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Vol. 141, No. 23 - Waynesboro, Ga. 30830
Established in 1882
Wednesday, July 28, 2021 - $1.00
Murder suspect arrested in Florida
DIANA ROYAL
jdianaroyal@gmail.com
A Waynesboro man was arrested
in Florida last week after shooting
his girlfriend in the head.
According to Waynesboro Po
lice investigators, Bobby Jermaine
Turner, 33, has been charged with
murder, theft by taking (automo
bile), possession of a firearm by a
convicted felon and possession of
a firearm during the commission of
a crime.
Authorities say Turner is suspect
ed of shooting 36-year-old Stephanie
Gordon, whose body was found
inside a home on Wallace Street in
Waynesboro on July 22. Turner re
portedly called the victim’s mother
to say he had shot Gordon and was
about to kill himself. Gordon suf
fered two gunshot wounds: one in
the left forearm and one in the head.
Turner was arrested later by the
St. John’s County Sherriff’s Office,
near St. Augustine Florida, where
the victim’s 2012 Honda Accord was
recovered. He also faces charges of
vehicle theft (possession of a stolen
vehicle) from St. John’s.
As the investigation is still active,
no other information is currently
available.
Bobby Jermaine Turner
As Burke County gears up for a new school year, United Way is helping ease the
burden of purchasing basic school supplies for families in need. “We know that
setting up students for success starts with adequate back-to- school supplies, so this
year we’re making it even easier to participate,” said Brittany Burnett, President
and CEO of United Way of the CSRA.
Two donation options are requested until July 30th: both physical school sup
plies and online monetary donations. “Our goal is to maximize student learning
this year and every year, and we’re proud to step in once again to help families in
need,” she added.
All physical donations can be brought to Walmart in Waynesboro on July 30th
from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. There, school supplies will to be sorted, labeled, counted,
and loaded onto the bus by local volunteers and sent to Burke County Schools for
distribution. Sponsors for the event are the Burke County f*1 '‘VjOjSivlp 1 I**!
Board of Education and the Waynesboro Walmart. I
For those interested in supporting Stuff the Bus through
a one-time, online donation this year, please click on the
QR Code below or text “Burke” to 40403. Donations made
online will be used to purchase school supplies and distrib-
uted to Burke County Students. LJ WT^ftW rAI
COVID numbers
begin to climb locally
SHELLIE SMITLEY
thetruecitizen.shellie@gmail.com
Editor’s Note: This is part 3 in
a 3-part series about real life CO
VID-19 experiences. According to
the Georgia Department of Public
Health, as of July 27, only 34% of
Burke Coun ty is fully vaccinated.
During the height of the pandemic,
Burke Medical set up a miniature in
tensive care unit in a hallway because
there was a lack of hospital beds in
the State of Georgia.
“We transferred many, many pa
tients to Lexington, South Carolina,
Piedmont, Atlanta, Savannah and
some to Florida,” Chief Nursing
Officer Debbie Burch said. “The first
part of the pandemic was not that bad
for us, like from July until the end of
the year, but January until April or
the first of May was the worse part.”
Some of the patients, with underly
ing medical conditions, deteriorated
to the point that they were unable
to be moved to another facility, she
said. They elected to stay and go
into hospice.
“From March of 2020 until cur
rent, we have seen 283 COVID
patients between our ER and our
in-patient facility,” she said July 12.
“Out of that, we had three in-patient
deaths and one in the ER.”
The number of COVID-19 cases
is beginning to rise at Burke Medi
cal Center again. Just last, week the
hospital had a patient test positive for
the virus again..
“We went for about a month
without seeing any,” Burch said.
“But now we are starting to see an
occasional case.”
However, this is to be expected,
considering the low vaccination rates
throughout Georgia, according to
CEO Mike Hester..
Burch said most of the COVID-
positive patients are younger this
time, averaging between 35 to 55
years old. The hospital has no way of
knowing if the patients are infected
Chief Nursing Officer
Debbie Burch
with the original virus or a new
strain. None of the most recent pa
tients testing positive for the deadly
disease have been vaccinated. It is
the first question the ER staff asks.
All of the patients dodged the virus
the first time around.
“I do believe that the variant will
cause us some problems moving
forward because the last I saw,
Burke County is only about 34%
vaccinated,” she said. “That’s pretty
low for this big of a county and this
many people.”
Burke County is not alone in
its low vaccination rate. However,
resisting the vaccine is common in
surrounding counties as well.
Burch said she doesn’t understand
the hesitancy to get vaccinated. She
believes younger people do not
see themselves as vulnerable .The
Delta variant is known for affecting
younger people, she pointed out.
One of the most difficult aspects of
the virus that Burch experienced is
that patients were left to fight the dis
ease isolated from friends and fam
ily. The disease is not a kind virus, it
often leaves its victims fighting for
their lives as it ravages their bodies
and affects their ability to breathe.
Sewer ordinance still stinks for property owners
SHELLIE SMITLEY
thetruecitizen.shellie@gmail.com
Waynesboro’s sewer ordinance
could prove to be a complicated
matter to fix.
Property owners faced with sewer
problems can now pay a bit less to
repair lines located under the roads
or sidewalks.
City Council members voted July
19 to grant property owners tem
porary relief from part of the sewer
ordinance that pins “all costs and ex
penses incidental to the installation,
repair and connection of the building
sewer” on the owner. The ordinance
currently requires property owners to
pay for tearing up and repairing pipes
that exist under roads and sidewalks.
Owners must still fix the sewer line
that exists on their private proper
ties, but can pay the city to take care
of sewer repairs that extend from
their property lines out
to the streets. The new-
and-improved cost to the SEWER
property owner for the 6A
The diagram, at right, shows a single sewer main
running down the center of a city street, gener
ally depicts situations found in Waynesboro,
and poses a number of questions for the Utilities
Committee to ponder when contemplating an
amendment to the city’s sewer ordinance. Houses
1020 and 1022 have their own service lines tying in
to that main; the service line from house 1019 ties
into the service line of house 1021 which then runs
as a single line to the city main under the street.
Houses 1016 and 1018 face the next street over
which has no sewer main. The service lines run
from the back of the houses, under the properties
behind and tie into the main on the next street over.
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