General Robert E. Lee’s Confederates met General John Pope’s federal forces at the Second Battle of Manassas on August 29, 1862.
Union General William T. Sherman’s forces tore up 12 miles of railroad between Red Oak and Fairburn on August 29, 1864.
August 28, 1929 saw Governor Lamartine Hardman sign a Constitutional Amendment authorizing the levy of a state income tax.
The United States Air Force Academy moved to its permanent home in Colorado Springs on August 29, 1958.
On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered the “I Have a Dream Speech” on the Mall in Washington, DC.
The Beatles played their final concert at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park on August 29, 1966.
On August 29, 1971, Hank Aaron broke the National League record for most seasons with 100 or more RBI, as he drove in his 100th run to make 11 seasons hitting that mark.
An obscure college professor named Newt Gingrich began his political career on August 28, 1974, as he kicked off his first campaign against Congressman Jack Flynt.
On August 29, 1977, Lou Brock stole his 893d base, to surpass the record set by Georgia-born Ty Cobb.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
A Superior Court Judge will decide whether Whitfield County Tax Commissioner Danny Sane must sign the county tax digest against his own judgment, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen News.
Under state law the tax commissioner must sign the tax digest, certifying that it is accurate, and send it to the state Department of Revenue. Sane said he cannot in good conscience sign the proposed tax digest for this year.
Sane said the county Board of Assessors, which oversees the tax assessors office, is seeking a writ of mandamus requiring him to sign the digest.
“It’s the first time in 32 years I’ve not signed the digest,” Sane said on Tuesday. “I’ve never, ever even contemplated not signing the digest before. But the company they brought in to help with the assessments has to have made some terrible mistakes.”
“Even though the average values of our commercial and industrial properties had increased, the assessors had dramatically reduced more than 800 of our commercial and industrial accounts by more than $50,000,” Sane wrote in a letter to the Board of Assessors and other officials earlier this year. “Some of the decreases were in the millions!”
“This decrease in specific commercial and industrial property was coming at a time when over 7,000 homes had been increased by more than 50%,” he wrote. “I knew immediately what this meant. It meant that there was about to be a dramatic shift in Whitfield County’s tax burden from business and industry to homeowners.”
Whitfield County Board of Commissioners Chairman Jevin Jensen said the commissioners “understand the tax commissioner’s concerns and agree with many of them. The writ of mandamus is the next logical step to getting the digest to the Department of Revenue. The commissioners can’t legally accept or reject a tax digest, only the Department of Revenue can at this point. This step is necessary to accelerate their review of the digest.”
Sane said if ordered by a judge to sign the digest he will.
“When I do sign it and hand it to the revenue department, they are going to ask ‘Why did you not sign this in the first place?’” he said. “And I’m going to present my evidence to them why they should not approve the digest.”
How that issue plays out may be important to the Presidential race in Georgia, as new rules by the State Election Board highlight the requirement that local county Boards of Elections are also required to certify election results to the state. From USA Today via the Savannah Morning News:
“They are a mess,” Georgia Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger told USA TODAY of the board’s efforts to change vote certification requirements so close to Election Day.
One of the latest rules, which passed Aug. 19, requires county investigations of even minor discrepancies between the number of ballots cast and the number of voters in a precinct before certifying the results. Critics worry that could cause delays, or even failures to certify.
The board passed that rule just four days after Raffensberger – who famously resisted Trump’s request to “find” nearly 12,000 votes to reverse Joe Biden’s 2020 Georgia victory − issued a press release denouncing its ongoing activity so close to November. “Activists seeking to impose last-minute changes in election procedures outside of the legislative process undermine voter confidence and burden election workers,” Raffensperger stated.
The board’s actions prompted a Monday lawsuit by Democrats and Georgia county election officials, who want a court to make clear ahead of the election that state deadlines for certifying the results are mandatory, and the new rules don’t change that fact.
The board is also set to consider a requirement next month for local officials to hand-count every ballot before certifying results.
