HOUTS HONORED AT CAPITOL

State Lawmakers are honoring Dade County resident and Georgia Lady Bulldog Ashley Houts today for her outstanding accomplishments both on and off the court. A ceremony was held this morning at the Capitol in honor of Houts. Dade County Commissioners Lamar Lowery and Robert Goff along with County Executive Ted Rumley and many of Houts’ family members attended the ceremony.

FORMER RESIDENT ARRESTED FOR THREATENING TO KILL SHERIFF CANNON AND OTHER SHERIFF EMPLOYEES

In late February, the Dade County Sheriff’s Office began receiving telephone calls from a male that threatened to kill Sheriff Patrick Cannon and all of the employees that work at the Sheriff’s Office. The caller was demanding that certain inmates be released.

Dade County Detectives and Agents from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation worked on the case. During the investigation the male subject had called eight different times and during each call he threatened to shoot and kill multiple people at the Sheriff’s Office. Detectives were able to identify the man as sixty year old Henry Donald Jones of Augusta, Georgia. Jones is a former resident of Dade County.

Friday afternoon, Jones was arrested in Augusta and over the weekend he was transported back to the Dade County Jail. Jones is being charged with multiple charges including Domestic Terrorism, Terroristic Threats, and Harassing Communications. No bond has been set at this time.

COMMISSIONERS CONSIDER CHANGES TO WATER BOARD APPOINTMENTS

Commissioners continued to discuss the issue of non-working fire hydrant throughout the County at the March Commission meeting. Each Commissioner said that they had recently spoken with the fire chiefs in their Districts about the hydrant problems, and all of them seemed to have several hydrants that are not currently working. Last month, the South Dade Fire Chief Roger Woodyard brought to the Commissions attention several fire hydrants that are not working in his district. Since then, the Dade County Water Authority has said that they are working to get all of the fire hydrants in the County in working order.

Commissioners seemed to have concern about the way the current Board members are appointed to the Dade Water and Sewer Authority and apparently are making plans to change the appointment process. Commission Lowery said that he is tired of having to tell everyone that there is nothing that he or anyone on the Commission can do about the problem. “The Commission has no control over the Dade Water Board anymore,’ Lowery said.

Lowery said that he and other Commissioners had recently talked to State Senator Jeff Mullis who told him that, if all of the Commissioners were in consensus on the issue, they could implement local legislation so that the Commission would be able to change the way the Water Board is appointed. Dade County Executive Ted Rumley added that this is something the Commissioners are looking into. “It’s something we’re really working on, not just something that we’re talking about,” Rumley said.

A complete of the Dade County Commission will be coming out later this evening in the Weekend Edition of the Mountain~Valley Independent.

CIVIC CENTER RECEIVES 'GO AHEAD' VOTE

The City of Trenton will soon be seeing the beginning of construction on the new Civic Center. At Monday evening's City Council meeting, Parks and Recreation Commissioner Chuck Cannon said that the City had recently received the final bid for the project from Construction Consultants. The Commissioners voted unanimously to accept the bid of $515,052.

Read more in the current edition of the Mountain~Valley Independent.

DADE COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL TO RETIRE

Dade County High School Principal has recently announced that he will be retiring at the end of this school year after 32 years with the Dade County School System.

Read more in the current edition of the Mountain~Valley Independent.

BOYS' AND GIRLS' SOCCER TEAMS DEFEAT NORTH COBB

Over the weekend, both the Dade County girls' and boys' soccer teams defeated North Cobb. The girls' won with a final score of 2-N while the boys finished their match at 1-N. The next match for both teams will be March 11th against Chattooga.

WOLVERINES FALL TO WEST MINISTER 83-81

An exciting season came to a close Friday night in the first round of the State Play-offs. The Sub-Region Champions the Dade County Wolverines fell to West Minister with of final score of 83-81.

NSM FALLS TO CLEMENTS 57-50 FOR STATE CHAMPIONSHIP

After a tremendous season, the North Sand Mountain Lady Bison finish the season as State runners-up after falling to the Clements Lady Colts 57-50. Way to go, Lady Bison!

SAND MTN. MAN FACES MORE ANIMAL CRUELTY CHARGES

A Sand Mountain man that was arrested last December on Animal Cruelty charges after dogs were found stabbed on his property now faces more charges.

According to Detective Adam Reyes, Hillard Stevens came to the Sheriff's Office to file a police report. A Dade County Deputy went to Stevens' residence on Stanley Road to conduct a follow-up investigation and found that Stevens had several wire cages that contained rabbits and that there was a large amount of chickens on the property.

A search warrant was obtained for the residence and evidence of chickens being killed was discovered on the property. Stevens was placed into custody on new charges of Animal Cruelty.

Read more on this story in the Weekend Edition of the Mountain~Valley Independent to be published this evening.

2 HIGDON RESIDENTS FACE DRUG CHARGES

59 year-old James Minor and 24 year-old Jamie Minor, a father and son from Higdon, have been arrested by authorities after a multi-jurisdictional investigation. Armed with search warrants earlier this week during the pre-dawn hours, both were arrested and charged with possession of marijuana in the first degree.

COMMISSIONER CONSIDERING SWITCH

Tuesday night, the Dade County Republican Party learned that they may soon have a new member. Dade County District 1 Commissioner Lamar Lowery said he is making plans to run as a Republican in the upcoming election cycle. Lowery, who is in his 2nd term as a Dade County Commissioner, told those in attendance of his potential plans. An official announcement of his plans will be released later.

DADE FALLS TO ROCKMART IN REGION CHAMPIONSHIP

The Dade County Wolverines fell behind early in the Region Championship game against Rockmart last night and battle back in the 4th period to take the lead. However, Rockmart came to play the Wolverines and they did. The final score was 72-70, a heart-breaking loss for Dade County and the Region Crown.

Now its on to the State Play-offs. The Wolverines will host the 1st Round Friday night at 7:00PM against West Minister.