Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for June 2, 2023

Benjamin Franklin became Georgia’s agent in England on June 1, 1768, making him also Georgia’s first lobbyist.

On June 2, 1774, Britain’s Parliament passed the Quartering Act, the last of the Coercive Acts, meant to punish the American colonies and reassert British control. Eventually, the Third Amendment to the United States Constitution would prohibit the forcible quartering of soldiers in private homes.

On June 1, 1775, Georgia patriots sent a care package to their brethren in Massachusetts comprising 63 barrels of rice and £122 after the battles at Lexington and Concord.

According to “This Day in Georgia History,” on June 5, 1775, the first Liberty Pole in Georgia was raised in Augusta, Georgia. Another account holds that the first Liberty Pole in Georgia was raised June 4, 1775 at Tondee’s Tavern in Savannah. Those who fly the “Appeal to Heaven” flag should know that it has some common history with Liberty Poles.

The court martial of Benedict Arnold convened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on June 1, 1779.

Arnold negotiated his defection to the British and the subversion of West Point over several months. The British already held control of New York City and believed that by taking West Point they could effectively cut off the American’s New England forces from the rest of the fledgling nation.

In August 1780, Sir Henry Clinton offered Arnold £20,000 for delivering West Point and 3,000 troops. Arnold told General Washington that West Point was adequately prepared for an attack even though he was busy making sure that that it really wasn’t. He even tried to set up General Washington’s capture as a bonus. His plan might have been successful but his message was delivered too late and Washington escaped. The West Point surrender was also foiled when an American colonel ignored Arnold’s order not to fire on an approaching British ship.

Arnold’s defection was revealed to the Americans when British officer John André, acting as a messenger, was robbed by AWOL Americans working as pirates in the woods north of New York City. The notes revealing Arnold’s traitorous agreement were stashed in his boots.

On June 4, 1785, James Oglethorpe, founder of Georgia, met with John Adams, the first ambassador from the new United States to Great Britain.

Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commanding forces west of the Mississippi, surrendered on June 2, 1865, and this date is generally considered the end of the Civil War.

The Republican National Convention met in Philadelphia on June 5, 1872, nominating Ulysses S. Grant for President the next day. Twelve years later, on June 5, 1884, William T. Sherman refused the Republican nomination for President, saying, “I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected.”

On June 4, 1919, Congress passed the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to always be right vote. In August 1920, enough states had ratified the 19th Amendment that it took effect.

On June 3, 1941, Georgia voters ratified a Constitutional Amendment extending the term of office for Governor and the other Constitutional Officers from two years to four. Governor Eugene Talmadge campaigned for the Amendment, hoping to serve a four-year term after the two-year term he currently held, but was defeated in the 1942 Democratic Primary by Ellis Arnall. Remember this phrase: legislation almost always has unintended consequences.

On June 1, 1942, a Polish newspaper first published information about the gassing of Jews at Nazi concentration camps in Poland.

On June 3, 1942, Curtis Mayfield was born in Chicago, Illinois and would later live in Atlanta, dying in Roswell in 1999.

The Battle of Midway began on June 4, 1942. During the battle, four Japanese aircraft carriers that had participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor and one cruiser were sunk at the cost of one American carrier and one destroyer.

Queen Elizabeth II was crowned on June 2, 1953.

On June 2, 1962, Georgia-born Ray Charles hit #1 on the charts with “I Can’t Stop Loving You.”

On the morning of June 3, 1962, a plane carrying 106 Georgians crashed on take-off from Orly near Paris, the deadliest crash in aviation to that date.

The Beatles released Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on June 1, 1967. The album is listed as #1 on the Rolling Stone top 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is the most important rock & roll album ever made, an unsurpassed adventure in concept, sound, songwriting, cover art and studio technology by the greatest rock & roll group of all time. From the title song’s regal blasts of brass and fuzz guitar to the orchestral seizure and long, dying piano chord at the end of “A Day in the Life,” the 13 tracks on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band are the pinnacle of the Beatles’ eight years as recording artists. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were never more fearless and unified in their pursuit of magic and transcendence.

Issued in Britain on June 1st, 1967, and a day later in America, Sgt. Pepper is also rock’s ultimate declaration of change. For the Beatles, it was a decisive goodbye to matching suits, world tours and assembly-line record-making. “We were fed up with being Beatles,” McCartney said decades later, in Many Years From Now, Barry Miles’ McCartney biography. “We were not boys, we were men… artists rather than performers.

