The White County Department of Public Works will close a section of Poplar Stump Road north of Helen on Wednesday, March 29. The road will be closed near the 1000 block between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Crews will be replacing a failed stormwater culvert.
No detour route is available. Traffic will be unable to travel beyond the point of repairs until the road reopens.
Lillian B. Ward, age 94, of the Batesville Community, Clarkesville, passed away Tuesday, March 21, 2023.
Complete arrangements and obituary information will be announced by Hillside Memorial Chapel & Gardens, Clarkesville.
Officials with Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport expect more than 4.4 million passengers to travel to, from, or through the airport over the two-week spring holiday period beginning on Sunday.
And officials said this week certain roadways at the airport will be closed for part of that time period.
“So, if you’re driving into the airport and you haven’t been here for a while, obviously we’re undergoing some construction in our parking structures,” said Andrew Gobeil, spokesperson for Hartsfield-Jackson.
Beginning Monday, March 27 at 10 p.m., all north end lower-level lanes will be closed for 72 hours for work on the Parking Deck Renewal Project.
Gobeil asks travelers to prepare in advance by going to ATL.com, where travelers can find information on parking options, security wait times, and even concession options.
“It is going to be busy,” he said. “We want people to arrive in the airport at least two and a half hours prior to their domestic flight. As they’re looking for a place to park, utilize the ATL West Deck, and go to our website, ATL.com.”
Airport projections point to Friday, March 31, as the busiest day with more than 333,000 passengers.
Gobeil said airport traffic is up for the year compared to the last few years but hasn’t caught up to 2019.
“We haven’t quite reached pre-pandemic levels yet,” he said. “But 2019 was a record-setting year. It’s going to take a while for us to get back on up that. We expect to see perhaps as many as 95 to 100 million passengers this year.”
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This article appears on Now Habersham through a news partnership with GPB News
Debra Elizabeth Dover Wood, age 59, of Clarkesville, went home to be with the Lord on Friday, March 24, 2023.
Born on November 17, 1963, Debbie was the daughter of Mary C. Dover and the late Jack Dover. She was a homemaker and had formerly worked at Regency. Debbie had a smile that could light up the room. She was a wonderful wife, mother, daughter, and sister. Debbie enjoyed being outside and planting flowers in God’s beautiful creation. She also enjoyed camping and spending time on the lake water skiing and kneeboarding. Debbie was a member of Hollywood Baptist Church. In addition to her father, Debbie is preceded in death by son Kyle Taylor Wood, niece Kendra Brooke Dover, and father-in-law Floyd Taylor Wood.
Survivors include her husband, David Wood of Clarkesville, mother Mary Dover of Clarkesville, mother in law Genell Dodd Wood (Lamar Bryant) of Clarkesville, brothers Eddie Dover, Steve Dover (Nicole), and Andy Dover, all of Clarkesville; sisters-in-law Debra Wheeler (Chester) of Fairview, Sharon R. Wood of Clarkesville, Angie Wood Gay (Mark) of Statesboro and Barbara Wood Hefner of Mt. Airy, as well as numerous nieces, nephews and extended family.
Funeral services will be held at 2:00 PM, Monday, March 27, 2023, at Hollywood Baptist Church, with Pastor Chuck Johnson officiating. Interment will follow the service in the church cemetery. The family will receive friends at the church prior to the service Monday from 1-2 PM.
An online guest book is available for the family at www.hillsidememorialchapel.com.
Arrangements are in the care and professional direction of Hillside Memorial Chapel & Gardens, Clarkesville, GA. 706-754-6256
Ricky Lee Armour, age 59, of Lula, Georgia, passed away on Friday, March 24, 2023.
Mr. Armour was born on October 13, 1963, in Hall County, Georgia, to the late Bud Armour and Betty Tench. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his brother, Stacey Tench, and grandparents, Doc and Paralee Armour.
Survivors include his cousin, Tammy Dubois, of Gainesville.
No Formal Services are planned at this time.
