Mold Remediation in Columbus, GA

A historic rivalry between two college football programs has returned to Columbus in time to celebrate its 85th anniversary.

The 85th Annual Tuskegee vs. Morehouse Football Classic is set to kickoff Saturday at 2 p.m. at A.J. McClung Memorial Stadium in Columbus. Other popular events associated with the game, including tailgating at South Commons next to the stadium and a parade before the game, have also returned.

“We’re back at home, we’re back at home,” said Tuskegee head football coach Aaron James, “So it’s been a long time, a long time coming.”

James was among several speakers at a luncheon Wednesday afternoon at the Columbus Civic Center hosted by the event’s organizing committee for the media, and area football coaches and players.

The game was a mainstay in the Chattahoochee Valley through the 2019 game, before moving to Birmingham, Alabama, for the 2021-2023 games.

The main purpose of the Tuskegee-Morehouse Football Classic is to raise money for scholarships to help young men and women go to college, according to the event’s website.

Classic Chairperson Lisa Goodwin is asking the community to support the schools and help raise the game’s profile by purchasing a ticket, and attending the game in person.

“The one thing that we have got to do is fill the stands,” Goodwin said. “And that’s not just from our universities, but from the community, the surrounding community.”

Goodwin said there’s an important change for tailgating this year: there’s a $5 entry fee to access the tailgating area, unless you have a game ticket, a classic pass or paid parking. Youth K-12 receive free entry, according to a banner at the main entrance of the Columbus Civic Center.

“That’s going to help offset some of things we need to do in order to send scholarship money to these schools,” Goodwin said.

Also returning is the 85th Annual Classic Parade. The Parade will begin at 9 a.m. in Phenix City at the corner of Broad and Dillingham streets, go north on Broad to 13th Street, cross the 13th Street bridge into Columbus, and then proceed down Broadway where it will finish at 9th Street.

More information is available on tusgekeemorehouse.com.

This story was originally published October 3, 2024, 1:42 PM.

As the executive director of the Asheville Downtown Association, Hayden Plemmons’ job is to promote business and tourism for that western North Carolina city — not provide it hurricane relief.

But that’s what this Harris County High School graduate has been doing this week in Columbus.

Plemmons, whose last name was Harrison when she attended HCHS, evacuated from Asheville with her husband, Tim, and drove approximately 300 miles to her childhood home in Ellerslie on Friday night after Hurricane Helene hit.

When the storm made landfall at 11:10 p.m. Thursday in the Big Bend area of Florida, it was a Category 4 hurricane with 140 mph winds, and the forecast called for Columbus to be in its path of severe impact.

But by the time Helene crossed into Georgia early Friday morning as a Category 2 hurricane with 100 mph winds, its path had shifted eastward. Although the storm caused some damage and brief power outages in the Columbus area, it was spared devastation. Instead, Helene produced widespread destruction and flooding, with more than 160 reported deaths, elsewhere in the Southeast, including Asheville, where it dumped 14 inches of rain.

“We made it out, by the grace of God,” Plemmons told the Ledger-Enquirer.

So she went from being worried about how Hurricane Helene would effect her hometown to seeking refuge there.

After they arrived in Harris County, she wanted to find a way to help Asheville. Plemmons realized, because of this storm, Columbus and Asheville now share more than both cities being destinations for whitewater adventure: While one community is grateful to escape Helene’s wreckage, the other is grateful for assistance.

All of which led to the establishment of River to River Relief, the Columbus area’s resource drive to aid Asheville’s recovery.

Plemmons and her team are collecting large-format water (jugs of 2-5 gallons), propane, batteries, body wipes, linens, hand sanitizer and paper/plastic products for meals.

“Clothing donations are not being accepted at this time,” she said, “as the focus remains on urgent essentials.”

Collection points are at:

For updates on donation drop-off locations, collection times and other ways to help River to River Relief, visit www.ashevilledowntown.org.

Plemmons requests anyone who has access to large vehicles that could be used to help deliver the supplies to email her at hayden@ashevilledowntown.org.

Plemmons said she and her husband are fortunate to live on a hill in Asheville, so their property wasn’t flooded. But her neighborhood had numerous fallen trees and lost water service and cellphone service.

