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Tuesday, February 2,2021 Barnesville, Ga. 30204 barnesville.com HERE’S THE SCOOP First female school supt. in Georgia? From the Feb. 3, 1921 edition of The News Gazette: The Lamar County schools will soon be moving in good shape, if the way the new board of education and the su perintendent are getting down to their work is any indication. The board met Tues day with all members present. Miss Mattie Tyus, perhaps the first woman superintendent in Georgia, was present, had the oath of office administered to her by the Ordinary and im mediately went into the consideration of various school problems with the board. (This is the last in a series of Cen tennial Minutes published to salute the formation of lamar County 100 years ago. You can continue to follow the saga in the look Back feature published weekly on the editorial page.) AMERICAN RED CROSS O BLOOD DRIVE Blood drive a success The Red Cross Blood Drive held here Jan. 28 was deemed a success by Charles Glass who spear heads collection efforts here. “Last year we got 44 units at our January drive. The Red Cross set our goal for this month at 46 units. We collected 53 units. We had seven Pow er Red donors, our most ever,” Glass reported. The drive was spon sored by the Rotary Club, Women’s League and First United Methodist Church. The next drive is set for March 25. Subscribe. Your name goes on the label in this box LC welcomes new coach; wing-T offense will return The Ellington family was introduced at a called school board meeting Jan. 26. They are (l-r) Tootie and Travis Ellington and their sons Whitt and Levi. WALTER GEIGER news@bamesville.com Lamar County welcomed Travis Ellington as head football coach last week. The school board voted unani mously to hire Ellington at a called meeting Jan. 26. “We did three-hour inter views with 14 candidates. His name kept rising to the top,” LCHS principal David Boland told the board. “1 am super excited and blessed. 1 want my players to be great men and to come back here and be great husbands and fathers. I’m excited to have the opportunity,” Elling ton said. New board member James Butler told Ellington he was concerned about how long the new coach would stay in the position, noting tenure has been an issue with the last sev eral head football coaches. “We don’t like to move. I’m picky about where 1 apply. 1 have applied for this job be fore. I like the town. I want to build a program and finish my career here,” Ellington coun tered. Becky Taylor, sports editor at The Tifton Gazette, reported Ellington was “beloved” in his native Tift County. He played football at Tift County, East Mississippi Community Col lege and Greenville College in Greenville, Illinois. He was an assistant at Irwin County and defensive coordinator at Swainsboro, Toombs County and Forsyth Central. He also has been a head wrestling coach and won a state title as track coach at Swainsboro in 2007. A special education teacher, Ellington was system-wide Teacher of THE HERALD GAZETTE/WALTER GEIGER the Year in Toombs County. Ellington spent time last week meeting with Trojan players and current assistant coaches. He plans to change up the offense. “We will be running the wing-T offense and a multiple front defense. 1 am in the pro cess of interviewing coaches now on staff and coaches to come in and work for us. We are excited and ready to get there and ready to get start ed,” Ellington concluded. THE HERALD GAZETTE/WALTER GEIGER Lady Trojans rolling LC’s Shakiria Foster (10) works inside against a Bleckley County defender during a key 59-51 region win at the local gym last week. The Lady Trojans (15-4, 8-1) are atop the Region 3-AA standings with three games left in the regular season. (See story on page 3A) Georgia to receive more vaccines from federal government The federal government announced Jan. 26 that Georgia will begin receiving around 25,000 more COV1D-19 vaccines weekly. This is a 16% increase from the previous allotment of 120,000 doses each week, bringing the new weekly total to 145,900 doses. On a record high day, Georgia reported that 71,307 additional vaccines have been administered. The state has distributed 56.7% of the total vaccines which have been shipped by the federal govern ment. For more information, go to https://dph.georgia.gov/covid- vaccine. Vaccine . w- 4 Elections board: English can run WALTER GEIGER news@barnesville.com Arthur (Brutz) English can continue his campaign for mag istrate judge after the Board of Elections voted unanimously not to challenge his eligibility at a hearing Jan. 27. The hear ing opened with board vice-chair man Bill Christo pher explaining that the entire board serves as the superin tendent of elections by statute. Anita Reid is the hired supervi sor of elections. He noted the board was in possession of information and opinions from district attorney Jonathan Ad ams and legal counsel from the Secretary of State’s office that English was not eligible. Only a registered Lamar County voter or the elections superintendent (meaning the entire board) can SEE ENGLISH CAN RUN 3A LCSO, BPD bust entering auto "gang” Five arrests have been made in a rash of entering auto cases that have plagued the com munity in recent weeks. “Numer ous pistols, rifles, credit and debit cards have been stolen,” sheriff Brad White said. Investigators from the Barnes ville Police Department and the sheriff’s office worked together to iden tify suspects. “Lt. Belinda Penamon with the police department was instrumental in breaking the case and identifying two of the sus pects,” the sheriff added. Those arrested were Audarion Napier, 17, Darius Bentley, 19, Chaderien Driver, 20, Shelton Watkins, 20, and one unidentified juvenile. Some of those arrested have identified on social media as being in a gang. “If that is confirmed, we will charge them under Georgia’s gang statute. That requires a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in addition to the sentences for their convictions. We will not tolerate gangs or gang activity in Lamar County,” the sheriff concluded. m. BENTLEY DRIVER WATKINS ENGLISH Peaches to Beaches postponed The world’s longest yard sale, Peaches to Beaches, has been postponed due to CO- VID-19. The event, which was scheduled for March 14-15, will be held August 6-7 if conditions have improved. The annual yard sale is conducted along the length of Hwy. 341 from Barnesville to the Georgia coast. ©2021 THE HERALD GAZETTE, BARNESVILLE, LAMAR COUNTY, GA 30204, 770.358.NEWS