AC repair inTownsend, GA

A third-grade teacher in Fulton County was named Georgia's Teacher of the Year in 2019. Allison Kerley Townsend is a teacher at Barnwell Elementary School in the Fulton County School System.

In her role, Townsend will serve as an advocate for public education issues in Georgia.

She said she believes in the potential of students not just to be the leaders of tomorrow but to lead right now.

"Some people believe that children are the 'leaders of tomorrow,'" Townsend said to Fulton County Schools. "I like to challenge this idea. We cannot ignore the incredible impact children can have on the world today, if we let them. My mission is to help students take ownership of their learning and have an impact beyond the classroom…whether they are Skyping a scientist across the country, blogging about how they believe we should combat pollution, or sharing the inspiring music videos we create as a class."

State Superintendent Richard Wood said her focus is in the right place.

"It is very clear to me that Allison Kerley Townsend is a teacher who walks into her classroom every day with her focus in exactly the right place: what do these students in front of me need to learn, and how can I help them learn it?," Woods said in a statement.

"Then she brings all of her creativity, ingenuity and skill to the fore to accomplish that goal. I am honored to recognize her as the 2019 Georgia Teacher of the Year and look forward to working with her to tell the best story I know – the story of Georgia's public schools, and the lives changing within them every single day."

According to FCSC, Townsend graduated from Clemson University in 2012 with a bachelor's degree in elementary education. Throughout her career, she has taught Pre-k, third, fourth and fifth grade students.

In a handwritten letter, a student wrote that "Before I was in Ms. Kerley's class I felt like days had passed before Lunch!"

But it all changed with his new teacher. "I think Ms. Kerley should win teacher of the year because she makes me exited for every school day!"

Building a new animal shelter and relocating the county's elections office are on the table for a joint meeting between the Trenton City Council and Dade County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday

Both projects are expected to happen in the spring of 2023, said Ted Rumley, Board of Commissioners chairman and county executive, though budgets and final plans have not been determined.

"This is a preliminary meeting, kind of a cordial discussion, a work session" to discuss ideas from both panels on which government will staff and run the animal shelter, Rumley said in a phone interview.

Two locations are being considered for the relocated elections office. One is a piece of private property near the Bank of Dade, and the other is east of the county's courthouse. Rumley said relocating the elections office is the priority, and the county has about $250,000 from a land sale set aside for the project.

The meeting will be at 1 p.m. in the Commissioners Meeting Room at the Dade County Administrative Building, 71 Case Ave., Room 259, in Trenton. The meeting is open to the public.

Don Townsend, chief financial officer and county clerk, said there's no need to have two animal shelters in a county as small as Dade. The state requires cooperation on issues like that to avoid duplicating services and save taxpayers money through its Service Delivery Strategy process, he said in an email.

The current elections office is too small, Townsend said, because Georgia's new election law requires voting equipment be stored where elections officials work. He also said the elections office is in the same building where county offices are housed -- making it difficult for elected officials to avoid contact with voters during elections.

"We are considering both of these issues as part of the state's mandate under the SDS -- Service Delivery Strategy -- to comply with this law," Townsend said.

Rumley agreed that having the elections office in the same building where elected officials work daily isn't feasible. During election season, Rumley said county residents on the way to vote would stop him to talk and ask advice on candidates.

"Even if I'm not on the ballot, and if I'm on the ballot it's even worse -- you're not supposed to talk to people," Rumley said.

Georgia's 2021 election law states that no person can solicit votes within "150 feet of the outer edge of any building within which a polling place is established; within any polling place; or within 25 feet of any voter standing in line to vote at any polling place."

Representatives from the Dade County Board of Elections and Registration could not be reached for comment before deadline.

Carey Fauscett-Anderson, the county's public information officer, said officials may be able to rework a building already owned by local government, but all that will be discussed at the meeting. She also said in a phone interview that building the animal shelter and staffing it are two separate decisions that need to be made.

The animal shelter will be near the Dade County Recycling Center on Sunset Drive, Rumley said, adding that building a joint city-county shelter has been under discussion for about 15 years. The county will be soliciting bids for the project soon, he said.

The city of Trenton has about $65,000 set aside for the shelter, and Rumley said the county will fund the rest.

"Things are getting worse and worse as far as animals in the county, and not just with dogs, but cats and even large animals," Rumley said. "We've got an ideal place to put it with plenty of room."

