Author: Robert Preston

Monday morning, Coffee County commissioners spent the first few minutes of their regularly scheduled meeting discussing early voting for the upcoming election. Early voting began Monday and continues all week. Voters can cast their ballots at the elections office in the old 911 building on Ashley Street. Early voting hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. It started this week and continues all next week. In addition, the polls will be open on Saturday, Oct. 27 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Through Thursday, 1,691 voters had cast ballots. The commission also approved its standard intergovernmental…

After a game ends, players always head to the showers. But last night, Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill got a shower of another kind during the Chiefs’ 43-40 loss to the New England Patriots in Foxboro, Mass., when a Patriots’ fan doused him with beer following an important touchdown with 3:03 left in the game. The undefeated Chiefs trailed the Patriots by 15 at halftime but came roaring back in the second half. Hill scored three touchdowns during the comeback, none more important than the 75-yard catch from quarterback Patrick Mahomes with 3:03 remaining that made the…

The Coffee Trojans lost their second region game in as many weeks Friday night as they fell to the Valdosta Wildcats 37-22 in Valdosta. The Trojans jumped out to an early 7-0 lead on a long touchdown pass from A.J. Wilkerson to K.J. Davis. However, the Wildcats rallied and dominated the rest of the first half and went into halftime with a 23-7 lead. Valdosta opened the second half with another touchdown to go up 30-7. Coffee woke up a bit and scored twice in the second half, and made a two-point conversion after the final touchdown, to…

At the Douglas City Commission’s previous meeting, the commission tied 3-3 on two items related to the city’s alcohol ordinance. Because the votes ended in a tie, commissioners had to re-visit those items at Monday’s regular commission meeting. The first ordinance defined a pub and would allow alcohol to be served in such an establishment. A pub is smaller than a restaurant, serves a limited menu, and offers entertainment inside. Alcohol would also be served inside the pub. This item passed 4-2, with commissioners Cindy McNeill, Edwin Taylor, Kentaiwon Durham, and Olivia Pearson voting in favor. Commissioners Mike Gowen…

Last week, the Brian Kemp campaign rolled into Douglas. Kemp, a Republican who is running against Democrat Stacy Abrams for governor, is the first and thus far only major-party candidate to visit Coffee County this election season. Kemp gathered with supporters at the Douglas Municipal Airport and spent a few minutes chatting with those in attendance. Then Kemp took the opportunity to make a short stump speech that focused on putting Georgians first. “Our opponent is running like she’s the next Nathan Deal because she’s worked with Speaker Raulston and she’s worked with the governor. But make no mistake…

A one-vehicle accident late Friday took the life of a Douglas man. According to officials, the deceased, a 20-year-old male whose identity has not been released, was driving west on Highway 32 when he approached the overhead bridge. The driver failed to negotiate the curve on the bridge and left the roadway, driving down the embankment and into a pine tree. The vehicle then burst into flames. Authorities are still investigating the accident. There were no other vehicles involved and there were no passengers in the car that crashed.

The Coffee Trojans’ second road trip of the year didn’t go according to plan. Coffee suffered its first loss of the year to the Northside-Warner Robins Eagles in Warner Robins 30-20 in a battle of two top-10 teams. The Trojans are now 6-1 overall and 0-1 in region play. The Eagles scored from all over the field and on both sides of the ball. After Coffee’s opening drive ended in a punt, Northside’s Corey Munson put the Eagles on the board first with a 53-yard field goal. The Trojans answered with a 73-yard screen pass from A.J. Wilkerson to…

Wednesday afternoon on the campus of Lowndes Middle School, an era for the Coffee County athletic program came to an end. Wayne Shook, head coach of the sixth grade Coffee Middle School Trojans, coached his last football game after over 30 years as a teacher and coach in the system. Coach Shook is retiring at the end of the school year. As such, this football season is his last. The Trojans wrapped his career in style, throttling the Lowndes Middle Vikings 40-6 in a dominant performance that came within two minutes of a shutout. After the game ended,…

Monday night, the city commission voted to amend its list of capital improvement projects to include a completely new eight-lane swimming pool and pool complex, to break its list of projects into phases, and to enter into a contract with Altman and Barrett Architects to design multiple buildings on the project list. The commission needed to take action on these items because there have been a few changes since commissioners initially approved these projects over a year ago. The eight projects are Davis Property Sitework, a new utilities building, public works building, purchasing building, city hall renovation/expansion, recreation complex,…

At Monday’s regular county commission meeting, county code enforcement director Ray Parker recommended that the county deny a rezoning request despite the planning commission giving the request its stamp of approval. The request comes from Donald Wildes, Jr., who would like to rezone 5.3 acres at 1875 Sandhill Church Road from Commercial to Warehouse Lot Industrial. The county held the first reading of the request Monday. Parker stated that his staff recommended that the county deny the request based on standards of land use. He added that after the meeting, the county would advertise the request and post a…