The new rules don’t license local election officials to push certification past Georgia’s legal deadline – six days after Election Day. The Aug. 19 rule, for example, states that results “shall” be certified by that time.
The Monday lawsuit acknowledged the new rules could be read as consistent the certification deadline, but said they could still cause delays by giving the green light to officials hunting for any election irregularity. Former and current election officials voiced similar concerns to USA TODAY.
Some critics worry certification delays could spur not just chaos and misinformation, but also outright failures to certify, which could then alter the election’s outcome.
That’s because, if Georgia failed to certify, for example, Vice President Kamala Harris winning the key swing state, it would cost her the state’s 16 Electoral College votes. Or if an individual Georgia county failed to certify, the state might certify its statewide results without including the votes of that county, which could change who gets the 16 college votes.
Vice President Kamala Harris and her running-mate bring the national spotlight to Savannah today, according to the Savannah Morning News.
President Joe Biden won Georgia’s 2020 presidential election by about 11,800 votes, mainly from increased turnout in the solid-blue Atlanta metro area.
But Democrats also upped their margins along Georgia’s coast, with Chatham County casting 16,000 votes for the top Democrat in 2020 compared to 2016. Chatham is Georgia’s most populous county outside Atlanta’s metro, and it’s also blue.
Chatham County’s growing prominence in this year’s presidential race is now in the spotlight as Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and running-mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz visit the region. The pair are set for a bus tour Wednesday, which will culminate in a Harris rally Thursday in Savannah.
“The fact of the matter is they recognize this city is important, and Coastal Georgia matters,” said Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, who served as a Georgia delegate to the Democratic National Convention.
More than 35,000 Georgians have volunteered for the Harris campaign since she launched her bid after Biden dropped out of the race on July 21. Outside the Atlanta metro, there are 50 full-time staffers across seven offices in South Georgia, according to campaign stats.
Harris has also shrunk the polling deficit Biden faced in Georgia, according to New York Times polling averages. Those averages showed Republican nominee Donald Trump with a 7-percentage-point lead, but Harris has shrunk that margin to 3 points, a gap that is within the margin of error for most polls.
“The new team being in for Democrats is making quite a difference in this state,” said University of Georgia professor Charles Bullock III, an expert in Southern politics, in an interview earlier this month.
Bullock, the UGA professor, said that Georgia was largely untouched by presidential nominees for years dating back to the early 1990s. It wasn’t until 2020, when Georgia firmly resurfaced as a battleground, that the state saw visits beyond just campaign surrogates.
“If anyone wonders ‘what is Georgia’s perceived role in presidential elections?’ Yeah, we are a major player,” Bullock said.
When it comes to elections, there are about 30 counties Democrats have a real chance at winning in Georgia, Bullock said.
Many of those counties encompass Atlanta and its suburbs. Outside the state capital, counties such as Chatham; Richmond, home to Augusta; and Bibb, home to Macon. But out of those blue counties away from Atlanta, Chatham has the most potential votes.
Johnson said he has encouraged the campaign to not only visit Savannah but explore other areas of Coastal Georgia. Nearby Liberty County votes with strong democratic margins; Biden won the county by about 24%.
Included at that event, which focused on housing policy, were State Sen. Derrick Mallow (D-Savannah) and Chatham County Commissioner Aaron Whitely. The campaign’s presence in Chatham County this week sends a clear message, Mallow said.
“This visit is important to tell us that we matter in Savannah,” Mallow said. “Everything along I-16, all the way down across I-95 in South Georgia, southeast, southwest Georgia matters to the Vice President and matters to this campaign.”
From USA Today via the Savannah Morning News:
Democrats are feeling more bullish with Harris as the nominee after worrying that the relatively new battleground state was slipping away.
“It is a place that we are competing in aggressively, because we think it is in play and could very well be decisive,” said Dan Kanninen, battleground states director of the Harris-Walz campaign.
The playbook: drive out turnout in Democratic-leaning Atlanta and minimize Trump’s support in rural parts of the state. Harris’ campaign also believes it can cut into Trump’s margins with independent men and Republican women in Georgia. Reaching Black voters, men particular, have also been a focus.
