Turn the clocks back
Remember to move
Flowery Branch
wraps up No. 3 spot
in playoffs. SPORTS, 1B
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2018 | $1.00 | GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA | gainesvilletimes.com
Follow the yellow brick road, with a
little modern-day twist. life,4B
Honestly Local
H ELECTION 2018
Early voting ends with high turnout
An excess of 22,000 ballots cast in Hall County for Nov. 6 election
BY MEGAN REED
mreed@gainesvilletimes.com
More than 22,000 people voted
early in Hall County for the Nov.
6 election, a race that has pro
duced high early voter turnout
nationwide.
Terenda Sargent, registration
coordinator with the county’s elec
tions office, said wait times ranged
from 45 minutes to an hour for the
last week of early voting, although
at some times of the day voters
were able to get through in 30
minutes.
On Friday, the last day of early
voting, 1,926 people filed into the
^ Online
To see what’s on the ballot, visit
www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/
whats-ballot-locally-nov-6/
Hall County Government Center
to cast their ballots. The wait time
on Friday was about two hours,
and the last voter cast their ballot
shortly after 7 p.m., two hours after
polls were scheduled to close, Sar
gent said.
About 1,600 people came in each
day on Wednesday and Thursday.
The elections office is anticipat
ing shorter wait times on Tuesday,
Sargent said.
I Inside
■ Barack Obama campaigns
for Stacey Abrams, 4A
■ Judge: Ga. must ease rule for
voters to prove citizenship, 4A
Early voting started Oct. 15.
Now, voters will have to wait until
Tuesday to go to their respective
polling place and vote.
■ Please see VOTING, 4A
A well-deserved ‘thank you
Photos by AUSTIN STEELE I The Times
Dr. William G. Sloan Jr., executive director at Georgia Retired Educators Association, stands in a mock classroom at the Georgia
Retired Educator Association’s museum Friday, Nov. 2.
Sheriffbacks
deputies in
Gwinnett
funeral feud
Couch: Commissioner was
disrespectful, not officers
BY NICK WATSON
nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com
When Hall County Sher
iff Gerald Couch received a
complaint about two of his
deputies being rude and disre
spectful during a funeral pro
cession, he asked both officers
to write out statements.
“There was disrespect
shown that day, but it was not
shown on the part of my offi
cers. It was shown on the part of Commissioner
Tommy Hunter,” said Couch in a statement.
■ Please see DEPUTIES, 7A
Couch
GAINESVILLE
Land buy on tap
for City Council
On Sunday, Georgia celebrates its retired educators
BY JOSHUA SILAVENT
jsilavent@gainesvilletimes.com
When Dr. William Sloan Jr. retired
as principal of East Hall High School in
2005, he didn’t sit around long before
moving on to his next line of work.
“I wasn’t retired very long,” Sloan said.
Just two months later, in fact, he
became executive director of the Geor
gia Retired Educators Association, which
opened a museum in Flowery Branch in
2015 under Sloan’s leadership.
“We wanted to preserve the history of
education in Georgia,” Sloan said, includ
ing artifacts and memorabilia. “Technol
ogy has changed the face of education.”
The Educators Association also wants to
preserve the legacy of teachers in Georgia.
Each year on the first Sunday in
November (Nov. 4 this year), those edu
cators and all others retired from the
often thankless profession are honored
and recognized with Georgia Retired
Educators Day.
Sloan said it’s “a long-standing” tradi
tion and a “thank you from everybody
to retired educators for the job they did
over many, many years.”
Most retired educators worked for at
least 30 years, Sloan said. And the Edu
cators Association has 29,400 members
among 145 individual chapters in Georgia.
“It’s a day to honor the contributions
retired educators have made and con
tinue to make for the betterment of
human lives and society,” said Angela
Middleton, president of the Hall-Gaines-
ville Retired Educators Association. “As
an educator, we’ll never know all the
lives that we’ve touched as they thread
throughout our society.”
Dr. William G. Sloan Jr., executive director at Georgia Retired Educators Association,
looks over an old filing system at the museum.
More info
To learn more about the Georgia
Retired Educators Association, visit
www.garetirededucators.org or call
770-287-7721.
The Hall-Gainesville chapter of the
Georgia Retired Educators Association
meets on the first Monday of each
month for a luncheon at the Gainesville
Civic Center The next meeting is
set for 11:30 a.m. Nov. 5. Retired
educators are invited to attend.
Middleton knows just how hard it is to
leave the profession entirely.
She retired after 30 years in public edu
cation from McEver Elementary in 2013
as an ESOL teacher (she’s also renowned
as top-notch basketball coach).
Middleton now teaches GED classes
for the Goodwill in Oakwood.
“We are that forgotten soldier of soci
ety,” she said. “This day allows us to
be really honored. We’ve been in the
trenches.”
Middleton said she has also reached
out to local pastors asking them to share
a word with their congregations on Sun
day about the impact teachers have on
every community.
“An educator affects eternity, and
you can never tell where their influence
stops,” she said. “That’s the faith I walk
on.”
BY MEGAN REED
mreed@gainesvilletimes.com
On Tuesday, the Gainesville City Council is
set to vote on two items that would help shape
Gainesville’s midtown — the purchase of land
owned by Koch Foods and new regulations on
uses in the area. The city also hopes to build a
business park on Allen Creek Road and will con
sider a request for a local company to expand
its property.
Property acquisition of Koch Foods
The council will vote Tuesday on whether
to purchase 41 acres of land in Gainesville
Industrial Park West
Gainesville
City Council
When: 5:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Nov. 6
Where: Public
Safety Complex,
701 Queen City
Parkway
from Koch Foods after
Koch did not develop
the land according to
its previous agreement
with the city.
In 2006, Koch pur
chased the land from
the city under the con
dition that the poultry
company would begin
work on the property within two years of the
purchase and finish improvements within one
year of starting.
Koch received a one-year extension for
development in 2008, allowing the company to
begin work in August 2009. Then, in 2009, Koch
got another extension until August 2011. Koch
got another extension in 2 011, this time with the
condition that work would start in August 2013.
Koch’s final extension, granted in 2013, gave the
company an extension until August 2014.
The land has still not been developed.
In July, the city filed a lawsuit against Koch
in the Hall County Superior Court, claiming a
breach of the real estate contract.
To settle the dispute, Koch has agreed to sell
the property back to the city for $1.8 million.
The city sold it to Koch in 2006 for $1.6 million,
but Koch has since made some improvements
I Please see CDUNCIL, 6A
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DEATHS 7A
Florence Mae Whitlow Skinner, 86
Donna Faye Coleman, 75
Charles Emerson Crane Jr., 74
Roland H. Force, 71
Sarah Evone Johnson Henrichs, 79
Kenneth Nelms, 63
Barbara Odom Smith
Steve Vandegraft, 61
