MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2018 | $1.00 | GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA | gainesvilletimes.com
Honestly Local
Halfway done on Ga. 347 widening
S10.4 million road project on schedule to hit October 2019 completion date
BY JEFF GILL
jgill@gainesvilletimes.com
Construction has hit high gear
on Lanier Islands Parkway/Ga.
347 between Lanier Islands resort
and McEver Road in South Hall
County.
Despite a rainy year, the $10.4
million project is on schedule and
more than halfway done, Georgia
Department of Transportation
spokeswoman Katie Strickland
said in an email last week.
“It is fair to say we will meet the
current scheduled completion day
of Oct. 31,2019,” she said.
Work began in late summer 2017
to widen the road from two to three
lanes, basically adding a center
turn lane along a 2.4-mile stretch,
and adding a 10-foot multiuse path
on one side of the road and a 5-foot
sidewalk on the other.
A main feature of the new road
will be a roundabout just north of
where New Bethany and Big Creek
roads connect with Ga. 347. A cem
etery at that intersection forced a
realignment of Ga. 347 in that area.
The roundabout has been built,
“but we haven’t shifted traffic, as
we need to complete laying asphalt
and installing lighting and side
walks,” Strickland said.
The DOT had one small shift
of traffic in mid-October, but no
major shifts or opening of new
lanes is expected before spring,
she said.
Otherwise, “there is currently a
temporary concrete barrier keep
ing traffic safe from .. lane build
ing,” Strickland said.
Once completed, Ga. 347 will be
widened from Lanier Islands to
Ga. 211/Old Winder Highway in
Braselton.
“From a transportation stand
point, it is the final piece tying us
into 1-85,” Lanier Islands Vice
President Grier Todd said in an
August 2017 interview.
The entire project was broken
up in phases over several years,
with Ga. 347 widened to mostly six
lanes between Interstate 985 and
Ga. 211. Ga. 211 leads to Interstate
85 in Barrow County.
Ga. 347 is known as Lanier
Islands Parkway between the
resort and 1-985 and as Friendship
Road between 1-985 and Ga. 211.
AUSTIN STEELE I THE TIMES I The Times
Road work takes place Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018 on Ga. 347 to widen
the road from McEver Road to Lanier Islands Resort.
Photos by SCOTT ROGERS I The Times
Members of Heather Wayne’s Performing Arts studio take part in the annual Christmas on Green Street parade
Sunday, Dec. 2, 2018.
Cheery, bright and warm
Christmas on Green St.
draws crowd for parade
BY JEFF GILL
jgill@gainesvilletimes.com
The weather was more toasty than frosty, but that
didn’t stop the hundreds who lined Green Street Sun
day evening for a 40-car Christmas parade.
And for many, like longtime friends Mary Beth
Wood and Shanna Cronic of Gainesville, the annual
Christmas on Green Street — which also features
food, activities and stately homes opening to the pub
lic — has become a tradi-
Online
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gainesvilletimes to
view photos from
The Times’ annual
Christmas photo
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tion for them and their
families.
“Back in our day, we
used to take (our chil
dren) on a hayride and
go caroling,” Cronic
said. “We didn’t have the
parade.”
To secure a good viewing spot on the route, they
have to arrive early.
“Absolutely,” Wood said. “This (event) has
grown.”
Warm, dry weather marked the Dec. 2 event,
which has been hit in past years by heavy rains and
subfreezing temperatures.
People flooded Green Street long before the
parade and mingled along sidewalks. Then the
parade came, filled with fire and police vehicles,
dancers, bands, antique cars — and of course, candy,
flung by participants to spectators.
Santa Claus brought up the rear aboard his tradi
tional fire truck.
■ Please see GREEN, 6A
Santa closes out the annual Christmas on Green Street
parade Sunday, Dec. 2, 2018, atop a Gainesville Fire
Department truck.
A camel participates in the annual parade.
GAINESVILLE
City Council
votes Tuesday
on Brenau lease,
capital upgrades
BY MEGAN REED
mreed@gainesvilletimes.com
Gainesville City Council will vote Tuesday on updates
on two separate items: the city’s lease agreement for
Brenau University’s Downtown Center and its capital
improvement plan. The council also will vote on a rezon
ing that would allow new housing on Athens Street.
Updated lease for Brenau Downtown Center
Council members will vote on an updated lease agree
ment for the Brenau
Downtown Center, with
the city taking over as
landlord to replace the
Gainesville Redevelop
ment Authority.
According to the
agreement, the redevel
opment authority lacks
the staff and resources
needed to stay on as landlord under a new lease that will
give Brenau University the space to expand its programs.
David Barnett, executive vice president and chief
financial officer at Brenau, said Brenau wants to develop
the second floor of the Downtown Center to house its
physician assistant program, which the university hopes
to launch in January 2021.
Barnett said the lease agreement would also give the
city the ability to use the Downtown Center for extra
meeting space.
Updates to capital improvement plan
The city is updating its capital improvement plan to
adjust for projected population growth. The plan looks at
future needs for the police, fire and parks departments,
which all benefit from impact fees, one-time charges to
developers for new projects.
Plans include adding new police and fire stations,
building new community centers, and investing in train
ing facilities for the police and fire departments. The
report projects growth and estimates needs for the next
20 years.
The public can comment on the plan before the coun
cil votes on whether to send it to the Georgia Mountains
Regional Commission.
Athens Street duplexes
Five residential duplexes with a total of 10 units may
be built on Athens Street near Mill Street and the Burger
King restaurant.
Council members will hold a public hearing and
vote on whether to rezone about 0.8 acres of land from
residential and heavy industrial to residential for the
duplexes.
Each unit would be about 1,100 square feet in size with
two bedrooms, two bathrooms and two parking spaces
per unit. Five driveways are proposed off of Mill Street
and two driveways would be built off Athens Street.
At a Nov. 13 Gainesville Planning and Appeals Board
meeting, two community members said they had rela
tives who lived in the area who were concerned about
traffic impacts. The planning board approved the rezon
ing request.
Rent for the units would be about $800 to $900 per
month, applicant Eddie Martin Jr. said Nov. 13.
Gainesville City
Council
When: 5:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Dec. 4
Where: Public Safety
Complex, 701 Queen
City Parkway
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Lake Lanier level: 1,070.74 feet
Full pool 1,071. Up 0,42 feet in 24 hours
