Newspaper Page Text
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O
o
THE
ACKSON
H Wednesday, December BO, 2020
ERALD
VOL. 146 NO. 30
28 PACES 2 SECTIONS PLUS INSERTS
Merged in 2017 with
The Commerce News
A PUBLICATION OF MainStreet Newspapers, Inc.
JEFFERSON, JACKSON COUNTY GEORGIA 30549 $1.00 COPY
Some
schools
to have
phased-in
return
Masks now
required inside
school facilities
The Jackson County
School System continues
to plan for a phased-in
return to in-person class
es for its middle and high
school students next week.
Superintendent April
Howard said that her staff
would be meeting on
Dec. 30 to finalize plans
and students and parents
would be notified that
night or the following day
on details.
In addition, all students
and staff members will be
required to wear a mask
inside school buildings
and to be at least six feet
apart.
The system is planning
its phased-in return to
class due to an anticipated
high rate of Covid spread
during the holidays.
The plan revolves
around alternating in-per-
son learning days with
middle and high school
students with two days a
week being in-person and
three days a week attend
ing class by remote learn
ing. The move will lower
the density of students in
the buildings, hopefully
slowing the spread of the
virus.
How long the alternat
ing plan will be in effect
depends on data about the
vints’ community spread
during January.
She said that based on
experience from Hallow
een and Thanksgiving,
school leaders expect the
rate of community spread
of the virus to be exacer
bated during the Christ
mas break from travel
and other kinds of out-of-
school holiday contact.
Howard said one of the
problems has been a de
clining lack of compliance
with the wearing of masks
by middle and high school
students.
MAILING LABEL
Newsmaker of the Year
County elections director Jennifer Logan
navigates difficult waters to conduct local elections
Jackson County elections director Jennifer Logan in February with the county’s new
voting equipment.
By Mike Buffington
Editor
The year 2020 has been a challenge for everyone.
The Coronavirus has upended our daily lives; the
presidential election cleaved the nation into rhetori
cal warring parties; and the calls for more account
ability of violent police encounters involving mi
norities led to marching in the streets in cities large
and small.
Not since 1968, has the nation faced the kinds of
crises it saw in 2020.
Everyone has felt the impact of those events, but
one person in Jackson County has perhaps been in
the eye of the storm more than the rest of us, having
to do battle on multiple fronts throughout the year.
If Jackson County elections director Jennifer Lo
gan were the captain of a ship, she would undoubt
edly get a gold medal for bravery and skill in nav
igating between multiple icebergs in the middle of
a storm with a ship that at times had a leaking hull.
Logan’s calmness in the face of that chaos and
her ability to conduct multiple elections amid all
the strife make her our Newsmaker of the Year for
2020.
WINDING PATH TO JOB
Logan’s path to becoming the county’s elections
director is perhaps a little unusual. She has not been
a career bureaucrat, climbing the usual institutional
ladders associated with government work.
Jennifer grew up in Clayton County southwest of
Atlanta and after graduating from Jonesboro High
School, went to Clayton State College where she
majored in business administration. After college,
she worked in accounting at several businesses, in
cluding a stint at a Dunkin Donuts distribution cen
ter.
In 2000, she married her high school sweetheart,
Joel Logan, and the two settled in Hampton where
they began their family. For a time, Jennifer stayed
home with their young children.
In 2007, Joel was hired as Jackson County’s GIS
director and the Logans moved to Jackson County.
Jennifer became secretary at Madison Street Baptist
Church in Commerce where she also helped run the
church’s bible school programs. She was also in
volved as a volunteer with Commerce Cub Scouts.
Meanwhile, as a techie with computer expertise,
Joel began helping in the county’s elections with
the technology and election night reporting. He also
helped the transition of local elections go from the
Probate Court to what had been the county’s board
of registration.
His work there apparently rubbed off on Jennifer,
too. In 2014, the elections office had an opening and
Jennifer was hired, beginning her career in public
service.
“When she first started, I remember how eager
she was to learn everything she could about elec
tions and elections law and code,’’ Joel said. “She
would read and read and study the various codes and
laws for the State of Georgia. She quickly got her
certifications and training from the State of Georgia
and in no time was very knowledgeable about elec
tions and the voter registration side of the depart
ment as well as all of the technology and equipment
at the time.’’
