Hello everyone. Thank you for joining us.
I'm Leah Johnson.
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And I'm Lorra Lynch Jones.
Frank Malloy has the night off.
Our top story tonight... Safety at the bus stop...first though... We need to get to our weather.
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Ben is in the weather center with a look at radar.
Close to 25-hundred homes and businesses were in the dark this afternoon as the storms moved through.
Middle Georgia EMC reported the entire city of Hawkinsville was without power starting around 4pm - that's about a thosuand people.
Flint EMC I now reporting less than 2 dozen customers in Hawkinsville are without power at this hour.
Crews had to wait for a break in the storm to start working to get power back on.
We continue the rest of our top stories with a look at your child's daily trip to and from school...and how safety can sometimes fall through the cracks.
Houston County school bus drivers say they see drivers ignore stop arms on their vehicles everyday... Putting children in danger.
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Now, the board of education is considering placing cameras on the sides of buses... To help them ticket drivers who break the law.
After 31 years behind the wheel... Queen Davis knows every obstacle.
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<it's so much you gotta watch for>
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Including drivers who don't follow the rules of the road.
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<it's several things they do that make you just want to choke 'em you know?>
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Like ignoring her stop sign.... Which she says happens every day.
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<it can cause all kinds of problems. You can hit a child.>
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Putting the brakes on the issue... Could be just ahead says Transportation Director Frank Scott.
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He's leading the effort to install these on 20 school buses.
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<the company that owns the camera monitors what happens on the road. If they see a violation, they send the information to the Houston County Sheriffs Office who reviews the pictures and video. If the Sheriff's Office decides it was a violation, they send that information back to the company, which then mails the ticket to the violator.>
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A first time offense costs $300. Scott says the camera company gets 75-percent of the fines. The sheriff's office and the school system split the rest... And they said...this isn't about money.
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<that's the last thing on our mind. Our mind is student safety.">
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Davis says on-board cameras already watch her and the kids...
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<I got one right here.>
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Why not add more to watch drivers?
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<I think it would be wonderful.>
In Houston County, Lorra Lynch Jones, 13WMAZ, Eyewitness News.
Installing the cameras came-up at last month's school board meeting... But board members tabled the issue wanting more information on a contract with the camera company and exactly how many buses would get the cameras.
When will the board make a decision?
Today... Board members Marianne Melnick and Fred Wilson said they like the idea for student safety... But they plan to decide at next Tuesday's board meeting at 1 p.m. In Perry.
Eatonton's skeet shooting Olympian returned to Georgia this week.
The father of two-time gold medalist Vincent Hancock showed Katelyn Heck... where his son's Olympic dreams began.
With each pull of the trigger <NATS>
Junior Olympian Dania Vizzi gets one step closer to reaching her dreams of becoming a skeet shooting champion.
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<this really truly is the field of dreams>
This is the field where two-time gold medalist Vincent Hancock laid the foundation for his Olympic journey.
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<we poured the pad and set the field in 2001, Vinny was 12 years old. It was his dream at that time to go to the Olympics. At 12 years old so that was the beginning of the dream and I put the field in at that point and he was 12 years old when he etched that in>
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Hancock followed that dream, and this summer, he became the first skeet shooter to win gold in two consecutive Olympics.
Now, Vizzi and shooters from all over the world travel to his home in Eatonton to walk in his footsteps.
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<it makes me see what I want to strive for and what it takes to get there>
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Hancock's father Craig says what it takes <NATS> is good aim... Not just at the clay discs... But also at the long-term targets.
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<we were shooting probably around 50-thousand rounds a year out here on this field training. And we shot every day after school,he would get out of school at three p.m. Head straight home, be here by 3:15, 3:30 he had the field open and 'Dad, I'm ready to train'>
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It's that kind of dedication that got Hancock his first gold at only 19 years old during the Beijing Olympics... And his second during this summer's games in London at 23.
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<when we first started we were told don't even expect anything out of him til he was 26 to 29 years old, we didn't accept that>
Hancock currently lives at Fort Benning.
After he retires from the Army in September, he plans to return to Eatonton to help his dad teach shooters like Vizzi the importance of keeping a sharp eye on their dreams.
Katelyn Heck 13 WMAZ Eyewitness News
In September, Hancock will compete in the World Cup Championships in Texas.
It's been completed for over a year... But the new Dodge County Jail remains closed.
The Sheriff says the county won't give him the funds to hire the extra staff needed, yet each month they pay out thousands of dollars on the facility that's not being used.
Brittiny Barber shows us how even though the building is empty... It's still costing money for taxpayers.
This 60-thousand square foot jail was completed in June of 2011.... According to Dodge County Sheriff Jeff Hinson.
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<I probably answer this question about 50 times a day. When you going to get in the jail. >
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But for the last 14 months... Inmates have still been housed at this older.. Much smaller facility.
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<We use approximately 15 to 20 gallons of bleach a week just trying to keep it clean. You can't operate off of some old but so long. >
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Hinson says he has to hire about 17 more deputies to run the new jail And he's still waiting on County Commissioners to fund that.. Along with about $50,000 in other necessities.
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<if they were to give us the thumbs up today it would be 90 to 120 days. One thing they didn't do and I think this was an oversight early on. They didn't order mattresses, pillows, pillow cases, sheets, blankets. These are things you have to have in a jail. >
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<even though the Dodge County Law Enforcement Center hasn't opened yet, it still costs the taxpayers money. According to the County Managers office last month alone the electrical bill was nearly $5,000. >
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nats of air conditioning unit
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<Actually the ceiling tiles will fall out of the ceiling. Computers, we all know what they do. They have to be climatized. They have to be kept within certain temperatures. >
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On top of that... The county pays $35 a day to house inmates at other jails when they're over capacity.
In an extreme case... Like May and June of this year... The county manager says that can cost upwards of $8,000.
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Putting an even tighter strain.. on an already budget strapped county.
Brittiny Barber 13wmaz eyewitness news
County Manager Bobby Peacock says they also can't open the jail until they install a sewer grinder to the system.
He says that should be in place by November first.
A Milledgeville man who fought for his life against flesh-eating bacteria...has come home.
Paul Bales says doctors
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told him and his family that he had the flesh-eating bacteria back in May.
They had to amputate his left leg at the knee.
Bales says he contracted the bacteria when he cut his leg on a boat ramp on Lake Sinclair.
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Austin Lewis has more of his story.. Tonight on Eyewitness News at Eleven.