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20 Pages, 2 Sections, Plus Preprints A Publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. Winder, Barrow County, Georgia $1.00 Copy Wednesday, October 20, 2021
COVID-19 UPDATE
School
district
rescinds
mask
mandate
Effective this week, the
Barrow County School
System rescinded its dis
trict-wide indoor mask re
quirement amid a decline in
Covid-19 cases.
The district, which imple
mented the mandate at all
schools at the start of Sep
tember as coronavirus cas
es in the county and across
the state and country surged
due to the highly contagious
delta variant, will now re
vert back to the policy it
temporarily put in place in
late August. Under that, if a
school reaches a threshold
of over 1% of its popula
tion with positive cases, all
See Covid, page 8A
AuburnFest
set for
Saturday
The City of Auburn will
host AuburnFest from
11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday,
Oct. 23, in the downtown
area.
The festival features craft
and food vendors, live mu
sic, hometown competi
tions in knitting, crocheting,
quilting, pie baking and
canning, as well as demon
strations of wood turning
and chainsaw carving.
A “kid zone” will feature
inflatables, putt putt and
crafts - all free of charge.
The sixth annual Trains
& Flames Backyard BBQ
Competition has compet
itors vying for the cash
prizes and bragging rights
for winning the People's
Choice award.
Barbecue taste tickets are
available for $5.
Index:
Public safety
6-7A
School/social
6, 8A
Classifieds
7B
Legals
9-11A
Obituaries
4-5B
Opinion
4A
Sports
1-2B
MAILING LABEL
Winder candidates talk opportunities, obstacles
for economic, downtown development at forum
By Scott Thompson
sthompson@barrownewsjournal.com
The nine candidates running for the three
Winder City Council seats on next month’s
election ballot agreed last week that there have
been positive changes in the city’s downtown
district in recent years, but that hurdles remain
to help improve the future economic develop
ment outlook in the city.
During an Oct. 11 candidate forum, the Bar-
row County Chamber of Commerce govern
mental affairs committee focused its questions
heavily on what it described as a “renaissance”
in downtown Winder and a surge of residents
in the Old Town area and probed the candi
dates for their thoughts on how to best continue
that progress.
“I see a lot of room for growth,” said Mat
thew Redfern. one of four candidates vying for
the Ward 1 seat. “There are many buildings that
are vacant and have been vacant a long time
and lots that are vacant and have been vacant
a long time. We need to do our best to attract
businesses here.”
While Redfern acknowledged the addition of
several local downtown restaurants, he pointed
out that the bulk of the redevelopment so far
has been limited to one or two blocks.
“We have many more blocks in this city that
need help and need to be able to attract busi
nesses,” he said, while also calling for more
biking and walking paths that would directly
connect the heart of downtown with nearby
neighborhoods.
Another Ward 1 candidate, Yvonne Green
way, said the city has the potential to make
better use of existing spaces through historic
building revitalization efforts that would in
clude transforming vacant upstairs space into
downtown apartments.
Greenway, a former city planning depart
ment employee, said the city should consider
more code flexibility on historic building proj
ects and taking advantage of state and federal
tax credits and programs available for revital
ization efforts. She suggested the city could
use funds from the prospective renewal of the
county wide 1-cent special-purpose local-op
tion sales tax, a portion of which would be ear
marked for “special projects.”
See Winder, page 8A
25 years of pumpkins
Photos by Wesleigh Sagon
Winder First United Methodist Church is hosting its annual pumpkin
patch youth fundraiser. See more photos online at barrownewsjoumal.
com.
Funds from First Methodist patch
raised to support youth mission trips
By Wesleigh Sagon
For the Barrow News-Journal
Winder First United Methodist Church
is celebrating 25 years of its pumpkin
patch fundraiser.
Proceeds from the sales support its
youth’s mission trips. This year 44,000
pounds of pumpkins filled the lot beside
the church. The pumpkins are raised on a
Navajo Indian reservation and are shipped
from Pumpkins USA, a company in north
ern New Mexico.
