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Serving Braselton, Hoschton, Chateau Elan, Traditions, Reunion, Deaton Creek and West Jackson $1.00 copy
Wednesday, December 4, 2019
Vol. 12 No. 52 A publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. www.BraseltonNewsTODAY.com 16 pages
Richardson keeps
council seat
Incumbent Becky Richardson held on to her Bra
selton Town Council seat in the Dec. 3 runoff election.
Richardson defeated challenger Richard Mayberry
in the District 1 race, garnering 98 votes to Mayberry’s
61.
Richardson, Mayberry and Joy Basham faced off in
the Nov. 5 election, with none of the three gaining over
50-percent of the vote which forced the runoff election.
Richardson and Mayberry have ran against each oth
er before. In 2015, Richardson ousted Mayberry, who
was the incumbent District 1 council member at that
time.
Hoschton recall moves forward
The recall effort against
two Hoschton City Council
members will go forward fol
lowing action by the Jackson
County Board of Elections
Dec. 3.
The elections board ap
proved the “legal sufficiency”
of over 400 signatures calling
for Mayor Theresa Kener-
ly and mayor pro tem Jim
Cleveland to be recalled.
A special election will be
held Jan. 14 in Hoschton to
decide if Kenerly and Cleve
land should be removed from
office. Early voting for the
recall election will begin Dec.
23.
The elections board deter
mined that there were 412
verified signatures calling for
the recall of Cleveland and
422 signatures petitioning for
the removal of Kenerly. Both
were above the 342 signatures
needed for the recall to move
forward.
The background: Both
Cleveland and Kenerly came
under fire in May following
a report that Kenerly had re
moved a job application for
a city administrator that had
been submitted by a black
male candidate. Kenerly al
legedly told a council mem
ber she wasn’t sure the com
munity was “ready for that,”
meaning a black city admin
istrator.
Cleveland then defended
Kenerly in a newspaper arti
cle and added that he didn’t
like to see interracial couples
because it went against his re
ligious beliefs.
A firestorm erupted fol
lowing the comments and led
to calls for both Kenerly and
Cleveland to resign. When
they didn’t resign, a recall
move was formed. That led
to a first round of signatures
calling for a recall. Kenerly
and Cleveland challenged the
move in court, but a judge
found that there was sufficient
See Recall, page 2A
Northside pursues state
permit for Braselton
surgery center
Northside Hospital plans
to pursue a state permit to
build an outpatient surgery
center in Braselton.
The hospital announced
plans to pursue building its
first facility in Hall County
and northeast Georgia on
Monday, Dec. 2. Northside
is seeking an appeal for a
state permit for a new outpa
tient surgery center that will
serve 13 northeast Georgia
counties.
The 22,500-square-foot
facility would be located
within an existing facility
on Friendship Road in Bra
selton. It would have three
operating rooms and one
endoscopy room and would
primarily attract patients for
outpatient surgical services
who traditionally drive
to Northside facilities for
procedures, according to a
Northside news release.
It is preparing for a late
December hearing before
the state Department of
Community Health con
cerning a Certificate of Need
(CON), which is a state per
mit to open the state-of-the-
art surgical facility.
Common services at the
ambulatory surgery cen
ter would include certain
procedures in orthopedics,
urology, gastroenterology,
general surgery and neuro
surgery.
“As part of the CON ap
plication. the Braselton
Specialty Surgical Center
has pledged to offer chari
table health care services to
uninsured or underinsured
patients with a program
similar to one Northside
utilizes in Alpharetta and
Woodstock,” according to
the news release.
“It would partner with
local charity clinics for pa
tient referrals, and physi
cians would donate surgical
services. All related charges
would also be waived to pa
tients in need.
“Northside pioneered this
charitable program in 2012
as a way to help the area’s
most vulnerable who need
surgical care.”
DCH is expected to hold
hearings on the CON ap
plication for the Braselton
Surgical Specialty Center
beginning Dec. 21.
Santa at the Depot is Dec. 7
The Hoschton Women’s to noon.
Civic Club will host San- The event will be held at
ta at the Depot on Satur- the Hoschton Train Depot
day, Dec. 7, from 10 a.m. in downtown Hoschton.
Love Light Tree Lighting
is Dec. 5 in Braselton
Northeast Georgia Medi
cal Center’s (NGMC) annual
Love Light Tree Lighting Cel
ebrations are right around the
comer.
NGMC Braselton will host
its fifth annual Love Light Tree
Lighting Celebration on Thurs
day, Dec. 5. at 7 p.m., in the
Auxiliary Love Light Garden.
Community hosts are Mike
and Leigh Anne Day.
In case of inclement weath
er, the celebration will be in
held in the main entrance ro
tunda.
The annual Love Light
Celebrations are presented by
the Northeast Georgia Health
System (NGHS) Auxiliary led
by Auxiliary President Ellen
Toms.
