The Georgia Chamber of Commerce on Thursday released its 2022 Rural Renaissance Report citing challenges for rural prosperity and offering some recommendations.

The Chamber released the annual report following a meeting of the Rural Prosperity Council in Tifton, which is home to the state Chamber's Center for Rural Prosperity.

"We know we can help rural Georgia if we address the war for talent, construct a more innovative and diverse economy, and build infrastructure for the future," the report reads. "Many of the recommendations are long-term strategies that require persistent effort to be implemented and see results."

The report lists five ways to address workforce shortages in rural communities: Promote robust downtowns, improve broadband and infrastructure, have more affordable housing, re-align career pathways with local jobs, and provide local incentives to encourage relocation of qualified workers to rural communities.

Also noted is that healthcare access remains an issue and that more than 59% of rural communities are in areas with a shortage of health professionals. Among recommendations are:

– developing a public-private task force to to devise prevention and wellness policies and strategies to lower cost and improve health outcomes, and

– creating new “models for access to care for communities that demographically cannot continue to support a traditional hospital."

"With this report we are, once again, reaffirming the Georgia Chamber's strongest commitment to serving our rural economies," said Chris Clark, Georgia Chamber president & CEO and a Fitzgerald native."We will continue to advocate for our rural communities as well as to support and inform our rural leaders."

Despite the challenges, Clark said the "Georgia Chamber remains extremely optimistic for the future of these towns across our state. The facts clearly show we’re entering a new era of rural prosperity. Last year, Governor Kemp announced that over 70% of all new economic development projects in the state were locating in rural communities. Those jobs and investments are rippling through local economies and lifting every Georgian."

The Rural Renaissance Report was produced jointly by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, the Georgia Chamber Foundation, and the Georgia Chamber Center for Rural Prosperity. It was a result of surveys and in-person visits to more than 80 rural communities during 2021.

To read the report, Click Here!

A local film project filmed in Downtown Tifton moves from paper to premiere when the movie “Gasoline Alley” opens Friday, Feb. 25, at the historic Tift Theatre. The film is an action thriller starring Bruce Willis, Luke Wilson, and Devon Sawa. A red-carpet event begins at 6 p.m. Friday Feb. 25, when doors open; the movie will be shown at 7 p.m. While watching the film, you can point out local landmarks since the movie was filmed 99% in the downtown Tifton area in 2021. There will be two days of screenings – the second on Saturday, Feb. 26, at 2 p.m. & 7 p.m. at the Tift Theatre. Tickets are limited and are $7. To purchase, visit: www.purplepass.com/gasoline

Authorities have arrested an Adel man and charged him with felony murder, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said Thursday.

Bryant Kenney, 50, of Adel, was arrested Wednesday in connection with the death of Donald Penny, 81.

Kenney was charged with one count of felony murder and one count of aggravated assault, the GBI said. He was booked into the Cook County Jail.

The Adel Police Department requested GBI's assistance Feb. 16 after Adel officers had responded to a 911 call on North Gordon Avenue about an unresponsive person.

When officers arrived, they found Donald Penny dead. His body was taken to the GBI Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy, and preliminary findings ruled the death as a homicide.

The investigation is continuing, and anyone with information is asked to contact the GBI Douglas Office at 912-389-4103 or the Adel Police Department at 229-896-2224. Tips may also be submitted anonymously by calling 1-800-597-TIPS (8477), online here, or by downloading the "See Something, Send Something" mobile app.

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Tift County's positive COVID-19 cases total 109 during the past two weeks, according to data Thursday from the state Department of Public Health (DPH).

The total positive cases represent confirmed and probable results from both PCR and Antigen rapid tests. Tift County’s total positive cases represent 267 cases per 100,000 population, the measure used across the country to compare case rates among communities and states.

Confirmed cases were 39; Tift's testing positivity rate for the period was 11.8%, the DPH reported. An additional 16 confirmed cases and one related death were reported in the past week among Tift County residents.

Tift has seen a total of 6,253 cases with 160 related deaths, the DPH said.

On Thursday, the state reported 2,305 new confirmed and probable cases across Georgia with 91 additional deaths and 164 new related hospitalizations. The state has recorded a total of 1,908,613 confirmed cases and 29,530 related deaths, the DPH said.