“It was a peak,” Lennon told Rolling Stone in 1970, describing both the album and his collaborative relationship with McCartney. “Paul and I were definitely working together,” Lennon said….

Rolling Stone should stick to writing about music.

On June 3, 1980, Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter had amassed enough delegates to assure his nomination in the Democratic Primary for President.

On June 2, 1989, Dead Poets Society, starring Robin Williams, was released in theaters.

Saturday, June 4, 2023 is the anniversary of the beginning of the Tiananman Square Massacre in Beijing, China. Pro-democracy protests had begun on April 15, 1989 and on May 20, martial law was declared. The People’s Liberation Army began taking the square back on the evening of June 3d.

President Ronald Reagan died on June 5, 2004.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Today is the most satisfying day of the year, as “National Donut Day” is observed on the first Friday in June.

But there’s also a charitable origin story into how the first Friday in June became known as National Donut Day: The Salvation Army in 1938 established it to honor the organization’s Donut Lassies, women who traveled to France to serve donuts and other snacks to soldiers during World War I.

Now all of us can celebrate and get free donuts (while supplies last) at the nation’s biggest chains including Dunkin’, Krispy Kreme and Duck Donuts – and many other makers of donuts, or “doughnuts,” if you prefer.

For the record, Sarah Donuts is the finest in the land and Dandy Donuts in Chamblee has a place in my heart.

The three-ring circus Georgia Republican Convention will be next week in Columbus, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.

The convention schedule has lots of meetings for delegates. This year’s big attraction will be the appearance of former President Donald Trump. Two other presidential candidates campaigning for the GOP nomination and scheduled to attend the convention are former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Vivek Ramaswamy, cofounder and executive chairman of Strive Asset Management.

Kari Lake, a former TV news anchor who was the Republican nominee in the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election and has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate, will be the convention’s keynote speaker at the June 9 dinner.

When did losing a statewide election became the top qualification for speaking at the GAGOP convention?

Actually, there is a fourth ring in the coming Columbus fiasco. From the AJC:

If there’s a face of that movement that Dearman and his allies deride, it’s the Georgia Republican Assembly, a once-fringe organization that has gained tremendous clout within the state party in recent weeks.

Among its loyalists is Kandiss Taylor, who waged a failed primary campaign against Kemp last year and then refused to concede. She has called for a purge of every Republican official in Georgia, claiming they are Communist collaborators who forged a deal with the devil. More recently, her musings about whether Earth could actually be flat have gone viral.

“We’ve got a woman who is accusing Democrats of being globalists but she doesn’t even believe in globes,” said Ed Henderson, an officer with the Rabun County GOP who is distraught at his party’s direction.

“We’re going to have to reclaim the party. You have a complete divorce between what 1,500 activists want and common sense,” said Henderson, who is also a member of the state GOP committee. “We’re a party now of performance artists. And extremism sells.”

This week, I received my property tax assessment notice from DeKalb County, and my assessment rose more nearly 40% and my estimated bill is up 28% because of the magic of homestead exemptions.

From the Savannah Morning News:

Compared to many U.S. cities, Savannah’s residential real estate market held its value for the first quarter of 2023, with strong sales and rising prices despite increasing interest rates and limited inventory.

After a relatively quiet final quarter in 2022, the residential real estate market in Savannah cranked up in 2023’s first three months as homebuyers from larger, more expensive cities across the country continued to relocate to Savannah. We are still seeing multiple bids and escalation clauses, but not at the same level as during the pandemic, when bidding wars led to local homes selling for as much as $100,000 over the listing price.

This combination of high demand and low inventory is contributing to rising home prices in Savannah and the continuation of a seller’s market.

From the Associated Press via AccessWDUN:

The latest increase marks the third in three weeks and lifts the average rate on a 30-year home loan to its highest level since it surged to 7.08% in early November.

The average rate on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with those refinancing their homes, rose to 6.18% this week from 5.97% last week. A year ago, it averaged 4.32%, Freddie Mac said.

High rates can add hundreds of dollars a month in costs for homebuyers, limiting how much they can afford in a market that remains unaffordable to many Americans after years of soaring home prices and historically low levels of housing inventory.