Georgia is one of seven states that Harris’ campaign has been targeting. Her campaign currently has 24 offices and more than 190 staffers in the state – more than double the number the Biden campaign had four years ago, when much of the campaigning was taking place virtually.
So far, Harris has had the money to compete in them all. She’s raised more than $540 million since taking over for Biden, a record-setting amount that has allowed her to spend $150 million on paid advertising this month.
“We see it as a state that is destined to be very, very close,” Kanninen, battleground director of the Harris-Walz campaign said in an interview. “It is one of the central tossup states that we’re tracking, but we do feel good about the fact that, despite that, it will be tight and close and a challenge.”
“I believe that she’ll win Georgia actually,” said Steve Benjamin, a former Columbia, S.C. mayor who’s currently the director of the White House office of public engagement. “The energy that’s on the ground is just amazing and powerful.”
He pointed to turnout at rallies for Harris and the diverse crowds she has been drawing. “I firmly believe that Black women, who are excited and enthused, and Black men as well understand… this amazing opportunity to select the very best person and most prepared person for this job that the time is right now.”
VP Harris and Governor Walz will sit for a CNN interview in Savannah, according to the Associated Press via the Albany Herald.
The Democratic presidential nominee will be joined by her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in an interview with CNN anchor Dana Bash in Savannah, Georgia. The interview will air Thursday at 9 p.m. Eastern time.
Harris’ lack of access has become one of Republicans’ key lines of attacks against her as she ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket after Biden’s July 21 announcement. The CNN interview may be an opportunity for Harris to quell criticism that she is unprepared for uncontrolled environments, but it may also carry risks as her team tries to build on momentum from the ticket shakeup and Democratic National Convention.
Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asked to be removed from Georgia’s Presidential ballot, according to the AJC.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. formally asked the secretary of state’s office to withdraw his name from the Georgia ballot Tuesday following the suspension of his campaign.
Kennedy announced at a Phoenix news conference last week he would pull out of swing states and endorse former President Donald Trump.
Kennedy’s request comes after an administrative law judge recommended on Monday that Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger deny Kennedy’s petition to appear on the ballot because he had used what Democrats called a “sham” New York residency on his paperwork, while he was actually living in Los Angeles.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced $3.1 million dollars in federal funding for Georgia to improve maternal mortality, according to the AJC.
Georgia’s high rate of pregnancy-related deaths, amid similar issues nationwide, is gaining the attention of national healthcare organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. In a series of national funding announcements Tuesday from federal health agencies, the CDC awarded $3.1 million to Georgia’s Department of Public Health.
The state DPH office will receive $620,000 annually for five years as part of the CDC’s $118.5 million effort to better identify and prevent pregnancy-related deaths across the country. The state plans to use the money to continue the work of the Georgia Maternal Mortality Review Committee, which studies pregnancy-related deaths and recommends programs and policies to prevent deaths. Some of the committee’s suggestions have resulted in expanded services and initiatives improving maternal health.
For example, the committee identified hemorrhage as a leading cause of maternal death in the state. As a result of those findings, Georgia birthing hospitals added obstetric carts with supplies needed to better respond to hemorrhage emergencies, the CDC reported.
Georgia’s rate of preterm births, infant and maternal mortality are higher than the national average, according to the March of Dimes. The nonprofit that tries to improve healthcare for mothers and children recently gave the state an “F” on its 2023 scorecard for preterm births.
Georgia had a “fairly high” maternal mortality rate of 32.1 deaths per 100,000 live births between 2018 and 2022, according to the CDC’s latest research. Nationally, the maternal mortality rate for 2022 was 22.3 deaths per 100,000 live births. The state also has the ninth-highest infant mortality rate in the country, with about seven babies dying for every 1,000 live births.
