Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

28 Pages 2 Sections, Plus Preprints A Publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. Winder, Barrow County Georgia 50$ Copy Wednesday, January 18, 2017 Barrow Briefs Hospital celebration Northeast Georgia Medical Center Barrow, formerly Bar- row Regional Medical Center which was acquired by the Northeast Georgia Health Sys tem, will be hosting a fami ly-friendly celebration Thurs day, Jan. 19, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on the hospital lawn. The event will include soup and s'mores by the fire, live music, entertainment and give aways. Register at www.nghs. com/barrow-celebration to receive a free gift at the event. The hospital is located at 316 North Broad St., Winder. Literacy Ball The 24th annual Adult Literacy Barrow Literacy Ball will be held on Saturday. Jan. 28, at the Winder Community Center. Hors d'oeuvres will be served at 6:30 p.m. with a dinner and dance to follow. There is still time to become a sponsor or to purchase tickets. Tickets to this year’s event may be purchased at Peoples Equity Partners. LLC, 58 West Candler St. Contact: Kelly Holliday at 770-851-0934. For information on sponsor ships, you may contact Sally Brown. Executive Director of Adult Literacy Barrow, at the Adult Learning Center in the Wimberly Center, 163 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive (formerly King Street), Winder. 770-531-3369. Bowling benefit The Peters Company and Campbell & Brannon law firm are co-sponsoring Pet Bowl 2017 on Saturday, Feb. 4, to benefit Pup & Cat Co. The bowling event will be held 3-5 p.m. at Bowlmor, 2175 Savoy Drive, Atlanta. A $5 donation will be made for every strike. To RSVP to the event, email kimber@thepeterscompany. com by Jan. 28. Index: Church News 10A Classifieds 14-15A Legals 4-9B Obituaries 13A Skelton poem 11A Public Safety 8-9A Sports 1-3, 10, 12B Mailing Label Below o 7 Statham council approves records request, public speaking changes By Ron Bridg'eman News-Journal Reporter Statham city council adopted two provisions in its ordinances Tues day night that will make requests for records and to speak at council more formal. Votes to pass the two were unan imous and came at the beginning of the meeting. City Attorney Thomas Mitch ell told the council it could pass the ordinances and have them take effect immediately as an “emergen cy” provision. Council had waived the first read ing and introduced the ordinance changes at a called meeting Thurs day after its work session. The ordinance establishing a “disruption of public meetings” includes language in its introduc tion about “disruptions in the last two regularly scheduled meetings.” The change will allow the city to charge anyone found to cause a disruption. It also defines the disruption by anyone who enters a city meeting “with the intent to disrupt the order ly conduct of the official business of the city.” At the end of Tuesday’s meet ing, five people spoke about the DUI arrests made by officer Marc Lofton. Nearly all of those also spoke at earlier meetings. The speakers called for firing Lof ton, and some included firing chief Allan Johnston in their demands. Kelly Pickens, one of the orga nizers of opponents of Lofton, said the council and city “will be sued” if action is not taken. Mary Williams said. “My charges were all dismissed on Friday, Jan. 13” in Barrow County Superior Court. Johnston said Lofton had been subpoenaed for Williams’ case for Jan. 23. not Jan. 13. Adam Carpenter said his charges were dismissed after testing for drags and alcohol was negative for him. He said he was arrested at 7 am. on the way to work. “It was obvious to me that (Lof ton) didn’t know what he was doing or something was going on.” The speakers referred to a letter written by Charles Spahos, exec utive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys Council, to Brad Smith, district attorney for Barrow County. See Changes on Page 2A ‘Don’t be weary’ MARCHING FOR THE DREAM Community members head down Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Winder Monday morning on the back stretch of a march in memory of the late Civil Rights icon. The march was part of the Barrow County Martin Luther King Jr. Committee’s annual celebration of King’s legacy, held on the federal holiday that honors him. A memorial service in the sanctuary of White Oak Spring Missionary Baptist Church followed the march. Photos by Scott Thompson Annual MLK Jr. celebration held in Winder; speaker scolds Trump over Lewis comments By Scott Thompson News-Journal Editor As a Democrat ic strategist who worked to elect and re-elect outgoing President Barack Obama, Tharon John son acknowledged he might “get political” Monday at White Oak Spring Mission ary Baptist Church in Winder. And when the time came for Johnson to give the keynote address at the Bar- row County M.L. King Committee’s annual celebration of late Civil Rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr., he rose to the defense of the man he considers his hero — Congressman John Lewis. Johnson strong ly criticized Presi dent-elect Donald Trump for calling Lewis "all talk, no action” on his Twit ter account Saturday. Trump fired off three tweets that were criti cal of Lewis and char acterized Georgia’s fifth congressional district he represents as being in “horrible shape” and “crime-in fested.” The tweets were in response to Lewis’ announcement late last week that he would skip Trump’s inauguration Friday in part because he See MLK on Page 11A KEYNOTE SPEAKER Athens native and Democratic strategist Tharon Johnson was the keynote speaker Monday. Johnson, a director at an Atlanta law firm and political commentator for CNN, worked on outgoing President Barack Obama’s election and re-election campaigns. He was critical of President-elect Donald Trump on Monday following Trump’s com ments about Congressman John Lewis. 9 m ' - - li, r vT j mt 212 SINGING PRAISE Members of the Barrow County MLK Community Choir sing during Monday’s MLK memo rial service at White Oak Spring Missionary Baptist Church in Winder. Officials: lawsuit likely over transfer station By Ron Bridg'eman News-Journal Reporter The question of whether a transfer station opens in Statham is headed to a law suit, as far as city officials are concerned. Officials, and attorneys, with the company involved aren’t commenting. Roll-Off Systems, a waste handling and recy cling company and produc er of dumpsters, has bought property in the Statham Industrial Park where it planned to operate a trans fer station. Those plans have come to a halt, based on com ments from Statham city officials. “We will not be issuing a permit until told to by a (judge),” Mayor Robert Bridges said at the work session Thursday. Bridges repeated that comment at Tuesday’s council meeting. Randy Gordon, the city’s planning and zoning administrator, said Friday, “We’re going to let it go ahead and go to court.” Douglas Dillard, attor ney for Roll-Off, has not returned two calls to his office. Calls and emails to Simon Garrett with Roll- Off Systems also were not returned. The latest salvo between the city and company was a “supplement to grad ing permit application for transfer station at 1960 Statham Drive,” the com pany submitted Thursday, the day of the work session. It is a response to sever al conditions Gordon said the company should meet before a grading permit is issued. One of those conditions said, “all reference to trans fer station in verbiage and/ or design must be removed from plans before permit is issued.’ The company did not comply and said it “has acquired a vested right under Georgia law to use its property for a transfer station and therefore the site development permit necessary to prepare the land for such lawful pur pose must be issued.” Dil lard’s letter last week also said, “Demand is hereby See Station on Page 2A