The Georgia Department of

Public Health reported last

week that a Ben Hill County

resident tested positive for

West Nile Virus (WNV), and ahorse tested positive forEastern Equine Encephalitis(EEE) in Lowndes County.

AS OF Monday afternoon,no new cases of either illnesshad been confirmed in thehealth district, whichincludes Ben Hill and Irwincounties. But one pool inLowndes County tested posi-tive for WNV.

Public health officials inSouth Georgia encourageeveryone to guard againstexposure to mosquitoes. InJuly, a horse in Brooks

The Fitzgerald High SchoolPurple Hurricane will travel toKingsland this Friday, Sept.1, to oppose AAAAAAA classi-fication Camden County.Game time is set for 7:30 p.m.

THE CANES (1-1) AREcoming off of their first win ofthe 2017 season and the firstwin for new Head CoachTucker Pruitt’s career. Thisgame against Camden Countywas added to the Hurricaneschedule after Albany High

Canes face AAAAAAApowerhouse Camden

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THIS NEWSPAPER WAS PLACED IN THE MAIL TO YOU ON TUESDAY AFTERNOON. IF IT ARRIVES LATE, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR POSTMASTER.

– Serving The Area Since 1895 –

2 Sections, 20 Pages • Vol. 121, No. 39

www.herald-leader.net August 30, 2017

Herald-Leader Herald-Leader Herald-Leader75¢Fittzgerald

Sales Papers Harveys

CVSRite Aid

SearsWalmart

Tractor SupplyAcademy Sports

Editorials2-3B

Obituaries4-5A

Police Report9A

In this Issue:

Fitzgerald’s WalmartSupercenter will hold a grand“re-opening” ribbon cuttingat 8 a.m. Friday in celebra-tion of the major remodelingjust completed at the store.

The community is invitedto attend. The store is locatedat 120 Benjamin H. Hill Dr.

Walmart tocut ribbonFriday a.m.

Ben Hill County Schoolswill be closed Monday for theLabor Day holiday. Classeswill resume on Tuesday.

No school onLabor Day

The Jessamine Place is cel-ebrating its 45th anniversarythis week, and the public isinvited to take part in a 5Krun/walk at 7:30-8:30 a.m.Friday at the Blue and GrayPark.

The community is alsoinvited to attend a 1 p.m. icecream social Friday afternoonat the Jessamine Place’s edu-cational center adjacent to theChristian Kitchen (408 E.Jessamine).

To find out more about theJessamine Place and the serv-ices it provides in Ben Hill,Irwin and Wilcox countiescheck out this week’s FeatureFront.

JessaminePlace is in45th year

East Coast Asphalt of Douglas spent severalweeks earlier this summer paving Central Avenueand Main Street. Now they are back at work on aDOT contract to pave U.S. 129 from Ocilla to theBen Hill-Wilcox County line. That includes pavingall of Grant and Sherman Streets through the cen-ter of Fitzgerald. City Public Works Director David

Walker said Monday that the City portion of theproject is expected to take four to six weeks. Whenworking on a federal highway, pavers are notallowed to block traffic, and so they are paving onelane at time so as not to restrict traffic flow. Theabove photo was taken just south of the CSX lineon North Grant Street.

A familiar sight

Last Monday, prior to Friday night’s FHS-IrwinCounty football game, the Rotary Clubs ofFitzgerald and Ocilla met jointly. The clubs expectthe joint meeting to be an annual event prior toeach year’s Border War game. No surprise, the

program was a joint event by FHS Head CoachTucker Pruitt (left) and Irwin County Head CoachBuddy Nobles. The two clubs plan a joint 10-milerun next year as a fundraiser for Rotary projects.

A new tradition

The 2017 Fitzgerald HighSchool homecoming paradewill be held on Thursday,Sept. 14, beginning at 6:30p.m.

ALL LOCAL schools, clubs,

Parade entries now accepted forHomecoming

The Fitzgerald-Ben HillCounty Library has received aNational Science Foundationgrant to provide science-based programs for adults.

THESE PROGRAMS willessentially be “book clubmeets science café,” accordingto Martha Powers-Jones,library director. Attendees can

read a pre-announced popu-lar book selection, then tocome to the library to discussthe book and watch and dis-cuss a short human interestvideo in which scientific ideastouched on in the book inter-sect everyday life.

The first program,

‘Book club meets science café’ in adultprograms at library

Resident tests positive for WNV, no new cases reported

Qualifying for the November8 Municipal election endedFriday afternoon. Only twoseats are contested. MayorMark Massee is being chal-lenged by Jim Puckett.Councilman At-Large (EasternDistrict) Albert Webb is beingchallenged by Mark M. White.

