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Sports: IB Community: 4B Leopards look to get on winning track Young exhibitors attend goat show — www.BanksNewsTODAY.com — 5(K • Homer, Banks County, GA 30547 • A Publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. • 20 Pages, 2 Sections Plus Supplements • Vol. 40 No. 5 Teen dies after wreck A Banks County High P— . 1 School senior Lgt died Tuesday Ti evening after J ■* “m being serious- Jr ly injured in a wreck Sunday H night on Old BUSH Tyler Bush, 17, Commerce, was a passenger in a Jeep when he accidentally fell out of it. Bush fell onto the road from the vehicle while it was traveling 30 to 35 miles per hour. Bush was taken by LifeFlight to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. Little-Ward Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Mayor's race set Tuesday in Baldwin Four candidates qualified to seek the mayor’s seat in the City of Baldwin. Baldwin residents Mike Kelley, Jerry Neace, Thomas Loudermilk and Mark Reed qualified for the special election to be held on September 16. The special election will be held at the Baldwin City Hall located at 130 Airport Road, Baldwin. Funds cut for DFACS building BY CHRIS BRIDGES The Banks County Department of Family and Children Services officials have been waiting patiently for funding for a new head quarters for years. That wait will have to continue as county officials learned last week proposed funding has been cut for a new facility. Banks County chairman Gene Hart said Governor continued on page 5A News -2-3A •Art in Park coming up Sept. 20-21 — page 2A •Q&A with Baldwin mayor candidates — page 3A • ‘Taking time to stop, be thankful for little things’ — page 4A Other news • Social News — 5-6B • School News — 4B • Public Safety — 6A •Legals — 8-11A •Church — 7B •Obituaries — 7A Alto home to 15 Louisiana evacuees LOUISIANA EVACUEES STAYING IN ALTO Fifteen extended family members from Marrero, La. have been staying in Alto for the past week. Shown (not in order) are: Bertha Rudolph, Glen Bayhi, Sr., Kailee Billiot, Beo Billiot, Katherine Billiot, Brinden Billiot, Carol Bayhi, Justin Williams, Traci Williams, Tommy Williams, Clarence Rudolph, Albert Domangue, Stetson Dean and Nicholas Bayhi. Not pictured: Glen Bayhi, Jr. The family fled from their home ahead of Hurricane Gustav. Photo by Sharon Hogan BY SHARON HOGAN Alto has been the home for 15 people over the past week who evacuated from Marrero, La., located on the west bank of New Orleans, ahead of Hurricane Gustav. The group members range in age from eight months to 82-years-old. Beo Billiot said the fam ily chose Alto because he became friends in Louisiana with Justin Smith, who is originally from Banks County. Billiot said, “Justin said if we ever had to evacu ate we could go to Banks County.” And that is just what Billiot along with his family, eight-month-old Brinden, four-year-old Kailee, wife Katherine and 11 extend ed family members did on Saturday, Aug. 30. The trip from Marrero, La., to Alto took the family 25 hours to complete. Glen Bayhi said the trip should have taken eight to nine hours. Bayhi said it took the family five hours to travel from New Orleans to Slidell, a nor mally 45-minute drive. Bayhi said as they were driving out they saw a lot of people broken down on the side of the road. Billiot said coming through Alabama and Georgia if you saw someone broken down on the side of the road, there was always someone there helping them. “This is not something you see in Louisiana,” Billiot said. When the family arrived in Alto, Tim and Sherry Tanksley were working to get a rental mobile home they own on Rice Street ready for the family. Bayhi said, “Tim worked for 48 hours non-stop to get the home ready for us.” His wife also helped out, Bayhi said. Alto Mayor Audrey Turner said, “The commu nity has really come togeth er to help with this. Several local churches have provid ed meals for the family.” Bayhi said, “Mr. Glen Davis, The Warehouse Restaurant, Cornelia, has brought food and ice for us and we are thankful.” Billiot said, “We’ve been treated like family since we’ve been here. People have brought us grocer ies.” Katherine Billiot said, “Everything we have need ed has been taken care of.” Bayhi said when the fam ily arrived in Alto, Kailee was disappointed because she didn’t have any toys. “I found a baby doll she had dropped under the seat of my car and that is all she had,” Bayhi said. Alto Police Officer A.K. Kidd brought Kailee a bag of toys to play with, Bayhi said. Bayhi said as they left their homes they were able to gather up important papers and some clothes. “We grabbed important papers and some clothes,” Bayhi said, “things like our birth certificates.” Billiot said the tough part of the trip was traveling for this extended period of time with two little ones. “It was rough having two young kids on the road,” Billiot said. Bayhi said the family had four near miss accidents during the trip. The eldest family mem ber, Clarence Rudolph, said he didn’t want to evacuate. “But they were making us,” Rudolph said. “And if I had to leave I wanted to go with my family.” Rudolph said he stayed in Louisiana during hur ricane Katrina. Billiot said, “It’s not fun to evacuate every two years.” Billiot and Bayhi are both machine operators in Louisiana. “We thread pipes used in oil drilling,” Billiot said. “We have our jobs to go back to.” The family said on Thursday they were hoping to leave either Saturday or Sunday going back home. Billiot said, “Storm or no storm, we will come back for a vacation.” Katherine Billiot added, “We definitely want to come back.” Bayhi said he had been in contact with his neighbor on Thursday and the neigh bor said they were allowing fuel trucks and food trucks in. The power was restored on Wednesday afternoon, but the water was possi bly still contaminated, the friend had informed him. BOC approves variance Chairman speaks out against action BY ANGELA GARY The Banks County Board of Commissioners approved a request at a meeting on Aug. 26 despite being cautioned by chairman Gene Hart that the action did not follow the coun ty’s ordinances. Rickey Cain and Joe Barefoot voted in favor of a request from Michael and Kay Butcher for a conditional use permit to expand the sales staff for their Internet business. Hart said the the business would no longer be consid ered a home occupation due to the number of employees. He questioned Bill Ross, who is reviewing the county codes, about the request and the con sultant agreed that the business is a commercial use. In other business at the meet ing, the BOC: •heard a complaint about a business sign being located on a truck. Hart said this issue was being reviewed and that a county ordinance is already in place restricting advertising from vehicles. •heard a request from Bob Blackwell for a variance to change a property line between two lots on Stirling Drive in the Windy Knoll Subdivision. The request was tabled until the next BOC meeting. •agreed to allow the board of education to use the GIS infor mation for bus routing. •named Gram Hodgkins to serve a term on the develop ment authority. He will replace Dennis Brown, who resigned recently. •approved a resolution sup porting the formation of a Banks County Citizens Corps Council. This group is com prised of volunteers who serve continued on page 5A BALDWIN LADDER TRUCK ARRIVES Baldwin City Council member Beverly Holcomb is shown looking over the city’s fire department’s ladder truck that arrived last week. The city purchased the lad der truck recently from a fire department in Winter Park, Colorado. The truck has a 95-foot reach. The Baldwin Fire Department expects to have the truck in use soon, fire officials said. Photo by Sharon Hogan