About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 16, 2018)
L2J OUR REGION Shannon Casas | Editor in Chief 770-718-3417 | news@gainesvilletimes.com The Times, Gainesville, Georgia Friday, November 16, 2018 Times owner speaks to Chamber of Commerce Stresses need for community journalism to avoid news deserts’ and national crisis’ BY JEFF GILL jgill@gainesvilletimes.com Community newspapers are struggling, but without them, com munities would suffer also, The Times owner Charles Hill Morris Jr. told Hall County business lead ers Thursday, Nov. 15. “If we can’t figure this out, we sitting in this room are going to have a lot larger problem than just here in Hall County,” he said, speaker at the Greater Hall Cham ber of Commerce’s monthly board of directors meeting. “We’re going to have a national crisis.” Morris showed a 2 IL-minute video with the message that the communities need professional journalists to hold public offi cials accountable. Without them, the only source of news would be untrained observers, including bloggers “with an agenda.” Community journalism has faced challenges for more than a decade, including social media’s rise in popularity, the 2007-09 Great Recession and a sharp decline in advertising revenue. That has forced some dire con sequences, including newspaper journalist jobs being cut by 45 per cent between 2008 and 2017. In Georgia, 40 papers have closed in the last 14 years and a total 28 Georgia counties “have no dedicated newspaper.” “Why is that a problem?” Morris said. “That is a news desert. The stuff that goes on in those commu nities (isn’t reported) unless some one comes in and covers it from the outside.” Locally, the impact has been The Times deciding to no longer print Monday or Tuesday editions, moving to a five-day-per-week print cycle, and scaling back on wire coverage. Otherwise, the paper will con tinue to be produced and posted digitally seven days a week. “We’re going to be working hard to make additional investments in news and adding additional news content,” Morris said. To survive, newspapers have had to diversify. In The Times’ case, the paper is involved in several enterprises, including publishing magazines, full service direct mailing and printing services. The paper also has announced it would discontinue the free distri bution publication Lanier Life at the end of November. “We are making some big changes and ask our readers and advertising partners to be patient as we work through the hundreds of details,” Morris has said. Jingle Mingle lights up square Photos by AUSTIN STEELE I The Times People take photos during the lighting of the chicken at Jingle Mingle in downtown Gainesville on Thursday, Nov. 15. Santa hugs Willow, left, and Whitley Spradley after receiving The Believers Band performs at Sweet Magnolias a gift from them during Jingle Mingle. during Jingle Mingle. CROSSING ■ Continued from 1A According to the city’s documents, the projects are expected to raise $767,000 per year in combined rev enue for the city’s TAD fund when completed. 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 more than a dozen 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 at East Main, a development boasting 63 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 previously said. Two council members and Mayor Mike Miller are on the advisory commit tee and previously voted in favor. Andrew said the first dis persal of funds would likely come in early spring. Water and sewer rates The council tabled the resolution on a potential 5 percent increase on water and sewer rates until the Dec. 6 meeting. The recommendation on the increase came from Nelsnick Enterprises, a con sulting firm working with the city as it assesses its capital improvement plan. The rate changes would have taken effect Dec. 1. Andrew said they would determine the new effec tive date at the next meeting. The city council raised the water and sewer rates by 4 percent last year, but there had been no increases since 2014. Bobby Sills, co founder and planning solu tions consultant at Nelsnick Enterprises, said the rec ommendation has been to review the rates each year. “Part of our findings was the revenues generated by the water and wastewater customers were not suffi cient to cover operations. You were actually borrow ing from the reserve fund of the water and sewer account,” Sills said. 