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GIRLS GO TO STALL The Pike County High School varsity girls basketball team made it to the state playoffs. See page 7 A PIKE COUNTY REPORTER www.pikecountygeorgia.com WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3, 2021 PIKE'S PEEK Food pantry, service set for March 5 Christ Chapel Com munity Church will hold a special Food Distribution and ser vice at 9 a.m. Friday, March 5 at 68 Old Zebulon Road. Food Distribution for families in need will be held in Christ Cha pel Student Center. There will be a short church service before distribution. Registration for Pike Pre-K underway Registration for the 2021-22 Pre-K school year are underway each week day from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. through March 31. Ap plications are available at the Pike County Pre- K building or online at pike.kl2.ga.us. Instruc tions are included with the packets and they must be submitted by 4 p.m. on March 31. The drawing to determine who is ac cepted into the Pre-K program will be held in April and each appli cant will be notified by phone and/or mail if their child has a space in the program or if they are on the waiting list. All applications received after March 31 will be placed on the waiting list. For more informa tion, contact Tammy Bell at 770-567-4769. Vaccine to be offered to new group Effective March 8, new groups will be eligible for vaccination, including educators and school staff (public and private), adults with intellectual and developmental dis abilities and their care givers and parents with children with complex medical conditions. A website - MyVaccine Georgia.com - has been set up by the state to help citizens register for the COV1D-19 vaccine. Those who don’t qualify for the vaccination at the time of registration will be noti fied when they qualify for the vaccination. Confirmed cases of COV1D-19 in Pike have dropped considerably to 28 in the past two weeks, compared to 41, 67, 86 and 93 in the previous two-week periods, ac cording to the Georgia Department of Public Health COV1D-19 Daily Status Report on March 1. There have been 21 deaths due to the illness in Pike and a total of 977 confirmed cases since March 2020. According to the Pike County school system, the number of current positive students had dropped from 19 to 0 as of Feb. 26, compared to Feb. 12 numbers. The number of positive adults in the school system dropped to one from four. The number of those currently quarantined for close contact to CO- V1D-19 positive students dropped to only nine from 201 and those quar antined for close contact with adults dropped to 0 from six. Since the school year started, there have been a total of 190 CO- V1D-19 positive students and 84 positive adults in the school system with a total of 2,403 students returning from quarantine and 185 adults. Gov. Brian Kemp signed an executive order Feb. 26 extending the Public Health State of Emergency through April 6. See VACCINE page 2A PHOTOS BY RACHEL McDANIEL / PIKE COUNTY JOURNAL REPORTER Animal control officer Tanya Perkins (right) and her assistant William Owensby stand outside the new animal shelter which is under construction on County Farm Road. Animal shelter under construction BY RACHEL McDANIEL news@pikecountygeorgia.com The construction of the new Pike County Animal Shelter Facility on County Farm Road is well under way despite set backs due to the global pandemic and inclement weather. When finished, the shelter will cost a total of around $300,000 (with $225,000 donated by the CLC Foundation) and provide 2,950 square foot of space with 10 separate kennel runs in addition to two separate isolation runs and quarantine runs for animals who might be sick or too aggressive to be around others. It will also include an office, break room, a visiting sitting room for Gail Garrels bends pipe in side the new animal shelter. volunteers and those adopting pets and a veterinarian/animal exam room. “Once the building and grounds department has a guaranteed com pletion date, the county will start planning a ribbon cutting event for the citizens to come out and tour the new facil ity,” said county manager Brandon Rogers. While the county’s animal control office and the animal shelter are two separate entities, animal control officer Tanya Perkins is one of the seven members on the Pike County Animal Shelter board. Other board members include Ruth Chandler on behalf of the CLC Foundation, David Al len, former Pike animal control officer, Suzanne Aaron, president of Coco’s Cupboard, police chief Novin Darsey of the Molena Police Depart ment, Chad Morris of the Zebulon Police Depart ment, veterinarian Daniel Roberts and citizen Julie Smith. See ANIMAL page 3A Wisteria Festival and Talent Show planned for April The Williamson Wisteria Festival will be held Friday, April 2 from 5 to 9 p.m. and again Saturday, April 3 from 9 to 4 p.m. at the Benson Hilley Walking Trail Park in down town Wil liamson. The festival will include arts and crafts, collectibles, antiques, children’s activities and festival foods and drinks. The Williamson Wisteria Festival Talent Showcase will feature area talent starting at 7 p.m. Friday, April 2 with a $100 prize going to the top act. All family- friendly acts are wel come. Call 770-227- 8380 or go to City Of William- sonGa. org for more infor mation about the talent show, the festival or to be come a vendor. See page 3A for the most recent Williamson city council meeting at which the festival was discussed. Carol Berry was the emcee for the first ever Williamson Wisteria Festival’s Talent Showcase. The show was held the night before the first ever festival. Last year’s festival, which would have been the second, was cancelled due to the pandemic but this year’s festival is planned for April 2-3. Sailor from Zebulon aboard USS Iwo Jima, gets vaccinated PHOTO COURTESY OF THE U.S. NAVY Petty Officer Third Class and Zebulon native Kaitlyn Dublin gets vaccinated for COVID-19 aboard the USS Iwo Jima. She serves as a hospital corpsman aboard the ship. A Zebulon native is serving aboard USS Iwo Jima, an amphibious assault ship conducting training in Norfolk, Vir ginia, where she recently received the COVID-19 vaccine. “The vaccine will shortly become a ne cessity in the military to continue being able to protect the ones we love,” added Dublin. “We are responsible for both protecting our loved ones from the front lines and deadly diseases.” Petty Officer Third Class Kaitlyn Dublin is a 2015 Pike County High School graduate. Today, Dublin serves as a hospi tal corpsman. “A hospital corpsman is basically a medical as sistant,” said Dublin. “I as sist with seeing patients, helping procedures and doing screenings.” Dublin joined the Navy more than five years ago to further her knowledge of the medical field. Iwo Jima is the seventh Wasp-class amphibious assault ship and the second ship in the U.S. Navy to bear that name. The ship was named for the Battle of Iwo Jima of World War II. According to Navy officials, guided-missile destroyers are tactical multi-mission surface combatants capable of conducting anti-air warfare, anti-submarine warfare and anti-surface warfare, as well as hu manitarian assistance. Fast, maneuverable, and technically advanced, destroyers provide the required war-fighting expertise and operational flexibility to execute any tasking overseas. With more than 90 per cent of all trade traveling by sea, and 95 percent of the world’s international phone and internet traf fic carried through fiber optic cables lying on the ocean floor, Navy officials continue to emphasize that the prosperity and security of the United States is directly linked to a strong and ready Navy. According to Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday, four priori ties will focus efforts on sailors, readiness, capa bilities and capacity. “For 245 years, in both calm and rough waters, our Navy has stood the watch to protect the homeland, preserve freedom of the seas, and defend our way of life,” said Gilday. “The deci sions and investments we make this decade will set the maritime balance of power for the rest of this century” See VACCINATION page 3A