WILD CHICKEN

FESTIVAL

FITZGERALD READY TO STRUT THIS WEEKEND

By FRANK SAYLES JR.

Tifton Grapevine

The City of Fitzgerald has something to crow about this weekend – the 25th Annual Wild Chicken Festival returns downtown.

The festival celebrates Fitzgerald’s famous wild Burmese chickens that have been part of the city’s landscape since the 1960s. Organizers estimate that the festival attracts more than 12,000 attendees.

Events include a 5K walk/run, a crowing contest, live music, arts, crafts, food, an Artisans Market, live cartoon characters, and more.

Festivities begin tonight from 7-10 p.m. with the Wild Chicken Street Dance in the White Swan parking lot featuring the Satellite Blues Band. During the street dance, a Glow Party is available for kids in the Arts District behind the Grand Theatre.

The main festival is from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday with such activities as the Miss Wild Chicken Festival Beauty Pageant, the Chicken Crowing Contest, and the Antique Tractor Parade down Central Avenue.

This year the Antique Tractor Show and Parade is “Purr-posely Parading for Paws” – aiding the Fitzgerald-Ben Hill County Humane Society by asking attendees to help fill a wagon with supplies such as pet food, cat litter, pet treats, and cleaning supplies.

The antique tractors will be on display all day Saturday on North Johnston Street, and the tractor parade is scheduled for 3 p.m.

GDOT OK’s BRIDGE PROJECT IN TURNER COUNTY

The Ga. Department of Transportation (GDOT) announced that it recently awarded 22 projects around the state, including a bridge project in Turner County, for a total outlay of $70,387,382.

The project in Turner County involves construction of a 0.208-mile bridge and approaches on Wardlow Road (County Road 251) over West Fork Deep Creek near Ashburn.

The low bid approved was $2,613,458.74 from Southern Concrete Construction Co. of Albany for the bridge construction and guardrails. The project is estimated to be completed by March 31, 2024.

Among other projects, GDOT approved approximately $275,000 for safety upgrades in Colquitt, Cook, Dougherty, and Worth counties. The project consists of signage and pavement-marking upgrades at railroad crossings throughout those counties.

Photo by Kelly Wilkinson/Indianapolis Star

Craig "Bo” Boroski, a former Tift County High baseball star, is at peace about walking away from collegiate basketball refereeing after officiating the past three Final Fours.

FORMER TCHS BLUE DEVIL OFFICIATED PAST 3 NCAA FINAL FOURS, BUT HAS WALKED AWAY FROM REFEREEING

TIFTON GRAPEVINE STAFF REPORTS

As the men's NCAA "March Madness” basketball tournament gets underway, one longtime referee is absent – Bo Boroski, who grew up in Tifton and who officiated the last three Final Fours.

For more than 20 years, Boroski took the court for Division I men's basketball games. He was on the road each year for five straight months. It was taking a physical as well as a mental and emotional toll.

Boroski, 47, has two young sons, and he was missing most of their own games and special moments. He was essentially an absent husband and father for nearly half of each year.

So, he walked away from officiating at the end of last season and hasn’t looked back.

Dana Hunsinger Benbow of the Indianapolis Star recently profiled Boroski, who was born in New Jersey but moved to Tifton when he was in the second grade and became a pitcher and first baseman for the Tift County High Blue Devils, getting a baseball scholarship to the University of Alabama.

To find out more about Boroski and what he is up to these days, Click Here to read Benbow’s article in the Indianapolis Star.

SOME CANNED MEATS

ON RECALL LIST SHIPPED

TO TIFTAREA STORES

TIFTON GRAPEVINE STAFF REPORTS

Conagra Brands Inc. is recalling approximately 2,581,816 pounds of canned meat and poultry products because of a packaging defect that may lead to contamination without any outward signs, says the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).

The products bear several brands, including Armour Star, Great Value, and Hargis House, and stores in Tifton, Chula, Fitzgerald, Sylvester, and Nashville are among the places in Georgia where the products were shipped.

The affected products include Vienna sausages and potted meat, and bear the establishment number “P4247” on the cans; they were shipped to retail locations nationwide. 

The recall was triggered after the FSIS was notified of spoiled and/or leaking cans in Conagra’s warehouse. According to the USDA website, the establishment number indicated the facility at which the food product was processed.

FSIS is concerned that some products may be on retail shelves or in consumers’ pantries. Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them. They should be thrown out or returned to the place of purchase.

There have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions from consuming any of these products, the USDA said.

For a complete list of the recalled products, Click Here!

WIREGRASS QUILTERS GUILD HOLD CHALLENGE

Latrelle Johns holds her first-place wall hanging in the Wiregrass Quilters’ Guild 2023 Challenge Quilt.

The Guild meets the second Thursday each month at alternating locations.

The April meeting will be at 6 p.m. April 13, at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Fitzgerald.

The American Legacy Quilt Show will be held at the Georgia Museum of Agriculture in Tifton from 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m. on March 31 and April 1. 

FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL RETURNS APRIL 1

The annual Folklife Festival, a celebration of South Georgia’s rural heritage, returns April 1 at ABAC's Georgia Museum of Agriculture.

