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ONE DOLLAR WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2021 PIKE COUNTY SHOWDOWN! Local FFA Livestock Show Team members win big at recent events. See page 7 A Helen Mangham dies at 105 Helen Mangham, a lifelong Pike resident and the oldest sibling of the Guinness World Records Oldest Five Siblings in the World, passed away at 105 years old. She lived in the Lifsey Springs area for almost her entire life and passed away at her home Feb. 19. Funeral services were held Monday Feb. 22 at Beulah Baptish Church where Flelen was a member and worked for many years as director of the Sun day school program. See her full obituary on page 5A. Teen Summit set for Feb. 27 February is Teen Dating Violence Aware ness month. Studies show one in three high school students expe rience either physical or sexual violence, or both, that is per petrated by someone they are dating or going out with. During February’s Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, Promise Place has partnered with the national campaign of Love Is Respect to promote teen dating violence awareness. The 2021 Teen Sum mit’s theme, “#lthing,” will encourage teens to engage in and maintain healthy relationships. The summit will be held virtually on Sat urday, Feb. 27 on the HOPIN Platform from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Visit Promise Place at promiseplace.org for more information. PHOTOS COURTESY OF BIG MACHINE Local teen Callista Clark recently released her first album and it’s already receiving glowing reviews. To find out more and purchase CDs and merchandise, go to CallistaClark.com. Local teen releases first album BY RACHEL McDANIEL news@pikecountygeorgia.com Talented Pike County musician Cal lista Clark recently released her debut album Real To Me and her original songs are already gaining media at tention across the globe. The Journal Reporter caught up with the 17-year-old musician just as she finished an online interview with a UK media outlet. “The response, especially from the local community, has really been awe some,” she said. “Everyone has sup ported me for a long time and 1 know a lot of people have been waiting for me to release an album.” Real to Me includes five songs released through Big Machine Records that Callista produced with Nathan Chapman and penned in Nashville with renowned writers Jonathan Singleton, Chris DeStefano, Liz Rose, Laura Veltz and others. “It’s pretty incredible that 1 got to work with some of the top songwriters in Nashville. I’m so glad they took a chance on me when 1 am a young musi cian and writing with them was some of my first co-writes,” she said. “These are still some of our favorite songs and the ones we knew we wanted to put out first.” Callista said the first song she ever wrote was in fifth grade and it started out as a poem for a poetry contest. “It was called Wildfire and when my mom read it, she said this needs to be a Callista Clark, 17, recently released her first CD of original songs she helped write. song. So my mom was the first person 1 ever co-wrote with,” she said. To purchase Real To Me on CD or other merchandise, go to CallistaClark. com. Callista co-wrote each song including her first single It’s Cause 1 Am, Heartbreak Song, Change My Mind, Don’t Need It Anymore and the title track Real To Me. See ALBUM page 2A Over 1.7 million vacdnes given COVID-19 deaths in Pike rise to 21 Another Pike citizen has died due to CO VID-19 but the number of confirmed cases in the county has dropped for the fourth week in a row. There were 41 confirmed cases in Pike over the past two weeks, compared to 67,86 and 93 in the previous two- week periods. There have been a total of 965 confirmed cases in Pike since the pandemic started, causing 21 deaths with 10 probable deaths and 62 hospitalizations ac cording to the Georgia Department of Public Health as of Feb. 22. According to the GDPH, 1,750,686 vac cines had been dis tributed as of Monday morning, including 988 in Pike County. To schedule a CO VID-19 vaccination through District 4 Public Health (which includes the Pike County Health Department), call 762- 888-8180 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Vaccine recipients must either be medical workers or first responders, people aged 65 or older or their caregivers or people 16 to 64 with underlying health conditions which increase the risk of life- threatening complica tions from the disease. Free drive-thru COV ID-19 testing is offered ev ery other Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Pike County Health Depart ment. Pre-registration is recommended at makeo. exchange/scheduler/ registration/?location= 2434. Pike students started back this week after winter break last week so there are no new COVID-19 numbers from the school system. School board District 1 seat open after Edge resigns Board of education District 1 member and chairman Ryan Edge re signed from his seat re cently, leaving an open seat for his district. He was arrested Jan. 5 by the GB1 on six counts of felony theft by deception while working at The Southern Credit Union in Griffin for the alleged theft of funds dur ing loan processing. The board of educa tion is currently accept ing letters of interest from individuals who want to be considered for the vacant District 1 seat and they must be submitted by 4 p.m. Feb. 25 to the Pike County board of educa tion office at 16 Jackson Street, Zebulon, GA. To be eligible for appoint ment, candidates must be a resident of Pike County for at least 12 months and reside within District 1 and be a qualified voter. Candidates for the position may not be employed on the governing board of any private educa tion institution or be employed by the Pike County school system or the Georgia Depart ment of Education. The citizen appoint- See EDGE page 3A RYAN EDGE VA Center construction delayed by rain, still set to open 2022 BY RACHEL McDANIEL news@pikecountygeorgia.com Pike County’s VA center has been delayed by rains but construction is still ex pected to be finished in time for the center to provide services for veterans in the first quarter of 2022. “The United States De partment of Veterans Affairs’ new Community Based Out reach Clinic in Pike County is scheduled to open in 2022, bringing much needed access to VA Health Care in our area,” said Rob Johnson, Georgia Department of Veter ans Services office manager in Griffin. “We are excited and very grateful, as I’m sure you are, to have this facil ity opening soon in support of all of the veterans and their families who have been underserved for so long. I’d like to personally thank everyone in Pike County for working so diligently to make this medical facility become a reality.” The Griffin office of the Georgia Department of Veterans Services recently released statistics from Fis cal Year 2019, showing that there were 1,316 veterans in Pike County with a total of $6,686,000 in compensation and pensions for the year. The report states that there were 690,726 veterans in Georgia in 2019, includ ing 2,055 in Upson, 4,619 in Spalding, 9,912 in Fayette, 1,624 in Butts, 464 in Talbot and 19,918 in Henry coun ties. The total compensation and pensions for veterans in Georgia in 2019 was $4,383,902,000. “Our mission is to serve Georgia veterans, their dependents and survivors in all matters pertaining to veterans’ benefits,” said Johnson. “Many of our clients encounter numerous and complex problems relat ing to veterans benefits. The Griffin Veteran Service Office continues to be instrumental in assisting recipients in our area to receive $295,325,000 in direct VA monetary pay ments from Compensation and Pension with a Total Expenditure in our area of $369,812,000.” PHOTO BY RACHEL McDANIEL / PIKE COUNTY JOURNAL REPORTER The front parking lot of the new VA Center on Highway 19 north was flooded last week after several rainy days but work continued inside the structure. Construction should be complete in time for the first veterans to get care at the clinic in the first quarter of 2022. According to recent information from the Department of Veterans Affairs, there were 1,316 veterans living in Pike County in 2019, with many more in the surrounding counties who will travel to Pike for the VA services offered here.