The CDC’s $3.1 million investment in Georgia’s public health will help expand the work of the state’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee. In 2019, the CDC began investing in the review committees, made up of healthcare providers such as doctors, nurses and public health workers. The committees identify pregnancy-related deaths. determine causes and contributing factors and whether the deaths were preventable.
The Georgia DPH grant, extending CDC funding it received the past three years, will allow its staff to provide maternal health data to the state’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee, said Nancy Nydam, spokesperson for the public health agency. “These staff also speak to families who have experienced a maternal loss. It gives them the opportunity to hear firsthand stories from families that guide policy and education in the hope of preventing additional losses.”
Through its initiatives, the CDC hopes to better understand what causes maternal mortality, pregnancy complications, and associated disparities. For instance, review committees can determine if race, ethnicity, or age disparities contributed to maternal mortality rates and suggest ways to reduce preventable deaths.
State Senator Brandon Beach (R-Alpharetta) announced he will resign as Chair of the Fulton County Development Authority, according to the AJC.
Beach, an Alpharetta Republican and vocal ally of Donald Trump, said during Tuesday’s meeting of the Development Authority of Fulton County that he will resign Sept. 12. A special-called meeting that day will include elections for new board leaders.
“I’ve been on this board for about 8½ years, and I’ve enjoyed it,” Beach said. “But I’m just really busy with some things nationally and with my own campaign. It’s time for me to step back.”
Beach, a state senator since 2013, was elected DAFC chairman this year after his predecessor, Michel “Marty” Turpeau, died following a brief illness. Vice Chairman Kwanza Hall thanked Beach for his “commitment and dedication” to the nine-member board during his tenure.
DAFC Executive Director Sarah Elizabeth Langford said the impact of Beach’s service “will be felt for years to come as we continue to build on his dedication to ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’ and his work to ensure businesses knew we were always ready to be a strong partner.”
Five former college swimming competitors asked the State Senate’s Special Committee on the Protection of Women’s Sports to disallow transgender athletes from competing, according to the AJC.
Five former collegiate swimmers told Georgia senators on Tuesday that competing against a transgender woman in a 2022 national championship in Atlanta caused them emotional damage and urged lawmakers to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
That year, General Assembly Republicans effectively banned transgender girls from high school sports when they encouraged the Georgia High School Association to change its policy on the topic. Shortly thereafter, the organization passed a policy that requires athletes to compete based on the gender on their birth certificate.
“We ended up punting the matter to the Georgia High School Association, which is unfortunate and I think it was the wrong move for us to do,” Jones said during Tuesday’s Senate committee hearing on the subject. “We’re not here to marginalize any one group, but we’re here to protect female sports, and we’re here to protect female athletes and that’s what we should be doing as legislators.”
Jones said he will prioritize passing a bill that put into law the policy implemented by the GHSA. Lawmakers and advocates said they are unaware of any transgender athletes playing in public high schools before or after the rule took effect, but partisans often push through legislation on the possibility something “could” happen.
Jones announced the creation of the “Special Committee on the Protection of Women’s Sports” the day after Algerian boxer Imane Khelif’s gender came into question after she easily defeated an Italian boxer in the second round of the women’s welterweight competition during the Paris Olympics.
The former swimmers from colleges in Kentucky, North Carolina and Virginia who testified Tuesday in Atlanta are among the athletes suing the NCAA and the University System of Georgia. Georgia Tech hosted the 2022 championships that allowed transgender swimmer Lia Thomas to compete. Thomas finished first in the 500-yard freestyle. She did not place in any other events.
The swimmers told senators they still suffer emotional damage because they had to “compete against a man” and because Thomas exposed “full male genitalia,” in the locker room. Former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines said she equated that to “sexual harassment.”
“Let me be clear, I label this as sexual harassment because me and the four witnesses you heard from today and the hundreds of other 18- to 22-year-old college girls were not asked for our consent,” said Gaines, who’s spent much of the past two years traveling the country speaking against allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports. “And we did not give our consent to being exploited and exposed to a 6′4″ fully naked man. Because (Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera) did nothing, that man walked into our women’s locker room … and saw me undress down to full nudity.”
