CHRONICLE HUMB
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‘Serving Humboldt, home of the West Tennessee Strawberry Festival, since 1886’
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VOL. 125, NO. 13
HUMBOLDT, TENNESSEE
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28, 2012
INSIDE... Contrary to reports, 3 tutoring programs here GEMC hosts 1st March membership meeting
statements prompted Steve Bayko, superintendent of Humboldt City Schools, and Boys & Girls Club director, Andrea Stewart, to point out the facts. The misconception stems from a request made by the O.E. Stigall Ethnic Library and History Museum, asking for $14,000 for their tutoring program. The article reported that
BY DANNY WADE Contrary to recent reports, there are at least three tutoring programs in Humboldt, offering help to school age children here. Statements during a Gibson County Commission’s March 12 meeting that Humboldt has one tutoring program was reported in the Humboldt Chronicle’s March 14 edition. These
Gibson County Mayor Tom Witherspoon said Humboldt does not have another tutoring program in place. Stewart and Bayko said that statement is absolutely not true. Both the club and the schools offer tutoring. “We’re supportive of the Stigall Museum offering ACT test assistance but asking for $14,000 was unbeknownst to the
schools,” Bayko said last week. “The request was not made by Humboldt Schools or the city government. We’re all in favor of anyone offering tutoring and helping the kids.” Humboldt Schools’ data evaluator, Lillian Shelton, said she appreciated Stigall Museum’s effort to assist with ACT tutoring program for additional
BY THE TON
assistance to go beyond HHS’s ACT efforts. But she was unaware of any other tutoring program offered by the museum, as were Bayko and Stewart. The Boys & Girls Club works hand in hand with the school system, Stewart said. The school system has a reading specialist that see TUTORING page 2A
Meth arrests at trailer park here
Aubrey Walgren of South Gibson County High School sings the National Anthem during the annual GEMC membership meeting held this year in March at SGCHS. Page 6A
Troy Henry Sollis
Stewart attends conference
Brittany Patterson
Cameron Sollis photos by APRIL G. JACKSON
Employees from ConAgra Foods’ in Humboldt have collected over a ton of food to distribute to Helping Hand of Humboldt, The Humboldt Senior Center and the Humboldt Back Pack Program.
Tiffany Flatt
ConAgra employees donate food Last week, employees from ConAgra Foods’ Humboldt, Tenn. plant joined ConAgra employees nationwide as they celebrated the company’s second annual Week of Service. In Humboldt, employees collected more than a ton of food to distribute to Helping Hand of Humboldt, The Humboldt Senior Center and the Humboldt Backpack Program. Two trailers packed by Humboldt employees of ConAgra were loaded up and delivered to the Senior Citizen Center and Helping Hand, who coordinates the backpack program. “We’re very proud of our employees. They stepped up again,” said Humboldt plant manager
Andrea Stewart, director of the Humboldt Boys & Girls Club, recently attended the Boys & Girls Clubs of America Southeast Leadership Conference in Myrtle Beach, S.C., where she participated in the Arthur L. Williams Jr., Club Directors Institute. Page 5A
Baseball season underway
Dennis Tims. “They did a great job.” Humboldt employees gathered 2,186 pounds of staples for the needy this year. Tims said the company will continue to help throughout the year and next year. Any business that would like to join them are invited, he said. “There is lots of need out there now,” Tims said. ConAgra employees are volunteering in a variety of capacities to help fight child hunger in the communities where they live and work. Nationally, this year, ConAgra Foods’ goal is to exceed the 3,000 hours employees volunteered companywide last year.
Career Coach helps hundreds of job seekers here
photos by APRIL G. JACKSON
SEEKING JOBS! - The Career Coach rolled into the St. James Church parking lot on West Main Street in Humboldt last week in the middle of a drenching day. But it made no difference to the hundreds who came by seeking employment. Counselor Dustin Whitworth (above, from left) assists Marquita Glenn and counselor Karen Carter helps Kedran Pettigrew with job searches. Waiting in the damp outside are job seekers Karen Conner (left photo, at right) who says she is “desperately looking for work, and Maurice West (far left) who is also seeking employment. They are joined by coach staff members Angela Jackson and Terry White.
Shortstop, A.J. Hodge, dives head first into third base during District 14A action at Peabody. Page 1B
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Parolee Sollis, 3 others face related charges A state parolee and three others have been charged after authorities found them with an active meth lab in a back pack fleeing a Humboldt trailer park. Last Wednesday, March 21, agents of the West Tennessee Violent Crime and Drug Task Force of the 28th Judicial District along with officers of the State of Tennessee Probation and Parole Enforcement Unit went to the Humboldt Trailer Park to check on Troy Sollis, who is on state parole from prior methamphetamine related charges. When approached by parole officers, Troy Sollis and Brittany Nicole Patterson attempted to flee the area on a motorcycle driven by Sollis. According to a press release from the drug task force, agents knocked the motorcycle over before they could flee and took Sollis and Patterson into custody. They were allegedly attempting to flee the scene with an active meth lab in a backpack they see METH page 2A
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