A plane crashed just off of U.S. Highway 27 north, Sunday, August 21, at approximately 5:00 p.m. The crash was called in by a resident who heard the crash, Jason Varnum, who lives just a few hundred yards from the crash scene. The plane fell approximately five miles north of Colquitt in a wooded area.
The first call came into the 911 operator at 5:02 p.m. Sunday evening. Miller County Ambulance Service with EMTs were sent to the scene, along with Miller County Sheriff officers and Colquitt/Miller County Fire and Rescue Service.
The EMS checked the victim and instructed the sheriff’s deputy to call the coroner, the Federal Aeronautics Authority (FAA) and Haz-mat to report the crash and the fatality.
The pilot was declared dead on the scene, and the body was later removed from the crashed plane after officers completed their investigation.
It was indicated that the pilot was identified as Jeff Billings, 46, of 119 N. Early County Line Road. He was flying a Piper Pawnee crop dusting plane owned by Damascus Dusting Inc., # N7399Z.
The pilot was spraying a peanut field owned by Terry Pickle, with the chemical Bravo when the accident occurred. The FAA will be in charge of the crash, but preliminary investigations showed that the pilot struck a limb on an oak tree near the field he was spraying, and the plane fell just a few yards from that site.
According to the incident report, the witness, Jason Varnum, stated that he heard the engine cut off, and then the crash occurred immediately after the engine sound quit. The plane crashed on the edge of a peanut field, and the witness, Jason Varnum, had a fire extinguisher in his hand putting out a small fire around the plane’s engine. When the witness and a deputy sheriff checked the condition of the pilot, it was determined that he was deceased. The EMS and coroner later confirmed that the pilot was dead.
It was determined that an autopsy be performed and the body was sent to G.B.I. Crime Lab for autopsy.
There will be more on the crash if and when the information becomes available from the FAA.
Captain Scott Lawson of the Miller County Sheriff’s Department was the investigating officer in the accident. The scene and investigation will be turned over to the FAA when its agents arrive.

Several burglaries occurred in the city over the past few days.
On Wednesday, August 17, or Thursday, August 18, Helen's Pirate Cove had an attempted burglary when someone tried to pry open a door. Two screws had been taken out of the lock, and the dead bolt had been bent. Two other buildings had been forced, but not entered. Entry was not gained by the burglar into the restaurant.
Officer Greg Richey and Chief Scott Worsley were the investigating officers.
On Thursday, August 18, there was a report of a break-in at the MCHS football fieldhouse on Bush Street. Chief Scott Worsley and Captain Dan Stone processed the scene for evidence. Shoe prints were found on the door of entry. Nothing was found missing at the time.
Early Thursday morning, at 4:15 A.M., August 18, Officer Kenny Knowles was dispatched to Tully Oil Co. at 565 E. Main Street to investigate a report of a burglary. He called for an investigator to come to the scene.
When he arrived, the officer noticed that the front glass to the office door was broken out. Officer Knowles, after checking the area, noticed two black males standing across the street from the scene. The owner, Craig Tully pulled up about that time and waited at the scene.
The officer went across to question the suspects, and one of them walked off toward Fourth Street. The first subject, identified as Sentel Morgan, was questioned by the officer and placed in the police car. The officer then drove to where the second subject, identified as Derrick Miller, had walked to and asked him to come with him for questioning in the burglary.
The two suspects were taken to the Miller County Jail for questioning. They were both detained for investigative purposes.
Investigator Wells was updated on what Officer Knowles had found and about the two suspects and turned the case over to the investigator.
The burglary was discovered and reported to 911 by Raymond Varnum, who stated that when he dropped off some newspapers at Tully's Oil at 4:07 P.M. and noticed the broken door. He then drove to the county jail to report the incident.
When the officer returned, Mr. Tully stated that he was missing a cash register and an unknown amount of cash, along with the damage to his front door.
The two suspects were interviewed by the investigator and Chief Worsley, and both suspects admitted to breaking in the football fieldhouse and Tully's Oil.
The cash register was found ,and the two subjects had $152 on them when they were arrested. The two suspects are now in the local jail.

