About The Braselton news. (Jefferson, Ga) 2006-current | View Entire Issue (April 13, 2022)
o o Serving Braselton, Hoschton, Chateau Elan, Traditions, Reunion, Deaton Creek and West Jackson $1.00 copy Wednesday, April 13, 2022 Vol. 15 No. 18 A publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. www.BraseltonNewsTODAY.com 12 pages Population statistics Jackson Co. Schools Jackson Co. is state’s fastest growing county Jackson County is the fastest growing in the state, according to Mark Kooyman, CEO of Experience Insight Group. Kooyman recently spoke to the Jackson County Area Chamber of Commerce about the county's growth and where it was coming from. The population of Jackson County exploded during the pandemic years 2019-2022 by growing 14.1%. Kooyman said and currently stands at 79,852 people. He said the county is projected to grow by 8.2% in the next five years as well. Among the datapoint Kooy man noted were: • Families with kids and boomers were the two larg est groups moving to Jack- son County, Kooyman said. Millennials are driving the county's population expansion while Boomers are driving the county’s real estate price climb. • The county and surround ing area is becoming more diverse as both the Black and Hispanic populations are in creasing. He noted that in neighboring Gwinnett County, the Black population is now the largest ethnic group at over 29% of that county’s popula tion. “That is the population base coming in.” he said. See Population, page 3A Braselton Braselton to continue elections agreement with Jackson Co. By Ben Munro ben@mainstreetnews. com The Town of Braselton will continue to contract with Jack- son County to run its elections after exploring an option with Hall County provide that ser vice. The town council renewed an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with the county with a 5-0 vote on Monday ( April 11). Jackson County charges Bra selton a fee based on the town’s registered voters to run elections — whether it’s an election year or not — and the county re portedly more than doubled the price with this IGA. Due to that increase, town manager Jennifer Scott had reached out to the other three counties included in Braselton’s town limits — Gwinnett, Hall and Barrow — for price inqui ries. Barrow County and Gwin nett County officials were not interested in running the town’s elections, while a Hall County official said the county would charge the town actual cost rath er than a per-registered-voter fee. Jackson County will charge $2.50 per registered voter year with this IGA. In addition to Hall County charging actual cost, it would charge only during election years. An agreement with Hall County, however, would only run on a per-year basis. “There’s more of a guarantee in the IGA with Jackson, but you’d probably save money by doing one with Hall County,” Scott told the council during its Thursday (April 7) work ses sion. Braselton has held an IGA with Jackson County for the past seven years because the town does not own any election equipment. Scott said election equipment is “extremely expen sive.” Jackson County also has a trained department dedicat ed solely to running elections. Scott noted that Jackson County is raising its election fees not only for Braselton, but for each municipality in Jackson County. “The price increase is hard to swallow,” councilman Jim Joe- decke said. “We obviously want to be good stewards, but our elections have been run proper ly for a long time by these folks. See Braselton, page 3A MAILING LABEL New school to be completed in one phase The new Legacy Knoll Middle School in West Jack- son will be completed in one phase rather than two as originally planned. The Jackson County Board of Education ap proved amending its contract with Carroll Daniel Con struction for the project at its April 11 meeting. The board added an additional $4 mil lion for the project, a move that will allow the school to be completely finished for opening in the fall of 2023. The new school is project ed to cost $38.3 million in total. Originally, the BOE had decided to do the project in two phases by not finish ing a competition gym, not completing lab classrooms and not completing all land scaping or canopies for the school, among other items. The board had said it would fund those items in a 2024 bond referendu-m. But the board later in structed system leaders to see if completing the project could be done in one phase. After reviewing the system's finances, leaders suggested that $2 million from the sys tem’s General Fund and an additional $2 million from its SPLOST fund be allocat ed to complete the work. The system's finances have been strong over the past year as SPLOST dol lars have come in well above budget and rising property values have brought in more tax dollars to the system. In other action on April 11, the BOE approved giv ing a $2,000 bonus to all staff members. Braselton Library expansion bid awarded Photo by Ben Munro The Braselton Town Council has approved a near $4.1 million bid to expand the town’s library. By Ben Munro ben@mainstreetnews. com The Town of Braselton now has a contractor in place as it moves forward with a major expansion to its library. The town council on Monday (April 11) award ed a bid of just under $4.1 million to a local compa ny, BM&K Construction, to build an 8,166 square foot annex to the Braselton Public Library. Five com panies bid on the project, which will add a two-story children’s wing to the ex isting structure. Town manager Jennifer Scott noted the library’s high volume of use. “It's amazing how quick ly we outgrew our existing library, and I think that's a wonderful thing,” she said. The town will apply $1.73 million worth of state funds, approved in 2021 by the state legisla ture, to the expansion proj ect. Scott said she expects construction to begin in an estimated 90 days, “al though it's a little bit hard to get materials right now,” she added. The extension comes after the library received 4,896 attendees for chil dren’s programs in 2019 — the last conventional year of programming before the start of the pandemic. The new wing will house all young adult and chil dren’s book collections and materials on the first floor. The second floor will feature a room dedicated to children’s programs, while a second room will hold adult classes and meetings. The library expansion package includes park ing lot expansion, a chil dren’s garden, stormwater management and minor alterations to the exist ing structure. Those im provements include new interior room enclosures for a manager's office and study rooms. Community spotlight: Sarina Rowley Roth Award-winning artist hosts international photography exhibit in Braselton Photo by Wesleigh Sagon Sarina Rowley Roth, award-winning artist and owner of Never the Rock Photography, present ed an international photography exhibit at The 1904. Her images featured a variety of media in cluding canvas, acrylic and metal prints. By Wesleigh Sagon arina Row- ley Roth, award-win ning artist and owner of Never the Rock Photography, recently presented an international photography exhibit at The 1904. Her images featured a variety of media including canvas, acrylic and metal prints with scenes from Africa Italy, the Galapagos Islands and more. The exhibit was open March 23-30. The showing and meet and greet with the artist was open free of charge to the public and private small groups were also welcomed. Roth grew up in a small town in South Carolina and moved to Atlanta at the age of 18 where she began her career in marketing and advertising. After 13 years she retired from advertising beginning her new career as a master gardener. As a fun job she en joyed working as a manager at Outdoor Environments. “I love flowers, plants and the outdoors,” said Roth. ‘This is when I got a good camera and got serious about capturing all the diverse flowers and plants and seeing how beautiful they were. When you do landscaping you start to notice contrasts of color and leaf shapes and size. You start to look at nature a little bit differently. As with photography landscaping is also an art form.” Although her love of the beauty of nature and watching her landscaping arrangements come together inspired her next career as a professional photographer, she believes photography was imprinted on her at a much earlier time in her life. “While growing up my family and I would take annu al trips to Marlton, New Jer sey to visit my grandparents. After my grandfather retired from the Marine Corps, he traveled to many parts of the world with my grandmother. He would share on slide-show presentations his photographs of their travels after each of their epic trips,” she said. “I believe this contributed to my love of photography as I See Roth, page 5A '0 4 8 7 9 1 4 5 4 0
