Newspaper Page Text
4A Sunday, November 11,2018
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
LOC AGNATION
MIDTOWN
■ Continued from 1A
Photos by SCOTT ROGERS I The Times
Bob Tyner, owner of Town View Coin Laundry, restocks the vending machine Friday, Nov. 9, at the
longtime midtown Gainesville business.
Mollie Marlow, 92, stays busy working at Town View Coin Laundry
in midtown Gianesville and enjoys staying active.
Autumn colors adorn Main Street in midtown Gainesville Friday,
Nov. 9.
businesses or nonprofits that
would be banned under the
new rules are being grandfa
thered in and can stay.
These efforts are all part of
Gainesville’s vision for mid
town as a place of rebirth and
a new business center for the
city.
“We’re looking for some
more housing, we’d like to see
more retail there, even per
haps some more office space,
perhaps a hotel,” City Manager
Bryan Lackey said.
The city’s approximately
350-acre Midtown Overlay
Zone is bordered by E.E. Butler
Parkway, Jesse Jewell Park
way, Queen City Parkway and
the railroad.
Some midtown business own
ers are looking forward to the
redevelopment.
“I think it’s changing to go
a little more retail-oriented,
which is good for people com
ing over from downtown as
the square gets a little more
crowded,” Jason Everett,
owner of the Gainesville
Design Center, said.
Everett said he hopes that
the buildings in midtown that
are sitting vacant or falling
into disrepair can get a second
chance as new businesses.
“I’m hoping what will hap
pen is the area will change a
little bit and they’ll fix places
up a little bit more,” he said.
Bob Tyner owns Townview
Coin Laundry on Main Street.
His laundromat will not be
shut down because it was there
before the rule was passed —
it has been in its current spot
since 1988 and was across the
street before that since 1968.
“It’s something that’s got to
be done, sooner or later, for the
city to grow,” Tyner said. “It
seems that they’re wanting to
make everything upscale.”
Tyner said “it’s just
progress.”
“It’s just like out on Thomp
son Bridge Road,” he said.
“Where Walmart is now, I used
to have a laundry in there. The
shopping center was sold to
Walmart, so that put me out of
business there.”
Lifelong Gainesville resident
Belinda Rucker, folding her
laundry at Townview Friday
morning, said she is looking for
ward to seeing empty buildings
developed.
“I think it’s a well-needed
project... We need to do some
thing with the loose land,” she
said.
J.R. Johnson, president of
JOMCO Construction, said
his company has taken part
in the city’s redevelopment
by remodeling the inside and
outside of their building since
opening in midtown about two
years ago.
Johnson said he wants to
see quality affordable housing
move in to midtown and busi
nesses open up in buildings that
are dilapidated now.
“I think it is ever slowly
changing. The vision that the
leaders in the city have is
starting to play out a little bit,”
Johnson said. “I know for (co
founder Wesley Owenby) and I
we felt good about our business
being downtown.”
The regulations passed Tues
day allow for single-family
homes and condominiums in
midtown. But the rules ban
several other uses city officials
say don’t match up with revi
talization plans for the area,
including homeless shelters,
pawn shops, gas stations on lots
smaller than 2 acres, and indus
trial uses that emit pollution or
noise.
“Looking at the character of
the area, the renovations, the
redevelopment that goes into
that.... There’s already several
of those businesses that exist,
and we think there’s enough
of those existing there now,”
Lackey said.
The rule change comes about
a month after the City Council
unanimously passed bans on
“urban camping,” or living or
sleeping in public spaces, and
“aggressive solicitation.”
City officials said the ordi
nances provide law enforce
ment with the tools they need
to address complaints, and
the focus would be on help
ing connect the homeless with
resources, rather than issuing
citations. Opponents at an Oct.
2 public hearing said the ordi
nances criminalize homeless
ness and leave the homeless
with nowhere to go.
Arturo Adame was one of the
people who spoke out against
the urban camping and solicita
tion ordinances Oct. 2. The new
rules passed Tuesday “put the
final nail in the coffin,” he said.
“It’s not a problem that
should be swept under the rug
and pushed to the side.... This is
just going to cause more prob
lems and more heartache for
the people who have the least
among us,” Adame said.
Banning new homeless shel
ters and crisis centers in mid
town, where these services are
concentrated in Gainesville,
shortly after passing other ordi
nances affecting the homeless
puts the homeless community
in an even more difficult posi
tion, Adame said.
“It really just boils down to
the optics and the business and
the attraction of people and the
attraction of money,” he said.
Adame said he understands
that officials want midtown to
be a “gathering spot” where
people can mingle and where
local businesses can thrive. He
is not opposed to that idea, but
he worries that people in pov
erty will get pushed out of the
area, he said.
“That would be fine, and I
wouldn’t have a problem with
that, but who are you step
ping on in order to make those
plans?” he said.
New shelters, which the
ordinance bans in the midtown
overlay zone, are needed to
meet the needs of the homeless
population, Adame said.
Adame said the timing of the
vote — the Council approved
the ordinance on Election Day
an hour before polls closed —
prevented some from speaking
against the rule change. Adame
is the president of the Young
Democrats of Hall County.
Lackey said the city will con
tinue to work with nonprofits
that serve the homeless, and
new organizations can still be
located outside of the midtown
area.
