About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 11, 2018)
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 Dr Poneh Davoodi Heine The Allergy, Asthma & Sinus Center and Dr. Amy Whitmire Boyd are pleased to welcome Dr. Poneh Davoodi Heine to our family of providers. i THE ALLERGY, ASTHMA & SINUS CENTER ...where allergies meet relief CENTER 528 BROAD ST., SE • SUITE B • GAINESVILLE 770-534-0534 • allergyasc.com Dr. Poneh Davoodi Heine
