While the pandemic is still with us, there is good news in Tift County as the number of average daily cases drops to its lowest level in 10 months, according to data compiled by Emory University.

In its latest report dated March 9, Emory shows 9.2 average daily cases per 100,000 residents in Tift County, the lowest level since May 9 of last year. New cases have been steadily declining since Tift hit a peak on Jan. 4 when the county was averaging 126 daily cases per 100,000 population. The spike began In October, prompting the White House Coronavirus Task Force to place Tift County in the Red, or highest, Zone for cases.

Officials say the decline in new cases may be a combination of the recent wet and cooler weather, which tends to keep folks indoors more, and the increase in vaccinations. Tift County has vaccinated 19,171 people as of Thursday afternoon, the Ga. Department of Public Health (DPH) reported.

In the past two weeks, Tift County has seen 17 new cases of the coronavirus, which translates to 42 per 100,000 population, the DPH said. The county’s positive testing rate during the period is 3.3 percent.

Since the pandemic began, Tift has reported 3,372 cases with 92 deaths.

On Thursday, Georgia reported 1,262 new cases with 86 additional deaths and 104 new hospitalizations. The state has had a total of 832,480 cases and 15,784 related deaths, the DPH said.

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Just as the movie “Gasoline Alley,” starring Bruce Willis and Luke Wilson, wrapped up filming this week in Tifton, Alexander Kane with TMG Studios One announced that another film with the same caliber of actors will start filming here in early April.

The working title of the next film is “Purple Hurricane,” which also happens to be the name of the Fitzgerald High School sports teams. In the synopsis of the movie, “a very successful aging mob-enforcer is getting ready to retire,” said Kane, a Fitzgerald native. “A final job goes horrifically wrong, and he finds himself wanted by the very cartel he worked for.” 

Filming begins April 5 or 6 and will take place again in Tifton and Fitzgerald.

“We are lining up a dozen films for the area, as Hollywood and the big-time shot callers in the industry have realized the value of shooting in our little part of the world with the amazing team we have assembled,” Kane said. 

Kane said he had as many as 100 people working on the recent film at any given time.

“Many of them will be sticking around (Tifton and Fitzgerald), preparing for the next film,” he said. Several have even moved here, such as Austin Taylor, an actor, writer and assistant camera operator, and Tyler Eckles, director of photography, writer and director. Both are from Tennessee, but live in Fitzgerald now. 

“I need to acknowledge my wife,” Kane said. “Brittney Roberts is a founding member of (Fitzgerald-based) TMG and she works as a ‘second second.’ She handles the talent, 'cause they all love her.”

Kane said the whole film crew and actors, including Willis, “wear the Fitzgerald logo with the word FAMILY, because we are proud that we are a film family, and it’s not just a job to us.

“Everything went amazingly with our shoot as the people of Tifton, Fitzgerald, and Valdosta helped out and supported us beyond expectations,” Kane said.

“'Gasoline Alley' is the story of two seasoned detectives who lean in on a suspect they feel is involved in a triple homicide only to find out nothing is as it seems,” he said. The film release is likely in early 2022.

“Everyone loved the experience of filming in South Georgia and specifically Tifton,” Kane, a producer of the film, told the Tifton Grapevine.

Gov. Brian P. Kemp on Wednesday announced expanded eligibility for COVID-19 vaccinations: On March 15, vaccination criteria will expand to include Georgians aged 55 and older and individuals with disabilities and certain medical conditions.

"As we have said from the beginning of this pandemic, we will protect the most vulnerable from severe illness, hospitalization and death, and ensure that Georgians can get back to normal as soon as possible," Kemp said.

For a complete list of health conditions that qualify for vaccination effective March 15, Click Here!

Adding Georgians over age 55 and those at high risk to COVID-19 will make vaccines available to categories that account for 92 percent of deaths from COVID-19 in Georgia, the governor's office said.

