Tuesday, November 3, 2020
It's Election Day and here's a few reminders and pointers if you're voting today:
You can check your polling location via the Georgia My Voter Page at https://www.mvp.sos.ga.gov/
Long lines are expected, so be prepared for a wait. The morning is expected to be chilly, so dress for that.
You can view a sample ballot at the Georgia My Voter Page (link is above). You can review it or mark it up if you need reminder about who to vote, because use of cellphone is not allowed within the polling place.
The Chatham County Board of Elections will have any new information online at their website and Facebook Page.
If you haven't mailed your Absentee Ballot yet, avoid doing it now because it'll never reach the main office in time. You best bet is to drop it off at any of the following Ballot Drop Box locations by 7pm on Election Day:
- Chatham County Board of Registrars Main Office (1117 Eisenhower Dr., Suite E)
- Southwest Library (14097 Abercorn St.)
- Whitemarsh Island Chatham County Police Precinct (54 Johnny Mercer Blvd.)
- Savannah State T.A. Wright Stadium (4437 Skidaway Rd.)
- UGA Extension building in Garden City (17 Minus Ave.)
- Civic Center (301 W. Oglethorpe Ave.)
- WW Law Community Center (900 E Bolton St.)
- Carver Village Community Center (905 Collat Ave.)
- Liberty City Community Center (1401 Mills B Ln. Blvd.)
- Pooler City Hall (100 SW US Highway 80)
Do not leave the polling area with your ballot, it needs to inserted into the Ballot Box & Scanner in order to be counted.
Tags: Election 2020 , Voting , Absentee Ballot
Monday, November 2, 2020
Voters will be using a new machine to vote in the November 3, 2020 election.
Cecilia Russo Marketing partnered with the Chatham County Board of Elections to produce a short informational video about how to using this new polling machine. .
Tags: Election 2020 , Voting , Polling machines , Video
Friday, October 30, 2020
With Election Day fast approaching (Tuesday, November 3), now is a good time to review how a Sample Ballot can help you.
Cecilia Russo Marketing partnered with the Chatham County Board of Elections to produce a short informational video about why and how to use a Sample Ballot to make your voting experience easier on Election Day.
Cecilia Russo Marketing partnered with the Chatham County Board of Elections to produce a short informational video about why and how to use a Sample Ballot to make your voting experience easier on Election Day.
Tags: Voting , Sample Ballot , Video
Wednesday, October 28, 2020
Festival not to take place in March
The much beloved annual music festival is in a holding pattern as the world continues dealing with the COVID 19 pandemic.
Here's what was posted on the official Savannah Stopover website and social media: Savannah Stopover Music Festival recently announced that plans for the 2021 festival are in a holding pattern, but relayed that the festival will not take place in March when typically held. The music industry continues to grapple with uncertainty around scheduling large scale events, particularly for the first half of 2021.
Savannah Stopover has primarily been an indoor, intimate, venue-based festival, taking place across 10-12 locations throughout Savannah’s Historic District and hosting 70-100 bands over a three day period.
“The COVID 19 crisis has hit small venues and venue-based music festivals the hardest. Our focus on these small to mid-size venues that attendees can move between easily is what makes Stopover so unique—it’s in our DNA—but it makes social distancing harder and current COVID restrictions would greatly limit attendance. We want to wait until we can all gather together and hold a festival that is safe for bands, fans, volunteers and staff,” said Kayne Lanahan, the festival’s founder.
The festival is exploring alternate timelines as well as the possibility of other live music events later in the year. Lanahan added, “We’ve been looking at a myriad of scenarios and trying to stay nimble without incurring sunk costs. If opportunities arise that can work safely, and we can move quickly, we will. Like so many others, we are trying to look at this difficult period as an opportunity to take a step back, get creative and rethink how we plan and hold live music events in Savannah.”
Additional updates will be posted on the festival’s website and social media platforms.
Here's what was posted on the official Savannah Stopover website and social media: Savannah Stopover Music Festival recently announced that plans for the 2021 festival are in a holding pattern, but relayed that the festival will not take place in March when typically held. The music industry continues to grapple with uncertainty around scheduling large scale events, particularly for the first half of 2021.
