Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

1AM EDWARDS RECEIVE, EAGLE PALM /5 A barnesville.com Barnesville, Ga. 30204 HERE’S THE SCOOP Tag office lunch hours Through October 13 the Lamar County Tag Office will close for lunch from 12:00 noon to 1:15 p.m. each day. Blood Drive Oct. 19 The Barnesville Rotary Club will host the American Red Cross Blood Drive on Thursday, October 19 from 1-6 p.m at First United Methodist Church. To schedule an appointment go to red- crossblood.org sponsor code: lamar. Blood inventory is down over 25% com pared to this Summer. Hospitals are being asked to cut back on elective surgeries due to the shortage. Former fire chief Blevins dies Former Barnesville fire chief Harold Blevins died Sept. 29 at his home. He was 84. Blevins first joined the fire department in 1965 and BLEVINS became fire chief in 1973. He remained with the de partment until he retired in 1993. Blevins was buried Oct. 5 in Greenwood Cem etery following a private service. See obituary on page 5A. Subscribe. Your name goes on the label in this box Wilson lauds GHSA playoff vote; high school NIL deals not so much WALTER GEIGER news@bamesville.com LC school superin tendent Dr. Jute Wilson praised a move by the Georgia High School Association last week that created separate playoffs for public and private schools in all sports in Classes A- AAA. LC currently com petes in Class A, Div 1 and Wilson expects to remain there when schools are reclassified later this year. “The private school playoff was a huge win for public schools. We were very involved in this proposal. The statistical advantage private schools have in our classifica tion is stagger ing. There has been a severe competitive imbalance for years,” Wilson said. Wilson argued LC, and other small schools, would have won numerous state championships over the past several years had the new sys tem been in place and the playing field been level. Under the new plan, public and pri vate schools will still compete in the same regions but will be separated for the playoffs. Teams will be seeded for the postseason via an as yet to be determined power rating system. “This assures that, beginning next fall, a pub lic school in our classi fication will take home a state championship in every sport. The same can be said for private schools in our classi fication. I’m not crazy about the power rank ing deal for seeding but it was a worthy conces sion to get this passed,” Wilson continued. The GHSA also ruled that high school ath letes can take advan tage of NIL deals that have revolutionized college football recruit ing. Wilson was not at all happy with that deci sion. “This is a terrible road to go down, espe cially at the high school level. Our model of us ing booster and outside donations to equitably support all athletic teams and all members of those teams is the most appropriate in my opinion. 1 am certain schools in Georgia will exploit this to recruit players,” Wilson con cluded. WILSON THE HERALD GAZETTE/WALTER GEIGER National Night Out The Lamar County Sheriff’s Office and Milner Police Department celebrated National Night Out last week at Milner city park. A large crowd was on hand to view law enforcement and fire department vehicles and a state patrol helicopter. There was plenty of food on hand along with face painting and games. Among those enjoying the event were Zorreyona Sullivan (left) and Zylah Pate. Downtown holiday schedule is filling fast 96852 78853 Multiple events are on tap this fall and into the holiday season in downtown Barnesville. The Scarecrows of Barnesville event is underway and will run through early Novem ber. Despite the name, it is not Barnesville specific and is open to all of Lamar County. Entry forms are avail able through Heather Stanley at House to Home downtown. There will be a peoples’ choice award along with first, second and third place win ners. The second an nual Ladies’ Night in downtown Barnesville is set for Friday, Nov. 3 beginning at 6 p.m. Dinner will be served at Mangia on Main and celebrants can shop local businesses which will be open until 9 p.m. with special offers and treats. Also on the schedule is a Mistletoe Market Saturday, Nov. 25 begin ning at 10 a.m. at the event center located at 108 Main Street in Barnesville. For more information on these events, call 678.815.5102 Mothers of victim's children sue sheriff over chase crash death WALTER GEIGER news@barnesville.com Five women have filed a civil suit against sheriff Brad White seeking $1 mil lion in dam ages and any and all other relief awarded at a jury trial in connec tion with the death of Vin cent Hughes during a high speed chase here earlier this year. Hughes, 41, was a pas senger in a Chevy Tahoe driven by Brian Pierre Williams who fled from multiple law enforcement officers working a drug conspiracy case March 20. Hughes and Williams were seen throwing drugs from the Tahoe during the chase. Sgt. Michael Brayton finally pitted the Tahoe near the Pennington home place on Hwy. 36 East. The vehicle ran off the east side of the road, overturned and struck a tree. Hughes was dead at the scene. The plaintiffs in the suit are Ebony Butts, adminis trator of Hughes’ estate, and four women who claim to be the mothers of Hughes’ minor children. They are Ebony Mathis, mother of Vincent Hughes, Jr.; Adina Woods, mother of Vinquez Gunter; Arlyn- thia Adams, mother of Aubrey Hughes; and Katie Campbell, mother of Maloni Hughes. SEE SHERIFF SUED 3A Heart attack killed inmate WHITE An inmate who collapsed and died at the Lamar County jail Sept. 28 suffered car diac arrest, Lamar coro ner Clay Tillery reported Friday. Mose Jerome Banks, 52, of 1147 Dewey St. in Griffin had been in jail for only about 12 hours when he died. He was in a cell by himself. “He ate breakfast then went back to his cell. The nurse went to check on him later and immediately started CPR,” sheriff Brad White said. Banks was in jail on a child support lockup order. The GB1 handled the investigation into Banks’ death and he was autop- sied at the state crime lab. ©2023 THE HERALD GAZETTE, BARNESVILLE, LAMAR COUNTY, GA 30204, 770.358.NEWS RE-ELECT -kit it it it BILL CLAXTON for city COUNCIL @® ®® MS P®SS© ®C3 ^®Wo P