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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2018 | $1.00 | GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA | gainesvilletimes.com
Students compete in contractors’
skill challenge. life,ioa
Honestly Local
debate
Midterms change health care
Efforts to repeal Affordable Care Act to stop; Medicaid expansion questionable
BY JOSHUA SILAVENT
jsilavent@gainesvilletimes.com
Several important changes
are coming in 2019 to individual
health plans that could impact Hall
County consumers, but the biggest
may have taken place on Tuesday,
Nov. 6, when Democrats won con
trol of the U.S. House of Represen
tatives in midterm elections.
That feat stands to end before
it begins a new political battle to
fully repeal the Affordable Care
Act, and the timing coincides with
the start of open enrollment, which
runs through Dec. 15.
The Trump administration still
has wide latitude to implement
the ACA, however, and many pro
viders have pulled out of the fed
eral health exchange market in
recent years.
Hall County residents were left
with fewer and fewer options for
individual plans until this year,
when only Alliant served the local
market.
In 2019, Blue Cross Blue Shield
enters back into Hall County,
according to Brett Fowler, partner
and vice president at Turner Wood
& Smith Insurance in Gainesville.
But that comes with a major
caveat: Blue Cross will only be
providing an HMO product that is
not in network with the Northeast
Georgia Health System.
Laura Colbert, executive direc
tor of nonprofit Georgians for a
Healthy Future, said health con
sumers need to be mindful that
there has been a growth in the
number of short-term plans made
available that do not have the
same minimum coverage require
ments as those plans meeting ACA
standards.
She advised consumers to shop
on www.healthcare.gov, the offi
cial federal exchange, rather than
through outside vendors.
The midterm elections also
saw voter referendums in three
red states — Idaho, Nebraska
and Utah — that will expand
■ Please see HEALTH, 8A
FLOWERY BRANCH
A new place for craft brew
AUSTIN STEELE I The Times
Marc Stampfli, co-owner of Beer Me, stands at a table at the newly opened craft beer store in Flowery Branch on Wednesday,
Nov. 7.
Beer Me, Lakeside Market move into new building
BY JEFF GILL
jglll@gainesvilletimes.com
Beer Me has opened in downtown
Flowery Branch, and Lakeside Market
was preparing earlier this week to be
its neighbor in a new red brick building
on Main Street.
The businesses’ opening at 5609 Main
St. culminates four years of effort, start
ing with the demolition of a century-old
house on the property, which is off
Mitchell Street and across from Ante
bellum restaurant.
“It’s a dream come true,” said Karen
Ching, the building’s owner, who has
seen the project through government
meetings, permits and construction.
There have been a couple of bumps,
including one of the original tenants,
pizzeria Peyton’s Pie Co., pulling out. A
cigar lounge later pledged space in the
building but also backed out.
Ching’s son, Robert Sabbath, and
Marc Stampfli are co-owners of Beer
Me, which opened Nov. 1 and is plan
ning a Nov. 16 ribbon-cutting ceremony
with the Greater Hall Chamber of
Commerce.
Business “has been great” so far,
Stampfli said.
Originally, the craft beer store was
housed in one of the older city-owned
buildings on Main Street.
■ Please see BEER, 8A
Brian Kemp resigns as secretary of state
Abrams insists runoff still possible
BY BILL BARROW
AND KATE BRUMBACK
Associated Press
ATLANTA — Republican
Brian Kemp resigned Thursday
as Georgia’s secretary of state,
removing himself from the ongo
ing count of the governor’s elec
tion he says he’s already won.
Kemp made his announcement
in the governor’s office of the
Georgia Capitol, standing beside
the man he plans to replace in
January. Republican Gov. Nathan
Deal called Kemp “the governor-
elect” and both said they would
begin transition work together.
“We won a clear and convinc
ing victory,” Kemp said of returns
showing him with 50.3 percent
of almost 4 million votes, about a
63,000-vote lead over Democrat
Stacey Abrams. That’s a narrow
sum considering the near-pres
idential election year turnout,
though sufficient for the majority
required for outright victory.
