Criminal Defense Attorney in Georgetown, GA.

On Monday, the morning of Aminu Mohammed's college decision, he still didn't know where he was going to attend college.

He laughed at the number of times teammates had asked him where he'd attend the last few years building up to when he was supposed to make his announcement Monday evening at Greenwood Laboratory School. He promised he didn't know.

After Mohammed woke up, he talked to his brothers and the decision came down to two schools — Georgia or Georgetown.

He made his decision Monday night.

Mohammed stood on a stage in front of a small crowd and picked up a sign that had a basketball jersey and a Georgetown logo. He decided he was going to play for NBA legend Patrick Ewing and be a Hoya.

"When you look at it, you say, 'What about academics?'" Mohammed said. "It's important. If you have a Georgetown degree, you can pretty much go somewhere in the world."

Missouri hoops: Aminu Mohammed should be celebrated as one of Springfield's all-time greats

The decision came as a surprise to some. Most major recruiting websites predicted he'd attend Georgia — the school that he said he considered all the way up until the hours before he announced his choice just after 5 p.m.

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Mohammed's connection to Georgetown was evident with it being located in Washington D.C., where the five-star prospect played before he moved to Springfield. The senior said he didn't put too much stock in that.

An important factor throughout his recruitment has been finding the right fit. Mohammed has dreams of playing in the NBA and he saw something in Georgetown that made him think that he could achieve that dream as a Hoya.

"They play NBA stuff," Mohammed said. "They play with the pick and roll, transition and speaking with the coach, he's talking about trying to get it on defense and he's trying to run out on offense in transition. That's my style — fast and transition. I liked that."

And then there's Ewing — the 11-time All-Star and Basketball Hall of Famer who attended Georgetown and has been the head coach there since 2017. Not only did Mohammed commit to Georgetown, but he made a commitment to the legendary former New York Knick as well.

Aminu: Greenwood uses incredible 4th-quarter rally to top Kickapoo in highly-anticipated showdown

Knowing Ewing is going to be the one pushing him to be the best basketball player sweetened the deal.

"He played in the NBA and that's really going to help," Mohammed said. "And it's going to help push you and he's going to be a tough coach. He's going to be a 'tell you the truth' kind of coach. I felt like if he's going to push me like that, then he's going to push me to my final destination."

Smiling on the stage, Mohammed, wearing a bright pink sweatshirt, finally answered the question the southwest Missouri basketball community, along with many other college basketball communities, had been wondering.

He's going to Georgetown, and he's happy to have the decision finally made.

"I'm very happy," Mohammed said. "I'm not going to get those questions from my teammates no more. It's just going to be about basketball and trying to win a championship."

Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or Twitter at @WyattWheeler_NL. You can subscribe to his free "Bears Beat" newsletter on News-Leader.com. He's also the co-host of Sports Talk on Jock Radio weekdays from 4-6 p.m.

Ivy Bridge Academy would like to recognize our debate students who recently performed extremely well in a National Debate Tournament that was held virtually. IBA is so proud to have students that work so hard to excel and it shows consistently in National and International Tournaments. The 2020 Georgetown Fall National Debate Tournament was held 10/9 - 10/11/2020.

Resolved: The United States federal government should enact the Medicare-For-All Act of 2019.

Congratulations Ivy Bridge Academy Students!!!

Find out what's happening in Alpharetta-Miltonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Middle School/ Novice

Finished 2nd place: Ananya Rajagopalan & Saanvi Sinha

Find out what's happening in Alpharetta-Miltonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Speaker Award

3rd Place: Ananya Rajagopalan

8th Place: Saanvi Sinha

Neha Mahesh & Rikhil Ranjit

9th place: Gene Yoon & Ethan Nam

Speaker Award2nd Place: Rikhil Ranjit

9th Place: Neha Mahesh

14th Place: Owen Wu

High School/ Novice All IBA 3 teams are Co-Champions!Susant Chunduri & Aryan BaveraAkshaya Poonepalle & Aesha ShahRuhi Datar & Daniel Huang

