Wednesday, September 21, 2016

THOMASTON MAYOR AND COUNCIL PLANNING RETREAT SEPT. 22, 23

THE THOMASTON MAYOR AND COUNCIL WILL HOLD A PLANNING RETREAT AT THE MOUNTAIN CREEK INN CONFERENCE CENTER AT CALLAWAY GARDENS THURSDAY NOON TO 5 AND FRIDAY 8AM TILL 12 NOON.

SINCE THE ECONMY CRASHED LOCAL GOVERNMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN LEAVING TOWN FOR RETREATS, BUT CITY MANAGER RUSSELL THOMPSON SAID ITS HIS IDEA TO ELIMINATE ALL THE DISTRACTIONS AND JUST CONCENTRATE ON CITY BUSINESS.

AT TUESDAY'S MEETING COUNCILMAN DON GREATHOUSE SAID HE HAS A CONFLICT AND CAN'T ATTEND.

THE CITY MANAGER SAID THE AGENDA WILL INCLUDE A STREET RESURFACING REPORT FROM THE ENGINEERING FIRM OF VAUGHN AND MELTON—THEY HAVE RATED OVER 200 CITY STREETS BASED ON THEIR NEED FOR RESURFACING. ALSO A REPORT FROM THE CITY'S ENGINEER ON WATER AND SEWER AND STORM WATER PROJECTS.

THE OUTING SHOULD COST 3 TO $4000—ACCORDING TO MANAGER THOMPSON .







Monday, September 19, 2016

UGA COACH KIRBY SMART AT HIS MONDAY PRESS CONFERENCE

Head Coach Kirby Smart 
Opening statement...
“We’re moving on to Ole Miss, an extremely talented football team that, as all you know, they have two losses to two really good football teams. We’ve got a great challenge in front of us. They have a very good head coach who does a great job in all aspects of their program. I’m very familiar with their program, and they’ve been very successful since Coach (Hugh) Freeze arrived. They have arguably one of the best quarterbacks in all of college football (Chad Kelly). I’ve got a lot of respect for this guy. I’ve seen this guy play since he was in high school. We recruited him, I’ve been around him, I know a lot about him. He was at a junior college right over by Tuscaloosa. He’s a great player and they’ve got really good wideouts around him. They’ve got one of the most disruptive defenses in the country. I know statistically you’ll try to find weaknesses in their defense, but when you watch them they are very talented and they’ve got a good ball team. We’ve got to focus on us, we’ve got to focus on getting our team better, and we’ve got some deficiencies that we’ve really got to work on. We’re going to try to improve those this week. With that I’ll open it up.”

On similarities and differences between the Ole Miss and Mizzou spread offense...
“There are some differences. They’re very talented. They’re a different spread than say Missouri. They run the ball. People say they don’t, but they’re committed to the run. They have to protect their offensive line. Their quarterback is as talented as I’ve seen at throwing the ball. He doesn’t make many mistakes. He’s very athletic, which makes it hard to get him on the ground when you do get a guy free or you do win a pass rush because he can scramble. The wideouts are big and physical, and there’s a bunch of them. Some of the most talented ones are true freshmen. I don’t know that I’ve seen a group as deep as this one at wide receiver where they’ve got so many guys that can go in the game and play. They don’t drop off when they change out guys, and that includes the tight end (Evan Engram) who’s especially talented. We’ve got a great challenge ahead of us. They’ve played two really good defenses on tape and they’ve scored a lot of points and got a lot of yards. You can see I haven’t shaved. That has a lot to do with it.”

On Ole Miss tight end Evan Engram...
“He’s talented. He runs like a receiver. They put him in spots where he can get vertical down the field. The guy runs by DB’s, and he’s a tight end. When you’ve got a tight end that runs faster than your DB’s you’ve got a problem because he can get matched up on a linebacker. They do a really good job of putting him in situations to get him the ball. He’s a good blocker, too. They don’t ask him to do a whole lot of blocking, but what he has to do he does well.”