Savannah Stopover has primarily been an indoor, intimate, venue-based festival, taking place across 10-12 locations throughout Savannah’s Historic District and hosting 70-100 bands over a three day period.
“The COVID 19 crisis has hit small venues and venue-based music festivals the hardest. Our focus on these small to mid-size venues that attendees can move between easily is what makes Stopover so unique—it’s in our DNA—but it makes social distancing harder and current COVID restrictions would greatly limit attendance. We want to wait until we can all gather together and hold a festival that is safe for bands, fans, volunteers and staff,” said Kayne Lanahan, the festival’s founder.
The festival is exploring alternate timelines as well as the possibility of other live music events later in the year. Lanahan added, “We’ve been looking at a myriad of scenarios and trying to stay nimble without incurring sunk costs. If opportunities arise that can work safely, and we can move quickly, we will. Like so many others, we are trying to look at this difficult period as an opportunity to take a step back, get creative and rethink how we plan and hold live music events in Savannah.”
Additional updates will be posted on the festival’s website and social media platforms.
Tags: Savannah Stopover , COVID 18
Friday, October 23, 2020
Early voting continues this weekend at the Chatham Board of Elections main office and at the Civic Center:
SATURDAY OCTOBER 24th EARLY VOTING
Main Office - 1117 Eisenhower Dr, Suite F, from 9am-4pm
Civic Center - 301 W. Oglethorpe Ave., from 9am-4pm
SUNDAY OCTOBER 25th EARLY VOTING
Main Office - 1117 Eisenhower Dr, Suite F, from 12pm-5pm
Civic Center - 301 W. Oglethorpe Ave., from 12pm-5pm
Wait times at each of the Early Voting Sites can be found on this interactive map of poll locations.
People who have voted by absentee ballot can check the status of their ballot at any by visiting ballottrax.com!
Tags: Vote , Early Voting
Courtesy of the Artist
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones
The Savannah Music Festival announced their new 2021 dates on Friday, as music-lovers can still groove to their favorite funky tunes in-person from May 18-30. Annual festival-goers are accustomed to the festivities previously taking place in late March and early April, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, SMF wanted to accommodate both musicians and attendees to the best of their ability.
“Part of the comfortability factor has been moving the majority of our performances outdoors, but also assuring that we will have a well-rounded safety protocol with public health in mind, so that people don’t need to be crowded,” said Savannah Music Festival Artistic Director Ryan McMaken.
The festivities will move forward with limited-seating outdoor and indoor concerts. Outdoor live performances will be held on the main stage at the Trustees’ Garden, rain or shine, while chamber-music performances will be held with limited-capacity and socially distanced seating indoors at the Trustees’ Garden’s Kehoe Iron Works building.
Photo by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco
David Finckel & Wu Han
“For us being able to work at Trustees’ Garden, we know the capacity of the space is over 6,000 people,” said McMaken. “We are working at a one-third capacity there and we won’t expand that until we know it is safe to do so.”
The festival is being pushed back not only to ensure the safety of everyone attending, but also to reduce the risk of musicians canceling their performances, which has occurred several times in 2020. As a response, SMF has a number of those performers who were forced to cancel their shows earlier this year, performing at the 2021 Savannah Music Festival, with hopes of more shows possibly being announced in early January.
“We will have a full festival lineup on January 11. I can say because they were previously scheduled, that many artists are coming back and are part of the 2021 schedule already, along with a variety of Classical jazz, traditional, and roots music performers that will be announced as well,” said McMaken.
Those confirmed are Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Béla Fleck & The Flecktones, and David Finckel & Wu Han.
Being able to provide live concerts to the people of Savannah will hopefully provide a sense of normalcy among those who want a chance to enjoy the vibrations and inner feelings that only live music can provide.
“There has been a big void in people’s lives with the lack of live music and concerts, certainly we are seeing industry-wide a lot of trepidation,” said McMaken. “We feel like this May timeframe will be on the front edge of when it will be safe to reopen, but we’re still planning it with safety measures in place.”
