About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 2018)
L2J OUR REGION Shannon Casas | Editor in Chief 770-718-3417 | news@gainesvilletimes.com The Times, Gainesville, Georgia Thursday, November 15, 2018 Busy roster for Flowery Branch meeting Railroad crossing, tax allocation district and sewer rates to be discussed BY NICK WATSON nwatson@ gainesvilletimes.com A potential railroad clos ing, proposals for downtown development and sewer rate changes are among the big items coming up at Flowery Branch City Council’s meet ing Thursday, Nov. 15. Railroad crossing The city council post poned the vote Nov. 1 on potentially closing the Chat tahoochee Street railroad crossing. Roughly 50 people attended the two public information meetings held Oct. 25. According to the city council’s executive sum mary, Norfolk Southern’s manager grade crossing safety Will Miller said clos ing the crossing and install ing a “lunar light” will not cost the city money. Norfolk Southern would pay to install the light at Spring Street, which would reduce the need for trains to block the crossings at Spring Street and Lights Ferry Road. City Manager Bill Andrew said Wednesday, Nov. 14, that he was unsure of the council’s leaning on the issue. “Chattahoochee appears to be the logical closing because putting the signal at Spring Street will keep both Spring and Lights Ferry open with the use of the Lunar Light,” according to the executive summary. Tax allocation district The tax allocation district advisory committee has rec ommended investing $7.5 million in three projects. The projects would help offset a portion of the costs for demolition and new con struction on the former city hall and police department buildings, which would have 15 apartments and ground- level retail. Another project involves traffic signals and utility infrastructure for the 325 single-family detached homes on the Conner Property. The third would create a multi-purpose field and other amenities for the Villages of East Main, a development boasting 63 Flowery Branch City Council meeting When: 6 p.m. Nov. 15 Where: Flowery Branch City Hall, 541 OPine St., Flowery Branch townhomes and 31 single family homes between East Main Street and Phil Niekro Boulevard. “The apartment develop ment is within the tax allo cation district, and they’ll create a value. What they’re asking is we use some of that value to build basically some more streetscape, a couple of parks, more parking here downtown,” Andrew said. Two council members and Mayor Mike Miller are on the advisory committee and have all voted in favor, Andrew said. Water and sewer rate changes A 5 percent increase on base and unit charges is recommended in a review by Nelsnick Enterprises, a consulting firm working with the city as it assesses it capital improvement plan. The rate changes would take effect Dec. 1. The city council raised the water and sewer rates by 4 percent last year, but there had been no increases since 2014. According to Nelsnick Enterprises, the expected new development volume through 2028 “is expected to add approximately 750,000 (gallons) per day of waste- water on a peak day basis.” Nelsnick is recommend ing water and sewer rate increases over the next five years “based on infrastruc ture improvements needed in our system,” accord ing to the city’s executive summary. Nelsnick also recom mended a $1,003 per equivalent dwelling unit on wastewater system devel opment charges, which is a cost incurred for new developments. “It doesn’t affect anyone who is using sewer now. It only affects someone who is using capacity in the plant for the future,” Andrew said. Reporter Jeff Gill contributed to this report. Photo courtesy Brenau University Entrepreneurs Masters of Innovation award recipients from the left, Jim Walters, Carlos Dominguez, Bob Swoszowski, Bill Hall, Norma Hernandez, Anslee Wilson and Mike McGraw at the Business Incubator at Brenau University on Wednesday, Nov. 14. AWARD SCOTT ROGERS I The Times Anslee Wilson, right, founder of A Helping Hand Home Care, chats with office manager Dena Brewer Wednesday, Nov. 14,2018 at their Spring Street offices. Wilson is one of the 2018 recipients awarded at Brenau’s Masters of Innovation ceremony on Wednesday. ■ Continued from 1A about what she loved and what she would love doing instead. “I love my grandpar ents more than anything,” she told an audience of students, business profes sionals and community residents at the awards ceremony. “I just adored my grandparents. And I’ve always been a caregiver at heart.” Wilson recalled taking her grandmother weekly to get her hair done, eat at Red Lobster and shop at Belk. And she was always calling her grandparents as they aged, checking in with them every chance she got. So, Wilson researched the home care industry, got licensed by the state, and opened A Helping Hand Home Care, which provides medication reminders, meal prepara tion, light housekeeping and laundry, daily hygiene assistance, transportation to doctor’s appointments and grocery shopping for clients, among other things. “Most people aren’t receptive to help in their home,” Wilson said. “But then once they have the help, they’re happy.” Wilson said she has about 50 caregivers on staff currently serving between 35 to 40 clients. Some clients request a visit and support just once a week for six hours, for example, while others require around-the-clock support. “I wanted to be able to serve people that actually needed me,” Wilson said. “I basically changed my life around and did some thing totally different, which was really scary.” Taking risks is, perhaps, what entrepreneurship is all about. It was a common theme among the award ees. But the honorees also had learned the traits of patience, persistence, hard work and a value for continuing education, they said. And, like Wilson, men tors, family and friends played a huge role in their successes. Wilson said she had sup port from her husband and two children, and learned from her father and step father, who were both entrepreneurs. And Wilson’s mother- in-law founded the first woman-owned, licensed real estate company in Hall County, she said. “Seeing where she had come from ... gave me the strength and the power to think I could do it,” Wilson said. Relationship-building is another key area the awardees highlighted as a trait successful entrepre neurs need to develop. And it’s a trait that Wil son said she carried over from her days in real estate. The sense of work, service, companionship and support are qualities that seem to come natu rally to her. “I feel like home care is a relationship-building business,” Wilson said. But being your own boss has its own costs. Wilson has also learned along the way that taking care of herself is critical to the health of her com pany, her employees and her clients. “I need to probably practice that more than I preach it,” she said. But she’s working on finding a better “work-life balance” and making sure family comes first. “It