On applying lessons from playing Mizzou’s Drew Lock to Ole Miss’s Chad Kelly...
“Drew Lock didn’t run very much. He didn’t take off and run. He has the capability. He’s got the athletic ability. He just chose not to. (Chad Kelly) is not like that. This kid is willing to do that. I actually think he enjoys it sometimes. He’s like a linebacker playing quarterback. He’s a little bit like a rodeo bull rider. This guy will do anything and he’s good at it. Trust me, I know from experience. He’s good.”

On Smart’s familiarity with Ole Miss helping preparations...
“As far as the preparation, it just helps knowing you’re familiar with their offense. When you turn the tape on you get a lot of ‘Oh yeah, I remember that. Oh yeah, I remember that.’ You’ve seen that. That wasn’t the case last week. There was a lot less. It doesn’t really matter because you’ve still got to go out and stop them. It’s just there’s familiarity, but they have familiarity. They’ve played defenses extremely similar to ours twice already. When it comes to scheme, they probably already know what they’re going to do. Hugh Freeze probably went home last night at 5:30 in the afternoon because he knew what he was going to do against our defense. He’s seen it before. It’s our job to try to create confusion and make it harder on them.”

On matching intensity...
“I don’t know the answer to that because our hunger and intensity better be pretty intense to go to Oxford, Mississippi, one of the top teams in the country the last two or three years, and go play on the road in the SEC which we learned last week is extremely difficult. The environment will be just as or more chaotic when we go to Oxford, Mississippi, I can reassure you that. Our guys will be ready to play and we’ve got to get them focused on it. The challenge, to me, is a lot more about the time that we play, for both teams. It’s a different environment when you crank it up early.”

On balancing QB pressure and supporting the secondary on defensive play calls...
“I don’t know. That’s like a question that keeps you up at night. There is no answer to that, there’s no perfect answer to that. You can say ‘well you rushed him and you were wrong’ or ‘you covered him and you were wrong.’  Ultimately, you have to have guys that dominate their box. If I’m lined up over the guard, I have to be able to beat that guard one-on-one because somebody’s going to get one-on-one matchups. I’m not for bringing more than they can block because they’ve got guys out there that can run and catch the ball. It’s the dynamic that we deal with all the time. There is no right or wrong answer to that. You’ve got to be able to pitch. You’ve got to throw the fastball, you’ve got to throw a curveball. You’ve got to be able to change it up and you’ve got to throw the slider. You can’t do the same thing all the time. I’ve sat and watched three teams play them, and nobody’s really slowed them down. From that standpoint, you’ve got to create turnovers, you’ve got to do a great job effecting the quarterback. That’s hard to do with (Kelly) because he’s seen it all before. There’s nobody that’s invented a defense against the spread that’s going to stop it totally. They are producing offensive numbers for a reason. They have really good players. You’re a lot better off saying I’m going to play sound defense, cause turnovers, stop them in the red area, force field goals, don’t give up big plays. All the things we preach on defense. That’s what’s important to stop the spread.”

On building confidence in the kicking situation...
“They’ve got competition between each other, and that will continue. We kick field goals almost every day now. It’s a matter of putting them in situations to get them to kick better. I can’t simulate the people in the stands that they have to deal with. That’s something that each one of them has to work on individually, and we’re trying to help them with. To be honest, we’ve got to practice it. We’re going to continue to do that.”

On scoring off turnovers...
“We always stress it. We want to score every time we get a possession, but especially after a turnover. We get it in their territory, we want to get it down there and get points out of it. I think one of the big struggles with that is we haven’t made some of our field goals and we haven’t capitalized on them. It’s something we talk about all the time. Starting off the season, that was a big focus for our offense – to be in the red zone and be able to score touchdowns and not have to score field goals. That’s a big part of being able to run the ball too.”

On challenges with an 11 a.m. kickoff...
“The biggest thing is getting the mentality of your players right. It’s a different mentality when you have to do that. The night before is different. It’s nothing like our trip last week where we’ve got two meetings, one at night, one the day of the game. This is a wake up, eat a pregame meal, go play. They’ve got to have their mindset ready for that. I think Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are important for that because they have to have a routine. We want to keep that routine. I think that’s a big advantage for whichever team handles that best.”