Jennifer excelled at understanding the complex
elections technology and quickly became the go-to
person in the office. When the county’s elections di
rector was hired away by Hall County in 2018, Lo
gan was named Jackson County’s elections director.
CLOUDS GATHER
While it was clear that Logan had found her niche
with a job she loved, what wasn’t clear when she
was appointed director in 2018 was the gathering of
clouds that would soon challenge her and the elec
tions office like never before.
Two things happened that would have a direct im
pact on the county’s elections system.
First, the state decided to buy a totally new voting
system, one that had a paper backup system. The
process was fast-tracked — critics said rushed —
and the rollout of the new system left little time for
local county officials like Logan to prepare for the
2020 elections.
The second event that hit locally was the politici
zation of the Jackson County Board of Elections in
2019. When the responsibility for elections moved
from the Probate Judge’s Office to an elections
board in 2011, that board was the three-member
board of registration led by Ponchie Beck, a long
time elections leader in the county who commanded
a lot of respect.
For the most part, the three-member board was
non-partisan and low-key. Few people in the county
even knew who was on that board.
But in 2019, Rep. Tommy Benton, pushed by
former Jackson County Republican chairman
Ron Johnson who had been named as chairman
of the elections board in late 2018, abolished that
three-member board and created a five-member
elections board with four of the members appointed
by the local political parties, making what had been
See Logan, page 2A
More Stories of the Year Inside
• Local Democrats make a run, but fall far short of success
• Remote learning has become the norm
• Virus has unexpected, positive impact on county
Three die on Christmas Eve of
Covid as deaths top 61 for the year
Three Jackson Countians died of Covid
on Christmas Eve, bringing the total deaths
from the virus to 61 with another 10 prob
able deaths.
The youngest person to die so far from
the virus was a 28-year-old white male.
The grim rise in deaths over the holiday
reflects a continued rise in community
spread of the virus with Jackson County
remaining at the third-highest county in
the state in the rate of cases per 100,000
people over the last two weeks. Jackson
has added 894 new positive cases over the
last two weeks, bringing its total confirmed
number of cases to 5,325 since March.
The county also reached a new milestone
as it saw its 300th person hospitalized over
the past week from the virus.
While the data is somewhat skewed due
to delayed reporting over the holidays, the
county set a new single-day record on Dec.
27 in its positivity rate when it topped 33%
positive out of those being tested. Over the
last two weeks, 26% of those tested have
tested positive, a rate nearly double the
state rate of 14.4%.
Meanwhile, area hospitals continue to
see a surge in patients with the virus.
Northeast Georgia Health System
reached another COVID-19 peak this
week.
NGHS is treating 312 positive COVID
patients in its facilities, with 67 of those
at Northeast Georgia Medical Center Bra-
selton. Another 54 patients are awaiting
test results.
There are 700 occupied beds at NGHS
with 39 available. At NGMC Braselton,
156 beds are occupied with 22 available
(24 occupied in ICU with four available).
Election day coming up Jan. 5
The hotly-contested run
off races for Georgia’s two
U.S. Senators will be final
next week with balloting
on Jan. 5.
Election day voting will
be held at the county’s four
voting locations: Central
Jackson at Hope Cross
ing Church in Jefferson;
North Jackson at Mt. Olive
Church in Commerce; West
Jackson at Free Chapel in
Braselton; and South Jack-
son at Southside Church.
This week, early voting
continues through Dec. 31
at the county elections of
fice in Jefferson.
So far. a little over
14,700 had voted early or
by absentee ballot as of
Dec. 27.
Absentee balloting also
continues. Absentee ballots
may be mailed to the coun
ty elections office, or put in
one of the county’s three
drop boxes at: the county
elections office at 441 Gor
don St., Jefferson; Nich
olson City Hall; or West
Jackson Fire Department.
Jefferson seniors Paxton Corkery (left) and Carter
Stephenson console one another after the Drag
ons’ 30-14 loss in Atlanta to Marist in the Class
AAAA football finals. For full coverage, see Sec
tion B in this issue. (Photo by Ben Munro)