AG EXPO BRINGS

$20 MILLION IMPACT

IMPACT ON TIFTON $1.5 MILLION, OFFICIALS SAY

By FRANK SAYLES JR.

Tifton Grapevine

The Sunbelt Agricultural Exposition, which opens its three-day event Tuesday in Moultrie, has more than a $20 million economic impact on the surrounding 18 counties in South Georgia, says show director Chip Blalock.

And Tifton sees a direct effect.

“As for Tifton, we estimate over $1.5 million during the show,” said Tyron Spearman, executive director of the Tifton-Tift County Tourism Association. 

"However, the Sunbelt just keeps on giving, as workshops, meetings, and training are conducted all year long at the Sunbelt site and, of course, the visitors want to meet in Tifton where they have an option on quality hotels and lots of restaurants,“ Spearman said.

“Our hope is to fill the hotels and restaurants with lots of out-of-town guests and that our hospitality with bring them back.”

The 44th anniversary Sunbelt Ag Expo brings more than 1,200 exhibitors who display and demonstrate the latest agricultural products and welcome thousands of visitors from across the Southeast to the 100-acre show site at Moultrie’s Spence Field.

Crowned as North America’s Premier Farm Show and America's largest farm show with field demonstrations, the Sunbelt Ag Expo brings together all segments of agribusiness, including farmers, educators, students, policy-makers, ag-enthusiasts, and families.

Attendees will see the latest innovation and technology in the agriculture industry. A highlight is the naming of the Swisher Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year, chosen among 10 state winners after an intensive judging process. Vying for the title is Georgia’s Farmer of the Year – Scotty Raines of Turner County.

EXPO BEGAN AT ABAC IN TIFTON

The Expo actually had its start in Tifton on the Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College campus in 1964 as a small, farm equipment show called “Dealer Days.” Eighteen years later as it grew, the event moved to Spence Field and was renamed. 

“For a long time, ABAC’s School of Agriculture and Natural Resources has been recognized as an innovative leader in many facets of agriculture. People return to the Expo each year for the same reason,” said Chris Beckham, ABAC public relations director.

"Although the event isn’t on our campus, it still feels like home because of the connection ABAC has with so many people through the Expo,” he said.

ABAC still has a strong presence at the Expo with the ABAC building near the entrance, where demonstrations, college information, and ABAC merchandise are available.

Show Director Blalock said the Expo is "an unbelievable showcase of rural living, blanketed with agriculture’s newest ideas and technologies. It's three days of fun, education, and dreaming about agriculture’s future as we team together to feed, clothe, and house a growing population around the world.”

SEMINARS, DEMOS, STOCK DOG TRIALS

& COW-MILKING CONTEST 

Among the Expo activities are more than 300 seminars and demonstrations in beef, dairy, poultry, forestry,  equine, cattle, and pond management.

A crowd pleaser is the 600-acre research farm’s field demonstrations showcasing harvesting and tillage equipment for peanuts, corn, soybeans and hay.

Other demonstration areas include the Georgia Ag Building, the aquaponics display, the Backyard Garden, the Georgia Peanut Commission building, and the Georgia Grown Marketplace within the Family Living Building which hosts segments throughout the day with chefs and food enthusiasts.

Activities that families enjoy include the daily Antique Tractor Parade, the American Grand Finals Stock Dog Trials, and the Cow-Milking Contest. 

The Sunbelt Ag Expo is open Tuesday through Thursday, Oct. 18-20, from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., concluding at 4 p.m. Thursday. Admission at the gate is $10 per person per day. Discount tickets are available online through today (Friday). The Expo is four miles southeast of Moultrie on Highway 133.

TIFT COUNTY, STATE HIT ALL-TIME HIGH GRAD RATES

By FRANK SAYLES JR.

Tifton Grapevine

The Tift County School System has reached an all-time high graduation rate of 93.5%, exceeding its goal, the school system says.

The graduation rate is a 2.13 percentage point increase over last year's 91.37%.

“The credit for this success goes not only to the staff at Tift County High School but to all employees of Tift County Schools. This combined effort is a testament to our 'Relentless Pursuit of a Culture of Excellence.’" said Dana Spurlin, chief information officer for the school system.

In announcing graduation rates, the Georgia Department of Education (GDOE) said the state’s 2022 four-year cohort graduation rate is also at an all-time high of 84.1%, up from the 2021 rate of 83.7%.

From the beginning of ninth grade, students who are entering that grade for the first time form a “cohort" that gets adjusted by adding any students who transfer into the cohort during the next three years and subtracting any students who transfer out.

