Newspaper Page Text
16 Pages, 2 Sections
A Publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. Winder, Barrow County, Georgia $1.00 Copy Wednesday, January 11, 2023
Barrow welcomes new Afghan neighbors
The Karimi, Daragi and Hamdred
families from Afghanistan chose
Winder as their new American
home, where they continue their
journey of becoming American.
The American withdrawal from Af
ghanistan last summer led to a mass
exodus of the Afghan people from
their homeland — some by foot and
some by plane — but all with a single
mission: Escape the Taliban.
A year later, those who were lucky
enough to get out of Afghanistan with
their lives have since learned the es
cape was only the beginning of a long
and arduous journey of resettling
abroad,
In addition to overcoming a lan
guage barrier, refugees must navigate
and understand the American way of
life to secure housing, jobs, transpor
tation, access to public benefits and
obtain long-term resident status.
Most are also coping with trauma
after experiencing a harrowing depar
ture from life as they knew it in Af
ghanistan, where many were forced
to leave behind parents, spouses, sib
lings and even their children when
they fled.
In the face of these challenges, three
Afghan families living in Winder feel
“100 percent” lucky and are grateful
See Afghans, page 3A
Auburn swears in new city administrator
'ubm/tted photo
Michael Parks was sworn in as the City of Auburn’s new city adminis
trator Jan. 5. Parks previously served as the city’s Parks and Recreation
director. Pictured above (from left): Council woman Peggy Langley, Mayor
Linda Blechinger, city administrator Michael Parks, Councilman Taylor
The City of Auburn swore Michael
Parks in as its new city administrator
after Alex Mitchem resigned.
Parks has worked as Auburn's parks
and leisure services director for the last
four years, where he’s gone beyond his
original job description and slowly
taken on more and more responsibili
ties around the city.
In addition to establishing Auburn’s
recreation facilities as a top destination
among North Georgia’s travel baseball
and softball teams, he also took on the
responsibilities of planning and orga
nizing community events, Auburn’s
Mainstreet program, renting out facil
ities like the Perry Rainey Center and
established a good rapport with the
public works and public safety depart
ments.
Unfinished projects he will take
on as city administrator include
the city’s new Municipal Com
plex, which should be complete
this Spring, and the Auburn-Wind
er Water Treatment Plant, which is
currently underway.
Before working for the City of Au
burn, Parks was in the education field
for 20 years.
A lifelong resident of Auburn, Parks
comes from a long line of public ser
vants in the City of Auburn as his
grandfather and father both served as
Mayor of Auburn.
Last month, his father, Billy Parks,
finished a term on the Barrow County
Board of Commissioners.
“My grandaddy would be proud,”
said Parks.
I
Qualifying ended Thursday for the
special election set Jan. 31, in portions
of Barrow and Jackson Counties, for
Georgia House District 119 to fill a va
cancy due to the resignation of Repre
sentative-elect Danny Rampey.
The following individuals have
qualified:
Charlie Chase (R)
Shelby Diamond Alexander (D)
Joseph Grodzicki (R)
Renee Lord (R)
Holt Persinger (R)
Joe Price (R)
Bill Ritter (R)
Advance in-person absentee voting
began Monday, Jan. 9 at the
Barrow County Elections Office,
located at 233 E. Broad Street in
Winder.
Advance voting is open during the
following dates and times:
• Monday-Saturday, Jan. 9-14,8-5 p.m.
• Tuesday-Saturday, Jan.17-21,8-5 p.m.
• Monday- Friday, Jan. 23-27,8-5 p.m.
Contact information for each of the
qualifying candidates is available on
the Georgia Secretary of State web
site (https ://sos.ga.gov/page/qualify-
ing-candidate-information).
BCSS releases rezoning proposal for Apalachee cluster
In August 2023, the Barrow County School System
(BCSS) will open its tenth elementary school on the In
novation Campus off Austin Road.
In the fall of 2022. the school system went through a
process of considering how to best utilize this school.
After much deliberation and public input, a recommen
dation was made and adopted by the Board of Education
(BOE) to open the new school as a traditional elementary
school, requiring the rezoning of schools in the Apalachee
Auburn ES
WESTSIDE MS
Kennedy ES
Yargo ES
New ES
Haymon
Morris MS
Bethlehem ES
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
PROPOSAL
The proposed elementary school rezone in the
Apalachee Cluster feature the most balanced distri
bution of students among schools, best distribution of
projected growth among schools and maintains major
roads as dividing lines and traffic patterns better than
with other options.
