Newspaper Page Text
Vol. 131, No. 2 - Waynesboro, Ga. 30830
Established in 1882
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Wednesday, March 30, 2011 - $1.
2010 hold-up
Three more McDonald’s robbers named
By Elizabeth Billips
lizbillips@yahoo.com
Police have charged three
more Burke County residents in
the January 2010 hold-up at
McDonald’s.
Among them is a former
employee who was working the
night of the heist, along with
his live-in girlfriend who got a
job there after the robbery.
Sardis resident Kiara Shne’e
Johnson, 21, was picked up by
Waynesboro police last Thurs
day at the same McDonald’s on
North Liberty Street where 14
months earlier she allegedly
dropped off three masked rob
bers and waited while they
rushed the counter with shot
guns and emptied the safe.
According to interim police
chief Alfonzo Williams, two
more suspects are wanted by
police, including Johnson’s 19-
year-old boyfriend Antonio
Dixon who was on the clock at
McDonald’s during the hold
up.
"He helped plan the robbery,”
Chief Williams said. "He paged
and called (the others) to tell
them the safe was open and to
come and rob the business.”
Two of the armed robbers,
Lindsey Ward and Kadeem
Wilkerson, were arrested
shortly after the inside job and
were sentenced in Superior
Court earlier this month.
Information they provided to
investigators as part of their plea
bargains led to the identifica
tion of Johnson and Dixon.
They also implicated a third
armed robber - Wilkerson’s
brother, 19-year-old Rakeen
Wilkerson.
All three suspects are charged
with armed robbery, and
Wilkerson also faces weapons
charges.
“There is no honor among
thieves,” police investigator
Claude Wade said after secur
ing arrest warrants. “They will
tell on each other.”
WHERE ARE THEY?
Anyone with information on
the whereabouts of Rakeen
Wilkerson, below, or Antonio
Dixon is asked to call police at
706-554-8029 or leave an
anonymous message on the
crime tip hotline, 706-554-8021.
Kiara Shne’e Rakeen
Johnson Wilkerson
Police say suspect Antonio Dixon, the employee in
the middle, helped plan the inside job. He allegedly
timed the hold-up by paging and calling the other de
fendants when the safe was open. This photo of the
robbery was taken from security footage
Friends of the Mooney family work on the roof of their new barn.
Raising the roof
Friends and neighbors rebuild family’s barn
By Anne Marie Kyzer
annemariek@thetruecitizen.com
A full day’s work and
a farm full of
friends netted a
brand new barn for
a Midville family.
The old-fashioned bam rais
ing helped the Mooney family
find their footing again after
losing their bam and all its con
tents in a fire.
Just three days after last
Thanksgiving, the Mooney
family’s pole bam burned to the
ground. They were left to sift
through the debris and ashes,
mourning the loss of both a
favorite gathering place as well
as the supply headquarters for
Chuck and Barbara Mooney’s
fencing business.
Around 50 friends, neighbors
and fellow church members
pulled together recently to
erect a new barn from the
ground up in one day.
"You’ve read about commu
nity barn raising from years
ago or heard aout how the
Amish do it now, but we don’t
hear of it happening in our
circles today,” their daughter
Jennifer said. “It was pretty
amazing to see how people
came together and helped us
out.”
Aside from the poles, which
were set the week prior, the
crew raised tmsses, cut lumber
and nailed tin to finish the barn
off that day, she explained.
"It was a beautiful sight with
everyone working together and
the sun shining down on the
new roof... but the most beau
tiful thing of all was the ex
ample these people set for oth
ers around them,” Jennifer re
called. “It wasn’t just a barn
being built that day but a liv
ing, breathing example of how
we can serve our community.”
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Cynthia Eberly surveys the progress during the barn
raising.
Proposed Vogtle expansion
Reactors receive
environmental nod
By Anne Marie Kyzer
annemariek@thetruecitizen.com
Federal regulators have decided there are no environmental
issues that should keep two more reactors from being added at
Plant Vogtle.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission completed its Final
Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (FSEIS) for a
limited work authorization (LWA) and combined licenses (COL)
for the proposed Vogtle Units 3 and 4. The report concludes
that there are no environmental impacts that should keep per
mits from being issued.
The LWA would allow another phase of work to begin, in
cluding installation of reinforcing steel, sumps, drain lines and
other embedded items along with placement of concrete for the
nuclear island foundation base slab. A decision on that permit is
still pending, according to NRC spokesman Joey Ledford.
Southern Nuclear officials have said they hope to have the
COL later this year, which would allow them to begin full scale
construction of the new reactors.
The NRC will base its COL decision on the FSEIS as well as
a safety evaluation report that is yet to be finalized. That report
will include recommendations from the NRC’s Advisory Com
mittee on Reactor Safeguards, an independent group of nuclear
safety experts.
The NRC declined to project a date for their decision about
the COL. Even without the LWA or COL, Southern Nuclear is
allowed to continue with any modular construction as long as it
does not include actually placing the components in their “final
resting places,” according to Ledford.
Southern Nuclear is still waiting on the design to be approved
for the API000 reactors they plan to build. Westinghouse sub
mitted an application to amend the already-certified API000
design in May 2007.
Though the NRC did not project an approval date for the
design, NRC chairman Gregory B. Jaczko said in a speech ear
lier this month that "significant progress” had been made over
the past year on both design certification and COL applica
tions.
“In fact, as early as this summer, the Commission may take
final action on the API000, ABWR and ESBWR design certi
fication rules...,” Jaczko said.
Though the speech was made before the earthquake, tsunami
and nuclear disaster in Japan, Ledford said the NRC’s review
process has not changed.
“We are proceeding under
the same assumptions and un
der the same schedule as be
fore. We have heard nothing
that would change things at
this point,” he said. “We have
a team in Japan that has pro
vided technical expertise and
advice to the Japanese utility
and regulators. They will be
there until the events at the
Fukushima plant are re
solved.”
Ledford said the NRC will
then see what lessons can be
learned from those events as
the U.S. moves forward with
new reactors.
WANT THE DETAILS?
The FSEIS is available on the
NRC website:
www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-
collections/nuregs/staff/sr1947/.
The Burke County Library will
also have a hardbound copy of
the FSEIS available for public in
spection.
More information on the AP1000
amendment review is available
at:
www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reac-
tors/design-cert/amended-
ap1000.html.
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25 NORTH, WAYNESBORO * 706-554-2114 - www.mizelllord.com