Ga. senators looking to expand broadband delivery to rural Georgia

Gov. Brian Kemp and state health officials confirmed the first cases of coronavirus in Georgia late Monday night. Two people in Fulton County contracted the virus after one of them traveled to Italy.

The virus was contracted by a man traveling from Milan, Italy, returning via Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Both individuals with the virus are quarantined with relatives in their shared home.

The Department of Public Health is working to identify any contacts who may have been exposed while the individuals were infectious. People who are identified as having been exposed will be contacted directly by a DPH epidemiologist and monitored for fever and respiratory symptoms.

Elections supervisor Julianne Roberts likes enthusiastic voters, but for the presidential primary race, where early voting began Monday, some are a little too eager.

“We had 79 early voters the first day,” Roberts said. “But many were here looking to vote for county commissioner or sheriff.”

Unfortunately, those local races won’t be up for decision until the May primary, with early voting starting April 27th.

The only thing to appear on the ballots now active are presidential choices. On the GOP, which normally is chosen by 90 percent of local voters or more, literally the only selection is Donald Trump as the GOP nominee. 

The old Entegra Bank drive-thru property, now owned by the city of Jasper, is one of several projects council took action on at their March meeting. 

After their regular meeting adjourned on Monday, March 2, Jasper Council Member Kirk Raffield said “this is a council in action.”

Raffield’s comment referred to the Jasper City Council’s two-day retreat the previous weekend, in which Jasper Mayor Steve Lawrence, council, department heads, city employees, and others were in attendance. As a result of the retreat, council directed the city manager to either immediately begin work on or to collect quotes for numerous projects. 

Mayor Lawrence, along with other members of council, felt the retreat was productive and positive move for the city. 

See full story in this week's print or online editions. 

Smith Tactical & Defense, owned by Smith and his wife Shannon, custom builds firearms. Here, Smith shows the different barrel sizes they offer. 

[Part of an occasional series on local businesses and craftsmen.]

Some companies sell clothes. Others sell groceries, power tools, or home decor – all familiar and recognizable commodities.  

Then there are those under-the-radar businesses that manufacture and sell items most people don’t consider, businesses like Smith Tool & Design in west Pickens, which recently relocated and has innovative plans for the future.

Owner Brian Smith, who took the company over after his father retired in 2010, showcases some of their work at the front desk. Displayed inside the clear-topped counter, customers can see an arrangement of small - sometimes tiny - metal pieces in a variety of shapes and dimensions. Some look similar to washers, but most are unidentifiable to the average person. 

On a tour of the new 20,000-square-foot facility, which is double the size of their old space, Smith showed some of the items in production that day – little metal parts for COPD machines, others for knee replacement surgeries, pieces that were headed to a