Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

Tuesday, May 11,2021 TOje Heraltr <©a?tttt 3A Barnesville PD again certified by GACP KAY S. PEDROTTI kayspedrotti@gmail.com Representatives of the Georgia Associa tion of Chiefs of Police presented a document to the Barnesville Police De partment at last week’s city council meeting, certifying the department has achieved the training requirements set up by the state for law enforce ment agencies. Chuck Groover of the GACP executive board and Jasmine Rhodes of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, repre sented two organizations handling the certification program. BPD certifica tion, its third, will be 2021-2024 this time, Groover said. He noted, “There are more than 600 police agencies and sheriff’s departments in Geor gia, and 146 of them are certified. In this time when police officers are under greater scrutiny than ever, certification has never been more relevant. 1 am proud of the job Barnesville PD has done and honored to present them with the certification.” Chief Craig Cooper later said the state re quires special train ing for all officers in many categories, including use of force, de-escalation of incidents, writing reports, handling people with men tal problems or special needs, and many more. The department has 20 personnel, led by Cooper and Maj. Anthony Kendall; Capt. Maggie More land, patrol; Capt. A1 Moltrum, chief investigator. Lt. Er nie McWhorter will now supervise the current compliance with certification. Other than ap proval of minutes, the presentation was the only agenda item. In the time allotted for council members’ reports, Butch McDaniel thanked interim city manager Tim Turner and the staff for prompt response to his requests for Ward 2, and noted “Happy Teacher Apprecia tion Day” to all the city’s teachers. Councilman Bill Clax- ton asked that a “year to date” financial report become a part of city council meet ings, “to track how we’re doing.” Chris Hightower asked Turner what the principal funding source has been for the Women’s Club house renovation and expansion. Turner replied that the major funding has come from SPLOST col lections. Coun cilman Sammie Shropshire said he was glad to notice the city had purchased new vehicles to replace old ones for maintenance in the city. Mayor Peter Banks gave a rundown on the clubhouse proj ect and plans. Councilman Larry Whitworth com mented, “We all need to be proud of our police department, They are an awesome group.” He said their response to his home when someone could not get him to answer the phone or come to the door - because he was sleeping - “made me proud to know we have that kind of protection in our city.” During citizen com ments, Michael Rogers revisited the issue of abandoned cars, and asked that street main tenance and cleaning be done routinely for Sul livan, Akins and Cherry Streets. Rogers also distributed to the council numerous documents showing that Lamar County and Barnesville have already been al located some millions in funds from the American Rescue Plan, designated to help non-profit organi zations working in under served areas. Criteria dif fers for cities or counties under 50,000 population, he added. Turner said he will address the problem of applying for whatever funds may be available to encourage the city and its non-profits to work to gether on improvements. Dorothy Carter, repre senting Keep Barnesville Beautiful, again asked the city’s help in finding ways to control litter and “how to instill pride in our resi dents” to encourage their participation in both not littering and in being willing to pick up others’ trash thrown from cars near their homes. : <i£Sa* KENDALL MORELAND * MOLTRUM MCWHORTER THE HERALD GAZETTE/WALTER GEIGER National Day of Prayer observed Attendance was in person at the annual National Day of Prayer observance May 6 at First Baptist Church. The event is presented annually by the Lamar County Ministerial Association. Providing music for the occasion were members of the LCHS Chorus. Pictured (l-r) are Saffron Abreu, choral director NaToya Fletcher and Natalie Hunter. Soccer season ends with high hopes for the future SPORTS Trojans announce 2021 football schedule The #1 ranked Blue Devils and Lady Devils from Bremen High School put an end to the LC soccer season Wednes day, notching two wins in Elite 8 play off matches played before a big crowd at Trojan Field. The Bremen teams put on clinics for the crowd, par ticularly on defense. The Lady Trojans held Bremen to a 0-0 tie until the 25 minute mark of the second half before giving up three quick goals in a 3- 0 loss. The Trojans lost 4- 0 but fought hard the entire match. Both the LC teams are young with the Trojans losing just one senior and the Lady Trojans losing three. The Lady Trojan roster included 10 freshmen, two sophomores and five juniors. The Trojans fielded seven freshmen, five sophomores and six juniors. All Region: LC’s great