About Pike County journal and reporter. (Zebulon, Ga.) 1980-current | View Entire Issue (May 29, 2024)
COUNTY REPORTER ACK IN THE BIGS! Pike County’s Hunter Strickland is pitching from the Angels’ bullpen with a 2.14 ERA. See page 1B ONE DOLLAR www.p kecountygeorgia.com WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 2024 Proposed $2.4 million increase for Pike schools Pike County Schools will hold a budget hearing at noon Tuesday, June 4 as they consider the proposed 2025-26 budget. The $40,549,890 proposed budget is an increase of $2,407,813 from the 2024 school budget of $38,142,077. An increase of $1,510,668 was due to the governor’s man date to increase the State Teacher Salary scale by $2,500 and due to continued increases in health insurance benefits. Compared to Fiscal Year 2024, the pro posed budget would increase just over 6% or $2.4 million. Instruction (which includes staff sala ries) would see a $1.6 million increase with Maintenance and Operations increasing by $307,973 and Pupil Services increasing by $332,960. Improve ment of Instruction would increase by $105,546. The June 4 meeting will give the public an opportunity to ask questions about the proposed FY25 bud get. The board also held a May 28 budget hearing. The budget will be considered for final adoption at the board’s regular meet ing at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 11. All meetings will be held in the Ninth Grade Academy Collaboration Room at 7360 Highway 19 south in Zebulon. Proctor vs. Pullin in June runoff BY RACHEL McDANIEL news@pikecountygeorgia.com The May 21 primary election included a landslide for sheriff and a close race between two of three candidates for commission District 3. A June 18 runoff election will be required as two of the candidates for com mission District 3 were only one vote apart. Incumbent District 3 representative Jason Proctor received 381 votes with challenger Ken Pullin receiving 382 votes and challenger Todd Child receiving 213 votes. Both Proctor and Pullin received 39% of the votes and will face each other in the June 18 runoff election. Early voting will take place June 10-14 for the runoff election with Election Day voting from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on June 18. Voters in the Zebulon precinct will cast their ballots on Election Day at the Pike County Audito rium. Sheriff Jimmy Thomas will not be part of the June runoff election as he got 83% of the vote with VOTE a total of 2,896 votes over challenger Scott Gray’s 581 votes. Challenger Jamal Wil lis must gather 671 signa tures by July 9 in order to run as an independent in the November election. The number of signatures is based on the number of voters in the last elec tion for sheriff. Other races in the state that are headed to a runoff election in June include the U.S. House of Representatives District 3 seat. Among Republican voters in Pike County, Brian Jack got nearly 57% of the votes at 1,902 votes, followed by Mike Crane with 567 and Mike Dugan with 487 votes. Among Demo cratic voters in Pike, Val Almonord got 127 votes and Maura Keller got 186 votes. Statewide, Brian Jack got 46.7% of votes and Mike Dugan received 24.9% of votes. They will face each other in the runoff in June. Statewide, Maura Keller received 53% of votes and will not be required to be part of the runoff election. In Pike, Justice An drew Pinson got 71% of votes, followed by John Barrow’s 29%. Statewide, Pinson received 55% of votes over John Barrow. In the race for Court of Appeals (Miller), Jeff Davis received 82% of Pike votes with Tabitha Ponder getting 18%. PHOTO BY JOHN ELLIS The skies of Pike County will be buzzing with activity as the PeachState Aerodrom in William son hosts their annual Vintage Day celebration. The event will feature vintage airplanes, cars and tractors as well as festival foods, activities for kids and many different vendors. Williamson airport to host Vintage Day Saturday, June 1 The skies will buzz with activity as Peach State Aerodrome in Williamson hosts their Vintage Day event on Saturday, June 1. Visitors can see the students who are part of the Ron Alexander Youth Aviation Program at work in the Jim Hoak hangar and at the festival. There will be a wide variety of vendors, food trucks, airplanes to see and ride, live music and more! PHOTO BY RACHEL McDANIEL / PIKE COUNTY JOURNAL REPORTER Last year’s Vintage Day was for all ages. Pictured are (l-r) Cash Strom, Cruz Strom, River Zambuto and Rhett Zambuto For more information Hannah.Wilson@ Peach about the event, email StateAero.com JOIN THE ADVENTURE: Sign up at library Adventure Begins at Your Library is this year’s theme for the summer reading program at the J. Joel Edwards Public