Barrow news-journal. (Winder, Georgia) 2016-current, December 11, 2019, Image 1

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Newspaper Page Texto o 24 Pages, 2 Sections, Plus Preprints A Publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. Winder, Barrow County, Georgia $1.00 Copy Wednesday, December 11, 2019 BOC approves incentive aimed at retaining emergency personnel By Scott Thompson sthompson@barro wne wsj ournal. com Barrow County will offer an incentive payment to its most experienced emergen cy services employees — aimed at retain ing them and attempting to mitigate what county leaders have described as a crisis in the department’s staffing levels. The county board of commissioners, during its Tuesday, Dec. 10 meeting, ap proved offering a one-time, $2,000 “field training incentive” to the 35 employees across the fire/rescue, emergency medical services and E-911 divisions who have been with Barrow County Emergency Services continuously since at least February 2009. The employees would actually receive roughly $1,500 after taxation. Those who accept the incentive would be required to provide new and existing employees train ing, through an approved curriculum and remain employed with the county through at least May 30, 2020. If those conditions are not met, they would be required to pay back the total amount of the incentive pay ment. By providing those training services to other employees and “imparting operation al knowledge throughout the organization,” the employees would be using the incen tive to “produce a significant and substan tial benefit to the county,” county manager Mike Renshaw said. Because of that, he said, the payments would not be in violation of the state Con stitution’s gratuities clause that prohibits governmental entities from giving gifts, such as one-time bonuses, to individuals without taxpayers receiving benefits in re turn. Board chairman Pat Graham and Aaron Meyer of the county attorney’s office had raised concerns at a Nov. 26 board work session that simply paying a one-time re tention incentive without some type of commitment in exchange would have run afoul of the provision. Graham was not in attendance for Tuesday’s meeting, where the incentive passed with a 6-0 vote. The county attorney’s office agreed the field training incentive would be within the bounds of the law, Renshaw said. Renshaw said the field training incentive is a short-term solution as part of a lon ger-term strategy the county is develop ing to address the vacancy rates across the emergency services department. BCES chief Alan Shuman told commis sioners at their November work session that the department is currently 13 positions short in the field, even though four of those are expected to be filled by the middle of December through recruit graduation. Since January, 13 employees have left the department for either private sector jobs or other public sector agencies, Shuman said. Elizabeth Bailey, the county’s human re sources director, said those departures have been primarily due to higher pay and more advancement opportunities at those peo ple’s new jobs. See BOC, page 2A 71st Winder Christmas Parade set for Saturday The 71st annual Winder Christmas Parade will be held Saturday, Dec. 14. The parade will begin at 2 p.m. in front of Ingles on North Broad Street, travel south on Broad Street and end on East Athens Street in front of the Winder Commu nity Center. The Winder Police De partment will lead the pa rade, followed by the Barrow Brigade JROTC and North east Georgia Medical Center Barrow carrying the Winder Christmas Parade banner, according to a city news re lease. The WPD’s pink police car will also have a presence in the parade. Mayor David Maynard and his wife, Hap py, will follow the WPD’s lead, along with the 2019 parade grand marshal, John Etheridge, who will be trav eling in a vehicle provided by Akins Ford. Supporters of this year’s Christmas Parade include In gles Market and First United Methodist Church of Winder. “With 70-plus parade reg istrants, vehicles and march ers. we need a lot of room for setup, and our supporters See Parade, page 2A Index: Public Safety 6-7A Church News 9A Classifieds 4B Legals 5-9B Obituaries 10-11A Opinion 4-5A Sports 1-3, 10B MAILING LABEL Helping out i iiimiiiiii Submitted photos The Barrow County Habitat for Humanity board dedicated a new home in Winder on Friday, Dec. 6. Barrow Habitat for Humanity dedicates new house in Winder The Barrow County Habitat for Humanity board gathered Friday, Dec. 6. to dedicate a new home the nonprofit built on Wade Street in Winder. Northeast Georgia Medical Cen ter Barrow presented housewarming gifts and the board presented the keys to the homeowner, who closed on the house Friday and moved in over the weekend. The homeowner declined