the news march 21, 2015 volume 6, issue 49

rockdalenews.com Serving Rockdale County and Conyers

NEWSMarch 21, 2015 Volume 6, Issue 49 $1

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theOden announces reelection bid Page 3

Missing woman may still be in area

A 19-year-old Conyers woman report-ed as missing on March 5 may not be in danger and may still be in the local Rockdale –Newton area,

investigators believe.Savannah Catherine Gattis,

19, was originally reported as missing on March 5. Her parents told Rockdale County Sheriff’s

By Michelle [email protected]

See full story on PAGE 8 & 9

See MISSING on PAGE 15

Earl Thomas Shaffer, Sr James Cofer George E Mcmullen, III

Robert Anthony Piper Robert Littleton Phillips James Terry Savage

OUR BOYS ARE COMING HOME

Befitting the 40th Anniversary of the ending of the Vietnam War, the Moving Wall – a traveling half-sized replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. – will be visiting Rockdale

Oden new SUV reduced to $40K

There was very little discussed in regards to the new SUV re-quested by the county chairman during the Rockdale County Board of Commissioners (BOC) work session Tuesday morning.

After two months of appearing on the BOC’s agenda, the vehicle, a 2015 Ford Expedition XLT, has

By Martin Rand [email protected]

See SUV on PAGE 3

GATTIS

Student veterans, active mili-tary and their families at Georgia Perimeter College will receive more personal attention, in-creased scholarship opportunities and potential help in emergen-cies, thanks to a Marcus Founda-tion grant. The three-year grant will employ three military stu-dent advocates – one on each of GPC’s Decatur, Dunwoody and Newton campuses. The grant also will provide 10 scholarships per semester for military veterans and provide a Veterans Emergen-cy fund for student veterans who encounter financial emergencies

that could affect their ability to attend college. GPC serves more than 1,100 student veterans and their families. Established in 2010 and funded through a grant from the University System of Georgia, GPC’s Military Out-reach Center currently is housed on the Clarkston Campus. The grant will physically extend the center’s programs and assistance to all GPC campuses. The grant will remain active for three years and is not expected to be affect-ed by GPC’s consolidation with Georgia State University.

- Staff Reports

The News2 • Saturday, March 21, 2015

1Cleaning up: Meth house arrests made, stolen items

recovered

2.UPDATE: Drug deal robbery led to Tuesday’s shooting

3. Manufacturer opens Co-nyers doors

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New grants to aid GPC student veterans

News Briefs

Barnes Honorary Social Workers

(Left to right) The Laura H. Barnes Honorary Social Worker award winners Vicki Chesney, coordinator of Conyers First Baptist First Responders Program, and Susan Paul Smith, RCPS Student Support Coordinator

Vicki Chesney, coordinator of the Conyers First Baptist First Responders program, was honored Thursday with the Laura H. Barnes Honorary Social Worker award, named after a school social worker who died suddenly of heart complications in 2012, for a person in the community who exemplifies the qualities of a school social worker.

The CFB First Responders Program began in January 2014 to provide emergency assistance to families in need within 24-48 hours, with assistace such as housing, hotels, clothing and food.

Susan Paul Smith, the RCPS Student Support Coordinator and former STARS Program coordinator, was also chosen by RCPS social workers for the Laura H. Barnes award for her contributions behind the scenes.

The award was also given in celebration of March as school so-cial worker appreciation month and school social work week in the first week of March. This year’s theme is “Social Work, Leading the Way for Change.” RCPS Director of Community and Student Support April Fallon said, “Social workers, more than any other profession, recognize more must be done to address persistent so-cial problems such as poverty, lack of education and healthcare, homelessness and discrimination... They are fearless advocates who fight to make sure our children are safe.” - Michelle Kim

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The News Saturday, March 21, 2015 • 15

drawn opposition from both com-missioners and the community for being too expensive of a vehicle for the chairman.

After not being approved by the board during last’s weeks meeting, the requested vehicle received a price cut Tuesday. Now, the price of the vehicle is $40,766, exactly $3,416 less than before with option-al equipment such as the tow pack-ing, working lights, platinum paint and 4-wheel drive removed.

The XLT package is the only re-maining optional equipment added to the SUV. The package adds about $13,403 to the standard Expedition price, which includes leather seats and a navigation system.

Even though she’s not pleased with the price, Post 1 County Com-missioner Doreen Williams, who initially had reservations about the vehicle due to its price tag since it was introduced at a Jan. 20 work session, seemed pleased with the compromise that has been made.

“This isn’t exactly what I wanted, but it’s not exactly what the chair-man wanted either,” Williams said.

Post 1 County Commissioner Oz Nesbitt didn’t say anything on the matter during the work session, but did tell The News before the meet-ing that the price reduction hasn’t swayed his opinion of the vehicle. Even though Nesbitt “fully support-ed” the new vehicle in January, he now thinks that Rockdale County Chairman and CEO Richard Oden should request a 2015 Ford Explor-er, which cost $29, 947.

Nesbitt also says that Oden request-ing a vehicle when a cheaper, “but just as good,” one is available sends the wrong message to the people.

“The message it sends… adds to the perception to the people about King Oden,” he said.

The City of Conyers has two of-ficials that have take-home vehicles, according to city spokesperson Jen-nifer Edwards. Chief of Police Gene Wilson drives a 2013 Dodge Charger that cost, with lights, about $26,550, and Public Works and Transpor-tation Director Brad Sutton drives a 2006 F-150 truck that cost about $26,000 when it was purchased.

Rockdale County Public Schools Superintendent Richard Autry has a 2008 Chevy Tahoe as a take-home vehicle. The Tahoe cost the school system about $29,200 when it was purchased.

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The party primaries are more than a year away, but campaigning for 2016 began Thursday night.

Rockdale County Chairman and CEO Richard Oden, a Democrat, officially announced his intention to seek re-election for the county chair seat in the 2016 election year.

Speaking to a group of about 35 supporters Oden spoke about things he accomplished in his six years as chair and things he wanted to bring to fruition with another four years of service.

He talked about increasing capacity of wastewater for Rockdale citizens and moving more people off septic tanks. He told the crowd that five years ago, the county bout about 175,000 gallons of was-terwater capacity from DeKalb County with hopes of growing the community.

“Their price keeps going up. We’re almost in shape to where

we can bring that in house,” said Oden. “(I’m going to) need an-other 18 million dollars to build another waste treatment plant to increase capacity.”

The crowd seemed intrigued when Oden began talking about a plan to build a perfor-mance arts center and other venues that would be used to attract more tourism to county right off interstate-20 near Sig-man Road.

“What is there to grab (motor-ists) to stop in our community? We have nothing,” said Oden. “So we envision a performance art center. That’s what we envi-sion. We’re hoping that it will seat at least 3,400 people.”

Within the same area of this proposed performance arts cen-ter, Oden proposed also having a trade center, 4-star hotel, a conference center for medical professionals and a live-work-play area with affordable hous-ing and shopping centers.

