Newspaper Page Text
Page 3A
June 29, 2022
S&S8&
Reporter
Oglethorpe donating land for new fire station
This map shows where the old Smarr fire station was, and where county officials plan to
put the new one after Oglethorpe Power agreed to donate 4 acres. (Map/Amy Haisten)
By Will Davis
publisher@mymcr.net
Monroe County plans
to build its new Smarr fire
station off Rumble Road
closer to 1-75 as Ogletho
rpe Power plans to donate
4 acres for the facility.
Commissioner John
Ambrose told the Reporter
that Oglethorpe Power has
agreed to donate land on
Ray Hartley Road, just off
Rumble Road, for the new
fire station. The county’s
long-time fire station on
nearby Evans Road, behind
Mt. Zion UMC, suffered
severe damage in a fire in
December 2021. Firefight
ers blamed the blaze on
an older fire truck engine
parked in the bay.
Ambrose said they
wanted to move the fire sta
tion closer to the interstate,
since many of the county’s
911 calls emanate from
there. Ambrose said they’re
surveying the property in
preparation for Ogletho
rpe transferring it to the
county.
The land won’t cost the
county any money, and
the county has $345,463 in
insurance money from the
fire to build a new one.
Ambrose said commis
sioners plan to build a fire
station like the one they
had originally planned to
build in High Falls when
the state park there was
going to donate land for
it. However the state later
realized the land couldn’t
be donated for a fire sta
tion. The county instead
bought the former Falls
View Restaurant to convert
into a fire station, but is
waiting until construction
prices drop.
As for Smarr, Ambrose
said he’s thrilled with the
new location.
“I’m tickled to death,” said
Ambrose. Asked whether
the voting precinct will
remain on Evans Road or
move to the new fire sta
tion, Ambrose said that’s
something they need to
address. Ambrose he’d
like to trim the county’s
current 13 voting precincts
down to about 5. He said
that would save money
in having to hire so many
people to work an election.
He said having 13 precincts
is a setup leftover from the
“horse and buggy” days
when transportation was
more difficult.
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S. Dakota mom, daughter
fly to Ga. for Whistle Stop
Thirty-one years after it debuted, the iconic “Fried Green Toma
toes movie filmed in Juliette is still drawing tourists to Monroe
County from around the country, last week, Emily Thompson,
right, and her mom Deb Christensen flew to Georgia from
South Dakota to enjoy a meal at the famed Whistle Stop Cafe
where some of the movie was filmed. Thompson said she saw
an ad online for the Whistle Stop and told her mom they were
going to Georgia for her birthday, which was June 18. We re
big fans of the movie, said Thompson. The ladies stayed at
the Super 8 hotel in Forsyth and said they enjoyed their visit.
She said the people were lovely and there were lots of good
places to eat. Thompson said she had been looking for an
open fire station to get a T-shirt for her husband, whos the
fire chief in their hometown of Viborg, South Dakota. And on
Saturday, June 25 she saw firefighters gathered at the station
on Juliette Road for the county’s push-in dedication ceremony
for its new fire trucks and was able to take part.
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A 17-year-old Mary Persons student was injured when he apparently suffered a response
to a measles shot, passed out and plowed his Nissan Maxima into a tree without brak
ing off Hwy. 41 on Tuesday, June 28. Tristian Johnson, 17, of Forsyth was driving south on
Hwy. 41, taking lunch to his girlfriend at her daycare job, when he lost control and plowed
into a mailbox and then a tree in a yard at the corner of Hwy. 41 and Montpelier Road.
Johnson was pinned inside the vehicle and Monroe County EMS had to use the Jaws of
Life to get him out and took him to Atrium hospital for treatment. Monroe County Lt. Chad
Beck said that Johnson went travelled about 150 feet in the yard before barreling into the
tree. Johnsons mother came to the scene and said her son,
who plays basketball at MR had been for a physical that
morning and gotten a shot. Monroe County deputy Cody
Maples worked the wreck. (Photo/Park Davis)
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