Newspaper Page Text
16 Pages, 2 Sections, Plus Preprints A Publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. Winder, Barrow County, Georgia $1.00 Copy Wednesday, December 30, 2020
NGHS may be forced to ration care due to COVID-19 spike
As coronavirus case numbers in the area
continued at record levels in the past week,
Northeast Georgia Health System leaders
warned another post-holiday spike could
force the hospital system to start rationing
care.
“We're struggling to find staff and space
to care for people, and our frontline work
ers are exhausted." Dr. Clifton Hastings,
chief of medical staff for Northeast Georgia
Medical Center (NGMC), said last week.
“If COVID (-19) cases continue to increase,
we may be forced to start making decisions
about who we can treat effectively and who
we have to send elsewhere or turn away.
That’s a decision no physician should have
to make, and a situation no one in our com
munity should have to face.”
On Nov. 24, two days before Thanksgiv
ing, NGHS hospitals — including NGMC
Barrow in Winder and NGMC Braselton —
and long-term care facilities were treating
a combined 133 COVID-positive patients.
That total, updated daily on the system’s
website, has more than doubled in the past
month and was up to a record 322 on Tues
day, Dec. 29, with 58 other patients await
ing test results.
There were 15 COVID-positive patients
being treated at NGMC Barrow as of Tues
day morning — after the daily total reached
20 for the first time on Christmas Day —
and a record-high 72 at NGMC Braselton,
where many critical patients from Barrow
are sent, since the system began publishing
the daily data in April.
No beds were available Tuesday morning
at NGMC Barrow, only four ICU beds were
available in Braselton, and there were no
ICU beds available at the system’s flagship
hospital in Gainesville.
The death toll of patients at NGHS facili
ties from COVID-19 also rose sharply from
516 on Dec. 22 to 548 as of Tuesday morn
ing, and the seven-day average percentage
of tests administered at the facilities that
have returned positive has increased from
16 percent on Nov. 24 to 30.3 percent on
Tuesday, crossing the 30-percent threshold
for the first time.
“Early in the pandemic, we learned that
limiting some services and expanding oth
ers can create additional space to care for
patients — which we’ve continued to do
— but we’re still faced with the challenge
of maintaining enough qualified physicians
and nurses to provide high-quality care,”
said Dr. John Delzell, COVID-19 incident
commander for NGHS. “We're extremely
thankful for the staffing support the state
has supplied, and we will continue to re
quest additional help, but hospitals across
the state all need those same resources.”
NGHS received nearly 5,000 doses of
Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine on Dec. 17
and has vaccinated approximately 2,000
frontline workers during the past week.
See Virus, page 3A
Early
voting ends
Thursday
In-person early voting
in Barrow County for the
Tuesday, Jan. 5 runoff elec
tion for the two U.S. Senate
seats in Georgia and a Geor
gia Public Service Com
mission seat ends at 5. p.m.
Thursday, Dec. 31.
Early voting is continu
ing this week from 8 a.m.
to 5 p.m. at the county elec
tions office, 233 East Broad
St., Winder. The office
will be closed Friday, New
Year’s Day, and there is no
weekend voting. Election
day voting on Tuesday will
be from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at
the county's eight precinct
locations. Those are:
•Bethlehem Community
Center, 750 Manger Ave.,
Bethlehem.
•Bethlehem Church (211
Campus), 1061 Old Thomp
son Mill Rd., Hoschton.
•Hmong New Hope Al
liance Church, 1622 Union
Grove Church Rd., Auburn.
•Covenant Life Sanctu
ary, 115 Patrick Mill Rd.
SW, Winder.
•Barrow County Fire Sta
tion 1, 1625 Bethlehem Rd.,
Statham.
•First Baptist Church, 625
Jefferson Hwy., Winder.
•Winder Community
Center, 113 East Athens St.,
Winder.
•The Church at Winder,
546 Treadwell Rd., Bethle
hem.
See Voting, page 3A
Index:
Public Safety
5A
Lifestyles/school
3B
Classifieds
4B
Legals
5-7B
Obituaries
6-7A
Opinion
4A
Sports
1-2B
MAILING LABEL
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2020 comes to an end
Photo by Wesleigh Sagon
Marsha McIntyre, 91, left, and Joyce Grizzle wave to the crowd below as community members gathered
for a prayer service in the parking lot at Winder Health Care and Rehabilitation Center on May 14. The
prayer service was held to give hope as the community prayed for the coronavirus to be cured all over
the world. McIntyre and Grizzle both tested positive for the coronavirus but were asymptomatic at the
time of this photo. A total of 17 residents died at the facility in the spring.
Recapping the top local
The coronavirus pandemic dominated the headlines
for good reason, but the year was also full of action in
other ways in Barrow County.
In addition to the national and worldwide public
health and economic crisis, the county also was part of
a heavier national focus on race relations and a histori
cally and bitterly-divided election.
