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Buford No. 1, North Hall No. 8 in Associated Press preseason football ...
Found: 2 Weeks 2 Days 20 Hours 29 Minutes ago
Gainesville Times - The Top Ten teams in the Associated Press Georgia high school football pre-season poll of the 2008 season with first-place votes in parentheses, and total points: ...
Jackson airport expansion approved
Found: 2 Weeks 3 Days 13 Hours 16 Minutes ago
Athens Banner-Herald - Jackson County commissioners approved a plan Monday to expand the county's airport by 52 acres so airport managers will be able to add a second taxiway....
Perfecting the art of gardening over a lifetime ...
Found: 2 Weeks 3 Days 14 Hours 22 Minutes ago
Catoosa County News - Archie and Wilma Bibbey are innovators in the garden. “The theme of this is how much food you can produce on a little spot,” says Archie, gesturing around the couple’s small yard, which is jammed full of tomatoes, okra, cucumbers and bell peppers heavy on the vine.Just this season, they have canned 14 cans of beans off a small plot that doesn’t look to measure more than 10 by 15 feet. Their sweet potato plot will produce “least a half bushel,” says Archie. Already this year, 21 quarts of strawberries have made their way from the strawberry patch into the couple’s low ranch house, where they can many of the delicacies they grow.A good portion of the leftovers goes to friends and fellow church members. “We’ve made three gallons of pickles (this year), and I’ve given away that much,” says Archie, gesturing to a tiny cucumber patch.Archie and Wilma’s farming roots — and their marital ties — go back a long way. They married in 1935 in the middle of the Great Depression. They came from farming families in Iowa, and though agriculture wasn’t their first choice of lifestyle, it eventually grew on them.“We were farm kids to begin with. Farm kids all want to go to town, you know, and move to the city,” says Archie. The couple ended up in Chattanooga in 1952 after Archie completed his degree in Minnesota. Archie taught in the public school system for 18 years before moving on to instruct engineering classes at the university level.The land was calling, though, and he and Wilma bought a farm in Keith. When they sold it, they weren’t ready to leave the agricultural lifestyle behind, so they turned the front and back yard of their current Tunnel Hill home, which they purchased in 1993, into productive fruit and vegetable patches.Though they both appear to have naturally green thumbs, there was a learning curve when the Bibbeys began their gardening in the south. Growing up in Iowa, they had not heard of some of the vegetable staples so popular with native Georgians. Archie says they didn’t know what okra was, “didn’t know what to do with it.” They had also never heard of turnip greens. They soon remedied the situation and now produce both crops.Archie’s perfect fried okra secret:Although he “didn’t know what to do with it” when he first encountered okra, Archie eventually perfected the quintessential southern fried dish. In order to make wonderfully golden fried okra, he advises the following:* Slice okra* Roll in meal* Refrigerate in a glass dish in for 30 minutes* Microwave the mixture until it browns before actually cooking itAlthough they are both more than 90 years old — Archie is 92, and Wilma is not far behind — the couple still steps out their back door in the sweltering summer heat to harvest their carefully tended fruits and vegetables and to perform maintenance on the garden itself nearly every day. Archie has developed his own brand of gardening over the years, and much of his success, he says, comes from his insistence on using natural fertilizer in the form of manure from a nearby horse farm and using only the cleanest water for his plants.He has also cut down on the huge amount of work it takes to keep weeds from reclaiming the garden. He uses his Snapper lawn mower to clear out weeds from in between the wide set rows of vegetables that line the back and side yard. The couple used to have to hoe the ground to keep the weeds down, but during a class reunion visit to southern Iowa two years ago, they witnessed “till-less farming” for the first time. Iowa farmers were putting weed killer on the plants they wished to exterminate and fertilizer on their crops. Archie said they were able to “grow humongous crops and not till.”The Bibbeys decided to put the notion into practice on a smaller scale, adopting the idea of a “hoeless garden” when they returned home, and it worked well. Now, when Archie mows the lawn, he just mows between the garden, rows too, so there is “no extra work.” The grass growing between the rows is good for the garden, he says, because it holds some of the water in to the ground that would otherwise be lost if the bare dirt were exposed to the sun.Despite the physical labor that goes into it, having a garden just outside the back door has quite a few benefits that are not lost on the Bibbeys. Archie keeps his eye on the economy and is well aware of rising grocery story prices. Food is getting so expensive, he says, “transportation is costing more than the food.” The couple is of the school of thought that most of what they eat should come out of the garden. “If you don’t grow it, you don’t have it,” Archie explains.To his chagrin, he says, there are exponentially fewer gardens in the area than there were when he retired. He remembers nearly every house along Highway 41 from Ringgold to Tunnel Hill having a garden. Now, there is only one that he knows of.Although they could probably sell quite a few of the speckled cucumbers and bright red tomatoes that sparkle like jewels among the garden foliage, they choose to give most of it away. Farming is a “nonprofit organization,” chuckles Archie. “If it was our business, that would be different.”In keeping with the couple’s good-natured, friendly air, a brimming basket of tomatoes or green beans does not come without a little ribbing from Archie. Whenever they hand over an edible gift, Archie laughingly confides to the lucky recipient, “Those aren’t the first fruits … I eat them.” CLICK ON THESE LINKSFEEDBACK: Send a letter to the editorSUBSCRIBE: Get The Catoosa County News each WednesdayGO BACK:Return to our homepage...