season led to multiple postseason honors for individual players. Junior Justin Brannan was named Region 3-AA player of the year. Sopho more Mason Bushby was the region de fensive player of the year. On the girls side, freshman Aniya Barron was chosen region player of the year. Lady Trojans named to the all region first team were Barron, junior Alaina Cato, sopho more Vanessia Byrd and freshmen Samiya Smith and Cara Bishop. Earn ing honorable mention status were seniors Kaylah Grammer, Iniyah Walker and junior Paige Mayfield. Trojans on the all region first team were Brannan, Bushby, junior Daniel Navarro and sophomores Jay’D Lucier and Josh Moore. On the honorable mention list were juniors Ethan Popham and Jackson Cal laway and sophomore AJ Haygood. The 2021 football schedule for the Lamar County Trojans has been finalized. It will be the first season under new head coach Travis El lington. The action begins with a home scrimmage with Manchester Aug. 6 followed by a second scrimmage with Upson- Lee here Aug. 13. The regular season begins with a trip to Pike County Aug. 20 followed by a trip to Crawford County Aug. 27. Jackson is here for the home St. George’s Episco pal School celebrated their 25th anniversary recently on the school grounds. As part of the annual Founders Day celebration, the school also celebrated the dedi cation and ribbon cutting of the new soccer field, the Upson Family Soccer Complex, located on the school grounds. “St. George’s Episco pal School is blessed to have the gift from the Up- opener Sept. 3 with Pacelli coming to town Sept. 10. Following an off week, LC hosts Washington County Sept. 24 then goes to SW Macon Oct. 1. Bleckley County visits Trojan Field Oct. 8 fol lowed by a trip to Dodge County Oct. 15. Monticel- lo is here Oct. 22. Follow ing another off week, LC closes the regular season at NE Macon Nov. 5. All games and scrim mages kick off at 7:30 p.m. son Family that allowed us to create our first ever soccer field. Our goal was to dedicate this field last year, but the closing of schools because of COVID-19 forced us to delay the ribbon cutting until this year. It was ex citing to have so many of the Upson Family with us so that we could express to everyone how excited we are for their generos ity,” said interim head master Dr. Michael Drake of the ceremony. Ribbon cutting for new SGES soccer field CASA volunteer Shaniya Chambers (right) was recently sworn in by Towaliga Circuit Juvenile Court Judge Sharon Sullivan (left). Shaniya Chambers sworn in as CASA Towaliga CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) had a new CASA volunteer sworn-in for the Towaliga Judicial Circuit on April 21 by Judge Sullivan to serve children in foster care. Shaniya Chambers is a Barnesville resident. CASA volunteers have gone through extensive training by the local CASA agency to ensure that they can fulfill the requirement of a CASA for the children of this circuit. Volunteers come from varying backgrounds, but the one thing they have in common is their concern for children in the foster care system. For more information about this program, con tact Mary Ann Leverett at 478-394-0315 or mlev- erett@tacourts.com. Milner man arrested in Monroe County A 35-year-old Milner man was arrested by Monroe County depu ties after fleeing an at tempted traffic stop on a yellow dirt bike. Cpl. Tyler Rodgers was dispatched to Willis Circle at about 10:45 p.m. May 1 after a loud music complaint and reports of reckless dirt bike riders. He encountered two dirt bikes, one yellow and one red. The bikes split up with Rodgers pursuing the red one. The driver wrecked and fled on foot to For syth Garden Apts. Police in the area spotted the yellow bike and Rodgers identified the rider who fled on it. Andrickes Jamall Roussaw went to jail charged with fleeing and attempting to elude, tail light violation, headlight violation, passing in a no passing zone, reck less driving, no helmet, no brake lights, no turn signals and no horn. COVID-19: Eight new cases last week Lamar County had 1,354 confirmed cases of CO VID-19 as of the May 9 update from DPH. That num ber is up from 1,346 cases May 2. Lamar has had 120 coronavirus related hospitalizations. Lamar added one death, that of a 78-year-old black female, last week to run its total to 46. As of Monday, sheriff Brad White was tracking 19 positive cases at 17 local residences. Local COVID-19 numbers and those from surround ing counties are updated daily at barnesville.com. Kolby Pounds is pictured with his plaque for winning low est score of 40 in the Individual State Championship. RSCA golf team finishes third The RSCA Middle School golf team finished third in the Middle School GAPPS Championship on April 13 held at Heron Bay Golf and Country Club. Kolby Pounds won the Individual State Champion ship with the lowest score of 40. Members of the team are Ethan Eads, Ashton Ab ernathy, Kolby Pounds, Jeremy Cleveland, Eyan Eads, Bryce Jordan.