On the game-winning play call and what it revealed about Jacob Eason...
“That didn’t really reveal anything about Eason to me because I’ve seen him in practices and I’ve seen him compete. To be honest with you that play’s done. We’ve got to worry about Ole Miss. They’re going to have some really fast guys rushing. I’m really worried about what they’ve got rushing, No. 10 (Marquis Haynes) especially.”

On comfort with the QB situation...
“How much more comfortable? I think with the reps he’s gotten, he’s grown and he’s gotten better. The kid has grown up a lot. I think with each and every rep he’s got to continue to grow. When you make one mistake you try not to make that mistake again. When you don’t call a play right you try to call that play right every time from now on. He’s shown the propensity that when he makes a mistake once he can usually correct that. But you’re talking about exponentially how many things can happen in a play that he’s never seen and now you’re trying to fix all those things. Sometimes they’ve got to happen before you fix them. You don’t learn unless you get the experience. He’s gotten some valuable experience the last two games, but let’s be honest, he’s a freshman.”

On what stood out about Eason’s play after watching film...
“The big thing with Jacob is he has improved every game. That’s what we want to continue to do. He continues to improve and develop, and it helps our offensive football team. Jacob has done a good job up to this point. He has to stay in that mindset of being able to execute that offense. That’s the most important thing. Jacob’s going to be able to start our game, assuming he has a good week of practice he will. That’s the plan going forward, is that if he continues to practice well and do the right things then he’ll be the starter.”

On an adjustment after changing offensive line coaches...
“Usually you’re blocking the plays that you have installed offensively. So philosophically, whether it’s the power, a lot of people block the power the same way. Some people teach different steps, different splits, different things like that. For the most part, running plays are running plays. I think across the board, when you watch college football, a lot of people block the same plays the same way. So when you talk about scheme wise there’s not always a lot of change. I think philosophically there could be changes in how you play people, what protections you use. Some ‘o-line’ coaches are different from others. I’m certain there’s been some changes in that room in that dynamic, but a lot of the plays have been the same. To me, the biggest difference is you’ve changed the coaches but a lot of the personnel is the same on the offensive line. You’ve got to do a great job of getting those guys better, you’ve got to keep getting them stronger throughout the year and we’ve got to become a physical football team that can run the ball.  Our identity is not going to change. We’re going to do that. We’ve got to be stubborn and believe we’re going to do that. We’ve got to just play better.”

On offensive line shuffle...
“We’ve looked at every combination we can, and we’ll continue to do that. Those guys practice when y’all aren’t there, besides the 12 minutes you are there. They do those things, and we look at them. We go against the defense. We go against Trenton (Thompson) and (John Atkins). Then we go over and do one-on-one pass rush when you guys aren’t there. And we do (pass protection). And Isaiah (Wynn) plays tackle and different guys play guard. At the end of the week we say ‘what’s our best lineup?’ I hope that answers your question.”

On settling in to the season...
“It’s not really like that for me. To be honest with you, the season is the season. It hasn’t been the first this, the first this. I feel like the first game was a road game because we played at the Georgia Dome. It’s really not, for me, I feel like every week has been the same. It’s game week. We have a game week routine, and that routine has been the same. It hasn’t been one week different than the other. I’ve tried to maintain that the opponent names, faces, all of that doesn’t matter. We’re trying to focus on us, because we’ve certainly got a lot to work on. We’ve got a long way to go.”

On improving on run blocking from the Missouri game...
“We have to be able to run the ball better. Effectively, we talked about run efficiency. We were only run-efficient in the first game. Efficiency for us is success at which you run it at first down, second down and third down. We haven’t been run-efficient that last two games. When you ask how do we do that better, we have to create opportunities for our kids to be successful in. That’s the challenge we have as coaches, and that’s the challenge we’re going to issue to our players.”