The former swimmers also cited what they call the natural physical advantages biological males have even if they’ve undergone hormone replacement therapies to reduce their testosterone levels.
“We all knew that even mediocre male swimmers could beat the best female swimmers,” said Kaitlynn Wheeler, a former University of Kentucky swimmer. “It simply was not a fair contest.”
Commissioner of Agriculture Tyler Harper (R-Ocilla) will speak at the first “Hush Puppies & Politics” in Albany, according to the Albany Herald.
The Albany Area Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with the Lee County, Sylvester-Worth County and Terrell County chambers of commerce, will host the inaugural “Hush Puppies & Politics” regional fish fry on Sept. 11 to foster meaningful connections between the business community and elected officials.
Tyler Harper, the commissioner of the Georgia Department of Agriculture, is the event’s featured guest.
“‘Hush Puppies & Politics’ underscores the importance of building strong relationships between our business community and elected officials, which are crucial for informed policymaking, effective advocacy and fostering economic growth and stability,” Bárbara Rivera Holmes, president and CEO of the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce, said. “By partnering with our neighboring chambers, we can foster a collaborative environment that drives regional prosperity and that amplifies the Albany area’s influence.”
Elected officials from throughout the Albany area have been invited. Harper, the program’s honored guest, is Georgia’s 17th commissioner of agriculture. The Ocilla native and resident is a seventh-generation farmer and small business owner. As commissioner of the Georgia Department of Agriculture, which this year celebrates its 175th anniversary, Harper oversees animals, food, fuel, plants, soil and pesticides, which are crucial for agriculture, the state’s No. 1 industry.
The Georgia Department of Agriculture’s Georgia Grown initiative supports and promotes local agribusinesses by connecting producers, processors, suppliers, distributors, retailers and consumers within a powerful statewide community. The marketing and economic development program’s recognizable seal encourages consumers to choose local products, enhancing the visibility and marketability of Georgia’s agricultural goods. Guests of the casual event will enjoy a south Georgia fish fry, local beverages and music from local favorite Evan Barber.
The Columbus NAACP and other groups criticized the city’s handling of investigations of city employees, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.
Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Don Kelly wrote a letter dated July 18 asking to be recused from an investigation involving “possible criminal acts” because the individuals in question made decisions about employment and budget issues for his office.
While Kelly did not list the names of the CCG employees or describe the crimes, he did identify the employees by job title: the finance director, the human resources director and a deputy city manager.
By including the job titles, Finance Director Angelica Alexander and Human Resources Director Reather Hollowell were implicated as being under investigation. Pam Hodge and Lisa Goodwin are the two deputy city managers.
Last week, Hollowell’s attorney, Chuck Boring, released a statement refuting the accusations and stating that her name would be cleared.
Melvin Tanner, president of the Columbus Branch of the NAACP, Rev. Dr. J.H. Flakes, representing the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, and Jerome Williams, from A Call To Action, signed a letter to Mayor Skip Henderson and the city council expressing concerns about Kelly’s letter being made public and the effect it had on Alexander and Hollowell.
“These esteemed professionals, well-known for their dedication to and service, are facing serious character assassination through baseless accusations that lack clarity and justification,” the letter reads.
The women were unfairly portrayed as criminals after Kelly’s recusal was reported on by local media, according to the letter.
“We want to make sure that everything is factual,” Tanner told the Ledger-Enquirer. “Whether things are true or not — just by someone saying it can actually damage someone’s career or their livelihood.”
This incident was an example of systemic challenges African Americans face in professional settings, Tanner, Flakes and Williams argued in their letter.
“Often, we are held to unfair double standards and subjected to scrutiny that our counterparts may never experience,” the letter reads. “Such occurrences highlight the necessity for a fair and transparent process in handling allegations, one that respects the rights and dignity of all individuals involved.”
Savannah Mayor Van Jones accused Chatham County District Attorney Shalena Cook Jones of political motivation in her decision to dismiss five murder prosecutions, according to the AJC.
