About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (June 17, 2020)
10A Midweek Edition - June 17-18, 2020 The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com LOCAL New Bells Mill Bridge in North Hall to open Hiurs. SCOTT ROGERS I The Times The new Bells Mill Bridge off Cleveland Highway/U.S. 129 in North Hall is set to open to motorists on Thursday, June 18. BY JEFF GILL jgill@gainesvilletimes.com The new Bells Mill Bridge off Cleveland Highway/U.S. 129 in North Hall is set to open to motorists on Thurs day, June 18. Workers will be on the road at 9 a.m. Thursday mov ing construction barrels and doing final restriping, Geor gia Department of Transpor tation district spokeswoman Katie Strickland said. “They probably won’t actually start getting peo ple on the new bridge until the afternoon, somewhere around 3 p.m.,” she said. The project calls for replacing the old structure with a 661-foot bridge over East Fork Little River. The replacement is being done in tandem with the new Longstreet Bridge, which opened to traffic in January farther south on U.S. 129. DOT is tearing down the old bridge and will tear down the old Bells Mill Bridge. The $34 million bridge replacements have an over all official completion date of September 2020. Road crews often have a “punch list” of items to complete after opening new projects. Georgia legislators have proposed naming Bells Mill Bridge after fallen Hall County Sheriffs Office Dep uty Nicolas Blane Dixon. Senate Resolution 844 seeks to dedicate the bridge as Deputy Nicolas Blane Dixon Memorial Bridge and to authorize the DOT to put up signs at the structure. Dixon was shot and killed July 7 while chasing bur glary suspects. Local governments adapt to meetings during pandemic BY MEGAN REED mreed@gainesvilletimes.com When the COVID-19 pandemic put a hold on many in-person gatherings, local gov ernments had to find new ways to engage the public, with many moving to online meetings. The pandemic came at a busy time of year for local governments, too. Most gov ernments’ fiscal years restart July 1, so they finalize budgets in the spring. Governments are required by law to allow community members to view and par ticipate in meetings. For Hall County and many of its municipalities, the first meetings from the onset of the pandemic were held to announce a state of emergency or address the government’s response to the virus. The Gainesville City Council, for example, met March 20 to adopt a resolution encour aging people to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to slow the spread of the virus. It was the city’s first meeting on Facebook Live. “That was our first jump into it, almost out of necessity,” City Manager Bryan Lackey said. Gainesville continued to stream meet ings and work sessions on its Facebook page throughout the pandemic. Now, as some in- person gatherings resume, meetings will no longer be streamed live, although the voting meetings will be video recorded and posted online shortly after the meetings end. Officials have been missing the face-to- face interactions with community mem bers, Lackey said, and hearing comments or questions in-person during a meeting makes it easier to respond immediately. “If people are able to contact us right after looking at (the video), we’re able to be more responsive because if you do send a com ment in the middle of the meeting, we have a tough time responding to it,” Lackey said. The city kept meetings open to the pub lic during the pandemic if they wanted to attend in person or comment. Declining live viewership for the meeting videos showed demand was slipping, Lackey said, and the live stream required extra time and resources. But as the city plans website upgrades, remote participation or viewing options are still an option for the future, he said. Hall County has been live streaming its meetings on the home page of the county website and has used the GoToMeeting software to allow community members to participate. Viewers can indicate in the pro gram that they would like to comment on an item or during a public hearing. If they do not have internet access or would prefer to use the phone, they can call a designated number before the meeting item, then be included live in the meeting for commission ers to hear their input over the phone. Brian Stewart, the county’s digital media specialist, said when planning how to adapt meetings during the pandemic, staff asked, “How can we, to the best of our ability, allow the public to participate in every way that they normally could, as if we they were in person, but do that from home?” Meetings had previously been closed to the public for in-person attendance, but now, people have the option to participate from home or go to the Hall County Government Center, where the meeting room has been set up for social distancing. Stewart said live streaming has some times required additional staffing. While the county has not hired more people for the online meetings, county Management Information Systems employees have been helping. “It takes a bit more manpower in the back room to run the meetings. Ordinarily, when