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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13,2018 | $1.00 | GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA | gainesvilletimes.com
Four Chefs face off in food fight.
GET OUT, 6A
Honestly Local
Bumps being smoothed in jail system
Sheriff’s Office seeing greater efficiency with new records management software
BY NICK WATSON
nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com
Breaking up is hard to do.
As the Hall County Sheriff’s
Office moved toward its new
records management and jail
management systems, it meant a
“divorce” between the department
sharing information with the court
house through the Comprehensive
Justice Information System.
“We’ve been married for so long
together, that since we broke up
we’re all having to relearn and do
duties that we never used to have
to do,” said Lt. Stephanie Gilbert.
But with a few weeks under their
collective belts, Sheriff’s Office
officials are reporting greater effi
ciency in the new system.
CJIS, which linked jail and
arrest information to the Hall
County court system, was first
implemented in the 1980s.
The Sheriff’s Office is now using
Superion’s ONESolution Records
Management System, Jail Man
agement System and Mobile Field
Reporting.
“In recent years, it became
apparent that CJIS would not meet
the demands of the county as it
experiences continued growth,”
Sheriff Gerald Couch said in a
statement. “One example of CJIS’s
limitations was the amount of data
entry required to keep it up to
date.”
Beginning with making reports,
deputies now have an online sys
tem that alerts them if they make a
mistake before sending it along to
a supervisor.
“It will not let you submit to a
supervisor until you’ve corrected
all the mistakes,” Gilbert said.
The report can also be tracked
in real time, and any supervisor
can sign off on a correction to a
report. The result is cutting the lag
time on giving reports to the public
by three to five days.
Deputies have in-car terminals
with access to warrant informa
tion, previous calls to a certain
location and more.
Along with the jail management
system, Capt. Sean McCusker said
this can be vitally important for
deputies working with inmates or
suspects that have been known to
be violent or have anger issues.
“In the past, you had to read
and get to a screen and hopefully
in the notes somebody put (that) in
there,” McCusker said.
Sgt. Ryan Daly can place a per
son’s ID into a reader that auto
populates information on the
monitor in his patrol car.
“I wish we had it eight years
ago when I started. It’s a huge
■ Please see SYSTEM, 8A
Midtown fire under investigation
Photos by SCOTT ROGERS I The Times
Investigations are underway to determine what caused the fire in a vacant building at Bradford Street and Industrial
Boulevard around 2:30 p.m Tuesday.
Cause of blaze in vacant building unknown, could take time to discover
BY KELSEY RICHARDSON
kricliardson@gainesvilletimes.com
Investigations began at 11 a.m. today to
determine what caused the fire that could
be seen throughout Gainesville on Tuesday.
The fire was detected in a vacant build
ing at Bradford Street and Industrial Bou
levard around 2:30 p.m. by Chad Payne,
the Gainesville Fire Department’s fire
marshal.
Keith Smith, division chief of the Gaines
ville Fire Department, said 30 firefighters
arrived on the scene and finally contained
it around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The fire spread throughout the
16,000-square-foot building, and trans
formed it into a heap of metal and wood.
Smith said the building had been
vacant for years and was once called Sign
Fabrication.
Smith said the fire could have been
caused by a homeless person or an electri
cal malfunction, but it may take some time ... , , , ,
Investigations are underway to determine what caused the fire that destroyed
■ Please see FIRE, 8A a vacant building and could be seen throughout Gainesville on Tuesday.
‘Brunch bilT
to take effect
early February
BY MEGAN REED
mreed@gainesvilletimes.com
Starting Feb. 3, diners in many parts of Hall will be
able to order alcohol at restaurants at 11 a.m.
Hall County and several local city governments plan
to vote on changes to local alcohol ordinances in Janu
ary so that laws reflect the November referendum on
the “brunch bill,” which allows for earlier Sunday alco
hol sales at restaurants.
Voters in Hall, Gainesville, Flowery Branch, Oak-
wood and Braselton approved the change on Nov. 6. The
next step is for the local governments to make it official
by adjusting their alcohol ordinances.
Ordinances must be amended by the governments to
reflect the change before restaurants can start serving.
In these locations, restaurants will be allowed to start
selling alcohol at 11 a.m. on Sundays. A bill signed by
Gov. Nathan Deal in May allows municipalities to hold
a referendum to decide whether to allow earlier sales.
Previous state law only allowed alcohol sales starting at
■ Please see BRUNCH, 8A
Sales agreement
for inland port
property approved
BY JEFF GILL
jgill@gainesvilletimes.com
An agreement with the Georgia Ports Authority to
buy land for the inland port off Ga. 365 in northeast
Hall County was formally approved by the Gainesville
and Hall County Development Authority Wednesday
morning.
The price for the 108-acre tract was nearly $5.6 mil
lion, said Tread Syfan, lawyer for the Development
Authority, which sold the land to the Georgia Ports
Authority.
The Northeast Georgia Inland Port, which will be in
Gateway Industrial Centre, will serve as a regional ter
minal for cargo heading from the Port of Savannah to
area companies. It could open in 2021.
The authority’s Dec. 12 action was a ratification of a
purchase agreement approved in an earlier executive
session.
■ Please see PORT, 8A
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Full pool 1,071. Down 0.18 feet in 24 hours
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there’s a new practice in town
Now accepting internal medicine patients.
See page A10 for more information.
770-219-8583
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