Page A8
Lake Oconee News
Friday, December 29,2017
PUTNAM COUNTY
Family business burns the day after Christmas
Lynn Hobbs
lynn@lakeoconeenews.us
Last week, their shop on Oak
Street was stacked with crates of
four-wheelers/all-terrain vehicles
and dirt bikes, but Tuesday, all
of that good fortune went up in
flames.
As Aaron and Jessica Marden,
their friends and family members
stood inside the darkened shell of
J&A Cycles Tuesday evening and
surveyed the charred remains left
from a fire earlier that day, they
counted their blessings while also
tallying their losses.
“We can’t catch a break,” Aaron
said. ‘We’vebeenbrokeninto three
times, and now this.”
His wife was thankful that
the fire happened two days after
Christmas instead of before the
holiday.
“Two days earlier, we had
400 four-wheelers in here,” she
said. “Crates were stacked up
everywhere.”
Jessica was getting things ready
LYNN HOBBS/Staff
This dirt bike, now charred after the cycle shop burned, ignited the fire when it backfired.
for the family to leave for vacation
when she got the call about the
fire that had started shortly after
4 p.m. Dec. 26.
Their son, Jonathan, 18, had
been working on a dirt bike, and
the bike backfired, igniting some
items behind it, also burning his
leg. Jonathan said some gasoline
had leaked out of the bike and
gotten on him, and that was what
caught on fire.
“That was our Christmas gift,”
Jessica said, pointingto the burned
bike and engine parts. “They got
rebuild kits for Christmas and were
working to rebuild our dirt bikes.”
Nine firefighters with Eatonton
Fire Department and Putnam
County Fire Rescue responded to
the fire, EFD Chief Eugene Hubert
said, noting the call came in to him
at 4:35 p.m. Hubert said Jonathan
was offered treatment by Putnam
County EMSbutrefused.Theteen,
his leg wrapped andbandaged, was
working to help clean the shop later
that night.
The Mardens opened their store
and shop last November after out-
growingtheir home shop andbeing
disappointed that there was no
retailer of children’s four-wheelers
and dirt bikes in Lake Country.
“We will rebuild,” Aaron said
Tuesday. “This is our livelihood,
so we will have to. We had good
sales for Christmas, but that won’t
matter now. Everything we made
will get put right back into our
business after this.”
The concrete block building is
owned by Harry Luke and Coley
Paschal, Aaron said.
Greensboro
code
enforcement
officer
Rick Zeier
updates the
City Council
at a recent
meeting.
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Growth
Continued from A1
plans for a new four-story
hotel and inches closer to
flame-broiled hamburgers
just yards away from 1-20.
“The architectural board
reviewed the site proposal
for the Tru Hotel and voted
to approve it,” said Zeier at a
December meeting.
“Now they’re going back
to Hilton with the good
news. Same thing with the
new Burger King. They’re in
negotiation with corporate
about the sign.”
Same deal over at the
Greene County Planning
and Zoning Commission
meeting where Chairman
Doran Samples discusses
the houses under construc
tion at Armor’s Ford with
Reynolds Lake Oconee pres
ident Rabun Neal.
‘We should be back to talk
about more housing starts
about every other month,”
said Neal.
“Right now, in total, we
have about 100 houses
started. It’s good to be back
in the business of building
houses.”
A perusal of the EconDev
Greene newsletter ofbusiness
and economic development
activity in Greene County is
absolutely inspiring.
A new addition to the
Greensboro and Exit 130
areawillbe comingsoon. Tru
By Hilton will be breaking
ground soon for afour-story,
82-room hotel facility.
Owner/operator Hirens
Bhatwala expects to employ
up to 20 employees when the
hotel opens.
A look at a graphic depict
ing unemployment shows
such a precipitous drop it
appears it is already raining
jobs in Greene County.
At the height of the recent
recession in 2010, unemploy
ment in Greene County bal
looned to nearly 15 percent.
However, according to
the EconDev newsletter, a
graphic based on data from
the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics shows unemploy
ment in Greene County
has fallen off a cliff. Greene
County’s rate of 4.5 percent
approximates the state rate
of 4.4 percent.
It bears mentioning that
Greene County’s unemploy
ment rate is the lowest it has
been since 2001.
One of the highlights of
school building in Greene
County is the majestic $3.15
million grant from the state
to propel the new College and
Career Academy.
One of the most under-re
ported aspects of the C&CA
deal is the $3.15 million grant
is just half of the good news.
“Don’t forget,” said Board
of Education chairman Mike
Lynch, “we still have $3
million left in SPLOST
money we could spend on
the project.”
The C&CA will be the best
job training ever provided in
Greene County with 14 path
ways - agriculture, audio
visual, automotive, business
management, construction,
cosmetology, culinary arts,
customer service, early col
lege essentials, engineer
ing, health care, JROTC,
manufacturing operations
and welding - available to
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students.
“The career pathway pro
grams to be offered will be
aligned with the needs of
local business and industry.
Simply put, we will educate
and train students by pro
viding current and future
skill sets needed for job
opportunities right here in
Greene County,” said C&CA
CEO John Ellenberg.
“The result will be a
well-educated,highlytrained
workforce that is the key to
our community’s growth and
success in the future.”
As exciting as a potential
$6 million expansion of the
C&CA at Greene County
High School is, the ground
breaking at Lake Oconee
Academy in November of
the $18 million expansion is
triple the project.
The LOA high school
expansion project will
include two new buildings,
17 classrooms and two sci
ence labs. The campus will
also house a student life
center with a cafeteria and
a gymnasium.
The school secured
financing for the $18 mil
lion expansion through the
United Sates Department
of Agriculture Community
(USDA) Facilities Direct
Loan Program.
The LOA Foundation,
a non-profit organization
dedicated to raising funds to
enrich the educational expe
rience of every LOA student,
announced that it has raised
an additional $2.3 million
for the expansion project
through the “Fulfilling Our
Commitment” capital cam
paign. The campaign was
created to provide philan
thropic support for the high
school project and will fund
items such as advanced
technologies, furnishings,
safety measures, equipment
and green space for the high
school campus.
There are also two huge
expansion projects in the
business sector of Greene
County.
There is a 122,000 square
foot expansion to the Nibco
manufacturing facility in
Greensboro. This combina
tion manufacturing and dis
tribution facility will relocate
distribution operations to the
new building and manufac-
turingwill expand within the
existing building.
According to EconDev,
Nibco has added 65 new
full-time jobs over the last
two years.
Publix at Lake Oconee
opened its $3 million expan
sion to its 65,000 square foot
store.
The renovation project
at Publix, coupled with the
Ritz Carlton Pavilion and the
Harbor Club Boat Storage
projects, help drive 2017
commercial buildingpermits
up by nearly 250 percent
last year.
