Newspaper Page Text
Page 2A
Reporter
December 28, 2022
2022
Continued from Front
17, also known by his
nickname PJ Rue, of Forsyth,
around 6 p.m.. Monroe
County coroner Joey Proctor
said Bowden was only about
3 feet away from Mayes and
shot him 3-4 times in the
chest, face and arm.
• The numbers are in from
2021 and Monroe Coun
ty added 344 new homes
during the year, the most-ev-
er. The tally breaks the
record from 2006 when 301
homes were permitted.
• Two members ofUGAs
1980 National Champi
onship team with Monroe
County roots celebrate the
Bulldogs’ return to glory
with a 33-18 win over Ala
bama in Indianapolis. Steve
Chafin of Forsyth was a
walk-on punter for the 1980
Dawgs said the title has been
a “long, long time com
ing.” Another 1980 Dawg
Jeff Harper, who played at
Monroe Academy, said he
was thrilled but added the
1980 team was still the only
unbeaten national title team.
• The parents of a 40 year
old High Falls man who
died at the Monroe County
Jail in 2020 sue the sheriff’s
office in federal court on
Jan. 13 claiming deputies
violated the sons civil rights.
Mark Marshall and Marcella
Dickinson, the parents of
the late Josh Marshall, filed
suit in U.S. District Court in
Macon on Jan. 13, just two
days before the statute of
limitations expired. It was
Jan. 15,2020 that Marshall
died while in custody at the
Monroe County Jail.
• Monroe County com
missioners impose 32 pages
of new property rules on Jan.
13 to try to clean up blight,
but rescind the regulations
10 minutes later, realizing
how strict the rules are.
Among other things they
made it illegal in Monroe
County to have a window
without a screen, a pool
without a fence or a fence
without paint or stain.
Commissioners continue to
grapple with blight the rest
of the year but by December
had not found rules they
could agree upon.
• Monroe County spends
3 days in January looking for
17-year-old Jorja Etheridge
before she’s finally found in
the Lorraine Woods subdivi
sion on Jan. 25, having spent
several nights in a backyard
shed. Etheridge had run
away from a friend’s home
in the North Rivoli Farms
subdivision and hid out for
three days. Lorraine Woods
resident Lynn Williams said
her dog Pepper kept barking
even after using the bath
room, leading Williams to
see Jorja in her yard. She told
Jorja she was loved and that
her family and friends were
looking for her, and she was
returned to her family.
• Adam and Steven Ber
tram are named the Monroe
County Citizens of the Year.
The Bertram brothers are
well known for helping any
one from their church, New
Providence, or their commu
nity who need help.
• A new Popeyes is coming
town after city council
approves plans for the new
chain restaurant next to
Walmart. Popeyes plans to
open before Labor Day but
winds up opening just before
Christmas.
February
• County commissioner
George Emami announces
in February he won’t seek
re-election. However when
no like-minded candidate
qualifies in March, Emami
decides to throw his hat back
in the ring and wins re-elec
tion over Travis Daniel in the
GOP primary.
Lost, but now she’s found
By Steve Reece
and Will Davis
When Lynn Williams of
101 Hilltop Circle in the
Loraine Woods subdivi
sion opened her front
door around 11:30 a.m. on
Tuesday morning, she im
mediately recognized the
scared young lady standing
at the edge of her yard.
It had to be 17-year-old
Jorja Ethridge. She had
been checking her yard and
shed regularly the past 3
days after reading that Eth
ridge had run from a home
in the nearby North Rivoli
told her how loved she was,
that so many people were
searching for her and that
her parents were wait
ing for her at the church.
Williams told the girl if she
was ready, she would help
her get home. She told her
that she wasn’t going to be
First state champ:
Mannella is the fella
found her body at Lake Ju-
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Mary Persons junior
Anthony Mannella doesn’t
want to sound cocky, but he
told the Reporter he really
wasn’t that surprised when
he became the first Bulldog
in program history to win a
wrestling state championship
on Friday.
