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UBEPLAM
Concord council members recently
discussed plans for the annual festival.
See page 3A
PIKE COUNTY
JOURNAL REPORTER
ONE DOLLAR
www.pikecountygeorgia.com
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2021
PIKE'S PEEK
Special
election set
for Sept. 21 in
Williamson
A Sept. 21 special
election will be held
for Williamson council
Post 5 for candidates
Donna ‘Bunny’ Scog
gins and Steven ‘Steve’
Davis. Advanced
voting will be held at
the Board of Elections
office at 81 Jackson
Street in Zebulon from
Aug. 30 to Sept. 17
from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday voting will
be offered Sept. 4 and
Sept. 11 from 9 a.m. to
5 p.m. as required by
law for all elections.
Election day voting
will offered be at the
Williamson Library
from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
at 65 Patton Court in
Williamson.
Nominations
needed for
Post awards
Pike County Ameri
can Legion Post 197 is
sponsoring and seek
ing nominations for
the Pike County Law
Enforcement, Fire-
fighter and Emergency
Medical Technician
(EMT)/Paramedic of
the Year Awards.
Nomination packets
can be emailed to Bry
an Richardson, Post
Historian at rich5060@
bellsouth.net no later
than Sept. 26. Contacts
will be quickly notified
if their nominee has
been selected.”
The Award Ceremo
ny will be conducted
at 6 p.m. on Oct. 13 at
Pike County American
Legion Post 197. For
more, email rich5060@
bellsouth.net or call
678-764-2611.
Jf
" *
SEE YOUR
NAME HERE,
SUBSCRIBE!
COVID deaths increase; more cases
in younger children in school system
Pike County’s con
firmed C0V1D-19 cases
has continued to climb,
reaching the highest
number of cases in a two
week period since the
pandemic started.
In Pike, there were 109
confirmed cases in the
past two weeks accord
ing to the Georgia Depart
ment of Public Health as
of Aug. 23. There have
now been 32 deaths of
Pike residents since the
pandemic began, 1,320
confirmed cases, 15 prob
able deaths and 91 hos
pitalizations according to
the Georgia Department
of Public Health. The
average age of COV1D-19
victims in Pike is 69 with
the youngest being 28
years old.
In the school system,
the primary school has
a 2.8% positive rate with
22 positive cases and the
Ninth Grade Academy
has a 2.4% positive rate
with eight positive cases.
“Just like we are hear
ing in the news, it is hit
ting the younger kids and
the primary and elemen
tary school numbers are
larger than at the middle
and high school,” said
deputy superintendent
Ross Iddings during a
COVID update at the Aug.
17 board of education
meeting. “We have strong
plans in place for if we
reach the 2% threshold
and we will be more
restrictive but the policy
will largely mirror what
we did last year.”
As of Aug. 20, there
were a total of 52 con
firmed COV1D-19 cases in
students and 8 confirmed
cases in staff according
to the school’s website
at pike.kl2.ga.us/covid-
19-data/.
There are a total of
192 quarantined students
and 14 quarantined
adults in the school
system.
More than 5 million
Georgia residents have
received the COV1D-19
vaccine with 42% fully
vaccinated and 49% hav
ing at least one dose of
vaccine.
In Pike, 26% of citizens
- or 4,817 residents - are
fully vaccinated with 30%
having at least one dose.
The vaccine is available
at retail locations, doc
tor’s offices and the Pike
County Health Depart
ment on Tuesdays. To
make an appointment, go
to district4health.org or
call 888457-0186 Mondays
through Friday from 8 a.m.
to 8 p.m. and Saturday
from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
PHOTOS BY RACHEL McDANIEL / PIKE COUNTY JOURNAL REPORTER
Liam Wofford points out a pollinator on a flower at Wild Daisy Farm in Molena as he and other
Pike County Elementary Students take part in the Great Georgia Pollinator Census.
Students join Great Georgia Pollinator Census
Pike County Elemen
tary School students
from Ashley Wright and
Mandi Wood’s Project
Based Learning Program
took part in the 2021
Great Georgia Pollinator
Census as they studied
plants at the Wild Daisy
Farm in Molena on Aug.
20, made homes for bees
and learned about impor
tant pollinator traits from
Jim Quick, UGA master
beekeeper. The special
program was organized
by the Pike County FFA
and UGA extension office.
