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The annual Miss Buggy Days Pageant kicks off the 45th annual festival Saturday morning. Contestants begin reporting to the Fine Arts Center at 8 a.m. with the first hitting the stage at 9 a.m. A dress rehearsal is set for Friday from 5-8 p.m.

One parent per contestant gets in free as do children age five and under. Admission for all others is $5.

Winners will be crowned in 11 categories, including the mother-daughter duo. The last contestants take the stage at 4 p.m.

Two public hearings have been scheduled on a proposal to rezone a 4.84-acre site on Hwy. 341 South for use as a recycling facility. The property is currently zoned C-2 (highway commercial). The owners want that changed to M-2 (general manufacturing).

The first hearing will be conducted by the planning commission at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 10. The second will be before the county commission at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 18. A final decision is expected at the commission meeting.

The property in question is the former Southern Nursery Products facility. Prior to that it was Anderson’s Store. It is now owned by 314 Barnesville LLC with offices in Locust Grove. Its registered agent is Paulette Bunn. [Full Story »] 

A popular convenience store in downtown Barnesville will soon be closing its doors after its owners learned their lease will not be renewed by the consortium that owns the property its is built upon.

B&L Quick Service and the adjacent laundromat will be closing this fall. “We were told our lease would not be renewed,” proprietor Darlene Hickman reported last week.
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The Lamar County commission worked through a public hearing and several votes Aug. 21 to finalize the millage rate for the coming year. After all was said and done, property owners will see an increase of $6.44 per $100,000 in assessed property value.

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A 32-year-old Lamar County man who formerly worked as a corrections officer, was arrested on rape and multiple other charges for alleged incidents involving three girls under the age of 12, according to LCSO investigator Lt. Chad Payne. [Full Story »] 

The death of former Lamar County attorney Buddy Welch has been ruled a suicide after a coroner’s inquest in Butts County. Welch, 73, was killed March 23 when his ATV was hit by a southbound Norfolk-Southern train at the Mt. Pleasant Church Road crossing in Flovilla.
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Lamar Gives 365 will begin its 2018 campaign with a kickoff event at the Civic Center from 5-7 p.m. Refreshments will be served.

Members are invited and encouraged to invite potential new members as well. Participants agree to give $1 per day - $365 per year - to support charitable programs in the community.

Half of the money goes toward those programs with members voting on which efforts are funded and in what amount. The other half goes into an endowment for future use.

In its four-year existence, Lamar Gives has awarded 47 grants totaling $110,000 and the endowment is now up over $250,000.

For more information, contact Laura Bohannon at 770-841-2029.

The annual Relay for Life to benefit cancer research will be held Friday, Aug. 17 at Summers Field Park from 6-9 p.m. This year’s theme is ‘Party in the Park’.

The survivors lap will begin at 6:15 p.m. Anyone who has ever been diagnosed with cancer is invited to participate along with their caregivers. As they walk, other participants will cheer them on.
The shortened Relay event will be a family-friendly block party with food, fun and entertainment and the entire community is invited to join in. To register a team, go to relay.acsevents.org.

Founded in 1985 by Dr. Gordy Klatt of Washington, D.C., Relay for Life is the largest fundraising event in the fight against cancer. The local event is designed for teams and individuals to come together to honor and celebrate cancer patients and survivors and raise funds and awareness.

For more information, contact Sherry Farr at 770-358-1483.

Magistrate Judge Karen Jackson set bond Wednesday morning for 26-year-old Devonte Carr on a total of 36 felony counts in connection with the desecration of O'Neal Cemetery here July 25. [Full Story »] 

Three horses had to be put down here last week after testing positive for Equine Infectious Anemia, according to the Ga. Extension Service and USDA. Sheriff Brad White reported the disease is similar to AIDS in horses. "Our investigators got involved briefly. The horses were not malnourished or mistreated in any way," the sheriff said.
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A ticket worth $10,000 in the Aug. 10 Mega Millions drawing from the Georgia Lottery was sold at the Crossroads Shell station here. The winner has not come forward to claim the prize.

Winning numbers from the drawing were: 1-3-12-22-42 and the Mega Ball was 6.

Winners have 180 days to claim their money.

By Walter Geiger

Gordon State College, in conjunction with Southern Rivers Energy, will debut the ‘Power to the People’ exhibit Saturday to commemorate the 80th anniversary of President Franklin Roosevelt’s visit to Barnesville on Aug. 11, 1938.

FDR visited Summers Field where he spoke before a crowd estimated at up to 30,000 people. He was here to flip the switch for a Rural Electrification Administration project that bestowed the miracle of electricity upon rural residents of Lamar County.

A dedication ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. at the Fine Arts auditorium, featuring a welcome from Haven Luke, Roosevelt’s great-grandson. FDR’s speech at the football field will be reenacted by Jim Fowler.
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Fans can get their first taste of Lamar County football Friday night at a three-team jamboree at Trojan Field. The action begins at 7 p.m.

The Putnam County War Eagles and Manchester Blue Devils will join LC on the turf for the preseason tune-up.

Lamar, in its second year under coach John Flath, opens regular season play Friday, Aug. 17 at Mt. Zion High School in Carrollton. That game kicks off at 7:30 p.m. The home opener is the following Friday, Aug. 24, when Greenville comes to town.

The Lamar County commission has announced its intention to increase the 2018 millage rate by 5.66% over the rollback millage rate. The state requires the county to come up with a rollback millage rate. It is computed by taking the new digest (total assessed property value) and determining the rate that would bring in the same income as last year’s rate applied to last year’s digest.

The proposed new rate is 12.621 mills, an increase of .793 mills.
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