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Tuesday, July 13,2021
barnesville.com
Barnesville, Ga. 30204
HERE’S THE
SCOOP
SUBMITTED
Champs
Landon Sneed makes a
play at the U10 All-Star World
Series in Louisiana over
the weekend. His team, the
Spalding All-Stars, won the
championship. He is the son
of Ashley and Will Sneed and
the grandson of Dana and Al
Moltrum and Frank and Jan
Sneed all of Barnesville.
SEE 3A
GOP tax
forum is
tonight
There has been much
grumbling here about in
creased property values
and personnel from the
assessor’s office visiting
and inspecting proper
ties and tonight those fed
up with the process can
learn more about it and
vent if they desire.
The Lamar Republican
Party will host a forum
to discuss values, as
sessments, millage rates,
property taxes and how
tax money is spent at 7
p.m. at the courthouse.
The event is open to the
public.
Local GOP chair Ash
ley Gilles will moderate
the forum and county
commission chairman
Charles Glass will speak
and answer questions.
The forum will be
gin at 7 p.m. For more
information, call Gilles at
770.557.9277.
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Former school bus driver arrested
WALTER GEIGER
news@barnesville.com
A former Lamar County
school bus driver was arrested
July 6 on one count of enticing
a child for indecent purposes.
Edward Hubert Burge, 63, of
1202 Everee Inn Rd. in Griffin
was arrested following a probe
by sheriff’s investigators.
Sheriff Brad White said
Burge made “borderline”
comments in written materi
als given to pre-teen students.
“The district attorney’s office
signed off on the charge,” the
sheriff added.
Burge appeared
before chief magis
trate Paul Kunst July
7 where bond was set
at $5,000. Burge must
also stay away from
the child involved. He
made bond later that
day and was released.
“The Lamar County
School System was
made aware of an
inappropriate writ
ten contact between
a bus driver and a student in
late May. The driver was im
mediately suspended, pending
investigation, and
the driver imme
diately resigned.
The Lamar County
School System fully
cooperated with
law enforcement.
The safety of our
students and staff is
always our top pri
ority. As a personnel
matter, we have no
further comment at
this time, ” school
superintendent Dr.
Jute Wilson said in a prepared
statement which was issued
July 7.
BURGE
THE HERALD GAZETTE/WALTER GEIGER
Bizarre crash injures three, damages store
Three people were injured Monday morning when the driver of a Toyota 4Runner lost control while southbound
on Veterans parkway, ran off the road and into the Reliable Mart parking lot and hit a Ford pickup truck which was
parked. Officers on the scene suspected the driver of the Toyota was stricken by a medical condition before the
crash.
The Toyota driver and two people in the truck were injured. One person was critical and taken by ambulance to
a Macon trauma center. The front of the C-store suffered significant damage.
For updates, monitor barnesville.com.
Need a job?
This is
for you
Plenty of jobs are available
now in Lamar County for those
who want them. In fact, the
Industrial Development Author
ity is teaming up with seven
local employers to help fill
open positions at a hiring event
Thursday, July 15.
The average hourly wage
here is $21.65. Weekly wages
have increased by 27.6% over
the past year, according to
IDA executive director Kathy
Oxford.
Thursday’s Job Fair will be
held at the civic center from 10
a.m. -1 p.m. Employers partici
pating include Gordon State
College, Jordan Forest Prod
ucts, Continental Tire/Aldora
Mills, Ervin Cable Construc
tion, Waffle House, Connect/
Southern Rivers Energy and the
Lamar County School System.
For more information on this
hiring event, contact Oxford at
770.872.3773.
Boy pulled
from pool
still critical
WALTER GEIGER
news@barnesville.com
A seven-year-old boy pulled
unresponsive from a pool at
a local BnB July 1 remains in
critical condition at Egleston
Children’s Hospital in Atlanta.
At last report, the boy was co
matose and on a ventilator.
After an heroic effort by first
responders at the scene, the
boy’s pulse and blood pressure
were reestablished and he was
taken to Spalding Regional then
flown to Atlanta.
At the time of the incident,
the owner of the BnB was under
a cease and desist order from
the City of Barnesville regard
ing rentals which he ignored.
He is operating outside zoning
restrictions and has no busi
ness license.
Acting city manager Tim
Turner said the ongoing opera
tion of the BnB known as The
Black Chateau remains in litiga
tion.
JB Strauss to be featured at historic
Grant's Lounge reopening in Macon
Barnesville native JB Strauss
will be featured at the grand
re-opening of historic Grant’s
Lounge in Macon this Thursday
and Friday, July 15th and 16th.
Grant’s Lounge originally
opened its doors in 1971 and is
the place many claim was the
“birth place of Southern Rock”.
Some of the world’s great
est performers played on the
nightclub’s stage, including The
Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd
Skynyrd and Wet Willie.
Strauss’ influence ties his
Barnesville and Macon roots
with a hint of the mystery and
beauty of Georgia’s Golden
Isles. He now lives in Nashville
and tours nationwide.
With original tunes influ
enced by the heavy, electric,
southern style of the bands
who played at Grant’s back in
the day and several contem
porary artists such as Brent
Cobb, Chris Stapleton, and
Jason Isbell, Strauss combines
their sound with his own, which
are also reminiscent of poetic,
witty, singer-songwriters such
as John Prine, Gram Parsons,
and Jim Croce.
Strauss followed in the legal
footsteps of his father and both
grandfathers and with a law
degree of his own JB stepped
out of the traditional role of the
courtroom and instead writes
and sings songs about the sto
ries hidden beneath the surface
of life in the deep south. Deftly
balancing the very human quali
ties of the south’s sometimes
enigmatic contradictions, along
with the essential spiritual
redemption that must follow, he
claims these songs are “part of
the foundation of who I am as a
person and now as an artist.”
For example, in Man Pos
sessed, the title song of his de
but EP, JB expresses this when
he speaks of his grandfather’s
life as a prosecutor and judge
and “how that life wore him
down like river over stone...he
became a man possessed with
moving on.” Another cut on
the EP, Pissant Hill, is a humor
ous, yet poignant, tale of a man
whose fatal mistakes land him
on death row in Georgia’s Re-
idsville Prison. Since there’s no
one to claim him once he dies,
his fate becomes a date with a
pine box on a real piece of land
on prison property reserved for
unclaimed souls.
Also influential are the years
JB spent with family and friends
on Georgia’s Golden Isle and
his music is also redolent of
the intricacies and depth of life
within the marshes and intra
coastal waterways. “Leaning on
the islands’ life-giving elements
to feed the soul when the rivers
of home run murky,” he says,
also influenced two Southern
rock-inspired tunes, “Carolina
Siren” and “Lady Cuscowilla,”
as well as the acoustic “Wrong
Side of the River.”
A few weeks before the
pandemic brought everything
to a screeching halt in March of
2020, something else happened
that led Strauss down another
remarkable path. “I did these
writers’ rounds when I first got
SEE STRAUSS 6A
JB Strauss is touring nationwide.
©2021 THE HERALD GAZETTE, BARNESVILLE, LAMAR COUNTY, GA 30204, 770.358.NEWS