City Honors Late Chief

OCT. 18, 2016

Tifton, Georgia

478-227-7126

tiftongrapevine.com

'CHIEF JIM SMITH WAY'

TIFTON NAMES STRETCH OF COMMERCE WAY

FOR LATE POLICE CHIEF

By BONNIE SAYLES

Tifton Grapevine

The City of Tifton and Tifton Police Department today (Tuesday) unveiled street

signs naming Commerce Way, between Ninth Street and Central Avenue, as "Chief Jim Smith Way" on what would have been the late police chief's 68th birthday.

Nearly 100 people gathered in front of the police department to hear a tribute from current Tifton Police Chief Buddy Dowdy and to surprise Smith's widow, Iris Smith, who was overcome with gratitude for the honor. Smith's daughter Wendy Nasworthy had requested the street's designation, and City Council approved it recently.

"Chief Smith's biggest impact was starting community-oriented policing," Dowdy said. "He started the school resource officer program, and we currently have five officers designated to schools in the program. Also, he was a firm believer in education and started a tuition reimbursement program for police officers. If they received an 'A,' their college tuition was reimbursed."


Late Chief Jim Smith

Smith sent six officers to the FBI Academy and had seven FBI Academy graduates working at one time, "unheard of for a department the size of Tifton's," Dowdy said.

The late chief also computerized the department with computers in patrol cars. In the early 1990s, he led the effort for the city to purchase firearms for officers, who had been using their own weapons up to then.

"There will never be another chief that had a greater impact on our department than he did," Dowdy said.


	Tifton Police Chief Buddy Dowdy unveils sign beside Smith's daughter Wendy Nasworthy.

Smith's widow said: "He loved Tifton and the Tifton Police Department. You'll always have a very special place in my heart. Thank you from the bottom of my heart."

In requesting the designation, Smith's daughter wrote: "Simple words cannot express the positive impact he had on the community and continues to have. He loved Tifton and serving the people in it while being the chief of police for 24 years."

She added that Smith helped create Literacy Volunteers of Tifton-Tift County in 1987, which has a GED scholarship fund named in his honor that the Tift County Rotary Club established last year.

SUNBELT AG EXPO

OPENS, FILLS HOTELS

PREMIER FARM SHOW TUESDAY-THURSDAY

The three-day 39th Sunbelt Agricultural Exposition opened today (Tuesday) near Moultrie, filling hotels across the area as thousands of visitors converge on Spence Field.

Billed as " North America's Premier Farm Show," the expo has 1,200 commercial exhibitors with more than 4,000 products featuring the latest goods and services and agricultural-related technology.

The Expo has a 600-acre working research farm where manufacturers and dealers demonstrate their latest developments.

The Sunbelt Ag Expo began as a farm show at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton and has grown to take over Spence Field, a former air base converted into a modern facility with indoor exhibition buildings and outdoor exhibition space on 100 acres.


VIDEO: Sunbelt Ag Expo Opens

South Carolina is the "spotlight state" this year, exhibiting agriculture diversity in the Palmetto State; and the Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year awards are celebrating the 27th selection of the overall Farmer of the Year.

All aspects of farming are on display at the Expo, including plant agriculture, animal agriculture - with exhibits on beef and dairy cattle - and aquaculture, or fish farming. A variety of tractors and farming equipment are also on display.

Other activities include a cow-milking contest, t he American Grand Finals stock dog trials and the daily parade of antique tractors.

The Sunbelt Ag Expo is held at Spence Field, four miles southeast of U.S. 319 (Veteran's Parkway) on Georgia Highway 133 near Moultrie. Expo hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday, and 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday. Admission is $10 a person per day, or $20 for a three-day pass. Children 10 and under, accompanied by a parent, get in free.

ABAC OFFERING NEW BACHELOR'S DEGREE IN AG EDUCATION

The University System's Board of Regents has approved Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College offering a bachelor of science degree with a major in agricultural education, ABAC president Dr. David Bridges announced Tuesday.

"Georgia has had a deficit of vocational agriculture teachers for 30 years," Bridges said. "Thanks to the positive vote from the Board of


Students Anna Marie Pugh and Mitchel Sheffield, join President David Bridges for the announcement of the new bachelor's degree.