On possibly giving scholarships to kickers...
“We didn’t have any (kickers) to sign this year because when I got here this year every good kicker that I knew from recruiting was going to sign somewhere.  We’re going to always go in and recruit kickers. It’s a matter of whether we’re going to commit a scholarship to it or not. That is not a policy by any means. I firmly believe that you’ve got to have a great kicker. I’ve been around when you didn’t. That to me is can we find the best one, and can the best one be the best one? I’ve been around the ones that come and they’re the best one at the camp, then they come in to your place and they’re not, and now you’ve got them for four years. I think there’s a fine line in that. Just like I experienced at Alabama last year, we had (Eddy Pineiro) who was unbelievable. We were going to put him on scholarship, no doubt. He was committed there, and then he ends up flipping and going to Florida. That’s a guy that’s going to be a difference maker. Certainly, certainly going to be able to scholarship that guy. We’ll continue to look in that mode.”

On comparing Charles Harris and Marquis Haynes...
“They’re both really good players. Coach (Jim) Chaney really felt, and I felt like Charles Harris was a really good player coming out the game. He was even better than we thought. Going into this game, Marquise Haynes is a really good player. We know that. We’ve seen it first hand. He’s a dominant pass rusher, he can disrupt plays. He’s a talented player. They’ve got some similarities, but Haynes has just done it for a longer period of time.”

Friday, September 16, 2016

FEMALE EMPLOYEE OF TRANS WASTE LIFEFLIGHTED TO MACON HOSPITAL

ACCORDING TO UPSON COUNTY SHERIFF DAN KILGORE—AN EMPLOYEE OF THE TRANS WASTE GARBAGE FACILITY AT 2616 WAYMANVILLE ROAD—WAS LIFE-FLIGHTED TO A MACON HOSPITAL AFTER SHE WAS TRAPPED BETWEEN HER SUV AND A BIG CAT LOADER.

THE VICTIM—28 YEAR OLD MELISSA L. SANDERS OF WILLIAMSON, GA. HAD PULLED UP BEHIND THE LOADER TO OFFLOAD SOME TRASH AND THE DRIVER---JIMMY RAY HARRIS AGE 29 OF HENDRICKS CHURCH ROAD DID NOT SEE HER—WHEN HE BACKED-UP.

THE LIFTGATE TO THE LOADER CAME DOWN ON TOP OF MS. SANDERS.

THE DRIVER SAID HE HEARD THE SOUND OF CRUSHING METAL AND CHECKED TO SEE WHAT WAS GOING ON —HE PUSHED THE CHEVY TAHOE BACKWARDS ABOUT 7 FEET.





FOUR PERSONS FROM THOMASTON INJURED IN A LAMAR COUNTY WRECK

FORSYTH POST GA. STATE PATROL HAS RELEASED THE NAMES OF SIX PERSONS INJURED IN A HEAD-ON CRASH WITH AN 18 WHEELER ON HIGHWAY 36 AT BERRY ROAD—WEDNESDAY MORNING IN LAMAR COUNTY . A THOMASTON WOMAN DRIVING A FORD ESCORT HAD TO BE FREED FROM THE WRECKAGE WITH THE JAWS OF LIFE—MONESHA LASHON HOWELL, AGE 19. BARNESVILLE DOT COM REPORTED SHE SUFFERED CRUSHING INJURIES TO HER LOWER EXTREMITIES.

MS. HOWELL AND HER THREE PASSENGERS WERE TRANSPORTED TO THE MACON MEDICAL CENTER—33 YEAR OLD MASONDA HOWELL OF THOMASTON, REN'YLA WALKER AN INFANT AND 2 YEAR OLD KING WALKER OF THOMASTON.

THE TRUCK DRIVER—ANTION THOMAS, AGE 45 OF HEP-ZA-BA, GA. AND THE DRIVER OF A PONTIAC GRAND AM—24 YEAR OLD JAY-MONTE ANTAWAN MYRICK OF BARNESVILLE WERE TRANSPORTED TO URMC FOR MEDICAL TREATMENT.

