Newspaper Page Text
Council candidates square off Thursday
Early voting begins Oct. 12; See first candidate profile pg. 8-9A
Forsyth residents will have
their only chance to hear city
council candidates discuss the
issues on Thursday, Oct. 8.
The Monroe County Reporter
and the Forsyth-Monroe County
Chamber of Commerce are co
sponsoring the candidates
forum at 6:30 p.m. at the board
of education auditorium. The
public is welcome and there is
no charge.
All five council candidates are
invited. They are Mike Dodd,
Rosemary Walker, Gwendolyn
King, Eric Wilson and Jo Anna
Banks. They are competing to
fill three spots on the city coun
cil.
Readers are invit
ed to submit ques
tions for the forum.
Please submit questions
to news@mymcr.net. Attendees
will also be able to submit ques
tions Thursday night. The
Reporter's Gina Herring will
moderate the discus
sion.
The municipal elec
tion is Nov. 3. Early vot
ing will be Oct. 12-30 from
8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Monday
through Friday at the
Registrars Office at 550 N. Lee
Street, next to Pace and Pace.
Inside
MC Bank
opens
Hubbard
branch
See Page 6B
Sports
Third seed
Lady Dawgs
start region
tourney
See Page 1B
Deaths
Grace Ellis Butler
Doris (Dot) Goodman
Williams
See Page 6A
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Former
SCLC
leader
jailed
Pumpkin patch is coming
Forsyth United Methodist Church is anticipating the arrival of
pumpkins for its annual pumpkin patch sale on Oct. 18. There
will be a variety of pumpkins in all sizes. There will also be
gourds, hay bales, and corn stalks. Orders are being taken now
for home or office decorations. Delivery available. Call 994-
5706 to place an order.
Can you grow in a slump?
Up the creek, unhurt
Sheriff's deputies say it's a miracle that a DOT worker was
barely scratched on Thursday after crashing his truck down
a 20-foot ravine into Todd Creek outside of Forsyth. The
driver, Solerman Richard Kerr of Manchester, veered off
the south shoulder of Hwy. 41 in his DOT-issued yellow
2004 Ford F-250. The truck spun 180 degrees and landed
on its side in the water below at around 11:16 a.m. Kerr
was treated by Monroe County EMTs and taken by ambu
lance to Monroe County Hospital. No serious injuries were
reported. Above, Eric Buice of Buice’s Garage helped re
trieve the vehicle from the creek. At right, the DOT truck is
righted, and displays the bumper sticker “Every life
counts...Please drive safely.” (Photo/Will Davis)
The former president of the
local Southern Christian
Leadership Conference
(SCLC) is in the Lamar
County
into a rela-
Are there really ways to generate
business in a recession?
The Forsyth-Monroe
County Chamber of
Commerce will host a Lunch
& Learn Seminar on just
that topic at noon this
Wednesday at Alderman
Hall. Robert Williams, co
owner of the Monroe County
Reporter, will lead a seminar
whose theme will be
"Building Business in a
Down Economy."
Williams will cover topics
like in-store marketing, using
your customer list for direct mail and
email; store signage; employee train
ing; phone etiquette and marketing;
traditional media like radio and news
paper and whatever else anyone wish
es to discuss.
Williams partnered with editor Will
Davis to buy the Reporter in 2007. His
SouthFire Newspapers Group also
includes The Blackshear Times, The
Alma Times, the Charlton
County Herald in Folkston,
The Telfair Enterprise and
Three Rivers Gazette in
McRae.
Williams’ newspapers have
won more than 300 state and
national awards for journal
istic excellence. He was the
2007 recipient of the
National Newspaper
Association’s James O. Amos
Award, the highest honor
given nationally by the com
munity newspaper industry.
He was the 2008 recipient of the Dow
Nimmer Award, given by the
Blackshear/Pierce Co. Chamber of
Commerce for “outstanding contribu
tions to economic development and
education” in his community.
The public is invited to bring a bag
lunch and join the discussion. No reser
vations are necessary.
WILLIAMS
County, surveyor question
Handel’s punt of line dispute
charged
with ram
ming his
tractor
tive's truck
and then
trying to
run family
members
off the HOLLOWAY
road.
Claude
Holloway, 57, of 231
Holloway Road, Barnesville,
turned himself into the
Lamar County Sheriffs
Office on Oct. 1 after a dra
matic run-in with family
members, apparently stem
ming from a property line
dispute.
A Forsyth native, Holloway
has been a leader in the civil
rights community here, mod
erating a meeting between
city officials and disgruntled
black city employees in 2006.
Several of those employees
later filed civil rights law
suits against the city.
But last Thursday, Lamar
deputies were called to
Holloway’s home over a
domestic dispute at around
6:30 p.m. According to the
report, Holloway was mowing
grass on his tractor when a
relative, James Holloway,
arrived on the scene with
surveyor James Butler.
See ARREST pg. 7A
McDonald, whom the
county has hired to help
county attorney Michael
Dillon handle the county
line dispute. McDonald
works for the respected
Atlanta law firm King
and Spalding.
Handel has asked an
administrative law judge,
Michael Malihi, to hold a
hearing on the dispute
and make a recommenda
tion to her. And, at Bibb
County's request, Malihi
subpoenaed state-
appointed surveyor Terry
Scarborough to give a
deposition in the case.
See COUNTY pg. 7A
BY WILL DAVIS
Monroe County commis
sioners are
asking secre
tary of state
Karen Handel
to re-think her
decision to
divert the
Monroe-Bibb
dispute to
another
venue.
The county
filed two
VAUGHN
requests with Handel last
week, one asking her to
reconsider her
decision to send
the issue to an
administrative
law judge, and,
short of that,
one asking her
to clarify the
rules of the
game. The
requests were
filed by attorney
Letitia