About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 16, 2018)
OUR REGION Shannon Casas Editor in Chief | 770-718-3417 | news@gainesvilletimes.com She Strnes gainesvilletimes com Sunday, December 16, 2018 Don’t get up: Restaurants will now bring dinner to your door Photos by SCOTT ROGERS I The Times McDonald’s locations in Gainesville went live on the Uber Eats app Thursday, Nov. 29, with the first food delivery order coming to the Jesse Jewell Parkway restaurant. Third-party food delivery a growing trend in Hall County Gainesville Coffee Shop’s Nikki Forrester makes a delivery of food Wednesday, Dec. 12, during lunch. The restaurant has been using the app ChowNow for deliveries and other types of food orders for five years. BY JEFF GILL jgill@gainesvilletimes.com Ordering food through a third- party delivery service isn’t just a big-city thing anymore. Several companies are making inroads into Hall County, partnering with area restaurants to help satisfy the mealtime cravings of customers too busy or tired to make the cross town drive to a favorite eatery. With a few clicks on a website or mobile phone app, customers can get food rushed to their home or office. Uber Eats, once confined to metro Atlanta, is now pushing farther out, including an area stretching from Gainesville to Oakwood. GrubHub, which also operates Seamless, has food delivery in the Gainesville and South Hall areas. Suwanee-based Choices to You expanded last year beyond Gwin nett County serving fast-growing South Hall. “We’re planning on heading to Gainesville the first part of next year,” Choices to You owner Tom Vooris said. “Business is definitely picking up.” One of Grubhub’s most predomi nant partners is Taco Bell, and that’s not just a local move for the fast- food Mexican restaurant chain. “Taco Bell delivery is currently available in thousands of restau rants as we continue rolling it out nationwide,” spokeswoman Gideon Anstey said in an email. “Through our partnership with GrubHub, we’re focusing on the convenience of delivery to ensure Taco Bell is available for any and all occasions.” In October, Uber Eats announced that by the end of 2018, it would be “rolling out into new cities to cover 70 percent of the U.S. population,” a company press release states. McDonald’s of Northeast Georgia Inc., which owns and operates local McDonald’s restaurants, joined with UberEats in Gainesville-area loca tions last month, launching with a test order at the restaurant at 707 Jesse Jewell Parkway, Gainesville. Uber Eats has delivered from the McDonald’s location off Friendship Road in Buford/South Hall for more than a year, said Kimberly Dobbs Scott, vice president of operations. Before launching at locations far ther north, McDonald’s of Northeast Georgia held a training session at the Friendship Road store. “It’s just another way to reach our customers,” Scott said of the ser vice. “It’s serving the customers in a manner in which they want to be served.” Online food ordering lines up with McDonald’s Vision 2020 plan to modernize all its restaurants, largely with technology enhance ments, “giving customers what they ■ Please see DELIVERY,3C Study: UNG fiscal impact $620 million BY JOSHUA SILAVENT jsilavent@gainesvilletimes.com The University of North Georgia, across its five cam puses and online programs, had an estimated $620 mil lion economic impact on Northeast Georgia in the 2017 fiscal year. The study measures direct and indirect spending that contributes to the univer sity’s service region. “This study is a timely reminder of the significant role UNG has in advancing eco nomic growth and prosperity in the areas we serve,” President Bonita C. Jacobs said in a press release. “The report comple ments our ongo ing work with industry and community part ners to increase educational attainment and regional eco nomic develop ment efforts that enhance this region.” While this figure, reported this month in an annual study by the Univer sity System of Georgia, comes with caveats, it reveals the growing impact UNG has had on Hall County and the wider region since its estab lishment in 2013 with the con solidation of North Georgia College & State University in Dahlonega and Gainesville State College. “At best, economic impact numbers indicate a positive contribution ... but none of them are infallible,” said Tim Evans, vice president of economic development at the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce. “The economic impact is a measure of insti tutional spending and short term benefits.” The report even acknowl edges that “there was no attempt to evaluate the long term impacts of the Univer sity System’s institutions on the economic