One-hundred percent of
Love Light donations benefit
Hospice of NGMC to help en
sure those nearing end-of-life
may receive complementary
services that allow them to
live as fully and comfortably
as possible, according to a
See Lighting, page 2A
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News
www.BraseltonNewsTODAY.com
A panel of tourism professionals recently presented its findings to the Braselton Town Council and
manager, key staff and visitors. Pictured are: Jessica Walden, Shirley Baylis, Tina Lilly, Stacey Dick
son, Tracie Sanchez and Cindy Eidson.
Tourism team presents
findings to Braselton officials
A panel of tourism professionals
recently presented its findings to the
Braselton Town Council and manag
er, staff and visitors.
The town’s Visitors Bureau and
Downtown Development office
hosted the panel, the Tourism Prod
uct Development Resource Team
(TPDRT) which offered compli
ments to the town’s annual plan of
work and some opportunities and
suggestions to enhance the plan in
the future.
In August, the team visited 28 sites
with a goal of steering more tourism
opportunities into town including
the historic downtown, “creating
tourism-related partnerships, build
ing upon successes and creating new
and unique opportunities.”
“We saw abundant success, and
we note opportunities to advance the
success,” said Cindy Eidson, leader
of Tourism Product Development of
the Georgia Department of Econom
ic Development.
The team’s 92-page comprehen
sive report offers multi-year con
clusions for study and implementa
tion. focusing on “connect people to
place with experiences that improve
quality of life and differentiate you
from the next town and thus expand
your tourism program. Place matters
now.”
“The report is extremely informa
tive. deserving our thorough study
and wide conversations. It’s exciting
to realize the opportunities for our
future from the eyes of profession
als like these.” said town manager,
Jennifer Scott.
Hoschton working toward
city manager government
But time is short
to get in the 2020
legislative session
By Mike Buffington
mike@mainstreetnews. com
Hoschton’s city govern
ment could be dramatically
reconfigured if preliminary
discussions by the city
council move forward.
The Hoschton City
Council held its first work
ing meeting on Nov. 25
to discuss changing the
town’s governing charter.
The biggest change being
discussed by the council
would be to change the
town’s governance from a
“strong mayor” system to a
city manager government.
Under that system, a hired
city manager would run the
city on a day-to-day basis
rather than the mayor.
But any change to the
town’s charter would have
to be approved by the
Georgia Legislature during
its 40-day winter session.
That requires the council to
quickly agree on a slew of
proposed charter changes
so that a final version could
be submitted by mid-Janu
ary.
General agreement:
While no votes have been
taken by the council on
changing the charter, coun
cil members appeared to be
in general agreement with
the idea of moving the city
toward a city manager gov
ernment.
“We’re not a small city
any more,” said Mayor
Theresa Kenerly. “But
we’re certainly not a large
one, so we’re kinda medi
ocre, but when we do this,
we need not look at today,
but looking a little bit into
the future.”
Kenerly encouraged
council members to study
the proposed charter chang
es deeply before they meet
to discuss the issue again in
December.
“This is a major change,”
she said of the proposed
move to a manager gov
ernment. “I’m not saying
I’m against it or for it or
anything like that, I want
to know how you guys feel,
but this is a major change.
You are putting a lot of the
city into a person’s hands
who was not elected (with
a manager government.)”
Kenerly said that if the
city moves forward with a
manager form of govern
ment, that person should
have previous experience in
government management.
“I certainly didn’t go to
school to be a mayor, or
anything like this,” Kenerly
said, praising city adminis
trator Dale Hall for fixing
a number of issues in the
city’s government. “You
really need to hire someone
(as manager) who knows
what they’re doing, who
went to school for this.”
Mayor pro tem Jim
Cleveland also voiced sup
port for the change.
“It makes a lot of sense
to go to a city manager
form of government, but
like Dale said, you’ve got
to have the right one and
you’ve got to turn it over
and let them run it.” he said.
Council member Hope
Weeks said city policies
from the council would be
important.
“You have to let the poli
cies dictate how things go,”
she said. “If you have good
policies in place and a good
person in place.”
Devil in the details:
While there was general
agreement with profession
alizing the city’s govern
ment, there was some de
bate over proposed details.
Under a draft city charter
the council reviewed Nov.
25. the new city manager
would be responsible for all
hiring in the city with the
exception of the city attor
ney, who would continue to
be hired by the full council.
But council member
Shantwon Astin said he
wanted the council to also
hire the city clerk and city
treasurer, something Hall
and Weeks opposed.
“We talked about that,”
Weeks replied. “We origi
nally put in there that they
would be council-appoint
ed positions, but that sorta
undermines the city manag
er because they would feel
like they had to report to us
See Hoschton, page 2A
o