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4 8 7 9 1 4 1 4 0 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)