“We’re going to hopeful-ly make this dream a reality. That’s were headed folks,” he

said. “What’s wrong with that vision? Go ask Woodstock. They’re doing it. Go ask Ken-nesaw. Go ask Sandy Springs. Why not Rockdale?”

Oden didn’t give any time-table on how soon this venue complex could become a real-ity.

Before ending his speech, Oden attempted to rally his crowd to go out and spread his message.

“I need your help folks. I need boots on the ground. My goal, our goal, is $250,000. That’s not a lot of money,” he said. “There are some people vying to unseat me, for whatever reason. So we’re going to beat them on the ground.”

The meet-and-greet took place at Abbott Conference Hall, 1955 Sigman Road, Co-nyers, and ended around 8 p.m. after lasting for about an hour.

Oden was first elected to the Rockdale County Board of Commissioners as chairman in 2008. He won re-election as chairman in 2012.

By Michelle [email protected]

ODEN ANNOUNCES REELECTION BID

The Milstead community could be getting more sewer and home improvements by way of state grant money.

During the Rockdale County Board of Commis-sioner’s (BOC) work session Tuesday morning, the board discussed an application that would allow homes in the community to attach to the wastewater system of Rock-dale Water Resources and re-ceive any other general home improvements as needed.

This Community Development Block Grant from the Geor-gia Department of Community Affairs will allow the county to move into Phase 2 of its project, called the Milstead 2015 Sewer Improvements and Housing Rehabilitation. Phase 1, which is still being completed, went towards stormwater drainage im-provement in the area.

The $1 million sewer project will benefit 51 residents of the Yellow Street/Grimes Street area of Milstead who are in homes off a septic tank system. It will only affect these properties be-cause they were part of the first phase of the project, says Tane-sha Lanier, project coordinator, and that makes for a “stronger” application when applying to DCA.

“This is a needs based grant. Phase 1 was for Yellow and Grimes Street infrastructure improvements, so in order to re-ceive more points on the application, if we target those funds towards the same area we will (more like it receive funds),”

said Lanier. It’s a compet-itive application. It’s not an entitlement. We won’t automatically receive the funds, but the stronger the application the better.”

In order for the county to proceed, they will need to require the county to acquire easements in the area.

Post 1 County Com-missioner Oz Nesbitt felt the improvement project

was a big step for the Milstead area.“As the chairman would say, this is huge. This is a big deal,”

he said. “I mean for those residents in that particular community to come off the septic system and to be able to tie into Rockdale resources in terms of wastewater, that is a major accomplish-ment in terms of infrastructure in that particular area.”

On top of that, six properties, located at Yellow and Grimes Street right of Ga. Highway 20, will receive any other major im-provements to the property. One or two of the homes may need to undergo demolition and reconstruction, says Lanier.

Renovation costs could range from 50 to 126 thousand dol-lars.

The deadline to apply for the grant is next month. The board will take a vote on the application during its voting session next Tuesday, Mar. 24, at 10 a.m. at the Assembly Hall building, 901 Main Street, Conyers.

- Martin Rand

The National School Boards

Association’s (NSBA) Council

of School Attorneys

(COSA) honored Forrest Jack

Lance, a veteran school board

attorney who has provided

exemplary service to the

Rockdale County Public Schools

school board and the school

law community at the 2015

Annual School Law Seminar

on Friday in Nashville. Lance

received COSA’s Award for

Distinguished Service in recognition of over 30 years of outstanding

service to public schools, the profession, and the mission of COSA to “improve the practice of school law…by pro-

viding leadership in legal advocacy for public schools.” “We are proud to honor Jack Lance for his years of ser-vice to our organization, and the school law community

at large.” said Gregory J. Guercio, COSA’s Chair.


Submitted photo

Out of the Flood: County brings sewer, home repairs to neglected Milstead corner

4 • Saturday, March 21, 2015 The News

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Dear Editor: For decades, students at the traditional pub-lic schools in Georgia have been denied the chance to win a state championship because the system overseen by the Geor-gia High School Association (GHSA) ignores the fact that there is no parity among tradi-tional public schools, private schools, and city schools.

Whether you are in south Georgia or north Georgia, coaches from traditional public schools talk about the disadvan-tage of having to play against city schools and private schools.

Traditional public high schools have a defined border or service area. Private schools do not. For city schools, that defined border or service area is vague, at best. Some city schools have open enrollment. In my statistics and compari-sons below, “public schools” re-fer to traditional public schools and “private schools” to private, independent, and parochial schools.

On January 20, 2015, the GHSA held a meeting on reclas-sification. At issue was a debate

that has been brewing for many years: whether private and city high schools should be judged differently than public schools during this reclassification pro-cess. 2A public schools are say-ing the GHSA needs to do what

it did with 1A schools a couple of years back: split the state playoffs between public and pri-vate schools. Private schools are asking for a student enrollment multiplier rule.

Ten private schools won 26% of the 1,826 sports champion-ships that took place during 1995–2014 (excludes sports that split). What was the GHSA doing while this was occur-ring? Well, they did have a 1.5

multiplier rule in place during 2001–2008. This approach to parity failed. During this period, private school wins continued to rise.

The following private school statistics are for the years 1995–

2014. In 2A and 3A boys’ and girls’ cross country combined, private schools won 67 of the last 79 championships (85%). In 2A and 3A boys’ and girls’ soc-cer combined, private schools won 35 of the last 44 champion-ships (80%). In 2A and 3A boys’ and girls’ tennis combined, pri-vate schools won 73 of the last 80 championships (91%). In A/AA and 3A volleyball com-bined, private schools won 26

of the last 29 championships (90%).

During 2012–2014, in 2A, 3A, and 4A boys’ and girls’ soc-cer combined, there were 207 playoff games in which private schools played public or city schools. Private schools out-scored public and city schools by a combined total of 793 to 65.

I encourage those interest-ed in competitive balance in GHSA sports to go to the GHSA website at https://www.ghsa.net/champions and look at the various sports that have been dominated by private schools for decades.

Send an email to the GHSA and let them know that pub-lic and private schools do not need to be competing in region-al play, nor do they need to be competing against each other in the state playoffs. Contact information for the GHSA Ex-ecutive Director and Associate Directors can be found at https://www.ghsa.net/office-staff.

Alan HendersonParent of a public school

We welcome letters to the editor. Letters must be 350 words or less. They should be limited to issues of public interest and may be edited for content, grammar, spelling and length. • Mail: Editor, The News, 1009 Milstead Ave., Suite 200, Conyers, GA 30012 • Email: [email protected]

HAVE YOUR SAY

OpiniOnSaturday, March 21, 2015

RockdaleNews.com/opinion

Our Thoughts

EditorMichelle Kim

[email protected]

SalES dirEctorAnnette Godwin

[email protected]

comptrollErDebbie [email protected]

publiShErT. Pat Cavanaugh

[email protected]

circulation dir.Amanda [email protected]

dESign EditorSabastian Wee

[email protected]

the NEWS

ElectionsThere has begun a stirring of po-

tential political candidates for the 2016 election. We know this because already there are stirrings of smear-ing mud being mixed.