Just in case you haven’t been going to the meetings to voice your opinion of the local tax situation or reading this newspaper, gas isn’t the only thing going up, substantially. Your city and county ad valorem taxes are going up almost as much as your gas bills.
According to the five year reports in the past issues and this issue of the Miller County Liberal, you might ought to save some of that fuel money for a hunk of increase coming due in December of this year.
Just so you won’t be shocked just before Christmas when your taxes will be due, check for yourself.
According to the public notice, there will be a few more meetings to voice your opinions or suggestions to the city governmental body.
The City of Colquitt will have a meeting on Thursday, August 25, at 10:00 a.m. and one at 6:30 p.m. to explain why the mayor and council will increase city taxes by 13 percent over last year, which was also an increase of 1.9 percent over the year before. The final meeting before taxes are to be increased will be Thursday, September 1, at 6:30 p.m. All meeting will be held at the Colquitt City Hall.
Seems like the county will need more, a good bit more. The Miller County Commissioners in their notice stated that the mills will be set on Friday, September 2, 2005. The increase according to the five year history in this edition shows there will be a 21.31 percent increase over 2004. In 2004, there was a 29.93 percent increase over 2003, or a backbreaking 51.24 percent increase in taxes in the past two years for Miller County taxpayers. In money, for the county there will be an increase of $458,607.00 to be collected from the taxpayers over the 2004 increase of $495,739.00 over 2003. This is a total increase in tax monies of $954,346.00.
To add a little more to the bucket, the Tax Commissioner called to ask if we had been informed of when the seven (7) percent sales tax would begin in Colquitt and Miller County.
Miller County currently pays six (6) percent sales tax. Recently the voters agreed to ad an additional one (1) percent school tax to the six percent.
To date, there has been no official notice when that extra will be added on, but tax sources believe that it will begin September 1, 2005. That is less than one week away. Merchants and businesses have much to do if that is a fact. Maybe it won’t start until 2006.

A northern newspaper had the Miller County Pirates predicted to lose this past Friday night. Guess what? They were wrong!! Don’t misunderstand this article. It was no walk in the park for our Pirates. They had to play some hard ball. Those Cougars were well conditioned out there on Pirate Field. They had one thing on their minds and that was the past years of defeat from our Pirates, so, therefore, they came to play football. The Pirates made several costly mistakes that could have gone either way.
As the game got underway, Calhoun County won the toss and elected to receive. Captains for the game were Colter Harrell and Chris Worthy for the Pirates and Antonio Walker and Quentin Sheppard for the Cougars. Miller County’s # 2, Jeremy Grant, along with the Pirates’ special kicking team, put the play in motion. The Cougars did not have possession long due to a fumble and Miller County’s # 26 Marc Tabb recovering a muff on the Cougars’ 28 yard line. On first and 10 for the Pirates from the Cougars’ 28, Grant handed off to Brian Thompson for the touchdown. Quenton Douglas’ point attempt was good. The Pirates were on the scoreboard, 7-0.
The Black Death Defense led by Colter Harrell, Chris Bailey, Craig Huntley, Cameron Randle, Demetrius Spooner, and Charlie Johnson was hanging tough against those Cougars. The second touchdown of the game came when Grant air-mailed a 17-yard pass to Brandon Bush. Alfonzo Ross’ good blocking allowed Bush to get stretched out. Again Douglas’s point attempt was good, and the Pirates were up 14 -0. However, the Cougars answered the Pirates right back with a 90-yard kick return by David Daniels. The Cougars tried for two points, but then again the Black Death Defense stood strong against those Cougars.
Penalties were costly all night long. Roughing the kicker, unsportsmanlike conduct, clippings, illegal motion in back, delay of game, holding, you name it --- it was called. Some were guilty; some weren’t. The Cougars answered again with another touchdown by Dexter Thomas, but the two point conversion came up short.
A question is standing in the minds of all Pirate fans that were at the game last Friday. The punt return that was kicked by Douglas to Calhoun County was touched by a Cougar. Yet the Cougar did not have control, a Pirate recovered the pigskin, yet the ball was given back to the Cougars. It was touched; didn’t that make it a fair ball for either side to go after? The Zebras gave the pigskin to the Cougars, who proceeded to drive down field, but Lady Luck was riding on the Pirate Ship as the game came to an end with the final score, 14-12.
Coach Wes Williams of the Calhoun Cougars had his team motivated and in shape. They played hard and were tough. Mind you, our Pirates had to play hard to win this game. It did not come easy at all.
As always, our Miller County High School Marching Band, under the direction of Mr. Spence Salter, did an outstanding half time show as did the cheerleaders in keeping the team and crowd fired up.
Also, during halftime festivities, the Miller County 10 and under All-Star team was recognized, along with their coaches for being the state championships.
The Pirates will be hosting Headland, Alabama, this coming Friday. Everyone is encouraged to come and show your support to all our athletes.
Skull & Crossbones

Week of August 21, 2005