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Teenagers intern at county offices
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Newton County’s latest batch of summer interns spent their last day with the county Friday.

High school graduate De’Lon Thomas, who is going to attend Valdosta State University in the fall, helped the county’s administrative staff by creating spreadsheets, filing, scanning contracts, organizing grants and checking off inventory, administrative assistant Roosevelt Winters said.

Rising high school sophomore Jamaal Pemberton and rising Newton High School junior Ta’Precious Bell worked with Keep Covington-Newton Beautiful, answering phones, filing, working at recycling centers and cleaning and painting rooms at Ficquett Elementary School, which will be a theme school this year.

The three worked with the county through the Summer Youth Work Experience Program funded by Northeast Georgia Regional Commission. The program is designed to give teenagers their first paid work experience, up to 35 hours per week, to help them mature and become more attractive future job applicants.

April 3 crash kills two young adults, injures third
Newton County Sheriff Car---WEB

NEWTON COUNTY — Around 10 a.m. on Thursday, a head-on collision on Highway 212 left two young adults dead and a third hospitalized.

Joe Navarro, 21, was driving the vehicle and Breanna Smith, 18, was in the passenger seat. Katie New, 20, sat between them.

According to the Newton County Sheriff’s Office, the vehicle lost control while going around a curve and crossed the centerline, where it collided head-on with a box truck. The crash report shows that their vehicle traveled another hundred feet after impact before coming to a stop. It spun, ended up facing the opposite direction on the shoulder of the opposite lane.

Navarro and Smith were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. New was airlifted to Grady Hospital. Her current condition is not known. 

Navarro, Smith and New were not believed to be wearing seatbelts when the collision occurred.

The driver of the box truck was not reported to have suffered any injuries.

This is an ongoing story. The News will post updates as they are made available.