There were also stories of human triumph, changes
in local government leadership and the opening of new
facilities, all combining to make it an eventful 2020.
Here are some of the top local news stories of the
year, in rough chronological order.
NEW MAYOR MAKES
QUICK CHANGES IN STATHAM
New Statham mayor Joe Piper took office in Janu
ary after being elected to replace Robert Bridges, who
retired after more than 20 years as mayor, and Piper,
following through on a campaign pledge, immediately
initiated a slew of changes to the city’s leadership.
In a called meeting Jan. 3, the city council, with new
ly sworn-in members Tammy Crawley and Gary Ven
able on board, approved Piper's recommendations to
eliminate the city administrator position that had been
held by Mai Chang and to hire Ira Underwood as the
city's new police chief, following the resignation of
former chief Allan Johnston in December 2019.
Among the other changes this year were in the city
attorney position, as the city parted ways with Thomas
Mitchell and hired Jody Campbell to replace him.
NEW WINDER COUNCIL
MEMBERS SWORN IN
The Winder City Council also gained a new look in
2020 as new members Holly Sheats and Kobi Kilgore,
the second and third women to serve on the council,
were sworn in during the council's Jan. 6 meeting.
Sheats was elected to one of the council’s at-large
seats to replace former councilman Michael Healan,
while Kilgore ousted incumbent A1 Brown in District 2
in the November 2019 municipal election.
TOMS DEPARTS AS WINDER
ADMINISTRATOR; CODY TAKES OVER
Following a closed session at a Feb. 3 meeting in
which the Winder City Council discussed personnel
among other topics, city administrator Donald Toms
submitted his resignation Feb. 4, ending a decade-long
run that began in 2010 when he was hired to replace the
late Bob Beck, who had died earlier that year.
Toms said of his decision that he wanted to explore
other opportunities, and though there had been differ
ences between him and some council members over
various aspects of the city’s operations, city officials
described the parting as an amicable one.
news stories of the year
Photo by Scott Thompson
Local residents demonstrated June 7 in down
town Winder in support of the Black Lives Matter
movement.
Photo courtesy of Bryan Nowak
Joslyn Stinchcomb, the 15-year-old Winder teen
ager severely injured during a pit bull attack July
31, was welcomed home with a parade on Oct. 24
after spending nearly three months in an Atlanta
children’s hospital and undergoing 19 surgeries to
repair facial, scalp, neck and throat damage she
suffered.
Following a three-month search, the council in June
hired Mandi Cody to become the new city adminis
trator.
Cody, who was selected out of a pool of 13 appli
cants and over two other finalists who were inter
viewed by the entire council, came to Winder with
more than a decade of local government experience
and had most recently been an interim administrator
in Washington after leaving her position as city ad
ministrator in Metter in 2019.
FORMER COUNTY COMMISSIONER
WEHUNT DIES
Roger Wehunt, a farmer and longtime Barrow
County elected official who served parts of five terms
on the county commission starting in 1998, died Feb.
8 at the age of 80.
See 2020, page 2A
BCES
responds to
numerous
fires over
holiday
While the Christmas hol
iday is often marked with
families having a long
weekend off to celebrate
and enjoy with family and
friends, public safety is al
ways ready and responding
to emergencies. This year in
Barrow County, firefighters
and 911 dispatchers with
Barrow County Emergen
cy Services were kept busy
throughout the holiday, in
cluding responding to nu
merous fires, according to a
BCES news release.
“As public safety pro
fessionals, we are always
working and ready to re
spond no matter what day it
is.” said BCES spokesman
Capt. Scott Dakin. “How
ever, as human beings we
would prefer to be slow over
the Christmas holidays, but
unfortunately this year that
did not work out.”
Just after 7 a.m. Dec. 23,
firefighters responded to
Wilbanks Road in Wind
er for a reported structure
fire that officials said was
caused by improper dis
posal of cooking materials.
Upon arrival crews discov
ered a fire had occurred in
a flowerbed on the side of
the home. The resulting fire
damaged the siding of the
garage and the power line
going into the home. Fire
fighters searched the garage
for extension, but the fire
was stopped before it could
enter the home.
Just before 10 a.m. Dec.
24. firefighters responded to
a fire in the 800 block of At
lanta Highway SE in Wind
er and found an outbuild
ing fully involved. Crews
worked to extinguish the
blaze as quickly as possible.
The building and contents
were completely destroyed
by the fire. The cause of the
fire was the improper use of
a heating barrel in the build
ing.
On Christmas Day, dis
patchers received a 911 call
reporting a fire on Kristin
Lane in Winder, where the
back porch and back of
the residence were on fire.
Crews arrived to find the
fire was already under con
trol and removed burning
debris from the porch and
extinguished it. No exten
sion was found in the home.
Crews removed smoke from
the home.
Just before 10 p.m. Sat
urday, Dec. 26, dispatchers
received a call reporting a
fire on Huntington Trace
in Winder. Firefighters re
sponded and found light
See Fires, page 3A
