Augusta, GA
Former Augusta Parks employee wins $800k ADA discrimination settlement
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Virtually 10 years to the day since Melinda Pearson was demoted from her job as Augusta Parks and Recreation operations supervisor, she received a $800,000 settlement in a lawsuit contending she was injured and discriminated in opposition to by town.
“Could 2, 2012, is once they did it. After I acquired the decision at this time I acquired choked up,” stated Pearson, a former profession authorities worker and the daughter of longtime elections director Linda Beazley.
After a closed-door session Tuesday, the Augusta Fee accredited the settlement 9-1 with Commissioner Brandon Garrett opposed. Commissioner John Clarke stated attorneys suggested town might lose as much as $1.5 million if the case went to trial.
“This factor has been happening for years now,” Clarke stated. “The $800,000 would have been a lot better than going to a jury, and what they have been just about assured to present them.”
In 2012:Demoted recreation worker decided to “clear her identify”
Melinda Pearson claims her demotion was a lot harsher
Pearson, represented by lawyer John P. Batson, claimed in her lawsuit her demotion was a lot harsher than how others have been handled and violated the Individuals with Disabilities Act.
A 29-year, salaried worker with present accidents, she had lately returned from 10 weeks of donated sick depart when then-Recreation Director Tom Beck accredited her time card, which confirmed her on the job for 4 days whereas she was off.
Beck was fired by the fee for approving the time card and no different said cause. He claimed he’d inherited the observe of paying recreation workers for unrecorded comp time after they labored additional hours at metropolis occasions.
Beck additionally sued, claiming he was publicly accused of “time card fraud” and fired for safeguarding Pearson’s proper to be paid, however a decide dismissed the lawsuit in 2015.
Demoted, Pearson was assigned to be a handbook laborer, and, regardless of informing her supervisor she had prior work-related again accidents, was made to kneel on the bottom and chisel tile for days on finish and work as a roofer, in keeping with the lawsuit.
The actions aggravated her accidents however nobody within the division requested about them or how they may very well be accommodated beneath the Individuals with Disabilities Act, it stated.
Different information:Does Augusta have too many parks? Metropolis considers reducing ties with some
In February 2013 Pearson realized she’d been terminated. Town’s request for personnel motion claimed she voluntarily resigned, however was lacking her signature, and she or he was afforded no enchantment course of.
Case supplies included a whole bunch of filings and quite a few depositions of metropolis workers about how they dealt with depart requests and different personnel issues. At one level in the course of the case, Pearson obtained GPS data displaying 5 Recreation workers had been paid greater than $20,000 for “unproductive hours.”
Pearson stated Tuesday her husband’s work in Iraq helped her afford to maintain the lawsuit going. At one level a U.S. District decide granted abstract judgment for town, however she appealed, and the Georgia Courtroom of Appeals overturned the ruling, sending the case again for trial.
Now nearly 60, Pearson stated she’s prepared to maneuver on.
“I can begin the subsequent chapter of my life. I’m simply wanting ahead to placing this behind me,” she stated.
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Augusta, GA
The Dawg Days of summer hit the Junior Players with two (maybe) future UGA players leading
![The Dawg Days of summer hit the Junior Players with two (maybe) future UGA players leading The Dawg Days of summer hit the Junior Players with two (maybe) future UGA players leading](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/authoring/authoring-images/2024/08/31/NFTU/75032900007-hamilton-coleman.jpg?auto=webp&crop=1919,1081,x0,y129&format=pjpg&width=1200)
Mason Howell birdies his last two holes, Hamilton Coleman posts the tournament’s low score on their way to the final group for Sunday’s final round at Players Stadium Course.
TPC Sawgrass, AJGA host the Junior Players Championship for the 18th year
The 18th Junior Players Championship is at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. It has become a Labor Day Weekend tradition on the First Coast.
One of the players in the final threesome of the 18th Junior Players Championship on Sunday has already decided to play golf at the University of Georgia — despite having two more years until his high school class graduates.
The other, with the same amount of time left in junior golf, still has an open mind. But he’d be bucking family tradition if he didn’t become a Bulldog.
Either way, they have more immediate issues at hand: battling it out in the final threesome in the final round of the Junior Players Championship, at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.
Mason Howell of Thomasville, Ga., birdied the hardest par-3 and the hardest par-5 holes on the course to polish off a 70 on Saturday, and at 5-under-par 139 has a one-shot lead over Hamilton Coleman of Augusta, Ga., (68, the tournament’s low round for the first two days), who birdied No. 17 and then made a gutsy par at the last to finish at 4-under.