Regents, we are now in a unique position to provide a solution to that problem."

ABAC introduced bachelor's degrees to its curriculum in 2008 and now has more than 1,800 of its 3,477 students enrolled in four-year degree programs.

"We are uniquely different from any other state college in the University System," Bridges said. "The other state colleges have a limited number of typical bachelor's programs, such as education, business or the liberal arts.

"We have those too, but ABAC has national name-recognition unique programs in agriculture, natural resources and rural studies, and a biology program that prepares students for a professional field of study. We also have a beautiful rural campus and modern housing which allows us to attract students from all over the world."

The new degree is "designed for students who desire to teach agricultural education in secondary schools or pursue other careers as educational specialists for industry, nonprofit organizations and government agencies," said Dr. Jerry Baker, dean of the School of Agriculture and Natural Resources .

AG MUSEUM ACCEPTING ESSAYS, PHOTOS FOR 'BACK ROADS OF GEORGIA 2'

The " Back Roads of Georgia 2" competition and exhibit at the Gallery of the Georgia Museum of Agriculture are accepting p hotographs and essays depicting rural life and culture in the state.

The museum is sponsoring the exhibit for the second year in conjunction with Georgia Backroads Magazine and the Rural Studies program at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College.

Essays are being accepted until Dec. 12 and should be no longer than 4,000 words and address the "Back Roads of Georgia" theme. No previously published work is allowed. Essay submissions are $5 each, and up to three submissions are allowed.

For the photography contest on the same theme, deadline for entries is Jan. 7, with a $5 entry fee for each photo. Up to five photos may be entered.

The Tifton-Tift County Arts Council will provide cash awards totaling $2,000 for the top finishers in the competition. Publication consideration by Georgia Backroads Magazine and annual passes to the museum will be awarded to the top seven winners in the essay and photography categories.

For information, contact m useum Assistant Director/Curator Polly Huff at phuff@abac.edu

SENIORS TO DANCE NIGHT AWAY THIS FRIDAY

A SELF (Seniors Enjoying Life Forever) dance for Tifton's seniors is being held this Friday, Oct 21 , beginning at 7 p.m. at the Tift County Recreation Center on Victory Drive.

The dance is usually held at the Leroy Rogers Senior Center but for this event only, it is in the Recreation Center located one block west of the senior center.

"Ya'll come; shake a leg," the senior center says.

'TEEN MAZE' SHOWS RESULT

OF POOR CHOICES

The Tift County Commission on Children and Youth (TCCCY) is coordinating the annual "Teen Maze" next week, simulating real-life experiences for students at Tift County High's Northeast Campus.

At Teen Maze, students have the opportunity to face consequences of randomly selected lifestyle choices associated with risky youth behaviors in a safe and controlled environment. The maze is set up as an interactive "game of life." Students will examine the consequences of life's choices in a hands-on, realistic andeducational way.

For example, they are at a party and those that are drinking will be arrested by police.

They get booked and go before a

judge. Other students draw from a bag and different scenarios happen to them, such as getting a sexually transmitted disease (STD), going to a doctor and being shown actual photos of how these STD's look. Some end up not making it and actually visit a funeral home; some get pregnant and wear a pregnancy pillow; males carry around the babies in the bassinets if they become fathers.

In the simulation, some students drop out of school will be shown what jobs are available without an education.

The end result is for the students in the simulation to graduate, and they go through a graduation ceremony with cap and gown, accompanied with music, cheers from the crown and a cupcake.

The TCCCY has been coordinating the Teen Maze for local ninth graders since 2009. After last year's event, Lillie McEntyre, TCCCY's executive director, said the Teen Maze is "designed to realistically demonstrate the probable results of poor decision making."

For more information about the Tift County Commission on Children & Youth or the Teen Maze, call 229-388-1000.

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READERS AID NORTHSIDE PRIMARY

Accelerated Reader points earned during the summer through the Tift County Foundation for Educational Excellence's Summer Reading Program has resulted in Northside Primary School receiving a check for its media library. Pictured from left are: top school staff reader Chloe Phillips; Tracy Monk, foundation liaison to Northside Primary; school Media Specialist Tracey Dicks; Katie Rowland, top student summer reader; and Principal Kelly Pearson.