Georgia News Roundup

Deputies roll out new Polar Patrol

ATLANTA (TNS) — Douglas County sheriff’s officials are hoping a new vehicle will give kids a positive “taste” about their office.

They rolled out the Polar Patrol — an ice cream truck — on July 4 and visited Golden Memorial United Methodist Church for summer camp on Friday, Channel 2 Action News reported.

Dozens of children waited for free ice cream at the church.

“It is an absolute blessing and a good thing for little kids to build a relationship with Douglas County deputies,” Golden Memorial’s Laparris Vail said.

While kids played on the truck, which was purchased with seized drug funds, deputies passed along some life lessons about the dangers of bullying, drugs and gangs, according to Channel 2.

“Let them see us, hug us, and talk to us,” Sgt. Jesse Hambrick said, “and see us in a positive light for one time.”

Rescued man, woman now face charges

COLUMBUS (TNS) — A man and a woman who had to be rescued from the Chattahoochee River Saturday have been arrested.

According to a police report, Raymond Reese and Kateria Johnson were both charged with not wearing a personal flotation device while on the Chattahoochee.

It was about 7 p.m. when a city rescue team had to get Reese and Johnson who were stranded on rocks near the 14th Street Bridge.

A Fort Benning soldier, Pvt. 1st Class Michael Ferreira, died last week when he jumped into the Chattahoochee to swim without wearing a floation device.

Man killed by Atlanta train

ATLANTA (TNS) — Atlanta police responded to a call of a person hit by a train, Channel 2 Action News reports.

The accident was reported Saturday afternoon at Lee Street SW and West Whitehall Street SW.

Police said the man had been taken in critical condition to a nearby hospital. He later died at the hospital.

GBI investigating stun-gun death

ATLANTA (TNS) — The GBI is investigating the death of a 58-year-old Milledgeville man who died after being stunned with a Taser while in custody.

Washington County sheriff’s deputies found Euria Lee Martin walking along Deep Step Road about 7:20 p.m. Friday, GBI spokesman Agent Scott Whitley said.

The deputies detained Martin because they received a call about a suspicious person, he said.

At some point, there was an altercation and deputies stunned Martin with a Taser and then handcuffed him, Whitley said.

Shortly thereafter, Martin appeared to have trouble breathing and paramedics tried to help, but Martin died, Whitley said.

An autopsy will be performed at the GBI Crime Lab in Decatur.

Officials dealing with equipment scandal

AUGUSTA (TNS) — No arrests have been made, but a recent Augusta equipment scandal is keeping county officials busy trying to prevent a recurrence.

Augusta commissioners have not agreed on any measures to prevent incidents such as the March misuse of government equipment and landfill personnel at a private Lincoln County site, although most agree the incident was a problem.

Commissioner Sean Frantom proposal to require employees to sign a statement acknowledging they know they’re prohibited from taking government property for private use, and that criminal prosecution is a possibility, was panned last week by several colleagues as punishing good employees for the bad acts of a few and duplicating what’s already in the city personnel manual and part of employee training.

The statement had support from City Administrator Janice Allen Jackson, who facilitated its drafting and also is reportedly near completion of an internal investigation but hasn’t released any findings. The statement goes into the commission committee cycle amid a heavy slate of third-quarter spending requests and other items Tuesday.

Alongside it is a new approach from Commissioner Ben Hasan, who is calling for a comprehensive audit of all financial, equipment and contractual matters within the Environmental Services department, which has a combined budget of about $40 million.

Commissioners earlier rejected an approach sought by Commissioner Marion Williams to bring in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation due to involvement by a Richmond County sheriff’s deputy. Deputy Rusty Eskew oversaw the equipment and loaned it to the landfill, but commissioners, saying grand jury findings were imminent, gave Williams’ motion no second.

Campaign raises $30,000 for the arts

COLUMBUS (TNS) — The RiverCenter for the Performing Arts and Synovus Financial Corp. have teamed up and raised more than $30,000 for arts education in Columbus through a social media campaign.

The RiverCenter+Synovus Arts Education Challenge started May 1 and raised $10,000 in direct GoFundMe donations. Synovus pledged to match donations up to $10,000. Then, over the course of the next few weeks, another $10,000 was raised by people sending in checks directly.

“As of June 30, we had raised over $20,000 for arts education plus the $10,000 from Synovus,” said Rick McKnight, the RiverCenter’s director of education. “Over $30,000 for arts education in 60 days.”

Until now, RiverCenter had never done a social media-based fundraising campaign. McKnight said that the RiverCenter “received invaluable help from Synovus’ communications specialists and learned along the way.”

National funding cuts reduced funding for previous programming that the RiverCenter provided to at-risk youth. But McKnight said he wasn’t going to let needed programming go away due to a lack of sufficient funds.

“These at-risk youth are children who otherwise might never experience the magic of the arts,” he said. “It is a fact that students engaged in arts learning have higher GPAs and standardized test scores, and lower drop-out rates. Everywhere we go in the schools teachers are yearning for literacy connected shows.”

Just this past year a pilot program founded by Lindsey Ussery Tassoni and Amy Zdunowsky, two teachers from Downtown Elementary Magnet Academy, proved that at-risk students with integrated arts education greatly benefited from the change in curriculum.