No Tax Weekend

July 29, 2016

Tifton, Georgia

(478) 227-7126

www.tiftongrapevine.com

SALES TAX HOLIDAY THIS WEEKEND

TIFT SCHOOLS OPEN TUESDAY, AUG. 2

The Georgia Department of Revenue reminds all Georgians that they may purchase certain items tax free during the "Back to School" sales tax holiday this weekend.

The sales tax holiday begins on Saturday, July 30, and runs through Sunday, July 31, and allows shoppers in Georgia to purchase many work- and school-related goods, tax free.

Georgia's sales tax holiday also covers clothing and computers, as well as school supplies, and could provide a much-needed lift to many small stores and businesses, says the National Federation of Independent Business.

For details about what's exempt from state sales tax this weekend, Click Here!

The sales tax holiday is just in time for the opening of Tift County schools on Tuesday, Aug. 2.

For the seventh year, local residents plan to gather outside each Tift County school from 9:30 to 10 a.m. Saturday, July 30, for a brief prayer for all students, staff and faculty for the upcoming school year.

The " Day of Prayer for Tift County Schools" is held annually on the last Saturday before school begins " to ask God for protection, provision, and productivity for the new school year."

For parents or students with questions about the upcoming school term in Tift County, the school system has an updated section online encompassing such topics as bus schedules, school supplies and arrival/dismissal times.

To access it, Click Here!

TIFTON NATIVE'S FILM

SCORES BIG AT COMIC-CON

'MONSTERS' STARRING CAITLIN CARMICHAEL WINS TOP AWARD

Tifton native Caitlin Carmichael, star of films and television, is said to be "over the moon" after her short

film, "Monsters," received two awards, including the top prize, at last weekend's San Diego Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival.

"Monsters," in which Caitlin, 12, has the lead role, won the award for Best Horror/Suspense Film and also received the Judges' Choice Award for best film.

Produced by Aaron Billet and directed by Steve Desmond, "Monsters" is a short film in the vein of the old "Twilight Zone" TV show.

The film also stars Ione Skye and Christopher Wiehl. Skye is best known for the films "Say Anything..." and "Wayne's World;" and for roles in the TV shows


	VIDEO: Click to see film

"Covington Cross," "Arrested Development," and "Private Practice." Wiehl is a veteran TV actor who has appeared on episodes of "CSI," "JAG," "Touched by an Angel," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "ER," "Monk," "Body of Proof" and "Switched at Birth."

Caitlin is currently filming a Hallmark TV movie about a mermaid and has several other projects in the works. She is the daughter of Cathy and Tom Carmichael, a partner in a Tifton CPA firm.

'MR. AGRIRAMA' FORD SPINKS DIES

Former state Sen. Ford B. Spinks, 89, of Tifton, who led the effort to create the Georgia Agrirama in Tifton, died at his home on Wednesday.

"We lost a beloved member of our museum family this morning," the Georgia Museum of Agriculture and Historic Village posted on its Facebook page Wednesday. "Mr. Spinks, a former state senator,


FORD SPINKS

spearheaded the efforts to build Georgia's museum of agricultural history, which opened to the public as the Agrirama on July 1, 1976. Without Mr. Spink's contributions and dedication to preserving Georgia's rich, rural agricultural history, we would not be in existence today," the statement reads.

Spinks, born in Excelsior, served in the Army during World War II, attended Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and ran two successful campaigns for the Georgia State Senate, leaving the Legislature in 1971. He was appointed a Public Service Commissioner in 1971, a post he held until 1989.

Spinks was a farm equipment dealer, owning and operating Tifton Tractor Co. He served as a director of South Georgia Banking Co. and as chairman of the Coastal Plain Area Tourism Council. He was inducted into the Tifton-Tift County Chamber of Commerce Wall of Fame in 2000. He was a member of Salem Baptist Church, where he sang in the church choir and was a deacon.

We've Got Spirit;

Yes,We Do!

Shop Annie's Place in Tifton for all your children's cheerleading outfits and jerseys.

Dress in style to show your spirit for the

Tift County Blue Devils and Tiftarea Panthers.

In stock sizes 2T to size 12. Smaller sizes for babies can also be customed ordered.

We carry blank cheerleading uniforms that we can custom monogram for that special little cheerleader.

Stop in and see

our adorable

bookbags!

Need

Monogramming?

Remember:

Annie's is

the Place!

We hope to see you at the games!

We are located at 1019 Love Avenue, Tifton, GA.

Phone 229-238-2851

TIFTON NATIVE STONE NAMED TO HALL OF FAME

Tifton native Bobby Stone, one of the top athletes ever to come from the Friendly City, is being inducted into the Jackson Parish Sports Hall of Fame in Jonesboro, La.

Stone was a star at Tifton High School during the 1940s, playing football, baseball and basketball; he was an all-district player throughout his high school career. Stone was also a junior college All- American while playing football at South Georgia Junior College in 1947.

While spending four years in the Air Force, he played for the military team that won the U.S. Armed Forces football championship.

Stone was also an All-Gulf States Conference linebacker for Louisiana Tech and was Jonesboro-Hodge High School, La., football and track coach for nine years. His football teams won 47 games and three district championships. He was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award at the University of Louisiana-Monroe Bayou Classic in 2008.

Stone is the brother of Jack Stone, a Downtown Tifton business owner who is well-known in town for his half-century of community service.