Pumpkins USA is a faith-based organi
zation that donates its pumpkins to church
es.
“With a dozen varieties to choose from,
visitors are sure to find the perfect pump
kin to complete their fall decor, carve into
a Jack-0’-Lantern or whip into a delicious
pie,” organization leaders say.
Diversity ranges from typical orange
pumpkins to more exotic styles, includ
ing those with a blue hue and “Knuckle
Heads” that feature warts. A tape measure
wrapped around the girth of the pumpkin
determines its value, which ranges from $1
Kuiper Chason, 9, McKinley Cha-
son, 11, and Royce Chason, 5, are
shown at Winder First United Meth
odist Church’s 25th annual pump
kin patch fundraiser. The fundrais
er helps to support youth mission
trips.
— $40. Last year the church made a prof
it of $8,000 with its pumpkin and gourd
sales.
“Despite COVID-19, last year was our
biggest year yet at the pumpkin patch,”
said Dwight Oakes, program, education
and youth director for the church.
Oakes said this year they are going to
see if they can beat those numbers. The
pumpkin patch opened on Oct. 4 and will
be open every day until Oct. 31, from
10 am. until dark.
Water infrastructure
heavy focus in
Statham council
candidate
By Scott Thompson
sthompson@barrownewsj ournal. com
A forum last week
featuring four of the five
candidates running for
the three open seats on
the Statham City Coun
cil in next month’s elec
tion brought out very
few, if any, substantive
differences. But there
was general agreement
that further developing
its water infrastructure
to meet population and
economic development
needs should be the
city’s top priority in the
coming years.
The Barrow County
Chamber of Commerce
hosted the forum Oct. 12
at the Statham Commu
nity Center with candi
dates Debi Krause, Lee
Patterson, Scott Penn and
Janel Piper in attendance.
Candidate Barnard Sims
was invited but did not
attend. The candidates
are vying to fill the seats
being vacated by coun
cil members Betty Lyle.
Tammy Crawley and
Dwight McCormic, all of
whom decided not to run
for re-election this year.
Piper’s election would
create a relatively unique
situation — given that
she is married to Mayor
Joe Piper, who in effect
functions as a city ad
ministrator and, along
with staff, makes rec
ommendations to the
council. But in her intro
duction to the audience
forum
Debi Krause
Janel Piper
at the forum. Mrs. Piper,
in addressing what she
called “the elephant in the
room.” sought to assure
voters that she wouldn’t
simply be a rubber stamp
for the mayor on all items.
See Statham, page 8A
Photo by Scott Thompson
AGBENOU CROWNED 2021
APALACHEE HIGH SCHOOL HOMECOMING QUEEN
Apalachee High School senior Julianna Agbenou was crowned the school’s
2021 homecoming queen Friday, Oct. 15, at halftime of the Wildcats’ homecom
ing game against Johnson-Gainesville.
Chamber cancels
Auburn council
candidate forum
The Barrow County Chamber of Commerce on
Thursday, Oct. 14. canceled an Auburn City Council
candidate forum that had been scheduled for Thurs
day night at the Perry Rainey Center due to no con
firmed attendees.
Incumbent councilmen Robert Vogel III and Bill
Ackworth, along with challenger Taylor Sisk are
running for two open at-large seats on the council
in the Nov. 2 municipal election. The chamber’s
governmental affairs committee had planned to ask
questions of each of the candidates at the Thursday
night forum and give the audience an opportunity to
submit questions as well.
Chamber president Tommy Jennings said that Sisk
said he would not be able to attend the forum and
that Ackworth and Vogel had not responded to the
invitation to appear.
The Auburn Public Library scheduled a candidate
forum for Tuesday night, Oct. 19. Library manager
Bel Outwater said late last week that Sisk and Ack
worth had committed to attend.