After skipping a year and not purchasing new vehicles for the city police department, the Cairo City Council on Monday night voted to approve the purchase of three new vehicles over the objections of Mayor Bobby Burns. The mayor expressed his belief that the city should solicit bids for the new police vehicles and not…

The Grady County School System’s wrestling program received lots of attention at Tuesday night’s board meeting. School board members and Superintendent Lee M. Bailey paid tribute to Marcus Gaines for being the first-ever Syrupmaker wrestler to be a state finalist. In the state finals last month, Gaines took on the fourth ranked wrestler in the…

Although more than 1,700 RadioShack stores nationwide are closing in the wake of the company’s bankruptcy filing, Cairo’s local dealer, Cook Electronics, is remaining open. The downtown business is a dealer of RadioShack products, but is not owned by RadioShack. Jerry, Gail and Justin Cook are owners/operators of the business. “RadioShack will not determine whether…

Grady County Administrator Carlos Tobar was called onto the carpet Tuesday by members of the Grady County Board of Tax Assessors for actions he took in 2013 against Chief Appraiser Susan Bennett. Board of Tax Assessors Chairman Prentiss Mitchell and board members Julian Rawls and John Tillis appeared before the county commission Tuesday night. The…

Grady County commissioners are planning for the need for sanitary sewer and drinking water at Tired Creek Lake and on Tuesday night engaged with a consulting engineer for water and sewer pipes to be laid across the bottom of the 960-acre lake. The pipes to be installed would make water and sewer service available on…

The Grady County Historical Society will gather for its annual meeting at Cooper Cottage, 1721 Stagecoach Road, Spence community, on Tuesday, March 10, at 6:30 p.m. An “Old Fashioned Box Supper” will be served for a donation of $7 per person.   Back in the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s, Box Suppers were held to raise…

Each Grady County band is making final preparations for next week’s Georgia Music Educators Association “Large Group Performance Evaluation,” commonly referred to as Band Festival. Next week, March 11-13, 40 Concert Bands from around Southwest Georgia will travel to Cairo to perform in the Cairo High School auditorium before G.M.E.A. judges who will rate their…

The Cairo City Council and City Manager Chris Addleton gathered together Monday night to begin discussing priorities for the 2015-2016 operating budget which goes into effect July 1. “We are moving into budget season and I need for you to let me know your priorities so we can get them in the budget,” Addleton said…

Last October, Grady County Administrator Carlos Tobar bragged to members of the Grady County Commission and the Grady County Lake Authority that the county had over $1 million more in cash as of Sept. 30, 2014 than it did the year prior. Unfortunately, Tobar’s “quick and dirty calculation” as he described it last fall has…

Grady County commissioners are planning to meet in a closed door session Thursday at 6 p.m. at the courthouse. This will be the fourth consecutive week that commissioners have met to discuss personnel issues. Last Tuesday night, commissioners met for over an hour in a closed session and for much of that time Grady County…