"Best-Selling Truck for 39 Straight Years"

511 West 7th Street

(229) 382-1300

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NEW GREENHOUSE COMPLEX OPENING SOON

ON UGA TIFTON CAMPUS

On the University of Georgia's Tifton campus , antiquated facilities are being replaced with a new greenhouse complex to support UGA's expanding warm-season turfgrass program.

The project is expected to be complete within a month.

"The necessity for new greenhouse facilities has become more critical during the past few years so that the level of research and development which has come to be expected from UGA's Tifton Campus Turfgrass Breeding Program can continue," UGA turfgrass researcher Brian Schwartz said when the replacement project began.

Schwartz currently works in greenhouses built more than a half-century ago.

The $1.4 million project in Tifton is part of a larger turfgrass renovation effort across the UGA system. New complexes are also being built in Athens and Griffin. The goal of the new facilities is to enhance the college's undergraduate and graduate education programs, enable turf scientists to conduct high-level research and allow UGA to retain and recruit top scientists in support of Georgia's turf industry.

The UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences supports Georgia's $7.8 billion turfgrass industry. Turfgrass is one of Georgia's top crops, providing 87,000 full- and part-time jobs and 17 percent of the state's farm gate value.

ABAC OPENS LAB SCIENCES BUILDING

The $8.5 million laboratory sciences building at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton was dedicated on Wednesday.

The 20,966-square-foot facility contains eight laboratories focusing on general biology, microbiology, molecular biology, general chemistry, tissue culture, organic chemistry, and anatomy/physiology.

Participating in the DNA Helix ribbon cutting are, from left, Brooke Appleton, Lynn Lovett, Dr. Johnny Evans, ABAC President David Bridges, Kenna Scragg, Rob Evans and Sarah Rooks.

ABAC ALUM TO SPEAK AT CONVOCATION

Buzzing with nervous anticipation, hundreds of freshmen will enter Gressette Gymnasium on Aug. 9 for the 12th Annual Freshman Convocation at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College.


TURCOTTE

The 11 a.m. ceremony serves as the opening of the academic year; classes begin Aug. 10.

This year's convocation speaker is Dr. Thomas Turcotte. A native of Jasper, he graduated from Pickens County High School before entering ABAC in 2008. As a student, he was an ABAC Ambassador, a campus assistant, a Welcome Week leader, a math and science tutor, an ASSETS scholar, and an active member in multiple clubs.

Turcotte was one of the first students at ABAC to take advantage of the junior- and senior-level classes leading to a bachelor's degree in biology. He received his ABAC bachelor's degree in biology in spring 2012 and was accepted into the Auburn University veterinary medicine program in the fall of 2012.

He graduated from Auburn this year and is now a veterinarian at Barnesville Animal Clinic, treating both small and large animals.

IT'S HOT, AND IT'S AFFECTING AGRICULTURE

As of this week, 2016 has entered the top 10 in terms of years with the most consecutive days over 95 degrees.

Even for a Georgia summer, it's hot, it's dry and it doesn't look like it will be letting up anytime soon, said Pam Knox, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension's agricultural climatologist.

"Everywhere in the state is basically in the top 10 as far as days over 95 degrees," Knox said. "If you look at nighttime temperatures, they also have been higher than normal, and on average they're increasing faster than the daytime highs. That's important because livestock need those cool nights to recover or they can become stressed."

The same goes for crops and people, she added.

"That's what's amazing to me -- the relentlessness of it," she said.

While the heat makes it hard, or even dangerous, to work or play outdoors, one of the most serious impacts has been the heat's contribution to the ongoing drought.

The lack of rainfall combined with the persistent high temperatures has the upper half of the state in severe or extreme drought, according the U.S. Drought Monitor.

While South Georgia has fared a little better than North Georgia, the state's row-crop powerhouse counties are going through a dry spell, putting peanuts, corn and cotton grown without irrigation in peril as they enter their peak growing season.

"Farmers expect that they're going to get about an inch of rain a week during the summer," Knox said. "The crops may need more than that with this heat, but they at least need that inch and they need it every week. If they don't get it every week, the plants begin to shut down."

Over the last decade and a half, many farmers have installed irrigation systems in their row crop fields, but there are still thousands of acres of dryland fields across the state. It's not clear yet how those farmers will fare.

Honor those who are ﬁghting cancer and remember those whose battle was lost by donating to the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network with your purchase of a Lights of Hope luminary bag.

Your donation of $10 or more per bag will help the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network urge lawmakers to make the ﬁght against cancer a national priority.

Lee Turner of Tifton will take the local luminary bags to Washington, D.C.

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YOUR WEEKEND

...at a Glance

FRIDAY, JULY 29

Stuff the Bus, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Walmart parking lot, U.S. Highway 82, Tifton

'Shrek Jr., The Musical,' 7 p.m., Tift Theatre for the Performing Arts, Tifton

SATURDAY, JULY 30

Kickoff to Men's Health, 8-11:30 a.m., Tift Regional Community Events Center, Carpenter Road, Tifton
Downtown Tifton Farmer's Market, 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Old Train Depot Platform, Tifton
Wiregrass Farmers Market, 9 a.m.-Noon, Georgia Museum of Agriculture, Tifton
Day of Prayer for Tift County Schools, 9:30-10 a.m., outside every Tift County school
Mims Kids Stay in School Rally, Noon-3 p.m., Tift County Recreation Department, Tifton
'Shrek Jr., The Musical,' 7 p.m., Tift Theatre for the Performing Arts