"Graduation rate measures whether students are graduating from high school with a regular diploma in four or five years. This component includes both the four- and five-year adjusted cohort graduation rates and is only applicable to high schools,” the GDOE said.

State School Superintendent Richard Woods said that “teachers and students who persevered through the challenges of the last several years deserve credit for Georgia's graduation rate increasing and other recent positive indicators, like Georgia students beating the SAT national average once again."

A decade ago, Georgia’s 2012 graduation rate was 69.7%.

TIFT SEES ONLY 2 CASES

OF COVID-19 IN PAST WEEK

Only two new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Tift County during the past week, the lowest level seen since the beginning of the pandemic, according to data from the Georgia Department of Public Health.

There were six new cases reported in the past two weeks. Tift's testing positivity rate for the two-week period was 4.1%, remaining unchanged from the previous period, the DPH said. 

Tift has seen a total of 6,711 cases; no additional deaths were recorded in the county during the past six weeks, leaving the total at 171.

Tift County’s total positive cases in the past two weeks represent 54 cases per 100,000 population, the measure used across the country to compare case rates among communities and states. 

Georgia has recorded a total of 2,243,886 confirmed cases and 33,587 related deaths, the DPH reported. There were 4,048 more total cases reported in the past week and 63 additional deaths statewide. There also were 399 COVID-related hospitalizations in Georgia in the past week, the DPH said.

‘THE SYD’ ARTS CENTER FOCUSES ON COMMUNITY OUTREACH

By BONNIE SAYLES

Tifton Grapevine

The new mission of the Tifton Council for the Arts is to make arts available, affordable, and accessible to all, Executive Director Joy Yost told the Tifton Rotary Club on Wednesday.

Described by former arts board member Marion Curry as “our big, hairy audacious goal,” the arts council’s vision is “to be a catalyst transforming Tifton into a city renowned for its diverse, vibrant, and thriving artistic community,” Yost said.

The former Tifton Museum of Arts and Heritage was rededicated to this mission and renamed the Syd Blackmarr Arts Center on April 27, exactly 25 years since its first exhibit opened there April 27, 1997.

Yost said with the help of the Tifton Rotary Club and other organizations in the 1990s, the former Methodist Church on Love Avenue was transformed into a showplace for the arts. 

Art classes are now held at various locations around Tifton. For instance, a Bookbinding Basics class will be held Monday, Oct. 17, in a classroom at the Tift County Recreation Department for a class fee of $35. A four-week watercolor class will be held at the same location, 202 Baldwin Drive, beginning Oct. 20.

A Kids at Art class for children aged 5-11 is held at the Rec Department classroom one Tuesday per month, with a Halloween-themed class Oct. 25. A cookie-decorating class for adults and teens accompanied by an adult will be held Oct. 27. An adult pottery workshop will be held Nov. 1 and 3, making a Christmas plate and cup, at the First United Methodist Church Activity Center. 

Advance registration is required for all classes. Yost said a creative movement dance class is being held at "The Syd" on Tuesday evenings through October until Nov. 8.

At 7-8:30 p.m. next Thursday, Oct. 20, the Syd Arts Center will kick off a new tradition, "Third Thursdays at the Syd,” beginning with local authors reading from their books, free of charge for attendees. Rotary Club members Warren Robinson and Rick Register will be featured next week, along with other local authors. In November’s event, Bruce Green will give a lecture on one of Tifton’s earliest artists. 

On Nov. 5, the Celebrate Creativity arts festival will be held free of charge inside and around the Syd Blackmarr Arts Center. The festival will feature an art exhibit/competition inside The Syd, Artist Market outside, Authors Row, a children’s Arts Circus with activities from 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Sweet Taste of Tifton, and Food Trucks. 

The UGA football game will be streaming on a big screen TV for football fans, and there will be Gaelic music and dance, Yost said.

Details for all events and opportunities to register for classes may be found at the website TiftonArts: https://tiftonarts.org/

TIFTON’S BATEMAN YOUTH CENTER TO OPEN OCT. 27

The grand opening and building dedication of the City of Tifton’s Anthony G. Bateman Youth Center is set for 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27.

The center, to be located at 511 West 17th St. across from Matt Wilson Elementary School, was funded through a $750,000 Community Development Block Grant from the state along with funds from the City of Tifton.

The center is a partnership with the Tiftarea YMCA, which will offer recreational opportunities for children, after-school activities, and a summer feeding program; and with Literacy Volunteers of Tifton-Tift County, which, in a separate room, will offer adult literacy classes to help adults with remedial reading, GED preparation, and learning English.

