Tift Regional Health System (TRHS) unveiled Southwell as the new name for its overall system of care on June 10.

Editor’s note: This is the first part of a two-part look at our 2019 stories. For the second part, see the Wednesday, Jan. 1 issue of The Tifton Gazette.

TIFTON — As 2019 comes to a close, we review some of the big stories from the past year:

JANUARY

• New superintendent appointed Jan. 8

Adam Hathaway was announced as the only finalist during the superintendent search after current superintendent Patrick Atwater announced his decision to retire after the 2018-2019 school year.

Hathaway, who attended the meeting with his family, thanked the board for their confidence in him.

“We talked a lot about ’team’ in the interview and I can’t wait to join this team,” Hathaway said. “We are here for kids and I’m going to make sure that I keep kids at the center of all my decisions and all of my thoughts, because that’s what we’re in the business of doing, and I know this board will as well.”

• Newton’s Body Shop Fire

Fire crews from the Tifton Fire Department responded to a fire that broke out at Newton’s Body Shop, located on Central Ave, in the early hours of Jan. 29.

The fire was contained and an investigation into the cause was handed to the state fire marshal’s office.

• Fulwood Garden Center donated to ABAC on Jan. 31.

The historic Fulwood Garden Center was officially handed over to the Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Foundation during a ceremony on Jan. 31.

The donation was made by the Council of Garden Clubs of Tifton.

ABAC President David Bridges formally accepted the facility during the ceremony, which honored president of the council Virginia Pennington on the occasion of her moving out of town.

• Tifton-Tift County Chamber of Commerce celebrates award winner

The Tifton-Tift County Chamber of Commerce presented its annual awards at a January banquet. Award winners included:

• Bill Brim, president of Lewis Taylor Farms, was the winner of the Stafford Award.

• Lanier Carson with Kelley Manufacturing was the winner of the Rotary Ethics in Business Award.

• M. Jay Hall, an agent with New York Life and owner of Collins, was named the winner of the J. Lamar Branch Award.

• Jennifer Herzog, an attorney with Hall, Booth, Smith P.C., was the winner of the Prince Business Woman of the Year Award.

• Kim Hester, with Ambassador Personnel, was named the Ambassador of the Year.

• Lynn Lovett, who works for Georgia Power, was inducted into the Tifton-Tift County Chamber of Commerce’s Wall of Fame.

• Lance and Blake Ruttenberg, who respectively serve as the CEO and Executive Vice President of American Textile Company, won the John Hunt Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

FEBRUARY

• Downtown developer Harold Harper dies

Harold Harper Sr., who many have credited with kickstarting the revitalization of downtown Tifton, passed away on Feb. 12.

Harper, 89, passed away peacefully at his home, according to his obituary.

Harper moved to Tifton in 1956, after first coming to the area while working as a surveyor with the State Highway Department (now the Department of Transportation) and started his own company, Harper Surveying.

Since then, Harper has been a driving force in taking old, usually historic buildings and bringing them back to life.

He renovated the old Myon Hotel, the old train depot located on Central Avenue, and what used to be called Rigsby Apartments among other projects.

His most recently completed project, The Lofts at Twin Brick, took an old warehouse that used to store tobacco and Coca-Cola bottles and revived it, turning it into upscale apartments with a restaurant, Fresco Italiano, at the front of the building.

• OASIS Recovery Community Organization opens

After more than two years of effort, the OASIS Recovery Community Organization held its grand opening Thursday, Feb. 28.

The center, located at 902 South Main Street, had been championed by Judge Herbert Benson as a safe space for those who are seeking to break free from the cycle of addiction.

An RCO, Benson explained while addressing the Tifton/Tift County Chamber of Commerce in February of 2018, is a safe space for recovering addicts.

OASIS, which stands for “Overcoming Addiction with Sobriety, Information and Support,” will play an important role in combating addiction in the area.

He said RCOs assist and support people in their recovery efforts, and can offer many different paths for addicts who are trying to turn their lives around. The goal is for the RCO to be an information center for any person or family member that wants information about addiction or rehab facilities.