Abrams maintained there are
enough uncounted ballots to force
a December runoff in one of the
marquee matchups of the 2018
midterm elections.
The Associated Press has not
called the governor’s race.
With legal wrangles opening
on what votes to count and how,
the dispute is prolonging a bitter
contest awash in historical sig
nificance and national political
impact. Abrams hopes to become
the first black woman elected
governor of any American state.
Kemp seeks to maintain Repub
lican dominance in a growing,
diversifying Deep South state
positioned to become a presiden
tial battleground.
The key question is how many
uncounted ballots actually
remain. Kemp says it’s less than
■ Please see ELECTION, 8A
Kemp
Abrams
AUSTIN STEELE I The Times
Lessie Smithgall is awarded the annual Quality of Life
Award by the Gainesville-Hall County Community
Council on Aging at First Baptist Gainesville on
Thursday, Nov. 8.
Philanthropist
Smithgall
honored by
aging council
BY MEGAN REED
mreed@gainesvilletimes.com
Over the past 107 years, Lessie Smithgall, a Gaines
ville philanthropist and co-founder of The Times, has
made her mark.
On Thursday, the Gainesville-Hall County Commu
nity Council on Aging honored her with its Quality of
Life Award for her commitment to improving quality
of life in Hall.
Smithgall was born in 1911 in East Point, Georgia.
She studied journalism at the University of Georgia,
then began her career at a radio station in Atlanta.
She married the late Charles Smithgall in 1934, and
they had four children.
The family moved from
Atlanta to Gainesville
when a radio station and
weekly newspaper went
up for sale. The Smithgalls
founded WGGA in 1941
and The Times in 1947.
In 2001, the couple
donated land for the
Smithgall Woodland
Legacy, the Gainesville
campus of the Atlanta
Botanical Garden. The
nature preserve opened
in 2015, and Smithgall said
she has enjoyed seeing
Gainesville become a tourist destination when people
stop by to see the garden.
The Smithgalls founded The Arts Council on the
porch of their Gainesville home in 1970. To support
the local arts community, they purchased and then
donated the former home of Gainesville First United
Methodist Church and Westminster Presbyterian
Church which is now known as the Smithgall Arts
Center.
Smithgall said she has always enjoyed the arts. Her
youngest son, Thurmond, is a musician, and she has
fond memories associated with music.
“When I was about 12 years old, my father took me
to the Metropolitan Opera in Atlanta.... I’ve loved it
ever since,” she said.
On Thursday, Smithgall heard an opera perfor
mance from Jan Grissom, an adjunct professor at
Brenau University.
Smithgall is a member of Gainesville First Baptist
Church, the Northeast Georgia Writer’s Club and the
Gainesville-Hall County Junior League. She is also a
‘We have many
assets, good
businesses
and cultural
activities. It’s
just a good
place to live.’
Lessie Smithgall
■ Please see SMITHGALL, 8A
INSIDE
0 40901 06835
Advice 6B
Bridge 6B
Business 7A
Calendar 2A
Classified 8B
8 Comics 7B
Life 10A
Lottery 2A
Opinion 6A
Our Region 8A
Sports 1B
TV/puzzles 6B
WEATHER 2A
DEATHS 9A
High Low
55 37
Lake Lanier level: 1,069.4 feet
Full pool 1,071. Up 0.02 feet in 24 hours
JoAnn McNeil Dyer, 87
Ann Bland Hinton, 85
Bobby Lawson, 71
Deborah Shumake, 64
Carol Adkins, 78
James Ned Beatty Sr.
Genevieve Burke, 96
Charles Crane Jr., 74
Elsie Crane, 76
Patricia Frederick, 76
Louie Hamm, 71
Johnny L. Holtzclaw, 63
David Malcolm
Jackson, 74
Nancy A. Marlow, 76
Norma Martin, 80
Claudia Purgason, 51
Jimmy Reynolds, 80
Myra T. Sorrow, 86
Carolyn S. Stacey, 76
Regina Wofford-Rosales
F. Robert Zimmer Jr., 69