Logan Reilly of Lovettsville, Va. (72), who held a share of the 18-hole lead, is in third at 3-under, Luke Colton of Frisco, Texas (72) is fourth at 2-under and Kailer Stone of Alameda, Calif. (71) is fifth at 1-under.
They are the only players who have broken par for the first 36 holes.
Reilly earned his spot in the final three some when he rallied from a stretch of three bogeys in four holes to birdie Nos. 8 and 9.
First Coast players lagging behind
After Miles Russell became the first resident of the First Coast to win the Junior Players last year — with Phillip Dunham of Ponte Vedra Beach finishing second and Tyler Mawhinney of Fleming Island in a tie for sixth — it will take an extraordinary final round for any of them to reach the top 10, much less contend.
Junior Players leaderboard
Junior Players final-round groups, tee times
Dunham (75) and Jackson Byrd of St. Simons Island, Ga., (73) are tied for 18th at 3-over. Dunham made only one birdie but it was at his final hole, the par-5 ninth.
Lucas Gimenez of Jacksonville had a wild ride over the Stadium Course, signing for a card that contained four pars, seven birdies, five bogeys and two double bogeys. It added up to a 74 and he’s tied for 31st at 5-over.
Russell got his score to even par through 13 holes and was only four off the lead at the time. But he bogeyed four of his last five holes and shot 76. He’s tied for 34th at 6-under with Mawhinney (77).
Ambrose Kinnare of St. Augustine (83) is tied for 68th at 15-over.
Junior Players leaders putt, scramble well
Both of the leaders said the course takes a mental toll on players, especially off the tee.
“The greens are in really good shape but you have to play really smart to get there,” said Howell, who hasn’t made a college decision yet but is from a Bulldog family — both his parents graduated from UGA. “If you have one lapse you’re in trouble. You can’t just walk up to a tee and whack at it.”
Coleman agreed with the sight lines off the Stadium Course tees.
“They are just so demanding,” he said. “There is not a breather hole off the tee. Every tee shot, you’re kind of stressing. Once you’re in the fairway and in the right position, you can kind of attack.”
Howell, Coleman get hot at different times
Howell is 14th on the AJGA Rolex Rankings and has five top-10 finishes this year in AGJA or national junior events, including a tie for fifth in the Western Junior.
He was 1-over for his first 10 holes after starting his round at the par-4 10th, then dropped birdie putts of 15 feet at No. 2 and 20 feet at No. 5. Howell capped his day when he drilled a 4-iron from 211 yards out to set up a 35-foot birdie putt at the par-3 eighth, then pitched onto the green of the par-5 ninth hole in three, and made a 3-footer.
Coleman, who verbally committed to Georgia last week, is 91st on the Rolex Rankings. He bounced back from a bogey at No. 2 with short birdie putts at Nos. 3, 4, 7 and 9, a stretch highlighted by a 6-iron against the wind from 176 yards out to within inches of the hole at the seventh.
Coleman birdied the 13th hole on a 15-foot putt at No. 13 and then chipped in from the right-front of the 14th green for birdie, negotiating a difficult angle to the front-left pin.
He almost holed out another short-game shot at the last. Coleman pushed his drive right and had to punch out from the trees. The ball rolled onto and over the green, settling into the left bunker. His sand shot tickled the edge of the hole before rolling 8 feet away, but he made the comebacker for par.
“I scrambled well, definitely,” Coleman said. “My irons have been really solid all week. I just need to tighten up the driver a little bit tomorrow.”
Howell, Coleman have played often
As South Georgia residents, Howell and Coleman know each other well and have played numerous times with and against each other and paired up for a practice round earlier in the week.
“He’s always fun to play with,” Coleman said. “Every time we play together we have fun.”
They also have a good track record on the First Coast. Howell is in his first Junior Players but he won the Billy Horschel Junior Championship on Oct. 5, 2023. Coleman tied for 18th in last year’s Junior Players and tied for third in the Horschel Junior Championship (which is played under a Stableford format), one point out of a playoff between Howell and Clark Van Gaalen.
Augusta, GA
THE SCORE: Behind the Scenes with the Silver Bluff band
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Augusta, GA
Augusta Fire Department welcomes 13 new firefighters
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AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – A class of fire recruits graduated from the Augusta Fire Department on Friday.
The department welcomed 13 new firefighters to the agency.
The department says this year’s theme, “Courage Under Fire: Rising Above,” was truly embodied by each recruit.
Augusta, Georgia Fire/EMA Department Chief Burden delivered an inspiring keynote address.
“We want to extend our deepest thanks to Augusta Technical College for their invaluable partnership and to the City of Augusta leadership for their continued support,” said the fire department.
Copyright 2024 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.
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