Mayor Van Johnson on Tuesday accused Chatham County District Attorney Shalena Cook Jones of prioritizing her reelection bid over seeking justice following Jones’ recent dismissals of five murder cases.
Johnson made the comments in his first public appearance since Jones labeled the cases “compromised” because they were investigated by fired Savannah police officers accused of lying. She announced the dismissals last Thursday, when Johnson was in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention.
“She needs to put justice over politics,” Johnson said during his weekly press briefing. “It’s election season. That’s what this is about.”
The mayor repeated his charge that the district attorney’s actions were politically motivated in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution following the press briefing. Jones is nearing the end of her first term and will face one of her former assistant district attorneys, Republican Andre Pretorius, in the November election.
According to the mayor, Jones did not contact city officials or the Savannah Police Department to discuss the cases before the dismissals. Reached for comment late Tuesday afternoon, Jones refuted that statement, citing an email sent to Savannah Police Department officials about the dismissals on July 25 and a confirmation email from police to her office on Aug. 22.
Jones said she has been in regular communication with the police about the cases for more than a year, dating to when her office began reviewing investigations conducted by Detective Ashley Wood and Cpl. Darryl Repress.
“We told them last summer there were big cases that might need to be dismissed,” Jones said. “They very well knew that when the review was complete, dismissals were likely coming. It wasn’t a secret.
Chris White was upgraded from Thomasville’s interim city manager to the full-time position, according to the Albany Herald.
Chris White, who has been acting as the interim city manager since February, was named the new city manager effective immediately.
“Chris has performed an outstanding job for our community, both throughout his career and more recently in his interim role,” said Thomasville Mayor Todd Mobley. “The decision to name Chris to this role was unanimous, and we are very appreciative of his service. Our community is in good hands under his leadership, and we look forward to what he will accomplish as our City Manager.”
White has served the citizens of Thomasville and the state of Georgia for more than 27 years in multiple areas of municipal operations. One of his roles was working as the assistant city manager in Thomasville. He began in this position in August of 2021.
The City of Edison has whittled down its debt, according to WALB.
The city is now down to $90,000 of debt. While the city of Edison is slowly but surely climbing out of debt, residents said their wallets are being hit hard.
Georgia law prohibits cities from filing bankruptcies, so city officials had no choice but to increase taxes. In 2023, the city increased its taxes to 7 mills. Residents are also still seeing major increases in city fees like their sewer and water bills.
Lisa Mitchell, another Edison resident said in July, her water bill was $295 —a huge jump from the average $80 bill she was paying in 2023.
“We’re trying to not get into debt and we’re actually talking about moving because of it because it’s hard. Bills are already going up for everything,” she said.
The 2024 millage rate is slightly decreased from 2023. The millage rate went from 25.534 to 25.482.
The Hall County Tax Commissioner’s Office will send out property tax notices, according to AccessWDUN.
According to a press release from the tax commissioner’s office, statements will be mailed in early September with a due date of Nov. 15.
“Our robust website is a convenient resource for property tax information,” said Hall County Tax Commissioner Darla Eden. “The site makes it much easier to find out what you owe, how to pay, and who to contact with questions.”
For properties that changed hands during the year, the owner on Jan. 1 is responsible for the year’s property tax.
For properties purchased after Jan. 1, it is the buyer and seller’s responsibility to work out who will pay the owed tax.
The United States Postal Service (USPS) delays are still impacting the Hall County Tax Commissioner’s Office and other government agencies.
The Hall County Tax Commissioner’s Office encourages residents to utilize the online payment portal at https://hallcountytax.org.
“Our office is dedicated to offering a range of payment options that cater to our community’s needs.” Eden said. “I encourage property owners to utilize our many convenient tools to ‘save a trip and skip the line.’”
Richmond County Board of Educations members voted for final adoption of a higher property tax millage rate, according to WRDW.
The school board increased the rate by more than 13% — from 16.493 mills to 18.33 mills.
Officials say they must do this to operate and keep competitive salaries for their teachers and staff.