Unfortunately this has become the standard in recent elections and what this type of politicking does is blur what the real issues are.

We urge anyone that runs for local office to refrain from running a cam-paign that concentrates on throwing mud at their opponent and instead make every effort to communicate their beliefs and visions to the voters who vote.

To the voters you have an even bigger obligation – and that is to take time and first meet the person you are going to vote for and then to make sure you make every effort to under-stand the candidate’s vision and his-tory before you fill out the ballot on voting day.

We ask you for the sake of our city and county to not just go and vote for someone because of their col-or or their party affiliation. Do their actions match their words? How do they conduct themselves when they think no one’s watching? Are they accessible to all segments of the community? Do they show up more than just in campaign season? Do they try and make decisions that are in the best interest of the communi-ty?

Do yourself, and all of us, a favor and take the time to be informed be-fore voting. We promise you that we will make every effort to see that you are.

“ Coaches from traditional public schools talk about the disadvantages of having to play against city schools and private schools.

“Dear Editor: Would you vote

for this person?Mostly recently (he was) ar-

rested for domestic violence; also accused of “groping” a student while working on an unauthorized shift; charged with sexual battery and making false statements while working as a Deputy Marshal in Augus-ta; performing duties for which one has no authority; “sloppy performance” in authorized duties such as not keeping his pistol clean and not having patrol car serviced as required and notarizing data without no-tary authority.

During this employment this person received a total of 22 days on suspension during 10 years of service as a public servant, although there were many infractions which led to the “firing” of this person, but another worth noting is his re-ceiving a five-day suspension in March 1995 after a supervi-

sor found him at home asleep on duty. On two occasions, he received written warnings for

not reporting to work or call-ing.

He was given a chance to re-sign but declined.

This person was turned over to the police and was immedi-ately released on $7,500 bail. The charges were “sexual bat-tery and making false state-ments in a government matter.” Sexual battery, a misdemeanor, carries a prison term of up to two years. False statements in

a government matter carries a prison term of up to five years. This person did NOT serve

time for ANYTHINGNot only did this person

shirk responsibilities but he also “thumbed his nose at au-thority” providing the rules while working at the Richmond County Sheriff’s Department.

A full report can be found by going to Augusta Chroni-cle, October 7, 1998 written by Meghan Gourley, staff writer for the Augusta Chronicle.

This person is planning to

run for Chairman of the Board of Commissioners in Rockdale County as soon as the time comes up.

Do you want to elect this person to the highest office in Rockdale County? This posi-tion, the Chairman, has many privileges and responsibilities — appointments to jobs, and many other things; check du-ties of Chairman of Commis-sion in Rockdale County.

Will you vote, ignoring that it is a privilege allowed us in this country, or will you make a thoughtful vote by considering this information and all infor-mation that you can gather.

This person’s name is Oz Nesbitt; he is serving on the Board of Commissioners in Rockdale County presently.

Vote responsibly!

Carole NailenRockdale County

Would You Vote For This Person?

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

“ “Do you want to elect this person to the highest office in Rockdale County?

Even playing field for school sports


St. Patrick’s in ConyersIt was the world's happiest,

greenest day on Tuesday - St. Patrick's Day! And The

Rockdale News team had live streaming coverage, emceed

by T. Pat Cavanaugh and Marty Jones, of all the festivities

before, during and after the World's Fastest Growing

Parade in Olde Town Conyers and the 0.1 Mile World's

Shortest Endurance Run after-wards. See video highlights at

rockdalenews.com

Luck of the IrishRockdale Cares celebrated the “Luck of the Irish” with their 37th Annual Fundraiser show and silent auction on Saturday, March 14, at Epiphany Lutheran Church to benefit Haven House Re-spite Home, which provides respite services for developmentally challenged individuals and families. The event featured a catered dinner, live entertainment from clients and the reliably solid stable of items for silent auction. Here are a few scenes from the festivities. For more photos, go to rockdalenews.com

Photos by Martin Rand/The News

Photos by Michelle Kim/The News


For full column, visit rock-dalenews.com

Tuesday was St. Patrick’s Day, a day celebrated throughout the land with parades and merriment and music. In Conyers there was a parade and the world’s shortest endurance run. You can see photos of the parade and run in today’s paper and video at rockdalenews.com or in the digital edition rock-dalenewsdigital.com

Celebrating this day is the right thing to do in this country be-cause the Irish have contributed so much to the might and culture of America.

You are probably thinking as you read this that I will be off cel-ebrating this grand day at the clos-est Irish bar. Not necessarily true. The News will be live streaming the afternoon’s activities in Co-nyers; it is a complete coincidence that we will be located across from the Celtic Tavern.

Joking aside, years ago I stopped celebrating this day in that manner. When I sat down to try to write about my favorite memories of celebrating St. Pat’s day, I knew full well that I did have a good time, but the truth of the matter is I just couldn’t remember what those good times were.

We still celebrate St. Patrick’s Day at our house. The Leprechaun always came in the middle of the night to visit the kids and grand-children and even now Ms. Molly expects a visit also.

Some of the kids at my oldest grandchild’s school years ago scoffed at her when she told them that she believed in leprechauns.

It’s too bad, because The Lep-rechaun only visits boys and girls who believe, and our grand-daughter, who was a very smart 7-year-old, told them that, as she opened up her treats from the

wily Leprechaun.The Irish can take great pride

in being Americans because, af-ter all, in the 6th Century this land was first discovered by an Irish monk named St. Brendan.

Those of you who would scoff, especially my Italian friends, need to know evidence of the Saint’s vis-it was recently discovered in caves of the West Virginia Mountains.

In fact, to this very day some people refer to that state in talking about it by calling it West “By God” Virginia, further evidence of the Saint’s visit.

Speaking of the Italians, there always has been a little jealousy involving them.

St. Patrick was actually a Ro-man citizen before he got the calling and learned that he could charm snakes. Once he saw Ire-land, he became an Irishman in his heart forever. There has always been unhappiness in the Italian community that more people cele-brate St. Pat’s day than Columbus Day. I don’t know why I enjoy eating pizza and a good bottle of Boones Farm on Columbus Day.

In fact, there was so much jeal-ousy that the College of Cardinals, which has been dominated by Ital-ian cardinals over the centuries, actually tried to have St. Patrick kicked out of the sainthood some years ago.

Actually, the Italians have been smarter than the Irish in this coun-try. They managed to have Colum-bus Day declared a federal holiday, even though it is a dubious holiday.

Celebrating St. Pat’s day has cost many a Paddy his job, be-cause it is not an official holiday in this country, only in the minds of those who celebrate it.

The Irish people always have been and are to this day a brave, smart and independent people, and they are also very prolific and have

multiplied faster than bunnies.The famous psychologist Sig-

mund Freud once said about the Irish, “This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever.”

