Among those at Thursday’s financial literacy’s kickoff meeting are, from left, Tara Alderete, director of Enterprise Learning for Money Management International; Art Fleming, with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta; Tifton Mayor Julie B. Smith; and Larry Hanson, CEO of the Georgia Municipal Association. 

FINANCIAL LITERACY

INITIATIVE IN STATE BEGINNING IN TIFTON

'30% IN TIFTON LIVE BELOW POVERTY LEVEL'

By BONNIE SAYLES

Tifton Grapevine

Out of the 537 cities in the state, Tifton has been selected by the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) and the Federal Home Loan (FHL) Bank Atlanta for the state’s first Financial Literacy Coalition.

A stakeholder awareness and recruitment event was held Thursday at Tifton’s Leroy Rogers Senior Center.

“Tifton will always be known as the place this began,” GMA President & CEO Larry Hanson told nearly 80 representatives of Tifton financial institutions, businesses, government, and nonprofit agencies who attended the meeting. 

In discussing the need for financial literacy here, Hanson said, “Education is attainment. Thirty percent of citizens in Tifton are living below the poverty level. Homeownership is the way we create wealth.” 

Of the 7,000 housing properties in Tifton, 60% are rental, Hanson said. The homeownership rate in Tift County is 62%, compared with 65.8% statewide. The disability level of Tift countians is 15% compared with 12.3% statewide. The uninsured rate is 19% in the county, compared with 13.7% statewide.

Surveys of participants in financial literacy training showed that 96% of them indicated an improved ability to manage their finances, and 95% said they would take action as a result of the class, such as start saving, create a budget, or obtain their credit report. 

Art Fleming, senior vice president and director of Community Investment Services for the Federal Home Loan Bank Atlanta, said his organization has already invested $10,000 in the initiative, which will kick off in January. Founding stakeholders in the effort are the City of Tifton, FHL Bank Atlanta, Money Management International, GMA, and Georgia City Solutions, a GMA nonprofit. 

Fleming said it is important for the private sector to become involved to communicate to employees and customers about the benefits of financial literacy.

“It’s important to let citizens know to not use wealth-robbing industries and non-regulated financial institutions,” he said.

Mayor Julie B. Smith opened and closed the discussion by saying this is just the first step, the tip of the iceberg: “Each of you will bring something to the table. You are going to be an ambassador to get this out to our community.

“It’s going to take all of us working together to strengthen this community and this county,” Smith said. “It’s going to change our world.” 

During the three-year plan, residents will have access to strategically delivered, comprehensive training in the following five components: financial literacy, homebuyer and homeownership counseling, property and estate planning, small business and entrepreneurial training, and retirement and healthcare literacy.

The three-year, broad estimate budget for the initiative, including in-kind (non-monetary) support, is $970,000. An outline of costs for each year was distributed. Sixty-four percent of the budget was for awards and incentives, directly related to participants in training classes and could be designed as scholarship contributions, small business-related grants, and deposits to savings and individual development accounts upon completion of coursework.

There could also be in-kind donations for corporate gift cards to be used as individual incentives. 

“Any time you can teach somebody about financial literacy is a positive for the community,” said Tift County Commission Chairman Tony McBrayer.

Melissa Hughes, Tift County Commission vice chair who is also president of the state counties association, said, “This will be a great partnership for the city and county and everyone that can be involved.”

TIFT SEES ONLY 4 CASES

OF COVID-19 IN PAST WEEK

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

There were 20 total new cases reported in the past two weeks, compared to 32 in the previous two-week period. Tift's testing positivity rate for the two-week period was 4% compared to 5.4% previously, the DPH said. 

Tift has seen a total of 6,709 cases; no additional deaths were recorded in the county during the past two weeks, leaving the total at 171.

Tift County’s total positive cases in the past two weeks represent 49 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 2,241,312 confirmed cases and 33,524 related deaths, the DPH reported. There were 4,981 more total cases reported in the past week and 88 additional deaths statewide. There also were 392 COVID-related hospitalizations in Georgia in the past week, the DPH said.

Tifton Police Chief Steve Hyman

Tift County Sheriff Gene Scarbrough

TIFT COUNTY GETS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CALLS EVERY DAY, SHERIFF TELLS ROTARY

By BONNIE SAYLES

Tifton Grapevine

“Not a day goes by that we don’t have a domestic violence call; not a day,” Tift County Sheriff Gene Scarbrough told the Tifton Rotary Club on Wednesday. The sheriff’s office had 341 domestic violence calls in just the first half of 2022. 

“That’s way too many domestic violence calls,” Scarbrough said. Also, he said, “parents call about their child being disorderly. I don’t know what to tell these people. You need to handle it. I know my parents did.”

Tifton Police Chief Steve Hyman concurred, telling Rotarians that just the day before, a mother couldn’t make her 16-year-old son go to school, so she called the police. The officer went to the home and tried to talk the student into going to school.

The sheriff’s office checks on businesses after they close. The first half of 2022, Scarbrough said, the sheriff’s office did 6,864 businesses checks and 10,044 checks in subdivisions. The deputies made 931 arrests in the first six months of 2022, with 489 warnings. There were 998 investigations.