Local veteran competes in Annual National Veterans Wheelchair Games ...
Found: 2 Weeks 4 Days 16 Hours 55 Minutes ago
Catoosa County News - The 28th annual National Veterans Wheelchair Games kicked off on July 25 in Omaha, Ne.; and a local competitor from Tunnel Hill, Ga, Jesse Hope, proudly wore his No. 251 jersey while competing in five of the events at this year’s games.Hope started as a reservist with the Army but was actually on active duty as a result of the Iraq war beginning. Hope was amongst the first men shipped to Iraq.Hope competed this year in the following events; air guns para with assistance, field javelin, field shot put, slalom and weight lifting by body weight each under open class three.According to the United States Department of Veteran Affairs Web site, “Athletes in the Games compete within three divisions - Masters (over age 40), novice (first-time competitors in the games), and open (all others, or those who chose to compete in this category). Athletes also compete within classes according to the level of their physical ability, with three quadriplegic-level classes (IA, IB, and IC), and four paraplegic-level or amputee classes (II, III, IV and V). Hope competes as a Class III in the open division.”“This is my seventh time competing in the Wheelchair Games and they just seem to get better every year,” stated Hope. “I dedicate all my accomplishments to my fallen brothers and sisters.”The national games is a multi-event sports and rehabilitation program for military service veterans who use wheelchairs for sports competition due to spinal cord injuries, amputations, or certain neurological problems. Attracting more than 500 athletes each year, the National Veterans Wheelchair Games is the largest annual wheelchair sports event in the world.Hope, a recent graduate from Northwestern Technical College with a degree in drafting and architectural drafting, spends his time practicing and working out for competitions as well as trying to get a support group started for other people in wheelchairs in his area. “I really want to create a support group to show people in my position that life is not over,” said Hope. “For the first eight years it was not good for me.” He currently is looking to get into the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and pursue a bachelor’s degree in engineering. “I would just love to do that,” said Hope.When he is not spending time perfecting his craft, Hope pursues other activities to get involved in. Currently he is searching for sponsors to compete in hand cycling. A hand cycle is a three-wheeled bicycle that you peddle with your hands and has more balance to the rider. “I go to the gym whenever possible to practice,” he said. “There isn’t anyone else in my area that I know of who trains for these events. That’s why I want to start up a support group.”According to Hope, his favorite of the competitions is weight lifting, which he has received the most medals in. He lifted 150 lbs the way the umpire requested, which enabled him to come away with the second place award. “Because the umpire wanted me to hold the bar a certain way and I couldn’t do that (lift more than 150 lbs).” The hardest course he said was the Slalom course, which is like an obstacle course for manual wheel chairs. “We would have to go up a ramp, then ride through sand, through gravel and back through sand again,” he said. “There was also a bucket containing nearly 50 feet of chain that would have to be transferred into another bucket.” The Slalom course also contained a series of pipes that contenders would have to pop wheelies over, a test of shooting accuracy and other difficult obstacles. “This was the hardest slalom I’ve done,” said Hope.One of his favorite memories from the NVW games was meeting NASCAR’s Richard Petty, which he gladly shows a picture as proof to anyone who asks about his competition. "I also met the guy from Northern exposure,"said Hope.“My long term goal is the Boston Marathon,” said Hope. The Boston Marathon is the world’s oldest annual marathon and ranks as one of the world’s most well-known road racing events. The marathon runs for an approximate 26.22 miles.CLICK ON THESE LINKSFEEDBACK: Send a letter to the editorSUBSCRIBE: Get The Catoosa County News each WednesdayGO BACK:Return to our homepage...
Bone clue in missing man case?
Found: 3 Weeks 9 Hours 13 Minutes ago
Athens Banner-Herald - Police think a human bone found at a West Athens construction site could belong to a man who has been missing for 13 years....
Challenger takes nomination from incumbent Catoosa County chairman ...