“Going into this year I was
pretty confident about it,”
said Mannella.
That may be because Man
nella, who’s in his first year at
MP, has spent the past two
years wrestling at Baylor, a
boarding school in Chatta
nooga, Tenn. where the team
fields 10 state champions
almost every year.
Mannella said he left
Baylor and returned home
because he missed his mom’s
cooking (an Italian family,
they have pasta every Sun
day) and his dad’s guiding
hand.
“I missed my mom’s cook
ing, that was the big thing,”
Monroe County commis
sion chairman Greg Tapley
blasted Reporter publisher
Will Davis as a snake, a liar
and lazy in a Jan. 27 phone
call. Tapley called Davis after
apparently getting upset
about a story in the Jan. 26
Reporter, “Split commission
ers OK new districts.” The
story reported that commis
sioners had approved a new
district map on Jan. 20 by a
3-1 vote over Tapley’s objec
tion. Tapley was in Tennes
see and it’s not clear whether
he read the story.
• Four young men from
Griffin die when their
Dodge Charger flees a
Monroe County deputy at
speeds of up to 169 mph be
fore wrecking and bursting
into flames at the High Falls
exit on Feb. 6. Deputies had
given up the chase before the
wreck happened.
• Forsyths city council
unanimously rejects zoning
for a proposed bitcoin mine
on Berner Avenue on Feb. 7
after community opposition
to potential noise from the
project.
• Mary Persons junior An
thony Mannella becomes the
first Bulldog wrestler to win
a state title on Feb. 11 when
he takes the 160-pound
weight class.
• Culloden pastor Pat
McCoy tells the Reporter he’s
praying for his Ukrainian
friends as Russia invades the
country on Feb. 24. McCoy
has traveled to Ukraine
35 times since 1993 as a
missionary to build up the
churches there.
March
• Long-time school board
member J.P. Evans Jr. dies on
March 8, just two days shy of
his 87th birthday after serv
ing 43 years on the board of
education.
• An Upson-Lee High
School girls basketball player
is charged with throwing
fists at a Jackson High School
cheerleader after her team
lost in the region tourna
ment at Mary Persons in
February. Aziyah Taila Perry,
17, of Thomaston, turned
herself in to the Monroe
County sheriff’s office to face
the misdemeanor charge on
Feb. 28. Several students vid
eotaped the melee with their
cell phones and posted them
to social media. MP school
officials noted that no MP
students were involved.
• Several newcomers like
Diane Soule, Melissa Mixon,
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estate Farm}
Tommy Johnston
Serving our community since 2017!
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Anthony Mannella is
honored as the first
wrestling state cham
pion in MP history.
(Courtesy Atlanta
Takedown Assn.)
Kristi Varnadoe, Sherrye
Battle, Rick Lanford and
Robbie Jenkins qualify in
March to run for Monroe
County school board. Battle
and Jenkins both win their
races.
• A Florida man who iden
tifies himself as Lucifer while
robbing the Lee Street Shell
station was captured after
deputies shot out his tires in
the early morning hours of
March 15. The man, Steven
Johnson, 34, of Davenport,
Fla., is a suspect in at least
6 other devilish robberies
around the state, according
to Forsyth police.
• Long-time Monroe
County dairyman Jim Peters
closes his dairy in March,
ending an era in the county.
In the 1960s there had been
350 dairies in the county.
But when Peters sent off 120
dairy cows for slaughter in
March, he closed a 4-gener-
ation business and the last
dairy farm in the county.
• The Forsyth Police
Department does an internal
investigation in March after
complaints that it told the
family of a missing 21 -year-
old she would have to be
missing 24 hours before
they could begin a missing
persons investigation. When
Tori Proctor was still missing
a few hours later, the family
went to the Monroe County
sheriff’s office instead, and
within 3 hours deputies had
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