Entries by Staff Writer

Barrow County residents will not see a drop in their local sales tax, but may avoid a property tax increase with the passage of a new Education Special Purpose Location Option Sales Tax (ESPLOST). [Full Story »] 

Tuesday night proved to be a good night for the incumbents in local races.

All three county commission incumbents - Isaiah Berry, Ben Hendrix and Billy Parks – will retain their seats as commissioners.

School board incumbents Randall Holland and Dan Cromer easily won their reelection bids while fellow school board members Connie Wehunt and Mark Still were unopposed in the primary.

In the BOE District 4 race, Will Dunn defeated Beverly Kelley to replace Larry Ballard, who didn't run for re-election.

Voters also approved a new ESPLOST by a wide margin.

In the State Senate 47 race, Winder's Shane Coley and Madison County's Frank Ginn are heading for a runoff.
[Full Story »] 

Bramlett and Yargo elementary schools in Barrow County led the list of overall results on the 2010 CRCT tests, according to school-level results released last week for third and fifth graders.

At the eighth-grade level, Haymon-Morris and Westside middle schools had the strongest overall results in Barrow County.

At the other end, Statham Elementary School slipped across the board, doing worse in every content area in third and fifth grades and exceeding the overall state average failure rate for all subjects except fifth grade math.

In the eighth-grade, Russell Middle School improved in all five content areas from 2009, but still exceeded the overall state failure rate in four of the five areas. [Full Story »] 

A Statham man was charged with theft by taking after he was unable to satisfactorily explain why he had removed several items from a neighbor’s yard.

A 14-year-old juvenile was out walking his dog when he saw Bradley Presnell, 52, of 2234 Wagon Wheel Trail in Statham, taking some chairs and other items from behind a residence. [Full Story »]