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. The system develop ment charge, also known as sewer capacity, only affects new business and is effec tively a 64 percent increase. SARDIS ■ Continued from 1A run along existing segments of Sar dis Road, Fran Mar Drive, Brack ett Drive, Ladd Drive, Ledan Road and Southern Road. The route “may vary some, espe cially if we find environmentally sensitive areas, graves we didn’t know about or historical markers,” Farr said. “But at this time, we feel like this is the general area that the route is going to take. ” Area resident Vicki Lester is a little more skeptical of the project coming to fruition. “They’ll never do it,” she said. “We’ve been waiting since 2007.” BRENAU ■ Continued from 1A staff, Brenau trustee and search com mittee chairman Mike Smith said, “Working alongside of our search firm, Hyatt-Fennell, (the committee) is charged with evaluating the pool of qualified candidates assembled, selecting a short-list of semifinalists for ‘airport interviews’ conducted by the search committee, and propos ing approximately three candidates to the executive committee for the selection of a potential new presi dent to be voted on by the Board of Trustees.” Smith said he expects strong inter est in the position due to the uni versity’s success under Schrader’s leadership. For example, the university’s bud get has nearly tripled to $65 million during Schrader’s tenure, while its endowment has increased to more than $51 million from $26.3 million. Meanwhile, student enrollment has nearly doubled to 4,000 and the university’s 6,500-piece art collection has grown to an estimated value of $8.3 million. The search committee has approved the position profile, which is posted on the university website, and applicants have already reached out to the search firm. Smith said the committee expects to receive 60 or more applications by the Dec. 10 cutoff date. Chicken house fire an accident BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com The cause of a fire at a chicken house earlier this week has been determined to be “electrical in nature,” and an acci dent, according to fire department spokesman Capt. Zachary Brackett. A chicken house holding roughly 9,000 egg-laying hens caught fire Tuesday, Nov. 13, in northeastern Hall County. Hall County firefighters were still extinguishing hot spots around 9 p.m. that night at the 500-foot-long chicken house in the 4000 block of Cedar Creek Road. “These guys did a lot of work in a short period of time and were able to get it stopped,” Capt. Zachary Brackett said. The defensive attack kept the spread to roughly one half of the chicken house. Brackett said the chicken house belonged to a private grower associated with CWT Farms. “All of the chickens were exposed to what we would call products of combustion, what you would call smoke. They were all affected in some way,” Brackett said. Brackett said Thursday it was estimated that half of the chickens died. No other injuries were reported. Photo courtesy of Gainesville City Schools Gainesville High student Adam Jobson, with principal Jamie Green, is a semi-finalist for the National Merit Scholarship. Gainesville senior in running for Merit Scholarship Gainesville High School senior Adam Jobson has been selected as a semifinalist for the 2019 National Merit Schol arship Program. About 16,000 semifinalists from across the nation are selected to compete for 7,500 merit scholarships worth an estimated $31 million. The semifinalists are among the top 1 percent of more than 1.6 million students across 22,000 high schools who entered the 2019 competition by taking the preliminary SAT/ National Merit Scholarship Test, according to officials with Gainesville City Schools. “Gainesville High School is very proud of Adam and all of his accomplishments,” GHS Principal Jamie Green said in a press release. “His selection as a semifinalist in the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program is a reflection of his innate talents and abilities, as well as a testament to the incredible support he has received from his family and his teachers. In February 2019,15,000 finalists will be selected based upon academic achievement, SAT scores, leadership abili ties and participation in various school events and commu nity activities. The scholarship awardees will then be announced in April. From this group, National Merit Scholarship winners will be determined and announced in April. Joshua Silavent HALL COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS Spout Springs Road townhomes rezoning request denied A subdivision on Spout Springs Road will not be getting townhomes after the Hall County Board of Commissioners unanimously denied the rezoning request on Thursday. The neighborhood near Spout Springs Road will have 187 single-family homes, which commissioners already approved in 2016. The applicant, Clayton Properties Group, had also asked to build 144 townhomes in the subdivision and rezone that land to planned residential development. No one spoke in opposition to the development at Thurs day’s meeting. Megan Reed Commissioners approve Whitehall Road closure for future county park An approximately half-mile portion of Whitehall Road in North Hall will be closed so that the spot can become part of a future county park, after the Hall County Board of Commis sioners unanimously approved the road closure Thursday. The road leads to Healan’s Head’s Mill, which the county is restoring and hopes to turn into a 100-acre park with a heri tage center and walking trails. Improvements to the road will be made so pedestrians can safely walk in the area when the park opens. Some residents will need to take a longer route to Corne lia Highway when Whitehall Road is closed. No one spoke in opposition to the road closure at a public hearing Thursday. Megan Reed