“Gainesville is a big area....
There’s already several non
profits in the area that help the
homeless, and they will remain
there,” Lackey said. “We’re not
shutting them out. We’re glad
that they’re there to help and
partner with them.”
FLORIDA
Recounts
in Senate,
governor
races ordered
BY BRENDAN FARRINGTON
AND KELLI KENNEDY
Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE — The Florida secretary of
state ordered recounts in the U.S. Senate and
governor races Saturday, an unprecedented
review of two contests in the state that took five
weeks to decide the 2000 presidential election.
Secretary Ken Detzner issued the order after
the unofficial results in both races fell within the
margin that by law triggers a recount. His office
was unaware of any other time either a race for
governor or U.S. Senate in Florida required a
recount, let alone both in the same election.
The recount sets up what could be several
days of political tension in this deeply divided
state. President Donald Trump tweeted with
out evidence that the elections were being sto
len. Protesters gathered at an elections office
in Broward County, which is quickly becom
ing a battleground in the recount. The pro
testers waved signs, used bullhorns and even
harangued a food delivery person at one point,
asking if there were ballots inside the food bags.
The unofficial results show that Republican
former U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis led Democratic
Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum by 0.41 per
centage points in the election for governor.
In the Senate race, Republican Gov. Rick
Scott’s lead over Democratic incumbent Bill
Nelson is 0.14 percentage points.
Detzner ordered machine recounts in both
races. Once completed, if the differences in the
races are at 0.25 percentage points or below, a
hand recount will be ordered, said Department
of State spokeswoman Sarah Revell.
Following the announcement, Gillum with
drew his concession in the governor’s race.
“Let me say clearly, I am replacing my
words of concession with an uncompromised
and unapologetic call that we count every sin
gle vote,” he said, adding that he would accept
whatever outcome emerges.
In a video released Saturday afternoon,
DeSantis thanked the state’s supervisors of
elections, canvassing boards, and the staffs for
“working hard to ensure that all lawful votes
are counted. He said he is preparing to become
the state’s next governor.
“It is important that everyone involved in
the election process strictly adhere to the rule
of law which is the foundation for our nation,”
he said, adding that the election results were
“clear and unambiguous.”
In a statement, Scott implored the state’s
sheriffs to “watch for any violations and take
appropriate action” during the recount.
Scott and his supporters, including Trump,
have alleged that voter fraud is underway in
Democratic-leaning Broward County, where the
Republican lead has narrowed since Election
Day. There’s no evidence of voter fraud and the
state’s election division, which Scott runs, said
Saturday that its observers in Broward had seen
“no evidence of criminal activity.”
The Florida Department of Law Enforce
ment said Friday it has not launched any inves
tigation into election fraud.
Florida’s 67 counties will decide when to
begin their recounts, but they must be com
pleted by Thursday. Revell said Saturday that
recounts can’t begin until the county canvassing
boards post a public meeting notice, hold that
meeting and then do a public test of equipment.
Elections officials in two large counties in the
Tampa Bay area — Pinellas and Hillsborough
— said they would begin recounts today.
Machine recounts must be finished by 3p.m.
Thursday.
JAIL
■ Continued from 1A
picks that prisoner up and
takes them to another
(Immigration and Customs
Enforcement) facility,” he
said.
The change has decreased
the stays for the average
person held through 287(g)
from up to five days to less
than 48 hours.
“That’s done until we
can work out our intergov
ernmental agreement with
both the U.S. Marshals and
Immigration (and Customs
Enforcement),” Shoemaker
said.
The per diem is $53 per
inmate for federal detain
ees at the Hall County Jail, a
rate that persisted since the
agreement’s signing by Hall
County Commission Chair
man Tom Oliver in 2008.
Shoemaker said they
stumbled upon this policy
change when speaking with
Gwinnett County authorities,
who also don’t house 287(g)
detainees past the 48-hour
mark.
“It’s worked very well.
Like man, we should have
caught onto this a couple of
years ago, but we just didn’t
know about it,” Shoemaker
said.
The exact cost of housing
a person at the Hall County
Jail fluctuates with the pop
ulation inside. More inmates
means a smaller unit price
per person.
Taking the population
from Oct. 30 and the jail’s
roughly $15,589,251 budget,
the true cost per inmate is
$55.76.
The State Criminal Alien
Assistance Program fund
ing has gone down over the
years as more agencies sign
on to work with the federal
government. In fiscal year
2016, Hall County received
more than $53,000.
This year, that grant for
Hall County will not exceed
$45,000.
Beyond the federal
detainees, there are local
agreements to house
inmates between the county
and the other municipalities
within its limits.
“Some of those agree
ments haven’t been
updated in quite some time,
so we’re in the process of
looking at our true cost and
trying to get the cost per
inmate, per day something
that’s more fair for us and
fair for the cities and feds,”
Couch said.
The across-the-board
number for all of the cit
ies, which include Flow
ery Branch, Oakwood and
Gainesville, is $39.20 per
inmate.
While Couch wouldn’t say
how much of an increase
it would be, he did say it
would try to bring it closer
to a break-even point for his
budget.
Couch said he hopes to
have the new agreements
finalized before the next fis
cal year, which starts July 1.
aO years o f
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