Barrow Journal

Barrow County’s new emergency services chief was arrested Friday by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in connection with financial irregularities at the city where he was fire chief before coming to Barrow County.

Chief Donald Towne turned himself in at 9 a.m. at the Grady County Sheriff’s Office and was charged with one felony count of theft by taking.

Also arrested were his wife, Tiffany Fowler, and his father-in-law, James Whigham.

Fowler, 29, worked for the City of Cairo’s utility department when a change in the billing system led to the discovery of financial irregularities.

A subsequent forensic audit found that about $150,000 was missing, according to the Cairo Messenger newspaper. [Full Story »] 

After sitting empty for almost a year, the new Barrow County Animal Control Facility is now in business.

The department’s employees moved into the building’s administrative offices last week and were to be followed by the cats and puppies this week.

The adult dogs will remain in the old shelter nearby until later this summer when 34 new cages have been installed.

“I don’t expect to start any installation before mid August,” said director Jimmy Terrell.

The department went ahead with the partial occupation of the building, because the one-year builder’s warranty on the building will expire next month.

The main holdup to using the building has been a long delay in purchasing cages for the animals. [Full Story »] 

In extraordinary action to curtail public access to information about the county government, Barrow County commission chairman Danny Yearwood summoned all department managers and elected officials to the government’s headquarters on Wednesday and ordered them not to allow their employees to speak to the press.

He said any managers who grant newspaper interviews also must charge for any time exceeding 15 minutes, sources said.

Yearwood reportedly cited the Georgia Open Records Act as his legal authority for this unprecedented policy of charging for the interviews of public employees.

However, he did not consult with county attorney Angela Davis about the provisions of the state law prior to the meeting.

And a spokesman for Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker said Friday that the open records act includes no provision for charging money for interviews. [Full Story »] 

Four months after being promoted to chief of Barrow County Fire & Emergency Services, Mark Melvin has resigned.

Melvin turned in his resignation today, just six days after the departure of the department’s chief of education and safety.

A source told the Barrow Journal that the resignations were due to concerns about staffing levels and equipment safety, but Melvin today would acknowledge only that he had some “differing” opinions.

Melvin has worked for the department for more than nine years. He was promoted to chief on June 23 after serving as the acting fire chief following the March resignation of former chief Robert Post.
[Full Story »]