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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2018 | $1.00 | GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA | gainesvilletimes.com
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LIFE, 4B
Honestly Local
FLOWERY BRANCH
Apartments, retail project pitched
City to co-host open house meetings to discuss downtown development
BY JEFF GILL
jgill@gainesvilletimes.com
An Atlanta developer’s ambitious plans
for Flowery Branch will be on display for
residents this week.
The Residential Group is hosting an
open house today concerning plans for
downtown redevelopment.
The company is proposing to turn prop
erty now occupied by the former City
Hall and police station on Main Street
between Railroad Avenue and Church
Street into a multi-use development fea
turing 15 apartments
and 7,700 square feet of
ground-level retail.
The open house will
take place at 6 p.m. in
the old City Hall, 5517
Main St.
And then, on Thurs
day, Dec. 6, Flowery
Branch City Coun
cil will consider The
Residential Group’s request to rezone a
long-vacant 37-acre site off Phil Niekro
Boulevard for a proposed 324-unit
apartment complex.
As for the open house, “it’s really (the
developer’s) meeting,” City Manager Bill
Andrew said. “We’re just helping co-host
it. We’ll be there to answer questions and
all that.”
Kurt R. Alexander, principal for The
Residential Group, couldn’t be reached
for comment this week.
Flowery Branch City Council voted
Nov. 15 to approve $5 million from
tax allocation district money to offset
■ Please see FLOWERY, 6A
Andrew
Open house
What: Downtown redevelopment project proposed
by Atlanta-based The Residential Group
When: 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 5, and 6 p.m.
Dec. 19
Where: 5517 Main St., Flowery Branch
More info: 770-967-6371
Proposed rezoning
What: The Residential Group, an Atlanta-based
developer, is seeking a rezoning to allow for
a 324-unit apartment complex on Phil Niekro
Boulevard
When: 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 6
Where: Flowery Branch City Flail, 5410 Pine St.
More info: 770-967-6371 orflowerybranchga.org
Updating government access
Photos by SCOTT ROGERS I The Times
Hall County Public Information Officer Katie Crumley visits the TV 18 editing suite Tuesday, Dec. 4, at the Hall County
Government Center. Hall County and Gainesville announced Monday, Dec. 3, that its joint video production team will phase
out cable broadcasts and move toward a more “online-driven video content model.”
Gainesville
man charged
with killing
his mother
BY LAYNE SALIBA
lsaliba@gainesvilletimes.com
A Gainesville man was charged Monday with
killing his mother after she was found in her
home with a gunshot wound to the head.
Linda Arrington, 69, of
Gainesville, was found by her
husband around 6:30 a.m. in
their Skyview Drive home off
Ahaluna Drive. Robert Timo
thy Stargel, 54, is charged with
murder.
“Deputies and paramedics
responded to the residence
where it was determined that
foul play was suspected in the
death,” wrote Lt. Scott Ware of the Hall County
Sheriff’s Office, in a news release.
Stargel was arrested in the 1600 block of Oak
Brook Drive, although Ware said he was living
at the Skyview Drive address.
The number listed for the Skyview Drive
address was disconnected when called Tuesday
by The Times.
Stargel was booked into the Hall County Jail
on Monday afternoon. The case remains under
investigation.
Stargel
TV-18 will be replaced with more online, social media content
BY JOSHUA SILAVENT
jsilavent@gainesvilletimes.com
Gainesville and Hall County govern
ments are shifting to provide more
social media and online streaming con
tent to residents as they plan to pull the
plug on the local government access
channel, TV-18, at the end of the year.
The move follows the retirement this
year of Gainesville spokeswoman Catiel
Felts and TV-18 manager Ronny Childs.
The two had been responsible for
much of the production and content
that aired on the channel, including
city council and county commission
meetings.
“Ronny did incredible things for the
city of Gainesville and Hall County,”
said Hall County spokeswoman Katie
Crumley.
Their departures, however, left local
officials to examine how to move for
ward and whether to “alter or rein
vent” TV-18.
Crumley said the county and city
took a survey from residents and “the
feedback we received is that (people)
are not watching traditional cable as
much.”
Some cable providers also do not
offer TV-18.
Additionally, most respondents pre
ferred receiving information online
and through social media, Crumley
said, while TV-18 was more focused on
longer-form content to fill 30-minute or
hour-long segments.
So, that means turning to more
online content to “meet people where
they are,” she added.
One thing that won’t change: City
council and county commission meet
ings will still be recorded and broad
cast on the local government websites.
“We want to make clear that (resi
dents) will still have access,” Crumley
said. “We’re going to continue to do
that.”
Hall County has already hired Brian
Stewart, a reporter and radio host at
AccessWDUN in Gainesville, to fill a
digital media specialist role to support
more web content production, press
releases, newsletters, graphic design
and photography.
Expanding local government’s
messaging, which could include pub
lic meeting information and special
events, through new mediums like
Facebook Live should remain a budget-
neutral proposition, Crumley said.
TV-18 costs about $250,000 annually
to operate, split between the city and
county governments, and Crumley
said she expects savings to come in the
years ahead.
‘We want to make clear that (residents) will still have access. We’re going to
continue to do that.’ Katie Crumley, Hall County Public Information Officer
Man accused of
trying to meet boy
via Fortnite game
BY NICK WATSON
nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com
A Pennsylvania man and former basketball
coach allegedly had sexually charged online
conversations with a 13-year-old Hall County
boy through the online game Fortnite and tried
to meet him, according to authorities.
What he didn’t know was
that a Hall County Sheriff’s
Office detective assumed the
boy’s online identity after the
13-year-old told his mother
who then reported it to law
enforcement Oct. 23.
The boy and Gregory Man-
cini, 29, of Erie, Pennsylvania,
played the shooter game Fort
nite on Xbox and communi
cated through the console’s headset.
“Over the course of several weeks, the two
began to video chat, and the man turned the
conversation to sexual subject matter. As the
contact continued, the man said that he planned
to travel to metro Atlanta and wanted to meet
with the boy,” Sheriff’s Office spokesman Der-
reck Booth wrote in a Dec. 4 news release.
On Nov. 2, the Multi-Agency Narcotics Squad
investigators contacted Mancini, who said he
was in the Atlanta area.
“I believe this guy was coming to Atlanta for
other business... or maybe to visit other family
in the state of Georgia,” Lt. Don Scalia said.
The sheriff’s office reported Mancini became
■ Please see GAME, 6A
Mancini
INSIDE
WEATHER 2A
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Opinion 4A
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Lake Lanier level: 1,070.93 feet
Full pool 1,071. Down 0.11 feet in 24 hours
DEATHS 7A
Linda Susan Arrington, 69
Lois Lingerfelt Beck Arthur, 87
Frank James Bell, 65
Ethelyn Savage Brock, 82
Howard Lee Carnes, 83
Carlos Cobb, 32
Christopher John Corless, 39
Pedro Escalera, 72
Gina Leigh Faulk, 49
Ralph Hadaway, 59
Dorothy Gail Hall, 58
Jeffery Allen Hughes, 57
John Humphries, 91
John Richard Ingrisano, 68
Richard Landy, 87
Morris Allen McCall, 75
Bobby John McMahan, 85
Simion Medrea, 77
David Mele, 68
Kimberly Jaye Moore, 20
Cecil E. Murphy, 75
Roshan Lai Sharma, 83
Clifton Avery Stroud, 86
Mildred Fowler Wood, 95
