Today marks the beginning of an open burn ban in Carroll County and 54 other counties around the state to improve air quality during the summer.
“It takes a regional approach to reduce the amount of air pollution in Georgia and improve the health of our citizens. The burn ban is one such solution,” Heather Abrams, branch chief of the state Environmental Protection Division’s Air Protection Branch, said in a prepared statement.
From May 1 to Sept. 30, residents and businesses in the 54 counties - mostly clumped around metro areas like Atlanta, Athens and Augusta - are not allowed to burn yard and/or land-clearing debris. Some fires are exempt, however, such as campfires and those for “agricultural activities.” For more information, call 1-877-OK2-BURN.
Despite popular perception, fires are less likely to start in the summer because the humidity is higher, according to Seth Holland, a ranger with the Georgia Forestry Commission.
The EPD asks the forestry commission to enforce the burn ban during Georgia’s chief smog months to improve the air quality for the young and elderly, as well as for people with respiratory, cardiac or pulmonary diseases.
After months of being troubled by birds, Bowdon residents may be able to look forward to a summer reprieve.
Assistant branch manager Cindy Inman said that each winter and spring, the trees behind Warren P. Sewell Memorial Library fill with swarms of large black birds, which Mayor Jim Watts identified as “turkey buzzards,” or turkey vultures. Watts said that the city receives calls complaining that the birds destroy flower arrangements and damage containers holding flower arrangements in the Bowdon City Cemetery.
“They just seem to be picking everything up and scattering it all over,” he said.
According to Watts, the problem occurs each spring and the highest concentration of birds can usually be found in the far left corner of the cemetery. He said the city’s public works department cuts the grass, picks up litter and does other basic maintenance in the cemetery, but it can do little about individual grave sites and can do little to stop the birds.
Watts urged residents not to place flower arrangements on graves until the majority of birds leave.
A 6-year-old Carrollton girl died in an Atlanta hospital hours after her apartment caught fire early Saturday, authorities said.
The girl, Ja’Nya Rutledge, had suffered burns to more than 80 percent of her body, according to state fire officials and Carrollton Fire Chief Jimmy Bearden.
Glenn Allen, spokesman for the Georgia Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner’s office, said the fire happened at Lake View Apartments after 1:30 a.m. Saturday. Bearden put the call at about 1:36 a.m.
Allen said the exact cause of the fire has not been determined, but officials believe one of the two children in the apartment - Ja’Nya and her little brother - may have been playing with a lighter or matches.
Bearden said Ja’Nya was found unconscious and not breathing after firefighters brought the blaze under control. He said rescue workers were able to perform CPR on Ja’Nya and take her to Tanner Medical Center-Carrollton, where her heartbeat was restored and she was placed on a ventilator.
I was driving up 400 and a cop stopped me for speeding. There was traffic to my right so I pulled over to the left against the median wall. The officer was agitated with me and I didn't like his attitude. I couldn't pull over to the right because of the traffic. What should I have done? Was I dumb to do that?
Dear Dummy:
Having been there myself, I'm guessing the officer was a bit on the agitated side knowing that he was about to be run over. The only thing that would fit in that lane is a clown car so I'm sure half of yours and the cop's car, which of course is behind yours and will be the first one hit, was sticking out there to be hit by one of our fine drivers who just may be on his or her cell phone, texting something insignificant that could have waited.
A Carrollton convenience store was robbed two days in a row -- and one clerk was on duty during both.
The clerk told police he thinks it was the same robber.
Around 9 p.m. on Feb. 29 a man went into the Quick Change Exxon at 494 Bankhead Highway, forced the clerk behind the counter at gunpoint and demanded the cash register be opened, the clerk told police. The suspect then left with the cash register drawer. According to a police report on the incident, a K-9 unit tracked the suspect to the area of Sheffield Drive and then lost the scent.
The suspect was described as black, wearing a black jacket with “ATL” written in white on the hood and left breast and “Atlanta” and an orange stripe on the right sleeve, black pants and shoes, a black or blue and white bandana over his face and gloves.
The Quick Change was also robbed on Feb. 28 around 11 p.m. That night the clerk described the suspect a 5-foot-10 black man and weighing between 140 and 145 pounds. He was wearing dark jeans, a dark blue jacket with a hood trimmed with tan and black fur, a long white T-shirt, black gloves, black shoes, and a black and white bandana over his face.