A PASSENGER IN THE GRAND AM—DON DARIUIS HOOD, AGE 30 OF CULLODEN WAS UNHURT.

THE GSP SAID THE ACCIDENT REPORT IS INCOMPLETE—BUT WITNESSES SAID MS. HOWELL PULLED AROUND A VEHICLE TURNING INTO BERRY ROAD AND WAS STRUCK HEAD-ON BY THE BIG RIG—WHICH THEN HIT THE PONTIAC GRAND AM.

THE WRECK CLOSED HIGHWAY 36 FOR THREE HOURS.



Friday, September 9, 2016

UPSON CO MAN DIED IN BUSH HOG ACCIDENT

SHERIFF DAN KILGORE SAYS AN UPSON COUNTY MAN WAS KILLED THURSDAY AFTERNOON WHEN A BUSH HOG FELL ON HIM.

THE VICTIM—59 YEAR OLD JAMES JOEL WINTERS OF BAILEY MILL ROAD HAD THE BUSH HOG HITCHED TO HIS TRACTOR AND IT WAS PROPPED-UP WITH FOUR BY FOURS —WHILE HE SHARPENED THE BLADE WITH A GRINDER.

ONE OF THE POSTS FELL AND THE BUSH HOG DROPPED ON THE UPPER PART OF WINTERS BODY AND CRUSHED HIM.


FAMILY MEMBERS FOUND HIM SHORTLY AFTER IT HAPPENED JUST BEFORE 5PM. 

CITY OF THOMASTON ALCOHOL SALES VOTE NOT LIKELY IN NOVEMBER

THOMASTON'S CITY MANAGER AND ATTORNEY MET THIS PAST WEEK WITH ROBERT HANEY CHAIR OF THE UPSON BOARD OF ELECTIONS—AND IT APPEARS ANY REFERENDUM ON SALES OF ALCOHOL IN THE CITY OF THOMASTON WILL NOT BE ON A NOVEMBER BALLOT—PROBABLY POSTPONED UNTIL MARCH.

THE CITY COUNCIL HAS INDICATED IT WILL CALL A VOTE ON TWO ISSUES—NEITHER REQUIRE A PETITION OF 35% OF REGISTERED VOTERS.

ACCORDING TO CITY MANAGER RUSSELL THOMPSON --ONE ISSUE —SALE OF MIXED DRINKS ON SUNDAY, AND THE 2ND ISSUE BEER AND WINE PACKAGE SALES ON SUNDAY. NO PACKAGE SALES OF LIQUOR IS BEING CONSIDERED—AS WE HAD PREVIOUSLY REPORTED. THAT WOULD REQUIRE A PETITION OF 35% OF REGISTERED VOTERS IN THE CITY OF THOMASTON.

HANEY TOLD US—COUNCIL COULD CONTRACT WITH THE BOARD OF ELECTIONS FOR A REFERENDUM IN NOVEMBER—BUT IT WOULD BE A SPECIAL ELECTION REQUIRING SEPERATE EQUIPMENT AND POLL WORKERS. THOMASTON VOTERS WOULD HAVE TO VOTE FOR PRESIDENT AND THEN GET IN ANOTHER LINE AND VOTE ON THE ALCOHOL SALES ISSUES.

TO GET ON THE SAME BALLOT WITH THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES THE BOARD OF ELECTIONS NEEDED 90 DAYS ADVANCE NOTICE—ACCORDING TO ROBERT.



COACH FOWLER OK AND RECOVERING

UPSON-LEE FOOTBALL STATISTICIAN JIM FOWLER—WHO CONTRIBUTES TO OUR BROADCAST—WAS TRANSPORTED TO THE E.R. BY EMS AT THE START OF THE 4TH QUARTER OF THE GRIFFIN GAME THURSDAY NITE AFTER SUFFERING AN EPISODE OF HEAT EXHAUSTION.

OUR CREW CHECKED THE TEMP IN THE GRIFFIN HIGH PRESS BOX AND IT WAS 107 DEGREES IN THE UL BROADCAST AREA. COACH FOWLER WAS ADMITTED OVERNITE FOR DEHYDRATION AND WAS RELEASED FRIDAY MORNING.

