Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 2A
BARROW JOURNAL
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 2013
Mock School continued from 1A
“I know the U.S. Marshal’s
Service, which actually oper
ates a training facility near
Atlanta-Hartsfield (Airport),
has the ability to move walls
around and set up scenarios
in any fashion, but as far as a
shoot house that is built like a
school, I am not aware of one,”
Powell said Tuesday.
‘‘I know some departments
gain access to actual schools
on weekends or late at night to
try to do active shooter train
ing, but I think what Barrow
County has done is great.”
BUILT ALMOST
FOR FREE
The sheriff’s training staff
came up with the concept for
the mock school after com
pleting the construction of
a 3,500-square-foot “mock
house” nearby. Deputies use
the house — complete with
solid, handcrafted “mock” fur
nishings — to practice finding
and taking out bad guys.
The house is made of wood
left over from a former con
crete business that had used
it to preform concrete. When
approached a second time
about donating the wood for
the school building, owner
Gerry Grimes quickly agreed.
“He said if it saves some
lives and saves some kids. I’m
all for it,” the sheriff said.
The county’s roads and
bridges staff transported the
wood to the training site.
To raise money for nails and
saws to complete the project,
the sheriff’s office recycled
metal clamps attached to the
wood.
“That wood was clamped
together with large pieces of
metal,” Smith said. “So we
took the metal to a recycler,
and used the money from recy
cling to pay for the nails and
saws we needed.”
Free labor was provided by
the Gwinnett County Detention
Center, whose inmates had
built the mock house. The
inmates dubbed their new
project the “School of Hard
Knocks,” and a sign on the
front of the structure includes
the number 1186, which is the
number of the crew that built it.
Gwinnett didn’t charge any
thing for the inmate labor, but
the sheriff said that county’s
detention center would have
free use of the training center
and range for annual firearms
certifications.
A SERIOUS MISSION
Until now, the sheriff’s
office conducted active-shooter
training in local schools only
at night or when students were
out for the summer.
The mock school will enable
the department to provide
RIBBON CUTTING
Jan Masingill, executive director of teaching and learn
ing for Barrow County schools, watches as the ribbon
she has just cut slips away. With her for the June 7
ceremony at the “mock school” for active-shooter
training are Sheriff Jud Smith, deputy Tim Laturell,
Sgt. Cecil Kidd, Sgt. David Aderhold, deputy Vince
Schmidt and deputy Alan Dial.
Photo by Susan Norman
more training and to do it year-
round.
All of the county’s munici
pal police agencies also will be
able to reserve the site for free.
“We want Winder, Statham
and Auburn police to use it,”
the sheriff said. “I can assure
you that if something were
to happen at Apalachee High
School and we asked for help,
Winder police and Auburn
police and Statham police
would respond as well.”
Agencies outside of Barrow
County would pay for the use
of the facility, he said.
However, the first priority
for its use will be to sharpen
the skills of this county’s 11
school resource officers who
likely would be first on the
scene of a school shooting.
The sheriff said it is impor
tant that teachers and adminis
trators understand that the sole
initial focus of the first officer
on the scene would be to kill
the shooter.
“Our officers are trained and
know going in that their job is
to take that threat out imme
diately,” Smith said. “We do
not negotiate. We are there to
save lives and that is what the
responding deputy is going to
do.”
The sheriff’s office also
plans to bring school person
nel out to the mock school so
that they understand what to
expect in the event of a school
shooting.
“That first responding offi
cer’s job is not to render aid
and help people,” Smith said.
“They are going to step over
kids that are probably dying or
an administrator who has been
shot and is bleeding to death. If
the person is still shooting, the
officer’s first priority will be to
go to that threat and take out
that threat no matter if it takes
their own life or not.
“We’ve got to make the
scene safe, take out that threat,
and do whatever is necessary to
take out that threat. And we are
going to need to do it quickly.
That’s why we are very fortu
nate to have this facility.”
Sgt. David Aderhold, the
sheriff’s training director, said
he plans to take the deputy
training a step further — how
to take out a shooter who is
holding someone hostage
while still actively shooting.
The need for that level of
training was driven home last
month when a New York police
officer accidentally shot to
death a college student being
held hostage by a home invad
er.
The perpetrator had the
21-year-old woman in a head-
lock and was threatening to kill
her when police arrived. The
officer aimed his gun at the
gunman and shot eight rounds,
but five bullets hit and killed
the victim as well, Aderhold
said.
“We’re trying to avoid some
thing like that by teaching our
deputies about closing the gap
and getting close enough to
take a shot,” he said.