Also, there were 3,505 people booked into the jail, and 3,252 released. The jail has a 300-inmate capacity and currently has 160 inmates. The jail houses federal inmates that have to be in court in Valdosta or Albany. Currently, the jail, with 65 federal inmates, is being paid $51 per day by the federal government. When it was averaging 85 inmates a day, the payments brought in a little over $2 million a year to the Tift County treasury, Scarbrough said.

The sheriff’s department brings in almost half of the Tift County budget. The jail commissary brought in $69,000. Families pay for phone calls for the inmates, which brought in $205,000, Scarbrough said. 

He said the sheriff’s office budget in 2021 was over $6 million. 

Chief Hyman said the Tifton Police Department has six officers on a shift every 12 hours. In the first nine months of 2022, he said Tifton Police answered 28,320 calls. They handled 734 accidents and made 980 arrests. Officers have issued 5,644 traffic citations for speeding, running stop signs, and other violations. He said 73% of an officer’s time is responding to calls for service. 

Five city detectives have worked 512 cases. So far this year, the police officers have worked three murders, 25 reports of rapes, 20 robberies, 32 aggravated assaults, 98 burglaries, 500 thefts, 40 vehicles stolen, and three arsons. 

“We’re try to educate citizens on locking the doors,” Hyman said. “With a lot of door-pullers going around the neighborhoods, they’re just running through the neighborhoods, pulling on door handles. If doors are locked, they’re not going to get anything. A lot of guns are getting stolen. People trying to form gangs, that’s where they’re getting their weapons from.”

TIFT HOMECOMING PARADE:  

‘CAN’T HIDE OUR BLUE DEVIL PRIDE

With the theme “Can’t Hide Our Blue Devil Pride,” Tift County’s Homecoming Parade brought the community out along Eighth Street early Thursday evening. Tonight at The Brodie, the Tift County High School Blue Devils will face Thomas County Central during Tift’s Homecoming game. 

EXCHANGE CLUB NAMES TIFTON FIRE INSPECTOR FIREFIGHTER OF YEAR

The Exchange Club of Tifton recently presented the Firefighter of the Year Award to Tyler Atkinson, a fire Inspector with the Tifton Fire Department.

Atkinson, originally from Cuthbert, moved to Tifton to work at the fire department in 2019. He is married to Jessica, and they have two children, Rylie and Grayson. 

The Tifton Fire Department says Atkinson is an important asset. During his tenure, he stepped in as the fire inspector and as business license inspector, having a dual role of a firefighter and inspector.

He serves as an adjunct instructor for the state and also assists Tifton department personnel with their training every year and recertifications. He is also responsible for volunteer firefighters and trains businesses on handling fire extinguishers safely.

Atkinson is working on his associate's degree in fire science. 

Pictured from left is Danny Hoover with the Exchange Club, Atkinson, and Lt. Kiefer Daughtry and Inspector Justin Adamson, both with the Tifton Fire Department.

TIFTON HOLDS FAREWELL RECEPTION FOR CITY MANAGER PYRZENSKI

The City of Tifton had a farewell reception Thursday for City Manager Pete Pyrzenski, at right in above photos. 

Pyrzenski leaves his city post Oct. 14 to join the Georgia Municipal Association's member services consulting team. In that role, Pyrzenski will work with Georgia’s cities on planning and best practices.

In the photo above left, Pyrzenski talks with Jerry Moss and City Councilman Lester Cromer Jr. In the photo at right, Pyrzenski is with former City Councilman Joe Lewis and his wife Beth.

KEEP TIFT BEAUTIFUL’S BEAUTY SPOT

HIGHLIGHTS GREEN THUMBS NURSERY

For October, the Keep Tift Beautiful committee highlights the home garden and business of Eric Williams of Green Thumbs Nursery at 1110 Park Ave. S. in Tifton as this month’s "Beauty Spot."

Williams has been gardening for more than 30 years and is passionate about helping others grow their own food. In addition to running the nursery, he shares this passion on YouTube on The Green Thumb Gardening Channel.

YOUR GUIDE TO ACTIVITIES THIS WEEKEND IN THE TIFTAREA

Saturday, Oct. 8, is National Chess Day, celebrating a royal game that has been played since the 15th century. Modern chess was adapted from old Indian and Persian games. In 1976, President Gerald Ford declared National Chess Day as the second Saturday of October.

FRIDAY, OCT. 7

• National Propane Day, 8-5 p.m., Conger LP Gas, Tifton
• Food Truck Friday, 5-9 p.m., Ga. Museum of Agriculture, Tifton
• ABAC Truck & Tractor Pull, 7 p.m., ABAC Pulling Track, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, Tifton
• Homecoming: Tift County High Blue Devils football vs. Thomas County Central High Yellow Jackets, 7:30 p.m., Brodie Field, Tifton

SATURDAY, OCT. 8

• Wiregrass Farmers Market, 9 a.m.-Noon, Ga. Museum of Agriculture, Tifton
• U.S. Miss National Forestry Scholarship Pageant, 6 p.m., TCHS Performing Arts Center, Tifton
• ABAC Truck & Tractor Pull, 7 p.m., ABAC Pulling Track, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, Tifton

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

“Jethro” is among the pets available for adoption at the Tift County Animal Shelter. See this friendly boy at the shelter on Highway 125 South between 1-6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. For additional information, call 229-382-PETS (7387).