About The Monroe County reporter. (Forsyth, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 16, 2009)
Kids' Letters to Santa (inside) Submit your Christmas thoughts at www.mymor.net this week ONLY for our Christmas edition (See page 2A for details.) Evans: Green’s Hie problem James Green is the problem in this community. 7 - School board member J.P. Evans EVANS BY WILL DAVIS Long-time school board member J.P. Evans told a packed board meeting last Tuesday night that James Green is "the problem in this community." Green had just spent more than 10 minutes criti cizing the school board's decision to transfer former Hubbard Elementary principal Kay Williams to the central office. Evans had abstained from voting on Nov. 17 on a motion to move the controversial principal. But when Green, after speaking for double the normally alloted five minutes, interrupted Evans’ attempt to See EVANS page 7A GREEN A PROBLEM? James Green speaks to school board members last Tuesday. Inside Mary Persons shows the Christmas spirit See Page 3B Sports Check out new rec park at Mt. Zion Methodist See Page 1B Deaths Ray Lee Mullis Kenneth Earl Peterman, Sr. See Page 6A CO “O .— ^ TO O CO S* o> 2 § S a. « 1 0> *S .* Jr ° > O in 00 R £ n N n (/) o L w w a 2 s -i Backers of ousted Hubbard principal demand answers BY WILL DAVIS About 15 supporters of former Hubbard Elementary School principal Kay Williams demanded last Tuesday that school board mem bers explain their decision to transfer her. But they were countered by a group WILLIAMS of Hubbard parents who thanked the board for mov ing the controversial prin cipal to the central office last month. The two parties wound up exchanging heated words over whether race played a role in the decision. The school board had little response. Speaking at the end of the board's regular monthly meeting, Green told the board it should not have approved the transfer on Nov. 17 because two school board members, Eva Bilderback and Nolen Howard, were absent. And he said board members should have gotten Williams' side of things. Williams was hired from Detroit earlier this year to be the new principal at Hubbard. But after four months on the job she was transferred to a new job running an after-school See video at www.mymcr.net program for middle school ers. That after parents complained that she was injecting racial and politi cal strife into the school. School officials spent two days interviewing parents and school staff before the board made its decision Nov. 17. Parents com plained that Williams recited the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish over the intercom, announced a minority fact of the day about a notable black or Hispanic, had a doll named for President Obama and brought political figures like Green and commis sioner Larry Evans into PTO meetings. See WILLIAMS page 7A Chris Sheridan and Co. proposed wrapping a 3-story addition around the current county building on Main Street. County weighs building proposals BY WILL DAVIS Monroe County commissioners heard three proposals for a new county adminis trative building on Monday, and they already have very divergent plans to con sider. Commissioners selected six construction and architectural firms to bring proposals for a new building to go on the county’s property around West Main and Chambers streets. The county has about $3.5 million in sales tax revenues for the project. One contractor, New South, proposed a stand-alone 22,000 square foot building with a tower at the Chambers Street site behind the library. Two other two suggested addi tions to the current facility on Main Street. Chris Sheridan and Co. proposed adding a three-story wrap-around addition to the current facility to New South Consruction proposed this stand-alone administrative building facing Chambers and Phelps streets. Dublin Construction is proposing an annex behind but connected to the current county commissioners’ office. keep the county's offices on the square. A third, Dublin Construction, proposed adding a 19,700 square foot annex behind but connected to the See BUILDING page 11A Two dead in fiery crash A Monroe County woman and her boyfriend are dead after a one-car accident early Friday morning on Hwy. 42 north in northern Monroe County. Angela Place, 33, of 261 Blount Road, Forsyth and Daniel Echevarria, 42, of 615 Hickory Ridge Road, Jackson were found dead in his Pontiac GTO early Friday. The accident happened less than a mile from Place's home. A call to the 911 center at the Monroe County Sheriffs Office around 1:39 a.m. reported a car on fire on Hwy. 42. A deputy responded and found the car engulfed in flames and two people appar ently inside. A preliminary investigation revealed that the southbound car, a Pontiac GTO, left the roadway in a curve, struck an oak tree, and caught fire. The sheriff’s office said it appeared the driver left the road and then overcor rected. The bodies were taken to the GBI Crime Lab for identi fication. Neighbors say Place was a kind, attractive lady who worked as an appraiser in the Warner Robins area. Her fam ily members reportedly own the Buckner's Restaurant in Jackson.
