Tift Voter Rolls Grow

SEPT. 25, 2018

Tifton, Georgia

478-227-7126

tiftongrapevine.com

TIFT VOTER REGISTRATION

GROWING

By FRANK SAYLES JR.

Tifton Grapevine

National Voter Registration Day is today -- the fourth Tuesday of September -- and registration is increasing in Tift County.

As of this afternoon, there are 23,593 registered voters in Tift County, says Leila E. Dollison, election supervisor with the Tift County Board of Elections & Registration.

In the November 2016 general election, there were a total of 19,040 registered voters in the county.

"We have had a huge increase in voter registration and (with) people checking their record,


DOLLISON

which is a good thing," Dollison said.

"We have also sent out over 200 absentee ballots already, and they are steadily coming in. As for this being voter registration day, we have had an increase on our dashboard through online voter registration."

Georgians may go online to the Ga. Secretary of State's "MVP" or "My Voter Page" to register to vote, check their registration status, find their poll location and view the November sample ballot for the district in which they reside. To visit the web site, Click Here!

The voter registration deadline is Oct. 9 for the Tuesday, Nov. 6 general election. Early voting begins on Monday, Oct. 15, and ends on Friday, Nov. 2.

CARNIVAL OF KNOWLEDGE INCLUDES CASH PRIZES

The Howard Center for Women's Health announced Friday that it will award a total of $1,000 in cash prizes to trivia winners this Thursday, Sept. 27, during the 19th Annual Howard Center Carnival of Knowledge conducted by the Literacy Volunteers of Tifton-Tift County.

The "HowardQ" audience participation event will be a new feature of the Carnival, which starts at 6 p.m. Thursday at Southern Regional Technical College Conference Center, 52 Tech Drive, in Tifton.

Howard-Q will involve 12 multiple-choice questions with seconds to answer, just like the HQ Trivia App on which it is based, said Bonnie Sayles, executive director of Literacy Volunteers of Tifton-Tift County. The winning audience members will divide the cash prize.

"Ten people could go home with $100 each or one person could win $1,000," Sayles said. "It depends on how many answer all questions correctly." The audience members will have whiteboards on which to write their answers.

The annual event was renamed in honor of The Howard Center and its donation of $5,000 as a Platinum Sponsor. "This cause is close to our hearts," said Dr. Drew Howard. "Some of our employees and certainly our patients can benefit from the efforts of Literacy Volunteers."

The nonprofit organization recruits and trains tutors, matches them with clients age 16 and above who need to improve reading and math skills or need to obtain GED credentials. It is a member of the statewide Certified Literate Community Program and the global ProLiteracy organization.

Southeastern Credit Union is a Bronze Sponsor of the event with a gift of $500. In addition to the sponsors, the following organizations have signed up as teams competing for trivia bragging rights and prizes: Three teams from ABAC's College Assistance Migrant Program, Ag Georgia Farm Credit, Bowen Donaldson, Georgia Power, the Law Practice of Erika Johnson, the Quiz Bowl at Tift County High School, Southern Regional Technical College, two teams for Tifton Rotary Club, Tift County Sheriff's Office, Tift Regional Regional Medical Center and Branch's Veterinary Clinic.

Five local restaurants are providing a free pasta dinner to encourage participants to "use their noodles."

Restaurants providing dinner are Chicago Pizza and Pasta, Fresco Italiano, Hilton Garden Inn, Olive Garden and Ruby Tuesday; the Tift County Reading Association is providing cakes for a cake auction, and the Tifton Junior Woman's Club is providing desserts for participants.

"We are so appreciative of our community support," Sayles said.

For information, call 229-391-2527. This week is Adult Education and Family Literacy Week, and Tifton Mayor Julie Smith declared Sept. 27 as Literacy Day in Tifton.

GA LABOR MARKET SETS RECORDS IN AUGUST

Georgia's unemployment rate for August dipped below the national number for the first time in 11 years says state Labor Commissioner Mark Butler.

The 3.8 percent rate is approaching the state's record low of 3.4 percent, set in 2000. At 3.8 percent, it is down 0.1 percent from July. By comparison, the national rate is 3.9 percent. Last August's statewide rate was 4.5 percent.

At the same time, Georgia set records for jobs and employed residents. Unemployment claims also fell in August.

"This is a true milestone for us," Butler said. "As a state that's seen its workforce expand very quickly, it should be hard for us to drive the unemployment rate down so low. However, we have been employing new workers as fast as we have been adding them. These numbers show how dynamic our economy has been and continues to be."

Georgia also continues to approach another milestone: The 5-million mark for employed residents.

In August, Georgia hit a record high of 4.96 million employed residents. That was up by more than 6,400 from the previous month and by nearly 115,000 over the year.

Jobs were also up by 12,000 in August to more than 4.5 million, an all-time high. In the past 12 months, Georgia added nearly 90,000 jobs.

