Photo by Frank Sayles Jr./Tifton Grapevine

Among those at the final Sesquicentennial Toast to Tifton and Mural Dedication Thursday night are, from left, Tyron Spearman and Rosalie Reeder of Tifton Tourism, mural artists Taylor Shaw and Kaleena Stasiak, Rue’Nette Melton (whose father is depicted on the mural), Connie Stover of Donatello’s, Mayor Julie B. Smith, Downtown Development Director Abbey McLaren, Angela Elder of Tifton Tourism, and Bruce Green, local historian and Tifton Merchants Association president.

'A TOAST TO TIFTON'

CITY, TOURISM ASSOCIATION FORMALLY DEDICATE MURAL

By FRANK SAYLES JR.

Tifton Grapevine

The Tifton-Tift County Tourism Association hosted a final Tifton 150th Anniversary “Toast to Tifton” and mural dedication Thursday night.

Because of inclement weather, the Tifton mural dedication was held at The Station on the corner of Tift Avenue and Second Street – the site of the sawmill where the city began in 1872.

Mayor Julie B. Smith told invited guests that “this mural represents so much about our town” and serves as a "welcome to a special place” as the Friendly City embarks on its next 150 years.

“The mural is like our history – our history is interspersed with color and movement. Our history is woven together like a fabric, one that tells our stories, our successes, our failures, our longing for the best we can be, and a longing to leave this town better than we found it,” the mayor said.

The mural, in honor of the 150th anniversary of when Henry Harding Tift came to what is now Tifton and established a sawmill, is located downtown on a wall of Fifth Street Interiors along U.S. Highway 82 W. near the railroad tracks. 

It features artwork representing elements of Tifton, including Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and the University of Georgia, Tift Theatre and Fulwood Park, and long-time businesses such as the Town Terrace Motel and Coca-Cola. It also includes a likeness of the late Daughtry “Doc” Melton Sr., the first black to seek elected office in Tift County.

Taylor Shaw, a UGA graduate and Valdosta State University art instructor, created the mural and painted it with Kaleena Stasiak. The Tourism Association said it wanted the mural to be representative of the community.

The city has been celebrating its sesquicentennial all year, including at the Rhythm & Ribs BBQ Festival in March, a Wiregrass Ball in May, and at “Rock the Block” in July with birthday cake and fireworks.

Thursday night, Mayor Smith hoisted a champagne glass and led a final sesquicentennial toast: “To you Tifton, to the dedication of our mural, to the history we share, to the future we embrace, to the beautiful colors, the scenes, the faces, the memories made, and those not yet in place – here’s to our town, to Tifton."

More related events are planned in the remaining weeks of the year. The Tifton Council for the Arts is hosting on Nov. 17 a reveal of Tifton’s “lost painting” by Florence Willingham Pickard, sister of Bessie Willingham Tift – Henry Harding Tift’s wife.

On Dec. 3, Tifton’s Christmas parade and celebration "Tinsel in Tifton” (formerly Hometown Holidays) arrives with the sesquicentennial theme of “Decade the Halls."

Mayor Julie B. Smith leads one more ‘Toast to Tifton’ Thursday night.

‘LOST PAINTING’ BY EARLY TIFTON ARTIST TO BE UNVEILED NOV. 17

By FRANK SAYLES JR.

Tifton Grapevine

As part of Tifton’s sesquicentennial, the Tifton Council for the Arts is hosting a talk next Thursday night about early Tifton artist Florence Willingham Pickard.

During the presentation beginning at 7 p.m. in the Syd Blackmarr Arts Center, the “Lost Painting of Tifton,” a work by Pickard, will be unveiled.

Local historian Bruce Green and Tifton native Liz Carson Keith (Pickard’s great-great-granddaughter) will speak about the artist known as “Flora” or “Florrie."

The native of Smyrna, S.C., was a sister of Bessie Willingham Tift, who was the wife of Tifton’s founder Capt. Henry H. Tift.

Flora “grew up with her very large Willingham family at Blue Springs Plantation outside Albany, which is better known today as Radium Springs,” Liz Carson Keith told the Tifton Grapevine.

“When her sister married Captain Tift, Florence spent time with her sister in the emerging town” of Tifton, Keith said.

Flora Pickard was an author who penned several books and studied art abroad, receiving the gold medal in art under Madame Garcia in Paris and studying art under Lucke in Dresden, Germany, in 1905.