There were eight Irish signers of the Declaration of Indepen-dence. Half of all of the troops who fought in the Revolutionary War were Irish, including 1,492 officers and 26 generals.

In fact, many of the British sol-diers were Irish.

Just before the Civil War, millions of Irish, my own great-great-grandfather included, came to our shore to try and escape the great potato famine that killed millions in the 1840s and ’50s. When most arrived, they were treated as if they were the scum of the Earth. In fact, there were signs on people’s lawns all the way up to WWII that stated “No Dogs or Irish Allowed on Lawn.”

Many signed on with the mili-tary, where they were promised citizenship.

Many of those were sent to the American plains to fight the In-dian wars, and there, many were beaten and scourged by some offi-cers who hated them because they were considered Papists, and there was a fear that because of the Irish Catholic influx, the Pope would soon be ruling the country.

Some of the Irish deserted and went to Mexico, where they were treated with respect. In fact, during the war with Mexico, the Irish formed a battalion in the Mexican Army called the San Patreicio’s, who fought valiant-ly against the American troops, which ironically contained many of their Irish cousins.

The battalion was finally deci-mated and the survivors were tor-tured and hung by General Win-field Scott in spite of the protests

of the Mexican government and the world.

These men were never citizens of the U.S.

The San Patricio’s today are honored in Mexico and in Ireland for their courage and gallantry. You can rent a great movie on this sub-ject. It is called “One Man’s Hero.”

During the Civil War, seven Union generals were Irish born and 150,000 Irish Americans fought for the north.

Six Confederate generals were born in Ireland. In fact, the first two casualties of the Civil War were Irish.

In the history of this country, more than 300 Irish Americans have been awarded the Medal of Honor; 21 of them are double Medal of Honor winners.

The culture and arts of this country has been forever affected by the writings of F. Scott Fitzger-ald, James Joyce, Eugene O’Neal, George M. Cohan, Stephen Fos-ter, Tom Brady, Edgar Allan Poe and, of course, T. Pat Cavanaugh.

There have been 18 presidents

of our country who were of Irish ancestry, including Andrew Jack-son, Ulysses S. Grant, James K. Polk, James Buchanan, Chester A. Arthur, William McKinley, The-odore Roosevelt, Grover Cleve-land, Woodrow Wilson, John Ad-ams, John Quincy Adams, James Monroe, Richard Nixon, and John F. Kennedy and, heaven forbid, Bill Clinton.

There are numerous folks of Irish decent that have made this country into what it is today, in-cluding John Barry, who was the father of the American Navy; Dan-iel Boone; Davy Crockett; James Hogan, who designed the White House; Matthew Brady, the Civil War photographer; Henry Ford, who started the Ford Motor Com-pany; Dr. Thaddeus Cahill, who developed the electric typewriter in 1901; Henry McCarty, aka Billy the Kid, who was one of our noto-rious outlaws; and John Wayne, a great American actor.

By T. Pat [email protected]

An Irish Philosophy of Life

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Thoughts of a baby boomer

Eleven heroes from Rockdale County and twelve of their broth-ers from Newton County are coming home. Befitting the 40th Anniversary of the ending of the Vietnam War, the Moving Wall – a traveling half-sized replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. – will be on dis-play at the Walk of Heroes War Memorial in Rockdale County, May 6-12. And thanks to one man, Bud Sose-bee, our heroes will have a noble venue for their homecoming.

Bud Sosebee is the most rec-ognized vet-eran in Rock-dale County. Folks may not have known his name, but untold thou-sands have seen Bud in his World War II uniform at various events. Always smil-ing, always w e l c o m i n g . Bud’s easygo-ing disposition was sorely tested when he witnessed the treatment Viet-nam veterans received when they returned home from an unpopular war. He decided to do something about it.

His vision was to honor Viet-nam veterans by honoring all veterans with the Walk of Heroes War Memorial. The memorial is his baby, his vision, and now, because of this great man and pa-triot, we all have a memorial to be proud of, a place to honor the brave; a place to show our respect

for the fallen.Before honoring our returning

heroes, a brief explanation con-cerning research is apropos. The

internet Virtual Wall offers a “full profile” on every veteran on The Wall in Wash-ington, DC, yet that information is basic and offers little about the human being be-hind the name. A few veterans have lon-ger profiles including comments by loved ones and/or a brother from southeast Asia.

Further research indicated that the war memorial on Covington Square in Newton County and the

one in front of the Rockdale County Court-house may both be miss-ing one vet-eran’s name according to the Georgia Registry. This is not unusual nor due to neg-ligence. Veter-ans may have moved, been r e c o g n i z e d elsewhere, or given their point of entry into the mil-itary as their home town. Photos are limited. The

names of two veterans appear on both monuments. I respectfully offer the following tributes.

ROCKDALE COUNTYHarlow Gary Clark, Jr. – US

Army, chopper pilot, Lieutenant Colonel. Lt. Col. Clark lost his life in a helicopter crash due to hostile fire on March 7, 1966. The province in Vietnam was not re-

ported. He was 44 years old. Donald Wayne Garrett – US

Army, infantryman, Private First Class. On May 12, 1969, Pfc. Garrett died from multiple frag-mentation wounds in Binh Long Province. He was 23 years old.

Robert Wayne Hamlin – US Army, 82nd Airborne, Sergeant. Sgt. Hamlin died from enemy small arms fire near Hua Nghia on February 5, 1969. He was 20 years old. A note from the Virtu-al Wall: “I remember you being a quiet easy-going person. I looked

at the signatures in the book at Danny McGee’s funeral and there was your name where you paid your respects for a fallen brother. Months later you lost your life in Nam also. I know you did your best and I thank you. You are missed still and will always be missed. Thank you, my brother.”

Melvin Douglas Holcomb - US Marine Corps, radio operator, Staff Sgt. SSgt. Holcomb per-ished from enemy artillery, rock-et, or mortar fire in Quang Tri Province. He was 28 years old.

William McCaskill - US Ma-rine Corps, rifleman, Private First Class. On April 26, 1967, William was hit by enemy small arms fire in Quang Tri Province. He died immediately. William was 23 years old.

Danny Dean McGee (appears on both monuments) – US Marine Corps, combat engineer, Lance Corporal. Lance Corporal McGee died from hostile small arms fire on January 23, 1967 near Thua

See WALL on PAGE 9

PETE MECCACOLUMNIST


OUR BOYS ARE COMING HOME

NSDAR Honors Vietnam Veterans

The Col. John McIntosh Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, of Conyers, will present a pro-gram honoring Vietnam Veterans and commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the end of the war, Wednesday, March 25, 2 p.m., at Epiphany Lutheran, 2375 Ga. Hwy 20 South, Conyers. Local Vietnam veterans will be invit-ed as guests. Rockdale News Columnist Pete Mecca, author of “A Veteran’s Story” series, will be the guest speaker.

