An item in last week's report of the Wilkes County Commissioners says "The commissioners agreed to hire Carter Watkins and Associates of Monroe for a proposed architectural design contract for the renovation of the Wilkes County courthouse." . . . I think that's great. It's a classic old building and needs to have some help right now. (I would wish that the plan might include the old jail building attached to the courthouse. It's a real classic.)

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Just as I was thinking of that item, Chip Hardin brought me a copy of an article from the Georgia Bar Journal (that's the legal bar, not the alcoholic bar.) Included in the magazine is a special article on "The Wilkes County Courthouse at Washington," apparently one of a series on "The Grand Old Courthouses of Georgia." It has several interesting items in the article. Instead of trying to use them all in one column, I'll use some every week for the next few weeks. Many of you may already have this information, but it does us good to review long-forgotten facts sometime. The article begins by stating that "Wilkes County built a BRICK courthouse at Washington in 1817. With the single exception of the old colonial courthouse at Savannah, the only brick courthouses built in Georgia before 1820 were in the Piedmont." It seems that other counties in the Cotton Belt and Coastal Plain settled for crude frame courthouses or even log structures. The 1817 courthouse boasted Georgia's first courthouse clock tower, a feature which was to become an almost obligatory part of courthouse architecture in the late 19th century. (More next week.)

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Samille and James Sherrer are faithful supporters of the Georgia Baptist Association and don't miss many of its meetings and activities. Last week the Association celebrated its 225th anniversary and had meetings every day for eight days, sometimes two on the same day. At the annual business meeting Sunday to conclude the celebration, Samille and James were recognized by Andy Perryman, Director of Missions for the Association, and presented a certificate of appreciation for attending ALL of the meetings held on those eight days. . . . Samille is our Lundberg News correspondent.

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Mary Virginia Blackmon lives in Columbus now, but she grew up on North Alexander Avenue in the house just east of Gunter's Store. All the neighborhood children, and some imported from Court Street, liked to go to visit Mary because we would get to play in the gully behind the house. It was a fascinating place. By today's standards, it would be considered off-limits to children and a dangerous place for them to play. But we loved it. . . . We recently had a picture in our feature "Where In the World Is The News-Reporter" of Mary when she attended the National Senior Olympics in San Francisco. She says that about a week after she returned home, she received an envelop in the mail with no return address, but stamped in San Francisco. Inside was The News-Reporter she had taken with her for the picture and a computer/typed note which read: "While vacationing in San Francisco recently, I sat down on a bench in the park near Pier 39 while my traveling companion took pictures. On the bench was this newspaper which I picked up to catch up on daily events, but to my surprise, it was a paper I recognized from Washington, Georgia. I had worked a project near Washington a couple of years back, stayed at a hotel on The Square where I was introduced to the local newspaper, The News- Reporter. I couldn't imagine how the paper got here, but thought it would be fun to return it to the subscriber whose name and address were on the paper." Mary says she must have left the paper on the bench after making the picture and that the note was signed, but she couldn't read the name.

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Which brings me to this . . . We have had some great pictures in our "Where In the World Is The News- Reporter feature, and we thank ALL of you for sending them to us. But one this week "takes the cake." It's of Anna Stover, born and bred in Washington-Wilkes, on a camel at the Pyramids. Don't miss it, and keep the pictures coming.

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When our Editor/Publisher came in Monday morning, he discovered that his computer was "dead." He's fairly savvy when it comes to computers and electronics, but this one had him stumped. He immediately called computer whiz Dann Standard who was here in about five minutes (at 8 a.m.). It took him less than five minutes to have it up and going again. So if you have any computer problems, call Dann.

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Norris Ware on Hill Street and Sonny Johnson at Tyrone have lots of rain to report for last week. Norris says he got 3.2 inches last Monday, and .8 of an inch since Tuesday for a total of 4 inches for the week. Sonny says he recorded 4.6 inches from Monday to Saturday. He had 3.5 on Monday; a half of an inch on Wednesday and a half inch on Saturday. . . . Today (Monday) it was 35 degrees on my back porch at 6 a.m.

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Sherrye Denard, activities director at Heritage Health Care of Wilkes, does a lot of extra things for the residents there and always has special things planned. Last Friday night when it was rainy and cold, she took four residents from Lincoln County to see the football game in Tiger Stadium when Washington- Wilkes played Lincoln County (and almost beat them.) Officials allowed Sherrye to drive up close so the residents could sit in the car and watch the game and the people.

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Tiger football stalwarts Kelmetrus Wylie and Gary Wilburn are attending the University of Connecticut (UConn) and are members of the UConn football team. Connecticut won the Saturday football game and the team and friends were celebrating at a university-sponsored dance at the Student Union when the fire alarm was pulled and everybody had to evacuate the building. A fight broke out outside among the hundreds of students attending. Jasper Howard, a 20-year-old member of the Connecticut team, and another student were stabbed during the fracas. Jasper died from the stabbing. In the dormitory, he was a suite-mate of Kelmetrus. . . . An article in The Augusta Chronicle said that Jasper was from Miami and had gone to the University of Connecticut to get away from violence on the streets of his hometown. He was a junior and the team's starting cornerback.

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Don't forget the annual Rotary Pancake Supper Friday night, 5-7:30 p.m., at the Washington- Wilkes Elementary School. The supper is always a popular event of the Fall season. You can get a ticket at the door.

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While visiting her brother, Richard Hendrix, at Flagler Beach, Fla., Mary Burt caught a nine pound, 26-inch long red drum fish. Mary showed me a picture of the fish and also of a pineapple with a ready-toeat pineapple on it. She rooted the pineapple plant from another plant and has enjoyed tasty treats from it.

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Andy Anderson, who was 634.7 miles from home in Key West in one of the "Where In the World is The News-Reporter" features last week, sent an email to give a little background. He and his sons, Frank and Eddie, were registered anglers in the Key West Marlin Tournament. Another picture ran in The News- Reporter in 1975 of Andy's wife,

Jan Berry Anderson, posing with a swordfish caught on their honeymoon on the same boat which Andy and sons were fishing in this Marlin tournament.

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The Pawprints Foundation of Augusta is hosting "Pawprints: Art for Animals," a fund-raiser to benefit the Washington-Wilkes Animal Shelter and the CSRA Humane Society. The event will be held from 7 to 10 p.m. on Saturday, October 24, at Taylor BMW on Washington Road in Augusta. All kinds of activities are scheduled for children and adults during the evening. The Washington-Wilkes Shelter will benefit from any tickets sold. Tickets can be obtained in Washington from Scarboroughs and Petal Pushers Christmas.