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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 '0 4879 14541 o 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