(READ MORE: Dade County, Georgia, residents help animals and call for better services)

Plans for the Dade County shelter will be based on a facility in Canton, Georgia, Rumley said, but will be about half its size, with space for about 50 animals.

Barbara Havlin moved to Dade County 16 years ago from California. In a phone interview, she said she's thankful local officials are moving forward on the animal shelter because residents have had to do a lot of volunteer work over the years helping the county's animals.

"We've needed one forever (a proper shelter), since it was first voted on for SPLOST," Havlin said, referring to Georgia's special purpose local option sales tax for certain capital projects. "This county is just horrendous as far as strays and everything."

(READ MORE: Due to increased volume, Walker County, Georgia, considering combining animal control and animal shelter)

Havlin said she has mostly retired from finding homes for dogs. She recently re-homed a puppy named Uno with contagious mites and has been rehabilitating a Bernese mountain dog that came to Havlin underfed with a broken leg.

Havlin said the dog's leg has healed and he doubled his weight in two weeks. Healthy enough to be adopted, Havlin said the dog was going to an adoption event last week hosted by local rescue Trooper's Treasures -- freshly bathed and wearing a red bow around his neck for the holidays.

Contact Andrew Wilkins at awilkins@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659.

MCINTOSH COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) - A McIntosh County woman has opened a sober living home for women in Townsend.

WTOC originally brought you her story in 2020 and now, after three years of hard work, her center for women recovering from addiction is now a reality.

Linda Hornby owner of Angelica’s House of Hope and Recovery is finally able to walk through the halls of the sober living home she now owns.

“We are a sober residence for woman who are trying to stay sober and be in recovery in a safe environment.”

It’s an idea that’s very personal for Hornby she says her own daughter battled addiction for years until a home like this one got her on a path to recovery.

Her daughter is now the home’s namesake.

“My reason why… was to help save someone else’s daughter. My daughter is doing really well, she’s 10 years into addiction, and two years into recovery, so that’s awesome,” Linda Hornby said.

At full capacity, Angelica’s House of Hope can house up to 12 women. Hornby says it’s all part of her goal of helping others.

“It’s all about changing lives that’s why I’m doing this. My reason why is to change someone’s life.”

Hornby works at the home full-time and helps her residents get to therapy and doctor’s appointments, addiction meetings, and anything else they need during their recovery. It’s a place for them to stay after they’ve already received initial medical attention.

“The McIntosh community is in dire need of any type of rehab or drug support. There’s many women out here who are addicted and have nowhere to go.”

The center teaches life skills like how to write a check, cooking, and sewing.

They’ll also soon have animals like alpacas on premises in addition to this pup who already lives there all as a comfort to the women who live there.

“My daughter, when she was in rehab, she said to me ‘mom, the one thing I missed was holding a puppy. I couldn’t’ see my family, I couldn’t talk to anyone… All I wanted to do was to hold a little puppy.’ That’s what gave me the idea of a cuddle barn where the girls can just go sit with the animals.”

Now the home has its first residents making their commitment to staying sober.

Click here for more information.

Copyright 2023 WTOC. All rights reserved.

COLUMBUS Ga. (WRBL) – Georgia DPH West Central Health Director Dr. Beverly Townsend is very busy these days with a new peak in COVID-19 cases and the state of Georgia recently passing 20,000 COVID-19 deaths.

She took some time out of her busy schedule to update us on the local fight against COVID-19.

WRBL: You’re the first Black woman to complete the family medicine residency program at what is now Piedmont Columbus Regional and the first Black Director of the DPH West Central Health District, and now your facing the first global pandemic in a few generations. How do you approach these seemingly insurmountable tasks?

Townsend: “I didn’t know they were going to be insurmountable in the beginning, so started out just trying to do my job and do it well. They’re still not insurmountable. They’re just difficult and take a lot of hard work and a lot of support; from the staff that work for me, and that I work with. The challenges are there because of the unknowns that exist as well. I take that very seriously just because we don’t know something doesn’t mean we cant get it done. So we look for new ways and ideas, outside the box thinking to make things happen to get the result that we need in a timely manner that we may need it, just to get the job done.”

WRBL: What’s your advice to people who have gotten vaccinated and can’t social distance because of their job or school?

Townsend: “Well my first advice is everyone should look at what already exists to help us get out of this pandemic, and start doing those things that have been suggested, and recommended—not suggested but recommended throught the CDC through public health guidelines. That includes now at this point in time vaccinations. That includes wearing a mask or face covering, properly. That includes social distancing. Not being around a lot of crowds of people and everything if you don’t have to be, or people outside your household. People do have to work and people do have to go to school, and all those things are very important. Their just has to be a way to do it so that more people don’t get infected.”

