AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Ten men were honored by Bethel AME Church at the Bell Auditorium on Friday evening.

This year’s honorees were selected for being leaders in Augusta, including state Rep. Karlton Howard, Westside High School boys basketball head coach coach Jerry Hunter, Augusta Commission member Alvin Mason and others.

More than 300 guests were there.

We heard from a committee member about what led to the honorees this year.

“We decided to honor 10 distinct men here in Augusta, Ga. that have impacted our community through the years,” said Lynwood Holmes. “So we decided our theme for this year is Men’s Day is ‘Men Leading and Standing on Faith.’ So we decided to bring in 10 men to have led in some capacity in our community.”

News 12 First Alert Meteorologist Mikel Hannah-Harding was the emcee.

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AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – In December, we told you that the city-owned Augusta cemeteries were locked, and fam ilies have not been able to visit their loved ones.

Now, two months later and five months after Hurricane Helene, leaders spoke at a forum to discuss an audit of the parks and recreation department and progress on restoring the cemeteries.

Augusta Mayor Garnett Johnson and new parks and recreation leader Tameka Williams gave updates.

Williams said she visited the Cedar Grove, West View and Magnolia cemeteries that the city owns.

She said the debris had been removed, but areas deemed unsafe are still blocked off.

Williams also offered a new time frame when the cemeteries may reopen.

“We are looking to within the next couple of weeks,” said Williams. “Our biggest work was getting the debris removed once we hit one cemetery, then we moved to another, and we finished with Magnolia Cemetery.”

Williams said staff would be on site to help people when the cemeteries reopen.

Johnson gave his thoughts on the cleanup as well.

“Most of the roads are clear, a lot of the debris have been removed, it’s the spring time of year and everyone wants to go visit their loved ones,” said Johnson. “Our ceemteries were severely damaged as a result of the hurricane and we’ve asked that they just give us some patience as our primary focus was cleaning up our cities.”

Regarding the audit for the parks and recreation department, leaders gave an update saying they will have to choose a new firm to perform a new audit no later than April 15.

We will keep you updated on that process.

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AUGUSTA, Ga. – The Department of Veterans Affairs, a huge employer in the Augusta area, has eliminated an office created to help minority veterans.

It’s all part of the DOGE-led efforts to cut about 80,000 employees from the government agency that provides health care for retired military members.

With a two-campus hospital in Augusta and facilities in outlying counties, the agency is a major employer in the CSRA.

The agency employs about 2,700 people across the VA Augusta health system, which includes the two medical centers in Augusta and clinics in Athens, Aiken and Statesboro.

A VA spokesperson said the Veteran Benefits Administration’s Office of Equity Assurance is “no longer needed.” The office, which was created under President Joe Biden, helped minority veterans with disparities in how the government provides benefits.

Sen Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., blasted the closure.

“This undermines the progress we have made in making the VA more responsive and accountable to our men and women in uniform,” he said. “I urge the administration to reconsider this reckless decision and ensure proper treatment of all veterans remains at the core of the VA’s mission. Veterans deserve better, and I will keep fighting to get them the care they are owed.”

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Rep. Mark Takano, of California, is the top Democrat on the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. He called the office’s closure “reckless.”

As part of President Donald Trump’s effort to shrink government, the VA has cut a few thousand employees and hundreds of contracts. It is expected to cut 80,000 jobs before the end of the year.

VA Secretary Doug Collins, a former Georgia congressman, said the agency is aiming to cut the jobs as part of its “department-wide review” that is being carried out in response to President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency and Workforce Optimization initiative.

“This will be a thorough and thoughtful review based on input from career VA employees, senior executives, as well as the top VA leaders,” Collins said. “Our goal is to reduce VA employment levels to 2019-end strength numbers – roughly 398,000 employees from our current level of approximately 470,000 employees. Now that’s an 15% decrease. We’re going to accomplish this without making cuts to health care or benefits to veterans and VA beneficiaries.

Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., has criticized the cuts.

“The administration must immediately and publicly withdraw any proposal to gut the VA and imperil veterans’ care and benefits,” he said last week. “Already, the chaos, incompetence, and disruption are unacceptable. Veterans earned their benefits through selfless service. It’s a contract, not a gift.”

Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham has been apprehensive about how the cuts were communicated.

The chair of the Senate Budget Committee said he was displeased that the VA had not given lawmakers an advance notification of the changes, saying it was “political malpractice not to consult Congress.”

“Maybe you’ve got a good reason to do it,” Graham said last week, leaving a lunch with Musk. “But we don’t need to be reading memos in the paper about a 20% cut at the VA.”

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