we were just recording video, it was just me back there,” Stewart said. “But now, if it’s a busier meeting there could be a crew of five or six people back there.” County spokeswoman Katie Crumley said that while officials have not decided how long the live streams will continue, making them more permanent is an option. “While things may not look exactly as they have the past few months, there are some things we are very interested in maintaining if possible, and the live stream certainly is one of those,” Crumley said. Flowery Branch has also been using GoTo Meeting and will return to in-person meet ings June 18. City Clerk Vickie Short said the program allowed people to view what they would see on the screen at in-person meet ing, as well as provide input. “It’s pretty much the same, with the excep tion of us just not being there together,” Short said. Lula has been holding meetings over Zoom, publicizing log-in information and providing an email address for people to submit questions or comments. “What we’ve been doing works pretty well for us. That much we’re very apprecia tive of,” City Manager Dennis Bergin said. The technology has also been useful for scheduling meetings by providing more flexibility because people can participate from anywhere, Bergin said. The City Coun cil and staff members will be able to use it for committee meetings moving forward, he said. Videoconferencing has also proven helpful for larger meetings, including a dis trict Georgia Municipal Association meeting that saw higher attendance from people who may not have been able to travel before, Bergin said. The Hall County Board of Education has also been using Zoom. For some meetings, board members have been together in per son at the school board offices, and for oth ers, they have been participating remotely, but remote access has been allowed for com munity members either way, according to Kevin Bales, Hall County Schools’ assistant superintendent of teaching and learning. Bales said meetings have been streamed on YouTube and viewership has averaged about 25 to 30 people. Community members could email in questions or comments dur ing board meetings. Bales said that while live streaming was not widely used before the pandemic, its future use is being discussed. “Just like we’re looking instructional-wise, I think there’s certain things as we move for ward that we’ll have to seriously consider, that we did during this time of pandemic, and I think that’s one of the pieces that we have for conversation,” Bales said. Videoconferencing could be especially useful for professional development, Bales said, although in many cases in-person meet ings may still work better. “As you’re moving around and you’re meeting with different individuals, it sure doesn’t feel the same way as it does when you’re using Zoom and you’re captivated at your desk or your house... Just because you can have a Zoom meeting doesn’t mean you should,” he said. Clermont Mayor James Nix said Clermont Town Council’s meeting place, the Clermont Chattahoochee Center, provides enough space for social distancing, so Clermont has not had to switch to virtual meetings. ROBBERY ■ Continued from 1A spokesman Derreck Booth wrote in a news release. “Deputies immediately called Hall County Fire Services, who arrived quickly and transported him to Northeast Georgia Medical Center where he later died.” The Sheriff’s Office was first called to investigate the reported armed rob bery at 3 p.m. Monday, June 15, at a home in the 1,300 block of Marlow Drive, where the man allegedly robbed another man and woman at gun point and drove away in a black Nissan with cash. While driving to the scene, deputies spotted the suspect’s car at Mar low Drive and West Ridge Road. The man drove away from an attempted traffic stop, Booth wrote. Gainesville Police joined in the pursuit for a short while, and the man wrecked when circling back to where deputies first spotted the car at Mar low and West Ridge. Deputies found a bag with a handgun and cash on the ground between the man’s legs, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Booth said the man had an outstanding felony pro bation warrant in Harris County and one warrant for possession of danger ous drugs in San Francisco County in California. The robbery is still under investigation by the Sher iff’s Office, while the wreck is under the Georgia State Patrol’s purview. The man’s body was sent to the medical examiner for an autopsy. WE NEED YOUR HELP FUNDING REPORTING IN OUR COMMUNITY We ask you to consider making a donation today, to support our team of experts in community journalism. Your donation goes to work immediately, protecting and expanding our ability to cover local issues that have a direct impact on our community. Even a small donation goes a long way to supporting journalism that holds power accountable and drives change. She Sftnes gainesvilletimes.com DONATE NOW Visit: gainesvilletimes.com/donate or fill out and mail the form below with your donation. Please fill out the information below and mail with your donation. 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