Author: Robert Preston

It was a rather mundane gathering tonight of the Douglas City Commission, with the commission running through a brief agenda in a relatively short period of time. In maybe the most important piece of business the commission covered, the city fathers heard the first reading of new millage ordinance. According to Assistant City Manager Charlie Davis, the millage rate will remain at 8.51 mills – the same as last year. The commission will vote on the millage rage at the Aug. 25 meeting. In other business, the commission approved extending a natural gas line to Shann Peanut, the probation services…

At last Thursday’s meeting of the Douglas Rotary Club, the club presented Carol Morgan and the Brown Bag Project a check for $2,500 to help fund the program for the upcoming school year. Started by the Coffee County Retired Teachers Association, the Brown Bag Project provides meals for needy children throughout the school year. Last year, the project served 299 children in 273 Coffee County homes.

Jim Wooten, a retired columnist with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, visited the Douglas Rotary Club Thursday and shared his story of renovating Sugar Creek Plantation, the historic Talmadge family home located just outside McRae on Highway 341. The home holds the distinction of being the only house in Georgia, with the exception of the governor’s mansion, where more than one governor has lived. Home to Eugene Talmadge and his son, Herman Talmadge, the home was a centerpiece of Georgia politics for more than five decades. When Wooten purchased the home, it was in a state of disrepair. He renovated the home…

Coach C.M. Jenkins and the South Georgia State College Hawks have a new swimmer. Rachel Fussell, who has been swimming with both Coffee High School and the Douglas Stingrays, will continue her swimming career with the Hawks. Fussell will swim distance freestyle and backstroke for SGSC this year. She helped lead the Trojans to a region championship and the Stingrays to a state title. The Hawks have one of the best junior college swimming programs in the country and are pleased to have a swimmer of Fussell’s caliber for the next two years.

The Douglas Police Department is about to get six new police cars – five patrol vehicles and one car for the Narcotics Drug Task Force. The Douglas City Commission voted to purchase the cars at Monday night’s regular commission meeting. All 2014 Dodge Chargers, the patrol vehicles will cost a total of $117,501.85 while the task force car will cost $23,611.25. The commission also approved the purchase of additional equipment for the patrol cars that comes in at just over $57,000. The cars will all come from Akins Ford. Commissioners also approved a $56,105 change order for the North Pearl…

The Douglas City Commission meeting kicked off Monday night with three special recognitions. The spring and summer of 2014 has been a banner year of sorts for the Douglas Parks and Recreation Department athletic program. The recreation league teams from Douglas and Coffee County have always done well out-of-county competition but this year several teams performed exceptionally well. Many citizens may not know it but the recreation department has a summer tennis program. Twenty-six kids participated in the program this summer. A number of players went to district and on to the state tournament in Moultrie. At state, local players…

Friday afternoon, a couple of Coffee County residents – all of whom happen to be directly related to the author of this story – saw a dramatic and nearly deadly accident involving a car and a pedestrian at the entrance to the Okefenokee Swamp Park just south of Waycross on U.S. 1. The witnesses – Heather Preston and Sherry Thomas, the wife and mother-in-law of this writer – were traveling south on U.S. 1 when they saw a SmartCar run into a person on foot and seriously injure him. Thomas, Vice President of Patient Services at Coffee Regional Medical Center…

At Thursday night’s regular meeting of the Coffee County Board of Education, Dr. Morris Leis, School Superintendent, announced to the board that the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) had issued its accreditation report for the Coffee County School System. “We received what can best be described as a glowing report in many areas,” said Dr. Leis. SACS granted the system full accreditation for the next five years. In particular, Dr. Leis mentioned the area of governance, a particular part of the SACS review that had gotten the school board in trouble several years ago. “The most glowing report…

I like elections. I enjoy voting. I think taking an active part in choosing those who govern us is a great privilege. Apparently I am in the minority. Only 1,423 voters cast ballots in Tuesday’s runoff election, which featured two races on the Republican ballot (U.S. Senate and state school superintendent) and one on the Democratic ballot (state school superintendent). With no local races being contested, registered voters of Douglas-Coffee County showed little interest in the run-off. In the election for U.S. Senator, Coffee County’s former U.S. Representative Jack Kingston defeated David Perdue 855-311. On the Republican state school board…

Nine minutes. 540 seconds. That’s how long today’s regular meeting of the Coffee County Commission lasted. The commissioners had one item on the agenda; however, that item was cancelled due to a scheduling conflict. Commissioners opened the meeting with an invocation by Sam DeCasper, pastor of Ambrose Christian Church, then county administrator Wesley Vickers gave a short report on The Last Pedestrian, a movie which is being filmed in Douglas from July 24-26. After approving the minutes, commissioners adjourned approximately nine minutes after calling the meeting to order. During the pre-meeting work session, Vickers reviewed the 2014 tax digest and…