“Honestly, we’re very blessed to have made it out before bridges started to collapse,” she said. “… We have a lot of folks (in Asheville) that are unaccounted for. Our city and our county are working as hard as humanly possible to get folks access to water.

“Our infrastructure for water was already pretty inferior for what we needed because of the growth that Asheville has experienced over the last few years, and they’re anticipating weeks — we’re hearing four to six weeks — before members of our community will get water back.”

Plemmons further described Hurricane Helene’s aftermath in Asheville.

“We’re talking about entire businesses and buildings being completely washed away, actually gone, and other businesses that are completely flooded,” she said. “We could only see rooftops. … It is catastrophic damage.”

To her knowledge, Plemmons said, none of the roughly 650 member businesses of the Asheville Downtown Association are able to operate.

“We’re looking at six to eight weeks for that,” she said. “… The River Arts District is decimated.”

Plemmons noted even relief organizations are hesitant to come to Asheville “because there’s no water for their own people. They don’t want to take resources away from others.”

Despite being in this job for only 18 months, Plemmons said she already has “fallen in love” with Asheville.

“The people of Appalachia are different,” she said. “They’re so special, and they really rally around one another.”

Now, she wants folks in the Chattahoochee Valley to rally around them. Plemmons is pleased with the Columbus area’s response so far.

“Super helpful,” she said. “… I’m proud to call both of these places home.”

This story was originally published October 2, 2024, 12:00 PM.

Follow more of our reporting on Stories shared from The Ledger-Enquirer’s Instagram account

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Customers are reporting issues with their cellular services. Here's what Verizon's website says about potential outages in areas like Macon, Atlanta, Columbus, etc.

Credit: AP

MACON, Ga. — Some Verizon customers are reporting outages and disruptions to service Monday morning, including here in Georgia.

Right now, Verizon has not said much about what is causing the outage.

"We are aware of an issue impacting service for some customers," Verizon said on X, formerly known as Twitter. "Our engineers are engaged and we are working quickly to identify and solve the issue."

The outage has put many cellular users in SOS mode, which is the mode phones go into when they can't connect to a wireless network. The issues have hit areas across the United States.

Here's a look at what Verizon's website says about outages in the metropolitan areas of Georgia as of noon Monday.

In Macon, Warner Robins and Dublin, Verizon says that there are still some lingering impacts to service due to Hurricane Helene. They say this is related to power outages and "extensive fiber damage" caused during the storm.

"Verizon is committed to keeping our customers connected and our crews will be out working until connectivity is fully restored," the company said.

There is a known outage in Atlanta affecting data, voice, text and wireless home internet services.

According to their website, the outage started just before 8:30 a.m. Monday morning.

Based on their own anticipated end time, they expect the issues to remain until just before 8:30 p.m. Monday evening

Verizon says there may be a potential network disruption in the Columbus area. Just before 2 p.m., the Verizon site says they are "aware of an issue impacting service for some customers."

The site says that it is mainly impacting wireless service and not data, voice, text or home internet as Atlanta reported.

They say they're "working quickly to identify and solve the issue." However, they don't offer a timetable for the issue being resolved.

There is a known outage in Valdosta, which dates back to the early hours Sept. 27.

That is around when Helene hit the Valdosta area.

They say data, voice, text and wireless home internet services are limited.

The good news, however, is that Verizon reports that service should be restored at around 2 p.m. Monday.

However, just before 2 p.m., Verizon reported that they were dealing with the same issues reported in Columbus, impacting customers' wireless services.

According to Verizon's website, Savannah is still facing lingering impacts from Hurricane Helene, as is the case in Macon.

Verizon is also reporting impacts to wireless service in Albany just before 2 p.m. The message is the same as the issue for Columbus.

As is the case in Columbus, they say they're working to resolve the issue but don't say when they think service will be restored.

Augusta is also still dealing with some network restoration issues stemming from Hurricane Helene, Verizon's website reports.

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The Harris County softball team had reached the state semifinals in each of the past two seasons, but the Tigers lost both times to the Northside Patriots, their Columbus-area rival, who went on to win those two straight championships.

Saturday, with former Northside head coach Brandon Jenkins now guiding Harris County, the Tigers completed their climb to the top. They beat Eastside-Covington 8-0 in the final round of the Georgia High School Association Class AAAA state tournament at South Commons in Columbus.

