Newspaper Page Text
44 Pages 3 Sections, Plus Preprints A Publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. Winder, Barrow County Georgia 50$ Copy Wednesday, August 16, 2017
INSIDE
See our 2017 high school
football preview section,
pages 1 -16C
Barrow
Briefs
School still
planned
Monday for
solar eclipse
The Barrow County School
System plans to extend its school
day by approximately 30 minutes
on Monday. Aug. 21, in order to
“take advantage of the education
al opportunities presented by” the
solar eclipse across North Ameri
ca, Ken Greene, assistant superin
tendent for support services, said
Monday. Some school systems
in the area and around the state
have announced cancellation of
classes due to safety concerns
associated with viewing the sun
directly during the eclipse. Bar-
row students in grades 2-12 will
be given the opportunity, with
parent permission, to view the
partial eclipse using eclipse-safe
viewing glasses. Because of the
safety concerns described above,
students in pre-kindergarten,
kindergarten and first grade will
not be taken outside to view the
eclipse live but will have opportu
nities to participate in eclipse-re
lated indoor activities.
“We are prepared with both
indoor and outdoor activities for
our students,” Greene said in an
email. “We have secured safety
glasses that meet the appropriate
safety standards for viewing a
solar eclipse and will be distrib
uting these glasses to students
and staff to use when participat
ing in outdoor activities. If the
situation changes we reserve the
right to adjust our decision for the
safety of our students and staff.
However, as of this writing we
see no reason to cancel school on
Monday.”
Index:
Church News
13A
Classifieds
4B
Legals
5-9 B
Obituaries
14-15A
Public Safety
9-11A
Sports 1-3, 10, 12B
Mailing
Label Below
o
Statham transfer station in judge’s hands
By Ron Bridg'eman
News-Journal Reporter
The future of a transfer station
in Statham rests in the hands of
Judge David Motes.
Attorneys for Statham Indus
trial and the City of Statham
argued for nearly two and a half
hours Monday about the city’s
denial of a permit to the compa
ny for grading purposes.
Statham Industrial, a compa
ny formed by Roll-Off Systems
and owned by the Simon Garret
family, sued the city in supe
rior court over its denial of an
administrative appeal.
City council held a hearing of
more than four hours in March
about the denial of a grading
permit to the company. Randy
Gordon, the city’s zoning admin
istrator and building inspector,
denied the permit after a three-
month, back-and-forth argument
with the company.
Thomas Mitchell represented
the city, and Douglas Dillard,
attorney with Pursley Friese Tor-
grimson, an Atlanta firm, repre
sented the company. Both attor
neys argued their side for nearly
an hour. Before Motes heard
those arguments, John Stell, rep
resenting property owners in the
Statham Industrial Park, location
of the proposed transfer station,
contended his clients should be
allowed to intervene in the case.
Motes denied his motion for
“permissive intervention.”
At the end of the hearing, the
judge asked each attorney to
provide an order as though his
side won the case. He said they
could get those orders to him
within 15 days.
“It’ll take a while to go
through this,” Motes said.
He referred several times to
the size of the filings in the case.
It was more than 1.600 pages,
he said. The transcript of the
hearing is 194 pages. Motes said
his law clerk went “through the
first 900 pages” and then learned
a video of the administrative
hearing existed. In arguing his
motion to intervene, Stell noted
another lawsuit has been filed
in the case. Dillard filed for a
“declaratory judgment” July 19.
See Station on Page 2A
Center of downtown
REVITALIZING AN ICONIC BUILDING
Steven Hoard of the VanKirk Corporation is pictured recently in front of the old Peoples
Bank building in downtown Winder. Hoard is the executive on a project to revitalize the
building, which has sat vacant since early 2011 a few months after the bank’s closure. He
said there will be a fine-dining restaurant on the bottom floor and office suites on the upper
floors, and there will likely be some office space leased on the bottom floor as well.
Photo by Scott Thompson
VanKirk Corporation plans to revitalize old
Peoples Bank building with offices, restaurant
By Scott Thompson
News-Journal Editor
For most of his life, Chris Maddox has worked
— practically lived in. he jokes — in the old Peo
ples Bank building on the corner of North Broad
and East Candler streets in downtown Winder.
“To me, it’s the center of downtown Winder,”
Maddox said last week. “It’s the premier building
in our town.”
Maddox, now in his mid-50s, can remember
his time in the building from as early as the late
1960s all the way through Sept. 17, 2010 — the
day the bank failed, was taken over by the Georgia
Department of Banking and Finance and was sold
to Community and Southern Bank.
The four-story building has sat vacant since
early 2011, but a local company has plans to bring
it back to life.
The VanKirk Corporation, better known as
VanKirk Electric, purchased the building earli
er this year and has plans to revitalize it with a
fine-dining restaurant on the first floor in the old
bank lobby and office suites on the upper three
floors.
The company, which also revitalized the build
ings behind the old Peoples Bank on the same
block has been spent the last several months doing
interior and exterior repair work and aims to have
the building back open by early next year, said
Steven Hoard of the VanKirk Corporation, lead
executive on the project.
See Building on Page 16A
BRINGING IT BACK TO LIFE
The old Peoples Bank building in downtown
Winder is seen here, circa 1985. The Maddox
family would hang a huge American flag on
it every year around the Fourth of July. Photo
courtesy of Chris Maddox
McMichael:
Growth
biggest
challenge
for schools
By Ron Bridg'eman
News-Journal Reporter
Managing growth and
continuing the school dis
trict’s emphasis on new
teaching methods through
out the system will be the
focus for Barrow Coun
ty School Superintendent
Chris McMichael for the
coming years.
Barrow County schools
are near 13,900 students
and talks about more school
construction are a regular
part of administrators’ rou
tine, he said.
The district just opened
the new Winder Elementary
School and it opened a new
Russell Middle School in
August 2016.
The next school is likely
to be a third high school.
He said the district sees
increased enrollment at the
middle schools and those
students will be in high
school by the time a facility
can be built.
McMichael said the dis
trict is “looking at” build
ing a new school in three
years. But planning for a
new school already is under
way. The board recent
ly sold $10.8 million in
bonds and an architectural
firm could be hired within
a year.
School board members
have noted at the past two
meetings the district’s
continued use of portable
classrooms, “learning cot
tages,” vice chair Lynn Ste
vens said sarcastically.
Money is the constant
companion of any dis
cussion of new schools,
McMichael admitted.
That subject also is a sig
nificant part of the conver
sation about improving the
schools.
The superintendent said
the district has made strides
in strengthening the educa
tion of students, starting in
the early grades.
The discussion now
focuses on middle schools.
See Schools on Page 2A
o