Tifton Coca-Cola Bottling Co., a sales and distribution center of Coca-Cola Bottling Co. United Inc., is having its grand opening ceremony at 10 a.m. today for its new $65 million Tifton facility off Lamb Loop Road.

The 343,000-square-foot facility, which includes a warehouse, fleet shop, administrative offices, and meeting space, is home to the latest technology and state-of-the-art equipment used in the beverage industry.

The Tifton facility serves more than 3,100 customers throughout South Georgia and the Florida Panhandle.

Speakers at the ceremony are to include Coca-Cola United President & CEO John Sherman, Gov. Brian P. Kemp, Tifton Coca-Cola Sales Center Manager Charlie Yawn, Coca-Cola United East Region Vice President Crawford Jones, and city and state officials.

Coca-Cola Bottling Co. United was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Birmingham, Ala. It is the second-largest privately held Coca-Cola bottler in North America and the third-largest bottler of Coca-Cola products in the U.S.

For the current spring semester, Southern Regional Technical College (SRTC) has launched a civil engineering technology degree program in Tifton.

The six-semester course will prepare students for a variety of engineering-related career paths. A recent economic study funded by the Technical College System of Georgia projected a 10% growth in civil engineering occupations through 2029.

During 2020, Tift County experienced a significant increase in engineering-related jobs. Currently, the Ga. Department of Transportation has approximately 600 job vacancies related to civil engineering.

Tammy Barnes, drafting technology instructor at SRTC-Tifton, serves as the faculty for the program. Albany Technical College faculty will provide additional instruction through an eCampus partnership.

After earning her drafting technology degree from the former Southwest Georgia Technical College, Barnes had worked with the Moultrie city engineering department, spending eight years designing roundabouts, sidewalks, roads, and parks.

Levi Warren of Camilla is on track to be SRTC’s first civil engineering graduate. He is pursuing the degree to improve his contribution to Agri-Comm, his family’s agricultural construction business. Already, he says, the program has given him a better understanding of the design and engineering of the peanut elevators, grain bins, dumpers, and warehouses that his family builds.

The newly opened Vintage Kitchens Museum in Fitzgerald is the only vintage kitchen museum in the United States, owner-curator Susan Rochfort told a recent tour. 

The museum, located at 223 E. Pine St., in the former Pine Theater, is open for tours by appointment at 229-345-1166. The first thing visitors encounter is a replica of a general store, representative of the late 1800s and early 1900s, with an 1892 Georgia pot-bellied stove.

This area features an original barber shop from Madison, a post office from Sycamore, a compounding pharmacy from North Georgia, and an antique dentist chair with drill from Coastal Georgia. 

Rochfort shows visitors 100-year-old shoes that were shod with iron on the bottom, like horse shoes.

The main attractions are kitchens from the 1870s on thorough the early decades of the 20th century. Each room has elaborate stoves and ice boxes depicting the latest features of each period.

“I’m a fanatic about authenticity,” Rochfort said. 

In the Edwardian Tea Room, Rochfort told a group about how women secretly used violet tea cups and decorations as a clue to those who were interested in aiding women's voting rights. If customers chose the violet tea cup or sweets, they would receive a note about a “painting workshop” that would actually be a meeting to discuss women’s suffrage.

The flowers, which exhibit green, white, and violet (GWV) colors, stood for “Give Women the Vote,” Rochfort explained.

Construction of the Vintage Kitchens Museum was a six-year labor of love for Rochfort, her husband, Bill, and David Eggett, manager of the Rochforts’ downtown Fitzgerald projects. Next in the works are an Irish pub, a restaurant, gift shop, and an African-American art museum.

The annual Kiwanis Art and Music Showcase is scheduled at 6 p.m. Friday, March 18, at the Tift County High School Performing Arts Center (PAC).

The showcase is open to Tift County public, private, or home-schooled students in grades 4-12 who are Tift County residents (unless from a local county that does not have such a competition).

Ribbons will be awarded in the art category, and trophies awarded in the music category. Artwork will be displayed in the PAC lobby, and the music show begins at 6 p.m. Scholarship money is available for high school student winners in the 9th-12th grades at the state level of competition.

