Fort Benning, Columbus ready for Gustav's brunt

Fort Benning is mobilizing to support evacuation and medical efforts for storm-hit areas.

The Department of Defense has placed the infantry training base, along with five others in the southeas Federal Emergency Management Agency logistics staging areas for supplies and equipment.

Nearby, the Columbus branch of the American Red Cross says they have opened an emergency center for evacuees fleeing areas expecting to be hit by Hurricane Gustav sometime Monday.

The center is located at the Calvary Christian School on 7556 Old Moon Road.

Across the Chattahoochee River in Alabama, Russell County is also preparing, and has designated Chattahoochee Valley Community College in Phenix City as an emergency evacuation center.

Click here for more GPB News coverage on Hurricane Gustav.

Jobs funding for Chattahoochee Valley

Columbus, The Chattahoochee River, and Phenix City, Ala. (Dave Bender)

The Georgia Office of Workforce Development presented a $3 million grant to the Valley Partnership on Wednesday.

The group spearheads economic development in Georgia and Alabama along the Chattahoochee valley, and includes representatives from Chattahoochee, Harris, Marion, Muscogee, Talbot and Taylor counties in Georgia, and Phenix City, Alabama.

The funds are part of a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor and will be used to create jobs in automotive maintenance and aerospace manufacturing; communications and IT, and industrial construction, and are earmarked, in part for nearby Fort Benning according to the Columbus Chamber of Commerce.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of Georgia economic development, and here to read more about events at Fort Benning.

Suspect admits to Burk killing

A man charged with the murder of Marietta resident and Auburn University student, 18-year-old Lauren Burk has admitted to the killing, according to police and school officials.

Courtney Lockhart, charged with capital murder in the abduction and shooting death of Auburn University student Lauren Burk. (AP Photo/Auburn Police Department)

"According to arrest affidavits read Monday, March 10, 2008, in Lee County Circuit Court, suspect Courtney Larrell Lockhart confessed to police in the case of Auburn student Lauren Burk's death, which led to the capital murder charges filed against him on Saturday, March 8." a university statement said.

Alabama resident Lockhart, 23, described verbally and in writing how he abducted Burk from the school grounds. He then robbed her, drove her around, told her to take her clothes off and shot her with a handgun, according to court documents.

Phenix City police arrested Lockhart on Friday. Lockhart is also suspected in an armed robbery in a Columbus department store parking lot last Thursday.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of this story.

(With the Associated Press)

CSU: Man arrested for bomb threats, guns

CSU police. (CSU)

Columbus State University Police arrested a Phenix City man Monday morning, just after they believe he made his fifth bomb threat against the institution.

Lawrence E. Price, 45, of 67 McMurrian Drive, was charged with five counts of making terrorist threats, and one count each of carrying a weapon to school, possession of a firearm in the commission of a crime and obstruction of a peace officer, according to a CSU statement.

University Police identified a location where the calls had originated and during an undercover operation Monday morning, and identified the suspect after a call indicating the presence of a bomb at CSU was made to the Columbus Police Department and to the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. Police closed in and arrested Price in a university parking lot.

Inside Price’s 1997 pickup truck, officials found two rifles, a shotgun, a small handgun, a compound bow, an axe, an antique saw, three bottles of alcohol and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. A Bomb Squad dog checked Price and his truck thoroughly and found no indication of explosives. University Police alerted the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Phenix City Police.

The incident follows two bomb threats against the university in the last two weeks. Officials evacuated the faculty building for several hours after the second call.

The Columbus Police Department, the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office, the county’s bomb squad, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took part in the investigation.

Price was enrolled in the biology program, the statement said.

Click here for related GPB coverage, and here for coverage of CSU affairs.

Columbus: four ill with West Nile Virus

Four cases of West Nile Virus have been diagnosed in Columbus since last month, health officials report.

Columbus West Central Health District Program Manager Ed Saidla told GPB News that this is the time of the year when individuals are most likely to contract the disease:

“Persons who are elderly, or have other health conditions are often more likely not to survive West Nile Virus than those who are healthy at the time of infection. However – west Nile Virus can cause serious, life-changing events to even healthy individuals. Anybody can wind up with the virus, so it's important that they take precautions.”

The West Central Health District recommends the following steps to limit exposure to the mosquitoes that carry the virus:

Mosquitoes need water to breed. They can breed in any puddle or standing water that remains more than four days. By removing areas of standing water, you will eliminate breeding grounds and reduce the number of mosquitoes.

Dispose of old tires. Regularly empty any metal cans, ceramic flowerpots, bottles, jars, buckets, and other water-holding containers on your property.

Turn over plastic wading pools, outdoor toys and wheelbarrows when not in use.

Repair leaky pipes and outside faucets.

Keep gutters cleared and sloped to the downspout.

Drill holes in the bottom of recycling containers that are left outdoors.

Keep swimming pools clean and properly chlorinated. Remove standing water from pool covers.

Make sure windows and screens are in good condition.

Purchase and use Mosquito Dunks (a larvicide used to kill mosquito larvae) to control mosquitoes in areas with standing water and in containers that cannot be dumped.

Mosquitoes that carry the West Nile Virus bite during the evening, night and early morning. Take precautions to protect yourself and your family during these periods.