Thien. He was 21 years old. A note from the Virtual Wall: “You are missed by all, Danny. Your laughter, your kindness, and love of life were not taken in the jun-gles of Vietnam. Those who love you have not allowed that to hap-pen. You live on in our hearts and minds. You left behind a mother, father, sister, three half-sisters, and a fiancé. When you went away you had plans like the rest of us grunts. All we wanted was to do our jobs, come home to our white houses on our tree-lined streets, and take up where we left off. Who would have known the hand of fate would take you and leave me? Perhaps heaven need-ed you. Those of us who came home were forever changed. The houses were not as white, and the trees didn’t look the same. Taking up where we left off was not an option. Sometimes, I thought you were the lucky one. I guess heaven will need me eventually, and when it does, we will meet again and talk of old times (I hope heaven has footballs). One day, both of us, along with Galen, will stand at the gate and pull duty to-gether, welcoming our brethren into the fold. Semper Fi.”

Thomas Ronnie Range, Jr. (not on the Rockdale Monument) – US Marine Corps, antitank as-sault man, Private First Class. Pfc. Range lost his life in Quang Nam Province on September 17, 1968 from enemy small arms fire. He was 19 years old.

James Earl Skipper – US Army, infantryman, specialist four. Spec four Skipper died instantly from an explosive device in Quang Tri Province on February 3, 1969. He was 20 years old.

Thomas Clinton Smith, Jr. – US Army, infantryman, Corporal. Corporal Smith perished from an explosive device in Quang Ngai Province on April 8, 1970. He was 20 years old.

NEWTON COUNTYJames Terrell Cofer – US

Army, helicopter repairer, Spe-cialist Five. Spec five Cofer died in a helicopter crash in Pleiku Province on May 18, 1969. He was 21 years old.

Raymond Jackson (two Ray

Jacksons listed on Virtual Wall) – both US Army, both infantry-men, both Private First Class. Pfc. Raymond Columbus Jackson perished in a helicopter crash on January 15, 1967 in Phong Dinh Province. He was 21 years old. Raymond Lee Jackson died from enemy small arms fire on August 25, 1968 in Quang Ngai Province. He was 20 years old.

Jerry Johnson – US Army, in-fantryman, Private First Class. Pfc. Johnson lost his life to small arms fire on March 6, 1969 in Tay Ninh Province. He was 22 years old.

George E. McMullen, III – US Air Force, helicopter crewman,

Technical Ser-geant. Tech Sgt. McMul-len perished in a helicopter crash on May 13, 1975 in Thailand. He was 31 years old. Note: Tech Sgt. McMullen was assigned to a special op-erations wing, classified mis-sions.

Robert Lit-tleton Phillips – US Army, infantry unit c o m m a n d e r, Captain. Cap-tain Phillips

died from multiple fragmentation wounds on May 6, 1970 in Cam-bodia. Province not reported. He was 23 years old.

Robert Anthony Piper – US Army, infantryman, Corporal. Corporal Piper died from enemy small arms fire on July 31, 1971 in Quang Nam Province. He was 20 years old.

Danny Joe Richardson – US Army, Tactical Wire Operations Specialist, Specialist Four. Spec four Richardson suffered mul-tiple fragmentation wounds on April 3, 1968 in Binh Dinh Prov-

ince. He was 20 years old.James Terry Savage – US

Army, Aerial Sensor Specialist, Sergeant. Sgt. Savage lost his life on October 14, 1969 in an air-plane crash in Khanh Hoa Prov-ince. He was 20 years old.

Earl Thomas Shaffer, Sr. (on both monuments) – US Army, infantry senior sergeant, First Sergeant. First Sergeant Shaffer was killed by enemy small arms fire on December 9, 1968 in Binh Long Province. He was 45 years old.

Roy Lee Singletary (not on the Covington Monument) – US Army, light air defense artillery crewmember, Private First Class. Pfc. Singletary died instantly from an explosive device on July 8, 1969 in Binh Dinh Province. He was 21 years old.

Isaac Thomas, Jr – US Marine Corps, rifleman, Private First Class. Pfc. Thomas died from hostile fragmentation wounds on June 7, 1969 in Quang Nam Prov-ince. He was 21 years old.

Millard L. Treadwell – US Army, Operations and Train-ing Staff Officer, Major. Major Treadwell perished in a helicop-ter crash on June 6, 1967 in Bien Hoa Province. He was 34 years old. A note on the Virtual Wall: “Oh Daddy, how your little girl misses you.”


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Vietnam Moving Wall comes to Rockdale

The Moving Wall – a half sized replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. – will be on display May 6-12 at The Walk of Heroes Veterans War Memorial at 3001 Black Shoals Rd in Conyers, GA 30012. Open 24 hours; free admission; daily ceremonies honoring various Vietnam veterans; May 6 baseball game Braves vs. Phillies; May 9 parade; www.themoving-wall.org, www.walkofheroes.org, 770-273-7003

All we wanted was to do our jobs, come home to our white houses on our tree-lined streets, and take up where we left off. Who would have known the hand of fate would take you and leave me?”

“


Shoal Creek Elementary celebrated all things STEAM – Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics – with STEAM Career Day on Monday, March 16. Students heard from dozens of professionals in engineering, education, wild-life, music, journalism, medicine, law enforcement and more. Students became geologists for a day with the Big Canyon Balloon. Fifth graders made presentations on iPads about career fields and presented it to fourth graders in a job-fair at-mosphere. The day culminated with “STEAM, The Musical” with original career-related lyrics were put to pop tunes of the day. Here are a few scenes. - Michelle Kim

Please note the Calendar deadline for Saturday’s paper is noon Thursday. Email events to [email protected].

Saturday, March 21Parent Academy

8:30 a.m. - 2:30 a.m.; Rockdale Career

Academy, 1064 Culpepper Dr; free classes

ranging from automotive to Excel 101 to

Zumba for RCPS parents, free childcare

ages 3-10, registration required, free lunch

by Zaxby’s; www.rockdale.k12.ga.us

Conyers Cherry Blossom Festival10 a.m. - 5 p.m., March 21-22; Ga. Int’l

Horse Park; Conyers 34th Annual Conyers

Cherry Blossom Festival; (Rain or Shine);

more than 300 vendor and craft booths;

continuous entertainment, children’s

activities; Ultimate Air Dog Show; Atlanta

Puppet Show; Pink Out! contest prizes

for those wearing cherry blossom colors

pink and green or decorating stroller or

wagon; Scavenger Hunt; free admission,

$5 one day parking or $8 two day parking;

No pets; www.conyerscherryblossomfest.

com

Family Fun Day10 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Bald Rock Bap-

tist Church, 2284 Old Covington Road,

Conyers; Family Fun Day kicks off Pastor

Christopher Shipp’s 18th Anniversary at

Bald Rock Baptist; great food and fun;

770-929-3421.

Freedom Fund banquet6 p.m. ; Carriage room of Ga. Int’l Horse

Park, 1996 Centennial Olympic Parkway,

Conyers; fundraiser gala for Rockdale

NAACP chapter to provide a scholarship

to one college-bound senior from each of

Rockdale’s three high schools; tickets $40

each; contact Gladys Brown at 404-376-

8526 or Allene Eatman at 770-715-4836.