Provided there is enough supply, vaccine eligibility is expected to open to all adults in April.

In the past 30 days, the state has administered more than 1 million vaccines, and on March 17, a total of nine state mass vaccination sites will be operational.

To register for a vaccine at one of these sites, visit MyVaccineGeorgia.com

A proposal by the City of Tifton and the Downtown Development Authority is in the works to create “bump-outs” for outdoor restaurant seating along Commerce Way and changing one block of the street, from Third Street to U.S. Highway 82, to one way for traffic. 

Abbey McLaren, Downtown Development director, told the Tifton Merchants Association on Wednesday that this change is part of the rehabilitation of the block, which is where some of the recent filming of the movie “Gasoline Alley” occurred.

She also said that the Golden Building’s tax credit applications went through, so development of this building on the corner of Second Street and Love Avenue will start soon. Also, activity has begun on the property across the street from the Downtown Development offices on Main Street, close to Highway 82. One of the buildings has been painted. 

Mark Shiver presented his plans for the building that previously housed Carey’s Antiques on U.S. Highway 82, also known as Fifth Street, at the end of Commerce Way. The business will be called “Fifth Street Interiors” and will feature upscale furniture, rugs, lighting and décor.

The Merchants Association members discussed plans for a Spring Fling on Saturday, April 10, in conjunction with the showing of the "Trolls World Tour" movie.

“Let’s have something every month,” said Amanda Brack, TMA secretary, who is heading a committee to coordinate joint ventures among the shops downtown. Also, John Bowen, TMA president, led a discussion of marketing ideas.

To better include all TMA members in planning joint activities, the TMA agreed to host a quarterly evening meeting in a restaurant to be more accessible to members unable to attend the monthly morning meetings. The next meeting will be 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 8, at a location to be announced.  

The Nature Study Area at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College will get a new boardwalk thanks to a $2,097 Wildlife Viewing Grant to the ABAC Foundation from the Ga. Department of Natural Resources.

“The Nature Study Area on the ABAC campus is one of only two public nature trails in Tift County,” said Dr. Mark Kistler, dean of ABAC’s School of Agriculture and Natural Resources. “This grant will allow our students in natural resource management, under the supervision of the faculty and staff in the Department of Forest Resources, to make needed repairs and improvements to the boardwalk along the nature trail."

The grants program, funded by the Georgia Nongame Wildlife Conservation Fund, helps develop and enhance wildlife viewing options with an emphasis on state Wildlife Action Plan species and habitats. Georgia’s Wildlife Action Plan is a comprehensive strategy to conserve and preserve animals, plants, and places before they become more rare and more costly to restore.

Longtime local artist and educator Vincent A. Keesee, 85, died Tuesday in Tifton. By his side was his wife of 52 years, Marianna, a former Tifton City Council member.

Keesee, who taught art and humanities at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College for 30 years until his retirement in 1995, received the Governor’s Award for the Arts and Humanities in 1988 from Gov. Joe Frank Harris.

Upon presenting the award, the governor said of Keesee: “Because of him, literally hundreds of children, young people and adults in rural South Georgia have come to appreciate and understand the value of the visual arts.”

Keesee's figurative paintings reflect Southern culture, finding inspiration in the music, landscape, religion, and culture of the region. In an interview last year with the Tifton Grapevine, Keesee said he was influenced by a group of artists known as “regionalists," those who paint the scenes of life around them in the area in which they live, such as Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry, and Grant Wood.

Keesee wrote, illustrated, and published several books, including" Vittles and Viands: Facts and Lore about Traditional Cooking," and a biography of his family, "The Keesee Family in Pittsylvania County, Virginia." His most recent book, "Hallelujah: A Lifetime of Paintings by Vincent A. Keesee," was published last year.

A Virginia native, Keesee received his bachelor's degree from Richmond Professional Institute – now Virginia Commonwealth University – and his master in fine arts and Ph.D. in art criticism from the University of Georgia.

