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MONROE COUNTY
Community Calendar
Calendar items run free
of charge as a communi
ty service each week as
space allows. Mail items
for the Community Cal
endar to Diane Glidewell
at news : -mymcr.net by 8
a.m. on Monday.
Volunteer Firefighter
Class
Monroe County Emergency
Services will begin a new
Volunteer Firelighter Class on
Jan. 10. It will meet on Mon
days & Thursdays from 6-10
p.m. through May, offering
State of Georgia Firefighter
certification as well as CPR
and First Aid and opportu
nity to test for NPQ-1. To
sign up call 478-993-1633
or email DaBrown@monro-
ecoga.org.
New pavers at Monroe
County Veterans Me
morial to be engraved
For those who have been
thinking about honoring a
family member or friend who
is a veteran by engraving
a paver at the Veterans
Memorial on the Monroe
County Square with his
or her name and informa
tion, it is an excellent time
to follow through with that
intention. It is necessary
to wait for engraving until
there are a sufficient number
or orders. Enough orders
have been received, but
the engraver is now waiting
to receive stencil materials.
Orders placed now will be
engraved and ready to view
at the Veterans Memoria
within a few months. It has
been three years since new
pavers were last engraved.
To place an order contact
Dr. Priscilla Doster at 478-
994-9613 of PDoster48@
aol.com.
Jan. 17
Culloden will have
parade and speaker to
celebrate Martin Luther
King Jr. Day
Culloden will celebrate
the Life and Legacy of Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr on
Monday, Jan. 17 starting
with a parade at 9 a.m.
The parade will begin at
the City Limits at the corner
of Norwood Street and
Lockett Street and continue
to St. Phillip A.M.E. Church,
36 Fort Valley Road. The
Reverend Dexter Jordan
of the Center Hill Baptist
Church, Macon will deliver
the address. Participants may
park and celebrate. Bring
family and friends to honor
this great man.
Forsyth will celebrate
Martin Luther King Jr.
Forsyth will celebrate Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr.'s birth
day with a community-wide
event honoring the legacy
of Dr. King, on the Court
house square at 12 noon on
Monday, Jan. 17. Jesse Hicks,
Head Football Coach of
Baldwin High School will be
the keynote speaker. All are
invited invited to share in this
event.
Due to COVID-19 cases
continuing to increase,
Forsyth’s traditional Martin
Luther King Jr. Day celebra
tion will be adapted for
safety as it was last year.
The celebration committee,
chaired by James Hogan,
decided it best to forego
the community march from
the square to Kynette United
Methodist Church and the
program at Kynette UMC
that has brought standing-
room-only crowds and is
usually followed by a fellow
ship meal.
Jan.21
Chamber Annual
Meeting & Community
Awards
The Forsyth Monroe County
Chamber of Commerce
Annual Meeting & Commu
nity Awards, sponsored by
United Bank, will be Friday,
Jan. 21 at 6 p.m. at the
Monroe County Conference
Center, 475 Holiday Circle,
Forsyth. For tickets, call 478-
994-9239
Reception for Caitlin
Bennett Jackson
There will be a drop-in re
ception for Monroe County
Extension coordinator/agri
culture & natural resources
agent Caitlin Bennett Jack-
son at the Extension office,
484 Highway 83 S, Forsyth
on Friday, Jan. 21 from 3-5
p.m. She has served Monroe
See CALENDAR
Page 3B
January 12, 2022
/^~*\ • . ^Reporter
Community
Around Monroe County ► ► Forsyth • Juliette • High Falls • Bolingbroke • Culloden • Smarr
Injury turned Hickman
into Monroe County’s
up and coming artist
By Steve Reece
stevereece@gmail.com
When most people think
of an artist, they visualize
someone with a brush, dip
ping it into different colors,
mixing and matching, and
applying paint to canvas or
maybe a board. Not so with
local artist Elizabeth Hick
man who creates amazing
paintings with the tips of
her fingers with her canvas
on the floor as opposed to
an easel. Elizabeth said she
started out with a brush
when she received a water-
color paint kit as a Christ
mas gift in 2016 but transi
tioned to using her fingers
when she discovered it was
easier to achieve the look
she wanted and preferred
the look over brushes.
She now frequently uses
acrylic, pastel markers, oil,
and spray paint all on the
same painting. She said if it
makes color she’ll use it.