5th Place: Paheli Patel & Mandy Yang

Speaker Award

6th Place: Paheli Patel

7th Place: Mandy Yang 8th Place: Aryan Bavera 15th Place: Susan Chunduri

High School/ Junior Varsity 3rd place: Pranaya Balaji & Karthik Jayaram

5th place: Aalif Biswas & Aiden Kim

9th place: Anant Gautam & Prakhar Gupta

Speaker Award

9th Place: Prakhar Gupta

11th Place: Anant Gautam

1st - Claire Jiang and Anishka Majumdar2nd - Hughes Liu and Yasha Padmanabhan3rd - Hailey Culp and Layla Patel

Speakers

1st - Yasha Padmanabhan2nd - Gowri Gowda 3rd - Nicholas Pirone

1st- Brandon Yoo and David Park2nd- Eshawnvie Kallu and Ella Liu 3rd- Aditi Kothari and Rhea Nair

Speaker Award

1st- Ella Liu2nd- Eshawnvie Kallu3rd- Brandon Yoo

Ivy Bridge Academy Middle School Teams:

Jui Park and Anna Yang, Saanvi Sinha and Ananya Rajagopalan, Owen Wu and Alice Zhang, Risha Kohli and Skylar Song, Siri Manekar and Claire Park, Neha Mahesh and Rikhil Ranjit, Harsh Punjabi and Jai Melinamani, Raunak Gupta and Soham Verma, Brandon Yoo and David Park, Eshawnvie Kallu and Ella Liu, Gene Yoon and Ethan Nam

Ivy Bridge Academy High School Teams:

Ruhi Datar and Daniel Huang, Mandy Yang and Paheli Patel, Dev Iyer and Ibrahim Mohamma, Akshaya Poonepalle and Aesha Shah, Nayan Revankar and Dhanvin Yajaman, Lynden Baek and Alex Ko, Susant Chunduri and Aryan Bavera, Sabrina Yang, Pranaya Balaji and Karthik Jayaram, Yugeshwar Muralidhar and Nina Thakur, Amy Ajay and Raksha Govind, Anant Gautam and Prakhar Gupta, Noah Yoon and Daniel So, Aiden Kim and Aalif Biswas

GEORGETOWN, Ga. (WTOC) - Landmark 24 is trying to rezone about 100 acres of land off Wild Heron Rd. to residential.

Wednesday night was all about Landmark 24 developers addressing residents’ concerns and reiterating their plans, but the community’s biggest frustrations are traffic, safety and the potential impact on the school system.

WTOC showed up and called in advance for an interview, but when we got there they told us we could not record their presentation.

They’ve been trying to convince the community of their plans for six months but just like the Metropolitan Planning Commission denied them, residents don’t want it in their neighborhood. That includes SCCPSS School Board Member Dr. David Bringman who’s lived in Georgetown since 1984.

“I believe most people who were here tonight would like the area to stay similar to what it looks like now. Not against growth...just not exponential growth of this size. I’m glad that they came and listened. It was unfortunate that they didn’t believe that the news that would come here to report on something happening in the community should be reporting,” Dr. Bringman said.

You won’t hear from Landmark because they didn’t want their presentation Wednesday night recorded, even for residents who weren’t able to make it. Many residents have heard of the development plans before - 399 homes, with a mix of townhomes and single family homes.

It’s not the rezoning some have a problem with, it’s the scale of it.

“Split the difference and build 300 homes and not 400 homes so they can have less density and that would reduce the traffic,” said Bonnie Mandly who lives in Georgetown.

The land is zoned agricultural. Developers said this project would take 15 years to complete. Some people also voiced frustration with lack of research and outreach.

“What the builder’s don’t think about is reaching out further than just the immediate community and the high schools that would be impacted. Most of the high schools that would be districted from this area are more full so looking down the road we would have to think about how those students would impact future enrollment,” said Dr. Bringman.

