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VOL. 105, NO. 25, JANUARY 7, 2009 LEGAL ORGAN OF JENKINS COUNTY MILLEN, GEORGIA • 75 CENTS 2008 uo w/ieu) By Deborah Bennett Millen News Editor Highlights of 2008 from the files of The Millen News are as follows: • The State Board of Pardons and Paroles denies parole for James Edward Addison who was convicted for armed robbery and murder of Jenkins County resident Betty Bennett in 1992. • King Rocker is sworn in as Mayor of Millen. and Darrel Clifton and Lee Ward Williams take the oath of office for city councilmen. • Julie Drake receives the WJBF News Channel 6 Scholar Athlete Award. • Support of Gov. Sonny Perdue for proposed Lake Clarke project is reported. • Upward Basketball program at Oak Hill Baptist Church is reported to be successful. • Jenkins County holds number one spot in unemployment rankings for the state. • Round’s Fishin’ Hole opens for business. • Florida fugitive Sonny Lee Thornton of Orlando is arrested in Jenkins County by deputies of the Jenkins County Sheriff’s Department. • Grand opening for the school system’s new gymnatorium is held in February. • Vandy Mack Daniels, convicted of the March 6,2006 armed robbery of the Quick Stop, goes to trial in Statesboro for March 7, 2006 armed robbery of Might Mike’s Hot Stop. • Coordinators of the local Toys for Tots campaign report that more than 330 children were served by the program. • Democrat Barrack Obama and Republican Mike Huckabee were local winners in the Presidential Preference Primary Elec tion held in February. John McCain wins locally in November Presidential race. Obama wins on national level. • Mabel Jenkins is named chairman of the Jenkins County Development Authority after Bobby Dwelle relinquished the post he had held for 35 years. • Two Sisters Salon begins operation. • Dorothy Danielle Davis and Nancy Deal are named Jenkins County’s STAR student and teacher, respectively. • Jenkins County Emergency Medical Services assist with transport of those burned in Imperial Sugar fire in Port Wentworth. • Jenkins County Commissioners reported a decline in local property tax collections of approximately $718,858. • Dr. Judy Holton, principal of Jenkins County Elementary School (JCES), and Cynthia McNeely, assistant principal, at tend Celebration of Excellence Banquet for Title I Distin guished Schools in Georgia. • Millen Post Office employee Otis Dailey retires with 25 years of service. • Jenkins County Sheriff Tim Fields announces intentions to seek re-election. • Agriculture awards are presented during the annual Agri culture Banquet, sponsored by the Jenkins County Extension Service, as follows: Roy Harris, Lifetime Service Award; Edison Harris, Lifetime Service Award; and the late Dewey Newton, Agriculture Hall of Fame. • Local school system makes cuts in personnel amid public protests. Members of Jenkins County Board of Education (BOE) address public concerns over personnel reduction dur ing a called meeting held at the Jenkins County Agriculture Center. • Jenkins County BOE approves sale of the old primary school property to Turning Leaf, Inc. • Work begins on last section of Savannah River Parkway through Millen Jenkins County. • Kirk Rocker and Sandy Becton leave Regions Bank as the company implemented cutbacks in its Commercial Loan De partment. • Tour de Georgia cyclists pass through Millen and Jenkins County en route from Tybee Island to Augusta. • Tony Taylor and Robert Oglesby announce intentions to seek the position of Jenkins County Sheriff. • Dwayne Herrington is named Director of Public Safety for the City of Millen. His duties were to include overseeing the Millen Fire Department and Millen Police Department. • Patrick Neeley is shot and killed by Jenkins County Sheriff’s Department Deputy John Sharkey who was responding to a 9- 1-1 call. • Frank M. Edenfield, former editor/publisher of The Millen News, dies in a boating accident on the Ogeechee River. • Stitch and Print, Inc. opens plant in Millen. Dr. Judy Holton resigns as principal of JCES. Jim Jarvis is named JCES principal. • County is hit hard by Mother’s Day storms. Weather ser vice confirms an EF-1 tornado struck the Emmalane area of the county on May 11. • Brookes Brinson and Dorothy Davis are named Jenkins County High School’s (JCHS) valedictorian and salutatorian, respectively. • Brookes Brinson and Boyd Sasser are recipients of the Rob ert Williams Scholarship award for Female and Male Athletes of the Year at JCHS. • City of Millen receives a Georgia Fund sewer grant in the amount of $99,623 to be used to finance a sewer extension project to 18 residents on Jeanette Drive. • The Jenkins County school system names Teachers of the Year as follows: Tabatha Bennett, JCES and system-wide; Wendy Ivey, Jenkins County Middle School; and Annette Cobb, JCHS. • Billy