Newspaper Page Text
June 15, 2022
MONROE COUNTY
Community
Calendar
Calendar items run free
of charge as a community
service each week as space
allows. Mail items for the
Community Calendar to Diane
Clidewell at newMmymcr.net
by 8 a.m. on Monday.
June 6-30
Free Summer
lunches for children
Community Improvement
Coalition of Monroe County
(CICMC) will again serve
lunch meals to children 18
years and younger in Monroe
County. The two sites will
be Union Hill Apartment and
Forsyth Gardens Apartments.
Dates and times are Mon-
day-Thursday, June 6-30 from
12 noon-12:30 p.m. For more
information, contact CICMC
at 478-394-1089.
June 16
Ribbon cutting for Upson
Regional Medical Center
helipad
There will be a Ribbon Cut
ting for the new helipad for
emergency medical transport
at the top parking deck of
the Upson Regional Medical
Center, 801 Gordon Street,
Thomaston on Thursday, June
16 at 10:30 a.m.
June 18
Citizens' Firearm
Safety Training
Monroe County Sheriffs
Office will hold a Citizens’
Firearms Safety Training
Course on Saturday, June 1 8
beginning at 8 a.m. for those
21 and up. It will cover use,
proficiency and safety and is
limited to those who live and/
or work in Monroe County. A
background check is reguired.
The course is free, but partici
pants must provide their own
legal handgun, belt, holster,
eye & ear safety equipment
and at least 100 rounds of
ammunition. There is a limit
of 30 participants. Applica
tions available at the Sheriff’s
Office. For more information,
contact Sgt. Kevin Williams at
478-994-7048.
Sports Hall of Fame
Induction Banquet
The annual Forsyth-Monroe
Sports Hall of Fame Induc
tion banquet celebrating
hometown sports heroes will
be Saturday, June 1 8 at 6:30
p.m. at the Monroe County
Conference Center. Tickets
are $40. Tickets and more at
www.Forsyth-MonroeSport-
sHallofFame.com
June 18-19
Health Empowering
Weekend
Forsyth New Life Mission of
Seventh-day Adventists, 200
Milledge Circle, Forsyth (Cor
ner of S. Frontage Rd.) will
present a Health Empowering
Weekend on Saturday, June
1 8 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. (Lunch
will be served) and Sunday,
June 19 from 1:30-4 p.m.
Topics included will be heart
disease, diabetes, healthy
cooking class and simple
herbal remedies. There will
be Questions & Answers and
more. For more information,
call 404-322-5683.
June 21 8c 22
Georgia Council for the
Arts town hall meetings
Georgia Council for the Arts
is holding two virtual town
hall meetings to get input
from artists, arts organiza
tions, teachers, school officials,
tourism professionals, business
leaders, and anyone interest
ed in the arts in Georgia . All
input from the meeting will be
used to put together GCA's
next strategic plan. The first
will be Tuesday, June 21
from 10-1 1:30 a.m. and the
second will be Wednesday,
June 22 from 1-2:30 p.m.
June 25
Fire Station 1 has Open
House & Push-In
ceremony
There will be an Open House
and Push-In Ceremony on
Saturday, June 25 from 9
a.m.-1 2 noon at Monroe
County Emergency Services
Headquarters ~ Fire Station
# 1 at 693 Juliette Road in
Forsyth. The community is in
vited to see the new engines
being placed into service.
Tradition dictates that new
engines are pushed into
quarters by the firemen just as
in the days of horse-drawn
See CALENDAR
Page 3B
Community 1B
Around Monroe County ► ► Forsyth • Juliette • High Falls • Bolingbroke • Culloden • Smarr
Local icon is printing its last T-shirts
Steve & Dena Mason
By Diane Glidewell
news@mymcr.net
A Monroe County family busi
ness that has been an integral part
of the community for over 30
years will be closing soon. Steves
T-Screens designs and prints
those special T-shirts that united
Mary Persons teammates and
fans, announced family reunions,
supported recreation team players,
identified church events or pro
claimed a Relay for Life team with
a special hometown touch.
