Ellaville City Election is Nov. 3
Qualifying for the four seats on the Ellaville City Council ended with only one contested race.
Carlton Wilson, incumbent, and Grant Hingle both qualified for the District 4 seat.
Jason Hoch was the only one to qualify or the District 3 seat. Janet Ellis qualified for her District 2 seat, and incumbent Leslie  Minter qualified in District 1.
The Ellaville City Election will be held on Nov. 3 along with all other elections

Phoebe Sumter Medical Center holds town hall meeting
On Sept. 10, Phoebe Sumter Medical Center held a town hall meeting on health care in the Ellaville City Center.
Phoebe Sumter CEO Brandi Lunneborg opened the meeting and gave a speech on rural health care. She said Phoebe Sumter has a board that wants to get suggestions from residents here in Ellaville and Schley County on improving special areas of health care. She said there are signs that show Schley, Macon and Sumter counties’ populations will decrease by 2% in 2018. The population is aging with people who have health care issues. Cuts in funding and  unhealthy lifestyles are going to be a problem. Lunneborg said that respiratory problems topped the list. People that are discharged from the hospital with these problems usually later have heart and digestive conditions.
She also mentioned our local services like Clinical Care, Schley County Health Department and social services work together as a team to improve the health level here.
There were ideas from those that attended the meeting about nutrition classes for school children. Many other suggestions were made.
Those  from Phoebe Sumter attending, in addition to Lunneborg, were Operations Director Mike Waldel, Nursing Director Laura Murphy and Marketing Director Marcus Johnson.
This was a very interesting meeting and educational as well .

A special thank you for the historic society auction
The Ellaville-Schley County Historical Society and I thank each and everyone of you who supported our third annual auction. It was  big success and everyone enjoyed themselves by being with friends and family, dining and bidding at the auction.
I believe that everyone bought quilt tickets that were raffled off  that night. The winner was Marie Willis Jordan of Vienna and the 50/50 drawing was won by Helen Willis Murphy of Cordele. Guess what? They are sisters. This lovely quilt and pillow shams were made by Lettie Royal just for our auction.
Other special things that happened Saturday night: We sold five Memorial and one Honor to go onto the Memorial Wall in the courthouse when they complete the renovations. The plaques will be hung on the Memorial Wall for everyone to see. The wall will be in the courthouse rotunda. You may purchase a plate to be put on the plaque at any time for loved ones, in memory of or to honor someone. Just contact the person below. We also have a new member as of Saturday night.
We really appreciate all the support we got from businesses and  donations from everyone as well as the buyers that came and the ladies who made cakes to be sold and auctioned.
All proceeds go to help preserve our history here. Again, thank  you to the  Auction Committee as well as all members who helped in so many ways.
For more information on the Memorial and Honor Plaque contact me at 937-2116. You do not have to live here to be a member or to place a name on the Memorial or Honor Wall.

Schley County Schools rate Best Schools in Georgia
The Schley County Schools are rated the Best Schools in Georgia. Schley County School Superintendent Adam Hathaway shared this great news with me.
Whether you are starting a family, selling your home or choosing a new city to live and work in, strength and reputation of an area’s  public school district is a great importance to parents. All of this information was gotten off the Web.
Start Class sifted through data from the U.S. Department of Education and identified the best school districts in every state. Each school district is evaluated using the Smart Rating System and scored on a scale from 1 to 100.
The ratings are primarily based of students’ math and reading proficiency on state assessment tests, with other institutional factors considered as well as the students, teachers’ ratio and student discipline, etc. Each state’s selection for “Best School District” is determined by the highest average Smart Rating of all the schools in the districts. Districts that have only one school or have a charter school were not included. It’s important to note that each state defines the term “school district” differently, for example, Hawaii and Washington, D.C., each has one school district for all schools in the state or territory. Other states have districts with a mix of school type – as in elementary schools, junior high and high schools all together in one school district.
Here are the top two schools in Georgia. Georgia ranks 39 among the United States and the two top schools are here in Schley County: Schley County Elementary School and  Schley County Middle and High School.
We all here in Ellaville and Schley County are so proud to have such a great school system. Thank to so much to the principals, teachers, students, board of education and parents for all you do to make our schools the best.

City gives update on streetscape project
The City of Ellaville is anticipating that the park renovation  should be completed within the month, according to the contractor. We’re very excited about the park coming to a completion and hope everyone will love it.
The streetscape project, which includes the sidewalks around the town square, has no completion date at this time. Unfortunately we were not able to come to an agreement with the GDOT contractor and at the Sept. 14 City Council meeting, the Council voted to terminate the contract with the contractor. The city is in process of obtaining a new contractor to complete the project.
We plan to get the construction restarted and complete as soon as possible. The city appreciates everyone’s patience and cooperation during this time.
— From the Ellaville City manager

Dillard family visits son at college
On Sept. 19, Jody and Donna Dillard and their daughter Payton Dillard went to Statesboro to visit their son and brother Jacob Dillard who is a student at Georgia Southern University.
They were served a barbecue lunch at the Family Day at Sigma Nu fraternity, which Jacob has been invited to join. After lunch they attended the Georgia Southern vs. Citadel football game and watched Georgia Southern win.
Jacob is in engineering school and has settled into college life really well.
They got back home to Ellaville about 1:30  a.m. Sept. 20.