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Chattahoochee Bend State Park
Trails Open By STAFF REPORTS
C
news@newnan.com
hattahoochee Bend State Park mountain bike trails officially opened April 2. The three and half mile section of trail is part of the more than 10 miles of mountain bike trails planned for the park. SORBA (Southern OffRoad Bicycle Association) Atlanta and the Friends of Chattahoochee Bend, have worked together to make a long term plan for the trails. They are hoping to become the premier cycling destination for mountain bike enthusiasts in the Southeast. The current section of trail has been built by local cyclists and advocates of the park volunteering with the
Friends of CBSP. “We are thrilled to be opening the first section of trail and encourage the cycling community to come out and use it,” said Friends of Chattahoochee Bend State Park board member Chris Doane in a press release. “This is just the beginning. The combination of mountain bike trails with the other amenities at Chattahoochee Bend State Park has created a vacation destination for cyclists. There’s a great amount of promise in the local economic impact this new feature will contribute to Coweta County.” Mountain bike trail maps are available at the Chattahoochee Bend State Park Visitor Center and at
PHOTO BY STEVE ST. LAURENT
Friends of Chattahoochee Bend State Park volunteers built a section of the new mountain bike trail along with local cyclists.
the trailhead number two kiosk. $3 day passes will be required and are available at the park center. Annual passes are available for $30. A kiosk at the mountain bike trailhead provides complete list of rules regarding trail usage and safety requirements. Chattahoochee Bend State
Park is one of Georgia’s newest state parks as well as the state’s fifth largest park, at 2,910 acres. The park offers camping, kayaking, hiking, and mountain biking opportunities and is open year round. For more information on Chattahoochee Bend State Park, visit www. bendfriend.com.
Make Smart Driving Decisions Bacho and others urge students with message By CELIA SHORTT
N
celia@newnan.com
atalie Bacho and others urged students at East Coweta High School to help save lives by driving safely and without distraction at a teen driving assembly. “We all have one life,” she told the students. “We all have one choice. You may not get a chance to make a second one.” Bacho and her family were involved in a fatal car accident on Dec. 22, 2012, when 18 -year-old Taylor Long was driving south on Newnan Crossing Bypass and ran a red light at the intersection of Lower Fayetteville Road. He hit the Bacho’s vehicle. After the accident, Bacho’s husband was air-flighted to Atlanta and put in a medically induced coma for four weeks. Their 9-year-old daughter, Abigail, was critically injured and three days later — on Christmas Day — passed away from her injuries. Bacho’s two other daughters were also injured. “You can’t say that you’re sorry and fix something like this,” she said of the driver who hit them. “He made a choice … He has to live his life knowing that his choice killed a 9-year-old girl.” Since the accident, Bacho created Abby’s Angels Foundation, which provides school supplies to students who have limited resources, as well as raising awareness of and providing education for safe teen driving. One way she raises awareness is by sharing her family’s story and providing opportunities for others to share their stories.
PHOTO BY CELIA SHORTT
Justin Tait shares the story of a bad decision, resulting in a car accident which cost him his legs and his best friend’s life.
One of those is Justin Tait of Tallahassee, Fla., who told the story of a decision he made which changed his life forever. Tait’s cousin knows Bacho. Bacho shared her story with Tait and invited him to tell his at East Coweta. “I don’t really know why I am alive today,” he told the students. “I shouldn’t have survived the accident I was in.” Tait said his accident occurred in 1997, the year after he graduated from high school. He had just finished his freshman year of college at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and was celebrating with some friends back home. He drank and partied late into the night and was in a car driving home with a childhood friend. At some point during the drive, the car went off the road and flipped over. “I woke up in the hospital about a
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month later,” he said. After waking up, he had no memory of the accident and found out his friend was dead. His friend was thrown from the car and killed instantly. “I also had issues with myself I needed to deal with,” he added. Tait was in a medically induced coma for about a month after the accident. He had suffered burns over 75 percent of his body as a result of a fire when the car crashed. As he was waking up, he kept looking down at his legs and knew something wasn’t right. “It finally hit,” he said. “I didn’t have any feet.” Due to the burns, the doctors had to amputate his legs below the knees. “Not only had I lost my friend, but I lost both my legs because of a bad decision,” Tait said. Because so much of his body was burned, he needed skin grafts which the doctors did by taking skin from his back, chest, and head to put on his legs. He also had to learn how to live life as a disabled person. In addition, the legal ramifications of his accident were severe and will be with him for the rest of his life. Tait said he was charged with DUI Manslaughter to which he pled no contest because he couldn’t remember any of the accident. He was convicted as a felon. “I really didn’t know why I survived,” he said, adding he shares his story to help others not make bad decisions. “I have really learned the value of life and the tragedy death can bring … Nobody is promised tomorrow, and the decisions you can make can have a ripple effect on everyone around you,” he said. “I don’t want you guys to feel sorry for me, to take pity on me … I want you to learn from me.”
NCHS Creates Driving Brochure Map features locations related to famous trial By MAGGIE BOWERS maggie@newnan.com After a notable amount of public interest, the Newnan-Coweta Historical Society has created a driving brochure featuring a map of several locations in and surrounding the county related to the murder of Wilson Turner. The murder and subsequent trial is well-known among locals and gained interest following a 1976 account of the Wilson Turner death and trial of the accused and later convicted, John Wallace, written by Newnanborn Margaret Anne Barnes. The acclaimed book, Murder in Coweta County was later developed into a movie with the same title featuring star Johnny Cash and Andy Griffith. “The murder, along with the book and film, always gets a lot of interest this time of year” said Jeff Bishop, referring to the April anniversary of the events which took place in 1948. According to Bishop, after seeing the movie, which is screened annually at the Newnan Carnegie Library in downtown Newnan, tourists and residents alike want to visit the locations noted both in filming and in the actual account of the murder. “I remember one visitor who was all the way from Mississippi,”
Jeff said. “He had several hours before he would need to get to the airport to board a return flight and he wanted to know where these places were.” Bishop also noted that this particular incident was one of many. Often, Bishop or another staff member would make attempts to create a hand-drawn map for the visitors or to attempt to give directions over the phone. “We really wanted something we could hand to them,” Jeff expalined. “Something we could have available and they could carry with them.” After recently completing the theatre adaptation of the events of the murder in a play titled “Flies at the Well,” Bishop was able to contribute a bit of his own recent findings to the project, but according to the executive director, the majority of the research was completed by employee and long-time volunteer Ellen Corker. As a writer and retired News Editor for The Newnan TimesHerald, in addition to being a long-time Newnan resident, Corker took on the challenge of designing the detailed brochure without hesitation. “I started by reading two books written by Dot Moore,” said Corker in a phone interview. Moore, now deceased, was known for her work as a civil rights activist and her depiction of two important people involved in the 1948 murder and trial. Moore wrote two thoughtprovoking biographies including
BROCHURE, page 4A
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