She said most of her
inspiration for her paint
ings comes from God. She
always includes a hidden
cross in her paintings and
said just like in everyday
life, you must search for the
cross. Most of her paintings
are country-themed and
she especially enjoys paint
ing barns. She said she has
a lot of her own paintings
hanging in her house be
cause her husband, Justin,
who is an IT manager at
Robins Air Force Base will
see one he likes and insists
it isn’t going anywhere.
Hickman is a former
hairstylist who hurt her
wrist and was looking for
something to do with her
life and painting was the
natural thing to do. She
now has a successful busi
ness selling her works and
is a member of the 1823
Artisans Guild where some
of her paintings and orna
ments can be purchased.
Her creations can also be
bought at the Fox City
Brewery, Hometown Trea
sures, and The Mint Salon
in Macon. She was voted
the Best Artist in Monroe
County by readers of the
Reporter in the annual
contest in the spring.
Elizabeth is a life-long
resident of Monroe County
and now lives out in the
country on Hwy. 42 with
her husband and three
children, 10-year-old Ty
who recently broke his leg
playing football at the rec
department, 7th grader
Elizabeth Hiekman
Izzy and 8th grader Caro
line who is also a talented
artist.
The family is excited
about moving into their
new home constructed
just next door. Of course,
Elizabeth had a part in the
design of the house which
sits next to a beautiful lake.
They were planning to
celebrate their first Christ
mas in the two-story home
this year.
New BOE district maps OK’d
By Diane Glidewell
news@mymcr.net
Potential candidates and voters
for four Board of Education seats
that will be up for election in a few
months should check the BOE
district maps. Monroe County
Schools administrators presented
the recommended new maps to
the board and the public at a called
meeting on Thursday, Jan. 6 and
will vote on approving them on
Tuesday, Jan. 11.
Seats up for election in 2022 and
their incumbents are District 1
James P. Evans Jr., District 3 Greg
Head, District 5 Nolen Howard
and District 7 Eva Bilderback.
Qualifying for candidates will be
Monday-Friday, March 7-11 at the
Monroe County Board of Elections
office in the county annex. Board
of Education positions are non
partisan.
The qualifying fee is tentatively
$27. The qualifying fee is a per
centage of the pay board members
receive. Board members are paid
per meeting, and $27 reflects one
regularly scheduled meeting per
month. However, Assistant
Superintendent Jackson Daniel
said the amount may be ad
justed to reflect actual pay last
year, including several called
meetings.
District lines have to be re
drawn this year to reflect popu
lation changes shown in the
2020 U.S. Census. Jackson said
the census lists 27,260 people
in Monroe County so the ideal
number in each of the seven
districts would be 3,894. The
existing districts deviated from
that number by more than 800
too many to more than 600
too few. In the new maps Dis
trict 7 has exactly 3,894, while
one district is 35 people over
and another is 32 people under.
Jackson said the school system
asked for assistance from Georgia
Rep. Dale Washburn in re-drawing
the maps. The maps were drawn
by experts in Atlanta to reflect
population with attention to
number of voters in each district
and demographics of the districts.
District 1, including most of the
city of Forsyth, is still the smallest
School board members Eva Bilderback & Greg Head check
out changes in the map of Monroe Countys school board
districts. Pictured, L-R, are Nevaeh Bilderback, Eva Bilder
back, Greg Head.
district geographically, but District
7, which includes Bolingbroke, be
came smaller in land area because
of its increased density of popula
tion.
Jackson said the mapmakers
were given the addresses of current
board members and drew the lines
so as not to move them out of their
districts. He said after board mem
bers approve new maps on Jan. 11,
the maps will be put out for public
comment before
becoming final.
Those looking
at the map might
notice one blank
space in the cen
ter. It represents
the A1 Burruss
Correctional
Facility whose
population is
removed from
the count for
districting pur
poses because
it is non-voting.
Daniel said
those studying
the map will
find a number
of new roads not on the maps ap
proved 10 years ago.
School board members whose
terms do not end in 2022 include
District 2 (the largest district geo
graphically) Dr. Priscilla Doster,
District 4 Dr. Jeremy Goodwin and
District 6 Stuart Pippin.
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Other
I.S
Map layers
Pictured left are the current seven districts for Monroe County Board of
Education members. The map was adopted in 2012 to reflect the 2010
census. Pictured right is the proposed adjusted map of the BOE districts
drawn to balance demographic information from the 2020 census. It will
determine voting districts for four BOE seats up for election this year.