The Great Georgia
Pollinator Census is a
community science proj
ect and over the past two
years, more than 8,000
counts were submitted
and more than 100,000
insects were counted.
On Aug. 20 and 21,
participants were asked
to count pollinators on a
favorite pollinator plant
for 15 minutes. Counters
place the insects they
find into one of eight
Above, students prepare to search for pollinators, including
(l-r) Kali Garner, Zoe Booker and Sarah Harris. Below, Mayson
Wood holds up a honeycomb as she learns about pollinators.
categories, including
bumble bees, carpenter
bees, small bees, honey
bees, wasps, flies, but
terflies/moths and other
insects.
The goals of the proj
ect are to gather data
on the pollinator insect
population, to create
pollinator habitat and to
increase entomological
literacy around these
insects.
Find out more about
the project at https://
GGaPC.org.
Students in the PCES Project Based Learning Program visited Wild Daisy Farm in Molena as
they participated in the Great Georgia Pollinator Census.
Hunter Strickland
recovers from COVID
with teammate in Pike
ADAM MCCALVY
MLB.com
Hunter Strickland
called it “a good situa
tion for a bad situation,”
and that sounded about
right.
Strickland and fellow
Brewers reliever Jake
Cousins were both back
on the ac
tive roster
for Aug. 10’s
day-night
double-
header
against the
Cubs after
recover
ing from
COVID-19
together at
Strickland’s
property in
Pike Coun
ty, Georgia.
With their return, four
of the nine Brewers
sidelined either by a
positive test or because
of contact tracing were
back in action.
Strickland and
Cousins came down
with symptoms during
the Brewers’ July 30 -
Aug. 1 series in Atlanta,
about 70 miles north of
Strickland’s new home
in Meansville, Ga. So the
duo spent their quaran
tine there - Strickland in
a guest room away from
his family, and Cous
ins in a camper that
the Stricklands use as
their home base during
Spring Training.
“1 had my own
setup,” Cousins said.
“1 had a chair outside
where I would go out in
the morning and read.
He’s got 200 acres. It
was beautiful Georgia
country.”
A mile away, Strick
land had outfitted a
warehouse with ev
erything he needs to
train in the offseason,
including dirt mounds
and Rapsodo tracking
devices. The pair did
their throwing there and
returned to active duty
this week essentially
without skipping a beat.
Strickland came back
with a 1.76 ERA in his
first 14 appearances
for the Brewers, who
picked him up from
the Angels in early
June. Cousins had yet
to be charged with an
earned run in his first
13 appearances for the
Brewers.
“Our ambitions are
the same,” Strickland
said. “We understand
the situation we’re in,
and to push through it
together was definitely
a positive.”
“The only thing that
changed is that we
didn’t get game reps,”
Cousins said. “We
didn’t get to throw to a
catcher, we just threw
into a net. But 1 mean,
just keeping your arm in
shape was huge, and be
ing able to see
your pitches
and throw to
Hunter and
have him give
feedback and
everything.
We would run
after we throw.
1 mean, just
like what we
normally do
before a game.
So yeah, we’re
hoping to not
have to skip
a beat and just be able
to come back and keep
rolling.”
Strickland had the
tougher time with the
coronavirus. His symp
toms started with a
fever and body aches.
He lost his senses of
taste and smell and
still doesn’t have them
back. He developed bad
head congestion and
completely lost hear
ing in his left ear; that
was still problematic as
he returned to action.
Cousins, meanwhile,
had symptoms that
resembled a sinus infec
tion.
Both players were
vaccinated against
COV1D-19, the club said
previously.
“Who knows what my
symptoms would have
been like if I wasn’t vac
cinated?” Cousins said.
“I’m assuming that’s
the reason why 1 had a
stuffy nose and that’s
it.”
For Cousins, a cousin
of Minnesota Vikings
quarterback Kirk Cous
ins, the timing of his
return was perfect. He
was born in Park Ridge,
Ill., a northern suburb of
Chicago.
“Driving on the bus
yesterday, just see
ing the whole front
of Wrigley Field and
everything, and coming
in as a player is really
cool,” Cousins said. “I
mean, this is the place
I grew up coming to.
It’s going to be fun. I’m
excited to be here and
get to watch the top of
the first inning in the
dugout and just kind of
take it in, and then after
that, it’s all back to busi
ness.”
HUNTER STRICKLAND