build
ing and significant work has
been done inside the facility.
The owner hopes to be
able to open the brewery
later this year (possibly Sep
tember).
OTHER BUSINESS
Other items up for a vote
July 17 include:
•closing a small por
tion of Church Street at
Clayton and East College
streets. The small road/al-
ley is not used regularly.
The item was tabled last
month.
•a guaranteed maximum
session of Schedule IV Con
trolled Substance. Presley
was booked into the Banks
County Jail.
•Nicole Pressley, 37, of
Maysville — charged with
trafficking fentanyl, traf
ficking methamphetamine,
possession with intent to
distribute fentanyl, posses
sion with intent to distribute
methamphetamine, posses
sion of Schedule II Con
trolled Substance and pos
session of a firearm during
the commission of a crime.
Pressley was booked into
the Jackson County Jail.
• Stephanie “Sticks”
Guthrie, 38, of Winder —
charged with trafficking
fentanyl and possession
with intent to distribute
fentanyl. Guthrie was at
the motel with Presley,
but was taken to a local
hospital for treatment.
Police arrested Lo-
mack after a traffic stop
in Commerce on June
29.
Lomack had approx
imately 450 grams of
suspected fentanyl, two
price for the Civic Center/
City Hall building. The
item was tabled from last
month.
•removing a code or
dinance concerning the
pre-treatment facility. The
city no longer owns the
pre-treatment facility after
selling it to Kerry Foods.
•street closures and an
event zone for a third in
stallment of the Concerts
on Cherry Summer Con
cert Series. The concert is
planned Sept. 29 at 8 p.m.
The Cherry Street parking
lot will be closed on that
date from 6 p.m. to mid
night.
firearms and a large
amount of cash on him.
Police executed search
warrants at a Commerce
motel and a home in Mays
ville, both connected to
Lomack. Police found sus
pected fentanyl in the mo
tel room and seized four
firearms, over 28 grams
of suspected fentanyl and
approximately 28 grams
of suspected methamphet
amine from the Maysville
home. Police also arrested
Nicole Pressley at the home.
Clough was arrested with
Lomack during the traffic
stop. Chante Presley was
arrested at the motel room.
The Banks County Sher
iff’s Office, Jackson County
Sheriff’s Office, Stephens
County Sheriff’s Office,
FBI-Gainesville, Georgia
State Patrol, GBI’s Human
Exploitation and Trafficking
Unit and Appalachian Re
gional Drag Enforcement
Office assisted with this in
vestigation.
This is an ongoing inves
tigation and additional ar
rests are expected.
HARRIS DOOR
AND MILLWORK
A Family Atmosphere Work Environment in Pendergrass, GA
Now Hiring for Certified
Fork Lift Operators
Average wage $950.00 paid weekly
Monday - Friday 6 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Closed Saturday and Sunday
• Full Benefits Package
• Health Insurance
(Starts within 30 days or less)
• Dental and Vision
(Starts within 30 days or less)
• Matching 40IK (Starts Day 1)
• 3 weeks paid vacation
(Accrual Starts Day 1)
• Long Term Disability Insurance
(Company Paid)
• Short Term Disability Insurance
(Company Paid)
• 1 hour lunch break and
two 15 minute breaks per day
(5786 Hwy. 129 N, Suite A)
Pendergrass, GA
Call 706-693-0060 (Jennifer)
or email HR@harrisdm.com
State wildlife officials prepare for deadly deer
disease ahead of Georgia hunting season
Five charged with trafficking fentanyl
after months-long investigation
