This is the second in a series highlighting local headlines from 2009.

— May 6 - Rochelle Pompey, a Whitesville Road Elementary School educator, is named the Troup County Schools’ Teacher of the Year. Pompey is a third-grade teacher and has been an educator for nine years and also sponsors Speak N Motion, a dance troupe for girls ages 12 to 18.

— May 10 - CareLink AmeriCorps officials announce the organization has been dissolved after leaders of the agency failed to secure grant funding for its operation. Other organizations in the area have yet to take up the sponsorship, which provided work-study opportunities for youth and services to senior adults.

— May 14 - Glenn Robertson, LaGrange’s first black City Council member, dies at the age of 83.

— May 15 - Drew Ferguson IV, longtime leader of West Point’s Development Authority and one of the architects of the deal to bring Kia Motors to West Point, retires from the authority.

— May 18 - Outgoing La-Grange College President Stuart Gulley is given an honorary degree at his last commencement exercise before leaving to become headmaster of Woodward Academy in Atlanta. He tells graduates he’s proud to be a member of the class of 2009.

— June 4 - Milton Olsen resigns from the Hogansville police department after an investigation reveals his sons have been taking his patrol car on joy rides around the family’s neighborhood without Olsen’s knowledge.

— June 9 - A python is discovered in an attic in LaGrange, just a few days after snakes take up residence in another area woman’s electrical box.

— June 19 - State Rep. Vance Smith, R-Pine Mountain, is chosen as Georgia Department of Transportation commissioner.

— June 19 - A bear on the loose in Hogansville’s mill village attracts the attention of law enforcement, wildlife authorities and more than 500 residents who spend the afternoon watching the “standoff” after the bear retreats to a tree. The bear eventually is caught and released by wildlife authorities into middle Georgia woods.

— June 20 - Dexter Davis, a board member of the Boys & Girls Club of West Georgia, is chosen to lead the organization in the wake of former director Wally West’s January firing.

— June 30 - Boatwright Hall dormitory director Matt Russell calls “911, the dean and my parents” after the brakes fail on his SUV and he crashes into a vacant Hawkins Hall on the LaGrange College campus.

— July 1 - A state-ordered merger between West Georgia Technical College and West Central Technical College in Carrollton becomes official. Done because of state budget cuts, both campuses stay intact.

— July 2 - Troup County sheriff’s deputies raid several businesses that offer gaming machines and discover illegal gambling.

— July 12 - New LaGrange College President Dan McAlexander, formerly provost at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., completes his move to La-Grange.

— July 14 - After protests from residents in the two cities, the Troup County Health Department Board chooses to keep clinics in Hogansville and West Point open, at least through July 2010. A state program had been moved to the La-Grange office, eliminating much of the need for the two outlying clinics.

— July 17 - A fiery crash at Interstate 85 in West Point kills a Bremen man after his truck, carrying office furniture, flips, falling through the gap in the overpass between the north- and southbound lanes and catches fire.

— July 20 - A python is stolen from a Vernon Street pet shop after a man goes into the store with family members and conceals the snake in his pants.

— Aug. 22 - Former President Jimmy Carter says he’s “honored” to kick off the Fuller Center Legacy Build in Lanett, Ala., in honor of Habitat for Humanity and Fuller Center for Housing founder Millard Fuller, who died unexpectedly in February.