Wear long-sleeved shirts, long pants, and socks when outdoors, especially at dawn and dusk.

Consider using insect repellent containing DEET. Be sure to follow the instructions on the label.

For more information on the West Nile Virus and prevention methods, contact your local health department Environmental Health Department.

Saidla could not verify an earlier newspaper report of a fatality in Alabama from the disease:

"The quote that was reported in the newspaper was a misunderstanding in terms of the question that was being asked, and was really more in reference to the gentleman who was 80-years-old and died up in Clayton County, that was confirmed from West Nile Virus."

Click here for more GPB coverage of the health threat.

New Civil War film focuses on Columbus

The "Battle for Columbus," dubbed by historians as the last official battle of the Civil War is the focus of a Georgia Public Broadcasting film, set to air Wednesday night at 10 p.m on WJSP tv.

Filmmakers Rickard Elliot Lifshey and James Bridges spent two years working on the production.

"It has all the elements of a great story and is one that should be told,"

Lifshey told the Ledger-Enquirer newspaper.

Columbus historians and journalists were interviewed for the film, and scenes were shot in and around Columbus, Phenix City, Ala., and several surrounding counties.

July 4th: 'Thunder On The Hooch' wows crowds

Rockets' red glare over crowds at Columbus State University.
(Photo: Dave Bender)
Columbus, Georgia and Phenix City, Alabama celebrated a joyous July 4th along the Chattahoochee River at the “Thunder On The Hooch,” celebration.

Spectators packed the downtown river walks and the Dillingham bridge connecting the cities, from early afternoon until late Wednesday night, waiting for the fireworks show to start.

A family and children gaze up at the sky show.
(Photo: Dave Bender)
Meanwhile, families thronged spinning amusement park rides and painted their faces with American flags and sparkles, as the afternoon settled to dusk.

At the Phenix City amphitheater, local musicians and entertainers performed for the audience, who filled the stepped arena facing the water. A concert band played patriotic melodies and the themes of the branches of the US armed forces.

The crowd cheered and applauded as the first fireworks blasted into the sky from the Columbus side at 9:30, and didn't stop until the final blast and bang echoed across the Chattahoochee.

A spectator watches the show. (Photo: Dave Bender)

Columbus, Phenix City accord: a river runs through it

Columbus and Phenix City have agreed to share water resources, despite the ongoing water war between Georgia, Alabama, and Florida.

Officials from both cities held a ceremony on Thursday on a bridge over the Chattahoochee River, marking the accord. A pipe siphoning water from the river just north of Columbus connects both cities’ systems.

Columbus uses about 30 million gallons of water daily. Phenix City uses far less daily – about six to eight million gallons.

The accord is meant to allow mutual aid in an emergency situation, like Katrina or terrorism.

Billy Turner, President of the Columbus Water Works, says that while the agreement has no bearing on the ongoing water war between the two states and Florida, it does show mutual goodwill.

”In some ways, people think the river divides us; but in Columbus and in Phenix City, we believe it’s what connects us.”

Turner says either city would be willing to supply the other with up to eight million gallons of water a day, in an emergency.

Phenix City plans to draw off about one million gallons a day in coming weeks, while they work on their water system.

Homeless in Columbus: getting past the overpass (Updated)

Homeless under the Second Street Bridge.
Click on images for larger view.
(Dave Bender)
Heeding -- at least temporarily -- the demands of a municipal decision to clear out, several dozen homeless residents camped out beneath Columbus's Second Street Bridge made themselves scarce by noon Monday.

Today was the deadline for the some 50 homeless men to to move out from the hobo camp, set up under the overpass and alongside some railroad tracks. Nearby businesses had called for clearing the area.

Joe Riddle, director of the city's department of of community reinvestment told GPB News that the city plans to clear out the mattresses, blankets and meager personal belongings remaining in the makeshift lodgings in coming days. He says the homeless themselves requested trash cans in order to help clean up the area.

City representatives set up a table at the site for several hours a day twice a week throughout April, and helped the homeless obtain more stable living and, for some, employment arrangement.

Representatives are to meet this week with numerous homeless support groups to coordinate efforts to comprehensively deal with the city's indigent population. Riddle says several dozen are already moving to homes and shelters, and are dealing with alcohol and substance abuse problems.

Elizabeth Alcantara, director of the Homeless Resource Network, says that raised awareness of the plight of Columbus, Phenix City, Al., and the area's some 2,000 indigent residents is itself a positive step.

"We've had some recent newspaper coverage about people sleeping under the bridge; and while many people feel that, 'you know, we're sorry to see that in the paper, and to hear that' - I was thrilled, because it brings attention.

"We think that we're not a big city - we're not New York, we're not Atlanta, and we don't have homelessness here - and we do."

One fact that both Riddle and Alcantara agree on is that Columbus's homeless problem is largely homegrown:

“For the most part, the people that we are serving are from our area,” Alcantara says.

“They're down on their luck,” Riddle says, adding, “a lot of them are from Columbus; they've had a bad situation, and they end up out on the streets.”

Sleeping rough: Mattress, Bible, crutch and
shovel. Click on images for larger view.
(Dave Bender)