Police, first responders hold
public safety parades
in Hall neighborhoods. ufe,4a
TUESDAY, APRIL 14,2020 | GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA | gainesvilletimes.com
Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce
to hold online networking sessions.
INSIDE, 6A
Honestly Local
Hall to get temporary medical unit
Facility expected to be operational in Gainesville by May 5
Associated Press
The state has purchased four
temporary medical units to expand
bed capacity, and Gainesville will
have one of them operational May
5, Gov. Brian Kemp announced
Monday.
Other units will be in Rome,
Albany and Macon.
The announcement was made
during a press briefing April 13 at
Liberty Plaza in Atlanta.
More information was to be
made available later from the Gov
ernor’s Office.
The number of confirmed cases
of the new coronavirus crossed
13,000 Monday in Georgia, while
the number of deaths from COVID-
19, the respiratory illness caused
by the virus, rose to at least 464.
Nursing homes and assisted
living facilities continue to be
hotspots for infections in the state.
The South Central Health District
said Sunday that 16 people have
tested positive for the virus at an
unnamed long-term care facil
ity in Wilcox County, northeast of
Albany. The state Department of
Public Health last week confirmed
infections in 80 long-term care
facilities statewide, with at least 81
deaths resulting.
Kemp said Monday afternoon
that lags in testing capabilities
“continue to frustrate” officials as
the state works to increase hospital
bed capacity ahead of a projected
peak in infections.
“We have got to have enough
hospital beds when we reach our
peak, we’ve got to do more testing
and we’ve got to continue to focus
on our long-term care facilities,”
Kemp said.
Wilcox County is one of a num
ber of counties statewide that has
recently seen jackrabbit growth
in the number of confirmed infec
tions, along with Muscogee County,
which includes Columbus, and
Richmond County, which includes
Augusta. It’s unclear whether that
growth represents spread of the
■ Please see UNIT, 3A
Storms move across state
Photos by SCOTT ROGERS I The Times
A house on River Run Circle has major damage from a fallen tree due to storms that hit overnight April 12-13.
Downed trees damage homes; 7 people displaced in Hall
BY NICK WATSON
nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com
Tiffany Terveen had dreams all night
of trees falling. She made her 11-year-old
daughter sleep downstairs out of fear of a
tree crashing through the upstairs room.
As Terveen was getting ready Monday
morning for her day, it finally happened
but in the next-door neighbor’s yard.
“I hit the ground and took cover
because I thought there was a tree falling
on my house,” said Terveen of Cameron
Circle in Gainesville.
The tree fell around 8 a.m. Monday,
April 13, in a spot similar to where one
fell from a storm a few years ago.
Five adults and seven children were
displaced from two homes off of River
Run Circle in northeast Hall County after
several trees fell as strong storms moved
through the area overnight.
No one was injured, Hall County Emer
gency Management reported in the early
Overnight storms damaged property on
Cameron Circle in Hall County.
morning hours Monday.
The American Red Cross was con
tacted to help with lodging.
Hall County Fire Services Division
Chief Zach Brackett said there were five
homes countywide struck by trees.
Hall County residents with damage can
report it to the county online.
No one particular area was hit hard,
Brackett said, as incidents were scattered
around the county.
The system moved across the South
overnight, with a tornado spotted north of
Meridian near the Alabama state line and
several tornadoes striking Mississippi.
Around 750,000 people were without
power early Monday in a 10-state swath
ranging from Texas to Georgia up to West
Virginia, according to poweroutages.us.
In Hall County, a few thousand were with
out power in the early hours, and 35 Geor
gia Power customers were still affected
at 5 p.m. Monday.
Jackson EMC reported a handful of
customers without power, and Sawnee
EMC reported no Hall County outages
at 5 p.m. News outlets reported downed
trees, flooded streets and other damage
in Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia,
but the National Weather Service hadn’t
immediately confirmed additional tor
nado touchdowns.
The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
School year
end not early
but altered
BY NATHAN BERG
nberg@gainesvilletimes.com
Gainesville City School System students,
parents and faculty now have a bit more clar
ity on how the remainder of the school year
will go.
In a statement released on Monday after
noon by Gainesville City Schools superinten
dent Jeremy Williams, the system laid out a
plan for how assignments and grades will be
handled as the year draws to a close.
All school assignments will be completed
and submitted by May 1 for students to
receive credit. The remaining days of the
school year following May 1 will focus on the
individual needs of students, including offer
ing recovery and remediation, as well as
sorting out missing assignments from earlier
in the year. School will still run through the
scheduled last day of class on May 20.
Seniors will be notified of their gradua
tion status no later than May 12. The school
system is still weighing all available options
regarding a graduation ceremony, but final
plans will be announced no later than April
24.
All report cards will be mailed by “the
beginning of June.” Kindergarten through
eighth grade students will receive grades
of either “Pass” or “Fail” for each course
completed, except for middle school stu
dents enrolled in high school classes. All par
ticipants in high school courses will receive
numeric grades for each high school class
completed.
Gainesville City Schools are also not
expecting to host summer school classes this
summer, “although some instruction may be
provided for small groups of students in an
online format.”
The school system is still working out the
best option for students to reclaim personal
items left in school buildings, as well as to
return school-owned devices distributed to
students without the proper access to requi
site technology for online learning.
Gainesville City Schools will provide more
information on these issues no later than
April 24.
Inside
■ Hall school board moves ESPLOST vote
to June 9,3A
■ Hall County Library System offering free
online tutoring resource, test prep, 3A
IRS has begun issuing $1,200 economic stimulus checks
BY JEFF GILL
jgill@gainesvilletimes.com
Bank accounts could start get
ting bigger this week, as the IRS
begins issuing economic stimulus
checks.
Those who make less than
$75,000 a year will receive direct
payments of $1,200 per individ
ual, or $2,400 for a joint return,
plus $500 per dependent. This
will phase out for incomes above
$75,000, or $150,000 for joint filings.
Checks will go straight to bank
accounts for those with direct
deposit information on file with
the IRS.
The agency is set to roll out an
online tool, Get My Payment, on
Friday, April 17, that will allow
those without bank information on
file with the IRS to also get their
money through direct deposit,
according to a news release.
Get My Payment also will
allow users to check the status of
their payment, including when
it is scheduled to be deposited or
mailed to them.
Those who don’t provide bank
information will automatically get
a paper check, with reports sug
gesting that checks will be mailed
in waves throughout the summer.
A document from the House
Ways and Means Committee in
Congress says the IRS will make
about 60 million payments to
Americans through direct deposit
in mid-April, likely starting this
week.
The IRS has direct deposit infor
mation for these individuals from
their 2018 or 2019 tax returns.
Then, starting the week of May
4, the IRS will begin issuing paper
checks to individuals, says the
memo obtained by the Associated
Press on Thursday. The paper
checks will be issued at a rate of
about 5 million per week, which
means it could take up to 20 weeks
to get all the checks out. That time
line would delay some checks until
the week of Aug. 17.
According to the IRS, those who
don’t normally file taxes can still
get a stimulus payment by filling
out information online. This group
includes people with too little
income to file — single filers who
made under $12,200 and married
couples making less than $24,400
in 2019.
Automatic payments will also go
out soon for those receiving Social
Security retirement or disability
benefits and Railroad Retirement
benefits.
Those who have been claimed
on someone else’s return aren’t eli
gible for a stimulus payment.
The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