Sunday, March 22 Conyers Cherry Blossom Fest

10 a.m. - 5 p.m., March 21-22; Ga. Int’l

Horse Park; Conyers 34th Annual Conyers

Cherry Blossom Festival; (Rain or Shine);

more than 300 vendor booths; entertain-

ment, children’s activities; Ultimate Air Dog

Show; Atlanta Puppet Show; Pink Out!

prizes for those wearing pink and green;

Scavenger Hunt; free admission, $5 one

day parking or $8 two day parking; No

pets; www.conyerscherryblossomfest.

com

Bald Rock Pastor Anniversary11 a.m. and 3 p.m.; Bald Rock Bap-

tist Church, 2284 Old Covington Road,

Conyers; Pastor Christopher Shipp’s 18th

Anniversary; 770-929-3421.

Emmanuel Community Church 10th Anniversary Celebration

11 a.m.; Emmanuel Community Church,

1400 Ga. Highway 212, Conyers; celebrat-

ing 10 years in community; Lead Pastor

Eric Suddith; dinner at 12:30 p.m.; 678-

413-3603, www.emmanuelconyers.com

Taste of Salem Event6 p.m.; Family Life Center at Salem

UMC, 3962 Salem Rd, Covington; com-

munity invited to sample entrees, side

dishes, desserts by Salem`s finest chefs;

Tickets $10, children under 12 eat free;

Proceeds for local and global missions;

770-786-6027.

tueSday, March 24Rockdale Retired Educators

11:30 a.m.; at Rockdale Baptist Church,

1295 Smyrna Rd.; Rockdale Retired Edu-

cators Association meeting; speaker Rock-

dale Extension Agent Steve Pettis; RSVP for

lunch; Helen 770-483-6808

Friday, March 27Salem High Honor Choir Concert

6:30 p.m.; Salem High School Theater,

3551 Underwood Rd SE; first ever Honor

Choir Concert, under direction of Lenae

Rose; workshops from Roger Waters of

Conyers/Covington Choral Guild, Mary

Lynn Luke of Oxford Youth Singers, There-

sa Hamm-Smith of Bella Musica, Brittany

Jaynes from Snellville UMC, and Brandon

Rose; free; [email protected]

Saturday, March 28Walk with Angels

8 a.m.; eight mile walk starts/ends at

the Olde Town Conyers Pavilion; fund-

raiser for the Kimberley Chance Atkins

Foundation’s efforts for early breast cancer

detection; individuals $300 entry; teams

of two to four, $300 each; teams of 10 or

more, $200.; www.walkwithangels.kimat-

kins.net

Race for Life 5K/1M Refuge Preg-nancy fundraiser

8 a.m.; at Refuge Pregnancy Center,

1307 Milstead Ave, Conyers; 5K at 8 a.m.,

1 mile at 8:45 a.m., Tot Trot at 9 a.m.;

entry Fees: $25 until March 23, $30 after/

race day, $30 phantom runner; Register at

www.active.com; [email protected],

678-795-0115 or Anita 770-922-5939

AKA Fiscal Responsibility work-shop

10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; St. Paul A.M.E.

Church,13108 Brown Bridge Road, Cov-

ington; Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.;

Sessions: Economic development, Budget-

ing, Marketing, and buying homes; www.

aka1908.com

Rockdale County Think TankNoon - 2 p.m.; Ruby Tuesdays, 1714 Ga.

Highway 138, Conyers; back room; hosted

by Josie Dean; a State of the Citizens

address for Rockdale residents to express

their concerns and visions for Rockdale

Community Calendar

Full STEAM AheadShoal Creek Elementary celebrates Career Day

It’s only been about two months, but Angelique Harris can already see great things happening in the future

for Conyers’ A.R. Gus Barksdale Boys & Girls Club (BBGC) located at 1015 O'Kelly Street.

DeKalb County resident Harris, 47, was hired as the executive director of the Barks-dale Boys & Girls Club Jan. 14. She replaces Terrance Artis, who was let go by the BBGC in August as the full-time director of the club.

“I stay pretty busy,” said Harris. “I’m learning a lot. There’s a lot to learn, and I’m enjoying every minute of it.”

This is Harris first time taking the reins of an organization to lead it; however, her work with children is extensive. Prior to working with BBGC, Harris worked for the YMCA in Decatur, Georgia to help develop pro-grams for children and worked as pre-kin-dergarten teacher.

“Probably since I was 18 (years old), I’ve been involved with childcare in some aspect,” she said. “This is pretty much what I’ve been doing in some shape form or fash-ion since I graduated from high school.”

Harris holds a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education from Brenau Universi-ty and received her master’s degree in early childhood education from Grand Canyon University.

With that work experience, Harris hopes to breathe new life in to the BAGC.

“I was selected to lead this particular club. I’m excited about it,” she said. “I see a lot of good things for the future of Barksdale and I’m excited about that.”

Her number one goal is to increase the amount and variety of programs the BBGC can offer to the almost 200 children who attend daily. Opening the children up to the new experiences is extremely important, says Harris, because it allows kids to think about possibilities.

Since she took over, the BAGC began

holding an assembly every Friday where dif-ferent groups of kids can put on shows using different forms of expression for the other kids.

“If someone is in the arts, they may show-case their artwork, and that’ll give students, who maybe normally don’t want to do art or have an interest in that, it may peak their in-terest,” said Harris. “Just to get kids to open up their eyes to things that they may not have known about, been exposed to or want to do. I think it’s fantastic that many see their peers and peak their interest.”

Another goal for Harris is to increase stu-dent membership and volunteers. Adding new and exciting programs can go a long way to helping that effort. Also, she’s been out-and-about in the community talking and meeting with different civic organizations, businesses and Rockdale County Public Schools officials to get a wide range of com-munity involvement.

She does have an idea of what kids want and need at the BAGC. Harris was a club

member as a child, although she was a part of the girls club before it merged with the boys club and become what is now known as the Samuel L. Jones Boys & Girls Club, 450 East Lake Drive, Decatur, Georgia.

Her two kids, a son and a daughter ages 14 and 12, are also members of the Jones Boys & Girls Club.

“I’ve come full circle,” she said with a laugh.

And Harris doesn’t plan on leaving the BAGC anytime soon. She said she could see herself being rooted in her position for at least the next decade, but in order to accom-plish such a lofty goal, Harris needs to be able to communicate and listen effectively.

“I think it’s important to be in touch with what the community wants, be in touch with what your members want and the parents what,” she said. “I think that’s very import-ant and that helps you with longevity. You have to be able to evolve and change with the changing times and I think that’s very important.”

The Georgia Department of Education (GADOE) recently re-leased the first School Climate Star Rating Report, which aims to give parents a thumbnail look at the quality and culture of a school.

The Star Climate Rating aver-age for Rockdale County Public Schools system is 87.038 (out of 100).