Showcasing regional history and culture, the event runs 9 a.m.-4 p.m. with interactive activities.

The ceremonial firing of the turpentine still will be at 11 a.m. for the Historic Village’s annual turpentine distillation. Museum visitors may get a close view of this age-old process that is central to South Georgia’s cultural heritage. The museum’s Vulcan steam engine will transport visitors on a train ride through the Historic Village.

The Folklife Festival's interactive activities include livestock and wildlife encounters, cornbread samples, sawmill demonstrations, and mule plowing. A new attraction debuts: 19th-century cricket games led by Wisconsin’s Tom Melville; visitor participation is encouraged.

Antique tractors, displayed on the cotton gin lawn, will parade through the village at noon and 2 p.m.

In the museum’s Art Gallery, “Marie Salter’s Second Act” exhibit showcases vintage and contemporary maps intricately folded into 3-D clothing. In the Spinks Exhibit Hall, visitors may view recent exhibits on the Aermotor 602 windmill and a reproduction utility horse-drawn vehicle known as a buckboard.

In the Cordell Conference Center, the American Legacy Quilt Show will display fiber works. Raffle basket tickets will be available for purchase.

For information, call 229-391-5205. 

SGBC NAMES ASHBURN BRANCH MANAGER

Brad Christian has been named assistant vice president and branch manager of South Georgia Banking Co.’s (SGBC) Ashburn branch.

Christian began working part-time at SGBC in 2001 while attending college and became full-time in 2004. 

He has spent most of those years serving as a universal banker. Financial literacy and customer education are his special interests. “I have been fortunate enough to work and spend some time in every market SGBC currently serves,” Christian said. 

“I hope to continue to take the Ashburn branch to new heights. I am excited about working in my hometown and enriching the lives of the residents of Turner County. In a small town like Ashburn, you see familiar faces constantly out in the public, and I feel it is important to continue to have that ‘hometown’ feeling in our branch.”

FREE FOOD GIVEAWAY THIS SATURDAY

The Bridging the Gap Community Resource Center is having its monthly Free Food Giveaway from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday at 2911 Sixth Ave. in Tifton.

The giveaway for the community is held every third Saturday of each month.

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To Contact Us, Call 478-227-7126

Weekly COVID-19 data released from the

Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) as of March 15:

TOTAL TIFT COUNTY CASES: 6,889 ..................................... TOTAL TIFT DEATHS: 176

CONFIRMED TIFT CASES - 2 weeks: 10 ................................... DEATHS - Past week: 0

TIFT POSITIVITY RATE - 2 weeks: 4.1% ........ CONFIRMED & SUSPECTED CASES: 33

TIFT CONFIRMED & SUSPECTED CASES - 2 weeks, per 100K population: 81

_______________________________________________________________

GEORGIA TOTAL CASES: 2,351,607......................................TOTAL GA DEATHS: 35,153

GA CONFIRMED & SUSPECTED CASES - 1 week: 3,290

GA DEATHS - 1 week: 36................................... ......GA HOSPITALIZATIONS - 1 week: 274

YOUR GUIDE TO ACTIVITIES THIS WEEKEND IN THE TIFTAREA

Today, Friday, March 17, is St. Patrick’s Day – a day of celebration for those Irish as well as those who are Irish in spirit. The first parade (numbering only a few people) held in St. Patrick’s honor took place in America, not Ireland, in 1601 in what is now St. Augustine, Fla. And the first actual, full-scale St. Patrick’s Day parade also took place in America, in 1737, in Boston by Irish Protestants to honor the patron saint of their motherland. Currently, the second largest St. Patrick’s Day parade in the nation is Savannah’s.

FRIDAY, MARCH 17

• “Twelve Angry Pigs,” 7 p.m., Tift Theatre for the Performing Arts, Tifton
• Wild Chicken Festival Street Dance with Satellite Blues Band, 7-10 p.m., Downtown Fitzgerald
• Berrien County Roundup Rodeo, 7:30 p.m., Berrien County Saddle Club, Saddle Club Road, Nashville

SATURDAY, MARCH 18

• Bass Fishing Tournament, 8 a.m.-Noon, Rutland Farms, Union Road, Tifton
• Wild Chicken Festival, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., S. Main Street, Fitzgerald
• “Twelve Angry Pigs,” 7 p.m., Tift Theatre for the Performing Arts, Tifton
• Berrien County Roundup Rodeo, 7:30 p.m., Berrien County Saddle Club, Nashville

SUNDAY, MARCH 19

• Kiwanis Art Exhibit opening reception, 2-4 p.m., Syd Blackmarr Arts Center, Tifton

ADVERTISE YOUR

YARD SALE HERE

TO ADVERTISE YOUR

RESIDENTIAL YARD SALE,

CONTACT US at 

yardsales@tiftongrapevine.com 

or 478-227-7126

Fees are $1 per word, paid in advance

“Jethro,” a happy-go-lucky guy, is among the pets looking for a good home and is available for adoption at the Tift County Animal Shelter on Highway 125 South, open between 1-6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. For additional information, call 229-382-PETS (7387).