It is the HCHS softball program’s second state title. The Tigers won the Class AAA championship in 2000.

Harris County junior Riley Huckaby pitched a complete-game shutout, allowing five hits and no walks with three strikeouts. The starting lineup’s only two seniors, shortstop Lani Dansby and third baseman Linsley Brown, sparked the offense.

Dansby, who will play in college for Georgia Southwestern, hit a lead-off home run and followed with another homer in the second inning. She finished 2-for-4 with three RBI. Brown, who will play in college for North Georgia, went 3-for-3 with a double and RBI.

“It was just a really good day,” Huckaby told the Ledger-Enquirer. “It’s really exciting. I’m really glad that we finally won. I think everything clicked together, and we just all really played as a team.”

Huckaby noted the support she received from her teammates helped her relax and focus on her pitching.

“I just felt like, with the runs we were able to produce, we were in a good spot, as long as I did my job on the mound,” she said. “I’m really proud of our defense. I didn’t strike out too many batters, but every time the ball was in play, I just knew that I was going to get the help I needed.”

Reflecting on what enabled these Tigers to break through this year after getting so close to the title the previous two seasons, Huckaby said, “I think we all just kind of jelled together more as a team, honestly, and we just trusted the whole process, and we all bought into everything that we were taught.”

Jenkins taught the Tigers “a bunch of new drills” and “noticed who needed to be where,” Huckaby said. But the ability to finally prevail over Northside in the state tournament perhaps was boosted by losing to the Patriots in the regular season.

After edging the Patriots 7-6 at home Aug. 15, the Tigers lost 5-1 at Northside on Sept. 19.

However, instead of chewing out the players, Jenkins compassionately told them they didn’t play well but he still loves them and wouldn’t want to coach anybody else.

“It was a pretty big turning point,” Huckaby said. “We all kind of thought we were going to get yelled at. But when he said that, we were all like it’s just nice to know that he wasn’t mad at us and he didn’t regret his decision. … That kind of brought us closer together.”

The Tigers (34-3) went undefeated through this double-elimination tournament featuring eight Class AAAA teams. They beat Ola 3-2 Wednesday, Eastside 7-4 Thursday and Northside 9-0 Friday.

Jenkins told the Ledger-Enquirer he appreciates his assistant coaches, who also were new to the program, and the players for “buying into everything we were teaching them. For everything to come full circle, it’s pretty awesome.”

Before the tournament, Jenkins reminded the players they had put in the hard work, starting with offseason workouts in January, to prepare and deserve this chance for a state championship.

Then he told them, “Everybody at this level in the Elite Eight is talented and good enough to win. So it comes down to who wants it more.”

Jenkins acknowledged his sometimes-loud and aggressive coaching style would have been a “huge adjustment” for the players. That’s why he toned down his approach early in the season — especially after the loss to Northside.

“You have to earn their trust as a coach,” he said. “Once you get that trust, they’ll do anything for you. … These girls, they’ll run through a wall for you now.”

Harris County athletics director Mindy Johnson described the impact Jenkins has made on the HCHS softball program since he left Northside after three state titles in 11 seasons with the Patriots.

“His coaching experience is second to none,” Johnson told the Ledger-Enquirer in a text message. “He has the ability to be very strategic in all of his coaching decisions. He has assembled a top-notch coaching staff and has the ability to trust their coaching decisions and build them up.”

Johnson also is impressed with the player development under Jenkins’ tutelage.

“Not only does he develop the player but the individual student-athlete and teaches them through softball the game of life,” she said. “Coach Jenkins also faces issues head on. He has established a strong and steady atmosphere and has built the beginnings of a team culture that is sure to continue year to year. He has led us extremely well to a state championship, and I could not be more proud.”

This story was originally published November 2, 2024, 5:25 PM.

Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

706-576-6272

Ledger-Enquirer staff writer Mark Rice covers education and other issues related to youth. He also writes feature stories about any compelling topic. He has been reporting in Columbus and the Chattahoochee Valley for more than a quarter-century. He welcomes your local news tips and questions.

GEORGIA (WRBL) — A number of notable races are on the ballot for 2024. You can view the latest Georgia results as they come in below:

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