(AHS) Cluster. During November and December 2022, a
rezoning team met to discuss criteria for rezoning and the
options for elementary and middle school zones.
Three options were considered for each level. Each
school affected by the rezone in the AHS cluster had equal
representation on the committee. The rezoning team was
comprised of 33 people, which included six principals,
six teachers, 12 parents, four BOE members, two commu
nity members and three district personnel. The commit-
Rszsns
MIDDLE SCHOOL
PROPOSAL
The proposed middle school rezone option doesn’t main
tain the feeder school format, meaning some elementa
ry schools will feed into more than one middle school.
Some features of this option include no changes for mid
dle school attendance zones or transportation routes
and more even distribution of middle school students.
tee recommended the map options below for elementary,
middle and feeder schools using the following primary
criteria for selecting attendance zones: (1) Length of time
on transportation/proximity to school; (2) No splitting of
subdivisions (3) Safety of transportation: Avoiding diffi
cult turns and staying off S.R. 316 as much as possible(4)
Balance of enrollment across schools; (5) Consideration
of expected future growth; (6) Title I/Social Economic
Status balance.
| Kennedy ES |
New ES+
WMS
BES +
WMS
New ES
New ES
+ HMMS
Bethlehem ES
IBES +
Ihmms
FEEDER SCHOOLS
Students at the new elementary school and Bethlehem
Elementary (BES) will not all attend the same middle
school. At each of these two schools, some students will
attend Westside Middle (WMS) and some students will
attend Haymon-Morris Middle (HMMS). This allows for
more flexibility for future growth and an easier transi
tion to a new middle school.
MAILING LABEL
Winder city administrator receives salary increase
The Winder City Council autho
rized Mayor David Maynard to sign
an amendment to city administrator
Mandi Cody’s employment contract,
providing a 7% cost of living adjust
ment and a 1.5% merit increase to her
annual base salary. This 8.5% increase
brings Cody’s salary to $155,454, up
over $18,000 since being hired in June
2020.
The council voted in favor of Cody’s
raise in a 5-1 vote, with Councilwom-
an Stephanie Brit opposed.
Councilman Jimmy Terrell later
said he erred in voting in favor of the
salary increase due to the wording of
the agenda item, which appeared to
be a two-part vote — one vote for city
employees to receive merit and cost of
living increases and a separate vote for
the city administrator's pay increase.
Instead, the agenda item only neces
sitated a single vote on Cody’s salary
increases.
According to the Georgia Depart
ment of Community Affairs (DCA)
Municipal Government Wage and Sal
ary Survey from Dec. 2022, Winder re
ported the minimum entry-level wage
for the city administrator, representing
a population of 18,825, at $132,612
and the maximum wage at $143,164.
For comparison, according to the
DCA survey, the average salary range
among cities with similar population
sizes is $123,854-$199,250,
Nearby cities with similar popu
lation sizes as Winder reported the
following salary ranges for city ad
ministrator/manager: Loganville:
$91,512-$128,353, representing a pop
ulation of 14,720; Monroe: $125,000-
$175,000, representing 15,264; Flow
ery Branch: $130,000, representing a
population of 10,144.
Further comparison shows the an
nual base salary range reported for a
City of Winder police chief is $83,283
— $127,129, and its fire chief’s salary
ranges from 75,234-$l 13-587, accord
ing to the DCA survey.
PERSONNEL CHANGES
In March of2022, Cody proposed an
amendment to the authorized person
nel for various funds within the city’s
annual budget and an amendment to
the organizational chart for various
departments. The proposal passed in a
5-1 vote by council with Councilman
Jimmy Terrell opposed.
Cody's proposal eliminated the
director of planning position, which
vacated after Cody's hiring. Cody
reassigned the duties of the director
of planning and redistributed them
among herself and two new positions
she created.
First, she combined the position of
utility director and planning director
and created one assistant city admin
istrator for planning and utilities posi
tion. The senior planner reports to the
assistant city administrator and works
within the planning and permitting de
partment.
The amendment also created a city
engineer position with plans to incor
porate a full engineering department in
the upcoming budget season.
Other positions created by Cody
include a communications and mar
keting director to replace the economic
development director, a downtown,
events, and city facility manager, an
additional development project man
ager and a planning and development
technician, among others.
PERFORMANCE
EVALUATION
According to Cody's contract, the
mayor and council are required to con
duct a performance evaluation annual
ly in December. A performance evalu
ation was conducted in Dec. 2022 and
released on Jan. 4, the day after the
council approved the raise.
The evaluation performed last
month was the first performance eval
uation on record for Cody since the
See Winder, page 2A