This means if your home is valued at around $200,000, you would be paying close to an extra $14 in property taxes each month.
During a roll-call vote, all board members votes yes, except for Wayne Frazier, who was opposed.
The Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office is considering building a new jail or renovating the existing facility, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.
The Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office is starting to look at either getting a new jail or heavily renovating the existing one in the not-too-distant future, a top official in the office told a county budget review committee on Monday.
Chief Deputy Cleo Atwater said the age of the jail, which is more than 30 years old, is one the challenges that the Sheriff’s Office is currently dealing with.
A new or renovated jail, he told the budget review committee, would allow the Sheriff’s Office to move to a hybrid supervision approach and also address the needs of a county with about 1 million residents.
The Sheriff’s Office is asking for $175.9 million to operate in 2025. That is $8.95 million more than the office asked for last year and $11.7 million than it actually received in appropriations in the 2024 budget that county commissioners approved in January.
A big part of supervision in the future would entail the hybrid model of supervising inmates. Atwater explained that would help with challenges created by struggles with recruitment and retention.
“Our current facility is built to support direct inmate supervision only,” the chief deputy said. “As challenges in hiring and retention have grown the accessibility to modern technological advancements have increased and now there’s a need to operate in a space that provides a hybrid system of inmate supervision.
“With the proper build and the right technology, we can marry both direct and indirect supervision models to our advantage.”
But, while the Sheriff’s Office is looking at the future of the jail, Atwater said jail operations costs are also increasing because of two pieces of state legislation that requires jails to verify the immigration status of inmates and addresses bail reform.
The chief deputy said the Sheriff’s Office will need to increase staffing at the jail to comply with those laws.
The jail’s daily population has increased by 6% since the bail reform law went into effect in July.
The Sheriff’s Office will also face “administrative burdens” as the result of another new state law dealing with how evictions are handled, according to Atwater.
That’s because the Sheriff’s Office will not only have to train deputies on how to serve evictions, but also maintain a list of deputies who are approved to serve those evictions.
Rome’s Planning Commission is considering creating a “vape shop-free” zone, according to the Rome News Tribune.
The creation of an overlay district that would, among other things, restrict the sale of vape products in downtown Rome has been sent to the Rome-Floyd Planning Commission while city commissioners continue to discuss it.
Owners of local vape shops spoke out Monday against the proposed ordinance, claiming to have been vilified for selling legal products they contend are far less harmful than cigarettes.
“I’m quite surprised to be here defending my business that has been in the same location for 11 years,” said Ken Callaway, who owns Summit Mist Vape Shop. “We’re a highly regarded business and have never had a single infraction.”
City Attorney Andy Davis discussed the proposed overlay with Rome city commissioners Monday night and sought clarification regarding the size of the district and the proposed restrictions.
The New Day Palisades project will close the Paces Mill park in the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area temporarily for upgrades, according to WSB Radio.
Kim Menefee is the Executive Director of the Cumberland Community Improvement District. The organization helps lead the charge on what will be a more than $15 million effort to improve and renew 22 acres of green space near the river.
“This park represents so much to so many people,” Menefee said.
Anne Honious is the National Parks Service superintendent.
“We have over 300 million visitors a year. This is the most southern unit. It’s also the busiest,” Honious said. “It’s 48 miles of the Chattahoochee River from Buford Dam into the city of Atlanta with 15 land units where visitors can access the river, go hiking, and there’s also availability to park.”
Project leaders have raised $6 million for phase one, which includes new parking, enhanced park features, and more access to the river.
Phase two will include a new visitor center with a restroom, two new overlooks, a pavilion, upgraded trails and more.
The park will be closed to the public from December to spring of next year.
The entire project should be complete by 2027.
Notably, the main parking lot will be closed beginning next month, which will also close the main boat ramp serving the Nantahala Outdoor Center tubers and private boaters. The seconday boat ramp will remain open, but parking will not be allowed. This will personally impact me, as I kayak that section of the Chattahoochee between two and three times a week. Bummer.
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