Day: December 8, 2021

Special to Atmore News Following 450 home fires over the past three months in Alabama, the Red Cross urges residents to test their smoke alarms and practice their escape plan with everyone in their household.Local Red Cross volunteers helped 1,438 people affected by these fires, providing essentials like shelter, emergency financial assistance, food, relief items like toiletries, health and mental health services, and one-on-one support to connect affected residents to…

Special to Atmore News The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) continues its policy of conducting contact tracing as part of its investigation process for COVID-19. Contract tracing and self-quarantining of people with COVID-19 and their close contacts are critical to help slow the spread of the virus.Public health and contract staff conduct case investigations, elicit information from the case about exposed persons, and then reach out to the contacts.…

Boatright News Staff Report Escambia County (Ala.) Sheriff Heath Jackson announced this week that an officer at the county jail was arrested after she attempted to smuggle a cell phone into the jail for an inmate.The sheriff said Correctional Officer Taylor Boatright was arrested Nov. 23, after Escambia County Detention Center supervisors conducted a search of employees entering the facility.During the search, Boatright was found to be in possession of…

Special to Atmore News Troopers within the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s (ALEA) Highway Patrol Division investigated a total of seven traffic-related fatalities over the Thanksgiving holiday period, compared to eight in 2020 and 11 during the same busy travel period in 2019.The 2021 official Thanksgiving Holiday travel period began at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, November 24, and ended at midnight Sunday, November 28.The fatal crashes occurred in Mobile, Marengo, Chilton, Shelby,…

Johnson Gray By DON FLETCHERNews Staff Writer A wheelchair-bound Atmore man who entered a guilty plea last year to first-degree marijuana possession and was sentenced to 97 months in prison, will serve at least five more years after he was turned down for parole recently by the Alabama Board of Pardons & Paroles.Austin James Gray Jr., 44, is housed at Fountain Correctional Facility and has served just over 16 months…