Author: Robert Preston

It’s time for local government agencies to set the millage rate for the upcoming year. At last week’s regular Douglas city commission meeting, the commission approved a net millage rate 5.99 mills for the city. The commission held the reading of the millage ordinance and a public hearing during the meeting. The overall millage rate is 13.6499 mills. However, after all adjustments, the net millage to the city is 5.99 mills. No one spoke either for or against the proposed millage rate. Commissioners rolled back the millage rate a bit over last year due to an increase in sales tax.…

Gracie Giddens threw a four-inning, three-hit complete game and shortstop Emma Gourley was 3-4 with four RBI and two runs scored in the CCA Lady Patriots’ 13-1 run-rule shortened win over the Charlton County Maidens Tuesday afternoon on the CCA campus. Until last Thursday’s loss to Trinity Christian, the Lady Patriots had opened the season with a seven-game winning streak. The Crusaders ended that streak with a strong performance on CCA’s home field. How would the Lady Patriots respond? They answered with one of their best games of the season. CCA opened the game with their collective feet on the…

The good news is the Citizens Christian Academy Lady Patriots continued scoring runs in bunches last Thursday, plating nine against the Trinity Christian Crusaders. The bad news is that, for the first time this season, their opponents scored more – 13 to be exact. After opening the season with seven straight wins, the Lady Patriots dropped their first game of the year to the Crusaders in Douglas on Thursday. CCA held the lead a couple of times in the game but Trinity Christian refused to give up. Six errors didn’t help the Lady Patriots’ cause, either. The Lady Patriots jumped…

Friday night was a tale of two halves. The Coffee Trojans held on to a fragile 10-6 lead over the Columbia County (Lake City, Fla.) Tigers at halftime. When the final seconds ticked off the clock, the Trojans came away with a 40-13 win, thanks in large part to two defensive touchdowns and a safety in the fourth quarter. “We have to find the identity of this team. We’ll get Tyrese Hansley back after this open week. That will give us a bruiser right there to help [Tyrese] Woodgett and [KJ] Debruce. I was proud of our second half. I…

The CCA Lady Patriots have outscored their opponents 53-4 over their last three games and are 7-0 on the season. Most recently, CCA defeated the Twiggs Academy Trojans 25-0 in three innings Tuesday afternoon in Douglas. For all practical purposes, the game was over after the first inning. The Lady Patriots scored 16 runs in the first then added nine more in the second. Gracie Giddens was 3-3 with two runs scored and eight RBI. Four of her eight RBI came on an inside-the-park grand slam in the first inning. She drove in two more with a triple in the…

A search warrant served at a residence on the Willacoochee Highway resulted in two arrests – one on-site and the other off-site. The investigation took place on August 13, 2024. According to a report from the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office, detectives with the drug unit served a warrant the home of Charles Black, 55, of Douglas. Before the detectives arrived, Black left the residence and was detained at another location. When the officers went inside the home, they found Stephanie Rountree, 44, of Douglas, in a bedroom closet, the report states. There was also suspected methamphetamine in the closet with…

Friday night against the visiting Ware County Gators, the Coffee Trojans ran 57 offensive plays. Thirty-five of those plays went to senior running back Tyrese Woodgett. With fellow senior Tyrese Hansley out for the game with an injury, Woodgett had to handle most of the ball-carrying duties himself. In fact, he wasn’t just a big part of the Coffee offense Friday night – he was nearly all of it all by himself. The Trojans finished with 348 total yards on the night – 60 percent of which were courtesy of Woodgett. Woodgett was Coffee’s workhorse against the Gators, carrying the…

On October 29, 1985, the late Dusty Rhodes delivered his now-famous hard times promo as he prepared to battle Ric Flair for the Mid-Atlantic world heavyweight championship at Starrcade. “He put hard times on Dusty Rhodes and his family. You don’t know what hard times are, daddy,” growled Rhodes into announcer Bob Caudle’s microphone. Against all odds, he would go on to defeat Flair and win the world title. Friday night, the visiting Ware County Gators put some hard times on the Coffee Trojans. And, in Dusty Rhodes-like fashion, Coffee battled back and won the game. Ware jumped out to…

An investigation that began as an alleged domestic dispute on Old Waycross Highway ended up nabbing a fugitive wanted on a warrant out of Florida, according to a sheriff’s office report. On August 2, 2024, deputies received a call that Lucas Vasquez, 22, of Douglas, had damaged a door inside a home then fled into the woods. There were several trailers in the area that were being worked on; according to the report, officers found Vasquez in one of those trailers. During the investigation, the victim stated that she had been at Dollar General on August 1 when Vasquez called…

Emy Lowery paced the Citizens Christian Academy Lady Patriots in their 24-5 win over Crisp Academy Tuesday afternoon in Cordele. Lowery was 3-5 with three runs scored and six RBI. She also threw the fifth and final inning, picking up the save in the process. Lowery, along with Brilynn Waldron, led the Lady Patriots with six total bases; both she and Waldron doubled and tripled. The outcome of the game was never in doubt. CCA scored 15 runs over the first three innings then added nine in the fifth. Crisp Academy got on the board with one in the second…