Area News

On Aug. 19, 2024, Constance Dianna Davis, 70, of Cecil pleaded under the First Offender Act to two felony counts of operating an unlicensed personal care home, according to Superior Court records. Chief Superior Court Judge Clayton Tomlinson sentenced Ms. Davis to a total of 10 years’ probation and ordered her to pay a $5,000…

Katelyn Stone, 15, is remaining as active as she can as a Cook Middle School eighth grader while she awaits a donor for her second heart transplant. Katelyn’s parents are Lyn and Katrina Stone. Katelyn was born with a very rare congenital heart defect, Hypo-Plastic Left Heart Syndrome. Basically, she was born with half a…

A standing-room-only crowd turned out on Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, for the first of three public hearings conducted by the County Commission on a proposed property tax increase due to property reassessments required by the State. It had been over 10 years since the County had been reassessed.  The County Commission held a special called…

The Cook County Board of Commissioners announced its intentions to increase the 2024 property taxes it will levy this year by 7.47 percent over the rollback millage rate.  Each year, the board of tax assessors is required to review the assessed value for property tax purposes of taxable property in the county. When the trend…

Hurricane Debby, downgraded to a slow-moving tropical storm over land, brought high winds and heavy rain to Cook County and other parts of South Georgia beginning Monday morning, Aug. 5, 2024. Locally, the storm caused widespread, extended power outages – from Cecil to Pine Valley, from Sparks to Kinard Bridge Road – and flooding in…

School will start back for Cook County students on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. All motorists should stop their vehicles when they encounter buses stopped on the roadways to pick up or release children, and “Addy’s Law,” which went into effect July 1 in Georgia, will provide stiffer penalties for violators. Rock Spring Elementary School student…

Best wishes to William Reed (Will), who will be competing in track this week at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Will’s father is Geary Reed, a 1992 Cook High School graduate who competed in track and field in high school (so nice symmetry there!), and Will’s mother is Tam-Malone Reed. The family lives in Hawaii.…

A local man has been arrested in connection with a series of arson fires that placed a woman and her two grandchildren in danger as they were sleeping late at night, according to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office and Georgia Insurance Commissioner – State Fire Marshal’s Office. Stephen Chad Williams, 40, 37 Chaser Drive, Sparks,…

On July 10, 2024, the Cook County Grand Jury returned a true bill of indictment against Trey Thomas Kenny, 34, of Hahira, a former deputy with the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, for burglary, first degree, criminal damage to property, second degree – felony, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony (three felony…

“Everything faded into mist. The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth.” – George Orwell, 1984 I am writing this column on Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023, the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. As you might have read previously, this is not a wild-eyed…