About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 4, 2018)
Save up to $88 COUPONS INSIDE Time to fall back Remember to set your clocks back one hour. Available in today’s edition for subscribers. SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2018 | $2.00 | GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA | gainesvilletimes.com Gainesville may get new schools Officials identify priorities during listening sessions on spending tax money BY JOSHUA SILAVENT jsilavent@gainesvilletimes.com A second middle school, a junior high school for eighth- and ninth- graders, and a second high school for the Gainesville City School System have been identified by parents and teachers as some of the biggest spending priorities if voters approve a new round of a one-penny sales tax in 2020. These findings come from “lis tening sessions” school officials held in October, and aren’t all that surprising. For example, with tens of millions of dollars spent in recent years rebuilding two elementary schools in the city, officials had previously acknowledged that any future special purpose local option sales tax revenue was likely to be directed toward managing growing student enrollment in the one middle and one high school in the district. But officials wanted to get a jumpstart on identi fying these priorities and understanding the true needs of students. “When we scheduled these four meetings, the intent was to give parents and the community an opportunity” to provide input, Superintendent Jeremy Wil liams said. “It’s really about getting the voice of the community.” Williams said it’s also about fore casting the needs of the school sys tem 10,20 and 30 years out, which can be difficult but necessary. “We’re talking about our chil dren’s children possibly, and how it will impact them,” he added. The current E-SPLOST, which was approved in 2015 with 74 per cent of voter support, is projected to bring in $6 million to $7 mil lion annually for Gainesville City Schools over the five-year life of the tax (until 2022). The first col lections began last fall. The school system has allocated this revenue to pay off construction of the Mundy Mill Academy and new Enota Multiple Intelligences Academy, among other things. Gainesville City Schools received more than $29 million during the previous round of E-SPLOST that ended last year, which rebuilt the Fair Street School, and paid for re-roofing ■ Please see SCHOOLS, 4A Williams Tax allocation district aids downtown development SCOn ROGERS I The Times Construction continues on the Main Street parking deck Monday, Sept. 24. This project has been funded by Gainesville’s Midtown Tax Allocation District. Residential, retail, parking deck additions in works around square BY MEGAN REED mreed@gainesvilletimes.com The face of downtown and midtown Gainesville is changing. The downtown square will soon have a residential development, Carroll Daniel Construc tion’s new four-story headquarters will also house restaurants and retail, and two additional levels on the Main Street parking deck will provide spots for visitors. The city of Gainesville has helped facilitate those changes through its midtown tax allocation district, which uses property tax payments to support construction of new developments. When a property is developed, prop erty taxes on that land will go up, so the city would collect more revenue from the property owner. Developers who participate in TAD programs can use that tax increase to their advantage. The extra dollars from the increase go into a fund that can be used to pay for improvements. “You take an area that has declin ing tax revenues, an area that’s strug gling a bit and needs a shot in the arm, so to speak, some kind of assistance to encourage people to reinvest in that area, so back in the 2000s, downtown and midtown Gainesville qualified,” City Manager Bryan Lackey said. Gainesville adopted its midtown TAD in 2006. The city defines midtown as an approximately 270-acre area bor dered by Queen City Parkway, Moreno Street, E.E. Butler Parkway and Acad emy Street. The TAD also includes the ■ Please see TAD, 4A Ej ELECTION 2018 Legal decisions, racist robocalls plague race for Ga. governor BY BILL BARROW AND BEN NADLER Associated Press ATLANTA — Last-minute legal decisions, a racist robocall and a protester wearing a giant chicken suit holding a sign that reads “too chicken to debate.” These are the scenes play ing out amid the final furious days of the hotly contested and historic race for Georgia governor between Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republi can Brian Kemp. A robocall apparently from a white supremacist group is injecting racism directly into the race, which has already been fraught with a race-laden debate over ballot access and voter suppression. Abrams would be the first black female governor in U.S. history. Kemp, who oversees elections as Georgia’s sec retary of state, vehemently denies charges that he’s used his office to make it harder for minorities to vote. Abrams and Kemp are both condemning an automated telephone call filled with racist and anti-Semitic statements. The call, sent to an unknown number of Georgians, impersonates Oprah Winfrey, who came to Georgia on Thurs day to support Abrams. The robocall says it was paid for by The Road to Power, a group organized by Scott Rhodes of Idaho. He has been linked to several other ■ Please see ELECTION, 6A Kemp Inside More election coverage, what’s on the ballot, 3A,6A Online See all of our election coverage at gainesvilletimes.com/election2018. INSIDE WEATHER 2A DEATHS 3C-4C 0 4 0 9 01 06825 Advice 2E Business 1D Calendar 2A Classified 1F Comics Inside Kitchen 2C Life 1E TV 2C Opinion 2D Our Region 1C Sports 1B Viewpoint 3D High Low Lake Lanier level: 1,069.35 feet Full pool 1,071. Up 0.01 feet in 24 hours Betty Jo Ransom Brewer, 85 Charles Emerson Crane Jr., 74 Pearl Nash Davis, 93 Robert Woodrow Jett Jr., 46 Nancy A. Marlowe, 76 Marjorie Eugene Buchanan, 85 Alan Milton Dalton, 56 Tatiana Faur Dulceany, 64 Joseph Edward Gomez, 85 Bobbie Jean Grindle, 86 Cylde Winfred Nunnally, 85 Betty Ruth Potts, 78 Florence Mae Skinner, 86 Ricky Trimiar, 60 36,000 reasons to smile Here’s to a decade of delivering precious babies - 36,000 to be exact - in our Women & Children’s Pavilion at Northeast Georgia Medical Center Gainesville. nghs.com/women-children
