Wiregrass Technical College Cook Campus Fights For Life

Students come to the “Cook County Work Force Development Center” campus of Wiregrass Technical College to get a leg up on their future.
But the future of this campus may be cut short by state-wide budget cuts.
That could be bad news for as many as 500 credit and non-credit students.

The Technical College System of Georgia released a list of 18 campuses being considered for closure because attendance is too low.
This campus is by far the biggest on the list.
And Wiregrass President
Dr. Ray Perren insists it’s too valuable to close.

“But we believe this is an area that’s continuing to see growth right now inspite of the way budgets are,” Perren tells Gullberg.

Dr. Perren says the campus is seeing a growth rate of more than 25% since last year and they are actively seeking new grants to expand their facilities and boost attendance.

Several Wiregrass representatives will soon go to Atlanta to state their case to the commission.

Other College Campuses Considered For Closure By The “Technical College System of Georgia”along with the rest of this story can be found on WCTV.com

Extreme drought continues to grip South Georgia

In January 2012, Albany picked up about an inch and a half of rain, compared to its normal of nearly 5 inches.  For 2011, the official rainfall total reported by the National Weather Service was less than 27 inches.  That’s barely HALF the average of about 53 inches.

With all that in mind, it really shouldn’t be a surprise when Doug Wilson says: ”the drought monitor is still showing all of our area, clear across the state in extreme drought.”

If we don’t receive some rain soon, the water situation will only get worse.  Center pivots won’t be idle for too much longer.  And more of them are being installed every day.

Wilson said, “you can see if you drive around the countryside, there’s a lot of new irrigation systems going in.”

Unfortunately, that’s what the forecasts for the next month – and for the next three months – are calling for.  But the amount of water used might be determined as much by what happens in the commodity markets as by what falls from the sky.

“This year, it looks like peanut acreage will probably go up, which is kind of a good thing for the water situation because peanuts use less water than corn does,” said Wilson.

But regardless of what goes in the soil, everyone is hoping for more rainfall, so that rivers, creeks and streams can gush again.

For more on this stoy see WALB.com

Dog attacks 3 yr. old girl

Worth County, GA -

A 3 year old Worth County is recovering Sunday from a dog attack. The little girl was playing at her neighbors house when an Australian Shepherd, a typically friendly dog, mauled her face.

“He bit me,” says Summer Gray, Dog Attack Victim. 3 year old Summer Gray is recovering from a dog attack. “He has sharp teeth,” says Summer Gray.

She was playing at a neighbors house Saturday afternoon in Sylvester when an Australian Shepherd mauled her.

“She had hit the side of a duck pin, and the ducks flew up, and when the ducks flew up, he just grabbed her across the face, and planted across her face, and went to the ground with her,” says Ricky Gray, Victim’s Father.

She suffered severe facial wounds.

“When I first walked into the emergency room, when she turned around, she had a huge gash right in her hair line, and I could see it was still gushing and it was deep, and she had a bad cut on her cheek, and she had just punctures all over her face,” says Gray.

He says the dog is usually very friendly with Summer, and calls the attack a freak accident.

“This is an older dog, his eye sight is getting a little bit worse, and I do believe that when the ducks were startled from the fence he may have thought that he was grabbing a duck and not a child,” says Sherri Hendley, Worth Co. Animal Control.

“She came home last night and was petting our big bull dog on top of the head, so she is not going crazy about dogs or anything,” says Gray.

But he says this experience has taught the entire family a lesson.

“We definitely have learned to be a lot more cautious and careful because of this, you know we were pretty upset, and it could have been a lot worse,” says Gray.

For more on this story see WALB.com