COUNCILMAN AT-LARGE(Western District) Jason Holtdid not qualify to run for re-

election. Jimmy Johnson is thesole qualifier for that seat.

In all other seats, incum-bents are unopposed. They are:First Ward Councilman AlexTillman; Second WardCouncilman Charles Coney;Third Ward CouncilmanDennis Jefferson and FourthWard Councilman MichaelGriffin.

For the Water Light & Bond

Commission, incumbents run-ning unopposed are: FirstWard, David Griffin; SecondWard, Robert Leverson andFourth Ward, Tommy Hatcher.

THE LAST DATE TO regis-ter to vote in the Municipalelection is October 10. Votersmay register at the Board ofElections office, located at 115W. Pine St. or online athttp://sos.ga.gov/.

Early voting will begin onOctober 16 at the Board ofElections office from 7:30 a.m.until 3:45 p.m., Mondaythrough Friday. There is noSaturday voting.

Election day voting will takeplace at the Fitzgerald FireDepartment, located at 315 E.Pine St. Voting hours will be 7a.m. until 7 p.m.

City qualifying ends with Mayor, oneCouncil seat contested for Nov. 8

In a called meeting lastThursday night, the Ben HillCounty Commission approvedtwo zoning requests author-ized by the Fitzgerald/BenHill County Planning Board.

PRIOR TO THE REGULARmeeting, public hearings wereheld for both requests. Twocitizens spoke in favor of azoning request by G&L PawnShop, located at 395 RedwoodRd.

In regular session, theCommission voted to rezoneone acre located at 395Redwood Rd. from GeneralFarming-County toCommunity Commercial-County. The Commission alsovoted to rezone .45 acresowned by Roger Merritt, locat-ed at 260 Jack Allen Rd. West,

from R-6-M to CommunityCommercial-County.

In other business:• COUNTY MANGER MIKE

Dinnerman informed theCommission that funds hadbeen repaid to the generalfund using SPLOST revenue.He noted that $77,289 paidby general funds for 2016projects, should have beenpaid by SPLOST funds.Projects paid by 2017 generalfunds of $15,684 should havebeen paid using SPLOSTfunds. The general fund forboth years was adjusted andSPLOST funds used to repaythe general operating fund.

• An item on the agenda todiscuss a financial managerposition was tabled for afuture meeting.

Commission OKszoning requests

Gabe Grubbs, 9-year-oldson of Jason and TiffanyGrubbs, played in theBaseball Youth All AmericanGames in Elizabethtown, Ky.

THE ANNUAL tournamentattracted top 9-and-up play-ers from 39 states and threecountries.

Gabe was randomlyassigned to a 10 with 10 otherplayers. He led his team tovictory with top statistics inalmost every category. Duringthe games, he posted a .813batting average, stole sevenbases and drove in 14 RBI.His coaches selected him asHustle Award Winner.

Gabe started playing base-

ball when he was 3 years old.He played T-Ball until he was

Gabe ‘hustle’ winnerin Youth All-AmericanGames in Kentucky

GABE GRUBBS

(Turn to Gabe, 10-A)

(Turn to Book club, 10-A)

(Turn to Resident, 10-A)

(Turn to Canes, 10-A)

(Turn to Parade, 10-A)

BY SHERRI BUTLER

Based on ratings in thenewly released HospitalConsumer Assessment ofHealthcare Providers andSystems from the Centers forMedicare and MedicaidServices, Dorminy MedicalCenter is well ahead of theclass in providing a quality

patient experience.THE SURVEY awards new

summary star ratings for3,504 hospitals eligible toreceive a rating. Hospitals arescored on a one-to-five-starscale based on 11 publiclyreported measures assessedin the HCAHPS surveyassessing patient experience.

Dorminy Medical Center

earned four stars, up from 3stars previously. Data for thissurvey was collected betweenOctober 1, 2015, andSeptember 30, 2016.

Out of all the hospitals eli-gible for a rating, only 215received a five-star rating.Dorminy is one of 1,203 toreceive the four-star ratingand the only one among the

area hospitals we checked,including larger hospitals.

DMC’S 4-STAR overall rat-ing is broken down into eightareas that are individuallyrated. Dorminy earned 5stars in doctor communica-tion. It received 4 stars innurse communication, staffresponsiveness, pain man-

DMC climbs to 4-star ratingin patient experience survey

(Turn to DMC climbs, 10-A)