WISK/WDEC

“Local News”

Monday January 17^th, 2022

Today is the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday and all City and County offices will be closed in observance of the holiday. Most banks and Federal offices are also closed such as the Post Office. There will be a community service held today sponsored by Unity Community. This service will take place at 11 this morning at the Americus Train Depot on S. Jackson Street. The community is urged to attend. City and County Offices will resume normal business hours tomorrow. Due to the offices at the LEC being closed today for the holiday, there will be no reports from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office until tomorrow’s Local News.

Let’s talk about the weather! The rains and winds did appear like forecasters had predicted Saturday night into early Sunday. Then the winds and occasional sprinkles finally began to ease by late afternoon and yes, there were reports of brief snow flurries to our north and west but nothing stuck. Today will be a mix of sun and clouds with still windy conditions although NOT as brisk as the weekend. Factor in the winds with the highs today in the mid-to-upper 40s and it will be rather cool if you will be outside for any length of time. It will still be breezy tonight under clear skies that will allow the overnight low to dip into the upper 20s! The next weather system arrives on Thursday with rain and dropping temperatures. As of today, that rain chance is 60% for Thursday and will linger into Friday and by Friday night, a wintry mix is in the forecast. One weather service says there will be snow showers Friday night into Saturday morning but doesn’t mention if there will be accumulation. This is something we all will need to watch as this system approaches.

The Sumter County Schools are closed today in observance of the MLK Jr. Holiday but are scheduled to reopen on Tuesday. The schools were closed Thursday and Friday due to the rising cases of the latest COVID surge. The time off has been used to deep clean all schools so when students return tomorrow they will be sanitized. The BOE extended the mask mandate in all schools and busses until March 15^th.

There will be a called meeting of the Sumter County BOE tomorrow the 18^th at 6pm for the purpose of discussing the proposed redistricting maps. The meeting will be held in the boardroom of the SCS Administration building and is open for the community to attend.

Due to the rising cases of positive COVID cases in Sumter County, the Sumter County Board of Commissioners will conduct their meetings virtually beginning tomorrow with the January regular meeting at 6pm. To participate in tomorrow’s virtual meeting, call 1-646-558-8656 and use 897 3624 9622 as the meeting ID. The needed passcode is 059684. All meetings of the Board of Commissioners are open to the public.

If ever there was a time that the weather had an effect of the crime in town, it was this past weekend. Americus Police report a total of 19 incidents for the whole weekend which was about a third of a normal weekend. Terroristic threats and acts and a criminal trespass from a bad child complaint occurred at 104-A Frieda Lane.

Damage to property was reported on GSW University Drive at Felder and at 109 Linnie Street. Neither was weather-related.

Following a traffic stop on Mayo at Ashby, Kobe A. Lewis was arrested for possession of marijuana—less than an ounce.

Criminal trespass complaints were made at 124 S. Dudley Street and 712 Beale Street.

An entering auto case was reported at 8L 1130 Felder Street.

After a traffic stop late Saturday night on S. Jackson at W. Forsyth, Mauricio Sanchez was arrested for driving without a valid license; open container; and cited for headlight requirements.

At 2:45 Sunday morning a traffic stop was conducted on Adderton Street which resulted in the arrest of Dominique A. Banks for DUI; driving with a suspended license; failure to yield after stopping at a stop sign; and open container. While being processed he was also charged with an outstanding warrant.

A suspicious incident was checked out at 811 Douglas Drive.

Officers did respond to 3 miscellaneous calls and 2 domestic-related weekend calls.

There were 6 accidents worked by APD over the weekend that had no reported injuries.

The City of Americus did issue a press release Friday afternoon concerning the earlier pedestrian fatality at 8:17 Friday morning at the E. Lamar- Highway 27 intersection. An Americus Police Officer was driving the vehicle that struck that pedestrian. The GSP Specialized Crash Reconstruction Team is now in charge of this investigation. The City’s press release did not go into any details nor were any names released due to the ongoing investigation. With the City Offices being closed today the next chance of an update will come later in the week. Once details are released we will have more on later editions of Local News. Social media went overboard in their scathing comments directed at the officer and to an extent, Local News in how we reported the tragic accident. Once the details and facts are announced, those that were pointing fingers and making the comments will need to apologize to someone.