Arrangements have been entrusted to the Whitfield Funeral Homes & Crematory, South Chapel, at 1370 Industrial Boulevard, Baldwin, Georgia 30511. Telephone: 706-778-7123.
The first whitewater release of the season at Tallulah Gorge also brought its first injury. A kayaker was hurt at Sliding Rock Falls Saturday. Rescuers had to hike to the base of the gorge to retrieve them.
First responders with Habersham County Emergency Services, the Tallulah Falls Fire Department, and Rabun County Rescue responded to the call shortly after noon on March 25. They reached the injured kayaker within an hour and helped them out of the gorge.
Officials say the patient was treated at the scene and refused to be transported to the hospital.
Georgia Power controls the flow of water in Tallulah Gorge through its hydroelectric dam. The company increases the water flow each spring and fall to allow boating through the canyon.
This weekend’s whitewater release, March 25 and 26, is a make-up weekend from November. Other spring release dates are April 1-2 and April 8-9.
Fire in a heating and air conditioning unit forced the evacuation of the Home Depot in Flowery Branch Saturday afternoon.
At approximately 1:30 pm, Hall County Fire Rescue (HCFR) responded to reports of a commercial fire at the store on Spout Springs Road. A large column of smoke could be seen coming from the store when firefighters arrived.
“The bulk of the fire was contained to an HVAC unit on the roof,” says HCFR Public Information Officer Kimberlie Ledsinger.
All employees and customers were evacuated when the fire broke out. Firefighters knocked down the fire from the outside within 30 minutes. The flames did not extend into the building.
As of 3 p.m. Saturday, units were still on the scene ventilating the store. It’s unclear how long the store will remain closed.
The Hall County Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the cause of the fire.
If you’re a fan of shows like American Pickers and Antiques Roadshow, you’ve probably wondered what it would be like to discover that next big find. North Georgia is abundant with shops loaded with loot, ripe for the pickin’. The Savvy Picker recently returned to the North Georgia mountains and offers tricks of the trade while sharing her fabulous finds.
I sure had a heyday shopping at Vintage Blessings! This antique mall is something to crow about, and if you need the inspiration to do just that, take a look around for the bevy of roosters you can find in this artfully staged shop.
When you stop by Vintage Blessings, make sure you have some time on your hands. The store has two floors loaded with interesting stuff and lots of great pieces outside too. I knew right away I’d be starting a pile at the register, and pile it up, I did.
Before I even got out of my car, I’d fallen in love with this piece: a vintage wire TOM’s industrial display shelf. It didn’t have a price on it, but the super-helpful vendor manning the register made a call and came back to me with a price of $64 (it was on sale). I had a one-word response to this information: SOLD!
It is a pleasure to look around this shop, as most of the vendors display their wares in attractive and interesting ways.
Downstairs, I found some colorful hand-painted Italian restaurant plates. These happened to be from the booth of a vendor who was there. She offered them to me for $3 each if I purchased the whole stack. Done!
I love the colors and the theme of these plates and am tempted to keep these for myself, but I will probably put them in my shop for $10 each.
When you visit Vintage Blessings, make sure to take a trip upstairs. I found a few of my favorite items on the second floor. These included an Arts and Crafts style oak end table for $12 and a cute cherry-red distressed end table, also for $12.
I was thrilled to come across a whole bunch of Russian nesting dolls priced from $6- $10. These routinely sell in my shop for $15 to $68 a set, so I purchased all the doll-shaped ones in stock and two owl sets too!
Additionally, I found something here that is on every vintage seller’s list of wants: a whole collection of reasonably priced uranium glass! I bought all they had and then texted a photo of the dishes to one of my regular customers back home. He purchased the whole lot for about triple what I paid, and I didn’t even have to put them out on the floor where they’d take up shelf space.
Other scores from Vintage Blessings include this gorgeous hand-painted bucket, the metal chicks (shown below in my space, along with the aforementioned red stool), and a beautiful ceramic pigeon that looks perfect in a Victorian bird cage I had in stock.
I’m thrilled with all the purchases I made here and loved the friendly people I met while visiting Vintage Blessings. It was definitely worth the trip.
