About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 17, 2018)
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2018 | $1.00 | GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA | gainesvilletimes.com Honestly Local Abrams ends bid for governor Democrat plans lawsuit, cites gross mismanagement’ of bitterly fought election BY BILL BARROW AND KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press ATLANTA — Democrat Stacey Abrams ended 10 days of post election drama in Georgia’s closely watched and even more closely contested race for governor Fri day, acknowledging Republican Brian Kemp as the victor while defiantly refusing to concede to the man she blamed for “gross mis management” of a bitterly fought election. The speech Abrams delivered at her campaign headquarters Friday eve ning marked the close of the 44-year-old attorney and former lawmaker’s unsuccessful attempt to make history as America’s first black woman governor. Since Election Day her campaign fought on, insisting efforts to suppress turnout had left thousands of ballots uncounted that otherwise could erode Kemp’s lead and force a runoff election. Kemp, the 55-year-old businessman who oversaw the election as Georgia’s secretary of state, will keep the governor’s office in GOP hands as the state’s third Republican governor since Recon struction. He responded to Abrams ending her campaign by calling for unity and praising his opponent’s “passion, hard work, and commit ment to public service.” The kind words came just days after Kemp’s campaign spokes man derided Abrams’ efforts to have contested ballots counted as a “disgrace to democracy.” Abrams made no such retreat from her criticisms of Kemp, say ing she refused “to say nice things and accept my fate.” Instead, she announced plans to file a federal lawsuit to challenge the way Geor gia’s elections are run. She accused Kemp of using the secretary of state’s office to aggressively purge the rolls of inactive voters, enforce an “exact match” policy for check ing voters’ identities that left thou sands of registrations in limbo and other measures to tile the outcome in his favor. ■ Please see ABRAMS, 6A Abrams Main focus: Retail development Photos by SCOTT ROGERS I The Times The city of Gainesville wants to establish a TAD covering the city’s west side, focusing on several blighted shopping centers. Gainesville looks to establish tax district for its west side Family loses home to fire, cause unknown A family of six lost their home to an early morning blaze on Friday in the 1100 block of Hancock Avenue south of downtown Gaines ville. There were no injuries in the incident. Fire broke out at the 1,500-square-foot home around 3 a.m. Friday, according to Hall County Fire Services spokesman Capt. Zachary Brack ett. Not quite half of the house was aflame when firefighters arrived, and they were able to beat back the flames from inside the home. The home has heavy fire damage and can’t be inhabited, according to Brackett. The Amer ican Red Cross is assisting the family, none of whom were injured in the fire. A cause for the fire has not yet been deter mined. The Gainesville Fire Department assisted in the firefighting. Compiled from a Hall County Fire Services press release. SCOn ROGERS I The Times A fire at a Hancock Avenue home in Gainesville Friday has displaced a family of six. BY MEGAN REED mreed@gainesvilletimes.com Gainesville wants to build on the development spurred by its Midtown Tax Allocation District by establishing a new TAD, this time on the city’s west side, with the hopes of bringing more retail options to the city’s vacant or blighted shopping centers. The City Council will vote to establish the Westside TAD and approve a redevelopment plan for the area at Tuesday’s meeting. A public hearing will about the redevelopment plan will take place. The move will abolish the city’s current TAD serving the Lakeshore Mall property, but the mall will still be eligible for the Westside TAD funds. Several shopping centers or vacant lots are encompassed in the 344-acre district, which would stretch behind Lake- shore Mall along Shallowford Road, then continue to include several parcels along Browns Bridge Road, Atlanta High way and Pearl Nix Parkway. Retail development is the focus of the effort, city offi cials said. “We really want to focus this TAD on some retail areas and retail development,” Assistant City Manager Angela Sheppard said. “... One of the great things is to think about bringing our retail back into town where we have existing Westside Plaza shopping center is one of the areas for which the city of Gainesville wants to establish a tax allocation district. Gainesville officials want a TAD covering the city’s west side, focusing on blighted shopping centers. Officials want to encourage retail development. Gainesville City Council When: 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 20 Where: Public Safety Complex, 701 Queen City Parkway infrastructure, reduce some of the sprawl, spread out some of the traffic so everybody is not trying to go on the same stretch of road to do their shopping.” The creation of the West- side TAD could increase the redevelopment area’s taxable value from $133.3 million to $483.5 million, according to the redevelopment plan. That would bring in about $3.4 million in new property tax receipts annually, support ing TAD funding for up to $53 million. The area represented about 3 percent of Gaines ville’s tax digest in 2018. According to the redevelop ment plan, of the 136 buildings in the focus area, only 20 have been built since 1978. Lake- shore Mall, which the plan identifies as being a center- piece of the proposed TAD, has declined from a tax value of $28.9 million in 2017 to $7.1 million in 2018. Gainesville’s Midtown TAD, which includes the downtown square, has helped fund sev eral projects, including an expansion to the Main Street parking deck, Carroll Daniel Construction’s new headquar ters and the Parkside on the ■ Please see TAD, 6A Men get 4 years in million-dollar sweepstakes scam BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com One man from Buford and another man from Costa Rica were sentenced to four years in fed eral prison in a sweepstakes scam netting more than $3.5 million, according to court documents and officials. Rodolfo Orozco Aguilar, 44, of Costa Rica, and Daniel Sibaja, 28, of Buford, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Their co-defendants — Elpelice Figueroa Rosales, 62, and Silvia Sanchez Valverde, 47, both of Buford — also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, but sentencing has not yet taken place A fifth co-defendant yet to be sentenced, Priscilla Sibaja, 21, of Buford, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, doz ens of victims were called between February 2016 and September 2017 and told they had won a sweepstakes or lottery. “The victims were told that they could receive their sweepstakes winnings after they paid vari ous expenses, such as taxes and fees. The vic tims were directed to pay the expenses to vari ous companies controlled by the defendants, such as J.G. Services, RF Financial Services, and Master Builders. The victims would then mail payments via personal and cashier’s checks to addresses that were linked to mailboxes rented by the defendants,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote in a previous news release. ■ Please see SCAM, 6A INSIDE WEATHER 2A DEATHS 7A 0 *40901 06835 8 Advice 5B Bridge 5B Business 3B Calendar 2A Classified 7B Comics 6B Life 4B Lottery 2A Opinion 5A Our Region 6A Sports 1B TV/puzzles 5B High Low DP 62 40 Lake Lanier level: 1,071.55 feet Full pool 1,071. Up 0.09 feet in 24 hours Emma Abercombie, 65 Ann Bowen, 100 Ralph Burwell, 89 Mary Clark, 69 Elizabeth Harrington, 105 Susan McClendon, 67 Jane Alvarez, 63 Mary Benefield, 73 Pearl Ives, 78 Brett Jackson, 56 Stephanie Moore, 36 Joanne Sawyer, 70 Gladys Wane, 87