Steve Mason said that he heard
there was some screen printing
equipment for sale and decided
to buy it in 1986 or 1987. He was
working at Star Printing and fig
ured it shouldn’t be hard for him
to learn how to print T-shirts. He
said he learned that T-shirt print
ing is actually the reverse of other
types of printing in most of its
procedures. Instead of a negative,
you make a positive.
Steve opened his business in
1988, and it has operated steadily
since then from 14 E. Johnston
Street in Forsyth. Steves T-Screens
operated side by side with Star
Printing until that 65-year-old
business closed in May 2020. Steve
was co-owner of Star Printing
with Shelly Shuman.
Steve said the main thing that
pushed him to close Steves T-
Screens is the difficulty in getting
T-shirts to print. He said there has
been a shortage of T-shirts indus
try-wide for the last year. As an
example, Dena, Steves wife, said
that one customer needed 10 one-
pocket shirts of any color, just so
they were all the same color. Dena
contacted multiple suppliers. She
finally found one in Pittsburg that
had 10 shirts of the same color
available; that was out of its 40
color options. She said when she
tries to order 800-900 shirts for a
customer, she is lucky to be able to
get half of that amount.
“The T-shirt shortage is unbe
lievable,” said Dena. “I
never thought I would
see the day’
Once the couple made
the decision to retire,
they put their building
up for sale and posted it
on Facebook, thinking it
would take a few months
to sell. It sold within
two hours, and the next
morning there were four
people at the door want
ing to make offers on the
building.
Now they have to be
out by July 1, and they
have to pack up many
items that have been in
the building for years.
Star Printing moved to
14 E. Johnston Street 40
years before it closed.
Steve’s T-Screens has tru
ly been a family business.
He and his wife, Neva,
opened it. Children Can
dy, Feslie, Tiffany and
Trey all worked at the
business, as well as some
nieces. Dena has worked
alongside Steve at T-Screens for 26
years. The most recent family ad
dition to the business was grand
daughter Marie McManus, whose
work was greatly appreciated.
Candy remembers spending
many nights in town printing
shirts, growing the business. She
did bindery work at Star Printing
and managed and did whatever
needed to be done at T-Screens
until she graduated from college
in 2003.
Steve said he also employed
many Mary Persons students over
the years through the school’s
distributive education program.
He said he was partial to hiring
football players since he filmed the
Bulldogs’ games for Coach Dan
Pitts for 30 years. But he said the
girls were always the best workers.
He said they seemed to get into
the work more and didn’t mind
getting dirty.
“Screen cleaning can be a dirty,
messy job sometimes,” said Steve.
Steve said he and David Hop
per filmed Mary Persons foot
ball games for Coach Pitts from
1973-2003. He said Pitts loved
his film, rewinding and playing
back segments over and over as he
studied the games. He continued
doing the service for the football
program until he couldn’t get film
for his equipment any more.
Steve is a Mary Persons gradu
ate. His parents moved to Monroe
County from North Carolina
when he was four months old. He
attended Upson Technical School,
earned certification in drafting
design and was offered a good
job in Carrollton but decided
he wanted to stay in Monroe
County. He accepted a job with
Bob and Shelly Schuman at
Star Printing and never left.
Asked about his favorite T-shirts
among the many thousands of de
signs he has printed, Steve thought
of the walking dog for Mary
Persons and the Backyard Brawl
T-shirts saying ‘We don’t talk
trash; we burn if. He said some
of the Mary Persons cheerleader
shirts were fun to design. Steve
acknowledged that he has also
designed many shirts for Jackson
High School.
He said he hated the yellow gold
that was being used on Mary Per
sons shirts and worked to come
up with an old gold ink. He said
he set a Mary Persons helmet on
the table and began mixing ink to
come up with the right shade. He
noted that although many people
refer to T-shirt designs as paint,
they are done with ink.
“Steve is the genius of the
artwork. Everything is custom-
made,” said Dena. “Steve sits down
for hours and comes up with the
design.”
