Barrow journal (Winder, Ga.) 2008-2016, September 19, 2012, Image 23

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Newspaper Page TextRegion roundup Page 11B ^ Barrow Journal M Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2012 BANKS HALL • Homer • Gainesville Commerce MADISON Flowery Branch JACKSON • Danielsville • Braselton v • Hoschton • Jefferson • Bufori • Winder CLARKE • Athens GWINNETT BARROW Lawrenceville Watkinsville • Loganville OCONEE • Monroe WALTON 1 BANKS COUNTY Plan changes Banks Crossing A consultant recently presented plans to the Banks County Planning Commission that included proposed changes to the Banks Crossing area, including reduced speed limits. Consultants from Tunnell, Spangler, Walsh and Associates pre sented the plan to county officials. Transportation recommendations included adding an optional left-turn lane onto Tanger Boulevard, requir ing rear parcel access roads for new developments and extending side walks to improve pedestrian safety. Also, the plan proposed reducing the speed limit in the Banks Crossing area. Infrastructure improvements for the Banks Crossing area included the establishment of utility service agree ments and utility line relocation and burial. The planning team also offered ideas about economic development, including creating a state-recognized “opportunity zone” to attract new investment, aggregating marketing efforts to attract more retail shoppers, redesigning the county's recruitment package, including the website, and establishing a “community improve ment district." CLARKE COUNTY Man asks to withdraw plea An Athens man who is serving three consecutive life prison terms for murdering his brother and two sisters recently appealed his convic tion in Clarke County Superior Court, according to the Athens Banner- Herald. In a rambling, often intelligible hand-written appeal that his attorney, John David Latimer claims that his lawyer, without his consent, last year entered a plea of guilty but mentally ill. Latimer blames his attorney for “allowing (my) plea of guilt to be unwillingly entered upon said record and sentenced to life in DOC (Department of Corrections) at a para-normal torture facility,” Latimer wrote in his appeal. The 55-year-old prisoner, diag nosed with paranoid schizophrenia and other disorders, wrote his appeal while in the Augusta State Medical Prison. Authorities said Latimer stabbed one of his sisters with a sword then shot and killed her and his other sib lings in January 2009. UGA workshops aim to save water University of Georgia engineers are meeeting with hotel and restaurant operators from across the state to help them conserve water, energy and money, the Athens Banner-Herald reports. UGA’s College of Engineering has scheduled four free workshops in in Atlanta. Tifton and Savannah, with the final workshop Sept. 25 at Athens' Foundry Park Inn. The workshops are an extension of similar meetings with managers in other industries such as poultry pro cessors and electric membership cor porations, said Jason Perry, a research engineer in the UGA College of Engineering's outreach service. “The bottom line is (that) we’re try ing to increase the energy literacy in this constituency, and in every sector. That's our overall goal,” Perry told the newspaper. But the half-day workshop will cover more than energy conservation. Attendees will also learn how to interpret utility bills and rates, learn about tools they can use to track util ity uses and costs, and low- or no-cost ways to cut costs by using less water and energy. Students push for an A+ grade The University’s Student Government Association unanimous ly voted at its latest meeting in favor of a resolution supporting the addi tion of an A+ to the grading system. Will Burgess, the SGA president, told The Red & Black said it is important to emphasize this resolu tion is just SGA’s opinion and is not an actual proposal or in any way binding. “We are still trying to kind of see where all the students and adminis tration are, but we are aiming to have something by October,” he said. “We don’t have anything officially written yet.” But this is a first step toward imple menting the A+. Pranay Udutha, a junior from Acworth and the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences senator for the University Council, is the author of the bill. He said the University admin istration has been trying to implement the plus-minus system since 2006. “The A+ has been a part of that movement,” he said. “My freshman year, we were working on the A+ idea, trying to put that in place in the plus-minus system on the Academic Affairs Committee.” Udutha told the newspaper the dif ference between this approach and previous ones is the way the A+ is weighted. He said all the schools in the University System of Georgia must have uniform grading scales. The addition of an A+ weighted more heavily than a 4.0 would require a serious push in the Board of Regents. 3 GWINNETT COUNTY Hundreds caught in crackdown Gwinnett County authorities say mor ethan 300 people have been arrested for a variety of offenses dur ing a month-long crackdown on crime in the southern part of the county. Gwinnett County police Cpl. Jake Smith tells WSB Radio that the oper ation known as “South Surge” is in response to an increase in crime in the department’s south precinct. The operation, which began Aug. 18, involved several police check points around county roadways. Police say 65 of the arrests have been for felony offences. The most recent checkpoint along Ronald Reagan Parkway in Lawrenceville last week resulted in several arrests of suspects on charges such as drunken driving and drug possession. Arrest makes No. 19 for man A Lilbum man was arrested recent ly for allegedly robbing a local cell phone store, marking his 19th arrest in Gwinnett County since 2003. The Gwinnett Daily Post reports that Frankie Lee Wright, 26, was arrested Sept. 7 and charged with armed robbery and first-degree bur glary, both felonies. Gwinnett County jail records show he is being held without bond. According to warrants issued by Gwinnett police, Wright is accused of robbing SI Communications, a cellphone dealer at 3375 Sugarloaf Parkway in Lawrenceville, on the afternoon of Oct. 25. “The defendant came in the store and held the employees at gunpoint while he stole money and cellphones,” the warrant said. County jail records show last week’s arrest was Wright’s fifth in Gwinnett since July 2011, and his 19th since 2003. Wright was most recently arrested in April, on charges of criminal trespass, loitering and prowling and disorderly conduct. Other charges from various arrests include theft by deception, theft by receiving, theft by taking, driving without a license, marijuana posses sion. probation violation and giving false information. Walmart scam involves iPads Three Gwinnett men have been charged with stealing financial account information in a scheme to buy iPads at Walmart, police tell the Gwinnett Daily Post. Lawrenceville police believe the suspects — Christopher Hamilton, 20, of Snellville; Kadeem Robinson, 20, of Lawrenceville; and Martevius Watkins. 