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Shannon Casas Editor in Chief | 770-718-3417 | news@gainesvilletimes.com
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gainesvilletimes com
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Growing trend in armed drug busts
Gainesville, Hall law enforcement netted $71K in sales of seized guns through 2018
BY NICK WATSON
nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com
In the last decade of busting up
narcotics trafficking, Multi-Agency
Narcotics Squad Lt. Don Scalia
said more and more of their cases
involve the suspects packing heat.
“As a general trend over the
course of five to 10 years especially,
I’ve noticed that more and more
people that we do encounter at least
committing narcotics violations are
armed... It would be a slight major
ity, maybe slightly over half. But I
would say it’s just a reality of our
business now,” Scalia said.
The MANS officers can then
generate a new charge — posses
sion of a firearm during the com
mission of a crime. Under Georgia
code, possession of a firearm dur
ing the commission of a felony car
ries a five-year sentence, which
will run consecutively to any other
sentence.
In 2018, the Hall County Sher
iff’s Office placed 118 firearms
into property and evidence, while
Gainesville Police took in 31
firearms.
After what the Hall County Sher
iff’s Office called one of its largest
sales of seized firearms in the past
10 years, the department received
$68,004.
“The dollar figure for this year
is abnormally high because fire
arms from several older cases
were finally cleared out in one of
the largest such sales for the Sher
iff’s Office in the past decade,”
Sheriff’s Office spokesman Der-
reck Booth wrote in an email.
In a June auction through Gov-
Deals.com, the city of Gaines
ville sold 16 firearms leading to
$2,906.97 in proceeds after the
website’s fee.
The big-ticket item on the list
was a Bushmaster Model XM-15,
an AR-15 style rifle, for $415. After
■ Please see GUNS, 2C
Lieutenant
Jonathan
Ottaway
with the
Gainesville
Police
Department
inspects
a shotgun
from the
department’s
armory on
Friday, Nov.
30.
AUSTIN STEELE
The Times
A new twist on Christmas giving
Photos by SCOTT ROGERS I The Times
Lynette Cray, right, and Anne Ayers go through a box of donated toys at Family Promise of Flail County on Thursday, Nov. 29,
shortly after the items were dropped off at their Riverside Drive offices.
Family Promise opens low-cost store to help needy shop for gifts
Millie Clements unloads items to donate to Family Promise of Flail County Thursday,
Nov. 29,2018. Family Promise is hosting a ‘Christmas Promise Store’ for the first time.
BY LAYNE SALIBA
lsaliba@gainesvilletimes.com
Family Promise of Hall County, an
organization that helps homeless fami
lies, has found another way to help those
in need.
Instead of simply offering aid free of
charge, it’s giving families that are part of
its program, and those referred by other
agencies, the chance to purchase gifts at a
reduced price this Christmas season. It’s a
way to help provide materially while also
providing emotionally.
“We kind of had been thinking for
the last couple of years, we wanted to
approach Christmas through Family
Promise in a different way, where we
could empower our families to provide
Christmas themselves for their families,”
said Anne Ayers, family advocate assis
tant with Family Promise.
The Christmas Promise Store, open 1 to
6 p.m. Dec. 9 and 4 to 8 p.m. Dec. 10 and
11 at St. Paul United Methodist Church
on Washington Street in Gainesville, is
also receiving help from WomenSource
and United Way of Hall County. Dona
tions for the store will be taken at the
Family Promise Day Center, United Way
and other locations around Hall County
through Dec. 5. Family Promise is asking
for no clothes, coats, hats or shoes.
“This is the first year we’re doing it, but
we’re hoping it will become a tradition in
our community where we can help many,
many families,” Ayers said.
The store will be set up at the church
with tables and separated into different
sections — electronics here, bicycles
there. Ayers said she hopes they’re able
to move it into a real storefront someday
so it gives off the true feeling of shopping
for Christmas.
After signing up for a specific time
slot, each family will be assigned a per
sonal shopper to help grab things from
the tables and decide on different items.
Families will be limited to three items per
child.
“We’re hoping to have a stocking area
where we’ll either have pre-stuffed stock
ings or stockings that families can fill for
their children,” Ayers said.
There will be a gift-wrapping station,
too.
All the money that comes in will go into
a Christmas Promise Store fund to help
repay expenses from things like signage,
wrapping paper and tables needed for the
store and any future needs it might have.
“We don’t expect there to be much
money made, though,” Ayers said.
It may seem counterintuitive, having
families who need a little extra help dur
ing the holidays pay for things, but it’s
something that has worked for Focused
Community Strategies’ Pride for Parents
store in Atlanta over the years, and now,
Ayers is hoping it works for the Hall com
munity, too.
“We’ve kind of modeled it around their
concept where we are taking donations of
new toys, and then we will create a store
and we actually will price the toys,” Ayers
said. “They’ll be priced between $2 and
$10 depending on what the item is.”
The store will be filled with all sorts of
■ Please see PROMISE, 3C
Christmas Promise Store
Where: St. Paul United Methodist
Church, 404 Washington St. NW,
Gainesville
When: 1 to 6 p.m. Dec. 9 and 4 to 8
p.m. Dec. 10 and 11
Donate: Through Dec. 5 at Family
Promise Day Center, 1001 Riverside
Drive, Gainesville
Volunteer: Email info@womensource.
info
More info: Call 770-535-0786 or
email anne@familypromisehall.org
North Hall
fire displaces
one resident
BY LAYNE SALIBA
lsaliba@gainesvilletimes.com
One person was displaced after a fire at a
North Hall home Saturday morning.
As rain fell around 8:30 a.m., Hall County Fire
Services responded to the fire in the 8900 block
of Bill Savage Road, near the White County line,
Capt. Zachary Brackett said in a news release.
The 1,400-square-foot home had “heavy fire
showing” when units, including White County
Fire Services’ water tender, arrived.
Brackett said they used a defensive attack
“which transitioned to an offensive attack and
the fire was quickly extinguished.”
No injuries were reported and the displaced
person will be staying with friends in the area.
The cause of the fire is undetermined.
For The Times
A fire in North Hall displaced one person
Saturday, Dec. 2.
Christmas in
the Park brings
Lula together
BY KENNETH HUCKS
khucks@gainesvilltimes.com
The city of Lula said it would host its Christ
mas in the Park celebration Saturday “rain
or shine,” and despite the cold rain, the com
munity still came together to celebrate the
upcoming holiday season.
Lula city manager Dennis Bergin said there
was a decline in attendance over last year, but
understood the weather kept people away.
“It was pouring like cats and dogs up until
about an hour ago,” Bergin said. “So, we
understand that, but hopefully we’ll make the
best of it. Santa’s still coming. I just talked to
him a minute ago and he’s excited to be here.”
Among the attractions were booths headed
by local businesses, churches, and the closing
parade which acts as the headlining moment
of the celebration. Each booth handed out
free food, from baked goods to hot bever
ages. While the event came together as a
Christmas celebration, including churches,
a Santa for the kids and performers singing
Christmas carols, businesses were also pres
ent, with business owners viewing it as a way
for people to get to know the community at
large, including Lula Pharmacy & Foothills
Gift Shop Pharmacist Amy Miller.
“I think it’s a great way to bring the whole
community together and meet people that you
just don’t get to see very much,” Miller said.
“Our lives are so busy and fast-paced now that
I think this is a great way to get everybody out
■ Please see PARK,4C
AUSTIN STEELE I The Times
Mayor of Lula Jim Grier hands out candy in the
Christmas in Lula Parade on Saturday, Dec. 1.