MARCH

• City of Tifton claims Tift County owes $2.2 million, mismanaged SPLOST funds

The ongoing litigation between the City of Tifton and Tift County took another turn when the city filed an amendment to their original complaint on Feb. 22.

According to documents filed at the Tift County Superior Court, the city has amended their original filing, made in August of 2018, making an additional three claims: that the county owes the city $875,703 for “fire protection and suppression services” back from 2010-2016; than the county overtaxed Tifton residents by $1,354,896 in 2012-2018; and that the county mismanaged $4,867,000 in SPLOST funds.

• Tift County Sheriff’s Office arrests nine individuals related to increase in entering autos

The Tift County Sheriff’s Office has arrested nine individuals in connection to a rash of automobile break-ins and car thefts, according to a press release on Mar. 25.

The alleged offenders, five adults and four juveniles, range in age between 15 and 20 years old and have been charged with a total of 29 charges, according to the release.

APRIL

• Tifton Fire Department’s wraps up first recruit class

The first ever recruit class for the Tifton Fire Department wrapped up in early April.

“Class 119 is the first one,” TFD Training Officer Bryan Altman said.

“The majority of the students come from ABAC (Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College). They range anywhere from 20 to 30 years old, so they’re all very young. We have two females in the class and the rest are male.”

• Tifton turfgrass heading to Summer Olympics

Tifton turfgrass will once again cover the world stage.

Turfgrass developed in Tifton and the University of Georgia campus will be on the fields for both the 2019 Rugby World Cup and the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

Representatives from the Chubu Corporation in Tottori Prefecture, the company that is responsible for the grass on the fields, visited Tifton on Apr. 16. The company licensed the grass, which the representatives said through an interpreter is very famous in Japan.

• Health on Wheels: Tift Regional holds ribbon cutting for mobile clinic

Tift Regional Health System in conjunction with the Tifton-Tift County Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon cutting for its new mobile clinic at the Tift Regional Community Events Center on Apr. 18.

This six-wheeled unit, about the size of a bus, will be used by TRHS/Southwell to better reach medically-underserved areas within the community.

• Tifton opens new dog park

The Tifton City Council announced the opening of a new dog park in Fulwood Park, near the big playground.

A ribbon cutting was held in Apr. 25, officially opening the park for public use. More than a dozen four-legged residents and their people attended for the opening ceremony.

There is one play area for larger dogs and a separate one for smaller dogs. Each area features several brightly painted fire hydrants and water fountains.

• GBI investigates use of force incident in Tift County

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating a use of force incident in Tift County.

According to a press release from the GBI, the Tift County Sheriff’s Office requested the GBI to investigate the incident on Apr. 24.

Preliminary information indicates that in the early morning hours of Apr. 24, Tift County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the 300 block of Hall Road in Tifton in reference to complaints about a disturbance in the area, according to the release.

Once deputies arrived, contact was made with James Aaron McBrayer, age 41, of Tifton.

The release states that an altercation ensued between McBrayer and responding deputies. As a result of that altercation, one deputy was injured and required medical attention attempting to take McBrayer into custody.

The report states that during the altercation, deputies deployed a taser but it was ineffective. Once in custody, McBrayer was placed in the rear of a patrol vehicle.  

Deputies later found McBrayer unresponsive and called for EMS. Upon EMS arriving to the incident location, McBrayer was pronounced dead.  

• Bomb threat at Tift County High School

One person was arrested in connection to a bomb threat to Tift County High School on Apr. 26, according to Detective Lieutenant Daniel Ray with the Tifton Police Department.

Aiyah Jzaynay Foster, 18, was arrested at approximately 3 p.m. on Friday, Apr. 26 and charged with transmitting a false public alarm.

The arrest came within hours of the school’s evacuation during end-of-year testing after an anonymous caller said there was a bomb on campus.

Brandon Johnson, System Security Officer for Tift County Schools, said that the call was made to the school at 10:52 a.m.

“At that time, Tift schools did go directly into their protocol of being on code red lockdown,” Johnson said. “Once they went into a code red lockdown, law enforcement was notified. They then responded by going to code green, which means they should evacuate the building.”

Johnson said that the evacuation order was given at 11 a.m. and the building was completely evacuated of all 2,200 students and 200 faculty and staff by 11:14 a.m.

