Toombs County, GA

(Left to Right): Cindy Brown, Toombs County Sheriff Alvie Kight, Jr., and Patsy Chester. Toombs County Sheriff Alvie Kight, Jr., recognized two retiring employees from his department at Tuesday night’s meeting of the Toombs County Commissioners. Cindy Brown has worked at the Toombs County Detention Center for 26 years. According...

Construction continues in Lyons on the new Toombs County Courthouse, but that’s not the only building that should interest the residents of the county. At two meetings this week including the Vidalia City Council meeting on Monday night and the Toombs County Commissioners meeting on Tuesday night, members of the Toombs County Library Board appeared to discuss a brand new, unified library that will be completed around the same time the Courthouse is scheduled to be completed.

Hutto, Jr., age 67, of Vidalia, died on June 12, 2021, surrounded by loved ones after a brief illness. Mr. Hutto was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, while his father was serving in the Navy. He grew up in Orlando, FL, and resided in Toombs County since 1987. He was of Presbyterian faith. He was a 1971 graduate of Oak Ridge High School in Orlando. He attended the University of Central Florida, where he pitched for the baseball team. He had a lifelong career in various fields of construction and worked at a seafood market until retirement. He was preceded in death by his parents, Walter Douglas Hutto, Sr., and Glenda Faye Hutto, and 1 uncle, James Green.

A Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT)sponsored project to clean up about five miles of an old railroad line running through Vidalia has some residents of Amberwood Subdivision worried. A news release issued May 11 announced that GDOT is scheduled to begin a railroad corridor rehabilitation project starting in the City...

TOOMBS COUNTY, Ga. -- Toombs County deputies report that as of 4:19 p.m. 53-year-old Marcos Garcia has been found. TOOMBS COUNTY, Ga. -- Investigators in Toombs County are looking for a missing man. Deputies with the Toombs County Sheriff's Office say 53-year-old Marcos Garcia was last seen at 115 Sam...

It’s gone. The swimming hole at the James F. Coleman Bridge on the Ohoopee River at the crossing of the Cobbtown-Lyons Road is gone. The river changed and the swimming hole disappeared. Given my education and experience accumulated over decades, I should have expected it, even predicted it. However, this...

A dramatic 911 call reporting a fire at a residence on Aiken Street in Lyons just before 5 a.m. on March 17 received quick response from four volunteer firefighters, and two citizens were rescued from the flames. After the 911 call and photos were presented by video in the Council.

Toombs County High School hosted a four-day summer camp that focused on providing students with an overview of the industries in our county that could lead to a career path. Students were presented with a soft skill learning lesson and industry tours each day. The goal of the workshop was to provide students with opportunities in occupational skills, an expanded career exploration, and guidance in identifying local employment opportunities. Students were able to make valuable connections with local industries while learning all about the business. TCHS would like to thank the participating industries:

Called MeetingNotice of the Toombs County Board of Education. The Toombs County Board of Education will have a called meeting on Thursday June 10, 2021 at 12:00 pm at the board of education located at 600-1 Bulldog Road, Lyons, Georgia 30436. The purpose of the meeting is to approve the FY 22 tentative budget.

From Georgia Department Of Natural Resources, Wildlife Resources Division. The effort to find and remove tegus from the wild in southeast Georgia is taking a new twist this year. But the public’s help remains critical to keeping these big, South American lizards from getting a toehold in the state. The...

A Vidalia man who was wanted in connection with a May 22 shooting at a local motel has been captured by Bulloch County authorities. Christopher Lee Powell, 36, was arrested on May 26 at a Statesboro motel and returned to Toombs County to face multiple felony charges. Powell is a...

The Toombs County School System has been announced as a National Beta District of Distinction. This award is given to those deserving districts who offer National Beta in all schools in their district, and who induct qualifying students in all eligible grades (4-12). Toombs County School System is one of only 24 districts to receive this award nationwide.

A second suspect has been arrested in connection with the murder of Zacheriah Douglas Wright, 20, of Toombs County. Wright was found wounded on RT Lane in rural Montgomery County on May 17 and transported to Memorial Health Meadows Hospital in Vidalia where he died a short time later, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) reported. An autopsy was performed on Wright and preliminary results.

In this week’s edition, the community, through the pages of The Advance, salutes the graduating classes of Toombs, Montgomery and Wheeler counties. Each graduate’s photo is showcased in this special issue, along with congratulatory messages from the community. Congratulations to the 2021 graduates and best wishes for a future filled with opportunities and promise. We are very proud of.

VIDALIA, Ga. — A Jacksonville man is facing murder charges in Georgia linked to the death of a Toombs County man earlier this week. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says 35-year-old Willie James Rogers has been charged with murdering 20-year-old Zacheriah Douglas Wright in rural Montgomery County on Monday. Wright was found on RT Lane with a gunshot wound to his torso. He was taken to Meadows Regional Medical Center in Vidalia, where he died.

TOOMBS COUNTY, Ga. — Above video: Your Friday headlines. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says a 35-year-old Jacksonville, Fla. man has been charged with murder in connection to the death of a Toombs County man. On Wednesday, the GBI says it obtained arrest warrants for Willie James Rogers on charges...

Left to right: Superintendent Barry Waller, Deann Odom, Lou Beall, Lisa Bishop, Angela Findley, Vicki Caraway, Jennifer Floyd, Marion Brian, Rosemary Wickstrom, Gail Mason, and Bobby Waller. (Not pictured: Jessie Johnson, Celestine Gillis, and Rita Curl). Toombs County School System honored its retiring educators at its May Board of Education...

A Toombs County man was sentenced to life in prison Thursday for an incident that occurred in February 2019 at a Vidalia restaurant. On February 23, 2019, Roderick Harvey, Jr., of Alamo and Rosanna Simpson of Vidalia were in the Vidalia Huddle House in the early morning hours when Zeary Devontae Davis confronted them. A verbal altercation continued into the parking lot and when Harvey and Simpson started to leave the restaurant, Davis fired upon the vehicle, striking Harvey, and causing him to lose control and colliding with a tree on Highway 280.

Funeral services for Mr. Albert Jared Collins (aka “Big Country”) will be held Friday, May 21, 2021 at 11 AM in the Liberty Baptist Church in Lyons, GA. Burial will follow in the Old Reedy Cemetery in Toombs County. Reverend Bradley Benton and Reverend Michael Plowmen will officiate. Mr. Collins died Sunday, May 16, 2021 at his home.

I began my education in a two-room, seven-grade country school, Marietta School, in Toombs County. There were hundreds of others similar to it in rural Georgia at the time, 1940. The first three grades met in one room with one teacher and grades four through seven were taught in another room by a second teacher. There were still a few one-room schools, one teacher for seven grades.