About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 2018)
Athlete of the Week: Cherokee Bluff’s Griffin Neville scores 39 against Denmark. sporis,ib WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21,2018 | $1.00 | GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA | gainesvilletimes.com Honestly Local Hall deputies getting body cameras Devices integrated with new Tasers, includes unlimited cloud storage BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com Smile, because soon you could be on body camera — some of the first used by the Hall County Sher iffs Office. “Moving into the new year, our officers are particularly excited about the cameras, which will help produce the best evidence for court proceedings. We could not have made this project come to fruition without the support and assistance of the Hall County com mission,” Hall County Sheriff Ger ald Couch said in a statement. Hall County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Derreck Booth said the department will receive in the coming weeks 125 body cam eras and Tasers to equip its patrol deputies as well as officers in the warrants’ division. The Hall County Board of Com missioners approved a five-year lease/purchase agreement last week with Axon Enterprises for $1,189,206.66. It will cost $163,422 for the first year, which will be funded through the current fiscal year 2019 budget. Couch and Booth said the department hoped to purchase these earlier but were stymied by hard financial times. “They had to focus on basically keeping vehicles running and having radio communication for years and just focus on that. Now that things have turned around in the economy and everything, they decided to go ahead and pull the trigger this year,” Booth said. The Tasers, body cameras and unlimited cloud-based data stor age comes as a package through Axon. Capt. Brad Rounds said in a news release “the storage ■ Please see CAMERA, 8A New tech comes to McDonald’s Photos by SCOTT ROGERS I The Times McDonald’s employee Shay Harper helps customers use the new kiosk Monday, Nov. 19, at the Jesse Jewell Parkway restaurant. The store has added technology options and a new look. Gainesville’s oldest Golden Arches gets ahead of the curve BY JEFF GILL jgill@gainesvilletimes.com Gainesville’s oldest McDonald’s now has the newest technology. The fast-food restaurant at 707 Jesse Jewell Park way, south of Queen City Parkway, has just com pleted a two-week renova tion equipping the interior with new self-order kiosks and digital menu boards. Also, the two drive-thru lanes have digital menus, which display the custom er’s order in much larger type. “Before, we had these plastic pieces of advertis ing material that we would have to put in, and you would have to depend on your crew and managers ■ Please see TECH, 8A I Morninqs I made better. L, ^ ir J ' - U m McDonald’s employee Shakir Floyd takes a customer’s food order Monday, Nov. 19, at the Jesse Jewell Parkway location in Gainesville. The longtime location has recently been renovated with new technology options added for customers. Suwanee man killed in Buford shooting BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com An Auburn man is accused of shooting a man he worked with in the Buford area Tues day, Nov. 20. Gwinnett County Police were called to investigate the fatal shooting of Allen Craig Willard Jr., 25, of Suwanee, in downtown Buford. Officers responded around 12:10 p.m. Tuesday to West Main and South Lee streets regarding an active shooter report and found Willard’s body in the roadway. “It was also determined that it was not an active shooter but a shooting due to a dispute between known parties. A description of the sus pect was obtained and given to responding units,” police Cpl. Wilbert Rundles wrote in a news release. The 34-year-old suspect, Jerome Daniel Colvin, ran from the area and was appre hended shortly thereafter. “Detectives are working to determine what led to the dispute and subsequent shooting. No other parties were injured during the alterca tion,” Rundles said. Colvin was charged with felony murder, malice mur der and aggravated assault. Police have not released any other details about the connection between the two men other than they “worked together in the Buford area.” Islands deer hunt set for this weekend BY NICK BOWMAN nbowman@gainesvilletimes.com Bow hunters are descending on the islands of Lake Lanier this November for the lake’s annual deer hunt. The hunt is regulated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which drew a lottery for bow hunt ers in October to participate in the Novem ber event. Not all islands are involved in the event, which includes a few off-limits areas for hunters, but it does cover about 23 groups of islands, peninsulas and areas across more than 1,000 acres. Deer populations on the lake aren’t tracked by the corps, according to Nicholas Baggett, its natural resource manager on Lake Lanier. However, the population isn’t unique to the lake or its islands. “They swim out to the islands (from the main land),” Baggett said. The hunt is scheduled in the fall of each year to coincide with bow hunting season and is intended to control deer populations on the uninhabited islands of the lake. A map is available from the corps at its website, www.sam.usace.army.mil. The corps has also dis cussed the issue at length on its Facebook page. Hunters are put through a pre-hunt safety briefing, and several islands near high-traffic areas will be marked for boaters with signs noting the upcoming hunt. “Aside from this announcement (which we will repeat before the next two hunts) the peninsulas and islands that may become peninsulas (depending on lake level) receive signs at their narrow points notify ing walkers of the hunt, ’’the corps posted on its page. “Some of these include 4 Mile, Little Ridge, Wahoo, etc, depending on the lake level. Other islands such as 3 Sisters will not receive any posting on the island itself.” Last year, 110 hunters bagged 43 deer — nine bucks and 34 does — leaving a success rate of 39 percent. This year, hunters will need to use boats because the lake is about at its full pool, Baggett noted. In pre vious years, the lake has been low enough to allow hunters to walk or wade to a few islands near the shore. Georgia Department of Natural Resources helps schedule and organize the island hunt. “We like to do it during this period when the parks are not used very much,” Baggett said. “We try to strike a balance between those who may want to use our trail system or some of the parks in the south end and just close them down for some limited periods.” The hunt has grown over time, according to corps records that go back to 2007, and 2017 was the busiest hunt to-date by both hunter participation, number of deer bagged and area of land open to hunters. For The Times INSIDE WEATHER 2A DEATHS 9A 0 *40901 06835 8 Advice 6B Bridge 6B Business 4B Calendar 2A Classified 8B Comics 7B Life 5B Lottery 2A Opinion 6A Our Region 8A Sports 1B TV/puzzles 6B High Low ||58 36 Lake Lanier level: 1,070.67 feet Full pool 1,071. Down 0.24 feet in 24 hours Roger Junior Barner, 73 Margaret Beckley, 83 Peggy Butler, 86 Adam Dunagan,38 Regina Ann Howard, 82 Maudell Huey, 89 Jimmy Lee Jones, 80 Elizabeth Brooks Langston, 80 Frank Thomas Langston, 84 John Gordon Leggett, 66 George McDonald Thomas Hanie Paris Jr., 79 Skye Arielle Patterson, 24 Jason V. Waters, 42 Debbie Sue Weaver, 58
