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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2020 THE JACKSON HERALD PAGE 3A Political Story of the Year Local Democrats make a run, but fall far short of success Education Story of the Year ‘Remote learning’ has become the norm The presidential race dominated political head lines in 2020, setting the overall agenda and tone for the year. To say that the race divided the nation would be an understatement. But locally, there was a blip on the radar that went against much of the grain in local political circles. Although Jackson Coun ty has proven to be a Re publican stronghold, local Democrats made a chal lenge in a few races, some thing not seen in the county for many years. Local Democrats fielded two candidates to run for county commission seats and put candidates in the two state representative and two senate races that affect ed Jackson County. Local Democratic Party chairman Pete Fuller him self made a bid for office in 2020, running against in cumbent Republican Tom my Benton for state repre sentative. He was defeated, soundly, but the fact that he ran at all was surprising. Much of the local Dem ocratic efforts are linked to Fuller, who has worked to rebuild the Democratic Par ty’s local organization in recent years. But that effort faces a formidable challenge. The Jackson County Republi can Party has been active for over a decade and the county is in one of the most conservative regions of the nation. While Georgia overall voted Democratic for president this year, that was largely concentrated in urban and suburban com munities, not in rural areas of the state where Repub licans have a vice grip on power. Still. Democratic grass roots efforts will be critical if Georgia is to become a major swing state in nation al elections. And who knows, de mographic trends could change Jackson County in another generation. Neigh boring Gwinnett County was at one time one of the state’s strongest Republi can communities. Today, it has moved Democratic in both national and local elections. A lot of things happened in local educa tion over the past year, including work on the county’s new high school and Empow er center and the beginning of plans by the Jefferson City School System to expand its middle school facility. But the overriding issue in education during 2020 has been the move to “remote learning” as the Coronavirus shuttered tra ditional in-person classes for much of the year. When the virus hit in March, local schools had to quickly adapt. In-person classes were stopped and schools sent stu dents home and began doing online classes. It was new territory for many local educa tors. Although online classes aren’t new — they’re common in some colleges and with some specialized high school classes — the wholesale conversion to online teaching and learning was something new altogether, especially with the lower grades. The immediate challenge was to provide the technology for students to be able to do online classwork. While some local schools had been accumulating computers for stu dents to use, that wasn’t universal. In ad dition. some students didn’t have sufficient internet service at home to do school work. Then there were other barriers to figure out. While many parents were at home during the spring economic shutdown, that didn’t last. Who would provide childcare and help once parents were back at work? But academics were just part of the issue. There were concerns about students’ so cial and psychological well-being as well. Special needs students often need personal instruction and couldn’t do online classes. And many students depend on school meals as a main source of food each day. Local school systems found a way to navigate around some of those obstacles, delivering food via school buses, setting up wifi hotspots around the county, continuing with most sports events and doing special, remote events to keep students engaged. All three local systems went back to in-person classes in the fall, but some in dividual schools were closed for a time as the virus spread. The county school system closed for the Christmas holidays early due to the impact the virus was having on staff ing. With a vaccine now being distributed, many hope that by next fall the virus will no longer affect school schedules. But in the meantime, questions remain about the remainder of the current school year and how remote learning might affect students in the coming years. Many parents have opposed remote classes, saying they aren’t as good as in-person instruction. And there is a question of how the remote learn ing might affect college acceptance in the coming years. Longer term, there is some concern about the psychological impact the virus disrup tion has had on students during their for mative years. Photo by Wesleigh Sagon COUNTY OFFICIALS AT OATH OF OFFICE CEREMONY Jackson County officials took their oath of office at the Historic Jackson County Courthouse. Shown (from left to right) are: Rob Johnson, Jackson County Board of Education; Nicholas Primm, superior court judge; Sheriff Janis Mangum; Joseph Booth, superior court judge; Sherry Moore, probate court judge; Candace Taylor Heaton, tax commissioner; Jim Hix, board of commissioners, district one and Chas Hardy, board of commissioners, dis trict two. Not pictured are: Tom Crow, chairman, board of commissioners and Keith Whitfield, coroner. Economic Story of the Year Virus has unexpected, positive impact on county Pendergrass council accepts two gifts of land to the city The Pendergrass City Council unanimously approved