Vintage Blessings is located at 640 Helen Highway in Cleveland, Georgia, and is open seven days a week! For shop hours and more information, visit them on Facebook at Vintage Blessings LLC or call (706) 865-7782.
Who should visit: Folks with time on their hands who enjoy exploring lots of merch!
Score of the day: Tom’s wire rack
Predicted profit on rack: $200+
Re-seller takeaway: Always be on the lookout for uranium glass and carry a blacklight flashlight with you if you can.
The Savvy Picker publishes bi-monthly on Now Habersham. For more great reads and finds, click here. Also, visit The Savvy Picker website for additional tips on tracking vintage treasure.
You’ve seen them on Facebook, in businesses, at Clarkesville and Cornelia Libraries, and at the annual Mountain Laurel Festival in Clarkesville for the past five years! Large yellow ducks dressed as characters such as Rapunzel, Little Miss Muffet, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Huckleberry Finn, and yes, even Dolly Parton have been the object of exclamation and adoration wherever they are seen.
The Sixth Annual Volunteers for Literacy (VFL) Dec-a-Duck Contest will be held in May, and all duck race sponsors and supporters are eligible to enter. Sponsorships are available beginning at $100. Ducks can be decorated as characters from children’s books, movies, fairy tales, as well as adult books or movies. Or they may be decorated to market a business. Sponsorships are not limited to businesses – individuals are also invited to enter.
This year the Dec-a-Duck Contest will be held several days prior to the Mountain Laurel Festival. Winning ducks will ride in the Mountain Laurel Festival parade. After the parade, all Dec-a-Ducks will be displayed at the VFL tent on East Water Street, where duck race tickets will also be sold. First through third-place ribbons will be awarded for Most Creative Duck, Best All Around Duck, Best Children’s Book/Fairy Tale/Literature Themed Duck, Best Novice Dec a Duck, Best Business Themed Duck, Most Artistic Duck, and People’s Choice.
People’s Choice voting will take place on the VFL Facebook page from Monday, May 10, until 10 p.m. on May 19 and at the VFL booth at the Mountain Laurel Festival until 1:30 p.m. Facebook votes will be added to votes cast at the booth to determine the winners.
The 12th Annual VFL Rubber Duck race will be held at 2 p.m. on May 20 at the Mountain Laurel Festival. Tickets are available at ww.VFLHabersham.com, at Clarkesville and Cornelia Libraries, Elizabeth & Company Resale Treasures, and A to Zinc Health Store & Smoothie Bar in Clarkesville. They also will be available at the VFL booth on Mountain Laurel Day.
The combined Dec-a-Duck Contest and Rubber Duck Race is a fundraiser conducted by Volunteers for Literacy to provide funds for important literacy programs in Habersham County. VFL sponsors the Scripps Spelling Bee for Habersham County School (HCS) students in grades four through nine, provides dictionaries for all HCS third-grade students, and provides English language instruction to immigrants so they can lead more productive lives. VFL also manages the Kathie and Dan Nee Book Bank, where thousands of books are sorted by volunteers and housed until given to underserved children through the Kiwanis Christmas for Kids Program and the VFL Summer Reading Program. VFL also maintains 17 Little Free Libraries that are located across the county where young and old can find books that provide hours of reading enjoyment.
For more information on how to enter the 2023 Dec-a-Duck Contest, email VFL at [email protected] or call 706-949-3157.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods doesn’t have nearly as much fun with its characters and dialogue as its 2019 predecessor did. For my money, it has too many bloated action sequences, and the humor misses more than it hits.
Zachary Levi is back again as Shazam/Billy Batson and his family of superheroes who emerge after he says his crusading moniker. This time around, they’re feeling the fatigue of always saving the day, so Billy decides to go on his own fighting crime. That is until he discovers Atlas’ daughters, Hespera and Kalypso (Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu), who have stolen the Wizard’s (Djimon Hounsou) staff.
