Newspaper Page Text
36 Pages 3 Sections, Plus Preprints A Publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. Winder, Barrow County Georgia 50« Copy Wednesday, March 15, 2017
Barrow
Briefs
Upcoming
chamber
events
The Barrow County Cham
ber of Commerce has the fol
lowing upcoming events:
•Ambassador meeting, today,
4-5 p.m. at South State Bank.
•Network Barrow, Friday,
March 17, 9-10 a.m. at the
chamber office. The presenter
will be Isaac Rhodes of Reboot
Computer Co.
•Ribbon cutting for Winder
Fit Body. 339 Atlanta High
way, Suite 700, Winder; Fri
day, March 17, 11:30 a.m.
•Ribbon cutting for Gateway
Gardens LLC Senior Living,
138 Gateway Drive, Bethle
hem: Tuesday, March 21,
11:30 a.m.
•Chamber 101, Wednesday,
March 22, 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Zaxby's will be sponsoring
lunch. To sign up. email mmil-
ner@barrowchamber.com.
The chamber will present a
special First Tuesday luncheon
on April 11. Come hear the
leaders of Barrow County and
the cities within as they deliver
the State of the Community
address, presented by AT&T.
The luncheon will be held
from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the
Barrow County Leisure Ser
vices building. 175 2nd St.,
Winder. Invited speakers are
Barrow County Commission
Chairman Pat Graham, Mayor
Linda Blechinger of Auburn,
Mayor Sandy McNab of Beth
lehem, Mayor Bill Orr of Bra-
selton, Mayor David Brock of
Carl, Mayor Robert Bridges
of Statham and Mayor David
Maynard of Winder.
Barrow GOP
meeting set
The Barrow County GOP
will hold its next meeting Mon
day, March 20 at 7:30 p.m.
at the Winder Woman's Club.
Guest speakers will be 12th
District Chairman Michael
Welsh and Ginger Howard of
the RNC.
Index:
Church News
10A
Classifieds
4-5C
Legals
6-11C
Obituaries
11A
Pets of the Week
3C
Public Safety
7-9 A
Sports 1
-8, 12B
Mailing
Label Below
o
4 5 4 1
Commissioners unsure on
proposed railroad closings
By Scott Tliompson
News-Journal Editor
After hearing a wave of public
comments against it, the Barrow
County Board of Commissioners
postponed a vote Tuesday on the
proposed closing of three CSX
Transportation railroad crossings
to the north of Atlanta Highway.
Instead, county administration
and public safety officials hope
to meet with or contact CSX
representatives during the next
two weeks and ask them to allow
the opening of the new Ed Hogan
Road crossing in July without the
required closing of three existing
public crossings.
According to commissioner
Joe Goodman's motion Tuesday,
if a response is not received
or CSX does not relent on the
requirement. commissioners
would take a vote on the pro
posal as is at their March 28
meeting.
Under the county's proposal,
the crossings at Cosby and Har
old Day roads east of Winder and
the crossing at Deer Run Trail
west of Winder would be closed
at a cost of $163,314 to the coun
ty, allowing for the $3.3 million
Ed Hogan Road crossing to open
in July upon completion.
The new crossing has been
planned for more than a decade
and had been drawing funds
from SPLOST 2001 proceeds
until they expired in Fiscal Year
2016.
So far, the county has spent
$1.4 million on the Ed Hogan
Road crossing and stands to
spend close to $1 million more
between utility relocation and
right-of-way acquisition, coun
ty engineering director Dar
rell Greeson said. The Georgia
Department of Transportation is
also contributing $1 million in
federal funds to the project.
CSX initially approved clos
ings at Cosby Road, Russell
Cemetery Road and Deer Run
Trail in 2011 and reached a pre
liminary engineering agreement
with the county in October 2014.
See Crossings on Page 2A
Getting ready
i
MAKING PREPARATIONS
Vicki Hart, art teacher at Russell Middle School, prepares student artwork for display at the
Center for Innovative Teaching. Each Barrow County school will have a display area for art
by its students.
Barrow to display lots of art for festival
By Ron Bridg'eman
News-Journal Reporter
The “new” Center
for Innovative Teach
ing, also known as the
former Russell Middle
School, is being trans
formed and will soon
be host to more than
1,400 pieces of art.
The annual Fine Arts
Festival of the Barrow
County school system
will hold its visual arts
display March 20-31.
To say it will be big
ger is a gross under
statement.
The front wing of
the school will host a
dozen art galleries -
one from each elemen
tary and middle school.
The former media cen
ter is the gallery for
Apalachee and Wind
er-Barrow high schools
art.
One of the galleries
will be art by the dis
trict’s art teachers. Lee
Bane, STEAM Integra
tion Specialist, is set
ting up that display.
Before this year,
schools have had dis
plays on “two sheets of
butcher paper,” Bane
said, “to display basi
cally their full year (of
work).”
Displays have been
for only five days in
previous years. This
year displays will be
open on a weekend.
Hours are expected to
be 5 to 7 p.m. Mon
day through Friday and
1 to 4 p.m. Saturday
and Sunday. Teachers
began setting up their
rooms, putting art on
black backgrounds and
tinkering with displays
last week.
Four of the art teach
ers who were working
at the school last Thurs
day said they expect to
have 100 or more piec
es of art in their rooms.
See Art on Page 2A
mwni
PIECE OF ART
One of the art pieces from Apalachee High
School waits for a display spot in the former
media center at the CFIT.
BRIDGE DESIGNS
Bridge designs were part of the artwork at Bramlett Elementary School. Rosalin O’Rear, the
school’s art teacher, said the work was part of combining science, math and art.
County
to seek
grant for
intersection
upgrades
By Scott Tliompson
News-Journal Editor
Barrow County will seek
more than $1.3 million in
state funding for improve
ments at the intersection of
Ga. 211 and Cedar Creek
Road just west of Winder.
The Board of Com
missioners on Tuesday
approved the submittal of a
grant application for $1.36
million from the Georgia
Transportation Infrastruc
ture Bank (GTIB) in an
attempt to improve traffic
safety, increase system
connectivity and enhance
freight mobility from the
Bankhead Highway indus
trial corridor to Ga. 211 and
Interstate 85.
County engineering
director Darrell Greeson
said the improvements will
support truck traffic from
Ga. 211 to Bankhead High
way and the new intersec
tion at Ed Hogan Road and
reduce traffic congestion in
downtown Winder.
Specifically, the project
would involve relocating
and realigning the intersec
tion to eliminate the exist
ing 45-degree skew and
align the new intersection
with the existing intersec
tion at Hal Jackson Road,
according to county docu
ments.
The county plans to
match 20 percent — or
$340,000 — of the esti
mated $1.7 million proj
ect cost. Though no match
is required for the grant,
the GTIB encourages the
use of matching funds and
preference may be given to
projects that have a high
er match and have secured
other non-state sources of
funding, Greeson said.
If the county is award
ed the grant, construction
would be scheduled for
completion during Fiscal
Year 2018, Greeson said.
The county has been eye
ing improvements to the
intersection since 2009 and
completed $100,000 worth
of preliminary engineering,
permitting and right-of-way
acquisition in April 2010.
But due to limited funding,
county officials opted to
first pursue improvements
at the intersection of Ed
Hogan Road and Ga. 8.
The county will apply the
$100,000 previously spent
See BOC on Page 2A