During her career, she exhibited her paintings in Virginia, Georgia, and Tennessee, was awarded the silver cup at the Georgia State Fair in 1918 and 1919, and was a traveling lecturer on art and literature.

In 1995, Bruce Green discovered a painting, signed and painted by Flora in 1883, in the basement of the old 1916 Union Depot in Tifton. The painting was in serious need of restoration. Green said he rolled it up and forgot about it, rediscovering it recently when moving back to Tifton from Atlanta.

That painting is in Atlanta being restored to its original glory and will be unveiled during Thursday’s presentation along with some of Flora Pickard’s early paintings loaned from family members.

Pickard’s husband, Dr. William Lowndes Pickard, was a Baptist minister who pastored churches in Savannah, in Kentucky, and Ohio, and served as president of Mercer University during World War I. When his health failed, he and Flora retired to a house on Park Avenue in Tifton, given by Captain Tift.

The 1930 Census shows Florence Pickard residing at 415 Park Ave. She died in December that year at age 68 and is buried in Oakview Cemetery in Albany.

WTIF RADIO OWNER FILES TO DONATE STATIONS TO TIFTON’S JOURNEY CHURCH

By FRANK SAYLES JR.

Tifton Grapevine

According to a filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), a Chula company is seeking to donate its radio stations, including WTIF-AM and -FM, to Journey Church of Tifton.

Sterling Southern Land LLC of Chula, owned by Danny Sterling, former president and CEO of PlantTel of Tifton, has filed to donate WTIF (1340), WTIF-FM (107.5), and WFFM Ashburn (107.5), along with Tifton-licensed W260AT at 99.9 FM, which have all halted operations since July.

At that time, TruVista Communications formally acquired PlantTel – Plant Telephone Co. and Plant Telecommunications of Tifton.

PlantTel's sale affected Plant Broadcasting's Tiftarea radio stations. PlantTel was their parent company, and the sale left the radio stations without access to their transmission equipment, according to RadioInsight.com.

The radio licenses were then transferred to Sterling Southern Land company, and an FCC filing noted that the stations would be divested to third parties before resuming operations.

In its recent filing, the licenses would be transferred to Journey Church of Tifton – Benjamin Rowland and Ricky Ziegler – and the stations moved to noncommercial status, according to insideradio.com, an industry information site.

"Upon such approval and divestiture, and resumption of the right of access to the antenna structures, the stations propose to resume operations under the ownership of the third parties,” according to Sterling’s previous FCC filing.

Benji Rowland, lead pastor at Journey Church, told the Tifton Grapevine on Thursday that they have been advised not to comment until the FCC process is completed.

Journey Church is located on Highway 125 North in Tifton.

TIFTON TO MARK VETERANS DAY

The annual Tifton Veterans Day program is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at Jack Stone Veterans Park in downtown Tifton.

In the event of rain, the ceremony will be moved to the Tifton Municipal Courtroom at 130 E 5th St. (U.S. Highway 82).

LEGAL DEFINITION OF CHILDREN VARIES, JUDGE TELLS ROTARY CLUB

By BONNIE SAYLES

Tifton Grapevine

People are legally considered children at different ages in Georgia depending on the situation, Juvenile Court Judge Render Heard told the Tifton Rotary Club on Wednesday.

His court deals with children who are in crisis situations.

The courts don’t use words such as convicted, crime, criminal, and jail when dealing with juvenile cases, Heard said, because such labels can affect a child’s view of him or herself, and their ability to reform. 

A child could be those under age 17, under age 18, under age 21, or under age 23. Georgia now allows children to remain in state custody (foster care) until age 23.

“When children in foster care turn 18, we don’t kick them out on the street anymore,” Heard said. “You can imagine if you don’t have much of a family or support system, being cast out into the world at age 18 is a scary prospect.”

Now, the state will provide those in foster care with housing and even college scholarships. However, only 7% of children in state custody decide to attend college, he said. 

“The last thing they are worried about is trying to get a degree,” Heard said. “They’re worried about how they’re going to get through the next week.” 

These are unsupervised children, trying to decide what to eat and, sometimes, how to dress their siblings.

“Some of these children are parentified,” taking care of not only themselves, but also the rest of the family. They may get in trouble by doing something “stupid,” just because they lack adult guidance.

Children are not put in jail, they are “detained," Heard explained. “We work to only detain children we are scared of, not those we’re angry with.” Many children are dealt with in the community rather than being incarcerated. 

