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Vol. 141, No. 18 - Waynesboro, Ga. 30830
Established in 1882
Wednesday, June 23, 2021 - $1.00
Man receives two life sentences for double murder
SHELLIE SMITLEY
thetruecitizen.shellie@gmail.com
Quame Lamar Collins will
spend the rest of his life be
hind bars.
Collins was arrested by
U.S. Marshalls in New York
in March 2017 for the murders
of Burke County residents
Eddie Lewis Grubbs, 64, and
65-year-old Marshall Jordan.
The two men were found
dead in a home on the 5000
block of River Road Janu
ary 23, 2017. A third man,
Walter Smith, 65, was shot in
the leg. Burke County Chief
Deputy Lewis Blanchard said
in 2017 that it was learned that
two men entered the Burke
County residence and bred
multiple shots.
Collins was charged with
a total of 10 felony charges.
He was 26 years old when he
committed the crimes.
Judge Daniel J Craig held
nothing back when he sen
tenced Collins Monday.
Lor the murders of Grubbs
and Jordan, Collins received
two life sentences with no
chance of parole. Addition
ally, Craig sentenced Collins
to life for the armed robbery
charge, 5 years for each count
of possession of a firearm
during the commission of a
crime, 20 years for the ag
gravated assault on Smith and
10 years for the possession
of a firearm by a convicted
felon. All the sentences run
consecutively.
Collins was on probation
when he committed the mur
ders. Originally charged with
murder in 2014 for the death
of Mandrekgus Delvin Bon
ner, the state did not prosecute
and Collins pled guilty to a
lesser charge of hindering
apprehension or punishment
of a criminal in 2016.
Quame Lamar Collins
Yearly aquatic weed harvesting of Jones Lake has reduced the task from
a clearing level to a maintenance level.
SHELLIE SMITLEY • thetruecitizen.shellie@gmail.com
The Community Betterment Council is working to gain back approximately
an acre of lost lake area.
A look at the history of Jones Lake gives a better understanding of the
struggle attached to it. Originally, the CBC’s ambition was to accomplish
many different civic projects by pooling resources with area organizations,
according to President Carol Jones.
In 1956, John J. Jones decided to donate a swampy part of his land, ap
proximately 35 acres to the CBC. Historically, this area was the Jones Mill
Pond, and remnants of the mill still exist, she said.
The CBC then worked with the City of Waynesboro and Burke County to
construct the lake. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a spillway in the
1950s. Jones later developed more of his land into what is now the Spring
Valley Subdivision.
The CBC became less active, but never dissolved. It was revived, with new
leadership in 2017.
The condition of the lake deteriorated over the years, reaching a
low point in 2011. Conditions seemed hopeless despite expensive
spraying. An alternative spraying approach improved the condi
tions for a few years.
SEE
LAKE,
7
The Community Betterment Council’s vice-
president, Mike Bickley, points out areas of
blockage that the organization is seeking
to improve.
fudge orders temporary hold
on Augusta Judicial split
SHELLIE SMITLEY
thetruecitizen.shellie@gmail.com
Senior Judge Gail S. Tusan
issued a 30-day temporary
restraining order June 15 pre
venting the Augusta Judicial
split from moving forward
with its plans.
Tusan was presiding over
the civil lawsuit filed by At
torney Willie Saunders April
28, which names Burke, Co
lumbia and Richmond Coun
ties along with Governor Bri
an Kemp as the defendants.
The judge ordered the coun
ties to “immediately cease
activities in the furtherance of
the implementation of Senate
Bill 9 and the creation of the
Judicial Circuit for Columbia
County,” in order to “preserve
the status quo and prevent
irreparable harm to the plain
tiff and the public served by
defendant counties.”
Senate Bill 9, passed by the
General Assembly in January,
authorized the split to take
place July 1.
Tusan took over the case af
ter the Augusta circuit judges
recused themselves. Tusan
has been removed from the
case by way of a June 21
order, after Burke County
expressed concerns over a
possible con- g^
JUDICIAL,
flict of inter
est associated
with Tusan’s
Secretary of State removes
Burke County voter files
SHELLIE SMITLEY
thetruecitizen.shellie@gmail.com
Nearly 100 Burke County
voter hies will be removed
from the state’s voter registra
tion rolls.
Secretary of State Brad
Raffensperger announced the
first major list maintenance
effort following the Novem
ber 2020 election cycle. Ac
cording to a June 18 press
release, 101,789 obsolete
and outdated voter hies will
be removed from the state’s
voter registration rolls. More
than 67,000 hies are associ
ated with a National Change
of Address form submitted to
the U.S. Postal Service, more
than 34,000 had election mail
returned to sender and more
than 200 had no contact with
election officials for at least
five years. The SOS also
removed more than 18,000
files based on information
received from Georgia’s Of
fice of Vital Records and
the Electronic Registration
Information Center.
“Making sure Georgia’s
voter rolls are up to date is key
to enduring the integrity of
our elections,” Raffensperger
said in the release. “That is
why I fought and beat Stacey
Abrams in court in 2019 to
remove nearly 300,000 ob
solete voter hies before the
November election, and will
do so again this year. Bottom
line, there is no legitimate
reason to keep
ineligible voters SEE
on the rolls.” SOS,
According to 5
Residents encouraged to choose a vaccine as variant Delta heads this way
SHELLIE SMITLEY
thetruecitizen.shellie@gmail.com
Georgia’s COVID-19 vac
cination rate is among the
lowest in the nation with only
37% of Georgians fully vac
cinated, according to the state
Department of Public Health.
Burke County is consistent
with those statistics. Accord
ing to the DPH dashboard
June 21, only 30% of Burke
County residents are fully
vaccinated.
DPH continues to encour
age residents to make the
choice to get vaccinated.
“There clearly is no deny
ing that vaccination is ef
fective,” said Burke County
Health Department Nurse
Manager Gina Richardson.
“We can track cases daily
and see signihcant declines.
The importance of vaccina
tion is simply this; the higher
the level of community im
munity, the larger the benefit.
What we do know is that
population immunity makes it
more difficult for the disease
to spread. We can amplify and
achieve population immunity
with natural immunity and
vaccination.”
Not all COVID-19 vaccines
are the same.
Paul Sax, M.D., a Professor
of Medicine at Harvard Medi
cal School and an infectious
disease specialist, provides
valuable information about
the vaccines in The New
England Journal of Medicine.
Two messenger RNA
(mRNA) vaccines are current
ly available in Burke County,
one developed by Pfizer/
BioNTech and the other by
Modema.
According to Sax, after
they are injected, the mRNA
is taken up by a large cell
capable of absorbing bacteria.
The cell, either stationary or
as a mobile white blood cell,
instructs other cells to make
the spike protein, inducing
an immune response that
mimics the way the body
fights off infection. Enzymes
then degrade and dispose of
the mRNA. No live virus is
involved and no genetic mate
rial enters the nucleus of the
cells. Both vaccines require
two doses.
The Johnson & Johnson
vaccine is also available. The
one-dose vaccine is geneti
cally engineered in a lab and
can’t reproduce in humans.
The researchers took DNA
from SARS-CoV-02 and
made it stable enough to be
carried within the adenovirus
(any of a group of DNA virus
es first discovered in adenoid
tissue, most of which cause
respiratory diseases). The
adenovirus can’t replicate, but
its genetic gEE
material
can enter VACCINE
the person’s 14
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