to be named for this story. Barrow County Habitat is a non-profit organization that builds and renovates homes and aims to “give people a hand up in our community, allowing them to own homes,” executive director Dale Sauls said. “We partner with local churches, organizations, schools and individuals to construct, repair and rehabilitate homes for families in need.” The organization has a homeown er selection committee that receives applications once a year and selects the most-qualified family, based on needs, Sauls said. Prospective homeowners “must demonstrate a need for safe, af fordable housing,” she said. “Once selected, Habitat homeowners must partner with us throughout the pro cess. This partnership includes per forming ‘sweat equity,’ or helping to build their own home or the homes of others in our homeownership pro gram. Habitat’s homeowner selec tion is managed at our local office.” Sauls said the group’s goal is to build one house per year but also tries to make repairs to as many homes as possible throughout the year. Sauls said the group started build ing the house on Wade Street in June. “It was a community effort as we had many businesses, church es, board members and volunteers who all worked together to make this build happen,” she said. “Just as it takes every nail, every board and every gallon of paint to finish a Habitat for Humanity home, it also takes every hour of hard work by future homeowners and volunteers, every ounce of support from gener ous donors, and every bit of building expertise to guide the construction process.” The Barrow County Habitat for Humanity built a new home on Wade Street in Winder over the last six months and dedicated it to the new homeowner Friday, Dec. 6. Business ‘less risky’ in area than in U.S., economist tells Barrow Go. chamber By Ron Bridgeman ron@mainstreetnews.com Starting a business in the metro Atlanta area is less risky than in other parts of the country be cause the north Georgia area is so much like the country, the economist for the Metro Atlanta chamber said Dec. 3. Thomas Cunningham told the Barrow County Chamber of Commerce audience the Metro At lanta area’s economy has been growing faster than the country’s economy since the 1970s. “It is a very large econ omy and a very diverse economy,” he said. As a result, Cunning ham said the Atlanta area — and he said that is a large part of the state — has a “thickness of diversity,” which is good for the economy. He said the north Geor gia area is a “relatively low risk place to locate your business.” That is a reason for corporate headquarters moving to the area, he said. He also said economic “expansions don’t die of old age. Something has to kill them.” Cunningham noted the area continues to have an expanding economy, but it is not growing as fast as it once did. “Growth is slowing, to be sure,” Cunningham said. He said the significant change from the past is the size of the labor force is no longer grow ing as much each year. He said that is the re sult of Baby Boomers retiring and a smaller number of people avail able for work. Cunningham added the “recovery” from the recession around 2008- 2010 was “crummy,” compared to previous re cessions. That was because consumers cut back on purchases and when the economy improved, the rate of growth in pur chases was not as large as in past recessions. Another factor, he said, is the number of people Photo by Ron Bridgeman Thomas Cunningham, se nior vice present of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and chief economist for the cham ber, speaks to the monthly audience at the Barrow County Chamber of Com merce lunch Dec. 3. who have part-time jobs and want full-time work. That leads to people get ting full-time jobs with out wage increases, he said. One positive factor in economic activity is much of the world’s consumption is moving toward “what we’re (the U.S. is) already good at making,” Cunningham said. He called those prod ucts “value-added” and “high value.” He said a recession now would require a “bigger shock than nor mal” because consump tion by individuals is “pretty resilient.” Answering questions, Cunningham said the ed ucation system, and stu dents, should be “really careful” about “working to learn” because he said the jobs students may find themselves doing may not exist while they are “learning.” He also said the new trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada needs to be ap proved for new technol ogy that was not around when NAFTA was devel oped. He cited “digital trade” as an example. The trade agreement has bipartisan support in the House and Senate and is expected to be rat ified later this month.

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Barrow news-journal. (Winder, Georgia) 2016-current, December 11, 2019, Image 1