The sheriff said his staff
also is considering making the
mock school available for K-9
training.
“There’s only one feder
ally funded training facility
in Georgia,” Smith said. “The
training is free, but you have to
pay travel costs for the week’s
course.”
The sheriff said he plans
to spread the word about the
availability of Barrow County’s
one-of-a-kind training facility
through state law enforcement
agencies and associations.
He added: “It’s not often that
we get to be this proactive.”
County seeks input on
economic development
ECONOMIC GREETINGS
Scott Martin of Jackson EMC shakes hands with
Winder Mayor David Maynard, as Winder planning
director Barry Edgar, Auburn Mayor Linda Blechinger,
and Barrow County Board of Commissioners chair
Pat Graham look on. Photo by Susan Norman
By Susan Norman
snorman @ barrowjournal. com
County officials last week
took the first step in getting
local groups on the same page
in terms of Barrow County’s
economic development.
They brought them togeth
er in the same room.
For two hours at the
Chateau Elan conference
center on June 7, more than
20 representatives of local
governments, the chamber
of commerce, and Lanier
Technical College got some
advice from economic devel
opment officials from neigh
boring counties.
Collectively, the presen
tations showed two things:
first, that there is not a one-
size-fits-all approach to
attracting industry to a coun
ty, and second, for the effort
to be successful, both public
and private stakeholders must
participate and bring to the
table their resources.
Nick Masino, vice presi
dent of the Gwinnett County
Chamber of Commerce, said
that despite his county’s
rapid population growth and
retail development, Gwinnett
only seven years ago was
struggling over the lack of
high-quality jobs.
Its surge in jobs from
2003-2004 came primarily
from the lower-paying retail
sector, many of them at the
Mall of Georgia and strip
shopping centers.
So Gwinnett leaders in
2006 brought in the Atlanta
consulting firm, Market
Street Services Inc., and
spent nine months working
with them on the develop
ment of a Community and
Economic Development Plan
that became the roadmap
for addressing problems and
attracting industry.
The project carried a hefty
price tag — about $450,000
— but most of that was fund
ed by the private sector, he
said.
The community effort also
led to the creation in 2007
of Partnership Gwinnett with
full-time staff devoted to eco
nomic development.
Masino said the eco
nomic development plan
clearly identified Gwinnett’s
weaknesses along with its
strengths, and local officials
didn’t like reading about the
weaknesses in The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution.
But, he noted, “you can’t
fix things if they are not put
on the table, if you are not
communicating.”
The plan also included
another essential element —
measurable goals that are
reported quarterly.
However, Gwinnett County
is decades ahead of Barrow
County in terms of develop
ment. So much of the focus
in that county now is on rede
velopment, Masino said.
HALL COUNTY
EFFORTS
While Gwinnett leaders
have been targeting the non
retail sector, a representative
of the Hall County Chamber
of Commerce told Barrow’s
leaders that his commu
nity felt overlooked during
Gwinnett’s retail boom and
has been trying to attract
retail. But the focus has been
attracting large retail devel
opers with hundreds of thou
sands of square feet of space.
“Right now we have three
different retail projects that
have permitted 800,000
square feet of new retail,”
said Tim Evans, vice presi
dent of economic develop
ment for the Hall County
chamber.
With no interstate running
through his county to attract
large industrial distributors,
his county’s other focuses
has been on attracting small
er businesses and on retain
ing and expanding existing
businesses.
“It’s like at the intersection
of 985 and 85, the big box
distribution centers go right
and the small businesses go
left,” Evans said. “We see a
lot of small company owner
ship...”
A good reason to take
care of existing businesses
is because prospective busi
nesses often call them to see
how they are being treated,
he said.
“Regardless of whether
you as a community are
asked to make arrangements
for them to talk with exist
ing industry, it’s happening
anyway.”
Evans distributed a copy of
the Gainesville-Hall County
Economic Development
Council’s marketing plan for
the current fiscal year. At just
21 pages, it was less ambi
tious than the more expen
sive plan that the Atlanta
consulting firm produced for
Gwinnett.
But Evans said he thinks
local stakeholders typically
can access needed informa
tion themselves.
“I think those consulting
efforts are best placed when
you need a consultant to
come in and help you with
the process,” he said. “You
could probably as a group
provide the information, but
sometimes a consultant can
help you through the pro
cess that brings the public
together.”
He said Hall County’s
long-range economic devel
opment initiative called
“Vision 2030” involved the
participation of more than
5,000 people.
See Economic on Page 3A
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