Tribune & Georgian

St. Marys resident Sande Ryyslainen turned 100 years old this month and served as a WAVE (women accepted for voluntary emergency service) during World War II, likely making her the oldest WAVE in Camden County. Read her story in this week's edition of the Tribune & Georgian, available on racks and at retail locations throughout Camden. Subscribers can read the story online at https://www.tribune-georgian.com//world-war-ii-vet-turns-1

In Kingsland, Bryant Shepard and Kristy Chance qualified on Monday to run for the Post 3 council seat. Qualifying will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. through Wednesday at city hall. Qualifying will be closed from noon to 1 p.m. each day. The qualifying fee is $180.75. The Kingsland special election will be March 16. The deadline to register to vote for that election is Feb. 16.

Per the St. Marys Public Works Department: A train car has derailed at City Smitty Drive blocking access to Borrell Blvd. The railroad crew is onsite and estimates it will be three hours to get the road opened.

Camden County PSA is offering a public holiday event this weekend with plenty of space for social distancing. 'Tis the season to celebrate safely!

The MLK program in Camden County will be held virtually this year so the community can observe this annual holiday event safely. (See YouTube link in comments.)

Last call for Santa letters ... NEW this year, every child will receive a postcard response!

Update from the Coastal Health District about COVID-19 vaccines. "Health departments in all Coastal Health District counties have received an overwhelming response from residents ages 65 and older interested in COVID-19 vaccination. Based on the number of calls taken to date, health departments in all eight counties have enough requests to schedule appointments through February and, in some cases, into March. "To ensure we have adequate vaccine to fulfill appointment request...s, including second doses, the Coastal Health District has temporarily paused appointment scheduling for new requests. Individuals who are already on the list and awaiting call-back will still be given an appointment." To be notified when appointments open back up again, register at covid19.gachd.org. Registering doesn't guarantee you an appointment.

Two people are now facing murder charges in the Nov. 3 death of 34-year-old Ernest Zachary Ruffell in Kingsland.

From the health department We know that people in Phase 1a+ are trying to schedule appointments, but we are being flooded with calls and phone systems are being overwhelmed. The phone lines are working and we are answering and scheduling appointments as quickly as possible, but we implore the public to be patient as we move forward. The first part of any new process is always the most difficult. We’ll work to smooth out the glitches but again, we ask for patience and understanding.

According to the Camden County Emergency Management Agency, the City of St. Marys Public Works has been notified of a broken water line in the downtown area. They are currently working to make repairs. During this time area residents may experience low or no water pressure. They ask for your patience and understanding during this process and also ask the community to not call 9-1-1 to report the outage.

The Camden County Board of Elections & Registration began the general election risk limiting audit this morning in the historic courthouse. The audit is open to the public and election monitors from both parties are present but only a limited number of people will be allowed inside because of COVID-19 precuations. The recounting is being livestreamed at https://www.camdencountyga.gov/RLA The recount will continue from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. until Wednesday, Nov. 18, with the ...exception of noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday. All 23,784 ballots will be recounted by hand, but only votes in the presidential race will be tallied during the audit.

The Tribune & Georgian is experiencing some technical issues related to our e-mail servers and we are working to correct them as soon as possible. If you have sent an email to one of our newspaper associates or departments since Friday that has not been acknowledged, please contact us by telephone so that service to your account is not interrupted. The newspaper office can be reached by calling (912) 882-4927. We apologize for the inconvenience and will let you know when we have all services restored.