Newspaper Page Text
Serving the communities of Braselton, Hoschton, Chateau Elan, Mill Creek, West Jackson and South Hall
Gi* £
Member of the
Georgia Press Association
250 copy
Wednesday, March 12,2008
Vol. 3 No. 47 A publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. BraseltonNews.com 24 pages, 3 sections
Inside
GWINNETT
•Luck helps Gwinnett
land Braves minor league
team
page 3A
JACKSON COUNTY
•Public charter school
may be on horizon
page 2A
Sports:
•Championship hopes
dashed for Lady Hawks
page 1B
•Mill Creek students
attend job fair
page 6B
Opinion:
• ‘Training critical to
quick decisions’
page 4A
Public safety:
• Women try to pass
fake bills at restaurants
page 5A
•Church events
page 7A
•Obituaries
page 6A
County working on major area road projects
Bypass, Zion Church Road projects planned
BY KERRI TESTEMENT
f s a road project that Jackson County
leaders know should happen — a bypass
of downtown Braselton and Hoschton.
The key question, however, is where the
proposed bypass on Ga. Hwy. 53 should be
located.
It’s a question that Jackson County’s capital
projects manager admits he doesn’t have an
answer to right now.
“We don’t have an alignment in mind,” said
Don Clerici.
The J ackson County Board of Commissioners
is slated to discuss on Monday, March 17, a
proposed contract with Heath and Lineback
Engineers for preliminary engineering and
design of the Braselton-Hoschton Bypass. The
proposed contract will cost $266,000.
The concept of a bypass of downtown
Braselton and Hoschton has been discussed
for several years, but was never funded by
state or federal transportation agencies.
Hwy. 53 runs directly through the down
towns of the two neighboring cities. Widening
the state highway through the area hasn’t been
considered as a viable option, since it would
affect several historical buildings in Braselton
and Hoschton.
Last year, the Jackson County Board of
Commissioners asked the Georgia Department
of Transportation to move forward with the
project. The state agency later identified the
bypass as a long-range project.
Jackson County plans to use funds from the
2008 Economic Development Bond Program
to finance the preliminary design and traffic
engineering for the bypass. That preliminary
work, if approved by commissioners, could
take 12 months to complete.
“We feel so strongly about it that we’re
going to advance the preliminary engineering
with bond financing,” Clerici said.
However, Jackson County officials have not
identified a potential path for the Braselton-
Hoschton Bypass, he emphasized.
Clerici said the preliminary engineering and
design will not only identify a potential cor
ridor for the proposed bypass, but also allow
See ROADS on page 8A
Tim Madison
transferred to
central Georgia
BY CHRIS BRIDGES
Former Piedmont Judicial Circuit
District Attorney Tim Madison
was transferred Monday morning
to the Georgia Diagnostic Center
in Jackson, located in central
Georgia.
Madison,
who was
sentenced
to serve six
years follow
ing a guilty
plea in Banks
County
Superior
Court last
week, turned
himself in
at the Banks
County Jail Saturday morning,
sheriff Charles Chapman said. On
Monday morning, two BCSO depu
ties transported Madison to the Butts
County facility to begin serving his
term. Chapman said it is possible he
could be transferred again.
“There were no incidents here
this weekend,” Chapman said of the
former district attorney’s stay in the
Banks County jail. “He was isolated
from other prisoners and when he
went outside the rest of the jail was
on lock down.”
Chapman said the extra precau
tion was necessary since Madison
prosecuted some of the inmates in
the Banks County jail.
In addition to his six-year sen
tence, Madison was ordered to pay
$40,000 in restitution for the money
See MADISON on page 3A
Part of history
YEARONE RACER
The YearOne Daytona racer stands outside the Hall of Fame with several of YearOne’s famous muscle
cars. The car was last raced in a qualifying race for the Daytona 500 in 2006. Pictured with the cars
are back row, YearOne’s David Gravley, Sandy Spears, Mike King, Dawsonville Planning Director
Steve Holder, YearOne president Kevin King, Kevin Orr, Mark King, front, Georgia Hall of Fame volun
teer Cody Dinsmore, Hall of Fame president Annie Dean Samples, and Charley Samples.
Photo by Brandon Reed
YearOne car displayed in racing hall of fame
BY BRANDON REED
A piece of Braselton racing history is now on display
at the home for Georgia’s auto racing history.
On Feb. 29, YearOne of Braselton delivered their
NASCAR Winston Cup racer to the Georgia Racing
Hall of Fame in Dawsonville to go on long-term display
in the birthplace of American stock car racing.
The car, a 2005 Chevy Monte Carlo, was last raced by
Pennsylvania’s Andy Belmont in a qualifying race for
the Daytona 500 in 2006.