took awhile for me to get to this point,” Wilson said. RECORD ■ Continued from 1A about performing daily functions under the system. “The courts and law enforcement always work together, and I’m sure they’re going to work through whatever issues there are. I am confident that that will happen,” For rester said. The Times reached out to the sheriff’s office to discuss the changes. Public informa tion officer Derreck Booth said they were unable to make someone available in the short term. “We’re a few weeks out until anyone involved with it will have a lull in their schedule and enough expe rience with it to provide comment/reaction,” Booth wrote in an email. NORTHWEST HALL Sardis Connector public meeting planned for today BY JEFF GILL jgill@gainesvilletimes.com A public meeting on the planned Sardis Connector road project in northwest Hall is set for 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15, at Chestatee High School, 3005 Sardis Road. The meeting won’t feature any formal presentations. Instead, residents will be able to study maps on display and speak with officials. A court reporter will be available to allow the public an opportunity to make verbal comments about the project. Written statements will be accepted concerning the project until Nov. 29. The planned 3.4-mile, four-lane road, which has been dis cussed for years, would run from Dawsonville Highway/ Ga. 53 in West Hall, starting at the intersection of Sardis and Chestatee roads, to Thompson Bridge Road/Ga. 60 in North Hall, ending near Mount Vernon Road. Right of way acquisition could begin next summer and take two years to complete, engineer Denise Farr has said. Construction could follow two to three years “after everything is acquired,” she said. GAINESVILLE Lottery tickets taken from gas station BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com A book of 10 lottery tickets was stolen from a Gainesville gas station, police said. Gainesville Police took the report on Tuesday, Nov. 13, from the RaceTrac on Cornelia Highway. A representative of the store said the person working on the automated machine placed one of the books on the counter, and the book later went missing. The report stated it happened sometime between 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 12, and 10 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 13. “They notate the ones that go into the machine, so they were (disabled) in the computer system,” Sgt. Kevin Hol brook said. SPLOST ■ Continued from 1A receive a lesser percentage on the next SPLOST than what we have now,” City Manager Stan Brown said. The city has prided itself on having a tax base largely footed by its commercial and industrial sector. In the last couple of years, however, officials have committed to attracting more residential growth. Housing projects are starting to develop, and 2018 has been the year of residential rezonings in both Oakwood and Flowery Branch. Just a few of the developments approved or starting con struction this year are a 255-home single-family detached home and townhome development off McEver Road across from West Hall High School, a 158-home townhome com plex off Mountain View and Meeks roads in Oakwood and a 131-home active adult community off McEver and Old Flowery Branch roads in Oakwood. And though it rejected the townhome complex Monday, Oakwood City Council approved in the same meeting a 348- unit apartment complex off Mundy Mill Road. VOTE ■ Continued from 1A townhomes. The single-family homes were approved by com missioners in 2016, so the request Thursday is to add townhomes to the development. The Hall County Planning Com mission recommended approval of the subdivision on Oct. 15. Two neighbors spoke at that meeting, telling the planning commission that they were worried about traf fic in the area. The neighborhood is on the sec tion of Spout Springs Road that would be widened in phase two of a project that will make the two- lane road in South Hall four lanes. Planning commissioners approved the request under the condition that Clayton Properties Group, the applicant, gets a traffic study done. Whitehall Road closure Commissioners will vote Thurs day on whether to abandon and close about half a mile of right of way on Whitehall Road in North Hall to prepare for Healan’s Head’s Mill to become the site of a county park. Some residents on Whitehall Road would need to take an alter nate route to get to Ga. 365, adding about one and a half miles to their trips, according to Assistant County Administrator Marty Nix. Nix said the county did a traffic study in the last week of October and found that an average of 34.5 vehicles used the route in a 24-hour period. Nix said the road currently has an inadequate shoulder and needs to be widened. Improvements need to be made so the area is safer for pedestrians when the park opens, he said. While some residents had con cerns about the road closure at an Oct. 25 meeting, Nix said he has been speaking with residents and some of them are changing their minds. No homes will be blocked off by the road closure, Nix said. Industrial development near Habersham line may be tabled The applicant for a large indus trial development in Alto near the Habersham County line has asked that the vote on the development be tabled. Commissioners had been scheduled to vote on the pro posal on Thursday. Falcon Design Consultants, an engineering firm with offices in Stockbridge and Cumming, wants to develop a 204-acre property on Cornelia Highway. Dale Hall, the company’s vice president of devel opment, said in August that details were still being finalized with potential clients for the site. Srikanth Yamala, Hall County’s planning director, said Monday that he received a call from Falcon Design Consultants with a request to table the item. Developers are in contact with the city of Lula about sewer and water service. Commissioners will need to vote on the request to table the item on Thursday, and it could be tabled to either December or January. Hulsey business license hearing to be tabled Commissioners had been sched uled to hold a public hearing on the business license for Hulsey Envi ronmental Services in Clermont, which has been cited for violating the terms of its business license by having trucks parked on the property. The business on Cleveland High way had applied to have a truck terminal on its property for up to 10 trucks, a request that was denied by the planning commission on Nov. 5. Hulsey is appealing that decision, and the appeal will go before com missioners on Dec. 13. Hulsey’s business license will go up for a vote after a decision has been made about the truck terminal. Clermont residents say Hulsey is to blame for an odor they have been noticing for the past few months. Hulsey works with clients, includ ing poultry plants and restaurants, to process byproducts. Jim Walters, Hulsey’s attorney, has said that any trucks parked at the Clermont site would have already been emptied.
