Georgia Briefs Dec. 29 2014

Authorities urge New Year’s partiers to avoid drunk driving

ATLANTA (AP) — State authorities are urging holiday revelers to avoid drunk driving as they close out 2014 and welcome the new year.

Harris Blackwood is director of the Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety. He says there’s no excuse for party goers not to designate a sober driver in your group ahead of time or line up a taxi or other safe ride.

The state also is pushing citizens with smart phones to download the “Drive Sober, Georgia” app that identifies sober ride options for those who don’t plan ahead.

If all else fails, Blackwood says, just arrange to stay the night wherever you are ringing in 2015.

Last year, between Nov. 20 and Dec. 31, drunk drivers in Georgia caused 1,143 traffic collisions that yielded 684 injuries and 18 deaths.

Rebuilding to start soon on burned Ga. courthouse from 1883

SPARTA, Ga. (AP) — Hancock County’s historic courthouse, affectionately known to locals as “Her Majesty,” will soon be on the way to recovery after being gutted by fire last summer.

The Telegraph newspaper of Macon reports work to rebuild the 1883 courthouse in Hancock County is scheduled to begin Jan. 5. The building’s Second Empire-style architecture was rare in the South and inspired its royal nickname.

A fire Aug. 11 burned everything but the courthouse’s exterior shell, leaving only charred brick. The cause still hasn’t been determined.

County Commission Chairwoman Sistie Hudson says construction should take about 15 months, wrapping up in the spring of 2016. Hancock County’s insurance policy is paying the $6.6 million cost.

Fishermen get 15 extra days to catch shrimp off Ga. coast

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — Fisherman are getting more than two weeks of extra time to trawl for shrimp off the Georgia coast.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources says the end of the shrimping season has been pushed back to Jan. 15. The season had been scheduled to close on New Year’s Eve next Wednesday. The extension applies to state waters off Georgia’s 100-mile coastline.

The state agency says it’s customary to allow shrimp trawlers to keep operating past Dec. 31 as long as the weather’s not abnormally cold and there are still enough shrimp in the water. Jim Page, a marine biologist with the DNR’s Coastal Resources Division, says scientific surveys in December showed the number of shrimp remaining at normal levels.

Augusta expressway expansion near completion after delays

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — The expansion of one of Augusta’s major interstate highways is expected to be completed after New Year’s following several months of delays and costs that have exceeded the project’s budget by $3 million.

The Augusta Chronicle reports the Georgia Department of Transportation says the widening of the Bobby Jones Expressway is expected to wrap up in January. The $29.8 million project has been under construction since March 2012. It was supposed to be finished in July, but then got pushed back to Dec. 22.

DOT spokeswoman Cissy McNure says weather delays and holiday restrictions have pushed completion into next month. She says crews are still installing lights and signs, finishing landscaping and painting lines.

Also known as Interstate 520, the expressway encircles most of Augusta’s metropolitan area.

Woman, 2 children killed in crash on Georgia highway

CARROLLTON, Ga. (AP) — The Georgia State Patrol says a head-on crash on a highway west of Atlanta killed a woman and her two children.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports the crash happened Friday morning in Carroll County when a car crossed the center line of Ga. 113 and struck another vehicle head-on.

Authorities identified the three people killed as Arletha Turner and her two children — 12-year-old Elicia and 9-year-old Roderick. The State Patrol says all three were passengers in the car that crossed into oncoming traffic. The drivers of both vehicles involved in the crash were airlifted to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.

The Georgia State Patrol is investigating to determine the cause of the crash.