Found: 3 Weeks 2 Days 7 Hours 9 Minutes ago
Catoosa County News - SOUNDOFF: Post your commentsVoters returned to the polls Aug. 5 to get a chance to choose candidates in two races.In unofficial results, Catoosa County Republicans, picked Keith Greene to go up against Democrat Lynn Long, 64, a former Catoosa County Chairman from Fort Oglethorpe, on Nov. 4. “I want to thank all those who supported me by coming out and voting,” Greene said. “I appreciate the opportunity to lead Catoosa County into the future after winning in November. I look forward to working with the mayors of Ringgold and Fort Oglethorpe in uniting the county in order to prepare for the future.”Challenger Keith Greene, received 1,876 votes or 64.4 percent, beating one-term Catoosa County Board of Commissioner Chairman Bill Clark who received 1,037 votes or 35.6 percent.“I appreciate those that helped me with my campaign,” Clark said. “I congratulate Mr. Greene on running a good race and wish him the best of luck in November.”Greene lives near Ringgold. He works for Roper Corporation as an engineering team leader supporting new product.His wife is Kat. He has three children Meghan, Brendan, and Sean.This is his first run for office.He retired in 2008 as a captain from the U.S. Army after 25 years.Democrats in Catoosa County chose between U.S. Senate candidates Jim Martin, who received 204 votes or 73.12 percent over Vernon Jones, who received 75 votes or 26.88 percent. The statewide winner will go up against Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., in November. Catoosa County has 34,174 registered voters with 3,210 casting ballots in the runoff election. Advance voters cast 857 ballots, and 137 absentee ballots were returned. Catoosa Elections Officer Donna Bomar enthusiastically said she was pleased with the work of the elections staff completing closure and tally of all the precincts by 8:15 p.m.She said she was still disappointed in a turnout of less than 10 percent, but that it was larger than officials originally anticipated.UPDATED at 8:40 p.m.This is an up-to-the minute tally of votes for today’s county commission chairman runoff in Catoosa County. Polls closed at 7 p.m. with numbers coming in around 8:00 p.m.Numbers posted are from 12 of the 12 voting areas, advance voting and paper absentee ballots.The running total for each candidate is as follows:Keith Greene:1876Bill Clark:1037Untitled Document Absentee ballotsAdvance votingFort OglethorpeWestsideWoodstationDuncan ParkBlackstockGraysvillePoplar SpringsChambersLakeviewBoyntonRinggoldCatoosa KeithKeith Greene24530196649849281191051067221220568Bill Clark562655671532036595554489611058Upcoming Catoosa County Elections* SPLOST, special-purpose local-option sales tax, voteAdvance Voting: Sept. 8 -12Election Day: September 16 Voter registration deadline: August 8* General Election Advance Voting: Oct. 27-31Election Day: Nov. 4 Voter registration deadline: Nov. 4* General Election run-offAdvance Voting: Nov. 24- Nov. 28Election Day: Dec. 2For more information, call the Catoosa County Elections Office at (706) 935-3990 or visitcatoosa.com/depts/electionsFor more information on today's race, go to the following articles: Catoosa Chairman will see runoff: Weldon wins for state representativeorRunoff to cost Catoosa $7,000 CLICK ON THESE LINKSFEEDBACK: Send a letter to the editorSUBSCRIBE: Get The Catoosa County News each WednesdayGO BACK:Return to our homepage...
Chickamauga mother and daughter killed in Catoosa wreck ...
Found: 3 Weeks 2 Days 7 Hours 10 Minutes ago
Catoosa County News - A Chickamauga woman and her teenage daughter died Saturday in a head-on collision in Catoosa County. According to the Georgia State Patrol post in Dalton: Cynthia Overby Baker, 40, of Chickamauga was driving a 2000 Nissan Maxima east on Mount Pisgah Road, while Matthew Barton, 20, of Ringgold was driving a 1998 Ford Ranger pickup truck west when the wreck occurred near Brock Circle. The pickup crossed into the opposite lane and hit the Maxima head-on. Baker was pronounced dead at the scene. Baker’s daughter Brittany Overby, 17, and her husband Rodney Baker, 36, were passengers in the Nissan and were flown to Erlanger hospital. Overby died while being transported. Barton and Rodney Baker on Monday were listed in critical condition at Erlanger. The couple and teen were not wearing seatbelts. Barton was wearing a seatbelt. CLICK ON THESE LINKSFEEDBACK: Send a letter to the editorSUBSCRIBE: Get The Catoosa County News each WednesdayGO BACK:Return to our homepage...
Oconee Youth Playhouse presents 'Seussical'
Found: 1 Month 2 Weeks 1 Day 2 Hours 43 Minutes ago
Athens Banner-Herald - Oconee Youth Playhouse begins its 10th anniversary season with the popular musical "Seussical," which is based on the books of Dr. Seuss, on Aug. 1-3 at the Oconee County Civic Center....
Fire consumes westside trailer
Found: 1 Month 2 Weeks 1 Day 2 Hours 46 Minutes ago
Athens Banner-Herald - A Catalpa Drive mobile home caught fire Tuesday afternoon, destroying part of it....
County buys lot for westside greenway
Found: 1 Month 2 Weeks 2 Days 3 Hours 5 Minutes ago
Athens Banner-Herald - A 7-acre parcel off Atlanta Highway will become the starting point for a new walking trail along the Middle Oconee River....
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