The labor department said statistics for individual counties will be released with in the next two weeks.

TIFTON CONTINUES TO GO TO THE 'DAWGS'

Another University of Georgia Dawg statue is being "unleashed" in the Friendly City.

"Q-Dawg" is being unleashed at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 26, at Quailwood Animal Hospital on North Tift Avenue.

Quailwood has purchased a UGA bulldog statue to add to the pack around town. Recently, "Nugget" was unleashed outside Tifton's Chick-fil-A restaurant on U.S. Highway 82, along with the Bowen family-sponsored "Farm Dawg" and Prince Automotive-sponsored "Champ" bulldog statues on Tifton's Main Street.

Another bulldog, "TUGA," is on the front circle at the Tifton UGA campus.

AG MUSEUM CURATOR

GETS STATE RECOGNITION

Sixteen weeks of sequestering herself in a windowless room while cataloging the archives of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College has paid off for Polly Huff.

Huff, curator at ABAC's Ga. Museum of Agriculture & Historic Village, will receive the 2018 Award for Excellence in Archival Program Development on Oct. 16 at the Georgia Archives Awards Ceremony in Atlanta.

"It was just overwhelming considering the amount of material and the condition of some of the items,"


	Polly Huff examines the 1913 diploma of Lottie Irene Davis from the Second District A&M School in the ABAC Archives.

Huff said when she completed the ABAC archival task in May. "I knew it could be done, but I thought it would take a lot longer. My two interns, Britt Fuller and Will Hunnicutt, helped a lot. In 44 work days, we packed over 600 boxes."

Earlier this year, Paul Willis, vice president for finance and operations, asked Huff to take two or three days a week from her regular duties at the museum to scrutinize the roomful of documents, pictures, letters, catalogs, brochures and assorted ABAC memories in the archives room in the Carlton Center.

Willis knew the Carlton Center was about to be closed for renovation, and he wanted the items to be stored in a careful manner so that when the renovated building opens in 2020, the items can be placed in a special, suitable room.

The oldest document that Huff and the students found was from Feb. 1, 1907. It was a letter that Gresham Manufacturing sent to Gov. J.M. Terrell outlining a bid to construct an academic building and two dormitories at the Second District Agricultural and Mechanical School in Tifton.

Terrell accepted the $51,927 bid, and those three buildings were built. They are Tift Hall, Lewis Hall and Herring Hall at the front of campus. An oversized copy of the bid letter hangs in the History of ABAC exhibit in Tift Hall.

REGISTRATION DEADLINE EXTENDED to SEPTEMBER 25!

A chance to show off and sell your creations.

PLUS the opportunity to win a significant CASH PRIZE!!!

$1,500 in prizes will be awarded.

Register online now at https://tiftonmuseum.org/celebrate-creativity/

CANDLELIGHT VIGIL BEGINS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE MONTH

An annual Candlelight Vigil as Domestic Violence Awareness Month begins is scheduled for 5:30p.m. Monday, Oct. 1 , at the Veterans' Park amphitheater in Downtown Tifton.

Presented by Ruth's Cottage and the Patticake House, the candlelight vigil is held to remember domestic violence victims, celebrate survivors and honor those individuals who dedicate themselves to family violence prevention.

The featured speaker at the ceremony is Jan Christiansen, executive director of the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

TIFTON-TIFT COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE RIBBON CUTTING

Southwest Georgia Bank

205 E. Eigh th Street, Tifton

Sept. 21

TIFTON CELEBRATING HISPANIC HERITAGE

The 15th annual Hispanic Heritage celebration on Sept. 25-29 at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College hosts the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Pedro "Ronnie" Rodriguez as guest speaker.

The Hispanic Heritage event seeks to increase cultural awareness and appreciation for the contributions of the Hispanic community. The week's events include "An Examination of American Immigration History" lecture by ABAC professor Dr. Jess Usher at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 26, in Howard Auditorium.

A student favorite, the Hispanic Heritage Day Celebration is in the Meadows on Thursday, Sept. 27, from 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m., serving traditional and authentic Hispanic food, a variety of student performances and guest speaker Ronnie Rodriguez.

Rodriguez, associate director for engineering at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, will speak on campus at 10 a.m. in the ABAC nursing department 108 and again at 1 p.m. in the Meadows on Thursday.

The regional community festival, La Fiesta del Pueblo, will be Saturday, Sept. 29, from 10 a.m.-10 p.m. in Tifton's Fulwood Park.

TIFTON-TIFT COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE RIBBON CUTTING

Terminal South night club

265 Brumby Way, Tifton

Sept. 21

'AARGH Y'ALL!'

Tiftarea Academy students observed "Talk Like a Pirate Day" last week. Kindergarteners through second graders made pirate's hooks , wore pirate hats , walked the plank , listened to the story "How I Became a Pirate," and sang "Baby Shark" together.

A few "aarghs" could also be heard.