The Fed has raised its benchmark interest rate 10 times in 14 months in a bid to lower stubbornly high inflation. Fed Chair Jerome Powell and other central bank officials have recently signaled that the Fed may forego another interest rate hike at this month’s meeting of policymakers. Such a move would give the Fed time to evaluate the economic impact of its previous rate increases.

The U.S. housing market has been slow to regain its footing this year, with elevated mortgage rates and a thin inventory of homes on the market working to limit sales. As a result, home purchase loans were down 44.3% in the first quarter compared to the same period last year, according to an analysis released Thursday by real estate data firm Attom.

The higher rates have sharply reduced demand for mortgage refinancing loans, which slumped 72.5% in the first quarter from a year earlier, Attom said.

The City of Warner Robins is working on a budget for FY 2024, according to 13WMAZ.

The exact number has not been set, and Mayor LaRhonda Patrick says it won’t be until their final deadline, but it will be larger than last year’s $143 million budget.

“Council and I have the top priority in making sure we are able to give raises to our employees to be able to handle that increased cost of living here in Warner Robins,” says Patrick.

Last year, the budget included a 10% wage increase for all employees.

“There’s no standard increase percentage across the board. It’s more of what’s the target salary, what’s the target hourly rate for the various positions, which makes this process a lot longer and harder than we would’ve wanted,” says Patrick.

On top of that, the other challenge is revenue.

“We have not gotten a major increase when it comes to the income for city,” says Patrick.

When it comes to property taxes, Patrick says, “At the end of the day, until we check every corner and see how much we have available to give our personnel increases, I cannot guarantee what our millage rate will do this fiscal year.”

The Hall County Tax Commissioner’s Office discussed the Homestead Tax Relief Grant proposed by Governor Brian Kamp and passed by the General Assembly, according to AccessWDUN.

The 2023 Homestead Tax Relief Grant (HTRG) is set to provide an automatic tax credit of up to $450, which is more than the traditional homestead tax exemption, according to commission officials. The one-time credit initiative is a collaborative effort between Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and the General Assembly.

Kemp has reportedly championed a $950 million refund in homeowner taxes, known as the 2023 Property Tax Relief Grant. That initiative was signed into law via House Bill 18 in March.

“In light of significant increases in home values in recent years, we wanted to inform our local taxpayers about this property tax credit before official notices are presented on property tax bills in September,” Hall County Tax Commissioner Darla Eden said. “The Homestead Tax Relief Grant automatically reduces your property tax bill if your property is homesteaded, providing financial relief without any other action by homeowners.”

Eligible homeowners will receive a tax relief grant in the form of an $18,000 reduction of the assessed value of their homesteaded property. To be granted a homestead exemption, the person is required to be the legal owner and physically occupy the home in question.

“It’s important to note that the Homestead Tax Relief Grant is different from a homestead exemption,” Eden said. “An eligible homeowner in Hall County could see a tax credit this fall up to $450 from the HTRG on their 2023 property tax bills. This credit is applied after all other state and local homestead exemptions, and is applicable to all millage rates, excluding bond line-item rates.”

The grant will automatically show up in September property tax bills for those who had a homestead exemption or applied for one before April 1, 2023. This is a reduction on the bill, not a refund or check. If you did not have or apply for the homestead exemption by April 1, you will not get the grant for 2023.

Floyd County state legislators discussed the property tax relief and other topics, according to the Rome News Tribune.

During a meeting of local lawmakers with Rome Rotary Club and Rome Floyd Chamber members, state Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, briefly outlined the program.

That’s going to be handy this year for property owners who have been granted the homestead exemption. Even with sometimes drastic increases in property values, and therefore property tax assessments, that state refund will balance out the sticker shock, Floyd County Tax Commissioner Kevin Payne said.

However, next year the valued assessment of a property will likely remain the same, but the state refund may not be there.

“A lot of folks aren’t going to see an increase (in their bill) this year; next year is going to be the problem,” Payne said.

The ACLU and Southern Poverty Research Center filed motions in their lawsuit over Senate Bill 202, passed by the state legislature in 2021, according to WSAV.

Voting rights groups say there are provisions in SB 202 that discriminate against Black voters by restricting dropbox access, limiting food and water distribution to voters in line and imposing absentee ballot id requirements.

