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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2018 | $2.00 | GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA | gainesvilletimes.com
Gainesville may get new schools
Officials identify priorities during listening sessions on spending tax money
BY JOSHUA SILAVENT
jsilavent@gainesvilletimes.com
A second middle school, a junior
high school for eighth- and ninth-
graders, and a second high school
for the Gainesville City School
System have been identified by
parents and teachers as some of
the biggest spending priorities if
voters approve a new round of a
one-penny sales tax in 2020.
These findings come from “lis
tening sessions” school officials
held in October, and aren’t
all that surprising.
For example, with tens
of millions of dollars spent
in recent years rebuilding
two elementary schools
in the city, officials had
previously acknowledged
that any future special
purpose local option sales
tax revenue was likely
to be directed toward managing
growing student enrollment in the
one middle and one high school
in the district.
But officials wanted to
get a jumpstart on identi
fying these priorities and
understanding the true
needs of students.
“When we scheduled
these four meetings, the
intent was to give parents
and the community an
opportunity” to provide
input, Superintendent Jeremy Wil
liams said. “It’s really about getting
the voice of the community.”
Williams said it’s also about fore
casting the needs of the school sys
tem 10,20 and 30 years out, which
can be difficult but necessary.
“We’re talking about our chil
dren’s children possibly, and how
it will impact them,” he added.
The current E-SPLOST, which
was approved in 2015 with 74 per
cent of voter support, is projected
to bring in $6 million to $7 mil
lion annually for Gainesville City
Schools over the five-year life of
the tax (until 2022). The first col
lections began last fall.
The school system has allocated
this revenue to pay off construction
of the Mundy Mill Academy and
new Enota Multiple Intelligences
Academy, among other things.
Gainesville City Schools
received more than $29 million
during the previous round of
E-SPLOST that ended last year,
which rebuilt the Fair Street
School, and paid for re-roofing
■ Please see SCHOOLS, 4A
Williams
Tax allocation district aids
downtown development
SCOn ROGERS I The Times
Construction continues on the Main Street parking deck Monday, Sept. 24. This project has been funded by Gainesville’s
Midtown Tax Allocation District.
Residential, retail, parking deck additions in works around square
BY MEGAN REED
mreed@gainesvilletimes.com
The face of downtown and midtown
Gainesville is changing. The downtown
square will soon have a residential
development, Carroll Daniel Construc
tion’s new four-story headquarters
will also house restaurants and retail,
and two additional levels on the Main
Street parking deck will provide spots
for visitors.
The city of Gainesville has helped
facilitate those changes through its
midtown tax allocation district, which
uses property tax payments to support
construction of new developments.
When a property is developed, prop
erty taxes on that land will go up, so the
city would collect more revenue from
the property owner. Developers who
participate in TAD programs can use
that tax increase to their advantage.
The extra dollars from the increase go
into a fund that can be used to pay for
improvements.
“You take an area that has declin
ing tax revenues, an area that’s strug
gling a bit and needs a shot in the arm,
so to speak, some kind of assistance to
encourage people to reinvest in that
area, so back in the 2000s, downtown
and midtown Gainesville qualified,”
City Manager Bryan Lackey said.
Gainesville adopted its midtown
TAD in 2006. The city defines midtown
as an approximately 270-acre area bor
dered by Queen City Parkway, Moreno
Street, E.E. Butler Parkway and Acad
emy Street. The TAD also includes the
■ Please see TAD, 4A
Ej ELECTION 2018
Legal decisions,
racist robocalls
plague race for
Ga. governor
BY BILL BARROW AND BEN NADLER
Associated Press
ATLANTA — Last-minute legal decisions,
a racist robocall and a protester wearing a
giant chicken suit holding a sign that reads “too
chicken to debate.”
These are the scenes play
ing out amid the final furious
days of the hotly contested
and historic race for Georgia
governor between Democrat
Stacey Abrams and Republi
can Brian Kemp.
A robocall apparently from
a white supremacist group
is injecting racism directly
into the race, which has
already been fraught with a
race-laden debate over ballot
access and voter suppression.
Abrams would be the first
black female governor in U.S.
history. Kemp, who oversees
elections as Georgia’s sec
retary of state, vehemently
denies charges that he’s used
his office to make it harder for minorities to
vote.
Abrams and Kemp are both condemning an
automated telephone call filled with racist and
anti-Semitic statements. The call, sent to an
unknown number of Georgians, impersonates
Oprah Winfrey, who came to Georgia on Thurs
day to support Abrams.
The robocall says it was paid for by The Road
to Power, a group organized by Scott Rhodes
of Idaho. He has been linked to several other
■ Please see ELECTION, 6A
Kemp
Inside
More election coverage, what’s on the
ballot, 3A,6A
Online
See all of our election coverage at
gainesvilletimes.com/election2018.
INSIDE
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Lake Lanier level: 1,069.35 feet
Full pool 1,071. Up 0.01 feet in 24 hours
Betty Jo Ransom Brewer, 85
Charles Emerson Crane Jr., 74
Pearl Nash Davis, 93
Robert Woodrow Jett Jr., 46
Nancy A. Marlowe, 76
Marjorie Eugene Buchanan, 85
Alan Milton Dalton, 56
Tatiana Faur Dulceany, 64
Joseph Edward Gomez, 85
Bobbie Jean Grindle, 86
Cylde Winfred Nunnally, 85
Betty Ruth Potts, 78
Florence Mae Skinner, 86
Ricky Trimiar, 60
36,000 reasons to smile
Here’s to a decade of delivering precious babies - 36,000 to be exact - in our
Women & Children’s Pavilion at Northeast Georgia Medical Center Gainesville.
nghs.com/women-children