accepting two pieces of property be ing gifted to the city at a meeting on Dec. 29. The council approved an ordinance to accept .57 acres from Seed Part ners LLC. The property is located on the north side of the bypass across from the intersection of Glenn Abby Lane. The council also ap proved accepting 1.25 acres from Geo Sam Capital US LP. This prop erty is located across the property line from the DR Horton Development at the railroad hacks, bounded by Gee St. and the dead-end of Park St. OTHER BUSINESS In other business at the meeting, the council: •tabled any action on the proposed ordinance to provide a contract for the city administrator’s position. •received notice that CSX Transportation is in creasing the annual rent al fee by three percent. The rental rate will go up from $1,775 to $1,828.25 - effective February 1, 2021 through January 31, 2022. City administrator Roy Russell said the city is considering moving the depot building to a differ ent location - depending on the cost to move and if a new location can be found. •Russell reminded ev eryone that Hwy. 332 will be closed beginning on Monday, January 4, 2021 due to the replace ment of the two bridges. The timetable for the clo sure is six months, more or less. The Coronavirus has been a terrible tragedy. Over 60 people locally have died from the virus, over 330,000 nationally and perhaps mil lions have died around the world. So it’s a unexpected result that the virus has actually had a positive impact on the Jackson County economy. The county doesn’t de pend very much on tourism or entertainment for its eco nomic lifeblood, so the de cline of those economic sec tors from the virus has been minimal in Jackson. But the inability to trav el, to eat out and to do the “normal” activities of life has kept a lot of money at home this year. Instead of a vacation, a lot of people spent that money to do re modeling projects. The result of all that con strained activity has been to concentrate spending more locally. The result has been record highs in the amount of sales tax funds local gov ernments get from all that spending. That has been a surprise to government officials who feared a dra matic economic decline last spring. But the longer-term eco nomic impact may be in an explosion of additional distribution centers in the county. The virus has shown just how important online shopping has become and the need for distribution and logistics to meet that de mand. For the most part, local distribution center jobs have been steady and growing during the virus providing some stability during an un stable time. And it’s generated a lot of interest by companies looking to locate additional distribution facilities in the county. County economic devel opment director John Scott said last May that the dis ruptions in the supply chains from the virus showed the need for additional ware house space, something that Jackson County has seen boom in recent years. “There’s about to be a huge run on all warehouse space,” he said of Jackson County’s available build ings. Jacksons County had seen an uptick in economic activ ity as businesses continue to look at the community for expansion throughout the year. Some of that is tied to the SK Battery facility in Commerce, but some of it is also tied to Jackson Coun ty’s geographic location along 1-85. FIRE SAFETY POSTER CONTEST WINNERS Jefferson Academy students named winners of the 2020 Fire Safety Poster Contest are pictured. Shown are: (from back row) Principal Christopher Whitworth, Ms. Jean Connor, Ms. Lori Gunter, Of ficer Lawrence Deese, Seth Crowder, Mady O’Mara and Taylor Lambrechts. (Not pictured: Kylie Marri ott and Ayana Bradshaw). Jefferson Academy stu dents in Ms. Lori Gunter’s and Ms. Jean Connor’s fourth grade classes were named winners of the 2020 Fire Safety Poster Contest sponsored by the Georgia Office of Insurance and Safety Fire Com missioner. The students will have their artwork pub lished in the 2021 Georgia Sprinkler Association calendar. The students were recognized at the De cember Board of Education meeting by Lawrence Deese, who is the Section Officer of the Fire Pre vention Bureau and the Community Risk Reduction Coordinator for the Jefferson Fire Department. Town of Braselton 2020 Schedule of Receipts and Expenditures of Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax Project Jackson County (2009) Roads, streets and bridges Parks & Recreation Jackson County (2017) Multipurpose Civic Center with Parking Deck Gwinnett County (2009) Roads, streets and bridges Gwinnett County (2014) Water & Sewer Transportation Gwinnett County (2017) Roads, streets and bridges Hall County (2015) Streets, Sidewalks, Stormwater Hall County (2019) Roads, streets and bridges Parks & Recreation Barrow County (2012) Roads, streets and bridges Parks & Recreation Barrow County (2018) Parks & Recreation Original Current Expenditures Estimated Estimated Prior to Cost Cost FY 2020 FY 2020 Total 563,345 658,737 658,724 658,724 563,345 658,737 627,691 - 627,691 1,126,690 1,317,474 1,286,415 - 1,286,415 1,365,300 1,365,300 237.626 584.388 822.014 1,230,899 1,322,484 1,239,015 83,469 1,322,484 1.168.163 1.365.120 982.044 350.557 1,332.601 389,388 344,363 80,636 263,727 344,363 1,557,551 1,709,483 1,062,680 614,284 1,676,964 3,500,000 3,500,000 81 69,759 69,840 1,270,589 979,204 610,139 162,134 772,273 1,187,395 1,187,395 - - - - 2,374,789 233,688 211,905 209,901 2,004 211,905 233,688 211,905 68 9,000 9,068 467,376 423,810 59,523 11,004 220,973 770.216 770.216 83 83 $ 13.959.176 $ 11.683.737 $ 4.772.919 $ 1.525.121 $ 6.448.486