“The ACLU is concerned about voter access for all the people who are eligible to vote in Georgia,” said Policy Director of ACLU Georgia Christopher Bruce. So making sure voting is easy for all Georgians in this upcoming election.”

Just two weeks back, they filed another motion that says SB 202 does not provide equal opportunities to disabled voters and want counties to have drop boxes in locations that are accessible.

“We are still dealing with SB 202 decimating absentee ballots in Georgia,” Bruce said.

Bruce explained, “Before 2020 you had a plethora of individuals who voted by absentee ballots. After SB 202 was actually passed, absentee ballots dropped exponentially shortening the window and changing the parameters to request an absentee ballot.”

Advocates want the court to block two provisions – one that makes it a felony for friends or neighbors to help a disabled person return their absentee ballot and another that makes counties move ballot drop boxes indoors from easily accessible outdoor areas.

State Rep. Soo Hong (R-Gwinnett) was named 2023 Legislator of the Year by the Junior League of Atlanta, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.

The Junior League of Atlanta recently announced it was presenting Hong with its 2023 Legislator of the Year award. The award is designed to recognize a lawmaker whose work in the General Assembly contributed significantly to the league’s mission of developing women into leaders and promoting volunteerism and community transformation.

“I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the Junior League of Atlanta for this recognition following my first legislative session,” Hong said in a statement. “This award reaffirms my commitment to advocating for policies that uplift women, children and families, and it motivates me to continue working tirelessly to create a better future for all.”

Hong was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 2022. At the beginning of her first legislative session, Gov. Brian Kemp named Hong as one of his four House floor leaders for the 2023-2024 legislative term.

Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones (R-Jackson) named members of three Senate Study Committees, according t0 a Press Release.

Lt. Governor Burt Jones announced legislative and citizen appointments to the following study committees: Senate Local Option Sales Tax Study Committee, Senate Truck Driver Shortages Study Committee and Senate Study Committee on Rural Medical Personnel Recruitment.

“These appointments are the final ones for Senate Study Committees created during the 2023 session,” said Lt. Governor Burt Jones. “Each of these study committees will review current policies and practices within their specific topics. The appointees are experts on these issues and bring a variety of experience and knowledge to each of the committees. I look forward to learning more from their findings and addressing their recommendations during the 2024 Legislative Session.”

Senate Resolution 147 established the Senate Local Option Sales Tax Study Committee during the 2023 session. The following members will serve on the seven member committee:

Senator Derek Mallow (D – Savannah) – Chairman of the Study Committee
Senator Tonya Anderson (D – Lithonia)
Senator Brandon Beach (R – Alpharetta)
Senator Clint Dixon (R – Gwinnett)
Senator Russ Goodman (R – Cogdell)
Senator Sonya Halpern (D – Atlanta)
Senator Sam Watson (R – Moultrie)
Clay Davis, Spalding County Commission Chair
Joseph Melder, City of Savannah Manager

The Senate Truck Driver Shortages Study Committee was created by Senate Resolution 155. The following members will serve on the five member committee:

Senator Jason Anavitarte (R – Dallas) – Chairman of the Study Committee
Senator Greg Dolezal (R – Cumming)
Senator Steve Gooch (R – Dahlonega)
Senator Nabilah Islam (D – Lawrenceville)
Senator Emanuel Jones (D – Decatur)

Senate Resolution 371 established the Senate Study Committee on Rural Medical Personnel Recruitment during the 2023 session. The following members will serve on the five member committee:

Senator Bo Hatchett (R – Cornelia) – Chairman of the Study Committee
Senator Kim Jackson (D – Stone Mountain)
Senator Kay Kirkpatrick (R – Marietta)
Senator Nan Orrock (D – Atlanta)
Senator Larry Walker (R – Perry)
Study Committee members will hold meetings throughout the state. Dates and locations will be announced at a later date.

The Georgia Supreme Court struck down a 2016 law that required licensure for lactation consultants, according to the Capitol Beat News Service.

The case goes back to 2016, when the General Assembly passed legislation requiring a state license to offer lactation care and limiting licenses to businesses that obtain a privately issued certification as an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC).

Certified lactation consultant Mary Jackson of Fulton County and a nonprofit organization known as Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere sued the Georgia secretary of state’s office, claiming the law violated their rights to due process and equal protection because it would require them to cease practicing their chosen profession.