Landmark 24 will go before the MPC for approval on February 7th at 1:30pm. From there, it will go to Savannah’s City Council for a vote.

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SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - A proposed development for hundreds of homes in Georgetown is getting push back from residents.

Georgetown residents are saying “no” to rezoning plans for close to 400 homes.

“We just don’t want that many houses across the street,” said Susana Lane, who lives in the area.

The proposed development is off Wild Heron Road not far from Georgetown Elementary School.

While many residents weren’t shocked about the proposal...

“We just assumed it would be something identical to the homes surrounding us,” said Patrick Sullivan.

They didn’t expect a development of this size.

“Having a family, you want safety for your kids,” said Shannon Hill.

Public safety is a main concern especially for parents of younger kids.

“Thinking about her playing in the street when we live 100 yards from the intersection, which will be funneling so many of these cars...an extra 800 in our backyard,” said Mary Villegas, who helped start the petition.

Residents want developers to think about scaling down how many homes they’re trying to build.

“We’re kinda piling a lot of homes all on top of each other right across the street from our neighborhood,” said Lane.

A sign sits right off the road saying “stop 400 homes”. More than 500 people have also signed a petition in the past two weeks and someone made a website to make neighbors aware.

Lane said: “We just all want to protect our property values. We have no problem with other people moving into this wonderful neighborhood. We just want to keep it you know the same integrity we’ve always had.”

They said all these homes will make traffic even worse.

“The trouble we have now can just be magnified by another 800 cars,” said Kelvin Brown.

Residents want developers to listen and know they deserve a say about what happens in their community.

“Stop and think about integrating into the neighborhood cohesively.”

Alderman Kurtis Purtee said he’s also opposed 400 homes going there because of the infrastructure and roadway.

He also said their needs to be more community engagement meetings before this goes through.

The public can attend a hearing from The Metropolitan Planning Commission next week, on July 26th.

Then, it will go before Savannah’s city council for a vote.

Copyright 2022 WTOC. All rights reserved.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - Residents in the Southern Woods at Rice Mill neighborhood are concerned about a proposal to amend the neighborhood’s current zoning plans.

“Sticking to the original plan for the neighborhood is really all we’re asking for,” said resident Wayne Shifflett.

Georgetown resident Wayne Shifflett has lived in the Southern Woods at Rice Mill neighborhood for 16 years. The things he says he loves about the area is that it’s quiet and full of nature. Things he’s concerned a new zoning plan would take away.

“It’s going to cause a lot of safety issues, a lot of issues with the environment and with our house values.”

According to the Metropolitan Planning Commission, a developer, Drapac Capital Partners, submitted an application to them asking to change the current zoning that allows approximately 120 lots to allow 155 lots.

“Our organization strongly feels that it would have a detrimental effect on not only to the aesthetics of the area, but the traffic coming in and out. We feel there’s probably a potential for flooding problems because it’s soft, dead ground back there and they’ll be paving over it,” said Ken Johnson, President of Southern Woods HOA.

With their request, the MPC says the lots would have to be brought down from the current 10,000 square foot lots to 6,000 square feet to fit all of the houses in.

“The property in question has been an undeveloped property for many years,” said District 6 Alderman Kurtis Purtee.

Alderman Kurtis Purtee has been contacted by the residents and says he wants to hear their concerns. He says first the request would have to be approved or denied by the MPC board. If approved, it would be the city council’s job to then approve or deny it.

“My role as the alderman is to gather the information from the community. Ask them what’s important, what they want to see, what don’t they want to see,” said Purtee.

“We’re trying to build a community out here that’s safe and friendly and not crowded,” said Johnson.

Alderman Purtee will be meeting the residents on Tuesday at 5 p.m. Residents hope this meeting will show the city that the rezoning plan is not desired.

Copyright 2021 WTOC. All rights reserved.