18, of Lilbum — accessed the banking account information of at least seven victims, and then encoded that information on Walmart debit cards and other cards. Police were notified Aug. 7 by an employee of a Walmart at 1400 Lawrenceville Highway who thought “something didn’t seem right about their IDs. credit cards and the number of iPads” the suspects were trying to purchase, according to a police report. Hamilton told police he bought two iPad 3 s valued at $528 each that day, and officers allegedly found three similar devices in a car they were traveling in. When approached by police in the parking lot, Hamilton and Robinson said they had bought the iPads to sell to friends in Tennessee. Hamilton was arrested after he admitted to police the cards he used were coded; the other two were released pending a more extensive investigation, the report states. HALL COUNTY City’s bonds get high rating Gainesville’s City Council heard good news at their called meeting Thursday afternoon from Dianne McNabb, Director of Public Financial Management, Inc., report ed good news about Gainesville’s finances to the City council last week, reports WDUN. McNabb, whose is contracted by the city for financial advice and ser vices, said the city recently received some positive ratings from the capital markets. Moody’s gave the city a credit rating of AA2, while Standard & Poor’s “affirmed a plus rating but assigned a ‘positive outlook' to the rating ... which basically means we can expect an upgrade from them in the near future.” she said during the special called meeting. McNabb added that in the current economy rating agencies (such as Moody's and S&P’s) are not gener ous with upgrades, receiving a “posi tive outlook” is a good sign. McNabb also explained that Gainesville’s 2012 tax-exempt 7-year bonds received a rate of 0.99 percent, including all underwriting costs, and that the City’s 15-year taxable bonds received a rate of 2.56 percent. The taxable bonds will be used to finance the purchase of the former Hall County jail. Taxable bonds are required for this transaction because the property is leased to a for-profit company. Using the improved inter est rates will allow bonds issued in 2004 to be redeemed, with a net saving to the city of almost $55,000 a year. 5 MADISON COUNTY Club builds its 500th ramp The Madison County Rotary Club recently built its 500th ramp at the home of Annie Mae Jarrells, the Athens Banner-Herald reports. Jarrells’ daughter and sole caregiver, Phyllis Jones, can now help her elder ly wheelchair-bound mother move beyond the front porch of their home on Jot Em Down Road. The building of the 500th ramp was recognized by Georgia Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, who attended the event and even helped stack lumber after the job was finished. This example of Madison County Rotary as a civic organization filling a need, Cagle said, speaks to the character and integrity of Madison County citizens. Cagle said that when things come across his desk about community accomplishments, “There are often things that catch your eye, but seldom things that catch your heart.” 6 OCONEE COUNTY Lawyers save secretary’s life When Karen Hemphill suddenly collapsed unconscious on the floor of the law office where she works, Shannon Coffey rushed to the wom an’s side and felt for a pulse. There was none. Nor was she breathing. Brian Cathey and Blaine Norris entered the room and Cathey later recalled Coffey’s words: “We have to do something.” And what happened next, according to the Athens Banner-Herald, saved the life of Hemphill, a 54-year-old Jefferson woman who is married with a son and two grandchildren. Hemphill, a secretary, had a heart arrhythmia, a condition that can stop the flow of blood to the brain, the afternoon of Aug. 17. On many Friday afternoons, Hemphill was the only person in the office. Fortunately, others were there the day she momen tarily died. Cathey called 911, Norris started chest compressions and Coffey began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. “It was like 14 minutes before the ambulance got here, but we did it until they came,” said Coffey, whose last CPR class was in high school when she was in training for a life guard job. When an Oconee County first responder arrived, he told the pair to continue their CPR while he hooked up a machine to give Hemphill elec trical shocks designed to restore a heart beat. When paramedics arrived, Hemphill was soon on board and as they left for the hospital, paramedics told them their patient’s heart was now beating. 7 WALTON COUNTY Church groups help at shelter Members of two Walton County churches helped fix up the facili ties recently at The Alcove, a nonprofit home for troubled youth that is working its way off a sus pension from the state. According to the Walton Tribune, local parishoners from Graystone Church and First Baptist Church of Monroe came over two consecutive weekends to do a variety of small jobs around the house, including landscaping work, patching holes in the walls or pressure washing the exterior. They were great,” said Tephra Fields, executive director of The Alcove, on their church volun teers. “It was just wonderful.” Fields and the board of directors for The Alcove are working to get the house back in working order while the facility is under suspen sion from the state’s Department of Human Services for infractions dating back to last year. According to documents obtained through the Georgia Open Records Act from the DHS, The Alcove was first suspended last August for a variety of con cerns, including a failure to main tain youth and staff records, lack of food and severe deficiencies in both the inside and outside of the structure. The suspension was lifted in October after a follow-up review found the concerns were addressed, but then-Director Dorothy Morrow reportedly struggled to keep docu mentation up to date.

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Barrow journal (Winder, Ga.) 2008-2016, September 19, 2012, Image 23