WRBL: How much do you think folks refusing to mask relates to folks refusing to follow doctors orders on an individual basis?

Townsend: “In a practice that was called noncompliance. There was certainly a consequence of being noncompliant. Which would include worsening of peoples diseases or development of cancer stroke heart disease all those morbidity things that would occur or mortality things. Basically it’s the same thing at this level because not adhering to things that come from a scientific standpoint and trying to get a handle on this virus with the available tools we have. The same thing existed. The mortality is going up the morbidity is going up. The consequences up to and including death. Up to and including not being able to work, live where you want to live, housing. There’s a lot of issues that’s around not being able to get a handle on this that’s called non-compliance and actually it’s very similar I can relate those similarities. Every action has consequences.”

WRBL: What would you say the biggest change is in your job since the pandemic began?

Townsend: “The biggest change is not knowing what my day is going to look like yes I have a calendar and a schedule, but I may never know because it’s always something interjecting in there. That needs to be handled right then and right there created around the COVID virus scene. Weather it’s vaccines testing information around that. People wanting what they want right now. And not understanding very demanding, and so we do a lot of stopping and turning on a dime. Because it’s necessary or to create platforms and do things that we have to do in order to ensure that we; number one, follow the rules and regulations that’s given to me to push down from my superiors, from the state office and everything. I really don’t even have a routine that’s the biggest change.”

WRBL: What’s your strategy going into this next stage of the pandemic?

Townsend: “The strategy is to go places and provide the vaccine to be accessible to the community who needs the vaccine and that can be anybody so are having not just popup but regular vaccination clinics that we have at all of our health departments throughout our district which is 16 counties. Just make them available and accessible people going to places where people may not have transportation or people may just be walking by or maybe going there. Meeting people where they are. That’s really the goal. Weather it’s church, weather it’s a hospital, weather it’s a beauty salon or barbershop. Any type of events that occur in our general geographical area or community being involved in those. So whatever we can do to put it out there we do home visits for those who are homebound, and cannot get out the list just goes on and on and we do try new and creative ideas to try to come up with ways to get advertising on social media, newspaper, TV, whatever platform we can use to get people to take recognition and do it”

WRBL: How does it make you feel to know that, despite your best efforts to educate people, some folks choose to disbelieve the facts given to them by science and experts?

“The numbers of deaths really now, currently, are really related to the unvaccinated, not the vaccinated. It’s really a sad thing to think about and not having people to believe in the system but have a lot of myths that they believe in and untruths and misinformation out there. That’s why this is occurring as well a lot of misinformation.”

Grammy-winning, millions-selling progressive music titans, Dream Theater, recently announced the first edition of Dreamsonic, taking place in North America throughout June and July and celebrating the summer’s ultimate progressive metal lineup. The tour kicked off on June 16th in Cedar Park, TX, and Dream Theater is joined by special guest Devin Townsend, and Animals As Leaders on what is sure to be one of the hottest tickets of the summer.

Fan-filmed video of Devin Townsend's entire June 28th show in Atlanta, GA can be viewed below.

The setlist was as follows:

"Lightworker" "Kingdom" "Dimensions" "Deadhead" "By Your Command" "Deep Peace" "Truth" "Bad Devil"

Remaining tour dates are as follows:

July 2 - Boston, MA - Leader Bank Pavilion 4 - Laval, QC - Place Bell 5 - Hamilton, ON - FirstOntario Centre 7 - Gary, IN - Hard Rock Casino 8 - Cleveland, OH - Jacobs Pavilion 9 - Newport, KY - MegaCorp Pavilion 11 - Detroit, MI - Masonic 12 - OshKosh, WI - OshKosh Arena 13 - Cedar Rapids, IA - Alliant Energy Power House 15 - Denver, CO - Mission Theater 17 - Spokane, WA - First Interstate Center 18 - Calgary, AB - Grey Eagle 19 - Edmonton, AB - Northern Alberta Jubilee 21 - Vancover, BC - Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre 22 - Redmond, WA - Marymoor Live 24 - San Jose, CA - San Jose Civic 25 - Inglewood, CA - YouTube Theater 26 - Phoenix, AZ - Arizona Financial Theater

For tickets, visit the Dreamsonic website, here.

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