A private family funeral will be held at 11 a.m. today (Friday, March 12), at Tifton's First United Methodist Church. The service will be streamed live on the church's Facebook page Here, and on its YouTube channel Here. He will be laid to rest at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Tifton.

The Tifton Museum of Arts & Heritage has posted a tribute to Keesee (Click Here!) on the museum's website.

Ryland Environmental has invested several million dollars in its Tifton operation for garbage collection, the largest single municipal contract for the company, Ryland's Scott Floyd told the Rotary Club of Tifton on Wednesday. 

Garbage trucks cost $345,000 each, and the company purchased eight, in addition to other equipment. The company opened a fulltime office in Tifton and hired 12 employees, including a receptionist, two drivers and nine employees dedicated to residential pick up. 

“We’re extremely pleased to be serving the City of Tifton,” Floyd said. “The residents and businesses have been very accommodating.” Ryland began handling Tifton’s garbage and waste collection Jan. 1.

Ryland has been in business seven years and serves Baxley, Waycross, Centerville, Dublin and rural areas of Savannah. Floyd comes to Tifton from Charleston, S.C., where he worked with Wastepro.

More than 11,000 containers were delivered to residences and 500 front-load containers to businesses. Day-to-day garbage goes to the landfill, Floyd said.

“We want to recycle as much as we can. We want to reduce the waste going to the landfill,” even though it is more expensive to dump recycling. 

The recycling market has taken a hit,” Floyd said. It costs $10 more per ton to “dump” recycling at the recycling center in Cordele than to take it to the city dump.

The recycling facility will accept all 1-5 levels of plastic recycling, along with aluminum, paper and cardboard. If recyclables are contaminated with food waste, such as pizza boxes, they cannot be recycled. Styrofoam is not recyclable, he added.

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, and the Tift County Council on Child Abuse is holding its annual "Voices for All Children" pinwheel ceremony at 10 a.m. Thursday, April 1, in front of the Tift County Recreation Department Special Programs Building. 

Pinwheels are placed in the ground to represent the past year's number of reported child-abuse cases.

Tift County's "Wear Blue Day" is also April 1. Folks are asked to wear blue to make a visible commitment to preventing child abuse and supporting strong families and healthy children.

Wearing blue began with a blue-ribbon campaign in 1989, started by a grandmother in Virginia as a tribute to her grandson, a three-year old who died at the hands of his mother’s abusive boyfriend. Since then, concerned citizens all over the country have worn blue as a symbol of the need to prevent child abuse and neglect.

Local doctors Nandal Chainani and Navdeepa Chainani recently made a contribution to Tift Regional Medical Center (TRMC) through the Georgia HEART program. 

Dr. Nandal Chainani is a pediatric specialist in Tifton and owns and operates Kids Care Clinic. Dr. Navdeepa Chainai is a family medicine specialist and owns and operates New Medical Center in Tifton.

The Chainanis’ contribution will be designated for both adult and children’s services at TRMC. Donations made through the Georgia HEART program qualify for a 100 percent state tax credit.

Colony Bank has named Josh F. Dasher as vice president, information security officer and vendor management.

Dasher brings more than seven years of experience in managing information technology for the banking industry, most recently serving as vice president of information technology at Glennville Bank.

Prior experience includes senior roles in higher education with an expertise in financial aid. He received his bachelor of business administration from Brewton Parker College and a master of science in management information systems from Strayer University. He is a 2017 graduate of the Georgia Banking School.

Founded in 1975 and headquartered in Fitzgerald, Colony operates 33 bank locations in Georgia.

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Perky, a female dog, is ready for a home. She can be adopted at the Tift County Animal Shelter, located on Highway 125 S. The shelter is open to the public for adoptions from 1-6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.

For more information, call 229-382-PETS (7387).

205 Belmont Ave., Tifton, 229-382-6055  

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