The suit also maintained the law lacked any substantive connection to public health or safety and that there was no evidence to show non-IBCLC lactation care providers had ever harmed the public.

In Wednesday’s ruling, Chief Justice Michael Boggs reversed the trial court’s decision, which had been in favor of the state, and found in favor of the plaintiffs.

“Not every burden on the ability to pursue a lawful occupation will be unconstitutional,” Boggs wrote. “Sometimes, a regulation will be ‘rational’ in the sense that it is reasonably necessary. … But if the challenger can establish that a regulation imposing restrictions on a lawful occupation does not advance the articulated public purpose by means that are reasonably necessary for that purpose, then the regulation cannot stand.”

Long County has its first liquor store, according to WTOC.

It’s been about seven months since election day, when Long County voters approved liquor sales within the county.

Now, residents won’t have to drive into another county to buy spirits they were already drinking. Long County Commission Chairman Robert Parker says it helps those dollars stay local.

“We’re seven miles from neighboring counties that are all wet, so to speak, so people were still buying it, but they’ll just shop closer to home now,” said Long County Commission Chairman Robert Parker.

“When the state of Georgia lifted their alcohol restrictions after prohibition, each county had to enact their own or do nothing and not allow them, and that’s what Long County did. They just never allowed it.”

And while Ludowici Liquor is the first liquor store in Long County, Chairman Parker says he expects the growth to continue.

Peach crops in Hall County are drastically reduced, according to the Gainesville Times.

The fruit will be in shorter supply this season thanks to an unusually warm winter and a several-day freeze in March, peach farmers say.

Drew Echols, co-owner and manager of Jaemor Farms, says he’ll be lucky to harvest half as many peaches this year — from 20,000 bushels down to an estimated 8,000. He said he hasn’t seen a peach shortage this severe since 2007.

“I don’t think we’re going to have enough (peaches) for our store,” Echols said. “And that’s a little scary because the crop in middle Georgia, it sucks, too. Peaches are going to be short pretty much all over the southeast.”

Decatur County in the lower left-hand corner of the state, is being hit by large numbers of counterfeit hundred-dollar bills, according to WALB.

Bulloch County public schools will provide free lunches this summer, according to the Statesboro Herald.

According to a release from Bulloch County Schools, all sites are open to any child. They are not limited by school zones or residency.

For the 2023 summer, families have the choice to either pick up a box of meals each week or to go to a school cafeteria on weekdays for sit-down meal service for their child.

Families do not have to pre-register or pre-order to receive meals. The program also provides free breakfasts and lunches to children who participate in the school district’s Summer Learning Opportunities program.

Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson hosted a public meeting, according to WTVM.

Mayor Skip Henderson and other city leaders gathered to answer questions from people in Columbus yesterday.

Residents were able to send in their questions before the event in the city council chambers, at the city services center.

Violence was a big concern expressed by residents, with some looking for answers in the wake of recent incidents in the city, including a chase that ended at the Peachtree mall.

Other issues brought up during the “Let’s Talk with the mayor” event included affordable housing, and one resident talked about a gardening program that may help deter violence in the community.

Dougherty County Commissioners may have broken the state Open Records law when they voted to fire the County Manager, according to WALB.

A recent vote by the Dougherty County Board of Commissioners to fire the county administrator is under investigation by the Georgia Attorney General’s Office.

The commission voted to fire McCoy in a 4-3 vote. Commission Chairman Lorenzo Heard broke the tie in favor of termination. Addressed in a letter to the county, the issue with the vote falls under the Georgia Open Meetings Act.

“It appears that the commission posted an agenda for its meeting on May 22, 2023, describing that meeting as a work session. The agenda does not appear to include any reference to discussing the employment status of the county administrator. Further, the applicable meeting packet online does not include any mention of a discussion about the county administrator’s employment status,” the letter states.

“However, during the meeting, the commission apparently approved a motion made to terminate the services of the county administrator. Press reports further state that at the commission’s special called meeting on May 25, 2023, a motion was apparently made to add an agenda item for a vote to repeal the commission’s May 22 decision to terminate the county administrator; that motion failed.”

The issue, the letter states, is whether the commission “properly considered the motion that was voted on at its May 22 meeting, in light of the fact that it was not included on the agenda.”

The Georgia Open Meetings Act states that before any meeting, that entity must make all matters expected to come before the entity during that meeting available on an agenda.

