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Tuesday, March 16,2021 barnesville.com Barnesville, Ga. 30204 HERE’S THE SCOOP Blood drive March 25 The Red Cross re ports a severe shortage of blood and organizers of Lamar County’s next blood drive which is set for March 25 hope to help alleviate the crisis. The local drive will be held from 1-6 p.m. at the fellowship hall at First United Methodist Church. The goal is 56 units. Last March, the local drive collected 61 units. The last drive here, held in January, collected 53 units. The Red Cross will continue to test for COV1D-19 antibodies. Those who have received the COV1D vaccine are encouraged to donate blood. Red Cross person nel will need to know which vaccine blood donors received. The drive is sponsored by the Barnesville Rotary Club. For more informa tion, call the church of fice at 770.358.1494. ‘Snapped’ episode on Jennifer Clark airs Sunday An episode of the pop ular TV series ‘Snapped’ covering the murder of Donald Clark and the subse quent trial of his wife Jennifer Clark will debut Sunday, CLARK March 21 on Oxygen Network. The episode will air at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Jennifer Clark is serv ing life plus 60 years for beating Donald Clark to death while he slept and dumping his body in a Redbone cornfield. The episode was filmed here last summer. Subscribe. Your name goes on the label in this box Driver in wrong way crash charged with vehicular homicide WALTER GEIGER news@barnesville.com Nathaniel Suggs, 38, who was critically injured in a wrong way driver crash on Ga. Hwy. 7 near Milner March 5 died at Grady Hospital March 8. Suggs was flown there after the 10:10 p.m. crash on the four-lane near the Zebulon Road intersection. Suggs was removed from life support af ter his organs were harvested for donation. In the aftermath of Suggs’ death, state troopers took out an additional warrant for the at-fault driver Felicia What ley, 55, of Thomaston for first degree vehicular homicide. Whatley appeared in magis trate court here March 11 and was granted a $100,000 bond by Judge Kathy Martin. Whatley later made bond and was re leased. On the night of the crash, Whatley was charged with DU1, driv ing on the wrong side of the road and reckless driving. The state patrol finally released its report on the ac cident Friday morning. It states Whatley was under the influ ence of alcohol and driving south in the northbound lane when her 2008 Honda Accord LX hit a 2005 Toyota Tacoma being driven by Jeremy Ryan Knight, 25, of 1041 Gunn Road in Madison. The Honda hit the Toyota in the left rear side with its left front. The Toyota left the roadway and overturned before coming to rest upright on its tires. Suggs was the lone passenger in the Toyota and had to be extricated from the truck. Neither Whatley nor Knight were taken for medical treat ment. Witnesses at the scene reported Whatley had traveled in the wrong lane from the area of the Griffin Ingles. Funeral services for Suggs were private. SUGGS THE HERALD GAZETTE/WALTER GEIGER Felicia Whatley, 55, is ushered into magistrate court by Capt. Ron Buchanan of the LCSO March 11. She ap peared on her fourth charge in connection with a March 8 wrong way collision on Georgia Hwy. 7 near Milner that took the life of Nathaniel Suggs. The latest charge was first degree vehicular homicide. She was charged with DUI, driving on the wrong side of the road and reckless driving on the night of the collision. LCHS cadet gets recognition after rescuing mother, child from car Maj. Paul Stinson (left) stands with cadet 1LT Hunter Raybon as he receives the commendation for bravery. KAY S. PEDR0TTI kayspedrotti@gmail.com Hunter Raybon, junior at Lamar County High and a 1LT in the school’s Army Junior ROTC unit, received a “com mendation for bravery” from the board of education at its regular meeting last week. Raybon’s actions freed Diane Slade and her grandchild Mae Slade from an overturned automobile involved in a T- bone accident at Old Highway 41 and Brown Springs Road Feb. 3. In a later interview, Raybon said, “1 live on that road and 1 saw it all happen. It seemed in slow motion -1 had never seen anything like that car flipping twice and stopping upside down.” He said he first went to the distraught 3-year- old, who was screaming she was “hanging upside down like a monkey!” When she was released from the car seat and handed off to another stranger who stopped to help, Raybon said, “1 went around and got the driver’s door open and helped the woman out. Neither one had any evident injuries, except bad shock, and they were checked by first respond ers. The child’s car seat really did its job.” Raybon added that he had some prior experience with emergency situations because he “grew up in a firehouse” learning from a relative who was a firefighter. His uncle, Dustin Daniel, is a Lamar County firefighter. He cannot walk away from a situation in which people need help, he said, “and I thank God 1 was in the right spot at the right time to help these people.” Raybon has tentative plans to become an anesthesiologist; he plans to join the Army after SEE CADET RECOGNIZED 3A VOTE ★ ★★★★ Magistrate race, ESPLOST on ballots today Lamar County voters go to the polls today to cast ballots in a special election to select a chief magistrate judge and de termine whether a one percent sales tax to benefit the local school system will continue to be collected. The magistrate race was necessitated by the death last year of Judge Karen Rhyne Henson. Four candidates are seeking the post. They are (in alphabetical order) Brutz English, Paul Kunst, Jeff Mason and Shannon Williamson. The ESPLOST is designed to raise $13.2 million for the school system. Early voting ended Friday at noon. At that point, elections supervisor Anita Reid and her staff had served 1,003 early voters. They also mailed out 109 absentee ballots of which 72 had been returned at press time Monday. Polling places are open throughout the county today from 7 a.m. - 7 p.m. Those polling places are District 1: Barnesville library; District 2A: Parker Branch fire station; District 2B: Senior Citizens Center; District 2C: Redbone Community House; District 3: Lamar County Service Center; and District 4: Milner library. For up to the minute lo cal results tonight, monitor barnesville.com. GSC eyes return to normal for fall classes Gordon State College is plan ning for a full return to face-to- face instruction for fall semes ter, if vaccinations continue to dampen further outbreaks of COV1D-19. “This past year has taught us a lesson in being flexible and resilient. This com ing year will teach us how to navigate a way back to a new normal while increas ing the number of face-to-face course sections and student programming,” GSC president Kirk Nooks said. The hope is fall semester will also see a return to full ca pacities in residence halls and dining facilities. The college will continue to monitor the pandemic closely and follow guidance from DPH, CDC and the university system. It is expected face masks will still be required for fall semester. “We are excited by the thought of having wider access to the vaccine over the next few weeks. The availability and administration of the vaccine will provide an additional layer of protection against the virus but we will still have to remain vigilant,” noted Dr. Samantha Bishop, GSC’s director of nurs ing. BISHOP ©2021 THE HERALD GAZETTE, BARNESVILLE, LAMAR COUNTY, GA 30204, 770.358.NEWS