Nelson Hammock, an escapee from the Jenkins County Jail, is recaptured near Charlotte, NC. • Jim Andrew, Administrator, USDA Rural Development Utilities Program, is honored by Georgia House of Represen tatives for his service. • Five qualify for three BOE seats. They were Roderick Campbell, District #1; Roy Cook and Mike Lane, District #3; and Vicki Odom and Freddie Brinson, District #4. • Robert W. Fries Sr., former City of Millen Mayor, died June 26. • Tim Fields and Robert Oglesby face-off in a run-off elec tion for Jenkins County Sheriff. • H. Lamar Faircloth is named City of Millen Administrator. • Minimum wage increases to $6.55 per hour in July. • Robert Oglesby wins run-off for Jenkins County Sheriff. • JCES and JCMS make Annual Yearly Progress. • K & K Antiques and Old Fashioned Soda Shop and Thompson’s Corner open for business. • BOE proposes property tax increase and holds a series of public hearings on the matter. • Tosha Williams pleads guilty to aggravated assault in new trial in connection with the 2004 death of Nicholas Bershaun Foster. She received a sentence of 15 years, eight to serve and seven on probation. • Jimmie Cooper is charged with murder in the Aug. 20 death of Joe Mathew Walton Jr. • Jenkins County receives “Community of Opportunity” des ignation by Gov. Sonny Perdue. • Committee forms to seek a recall election for the BOE District #5 seat held by Chairman Carroll Gay. Chairman Gay announces he will fight the action. Case is later dismissed in Jenkins County Superior Court. • Budget cuts by the Department of Natural Resources may force the closure of the Bo Ginn Aquarium. • Jenkins County School Superintendent Joan Blackwood resigns, and Melissa Williams is named Interim Superinten dent. • Cedric Michael Cutter, a Florida man wanted on two counts of murder, was apprehended in Millen by the Jenkins County Sheriff’s Department. • Lula Burton and Michelle Brannen are chosen to partici pate in the annual Portraits of Life photography exhibit featur ing local breast cancer survivors. • Jenkins County Hospital Administrator Alvin Burke re signs his position. • Andy Barrows is named Park Manager for Magnolia Springs State Park. • Jenkins County Courthouse suffers major water damage from leaking valve in the heating/cooling unit. • Jenkins County Family Enrichment Center (JCFEC) is the recipient of a $319,691 System of Care grant from the Governor’s Office of Children and Families. • Christopher Derek Chance of Millen and his cousin, Raymond "Trey” Sapp of Waynesboro are charged with mur der in the death of Simpson “Tyrone” Cates, Jr. of Burke County. • MI Metals announces that it will "idle” local plant with only three employees until the end of the first quarter of 2009. • JCFEC is named "proficient” county within the Georgia Family Connection Partnership. The organization was one of only two collaboratives in the state to earn the designation. • Anna Amiss resigns as 4-H program director. • County officials are sworn in as follows: Jenkins County Probate Judge, Wanda Burke; Superior Court Judge, Ogeechee Judicial Circuit, William Woodrum; Jenkins County Sheriff, Robert Oglesby; Jenkins County Clerk of Court, Elizabeth Landing; Jenkins County Tax Commissioner, Brenda Mathern; Jenkins County Coroner, Henry Young; Jenkins County Chief Magistrate Judge, Janice Cheney; Jenkins County Commis sioners, Floyd Chance, Tommy Lane and Domingo Green; Jenkins County Board of Education, Freddie Brinson, Roy Cook and Roderick Campbell; Deputy Clerk of Superior Court, Linda Pittman; Clerk of Jenkins County Probate Court, Gail Boyd; and Jenkins County Magistrate Judge, Hester Oglesby. Jenkins County Grand Jury hears 20 cases By Deborah Bennett Millen News Editor The Jenkins County Grand Jury convened Dec. 8 in Jenkins County Superior Court and handed down indictments and accusations as follows. • Buffie Lakietha Davis, possession of cocaine with in tent to distribute. • Terrence Dale Oliver, pos session of cocaine with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm/knife during crime/at tempted crime. • Robert Lee Mosley, pos session of cocaine with intent to distribute and possession of firearm/knife during crime/at tempted crime. • Latrell Shayvon Gaines, possession of cocaine. • Calvin Jeffrey Ball, terror istic threats and acts, receipt, possession or transfer of fire arm by convicted felon and battery-misdemeanor. • Nicholas Dudarenke, ag gravated assault and possession of firearm/knife during crime/ attempted crime. • Floyd Brinson III, bur glary and criminal damage to property in the second degree. • Bobby Lee Roberts, bur glary, three counts of theft by taking and receipt, possession or transfer of firearm by con victed felon. • Walter Parrish, burglary and possession of hydrocodone. • Jessica Pierce Hunt, two counts of possession of a Schedule V