The show is free to the public, and the Kiwanis Art Citizen of the Year will be announced that evening.

The Kiwanis Club of Tifton meets at noon on the second and fourth Thursdays. For more information, contact Tom Shoup, 229-388-2142, tlshoup.kk58@gmail.com

Local children are being removed from their homes every week for physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect, Julie Mitcham, advocacy coordinator for CASA, told the Tifton Rotary Club on Wednesday. 

CASA, or “Court Appointed Special Advocates“ for children, began its local program in 2001.

“The No. 1 reason for neglect and abuse is drug abuse,” Mitcham said. “Parents are abusing drugs in the home in presence of children.” 

The Georgia Division of Family & Children Services (DFCS) will go into to a home and investigate those reports, and suspects are brought to court under Judge Render Heard. In such cases, children involved are placed in the state’s custody.

“We are a nonprofit organization with six employees and currently 45 volunteers,” Mitcham said. “We train volunteers to speak on behalf of children in foster care through the through the juvenile court system in Judge Render Heard’s circuit.” 

There are currently 69 children in foster care in Tift County, 39 in Worth, 35 in Irwin, and 12 in Turner County for a total of 155 children currently in foster care, she said. A single case worker may be assigned 12 to 20 cases, so a CASA volunteer provides the children with an advocate looking out for their interests. 

Thirty CASA volunteers can support 75 children, she said. “Our CASAs handle one case at a time. The goal is for every child to have an advocate.” When possible, they work for reunifying parents with the child, if the parents are getting the therapy or help they need. Another alternative is guardianship with a relative. 

More than 1,000 children have been served since CASA began, Mitcham said. Volunteers participate in a five-week training that is now a combination of in person and online training. Currently they range in age from a 22-year-old to retirees. 

CASA is also hosting its third annual Cash for CASA fundraiser in which 350 tickets are available for donations of $100 each. A winning ticket for $10,000 will then be drawn at 8 p.m. March 5 at the Tifton Rhythm & Ribs BBQ Festival.

The internationally acclaimed talent of Dr. Zheng Jennifer Huang will be showcased in a piano concert at 3 p.m. March 6 in Howard Auditorium at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. 

An associate professor of music, Huang has performed numerous recitals and concerts as a pianist and harpsichordist in solo performances and chamber-music ensembles in Asia, Europe, and the United States.

Huang will play from the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, César Franck, and Frédéric François Chopin. 

She was the second-prize winner of the 1996 Hong Kong Open Piano Competition for Asian musicians and has performed at the Weil Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. 

Huang was also invited as a long-time visiting artist by both the Xi’an Conservatory of Music in China and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in Hong Kong. An ABAC faculty member since 2018, Huang teaches piano and general music courses.

Hobbs Tree Removal & Land Clearing

South Georgia Banking Co. (SGBC) is accepting applications for the 2022 Julian & Jan Hester Memorial Scholarship.

Sponsored by the Community Bankers Association (CBA), the Hester Scholarship awards $1,000 annually to four high school seniors planning to attend a Georgia college, university, or technical school beginning in the fall semester after graduation. 

SGBC will select one applicant as the local winner, who will be awarded a $500 cash scholarship before moving on to the CBA selection process.  The bank will also name a local runner-up, who will also be considered for one of the four $1,000 prizes.

The Hester Memorial Scholarship was created to assist deserving high school seniors in their first year of college and to promote community banking. The scholarship is named after a long-time CBA chief executive officer, the late Julian Hester and his late daughter Jan Hester.

Scholarship applications and details are available here. The deadline for applications is April 8.

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Saturday, Feb. 26, is Carpe Diem Day. The phrase "carpe diem" or "seize the day" reminds us to celebrate every joy and opportunity that life has given us and live life to the best of our ability. It is a day to ponder upon the vulnerability of life while also feeling grateful for it and making each day count.

"Nugget" is a lovable pooch available for adoption at the Tift County Animal Shelter on Highway 125 South between 1-6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. For more information, call 229-382-PETS (7387).

205 Belmont Ave., Tifton, 229-382-6055  

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