The family reunites to stop them with help from the Wizard, and they’re treated to some rather bizarre inventions, including a self-writing pen that looks like it could’ve come straight out of a Harry Potter movie. Another artifact the daughters need is something called the Golden Apple which can either resuscitate the Greek world where the daughters come from, or they can use it to conquer the world.
Rachel Zegler from the remake of West Side Story costars as a girl that one of the male heroes has a crush on. He tries to impress her by showing off his superpowers.
Fury of the Gods is a movie that tries to have too much fun with itself, but it ends up not having enough. For one thing, the action sequences suffer from what I call Pinball Machine Syndrome, meaning that sometimes they’re too hard to follow, and we can’t tell who is doing what. Plus, the story seems to be serving the special effects instead of the other way around.
Levi tries to infect the same amount of goofy charm he brought to the first Shazam movie, but the script fails him and the rest of the cast with wannabe thrilling moments punctuated by one-note one-liners.
The 2019 film did a fine job of finding a balance between action and humor, and it allowed Zachary Levi moments of discovery in which he could do something with the character. This sequel turns things up a notch and blasts us with repetitive action. Some of the computer animation works, but other scenes are too cartoonish to take seriously.
Thankfully, the movie was not released in 3D.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is nothing more than a sloppy cash cow that fails to capture the magic of the original.
Playing on the road against Jefferson, the Lady Indians and Indians put their unbeaten seasons on the line. In typical fashion, both the boys and girls dominated to the tune of 4-1 wins to win their 10th straight matches.
“It was a really good tuneup before our last regular season region match,” says coach Anthony Cox. “I feel like we’re getting a little better every practice, every match.”
Both teams move to 10-0 on the season ahead of next week’s regular season finale and senior night match against Rabun County. The Lady Indians tied the single-season program record with their 10th win, matching the 2021 season. The Indians notched the program’s third-ever 10-plus win season and the most since the record 14 set in 2013.
GIRLS:
#1 Singles: Ariel Kelsick (10-0) W 6-1, 6-3
#2 Singles: Jaeda-Lee Daniel-Joseph (9-0) W 6-1, 6-1
#3 Singles: Ava Carnes (4-1) W 6-1, 6-2
#1 Doubles: Katarina Foskey & Azaria Junaid (4-0) W 6-0, 6-1
#2 Doubles: Cassidy Hayes & Landry Carnes (4-1) L 3-6, 6-2 (8-10)
BOYS:
#1 Singles: Tanner Davis (10-0) W 6-0, 6-1
#2 Singles: TJ Cox (10-0) W 3-6, 6-0 (10-5)
#3 Singles: William Xu (2-2) L 7-6 (7-2), 5-7 (3-10)
#1 Doubles: Zach Carringer & Jake Owensby (5-0) W 7-6 (7-5), 6-4
#2 Doubles: Justin Graham & Aiden VanOrman (3-1) W 6-2, 6-2
Paramedics airlifted a Northeast Georgia woman to the hospital after a tractor-trailer crashed into the farm tractor she was driving. The impact of the crash split the farm tractor in two.
The Thursday afternoon crash on GA 77 seriously injured 66-year-old Elizabeth Peters of Dewey Rose.
The preliminary crash investigation revealed the Kenworth T680 tractor-trailer was northbound behind the John Deere 4520 Peters was driving. As Peters attempted to turn left into a private drive at 2803 Hartwell Highway, the semi attempted to pass her on a double-yellow line, state troopers say.
The front of the Kenworth struck the left side of the John Deere in the southbound inside lane of GA 77. After impact, the Kenworth came to a controlled final rest, facing northbound in the southbound lane. The force of the crash caused the John Deere to split into two separate units, and both came to an uncontrolled rest off the west shoulder of the highway.
The driver of the Kenworth, 60-year-old Michael Lee Firebaugh, of Spartanburg, South Carolina, was not injured. Peters was Life Flighted to Greenville Memorial Hospital.
The Georgia State Patrol’s Troop B Specialized Collision Reconstruction Team is assisting Post 52 with its investigation. Charges are pending.
