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Shannon Casas Editor in Chief | 770-718-3417 | news@gainesvilletimes.com
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Sunday, November 18, 2018
Plane crash kills one
Another critically injured in incident at Gainesville airport
BY NATHAN BERG
nberg@gainesvilletimes.com
One person was killed and another
is in critical condition after a plane
crash Saturday evening at Lee
Gilmer Memorial Airport in Gaines
ville, according to Gainesville Police.
The Gainesville Fire Department
reported that the injured were taken
by ambulance to Northeast Georgia
Medical Center.
Police and both the Gainesville and
Hall County fire departments arrived
on the scene shortly after receiving a
911 call close to 7 p.m. Nov. 17.
“It appears that the plane was
about to land when at some point it
possibly struck some trees across
Queen City Parkway and then struck
a tower here at the airport,” police
spokesman Sgt. Kevin Holbrook said.
Emergency personnel discovered
the single-engine plane had fallen
down an embankment along Queen
City Parkway.
Holbrook said police don’t yet have
information about the plane such as
where it was arriving from but said
the Federal Aviation Administration
was on its way Saturday evening and
will help obtain that information.
A portion of Queen City Parkway
was closed after the incident but
reopened before 8 p.m. One runway
at Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport was
shut down following the crash, but
the others remained operational.
Police and the FAA will
investigate.
Courtesy Gainesville Police
A plane crashed Saturday, Nov. 17, at Lee Gilmer
Memorial Airport in Gainesville.
Ministry serves more and more
with boxed Thanksgiving meals
AUSTIN STEELE I The Times
Mike Mihalick, a volunteer with Latin American Missionary Program Ministries, hands a free boxed meal to Jerimah Nash at
Triufantes De Jesucristo Church on Saturday, Nov. 17.
Faith-based program serves residents at 18th annual event
BY LAYNE SALIBA
lsaliba@gainesvilletimes.com
Most people are think
ing about being thankful for
what they have around this
time of year — but Mary
Mauricio, she’s focused on
giving.
It’s what she’s used to, and
it’s what she’s been doing
around Thanksgiving — and
pretty much every other day,
too — for the past 18 years.
She’s the executive direc
tor of Latin American Mis
sionary Program Ministries,
which held its annual com
munity Thanksgiving dinner
Saturday in the parking lot
of Triunfantes de Jesucristo,
a church on Jesse Jewell
Parkway in Gainesville.
Hundreds of homeless and
low-income families came
out to get a meal, lining up
an hour before the ministry
even began serving.
“This is our 18th year,”
Mauricio said. “We started
on Atlanta Highway and
we only had soup and corn-
bread.” She said the people
liked it because the food was
warm in the cold weather.
She said they served about
100 people during that first
year.
This year, after just an
hour, they had already
served over 300.
Nowadays, those who stop
by get a full Thanksgiving
meal, complete with turkey,
dressing, gravy, green beans,
cranberry sauce, dessert and
a drink.
Kids stood near the street
holding signs to get the word
out about the food being
served. It must have worked
because the line that formed
was lengthy. Music being
played by members of the
church echoed as more and
more people lined up, wait
ing in the cool weather for a
to-go box of food.
Mauricio said none of
it would have been pos
sible without the help of the
community.
Companies from the area
donated money for the tur
keys. The Georgia Moun
tain Food Bank donated the
desserts. Longstreet Cafe
donated the dressing, gravy
and cranberry sauce. Loret
ta’s Country Kitchen donated
the green beans.
“I’m glad to see that the
gathering is as much as it is,”
Joey Cleveland said while
holding a plastic grocery bag
with two boxes of food inside
for himself and his wife. “It
does help the community out.
It lets them know that there
are people out here who do
care about them during the
holidays.”
Cleveland said he’s living
in a motel right now, look
ing for an apartment, so the
Thanksgiving meal he got
from Lamp Ministries “helps
on the food bill.”
Tonya Hagins was there to
volunteer, something she’s
been doing for the past four
years. For her, seeing people
from “all walks of life” serv
ing and being served is what
makes it all worth it.
She makes it a point to
bring her own family to the
meal, too, so they’re able to
volunteer alongside her.
■ Please see MEALS, 4C
SARDIS ROAD
Man injured after falling out of party bus
A 32-year-old Atlanta man fell out of a bus
and was injured around 5 p.m. Saturday at
the Sardis Road roundabout, according to
Georgia State Patrol Cpl. Major Patterson.
The man, who was identified as Masharn
Austin, was taken to Northeast Georgia Medi
cal Center in Gainesville.
Patterson said later Saturday evening that
Austin’s injuries are not life-threatening.
The short black bus appeared to be a party
bus; Patterson said it is registered to a limou
sine company.
