Area News

Grady County officials are in a generous spirit this Christmas. County commissioners, without any public discussion, approved a half day off for county employees on Thursday, Dec. 24, as well as payment of $32,400 in Christmas bonuses to county personnel. The board of commissioners ratified their verbal approval at Tuesday night’s meeting. Employees with six…

Once the Christmas season is over and the decorations come down, the city of Cairo will conduct an evaluation of the condition of its inventory of Christmas decorations. The Cairo Messenger has editorialized on the poor condition of the city’s decorations and, on Monday night, Councilman Ernest Cloud Jr. joined the chorus and told his…

The Cairo Mayor and Council accepted a bid Monday night on the much anticipated new water treatment plant to be built at the Cairo Municipal Airport. Six bids, ranging from $5,108,327 to $4,307,000, were received and the council voted to accept the bid of Bates Engineers/Contractors Inc., of Bainbridge at $4,180,843. The council also accepted…

Grady County Administrator Carlos Tobar presented a 2016 county budget to the Cairo Mayor and Council Monday night that indicates how each constitutional office and department of the county is funded to answer concerns that county ad valorem taxes paid by city residents were being spent in accordance with the Service Delivery Strategy, but city…

The downtown Cairo streetscape project has hit another delay, which will push the project start date into the spring. After advertising the project, the city only received one bid on Dec. 4 and the lone bid was more than double the amount of the grant the city was awarded to cover the bulk of the…

The Cairo High School Syrupmaker Band uniform drive got off with a bang Sunday afternoon as $4,704.38 was donated by those attending the annual Christmas Concert at the CHS auditorium. Band Boosters were stationed at the entrance to the auditorium soliciting donations. “I was very pleased with the start of the drive. We are roughly…

The Grady County Board of Education took action Tuesday night to make it easier for its members to increase their salary as well as change how board members are elected. School board attorney Thomas L. Lehman presented two resolutions to the board this week. The first would give the local board the authority to set…

Cairo native Amanda Redden is using a crowd sourcing website  as part of her efforts to raise money so she can take an extended mission trip to South Africa. Redden has already served twice in South Africa, and wants to return now for one to two years. Working as a volunteer through Door of Hope,…

Grady County Administrator Carlos Tobar has presented county commissioners and the Cairo Mayor and Council with a budget document this week that indicates that county ad valorem taxes paid by city residents are not being used to fund solid waste, volunteer fire department, code enforcement, Roddenbery Memorial Library, economic development, or county code enforcement in…