THAT SECTION OF THE PRESS BOX AT MEMORIAL STADIUM HAD LITTLE VENILATION AND UNLIKE AT MATTEWS FIELD THE HOST TEAM DOES NOT PROVIDE ICED BEVERAGES FOR VISITORS.

GRIFFIN-SPALDING ATHLETIC DIRECTOR EDDIE PAYNE WAS ASKED ABOUT THE SITUATION FRIDAY AND TOLD US—HE IS WORKING ON SOME UPGRADES.

AT MATTEWS FIELD COACH JAMES DAWKINS HAS BEEN PRESS BOX HOST FOR DECADES. VISITORS GET A HARDY WELCOME FROM COACH AND THERE IS AN ICE CHEST OF BEVERAGES FOR ALL MEDIA. AT UL AWAY GAMES MOST SCHOOLS PROVIDE BEVERAGES FOR VISITING MEDIA.



Thursday, September 8, 2016

THOMASTON MAN IN SHOOT OUT WITH LAMAR COUNTY DEPUTIES

A THOMASTON MAN WITH AN OUTSTANDING WARRANT FOR AGGREVATED STALKING OF HIS ESTRANGED WIFE WAS WOUNDED IN THE SHOULDER AFTER HE ENGAGED IN A SHOOT-OUT WITH LAMAR COUNTY DEPUTIES THURSDAY AFTERNOON.

UPSON COUNTY SHERIFF DAN KILGORE SAID HIS DEPARTMENT AND LAMAR S.O. HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR 35 YEAR OLD TYLER WALKER PITTS OF HIGHWAY STREET THOMASTON-- AFTER HE SENT THREATENING TEXT MESSAGES TO THE FEMALE WHO WORKS IN BARNESVILLE. PITTS HAD ALSO REPORTEDLY MADE THREATS AGAINST LAW ENFORCEMENT AND HAD IMPLIED HE WOULD TAKE HIS OWN LIFE OVER HIS DOMESTIC TROUBLES.

LAMAR S.O. SAID PITTS LED DEPUTIES ON A CHASE THROUGH THE COUNTY UNTIL BARNESVILLE POLICE LAID DOWN STOP STICKS. ONCE PITTS STOPPED --HE OPENED FIRE ON THE DEPUTIES WHO RETURNED FIRE AND WOUNDED HIM IN THE SHOULDER—NO OFFICERS WERE WOUNDED.

PITTS WAS LIFE-FLIGHTED TO A HOSPITAL.

THE SHOOT-OUT HAPPENED AT THE POWELL PLACE APARTMENTS NEAR LAMAR COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL—PLACED ON LOCKDOWN AS THE CHASE HEADED THERE.

THE GBI HAS BEEN CALLED INTO THE INVESTIGATION.



Thursday, September 1, 2016

BODY OF MISSING HENRY CO. MAN FOUND IN UPSON

News Release

On August 31, 2016 just after 9:00am a 2015 Toyota Tundra belonging to Bertrand Brown, 81, of Locust Grove was located in a heavily wooded area off Goshen Rd near Woodland Highway. The vehicle was located off a woods road near Potato Creek by an individual scouting deer hunting property. The vehicle was more than a mile off the public roadway. Mr. Brown was reported missing to Henry County Police in May 2016. He suffered from alzheimer's disease and diabetes. Brown's last cell phone activity was noted at a cell tower off Gordon School Road in Upson County. There were no positive longitude/latitude coordinates associated with the cell activity, only the location of the cell tower. Several ground, K-9, and helicopter searches were conducted of the area near the cell tower yielding negative results. 
Skeletal remains were located near the vehicle as was personal property belonging to Mr. Brown. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation responded to assist with the investigation. There are no immediate indications of foul play; however, the remains were sent to the State Crime Lab for analysis and positive identification. 
This investigation is active and ongoing.

Dan Kilgore, Sheriff
August 31, 2016