Controlled Sub stance and theft by taking-mis demeanor. • Jessica Pierce Hunt, theft by taking-felony. • Crystal Williams, terroris tic threats and acts and obstruc tion of officers. • Jonathan Maurice Edwards, two counts of terroristic threats and acts and harassing phone calls. • Jermarkus Enoch Kelly, armed robbery. • Casey Daniel Pierce, armed robbery. • Leigh Briane Golff, two counts of forgery-first degree. • Anthony Brown, entering auto and theft by taking. • Carol Ann Wimbush, two counts of burglary. • Ronnie Charles Harper, possession of marijuana-less than an ounce and criminal trespass. • Kwmaine Santez Shingleton, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and possession of marijuana-less than an ounce. From left, Roy Davis and Lee Ogden, servicemen home for the holidays, perform a song Davis wrote about their hometown, Millen. (Staff photo by Deborah Bennett) Former residents sing about Millen By Deborah Bennett Millen News Editor Songs about different towns and cities across the United States are a staple of country music radio, producing mega-hits for the artists who sing them. None, however, can match the heartfelt, soulful lyr ics recently written about Millen. E-4 Sr. Airman Roy Davis, U.S. Air Force, and Cpl. Lee Ogden, U.S. Marines, traded their military weapons for a guitar and har monica while home on leave for the holidays as Davis put pen to paper and wrote a song about the town they both grew up in. “On that country radio, you ’ll hear those songs about all of those cities and how things can go wrong. Like El Pasco, Muskogee and that Amarillo sky. When you think about it, it’ll bring a tear to your eye, cause we've got companies gone with people trying to make a living; seems like someone would have wrote a song about Millen.” The opening lyrics tell the stoiy of how the song came into being. “We were just sitting around and playing around, picking and grin ning, thinking about what’s changed here since we’ve been gone,” said Davis who sings and plays the guitar as Ogden accompanies him on the harmonica. “And I just started working on it.” Dressed in civilian clothes, the two young men disguise their ma turity and dedication to duty with bright smiles and relaxed attitudes as they perform. Most would never guess that Ogden, now stationed at Camp Pendleton, Calif., has already experienced a tour of duty in Iraq or that Davis is stationed on the other side of the world at RAF Molesworth, United Kingdom and is waiting deployment to Iraq in 2010. For the moment, they are caught up in the “Song about Millen.” “Down on Cotton Avenue, not much has changed. Places may have traded hands, but the buildings are the same. But those bricks will be gone with a few more cracks. Just like Mr. Johnson’s place down by the railroad tracks. And just after two years of being away, so much is different, but some how the same. People have grown up and some faces have changed. And I just do my best to remember their names. But no matter what I know, e\>eryone here is ready and willing; just wish their story could be told in a song about Millen.” “In the short time that I was gone, there were some folks missing when I got home. They are the ones that we love but have found their way on up above. But one in particular I want to call by name is the man known as Kacey Lane. The day you left us, we didn ’t know what we ’d do, so this song, it’s for you. And for all those people who share the same feeling; because of that, someone should have wrote a song about Millen. In the end, there’s just so much to say. But that’s an other song for some other day. Until then, I guess time is all Music Row will be killing. And maybe then they ’ll have a song about Millen,” Then, the music stops, and Ogden begins to talk about his time in Iraq. “The news broadcasts don’t give a true picture of the situation,” he said. “They show only the bad things that happen, not the good. We’re rebuilding schools, medical facilities and helping to establish a new government in the country. We’re making a great difference there.” For a few more days, the two friends are content to sing and play a song about their hometown. Too soon, however, the young hands that hold a guitar and harmonica will once again pick up military weapons and set about the task of seiving their country. Davis, a 2002 graduate of Jenkins County High School (JCHS), is the son of Roy Davis and Delane Davis. Ogden’s parents are Deborah Shockley and Gary Ogden. He is a 2004 graduate of JCHS. EMT of the Year Henry Young was recently named the 2008 EMT of the Year. He was chosen for the honor by his Jenkins County Emergency Medical Services coworkers. Young is shown displaying a plaque commemorating the honor, along with a memoriam plaque in honor of EMT Chris Richardson who died Oct. 18,2007. (Staff photo by Deborah Bennett)