SMF is preparing for all possible outcomes in regards to how the pandemic will look in 2021 and those who would like to view live classical performances from the comforts and safety of their own home will still have the option to do so.
“Mainly, because of our classical audience, we want to add some online support for those listeners who might not want to come back to a public event so soon,” said McMaken. “The indoor events at Kehoe Iron Works will be live-streamed and there might be some more planned, we just don’t know what at this point.”
Thursday, October 1, 2020
Remains found in a wooded area of Chatham County last month have been identified as those of a teenager reported missing from Savannah, the Chatham County Police said today.
"Autopsy results confirmed the remains are those of 15-year-old Donald Jones. Jones’ remains were found on September 19, 2020, by people walking in a wooded area off of Oriole Drive," a spokesperson said.
Jones was reported missing to the Savannah Police Department on Monday, September 21.
Chatham County Police detectives are investigating the case as a suspected homicide, and testing through the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) is continuing to determine Jones’ exact cause of death.
Detectives are asking anyone who has information about Jones’ death to call Chatham County Police at 912-651-4712 or Crime Stoppers at 912-234-2020. Tipsters are anonymous and may qualify for a cash reward.
"Autopsy results confirmed the remains are those of 15-year-old Donald Jones. Jones’ remains were found on September 19, 2020, by people walking in a wooded area off of Oriole Drive," a spokesperson said.
Jones was reported missing to the Savannah Police Department on Monday, September 21.
Chatham County Police detectives are investigating the case as a suspected homicide, and testing through the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) is continuing to determine Jones’ exact cause of death.
Detectives are asking anyone who has information about Jones’ death to call Chatham County Police at 912-651-4712 or Crime Stoppers at 912-234-2020. Tipsters are anonymous and may qualify for a cash reward.
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
Mayor Van Johnson this morning announced that despite a national candidate search that resulted in a visit from three qualified candidates for Savannah City Manager this past weekend, the whole process will have to return to square one due to division on City Council.
"At this point the Council could not reach a consensus on a singular candidate, so it appears we are at an impasse. We just couldn't get consensus on one candidate," Johnson said.
"I've sought a unanimous 9-0 vote at best, or an 8-1 vote or 7-2 vote at worst," he said. "Unfortunately we're nowhere near that. I believe this position is far too important.... for us to sacrifice expediency for comfort. We must get this right. We have to get this right."
Johnson said the Council will "discuss options and next steps in the coming days" about what to do next.
One source close to the situation tells Connect that the vote broke down to a 5-4 split.
Pat Monahan, current Interim City Manager, has expressed a desire to retire as soon as a qualified candidate is found and hired on to replace him.
The candidates were Caluha Barnes, Deputy City Manager of Modesto CA; Odie Donald II, City Manager of South Fulton; and John Pombier, Assistant City Manager of Mesa AZ.
"At this point the Council could not reach a consensus on a singular candidate, so it appears we are at an impasse. We just couldn't get consensus on one candidate," Johnson said.
"I've sought a unanimous 9-0 vote at best, or an 8-1 vote or 7-2 vote at worst," he said. "Unfortunately we're nowhere near that. I believe this position is far too important.... for us to sacrifice expediency for comfort. We must get this right. We have to get this right."
Johnson said the Council will "discuss options and next steps in the coming days" about what to do next.
One source close to the situation tells Connect that the vote broke down to a 5-4 split.
Pat Monahan, current Interim City Manager, has expressed a desire to retire as soon as a qualified candidate is found and hired on to replace him.
The candidates were Caluha Barnes, Deputy City Manager of Modesto CA; Odie Donald II, City Manager of South Fulton; and John Pombier, Assistant City Manager of Mesa AZ.
Wednesday, September 23, 2020
The Georgia Historical Society announces that the theme for the 2020-2021 Georgia History Festival is "Tear Down This Wall: Georgia in Cold War America."