The car is still in virtually the same condition as it
was when it was loaded up on the truck on February 16,
2006. The paint on the front shows wear from traveling
behind other cars in a pack. The back bumper shows
where someone had attempted to “bump draft” Belmont
during the event. The NASCAR inspection sticker
remains on the windshield. Even the strips of tape are
still at the bottom of the doors to indicate where the jack
needed to be placed during pit stops.
“We’re honored to be a part of the Georgia Racing
Hall of Fame, and have our Daytona qualifying attempt
put on display there,” said YearOne president Kevin
King.
The car has an interesting history. According to King,
his company’s involvement came in 2005, when 1990
Daytona 500 champion Derrike Cope contacted him.
Cope had built a Chevy Monte Carlo for a try at the
Daytona 500 field. He told King that if he would help
See YEARONE on page 8A
First hearing
set in murder-
arson case
BY KERRI TESTEMENT
he first proceeding in the
death penalty case against
Henry Lee Stringer — the
man accused of killing four people
in Hoschton in 2006 — will be held
on Tuesday, March 25, at 9 a.m.
The first proceeding is held in
accordance with the unified appeal
procedures
that governs
pretrial and
trial proceed
ings for death
penalty cases
in Georgia,
according to
district attor
ney Rick
Bridgeman.
The case has
been assigned
to superior
court judge Joe Booth. Stringer is
represented by Joseph W. Vigneri
and Christian G. Larmar.
The bodies of Stringer’s girlfriend
Marvelette Strickland, their chil
dren J’Majuan Stringer and J’Lasia
Stringer, and Marvelette’s mother,
Evelyn Strickland, were discovered
on May 30, 2006, inside their burn
ing home on Pendergrass Road in
Hoschton. Stringer was arrested
on June 1, 2007, after a year-long
investigation by authorities.
Stringer was indicted by a Jackson
County grand jury on Dec. 3, 2007,
with 16 counts related to the deaths
of Evelyn Strickland, 68; Marvelette
Strickland, 29; J’Majuan Stringer,
4; and J’Lasia Stringer, 2.
See MURDER on page 8A
No straw vote on runway expansion
Braselton annexes properties
BY KRISTI REED
After weighing feedback from citizens,
the Barrow County Board of Commissioners
voted unanimously Tuesday night against
doing a summer straw vote regarding the
extension of the runway at the Northeast
Georgia Regional Airport.
The Barrow BOC had considered asking
voters during the July primary if they would
support a runway extension for “safety and
enhanced economic opportunities, as long as
the airport or airport facilities are not utilized
for cargo distribution and/or commercial passenger
service.”
BOC chairman Doug Garrison said the feedback he
had received indicated that the straw vote was not the
right thing to do.
Mike Foran told the board during Tuesday night’s
meeting the vote would be a waste of time and money.
Foran asked the BOC to either withdraw the vote, or
make it binding.
“Regardless of the outcome of this straw
vote, this county will be divided like never
before,” he said.
Before voting on the proposed ballot ques
tion, BOC members restated their positions
regarding the proposed runway extension.
District 5 commissioner Billy Parks said
there is no need for an extension at this time,
but that he would support it in the future for
the purpose of economic development. Parks
also opposed the straw vote, saying there was
no benefit to it.
Bill Brown, District 2 commissioner, also opposed
the straw vote, saying the BOC and citizens had already
reached common ground.
“This whole thing has been built up into a furor,” he
said. Brown said no vote was needed since the runway
See AIRPORT on page 3A
GARRISON
BY KERRI TESTEMENT
The Braselton Town Council
approved an annexation and zoning
request for a commercial develop
ment in South Hall on Monday
night.
Spout Springs Partners, LLC
asked the town to annex and zone its
one acre property on Thompson Mill
Road from AR-IV in Hall County
to General-Commercial (G-C) in
Braselton.
The property is located next to a
16.8-acre property that was annexed
and zoned into Braselton in March
2007 for a grocery store, restaurants,
retail space and mini-warehouses at
the intersection of Thompson Mill
Road and Spout Springs Road. A
representative of the applicant told
the town council that the properties
will be combined for a commercial
project.
The town council also approved an
annexation and zoning request from
Patton-Boyer for 4.93 acres located
at 6750 Ga. Hwy. 53. The prop
erty owners are Tom and Deborah
Kitchin.
The company asked that the prop
erty be zoned from HRC in Jackson
County to G-C in Braselton.
The property — located at the
intersection of New Cut Road
and Hwy. 53, next to Hometown
Community Bank — includes a
25,000 square-foot retail center
called Hometown Walk.
See ANNEX on page 8A