RCPS's elementary schools averaged 91.108, middle schools averaged 87.675, and high schools averaged 82.333. Out of Rock-dale's three main high schools, Salem received a "4 star" rating, while Heritage and Rockdale County High received a "3 star" rating. Most RCPS elementary schools received a

Each school in Georgia received a 1-5 star ratings, with five stars representing an excellent school climate, and one star represent-ing a school climate most in need of improvement. School Climate

Star Ratings are an informational tool for schools, administrators, and parents; they do not affect the school's College & Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) score.

"I am pleased with our Climate Star averages," says RCPS Super-intendent Richard Autry. "With this being a brand new measurement calculation, we will take the neces-

sary time to analyze the report and determine areas for improvement."

- Staff Reports


By Martin Rand, [email protected]

Read full story at rockdalenews.com

The News Saturday, March 21, 2015• 3

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Barksdale Boys & Girls Club Welcomes New

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Rockdale school climate scores released

In the far northeast corner of Georgia, bordering the South Carolina line and more than 80 miles away from Newton/Rockdale County lies a small place called Elbert County with a of population 20,500 people as of 2012, according to elbert-co.net. Elbert is significant to Newton and Rockdale because of the two coaches it birthed – Jonathan Brewer (Rockdale County High School head baseball coach) and Bruce Ev-ans (Eastside High School head baseball coach) – and the men that it made them.

Elbert County is a small place, so small that it has just one high school. Similar to that of Newton and Rockdale de-cades ago. It’s the type of place that forces you to drive 45 min-utes just to go to Outback.

Evans, who was the head baseball coach at Elbery Coun-ty High School, says it was so small that he knew all five board members and they would call him after games. He jokingly added that he only knows one

in Newton. If Elbert hadn’t been so small, maybe Evans would have never coached Brewer while he was in high school. Maybe they would’ve never met and developed the close friend-ship they have now. But Elbert is small and because of it Brew-er and Evans developed a close friendship that resembles a big/little brother bond. A bond that gave them both the courage to leave the place they’d called home for so long.

Listening to Evans and Brew-er tell their story of coming from a small town over an early dinner Thursday evening at Jim Stalvey’s in Covington and you can see the brotherly love the two share for each other now, but it didn’t start out that way.

When Brewer was a senior on the baseball team, Evans became a coach in his first year out of college.

“I hated him then,” Brewer said laughing.

As an immature young kid, Brewer says he hated how hard-nosed Evans was. It was some-

thing that, at the time, Brewer wasn’t mentally ready to deal with. Evans gives Brewer more credit than Brewer gave himself and says Brewer was ready by the end of his senior year.

In the last game of Brewer’s senior season, the head coach got thrown out, forcing Evans to take over. Evans says Brewer was a good bunter and that he always felt the team never used Brewer right, but when Evans got the chance to, he used him perfectly.

Evans had Brewer bunt each of his three times at-bat, and he executed each one of them – twice for the squeeze play and once for a sacrifice bunt. Brew-er says that was probably his best game all season.

The two were reunited when Evans took over the head coaching position at Elbert

and asked Brewer to join him, while he was still in college. Brewer was working at a local radio station at the time, but he couldn’t pass up the chance to coach at his alma mater.

“I’ve been around baseball my whole life,” Brewer said. “I remember thinking at the time that I knew everything there was to know about baseball.” Brewer quickly learned the opposite. He says that Evans taught him tons, but what stuck with him the most was learning how to practice everyday, deal-ing with parents and cutting kids.

Cutting kids probably doesn’t sound like a difficult task to most people. But it was, espe-cially for Evans. Evans, lost his son while he was coaching at Elbert, and Evans was forced to cut his son’s best friend that

spoke at his funeral. He says it was awful.

“I go home and sleep because I know I did the right thing,” Evans said. “I wouldn’t sleep good if I kept a kid that didn’t deserve it because that isn’t fair to that other kid that got cut that did deserve to make it.”

Evans always stuck to his guns, kept the best players and played the best nine. In such a small town where everybody knows everybody else’s name that became problematic, and Evans says he lost friends be-cause of decisions he had to make.

“I was the one that sat around with him and saw the emotion-al torture of it,” Brewer said. “He has to be strong in front of everyone else, but I was there to see once everybody left the

Saturday, Mar. 21, 2015

rockdalenews.com SportS

See Elbert, Page 13

Hometown HEROES

Shakeem Holloway/The News

A look at the two men Elbert County created

By Shakeem [email protected]

It seems like baseball season just started, but yet most teams are already into the most important part of their schedule, region games. It is one thing to start off your region schedule, and it’s another to start it against a bor-der-county rival. Alcovy and Rockdale led off its Region 2-AAAAAA schedule with a three-game series against each other.

With Rockdale taking a commanding 9-1 win at Alco-vy on Monday, the Tigers wanted to put up a better fight when they traveled to Rockdale on Wednesday evening. After a tough game, it was the Bulldogs who prevailed after a late-homer to take a 2-1 win over Alcovy.

Both starting pitchers Ahmaad O’Neal (Rockdale) and Nathan Purcell (Alcovy) put on an amazing display

of pitches, and seemed to try to get the better of each other every time they hit the mound. They combined to only give up three runs, but it was Purcell that gave up the run to end the game. With the game tied at one in the bottom of the sixth inning, senior Jelani Clarington stepped up and blasted the ball in the left field for a solo jam to win the game. Clarington came in on the mound to close out the game in the final two innings.

Rockdale (5-6, 2-0) has a very young team this season with only three seniors on the roster and eight under-classmen. That contributes to the somewhat inconsis-tent play we’ve seen from Rockdale, but that also comes from playing a tough non-region schedule. There is talent on this team, and the future seems bright for the Bulldogs. But, Head Coach Jonathan Brewer wants his team to keep learning from their mistakes and shorten their errors. Brewer loves the leadership role Clarington

has taken on his team, and praises his play on the dia-mond.

“He (Clarington) has been absolutely incredible for this baseball team,” Brewer said. “Whatever college gets him is going to be getting a special one.”

Alcovy (2-11, 0-2) has been hit with adversity this year, and like Rockdale only have four seniors on their team. Even though the Tigers are still trying to come together as a baseball team, their effort and heart cannot be questioned as they played their hearts out to get that win. If the Tigers keep with that same intensity, thing will turn around in the future for them.

“Baseball is one of those games where even if you play right you still lose,” Alcovy Head Coach Ryan Denison said.

The third game of the series was Friday, check back with the Rockdale News for updates.

Bulldogs take season series over AlcovyBy Javon [email protected]

Jonathan Brewer (left) and Bruce Evans (right) at Jim Stalvey’s on Thursday.

room how much it hurt him to have to do it. Just because it’s the right decision doesn’t mean it’s the easy decision.”

Evans says now, he didn’t really lose any friends, it just weeded out the people in his life that didn’t belong. But it was a valuable lesson for Brew-er, as he learned the hardships that nobody sees that comes with the job.