development of the host communi ties and the state.” “More than that,” the report states, “there are long-term benefits to improv ing skills and lifelong learning in the com munity that are not accounted in an eco nomic impact of spending.” And it’s these potential long term benefits — the direct impact of jobs and ben efits and spend ing from UNG’s employment — that have Evans and officials at UNG focusing on future growth and develop ment because of the potential impacts on com munity quality of life. “Sometimes what’s lost ... is (these stud ies) don’t con sider the future value of earned income from degrees received from UNG Gaines ville (graduates),” Evans said. ■ Please see UNG, 3C Jacobs This study is a reminder of the significant role UNG has in advancing economic growth and prosperity in the areas we serve.’ Bonita C. Jacobs President of UNG DA: Woman not active participant in armed robbery BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com Prosecutors have decided to dismiss an armed robbery charge for an Oakwood woman, as the district attorney’s office determined she was not an active participant, according to court documents. Jennifer Luna-Flores was originally charged along with Damon Jackson, of Oakwood, in an armed robbery case from November 2017. “Through further investigation, includ ing interviews with (Luna-Flores), the State determined that she had suffered domestic abuse and forced sexual servitude at the hands of her co-defendant, Damon Jack- son,” according to a dismissal order signed by Northeastern Judicial Circuit District Attorney Lee Darragh. “These con versations with (Luna-Flores) also indicated she was not an active participant in the armed robbery.” ■ Please see ROBBERY, 2C Luna-Flores Soldier returns from Middle East to surprise daughter BY KENNETH HUCKS khucks@gainesvilletimes.com A University of North Georgia student found herself with an extra guest attending her graduation on Saturday when her deployed father surprised her and the rest of the family at the ceremony on the school’s Dahlonega campus. Col. Norman B. Kirby Jr. made plans to surprise his daughter Taylor Kirby two weeks prior to UNG’s graduation after his superi ors granted him permission to fly back home from the Middle East. Norman Kirby was originally set to fly back in May for his son’s high school graduation, but when the prospect of seeing Taylor Kirby’s graduation came up, his colleagues were more than supportive. “The person I work for, my boss, she was in a meeting and one of my peers had an opportunity to do this for a different event,” Nor man Kirby said. “We were sitting in a room and I brought up my son and I said, ‘Well hey, I can only do this once and my daughter’s graduating in about two weeks.’ She stopped, looked at me and said ‘put your leave form in. You’re going home.’ It just happened just like that. It wasn’t even thought out. I just had to react. As soon as she said ‘go home’ I put the leave form in, everybody supported me, and I was out of there in less than two weeks. It was really just because my leadership supported it more than I pursued it. It was awesome.” The surprise was nearly ruined when the charges for the plane ticket appeared on Norman Kir by’s wife Jan Kirby’s bank state ment, but she kept the secret in the weeks leading up to her husband’s surprise appearance. “Oh, it was so hard,” Jan said. “It’s been two or three weeks. He started it and I saw he had a charge for airplane tickets, and I thought ‘Oh gosh, he’s already bought his tickets to come home for our son’s graduating in May.’ And he was like ‘no,’ and I was like ‘what?’ It was a surprise to me. So then we started this and the school got involved, which was a big help.” Taylor Kirby said up to the moment of her father’s reveal she had no idea he was going to be there, having been told he’d be watching remotely through a livestream. “He just messaged me this morning saying he had the web site pulled up to watch it online, so I had no idea,” Taylor Kirby said. “My mom didn’t tell me anything. It’s nice that she lives far away so it’s been easier to hide.” Prior to graduating, Taylor attended UNG for four and a half years as a biology major. Both of Taylor’s parents graduated from the college in 1993 when it was known as North Georgia College and State University. Norman Kirby said she made the decision to come to attend the same school without prompting from her parents. “Taylor’s a real special person,” ■ Please see SOLDIER, 2C AUSTIN STEELE I The Times Taylor Kirby, a biology major at the University of North Georgia, cries when her father, Chip Kirby, a deployed soldier, surprises her at graduation on Saturday, Dec. 15.