“I try not to do any of the same,
even when I’m asked to copy a
design,” he said. “Being creative
is fun, but sometimes it’s a pain.
Sometimes I stop and take a walk
around the block.”
T-Screens biggest customer
currently is the shops in Juliette.
He has been producing Fried
Green Tomato shirts for the last
10-12 years and said it is incred
ible how many T-shirts are sold
in Juliette. He said he was watch
ing a national news story about a
hurricane several states away and
spotted one of his Fried Green
Tomato shirts on the person being
interviewed.
Steve said his Juliette customers
were crying when he told them
he was closing T-screens. He has
decided to set up his equipment in
his backyard and continue to print
Fried Green Tomato shirts but
See T-Screens • Page 3B
Culloden celebrates renovated city hall
By Diane Glidewell
news@mymcr.net
Culloden showed off
its newly renovated City
Hall on Wednesday, June
8. Mayor Fynn Miller
welcomed everyone and
said how pleased she and
the Culloden city council
are with the work. Minister
Fesia Atwater offered a
prayer of thanksgiving.
“It’s a big deal for us. It
was rough, but we sur
vived,” said Miller.
Fast October, in the
midst of heavy rainfall
throughout the area,
Culloden was deluged
with 17 inches of rain.
Miller said Culloden
was already dealing
with roads washing
away and residents
having other problems
caused by flooding.
One day Bennett
Norris called her and
said to check on City
Hall because water
was flowing in. Miller
entered city hall to find
it knee-deep in water and
mud.
Michael Lovett and Red
Oak Remodeling LLC was
hired to fix the damage. It
became a 7-month project
as carpet was ripped
out and sheetrock was
removed. An attractive
chair rail was added in the
large meeting room where
council holds its meetings.
In the back room, which
city clerk Lisa Elder uses
as her office, Fovett built
a small room that en
closes the heating unit
and provides an area for
storage.
Miller said Fovett was
wonderful to work with
throughout the project.
During the renovation
Elder moved down the
street to the city’s com
munity club house but
found herself frequently
returning to city hall
to retrieve records and
other things needed.
She said she is glad to be
back home in city hall
again.
Miller said there are still
some projects ongoing to
improve drainage around
city hall in case of exces
sive rain in the future. She
said some of the drainage
system was damaged in the
heavy rains last fall. Carter
and Sloope Engineering
Consultants are working
with Culloden as it brings
a new well online for its
water system. Will Jackson,
who works for Carter &
Sloope, said the new well
will have greater pumping
capacity than Culloden’s
other two wells. It will
pump water into the city’s
water tank, which serves
all of Culloden. Citizens
should see better water
pressure when the new
well comes on line.
Locals came to see the results of seven months
of renovations at Culloden City Hall. They
included, above, left to right, Ga. Rep. Rob
ert Dickey, Monroe County BOC chair Greg
Tapley, Forsyth Mayor Eric Wilson, commissioner
Eddie Rowland,Sheriff Brad Freeman, Culloden
Mayor Lynn Miller. Pictured left, left to right are
Culloden council member Sarah Jean Ray, Will
Jackson who is working on a water project for
Culloden with Carter & Sloop, Culloden council
member Tell is Daniel, Forsyth Mayor Eric Wilson,
Culloden council member Dr. Margie Bryant,
Culloden city clerk Lisa Elder, Monroe County
public relations officer Richard Dumas.
Culloden city cate for the community”
and “was a champion for
righteousness and follow
ing proper protocol when
dealing with city business.”
Current Culloden coun
cil members are mayor
pro-tem Tellas Daniels, Dr.
Margie Bryant, Miranda
Hall and Sarah Jean Ray.
Those celebrating the
renovation of city hall on
June 8 enjoyed the catering
of Janet Edge.
council has a plaque ready
to present to the family of
former city council mem
ber Julie Stallings, who
passed away on May 30.
The city will issue a resolu
tion honoring Stallings,
who served on council for
23 years, from 1990 until
2013.
The resolution says Stall
ings “worked tirelessly and
was an outspoken advo-