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NEWSPAPER FOLKS HAVE UNIQUE PE / 4A Tuesday, June 22,2021 barnesville.com HERE’S THE SCOOP Freida Ham dead at age 91 Longtime Barnesville businesswoman Freida Ham died late Friday after a brief illness. She was 91. A native of Ellabell, she married Bill Ham in 1955. They moved to Barnes ville and built a thriving string of NAPA Auto Parts stores in the region, including the local opera tion. Funeral services will be held today at 2 p.m. at First Baptist Church. Life after COVID: A long road to recovery SEE PAGE 9A Early deadlines Due to Independence Day on Sunday, July 4, The Herald Gazette will observe the holiday on Monday, July 5. News and advertising deadlines are requested before noon Thursday, July 2, in order to be included the July 6 edition. Subscribe. Your name goes on the label in this box Commissioners eye single county TSPLOST WALTER GEIGER news@barnesville.com The Lamar County commis sion is considering adding an other one percent local option sales tax which would raise the local sales tax rate to eight per cent. If approved by voters, the money would be earmarked for road improvements and other transportation projects. Sixty-four of Georgia’s 159 counties currently have such sales taxes in place. They are known as transportation SPLOSTs (TSPLOSTs). Some are regional but many are single county taxes as pro posed here. The county is proceeding with plans to include a refer endum on the matter on the November general election ballot. Upson County col lects TSPLOST funds and Spalding County is placing it on the ballot this year. At the regular com mission meeting June 15, chairman Charles Glass said the tax could bring in $10 million over its five- year lifespan. “This would allow us to triple our capacity to pave and resurface roads in the county. We could make some sorely needed improvements,” Glass said. The basic state sales tax is four percent and state law caps the sales tax rate at eight percent. Lamar currently collects one percent in local option sales tax which goes into the general fund. Another one percent is collected in special local option sales tax which goes toward projects approved by voters. The school board also collects one per cent in educational spe cial local option sales tax which is used for capital, construction and improvement projects. The ESPLOST was just extended by voters earlier this year. The existing sales taxes are currently bringing in record amounts of cash into the county and school board coffers due to population and economic growth. GLASS COVID-19 Stats in Lamar County Feb. 'a March 'a ■ NEW CASES ■ DEATHS WALTER GEIGER/FILE The COVID-19 vaccine, along with natural immunity acquired by those who contracted the virus, have all but stopped the spread of the virus here in Lamar County and health experts hope that trend continues. What a difference two shots make The COVID-19 vaccine, along with natural immunity acquired by those who con tracted the virus, have all but stopped the spread of the vi rus here in Lamar County and health experts hope that trend continues. Health care workers and first responders here were offered vaccinations beginning Dec. 21, 2020. Mass vaccina tions began on Jan. 13, 2021. At the end of 2020, Lamar had reported 794 cases and 27 deaths. By the end of January 2021, 1,147 cases had been reported and 33 deaths recorded. The spread slowed as five deaths and 102 new cases were reported in February. By the end of March, Lamar had 43 dead and 1,293 cases. The community ended April with 1,342 cases and 45 deaths. Over the seven-week period since, Lamar has added only 27 cases and two deaths. According to DPH, 5,160 Lamar countians have received one dose of the vaccine. Of those, 4696 are fully vacci nated. Charter's woes rile viewers here Many Charter Spectrum customers in and near Lamar’s incorporated municipalities and elsewhere were frustrated much of last week by outages. Charter’s internet service was spotty at times but its cable TV system was hard hit and some still have no signal. For most, resetting the cable box fixed the problem but that was not a universal remedy. The company blamed work on its system for the issues. “While the majority of our customers have been restored, some cable customers are still experiencing service inter ruptions in the Barnesville area as the company makes improvements to its networks. We appreciate our custom ers’ patience as our teams are working as quickly as possible to finish the work and restore service. Customers who have been restored should contact us to cancel any service calls they have scheduled,” Char ter regional communications director Patti Michel said. Forensic audit still pending Grand jury recommends no prosecution in Milner probe WALTER GEIGER news@barnesville.com ADAMS Phase one of the year-long probe into the allegations of wrongdoing by the Milner city council came to a close June 14 when the Lamar County grand jury heard the case and recommended no indictments or prosecution in the matter. District attorney Jonathan Adams concurred with the grand jury’s decision. In a letter to GB1 special agent Eric Pipkin, Adams wrote, “After careful review of the case, the Grand Jury and 1 believe there is insufficient evidence to proceed with prosecution.” Adams went on to write there was insuf ficient evidence to prove the elements of fraud or financial gain with regard to possible charges of bribery, forgery or malfeasance in office. Adams emphasized that the GBl’s forensic audit of Mil ner’s financials has not been completed and any charges emanating from it would be handled when it is completed. At issue was council mem ber George Weldon signing a plat or plats for subdivisions in Milner in the name of former city administra tor Harold Wilson who is deceased. Asked by The Herald Gazette if the plat or plats in question are now void, Adams replied, “It would be a matter for civil court but the short answer is probably not. What is ef fected is the square footage authorized by the city. If they don’t enforce it on the con tractor who built the houses, then there is no change to the status quo. If they do enforce it, then the contractor suffers a harm and may have a civil and/or criminal remedy against the councilman.” Milner mayor Andy Marlowe was asked the same question. “Yes, it means the plat that George / , WELDON MARLOWE signed is non-binding on the city. However, nothing is going to happen because of the lack of a backbone of the city coun cil,” he replied. Marlowe requested the fo rensic audit after being elected for the first time last summer. He said the audit is not com plete and Pipkin told him he had no idea when it would be complete. Adams said the au dit would likely take two years. Marlowe pledged to ride herd on the city’s finances in the interim but is not optimis tic. “1 will do my best to keep things in the city as best as 1 possibly can and everything on the up and up. 1 don’t see much happening the rest of the year with the current council. 1 just hope the citizens realize they need new council members who care about the citizens and the city,” Marlowe said. The Milner probe began May 18, 2020 when Adams requested the sheriff’s depart ment and GB1 implement it after reports of what Adams termed “irregularities”. ©2021 THE HERALD GAZETTE, BARNESVILLE, LAMAR COUNTY, GA 30204, 770.358.NEWS