“He taught me that there’s no fair treatment. When you do the right thing you’re gon-na get fussed at and criticized and that’s a hard thing to ac-cept,” Brewer said. Evans likes to say that “no good deed goes unpunished,” which is some-thing he witnessed up close and personal.

Elbert County made the play-offs in four of the six seasons they coached together, and the Evans/Brewer era also resulted in the team breaking the school record for wins in a season with 23. Brewer has a tremendous amount of respect for Evans’ ability to win in their hometown. The pressure was always on be-cause they grew up there and the two couldn’t go anywhere in the county without running into someone they knew.

“I felt like we couldn’t ever get a good coach. I felt like all these other good coaches were going to other schools. They’d come to Elbert County, they’d have a good year and they’d go get what they saw as a bet-ter job. I hated that. I hated the way that happened,” Evans said. “Everybody used Elbert like a stepping stone and I didn’t want to do that. I wanted somebody there that was stable for those kids – like us – grow-ing up. And they had a stable person. I wanted the kids to see me at the little league field and know they’re gonna play for me one day. That was my dream. That’s why I came back and gave it all I did to make it that way.”

Evans wanted to be the best coach in the state of Georgia and he wanted to do it at El-bert County because when Evans played there he went through four different coaches in four years. He felt like no-body wanted to be there. Evans wanted to leave Elbert in better shape than it was when he got there, and he did.

“If we could win a state championship at Eastside I’m gonna blow the roof off I’m gonna be so happy. But just what we did at our hometown and to know without a doubt that we did it better than any-one else ever has, that’s a dif-

ferent kind of pride,” Evans says. He added that it helped a lot having Brewer along for the ride.

The size of the county had a profound effect on the tal-ent that Brewer and Evans had to work with. Moving to Conyers and Covington has shown them what you can do when you have multiple mid-dle schools fueling the talent of your team.

“In six years, he never had a left-handed pitcher. In six years, he never had a kid from the mound consistently ever throw over 83…and now he has three of them and he has a left handed pitcher now in his first year here,” Brewer said. “I have a left-handed pitcher. I’ve got one throwing 87/88 and a couple 82/83. It’s Christmas, man.”

Evans and Brewer love their hometown, but they realized last summer it was time to move on. As Evans says, ev-erything happens for a rea-son. They started looking for coaching jobs throughout the state together.

Evans, at that time, only had a certification to lead physical education (P.E.) classes. He says he got a lot of calls, but none of the schools had P.E. jobs avail-able. So even if coaching jobs were available, he couldn’t take them. Evans decided to get his

special education certification one Wednesday, he passed the test immediately and emailed Eastside principal Jeff Cher on Thursday. Cher called Evans back later that day and Evans went to visit Eastside on Fri-day.

He was hired Monday. Within that same week,

Brewer got two job offers and took Evans with him to see both places and get his advice. Brewer was sold on Rockdale and its potential for growth, and the fact that he’d be close to his friend.

“I thank God every day that I’m here, because I love this place. Me and my wife love it and I know he (Brewer) does. I don’t know that I could’ve found a better place to be,” Ev-ans said.

“Absolutely,” Brewer chimed in. They carry the heart of their

hometown with them wherev-

er they go. It shows that they still care about the place from which they came. The place that made them. If it weren’t for their hardships at Elbert, Evans says he wouldn’t have ventured out like he did and Brewer wouldn’t have taken a chance like he did to get to Rockdale.

It all came full circle earlier in the season when the two met on the field as head coach-es for a double-header. Rock-dale won the first game (13-7) and Eastside won the second (10-8). Those two games are non-region and would nor-mally have no significance at all, but that day is a day the two will never forget.

“It was about as perfect at it could be in my eyes. I got my first ever career win and he got his 100th,” Brewer said pas-sionately. “I wouldn’t have had it any other way.”

The News Saturday, Mar. 21, 2015 • 13

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Office investigators that Gattis had a “mindset of a child” and was easily influenced by others. She was still enrolled in Heritage High School under a special ed-ucation program and technically under the custody of her adop-tive parents. She reportedly has multiple diagnosed disorders, but many of those are diagnoses such as ADHD. Her friends de-

scribed her to investigators as a normal functioning adult

Initially, investigators believed Gattis may have been headed out of state with an unknown male who allegedly offered a model-ing opportunity.

However, after tracking down leads, investigators believe the 19-year-old may still be in the Conyers-Covington area.

According to RCSO Cpl. Mi-chael Camp, Gattis was spotted by classmates over the weekend at a Conyers eatery.

“We believe she’s cut and

colored her hair. We think she’s been staying with family and friends in the Conyers and Cov-ington area. We think she’s left on her own will and not co-erced,” said Camp.

“We still need to make con-tact with her. Technically, she’s still listed as a missing and en-dangered adult. But we don’t really think she’s endangered at this point. It’s almost like a runaway juvenile, but she’s not a juvenile.”

“We do not believe she’s in any danger,” Camp reiterated.

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Jerry Dean Scott, 56, Conyers, March 9, Cruelty to Children, Simple Battery

Johnnie Deon Lee, 36, Atlan-ta, March 9, Driving Without a Valid License

Darius Alexander Johnson, 18, Conyers, March 9, Criminal Trespass Possession of Marijuana

Rodrick Montrey White,

17, Conyers, March 9, Criminal Trespass

Justin Parks Campbell, 17, Conyers, March 9, Criminal Trespass

Roy Sebastian Pitts, 17, Conyers, March 9, Criminal Trespass

Rocio Bautista, 17, Monticel-lo, March 9, Theft by Shoplifting

Shavonna Lashae Jones, 22, Lithonia, March 10, Driving Without a Valid License

Rockdale county Jail log

Jobs

Drivers WantedWANTED: OTR CDL Driver, home most weekends. Must be over 25 years of age and have over 3 years of experience. Call 770-786-5510 ext. 301 or 317.

Help WantedADmiNisTRATivE mA Needed for busy Practice in Conyers. HS diploma, valid MA certificate required. Front and back office experience helpful. Resume must include ALL education AND work experience. Fax to 678-413-3580.

DiE sETTER: Automotive Supplier in Covington is looking for Metal Stamping Die Setters. Mechanical troubleshooting skills are required. Willingness to work around large types of machinery. Forklift experience necessary We are only willing to hire safety minded individuals who operate carefully and mindfully with attention to detail. Direct hire 1st shift position, paid vacation, high level benefits, competitive compensation. Please mail resumes to P.O. Box 427 Covington, GA 30015

DORsEy sERvicEs a family business is looking to hire Lawn Care Technicians & Salesman for our Monticello branch and Griffin branch. We are growing and hiring now. We have immediate full-time openings. Apply if you are experienced or would like to learn. Healthcare. 401k. Vacation benefits. Holiday pay. Requirements: valid Georgia driver’s license and good driving record. Must be 21. Applicant should have dependable transportation. Pay is based on your individual knowledge and skills. Call us for an interview today at 706-468-2413 or email us your resume to [email protected]

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the news march 21, 2015 volume 6, issue 49

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