The bus was traveling south on Sardis Road
through the roundabout when the man fell
out. Patterson did not know why the man fell.
The group traveling in the bus declined to
comment.
Shannon Casas
Authorities
responded
Saturday,
Nov. 17, to an
incident at the
Sardis Road
roundabout in
which a person
was injured after
falling out of a
bus.
SHANNON CASAS
The Times
Collins says
compromise
possible with
new majority
BY MEGAN REED
mreed@gainesvilletimes.com
U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, R-Gainesville, sees
some challenges ahead with Democrats gaining
control of the House after the Nov. 6 midterm
elections. But he also said there are several areas
where the two parties can find common ground.
Democrats will have 230 seats in the House,
while Republicans will have 198. For a majority,
either party needs 218 seats. Republicans kept
control of the Senate in the midterms.
Collins was running for chairman of the
House’s Judiciary Committee, where he already
serves. Now that Democrats will be the majority
party in the House, he would
be the committee’s ranking
member.
In that position, he could
play a crucial role in a possible
investigation of President Don
ald Trump, which Collins said
he believes is more likely as
Democrats take control of the
House. He said he would advo
cate against that investigation.
“I think it will just show the American people
(Democrats) have nothing but a fixation on the
fact Hillary Clinton lost the election in 2016, and
I think they’re just going to continue to try and
show everything they possibly can to take down
or discredit the president,” Collins said. “Donald
Trump won. He’s president, and we’re going to
continue to fight for him as we go forward. ”
In the judicial committee, Collins said he does
see some common ground between Democrats
and Republicans on the issues of intellectual
property and privacy on social media.
The committee covers several issues includ
ing immigration laws, security, copyright and
patents and criminal justice reform.
Criminal justice reform has also been a per
sonal focus of Collins’ — he sponsored the First
Step Act, which has been endorsed by Trump and
has passed through the House. The Act requires
that inmates be placed within 500 driving miles
of home, allows low-risk inmates to serve home
confinement for up to six months at the end of
their sentences and retroactively applies 2010
laws reducing the crack cocaine sentencing dis
parity to current inmates.
“It’s very similar to what Georgia is doing, and
that is finding ways to take our prison population
and evaluate them early so that we can begin to
give them the life skills and also look for mental
health problems, addiction problems and those
things so that when they do get out... they’re able
to come back into communities and be active
participants,” Collins said.
Collins said local issues affecting the 9th
District — including the protection of natural
resources such as Lake Lanier, expanding access
to broadband in rural areas and health care —
will continue to be his priorities.
“Our focus on those (local issues) will never
change on the national level,” Collins said.
“We’re not going to be driving the agenda in D.C.,
necessarily, on the House side, but we’ll be there
to continue to fight for the things that we believe
in and also push back when we believe the Dem
ocrats overreach.”
He said rural broadband is an issue that strikes
a chord with people on both sides of the aisle.
But he still expects some partisan challenges,
particularly when it comes to the budget.
“Of course with the House being Democratic
and the Senate being Republican, spending leg
islation and things like that are going to be much
harder to get through, and that is a frustration
that we have,” he said.
Collins was re-elected on Nov. 6, earning
almost 80 percent of the votes in the race against
Democrat Josh McCall. Collins, a Gainesville
native, took office in 2013 and begins his next
term Jan. 1.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Kemp promises
unity as governor
Associated Press
Republican Brian Kemp praised Democrat
Stacey Abrams as a tough opponent and asked
Georgia voters to unite behind him as the
state’s new governor Saturday, even as Abrams
blamed him for “gross mismanagement” of an
election that she acknowledged she did not win.
“I certainly appreciate Stacey Abrams’
tenacity, how hard she worked, the campaign
she ran,” Kemp told reporters at a state Capitol
news conference. “The fact of the matter is the
election is now over and I’ve got to focus on gov
erning this state.”
Abrams ended 10 days of post-election drama
in Georgia’s closely watched and even more
closely contested race Friday evening when she
acknowledged that when the state’s final vote
gets certified, Kemp will be the next governor.
Still, Abrams defiantly refusing to concede,
and instead promised to file a federal lawsuit
over the way Georgia elections are run. She
accused Kemp of using his office secretary of
state’s office to aggressively purge the rolls of
inactive voters, enforce an “exact match” pol
icy for checking voters’ identities that left thou
sands of registrations in limbo, and enact other
policies to tilt the outcome in his favor.
Kemp, who stepped down as secretary of
state when he declared victory a day after Elec
tion Day, defended the outcome of the race.
“Look, we have laws on the books that pre
vent elections from being stolen from anyone,”
Kemp said, insisting those laws “make sure we
have secure, accessible, fair elections.”