This first-of-its-kind all-virtual fall program series will be hosted by Dr. Stan Deaton, the Dr. Elaine B. Andrews Distinguished Historian at GHS. Dr. Deaton will talk with some of the nation’s foremost scholars and leaders of the Cold War era in discussions focusing on presidential leadership, American diplomacy, the impact of the Cold War on the Civil Rights Movement, the cultural impact of the Cold War, and the continuing influence of that period on our world today.
On October 14, 2020, the series begins with a keynote interview entitled Tear Down This Wall: The Cold War at 75, A Conversation with Sam Nunn. Nunn served in the U.S. Senate for twenty-four years and was Chairman of the Armed Services Committee from 1987 until 1995.
The Georgia History Festival is "the signature K-12 educational program of the Georgia Historical Society that reaches 250,000 students and teachers in Georgia and provides enlightening opportunities for learners of all ages," a GHS spokesperson says.
In 2011, Senator Nunn was inducted as a Georgia Trustee by the Office of the Governor and the Georgia Historical Society.
"This will be a wide-ranging discussion on the impact of the Cold War on American foreign policy and national security with a man who worked with the leading Cold War warriors, from Henry Kissinger to Margaret Thatcher to Ronald Reagan to Mikhail Gorbachev," GHS says.
The program is free but registration is required. Go here to register.
This first-of-its-kind all-virtual fall program series will be hosted by Dr. Stan Deaton, the Dr. Elaine B. Andrews Distinguished Historian at GHS. Dr. Deaton will talk with some of the nation’s foremost scholars and leaders of the Cold War era in discussions focusing on presidential leadership, American diplomacy, the impact of the Cold War on the Civil Rights Movement, the cultural impact of the Cold War, and the continuing influence of that period on our world today.
On October 14, 2020, the series begins with a keynote interview entitled Tear Down This Wall: The Cold War at 75, A Conversation with Sam Nunn. Nunn served in the U.S. Senate for twenty-four years and was Chairman of the Armed Services Committee from 1987 until 1995.
The Georgia History Festival is "the signature K-12 educational program of the Georgia Historical Society that reaches 250,000 students and teachers in Georgia and provides enlightening opportunities for learners of all ages," a GHS spokesperson says.
In 2011, Senator Nunn was inducted as a Georgia Trustee by the Office of the Governor and the Georgia Historical Society.
"This will be a wide-ranging discussion on the impact of the Cold War on American foreign policy and national security with a man who worked with the leading Cold War warriors, from Henry Kissinger to Margaret Thatcher to Ronald Reagan to Mikhail Gorbachev," GHS says.
The program is free but registration is required. Go here to register.
Chatham Area Transit has launched a new service "that allows customers to get CAT-related news texted directly to their cell phones," a CAT spokesperson says.
The texts will initially include notifications of major service alerts "that impact services for a day or longer, including schedule adjustments, bus stop closures and route changes," CAT says.
Subscribers can also sign up to be notified of upcoming public meetings and events.
Those who want to sign up for the service should text RIDECAT to 41411.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has escalated the importance of keeping the public informed, as we continuously implement new safety measures and service adjustments to protect employees and customers,” said CEO Bacarra S. Mauldin. “The text notification service helps us accomplish that goal.”
The launch marks the beginning of the first phase of the text alert service. CAT is in the process of having a new Intelligent Transportation System installed throughout its computer networks, facilities and vehicles. The total installation is expected to take place over the course of the next year.
The texts will initially include notifications of major service alerts "that impact services for a day or longer, including schedule adjustments, bus stop closures and route changes," CAT says.
Subscribers can also sign up to be notified of upcoming public meetings and events.
Those who want to sign up for the service should text RIDECAT to 41411.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has escalated the importance of keeping the public informed, as we continuously implement new safety measures and service adjustments to protect employees and customers,” said CEO Bacarra S. Mauldin. “The text notification service helps us accomplish that goal.”
The launch marks the beginning of the first phase of the text alert service. CAT is in the process of having a new Intelligent Transportation System installed throughout its computer networks, facilities and vehicles. The total installation is expected to take place over the course of the next year.