Capt. Chris Dobbs said a K-9 unit also tracked the robber’s scent last Thursday night, but lost it. On the way, police did fight the cash register draw that was taken from the convenience store.
Anyone with information about these robberies is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 770-838-STOP (7867).
Meteorologists surveying damage in Carroll County late Tuesday afternoon said that the storm that passed through that area early Tuesday morning was definitely a tornado. The investigators said that based on their observations, the storm was classified as an EF-3 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, which has winds clocked at between 136 and 165 mph.
According to the National Weather Service, the tornado touched down near the Alabama state line about 13 miles west of Carrollton, and traveled to a point about five miles west of the city of Carrollton. They said the tornado's path length was eight miles long, and had a maximum path width of 100 yards.
Investigators said maximum wind speeds were estimated at near 140 mph.
The storm turned homesteads to junkyards on both sides of Georgia Highway 100.
Storms tear through Carroll County, cause outages, injuries
A line of storms plowed through Georgia early Tuesday, causing wind damage, accidents and knocking out power to 93,000 Georgia Power customers statewide.
As the heavy rains slowed to a drizzle, tens of thousands of Georgia Power customers were still enduring a blackout, mostly in the Atlanta area, according to Carol Boatright, spokeswoman for the electric company.
“There’s actually about 670 customers out in the Carrollton area right now (10 a.m.),” Boatright said. “We have crews out working, but with that many people right now statewide, we’re not giving estimates at this point. We’re down to about 50,000 customers out total, so we’ve cut the number nearly in half.”
Carroll EMC had about 13,000 customers without power at the peak of the storm, according to Susan Lester, vice president of Member Services. The company serves about 30,000 households in Carroll County. At about 11 a.m., 10,000 were still without power.
“Most of the outage has been in Carroll County,” Lester said. “We are restoring it as quickly and safely as possible. We’ve got crews were dispatched right after the storm actually this morning and we’ve got crews coming in that are already here and still others coming from as far away as north Georgia.”
Two serious injuries and significant damage were reported in Carroll County on Tuesday morning after a severe thunderstorm came through the area.
Linda Bryant, 64, was severely injured when she was blown from her house on Indian Creek Road in Bowdon.
“She’s in the hospital right now,” said Matt Bryant, her son. “She was actually fixing to walk out the door and get in the car to go to work. We found her laying about 30 feet behind the house.”
According to Matt Bryant, his mother had two collapsed lungs, which doctors were able to reinflate.
“I believe she’s a pretty tough woman,” he said.
Linda Bryant’s house was completely destroyed, and friends and family were at the scene picking up her belongings that had scattered into the woods. Matt Bryant said there was more damage in the neighborhood.
“It got my grandmother’s house,” he said. “It got my cousins’ house up the road.”
An arsonist has struck three times in two weeks at a University of West Georgia residence hall, but there has been no injuries or major damage, Director of Public Safety Tom Mackel said.
“The three fires have all been at night,” Mackel said. “The first two were actually in study (rooms). ...Someone took a bulletin board off the wall and stuck them in the study (room) and then lit them.”
The fires have all been on the third floor of Downs Hall in the B wing, Mackel said.
In the first fire, which occurred at 1:30 a.m. Jan. 29, the door to the study room - which is about 4 feet by 5 feet with a built-in desk - was closed completely, and the fire didn’t have enough oxygen to spread, Mackel said. When the fire was discovered, it was put out easily by a resident assistant with a fire extinguisher, he said.
The door to the study room was left slightly open at the second fire and set off the fire alarm almost immediately, he said. That fire, which was discovered at 4:30 a.m. Jan. 31, was also put out by a resident assistant.
As the need for police services increases, Mt. Zion is looking for ways to provide more coverage without breaking the bank. A reserve police force could be the solution.
“We’re just getting people signed up as reserves,” Chief Bradley Forrester said. “Anybody that wants to volunteer their time as a Georgia mandated police officer, they can come work here.”
Forrester explained that only those who have been certified as police officers will be accepted as reserve officers and they will volunteer their time. Often, he said, people who volunteer as reserve officers have left law enforcement, but want to keep certified and need training hours. One of the applicants to be a Mt. Zion reserve officer is a former police officer who now works in real estate, Forrester said. Another is a woman working as a jailor who wants patrol experience.
“They scratch our back and we scratch theirs,” Forrester said.
At the Feb. 12 City Council meeting, a resolution was proposed that would allow reserve officers to be covered by the city’s worker’s compensation. That cost will need more research, one city council member said.
