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Bulldog Deadline is Wednesday
Salute Your Bulldog In the 2021 Pigskin Preview
DEADLINE: AUGUST 11 • PUBLICATION: AUGUST 18
THIS WEEK’S INSIDE DEALS ►►►
www.MyMCR.net • Vol. 50 • No. 32
BICENTENNIAL
R5 *
STILL JUST $1 IN RACKS
* CELEBRATING 200 VEHRS *
E5T. 1821
BUT ONLY 77 CENTS FOR HOME DELIVERY usps997-84o
4 Sections, 24 Pages • Wednesday • August 11,2021
INSIDE ► ►►
BOE votes 3-2
to require
masks on all
students K-12
SEE PAGE 4A
WELCOME
TO THE FAMILY
Robert Gibbs
Robert Rutland
Marlon Moore
Jan Miller
Mark Smith
Aarahwanna Roe
Lisa Jiminez
NEW SUBSCRIBERS
OF THE WEEK
DEATHS >»6A
Glenda Ard
Klonnie Cragg
Robert Davis
Thomas Blessitt
Jean Ann Zellner
Robyn Johnson
□ fiflOS
^341b
Wrecks claims Forsyth man
Speed was likely a factor
when a Forsyth man died
on Thursday night after
flipping his car and striking
a tree on Lassiter Road
around 6 p.m„ according
to the sheriff’s office.
Thomas Blessitt, 30, of
Forsyth was dead on the
scene after wrecking his
Hyundai Sonota near the
900 block of Lassiter Road.
The sheriffs office said
BLESSITT
the vehicle was traveling
west on Lassiter Road
toward Blue Ridge School
Road and was going
around a curve and crossed
over into the other lane.
Blessitt then over-corrected
the Sonata causing him to
lose control of the vehicle.
The vehicle left the road,
flipped and hit a tree
resulting in Blessitts death.
The accident is under
investigation.
Thomas
Blessitt,
inset,
was
killed
in the
crash on
Thurs
day.
Woman
charged
stabbing
wifes tire
By Steve Reece
stevereece@gmail.com
From left Bryant Walker, Calvin Johnson, Adecia Walker and Rodney Walker at the Hall of Fame induction
in Canton, Ohio over the weekend. (Special to the Reporter)
‘Trip of a lifetime’
Forsyths Walker sees former player inducted into Pro Football Hall of Fame
By Will Davis
publ isher™ mymcnnet
Former Mary Persons player
and coach Rodney Walker of For
syth called it the “trip of a lifetime”
after returning from Canton,
Ohio on Monday where he saw
his former player Calvin Johnson
inducted into the Pro Football
Hall of Fame.
Johnson became the youngest
wide receiver ever inducted into
the Hall of Fame at the age of 35
on Friday. He holds the NFL re
cord for the most yards in a season
(1,964 in 2012) during a stellar
9-year career with the otherwise
lowly Detriot Lions. Johnson
played for Walker at Sandy Creek
High School in Fayetteville from
2001-04 and invited Walker to the
ceremony. Walker took his wife
Adecia and grandson Bryant, a
junior at West Georgia.
Did Walker dream 21 years ago
that his skinny 14-year-old wide
receiver would one day be in the
Hall of Fame?
“You knew he was talented, you
could see that,” said Walker. John
son didn’t start until his sopho
more year. But he said what really
set Johnson apart was his family.
“His mom is top of the line,” said
Walker. “She has a doctorate in
education and she does a good job
raising those four kids.”
Walkers son Chip was the track
coach at the time and he and the
baseball coach fought over John
son’s talents in the spring. That
is until JVlrs. Johnson finally told
Chip: “He’s gonna play baseball.”
That was probably a good deci
sion since the Anaheim Angels of-
See WALKER Page7A
A Forsyth woman is charged with
stabbing her “wife’s” tire after an alter
cation on Aug. 2.
Candice Leigh Price, 38, of 491 Edge
Road told Monroe County deputy
Dalton Mosely that she and her “wife”,
Jennifer Leigh Price, 39, had not been
getting along all weekend and Jennifer
had been acting
crazy, yelling,
and cussing and
throwing things.
Candice said
Jennifer was
upset about be
ing arrested the
night before for
disorderly con
duct by Forsyth
police. She said
she couldn’t deal
with it and tried
to get some of her things and leave but
Jennifer began screaming and tried to
stop her.
Candice said she began videoing the
altercation and went outside and got
into her car but as she was trying to
leave, Jennifer was standing in the way
brandishing a knife. She said Jennifer
then began stabbing at her front pas
senger tire.
Candice told Mosely she didn’t think
she punctured the tire at the time and
drove to her mother’s home on 77 An
derson Lane. Once she inspected the
tire after arriving, she noticed the tire
had gone flat. A warrant was taken out
on Jennifer Price for criminal trespass.
JENNIFER PRICE
Commissioners nix planned tax hike
By Will Davis
publisher@mymcr.net
Monroe County commis
sioners backed off plans to
hike property tax rates on
Thursday, instead deciding
to keep the rate the same as
last year, 13.187 mills.
District 4 commissioner
George Emami, the first to
speak out against plans made
in February to hike tax rates
by 1.5 mills, eventually won over all
four of his fellow commissioners.
They voted unanimously to
keep rates as they were.
In holding the line on
taxes, commissioners
rejected or postponed some
big spending items suggested
by county manager Jim
Hedges. Plans to plow $2.4
million into road paving, for
instance, were shelved. Com
missioners said they hope
EMAMI
voters will approve an increase in the
sales tax (T-SPLOST) in November
to pay for more road paving.
The owner of a Monroe County
home valued at $250,000 (with the
Homestead Exemption) would pay
$ 1,160 in county property taxes
for 2021, the same as in 2020. That
doesn’t include school taxes. Most
values went up in 2021 as the county
tax assessors set new values based
on the county’s sizzling real estate
market.
“My job is to do the will of the
people,” said Emami. “And right now
by a couple hundred votes that will
is to keep the tax at what it is. What I
hear them saying is find ways to save
money:’
Emami said Congress is already
looking to raise taxes and that makes
people have even less appetite for a
tax increase.
“We are in a very difficult time,”
See TAXES Page 6A