Library. “What an adventure is it going to be! The program will have exciting new features and will engage whole families, kids and grownups alike. Each week in June and July will highlight a special kind of adventure: adventure in imagination, travel, outside, adventure in the dark, in scavenger hunting, and adventure close to home,” said new library manager Baylynn Strader. The family adventures at the library will begin with the star performance by Lee Bryan the Puppet Guy accompanied by snacks, games, and fun on bouncy inflatables June 1 at 1 p.m. Whole- family programming geared toward all age groups will take place on Thursdays at 1 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. The new tween SPECIAL PHOTO Library assistant Cami Hoopes and other staff have spent hours prepar ing for the summer reading program at the J. Joel Edwards Public Library. adventure program will include children 6 to 11 years of age and will be held on Tuesdays at 11 a.m. The tweens will participate in Dog Man Extravaganza, Bubble Paloosa, tile coasters decorating, glow in the dark painting, cupcake wars, scavenger hunt with the book time capsule, constellation jar making, creating a memory board and competing in Library Olympics. See ADVENTURE page 3A Commissioners discuss road improvements, projects Pike County commis sioners discussed several road improvements at their May 15 meeting, including a road that a citizen offered to pay for materials to improve. “We have made quite a bit of headway on roads since our last meeting,” said county manager Brandon Rogers. He informed commis sioners that resident Glenn Bufford requested an area of Dunn Road be paved and agreed to pay the around $40,000 for materials if the county would lay the asphalt. “The agreement is that whatever the cost of materials is, he would pay for it and set up his own account with CW Matthews and the county would just pick up the materials and put it on the road,” said Rogers. It was noted that the improvements would be in a small area of Dunn Road. “This looks to be a great deal for the county and my motion would be for approval,” said com missioner Tim Guy. Commissioners agreed to postpone work on Second District Road. It was noted that time is needed for negotiations with the city of William son since half the road is owned and maintained by the city and half by the county. “We need to get that ironed out before we move forward,” said com missioner James Jenkins. Commissioners moved Woodard Road from the alternate roads list to the list to be completed. County manager Rogers noted that with increases in SPLOST funding, the county will have ad ditional funding that should cover Woodard Road. “Woodard Road is in bad shape and there are a lot of houses on the road,” said Jenkins. The board also heard from commissioner Jason Proctor who said he attended a Council on Aging meeting and talked with local seniors, many of whom requested the public’s help with home improvement projects. “There are some local seniors who could use help with home improve ment projects. A lot of them have walkers or canes and it’s difficult for them to keep their yard cut and other small proj ects. If anyone is willing to help our seniors, stop by the senior center for more details.” THE COUNTY ALSO: • Appointed IDA director Kyle Fletcher to serve as the appointment of Pike County to Post 5 of the Griffin-Spalding County Area Regional Airport Authority and to authorize chairman Briar Johnson to sign the resolution. • Appointed Craig Smith to the Pike County Parks and Recreation Authority to fill an unex pired three-year term set to expire June 20, 2025. It was noted that there are other openings on the board as well. • Heard the local chap ter of the Cattlemen’s As sociation have offered to help out with Employee Appreciation Day by pro viding a good meal. Rog ers noted the cost would be $800 to $1,000 less than last year and would allow the board to mingle with employees during the event instead of cook ing the entire time. • Approved the pur chase and installation of a kitchen hood ventila tion system for the senior center. It was noted that food costs to provide meals for seniors are likely to increase and the ventilation system and other upgrades would allow the senior center to provide their own meals. • Approved the sur plus of library property, including uncirculated books and cubicles, on GovDeals.com. • Held a public hear ing on the Capital Im provements (CIE) annual update and approved the transmittal and autho rized chairman Johnson to sign the resolution. • Approved a tax re fund application of $30.70 for the estate of Sarah Harkness. • Denied a request to approve CivicPlus for the maintenance of the county’s website.
