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THIS WEEK’S INSIDE DEALS ►►► cvs . ingles . sears
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On the Porch 4A
On the Outside Looking In 5A
SPORTS ► ►►
Senior
Center
unveils its
new look
SEE PAGE 8C
Welcome
TO THE FAMILY
Mary Simmons
Royce Hopkins
NEW SUBSCRIBERS
OF THE WEEK
DEATHS m6A
James E. Miller
Leland Noble
Hawkins
Henry L. Hill
INDEX ► ►►
MCR VENT. 3A
Opinion & Letters 4A
Sports 1B
Community Calendar. 4C
Church News 5C
Public Record 3B
Classified ID
Legals 2D
www.MyMCR.net • Vol. 47 • No. 27
4 Sections • 24 Pages • Wednesday • July 4,2018
The old cupola atop
the old Mary Per
sons High will finally
get a paint job.
Old Mary Persons gets
a $1.7 million face-lift
Steps to the old Mary Persons High auditorium have been demol
ished to make way for new, handicapped accessible steps.
By Diane Glidewell
news@mymcr.net
Monroe County’s school
board has begun a $1.7 mil
lion renovation of the Board
of Education building at 25
Brooklyn Avenue, which was
built about 1929 and is remem
bered by many as the original
Mary Persons High School.
More recently the building has
served as the Central Office for
Monroe County Schools, hous
ing its superintendent, assistant
superintendents, director of
technology and other system-
wide administrators as well as
being the place to register new
students.
The BOE auditorium is also
part of the building; its use has
diminished since the open
ing of the new, much larger
Fine Arts Center next door.
BOE meetings were held in
the building until May when
construction began.
The major need for reno
vation in the building was
replacement of the many large
windows and window frames
that surround the building.
The roof needs new shingles.
The work will include caulk-
See FACE LIFT . Page 7A
A year in
prison for
hickory
stick
attack
By Richard Dumas
and Abby Cox
A Forsyth man was sentenced to a year
in the Monroe County Jail after he was
convicted by a Monroe County jury of
attacking his friend with a hickory stick
after threatening to have sex with his
friends wife.
Following a half
day trial on June
20, Mack Arthur
Rutland, 50, was
convicted of bat
tery for striking
his friend, Jerome
Bowden, with a
hickory stick out
side of Bowdens
home on Feb. 22,
2017. Rutland was
subsequently ar
rested by Monroe
County deputies at his Edwards Eoop
home.
Dep. Cody Maples of the Monroe
County Sheriff’s Office testified that he
responded to a Hwy. 42 North home at
about 2:20 a.m. on Feb. 22,2017. Maples
said a male resident, identified as Bowden,
told him he was followed home by an
other man, identified as Rutland, who got
out and beat him with a hickory stick as
they pulled into his driveway. Maples, who
never saw Rutland that night, testified he
saw visible injuries to Bowdens back, side
and right forearm. Maples added that he
never saw any weapon in Bowdens pos
session.
Bowdens wife, Gloria Freeman, then
testified that she woke up, saw Rutland
with the stick and called 9 -1 -1. On a
9-1-1 call played in court, Freeman made
reference to “knives and sticks.” However,
Freeman testified that she never saw her
husband in possession of a knife.
Bowden then testified that he had been
with Rutland at his cousin’s home earlier
in the evening and said they had both
been drinking. Bowden said an initial
fight began when Rutland threatened
to have sex with his wife when Bowden
went to work the next morning. Bowden
said Rutland later followed him home at
which point Rutland grabbed the hickory
stick from the bed of his truck and struck
“straight down” on him with it.
Rutland then took the stand himself
and testified that Bowden used to mess
around with his wife, and that night they
were going back and forth about their
spouses. Rutland then testified that they
were later talking outside Bowden’s home
when Bowden pulled out a knife. Rutland
said that’s when he then proceeded to get
the hickory stick from his truck bed. He
said the entire fight lasted about 30 to 40
seconds. Monroe County assistant district
attorney Carolee Jordan was the prosecu
tor in the case.
RUTLAND
6 06605 3341b
6
Hwy. 74 man begs DOT to fix deadly curve
By Abby Cox
cox_abby@att.net
The sickening sounds of screech
ing tires, shattering glass and
crunching metal sends shock waves
through the body. Then come the
overpowering smells of leaking oil
and gasoline. You brace yourself for
what’s to come next.
“You hear it, and it’s like an explo
sion,” says Earl Jackson, long-time
resident of Monroe County.
Unfortunately, Jackson experi
ences these sensations often. On
June 25, yet another nearly-fatal
accident on Hwy. 74 at Bagley Road
was featured in the Reporter, this
one requiring a Fife-flight helicop
ter. The driver, Vernon Green of
Thomaston, remains at Navicent-
Medical Center in fair condition.
Jackson has lived at this danger
ous curve of Hwy. 74 for 19 years,
and he’s now replaced his mailbox
18 times during that span due to
the constant wrecks.
“Before we officially moved into
See CURVE . Page7A
Earl Jack-
son holds
pieces
of cars
that have
wrecked
in front of
his Hwy.
74 home
lately.
Hes re
placed his
mailbox
18 times.
