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Bryan County gets ready for Christmas
Parade
Santa waves from atop a Richmond Hill Fire Department truck during the 2016 Christmas parade. - photo by File photo
Ted O'Neil
toneil@bryancountynews.com
Updated: Nov 28, 2017, 4:45 PM
Published: Nov 28, 2017, 4:47 PM

Parades, visits with Santa and a giving atmosphere are all in place as Bryan County prepares for the holidays.

The season kicks off Friday with the city of Richmond Hill’s 16th annual chili cook-off and Christmas tree decorating contest from 6-8 p.m. in J.F. Gregory Park. Richmond Hill’s 22nd Annual Christmas Parade starts Saturday at 10 a.m.

This year’s theme is “A Storybook Christmas.” It will begin on Maple Street and continue on Cherry Street, then down Ford Avenue to Richard Davis Drive past City Hall, finishing in J.F. Gregory Park.

The grand marshal this year will be Bonnie Proctor, who has been part of the planning committee for the Great Ogeechee Seafood Festival since it began.

The Richmond Hill High School marching band will hold its holiday craft fair from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at St. Anne’s Catholic Church, featuring live entertainment and gifts, with coffee and donuts available starting at 8 a.m.

Also on Friday night, Bryan County will host an outdoor movie night from 6-9 p.m. at Henderson Park featuring “Frozen” and will do the same on Dec. 8 at Hendrix Park. Both events will include a visit from Santa from 6 to 6:30 p.m.

Pembroke’s 34th Annual Christmas Parade is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 9, immediately followed by the Christmas tree lighting. Vendors will be open beginning at 2 p.m.

This year’s grand marshals are sisters Jeanne McCormick and Mary Anna Hite of Pembroke Advanced Communications.

City Clerk Sharroll Fanslau said this is the first time the city will hold the parade in the evening.

“The floats can be lighted, but we have some restrictions on how loud the generators can be,” she said. “It will look nice all lit up in the dark but we want people to be able to still hear the bands and announcements.”

Also on Dec. 9, the Richmond Hill Fire Department will host “Breakfast with Santa” at the Ford Avenue station and nearby senior center. The event runs from 8-11 a.m. and includes pictures with Santa, crafts and a bouncy house.

Bryan County Emergency Services will host a similar event from 9 a.m. to noon on Dec. 16 at Station No. 7, located on Highway 204 in Ellabell.

The cities of Pembroke and Richmond Hill are both once again participating in the Georgia Municipal Association’s Mayors’ Christmas Motorcade, which collects gifts for Georgia hospital patients with developmental disabilities and behavioral health needs. Items can be dropped off at either city hall through Dec. 5.

Finally, firefighters will be bringing Santa to several neighborhoods around the county again this year. These appearances will begin around 6 p.m. but are subject to change depending on availability. They will be collecting unwrapped presents to be distributed through Bryan County Family Connection. Please check the respective departments’ Facebook pages for any schedule changes.

The schedule for Bryan County Emergency Services is:

Dec. 3: Oxford, Cove, Fort McAllister, Bryan Acres, Clarktown, Lindsey Drive, Dixie, Daniel Siding, Baily Plantation, Hope Creek, Shuman, Kelly Davis, Oak Hill.

Dec. 4: Buckhead, Tranquilla Hall, Keller Crossing, Buckhead North.

Dec. 5: Bow Ridge, Laurel Grove, Wicklow, Dunham Marsh, Waterways, Lincoln Estates, Belle Island, Demeries Lake.

Dec. 6: Sweet Hill, Magnolia Marsh, Heron Point, Marsh Harbor, Oak Point, Bluffs, Waterford Landing, Jerico, Belfast.

Dec. 7: Strathy Hall, Holly Hill, Buckhead East.

The schedule for the Richmond Hill Fire Department is:

Dec. 4: Plantation Apartments, Teal Lake, Cypress Pointe.

Dec. 5: Turtle Hill, Richmond Hill Plantation (Timber Trail side).

Dec. 6: Richmond Hill Plantation (golf course side), River Oaks.

Dec. 7: Melrose, the Bottoms.

Dec. 8: Main Street.

Dec. 12: White Oak, Live Oak.

Dec. 13: Richmond Place, Blueberry.

Dec. 14: Piercefield Forest.

Dec. 18: Sterling Creek, Brisbon Hall.

Dec. 19: Sterling Woods, Creekside.

Dec. 20: Richmond Heights, Ashton Apartments, Buckeye Plantation.

Dec. 21: Ponderosa, Mulberry, Rushing Street. 

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Later yall, its been fun
Placeholder Image
Ted O'Neil
Updated: May 23, 2018, 6:03 PM
Published: May 23, 2018, 6:05 PM

This is among the last pieces I’ll ever write for the Bryan County News.

Friday is my last day with the paper, and come June 1 I’m headed back to my native Michigan.

I moved here in 2015 from the Great Lake State due to my wife’s job. It’s amicable, but she has since moved on to a different life in a different state, and it’s time for me to do the same.

My son Thomas, an RHHS grad as of Saturday, also is headed back to Michigan to play basketball for a small school near Ann Arbor called Concordia University. My daughter, Erin, is in law school at University of Toledo. She had already begun her college volleyball career at Lourdes University in Ohio when we moved down here and had no desire to leave the Midwest.

With both of them and the rest of my family up north, there’s no reason for me to stay here. I haven’t missed winter one bit, but I’m sure I won’t miss the sand gnats, either.

Shortly after we arrived here in 2015, I got a job in communications with a certain art school in Savannah for a few short months. It was both personally and professionally toxic and I’ll leave it at that.

In March 2016 I signed on with the Bryan County News as assistant editor and I’ve loved every minute of it. My “first” newspaper career, in the late 80s and early 90s, was great. But when I left it to work in politics and later with a free-market think tank, I never pictured myself as an ink-stained wretch again.

Like they say, never say never.

During my time here at the News, I’ve covered everything that came along. That’s one big difference between working for a weekly as opposed to a daily paper. Reporters at a daily paper have a “beat” to cover. At a weekly paper like this, you cover … life. Sports, features, government meetings, crime, fundraisers, parades, festivals, successes, failures and everything in between. Oh, and hurricanes. Two of them. I’ll take a winter blizzard over that any day.

Along the way I’ve met a lot of great people. Volunteers, business owners, pastors, students, athletes, teachers, coaches, co-workers, first responders, veterans, soldiers and yes, even some politicians.

And I learned that the same adrenalin rush from covering “breaking news” that I experienced right out of college is still just as exciting nearly 30 years later.

With as much as I’ve written about the population increase and traffic problems, at least for a few short minutes my departure means there will be one less vehicle clogging up local roads. At least until I pass three or four moving vans headed this way as I get on northbound I-95.

The hub-bub over growth here can be humorous, unintentional and ironic all at once. We often get comments on our Facebook page that go something like this: “I’ve lived here for (usually less than five years) and the growth is out of control! We need a moratorium on new construction.”

It’s like people who move into phase I of “Walden Woods” subdivision after all the trees are cleared out and then complain about trees being cut down for phase II.

Bryan County will always hold a special place in my heart and I definitely plan on visiting again someday. My hope is that my boss, Jeff Whitten (one of the best I’ve ever had), will let me continue to be part of the Pembroke Mafia Football League from afar. If the Corleone family could expand to Vegas, there’s no reason the PMFL can’t expand to Michigan.

But the main reason I want to return someday is about that traffic issue. After all, I’ll need to see it with my own eyes before I’ll believe that Highway 144 actually got widened.

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