Newspaper Page Text
32 Pages 3 Sections, Plus Preprints A Publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. Winder, Barrow County Georgia 50« Copy Wednesday, July 19, 2017
Barrow
Briefs
Barrow Co.
Democratic
Women
meeting set
for next week
Barrow County Democratic
Women will hold its monthly
meeting at 6 p.m. on Thurs
day, July 27, at the Gold
en Corral in Winder. BCDW
supports and works for causes
and issues affecting women.
The public is invited to
attend.
Garden insect
class set for
next week
A class aimed at helping
people learn to identify and
manage insects in their gar
dens is scheduled for Thurs
day, July 27, from 2-3 p.m.
at the Barrow County Exten
sion Office, 90 Lanthier St.,
Winder.
To register, or for more
information, call 770-307-
3029.
WBHS Class
of 1959
reunion set for
Aug. 12
The Winder-Barrow High
School Class of 1959 will
hold its 58th class reunion
from 5-8 p.m. on Saturday,
Aug. 12, at the Winder First
United Methodist Church
Fellowship Hall, beside the
church, at 280 North Broad
St.
The event will be catered
by the Master’s Table and the
cost is $20 per person.
Respond to Bruce Pope
Hall, 3454 Highland Pine
Drive, Duluth, GA 30096 or
call 770-596-4825.
Index: 1
Church News
4B
Classifieds
4-5C
Legals
6-11C
Obituaries
11A
Public Safety
7-10A
Sports
1-3B
Pets of the Week
5C
Opinion
4-6A
Other columnists
2-3C
Mailing
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Montgomery makes
Congressional bid
against Hice official
Bethlehem resident Chalis Mont
gomery has made official her bid to
represent Georgia's 10th Congressio
nal District.
Montgomery. 39, a Democrat and
local music teacher and children’s
minister, announced in a news release
Tuesday she is running in 2018 to
unseat Rep. Jody Hice (R-Bethle-
hem), who is in his second term.
The news release said Montgomery
“plans to put American values over
partisan division and will fight for the
dignity and opportunity that everyone
deserves.”
Montgomery, who initially
announced an exploratory bid earlier
this year, is centering her campaign
around healthcare issues and Con
gressional Republicans’ attempts to
repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Montgomery has a young daughter
with rheumatoid arthritis who will
require long-term care to avoid com
plications from the disease.
“I never thought I’d be a candidate
for public office, but after hearing the
stories of so many 10th District resi
dents. from Athens, Winder. Milled-
geville and Dacula, I realized that
Jody Hice is failing families, just like
he failed mine,” Montgomery said.
“...Congressman Hice is supporting
an approach to healthcare that would
be devastating to children like (Mont
gomery’s daughter), along with our
seniors.”
Montgomery also criticized Hice
for wanting to eliminate federal fund
ing for education.
“I look forward to sharing my
platform, which includes universal
healthcare, better wages, a pro-growth
business environment, renewed com
mitment to our civil rights, immi
gration and criminal justice reform,
national security, fully-funded edu
cation, access to college and voca
tional training for all, and strong
communities which are able to fully
exercise their voting rights,” Mont
gomery said.
RUNNING FOR CONGRESS
Bethlehem resident Chalis Montgomery
announced Tuesday she will run for Georgia’s 10th
Congressional District seat in 2018. Montgomery,
39, a Democrat, will be looking to unseat Rep.
Jody Hice (R-Bethlehem), who is in his second
term. Hice was first elected in 2014. Montgomery
had formed an exploratory bid earlier this year
and is centering her campaign around healthcare
issues.
In elite company
AKINS SELECTED TO FORD SALES HALL OF FAME
Brad Akins, center, owner of Akins Ford in Winder, is pictured in Sea Island earlier this year
after being named to Ford Motor Company’s inaugural Sales Hall of Fame class. Akins was
one of only five dealers across the United States to be selected. Photo courtesy of Akins Ford
Brad Akins selected to
Ford’s inaugural sales
Hal! of Fame class
By Scott Thompson
News-Journal Editor
For 27 years, Brad Akins has overseen one of
Barrow County’s most stable and successful busi
nesses, helping grow family-owned Akins Ford
into a nationally-renowned dealership.
Ford Motor Company recognized those efforts
in a big way earlier this year, naming Akins to its
inaugural Sales Hall of Fame Class in a surprise
announcement during a gathering of dealers from
the country on Sea Island.
Akins, who was chosen as the Southeast mem
ber of the class, was one of only five of the rough
ly 3,000 principal Ford dealers in the U.S. who
were selected. Other inductees in the class includ
ed Vince Sheehy of Washington. D.C. area-based
Sheehy Auto Stores (East), Bert Boeckmann
of Los Angeles area-based Galpin Ford (West),
Sam Pack of Dallas-based Sam Pack Automotive
Group (Central) and Ed Brown of Livonia, Mich.-
based Bill Brown Ford (Great Lakes).
Akins and the others were selected based on
a list of criteria that included having at least 25
years as a dealer principal, being recognized as
a top volume dealer, having high customer sat
isfaction and having strong involvement in the
community.
“I was sitting there (at the Sea Island gathering),
and someone had to tell me they called my name,”
Akins said recently during a sit-down interview at
the Akins Ford headquarters on West May Street
in Winder. “I couldn’t believe it. I wasn’t even
thinking of it as a possibility. It’s an honor to
even be considered for something like this. It was
humbling, very humbling, to be considered part
of what I believe is a very elite group of dealers.
“You’re talking about guys I knew of and
admired from the time I was a teenager.”
Akins wasn’t much older than a teenager when
he took over his company, which has been in the
family since 1966. Akins began working at the
dealership full-time after graduating high school
See Akins on Page 3A
27 YEARS IN CHARGE
Akins, seen here at an event in 2016 marking
Akins Ford’s 50th anniversary, took over the
company in 1990 when he was just 23 years
old following the death of his father, Harold
Akins, from leukemia. Photo by Alex Pace
School
millage
increase
hearings
empty
By Ron Bridg'eman
News-Journal Reporter
No members of the pub
lic showed up at two Bar-
row County School System
hearings Tuesday about
increasing property taxes.
The Barrow County
Board of Education has
agreed to set the millage
rate for Fiscal Year 2018 at
18.5, the same rate it has
been since 2007.
That is an increase over
the “rollback” rate, the
amount that would produce
about the same revenue as
for the FY 2017. The roll
back rate is 17.146 mills.
The BOE will set its mill-
age rate Tuesday at a called
board meeting at 6 p.m. at
the Center for Innovative
Teaching, the former Rus
sell Middle School.
A third public hearing on
the school millage rate will
be held at 5 p.m. Tuesday
at the central school office,
179 W. Athens St., Winder.
The BOE will hold a 5
p.m. meeting Tuesday at
CFIT to see a design con
cept for renovating the
building. The board will
hold its monthly work ses
sion and a called meeting at
6 p.m. Tuesday.
The millage rate of 18.5
would produce about $33
million in property taxes
for the next school year.
A rollback millage rate
of 17.146 mills would pro
duce about $1.65 million
less in property taxes than
the 18.5 rate. The schools’
budget of nearly $119 mil
lion would use about $3.7
million from the system’s
reserves, leaving an expect
ed reserve balance in June
2018 of about $6 million.
The reserve fund as of June
30 was $9.6 million.
Board members said they
believe the millage rate
See Millage on Page 2A
o