Retired local educator Dr. Tonja Tift has been appointed director of the city’s Bateman Youth Center, named for the late Tift County coach and educator.

EARLY VOTING BEGINS MONDAY

Early voting begins Monday for the Nov. 8 general election.

Advance voting will be at the Tift County Board of Elections office from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, Oct. 17-Nov. 4, along with two early voting opportunities on Saturday, Oct. 22, and Saturday, Oct. 29. Saturday early voting at the Tift election office, corner of Fourth Street and Chesnutt Avenue, will be 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

On election day, Nov. 8, all voters must cast ballots at their home precincts.

The deadline for submitting absentee ballots is Oct. 28, says Leila E. Dollison, election supervisor with the Tift County Board of Elections and Registration.

Voters may check online here to see if they are registered and to check their sample ballot, or they may call the Tift County Board of Elections office at 229-386-7915.

STATE SUPERINTENDENT NAMES AREA STUDENTS TO ADVISORY COUNCIL

Three public school students in the Tiftarea are among 67 Georgia students named to state Superintendent Richard Woods' 2022-2023 Student Advisory Council.

Throughout the school year, the students will meet with Woods to provide feedback on the impact of state policies in the classroom. They will also discuss other education-related issues, serve as state ambassadors to their respective schools, and participate in service projects to benefit schools and students.

Area students named to the Advisory Council are Amy Rojo, a 12th-grader at Fitzgerald High School; Marianna Palant, 11th grade, Berrien High; and Johnny Holbrook, 10th grade, Berrien High.

“It is extremely important to me to receive direct feedback from those impacted by the decisions I make," Woods said. “Our purpose at the Georgia Department of Education is to open up opportunities for students. Building relationships with the Student Advisory Council members helps me ensure our policies are meeting their intended purpose, and allows me to make decisions that will benefit children throughout the state."

NORTHEAST MIDDLE PRINCIPAL RECEIVES STATE DISTINGUISHED

PRINCIPAL AWARD

Jennifer Johnson, principal at Northeast Middle School in Tifton, is one of four recipients of the Jerry Davis Georgia Distinguished Principal Award.

The recipients were announced at the recent fall conference of the Georgia Association of Middle School Principals (GAMSP). 

Johnson serves as the District 8 director for the GAMSP. 

Before being named principal at Northeast Middle School at the 2021-2022 school year, Johnson, served as an assistant principal at Tift County High School.

She  is a 2004 graduate of Tift County High and has been employed with the school system since 2008. She taught middle school math before becoming an assistant principal in 2017.

TIFTON WOMAN’S CLUB AWARDS SCHOLARSHIP TO GED GRADUATE

Allison Woods, pictured left, a GED graduate from Southern Regional Technical College adult education in Tifton, is the recipient of a $1,000 Herring/Blalock Scholarship from the Tifton Woman's Club.

In the photo, First Vice President Bonnie Sayles presents Woods with the symbolic check and a gift bag.

The scholarship is named in honor of longtime club members Harriett Herring and Irene Blalock, and is presented annually to a nontraditional female GED graduate attending a local college. Wood is a first-year student at SRTC.  

YOUR GUIDE TO ACTIVITIES THIS WEEKEND IN THE TIFTAREA

Today, Friday, Oct. 14, is National Dessert Day (so calories don’t count today!). The word “dessert” originates from the French word “desservir," which translates to the action “to clear the table” – dessert being served after a main meal’s dishes have been cleared. According to some sources, pie is America’s favorite dessert with more than $700 million in pies sold every year.

FRIDAY, OCT. 14

• Blood Drive, 11 a.m.-4 p.m., LifeSouth bloodmobile, Tift Regional Medical Center, Tifton
• Georgia Peanut Festival: Mainstream Band in concert, 7-10 p.m., Jeffords Park, Sylvester
• Tiftarea Academy Panthers football vs. Deerfield-Windsor Knights, 7:30 p.m., Panther Pit, Chula

SATURDAY, OCT. 15

• Wiregrass Farmers Market, 9 a.m.-Noon, Ga. Museum of Agriculture, Tifton
• Georgia Peanut Festival, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Jeffords Park, Sylvester

ADVERTISE YOUR

YARD SALE HERE

TO ADVERTISE YOUR YARD SALE,

CONTACT US at 

yardsales@tiftongrapevine.com 

or 478-227-7126

Fees are $1 per word, paid in advance

“Peppa Pig” a happy-go-lucky female pooch, is among the pets available for adoption at the Tift County Animal Shelter. Visit her and other pets available at the shelter on Highway 125 South between 1-6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. For additional information, call 229-382-PETS (7387).