[Commission Chair] Heard said he is following the Georgia Municipal Association Meetings code. Under work session, it says these meetings “do not prohibit governing body members from taking official action.”

Gainesville City Council will vote whether to expand their downtown drinking dining district, according to AccessWDUN.

The Gainesville City Council is set to vote Tuesday evening on the expansion of the city’s Downtown Dining District, which would bring several new establishments within its boundaries.

Assistant City Manager Angela Sheppard said at Thursday morning’s Gainesville City Council work session the new boundary would include Inked Pig, Remedy Distillery and Blackstrap.

The Downtown Dining District is described as an area within Gainesville City Limits where customers are allowed to carry alcohol in an open container.

The City of Jesup hosted a meeting to discuss homelessness, according to WTOC.

More than 100 elected officials and community leaders gathered in Jesup Wednesday to discuss how to address homelessness. It’s something Jesup Mayor Ralph Hickox says not only impacts his city, but the entire region.

The forum gave a space for leaders from every level of government to talk – from local, to state and federal. Mayor Hickox says it’s important to talk about policies that have and haven’t worked when it comes to addressing homelessness and mental health in the community. For example, Hickox says leaders in Wayne County have been successful in using a recently-launched app and website to connect people to resources – called WayneHelp.com. There was also an information fair, where people could learn about resources already available in the area. Hickox says the day’s turnout is a testament to how important the issue is in southeast Georgia.

“It tells you a little bit about where we’re at as a society right now. The fact that people got up, probably at 4:00 this morning and drive from Quitman, Georgia, to attend a meeting on homelessness and mental illness in Jesup, Georgia, it tell you that people are looking for answers. And I think we owe them to work on that and get those answers,” Jesup Mayor Ralph Hickox said.

Hickox says the discussion doesn’t end here. He plans to meet regularly with the group that was here today.

Glynn County Commissioners adopted two ordinances aimed at punishing reducing homelessness, according to The Brunswick News.

The camping and improper use of public places ordinance makes it unlawful, unless authorized, to make use of public rights of way “in a manner that interferes with the safe and efficient movement of people and property from place to place on a public road or right-of-way.”

Before the vote, Commissioner Allen Booker said there is help available for the homeless dedicated to providing mental health care and job placement.

“We are caring about them,” he said. “We have the resources in place.”

Commission Chairman Wayne Neal said one of the problems is homeless from other areas are being dropped off here making it difficult to “take care of our own.”

Commissioners also approved a pedestrian and vehicle safety ordinance designed to curtail panhandling.
The ordinance will make it illegal for physical interaction between a pedestrian and motorist.

Private landowners can place no trespassing signs and call authorities if someone panhandles on their property. Business owners can also place signs prohibiting panhandling.

Savannah homeless shelters are preparing for hurricane season, according to WSAV.

Hurricane season is officially here, and local shelters are preparing to provide a safe space for people experiencing homelessness.

The Old Savannah City Mission currently has 46 bed spaces available, and this hurricane season, they’re prepared to shelter up to 200 people in the event of an emergency.

“Anytime if it’s an emergency, they know that they can stop whatever they’re doing and come to Old Savannah City Mission, our building is open 24/7, we always have somebody on the desk to let individuals in during extreme temperatures,” Ray said.

Georgia created the ‘State Shelter Program’, which would have evacuees meet at a designated location and then be bussed to an inland location. The Old City Mission will provide transportation to those appropriate assembly points.

The state shelter program replaces city to city agreements like Savannah had with Augusta. In 2019, more than 1300 city evacuees went to Augusta – in 2017 that number topped 3000. But because of the incredible cost to cities like Augusta, the state shelter program was created.

As local organizations prepare to provide shelter to people, items like non-perishables, blankets, socks, sanitary products, and cleaning supplies are in high demand, and they are looking for donations.

The Savannah-Chatham Board of Education announced Denise Watts as the sole finalist for Superintendent, according to the Savannah Morning News.

“The Board is confident that Dr. Watts is the right leader to build upon and accelerate the progress made under retiring Superintendent Dr. Ann Levett,” a press release from the district reads.

Watts is currently serving as Chief of Schools for the Houston Independent School District, which serves nearly 200,000 students across 274 schools. Savannah-Chatham serves about 36,000 students.