Often, the judge doesn’t have time to look into all the factors affecting a child who is making bad choices.

“We had 34 kids on the docket just yesterday,” Heard said. 

He gave an example of a 14-year-old who, at six feet, three inches tall and 225 pounds, refused to go to school. His mother couldn’t make him, Heard said. Placed in foster care and living in a group home, he made changes in his behavior and started cooperating. 

Heard is the only juvenile court judge for the Tifton Circuit serving Tift, Turner, Irwin, and Ben Hill counties. He said the state had 15,000 kids in foster care five years ago, and that is down to 11,000 today.

ROTARY CLUB, COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS DISTRIBUTE DICTIONARIES TO

TIFT COUNTY THIRD GRADERS

Tifton Rotary Club member Bennett Harrison, left, describes the features of a dictionary to third graders Thursday at Annie Belle Clark Elementary School as part of the club's Dictionary Distribution Project for Family Literacy Month. 

In photo at right, Andrea McLemore, executive director of Literacy Volunteers, assists Harrison by distributing the dictionaries, purchased by the Rotary Club with the help of a district grant. Volunteers with the Tift County Foundation for Educational Excellence helped coordinate the visits to the schools and took photos.

Students at Annie Belle Clark were the first recipients, and club members will visit more schools today and next week. 

WALK THIS WAY ... FOR COOKIES!

Peace Lutheran Church in Tifton will have its annual holiday Cookie Walk from  9 a.m.-noon. on Saturday, Nov. 19. 

The event features prepackaged cookies in four-count packs, homemade cakes, breads, assorted sweets, and homemade German pastries.

All proceeds from the Cookie Walk will be used to provide military phone calls through the USO Operation Call Home and will aid the LCMS Florida-Georgia District Disaster Relief Fund to help those areas suffering from the effects of Hurricane Ian in September. 

Peace Lutheran Church is located at 604 Tennessee Drive in Tifton.

Weekly COVID-19 data released from the

Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) as of Nov. 9:

TOTAL TIFT COUNTY CASES: 6,727 ...................................... TOTAL DEATHS: 171

CONFIRMED TIFT CASES - 2 weeks: 3 ................................... DEATHS - 12 weeks: 0

TIFT POSITIVITY RATE - 2 weeks: 1% ......... CONFIRMED & SUSPECTED CASES: 34

TIFT CONFIRMED & SUSPECTED CASES - 2 weeks, per 100K population: 83

_______________________________________________________________

GEORGIA TOTAL CASES: 2,255,622 .......................................TOTAL GA DEATHS: 33,900

GA CONFIRMED & SUSPECTED CASES - 1 week: 5,160

GA DEATHS - 1 week: 101..........................................GA HOSPITALIZATIONS - 1 week: 459

YOUR GUIDE TO ACTIVITIES THIS WEEKEND IN THE TIFTAREA

Today, Friday, Nov. 11, is Veterans Day, a tribute to military veterans who have served in the U.S. armed forces. It is not to be confused with Memorial Day, which honors those who died while in service. Veterans Day honors all military veterans, including those still with us.

FRIDAY, NOV. 11

• Veterans Day Ceremony, 11 a.m., Jack Stone Veterans Park, Downtown Tifton (Rain location: Municipal Courtroom, U.S. Highway 82)
• Guided Nature Tour, 6 p.m., Reed Bingham State Park, Adel

SATURDAY, NOV. 12

• Wiregrass Farmers Market, 9 a.m.-Noon, Ga. Museum of Agriculture, Tifton
• Alapaha Station Celebration, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Railroad Street, Alapaha
• Downtown Fall Fest, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Downtown Tifton
• Guided Historical Trail Tour, 6 p.m., Reed Bingham State Park, Adel
• Paranormal Reveal, 6 p.m., Tifton-Tift County Public Library, Tifton

SUNDAY, NOV. 13

• Fitzgerald’s Christmas Open House & Artisan's Market, 1 p.m., Depot, Downtown Fitzgerald

PROMOTE YOUR

YARD SALE HERE

TO ADVERTISE YOUR YARD SALE,

CONTACT US at 

yardsales@tiftongrapevine.com 

or 478-227-7126

Fees are $1 per word, paid in advance

“Bark Twain” a friendly pooch, is among the pets available for adoption at the Tift County Animal Shelter. Visit him and other pets available at the shelter on Highway 125 South between 1-6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. For additional information, call 229-382-PETS (7387).