The building was swept by personnel from the Tifton Police Department, Georgia State Patrol, Tift County Emergency Management Agency, Tifton Fire Department, Tift County Fire/Rescue  and Tift County school resource officers. They were unable to locate any kind of explosive device, according to Tifton Police Department Captain Steve Hyman.

MAY

• Jerome James Jackson found guilty for 2016 murder

After more than three hours of deliberation, jurors found Jerome James Jackson guilty of murder on May 2.

Jackson, 56, was charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and home invasion after an investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Tift County Sheriff’s Office. He was found guilty of felony murder, aggravated assault and home invasion. The jury came back with a guilty verdict of voluntary manslaughter rather than malice murder.

Jackson was on trial for the 2016 murder of Odell Chaney, who was killed in the early morning hours of Nov. 4, 2016.

• UGA-Tifton wraps up centennial celebration

The University of Georgia Tifton Campus wrapped up a year of centennial celebrations on May 3, exactly 100 years after the founding of the research station in 1919.

• City extends Golden Environmental contract for one year

After months of debate, the Tifton City Council voted three to two to renew the solid waste contract with Golden Environmental for one year at the May 20 city council meeting.

The council has been discussing issues with solid waste disposal for more than a year. Golden Environmental, which was granted the contract with the city in 2014, has been called in front of the council to answer questions about multiple issues ranging from inconsistent yard waste and bulky item pickup and leaking garbage trucks to long-running customer service complaints.

JUNE

• Potential recycling center in South Tifton spurs discussion

District 2 residents turned out for a packed meeting with County Commissioner Melissa Hughes on June 3.

Hughes facilitated the meeting to hear concerns and disperse information about a potential recycling center on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

Hughes informed the community that a recycling center would not be going forward at a second meeting on June 25.

• Mallory Ward School of Dance breaks ground on new facility

Dancers at the Mallory Ward School of Dance will have more space in which to pirouette.

The dance studio broke ground on a new facility on June 5. The facility, which will be located on Victory Drive, has been a dream for years since the dance studio has long outgrown its Tift Avenue location.

Current studio owner Mallory Ward and original owner Carolyn Ellis, along with friends and family, hefted shovels at the groundbreaking.

Ellis began the studio in 1973 and founded the All That Glitters dance troupe, which has performed all over the world. Ward, who grew up dancing under the tutelage of Ellis, took over ownership of the studio from her mentor after Ellis was diagnosed with cancer.

• Tift Regional unveils new system name, breaks ground on new patient tower

Tift Regional Health System (TRHS) unveiled Southwell as the new name for its overall system of care on June 10.

The announcement took place at the same time as a groundbreaking for a new patient tower.

Christopher Dorman, Southwell president and CEO, announced that Tift Regional Medical Center, Cook Medical Center and the system’s 25 physician practices will now be linked together with the brand name Southwell.

He said that part of Southwell’s mission is to expand care throughout the region, not just in counties that touch Tift County.

Tift Regional Medical Center (TRMC) held a ceremony on June 10 to break ground for a new $152 million expansion project and to also

The new patient tower will contain a new, larger emergency center and inpatient units.

• Tifton North holds groundbreaking, development calls for hotel, retail space

The groundbreaking for the Tifton North development was held at 10:30 a.m. at the 12 acre site, which is located on Hwy 41 across from Harvey’s Supermarket on June 17.

The project is led by brothers John and Michael Bowen of 31 North Capitol Partners.

The property was acquired from the University System of Georgia and was previously used as a tree research nursery for the experiment station. It stretches from the intersection of Hwy 41 and Interstate 75 to the railroad.

Tifton North is slated to have a Courtyard by Marriott hotel to anchor the area and serve the University of Georgia Tifton Campus Conference Center.

Hotel construction is expected to take 14 months. It is expected to open in October of 2020.

The project will also feature retail space; a Main Street area with a park, band stand and splash pad; and a dog park.

The Bowens have secured Chicken Salad Chick, Stripling’s General Store and Ace Hardware as partners for the location.

Out parcel and other amenity development is expected to be completed in spring of 2020.