About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 25, 2020)
4A Tuesday, August 25, 2020 The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com LOCAL Commissioners to vote Thursday on S. Hall apartments Lanier officer named top game warden BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com A Department of Natural Resources game warden assigned to cover Lake Lanier was named the 2020 Game Warden of the Year. Ryan Locke, of Hall County, won the honors, and a game warden assigned to Talbot County was the runner up for the award. Locke is the boating safety officer on Lake Lanier. According to a news release, he inves tigated a poaching case leading to 63 violations identified for seven different Locke poachers. “These game wardens have emerged as leaders this past year,” DNR Commissioner Mark Williams said in a statement. “They work hard every day to enforce the conservation laws of the state and to ensure public safety and I applaud their contributions.” The Hall County Board of Commissioners will vote Thursday, Aug. 27 on a 350-unit apartment complex on Thompson Mill Road. The 31-acre development would have 13 residential buildings, a clubhouse, swimming pool. It is set to be com plete in 2022. The development would be east of Spout Springs Road and next to the Oaks at Braselton assisted living center. Applicant Rochester & Associates is asking for rezon ing from agricultural-residential to planned residential development for the project. The county’s planning commission, which delayed a vote on the project twice, recommended approval of the proposal at an Aug. 3 meeting. The development has drawn some opposition from nearby residents with con cerns about overcrowding, traffic and pressure on local infrastructure. Commissioners will hold a public hearing before vot ing on the rezoning Thursday. Comments can be submit ted online, and the meeting will be livestreamed on the county website. Jeff Gill Hall County Board of Commissioners When: 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 27 Where: Hall County Government Center, 2875 Browns Bridge Road, Gainesville Zoom outages nationwide disrupt first day of school Associated Press Zoom experienced partial outages Mon day, Aug. 24, as thousands of students nation wide returned for their first day of school. Many are relying on the video conferencing technology to connect with educators. The company said Monday that it began receiving reports of disruptions around 9 a.m. It resolved the issue around 11:30 a.m., it reported on its status page. Hall County students started Monday on a hybrid schedule. Gainesville students have been attending school virtually since Aug. 17. Hall reported Zoom was out Monday morning but back online by about 10 a.m. Teachers used Canvas to communicate dur ing the outage. Gainesville used Google Meet for online conferencing during the outage. The district planned to return to exclusively using Zoom on Tuesday. Technical issues occurred across the U.S., with the most reports on the East Coast, as well as in Europe, according to downde- tector.com, which monitors self-reported outages. Grade schools, high schools and univer sities are relying on Zoom and competing technologies like Microsoft Teams to learn remotely and reduce the chance of infection during the pandemic. The first day of school has rolled out throughout the country over the past sev eral weeks, a hybrid of in-person and online classes. Last year, about 21% of school dis tricts and 14 % of elementary and secondary student, began instruction during the last week in August, according to Pew Research. Some school districts like New York City, the nation’s largest, don’t begin until after Labor Day. Zoom Video Communications became a familiar tool to millions of new users after the spread of COVID-19 made face-to-face meetings risky. It now has about 300 million users. It suffered some growing pains during the early months of the pandemic, such as “ zoombombers “ who crashed meetings, but successfully went public in April. Times staff writer Nathan Berg contributed. Web tracker reports Hall school COVID-19 absences BY NATHAN BERG nberg@gainesvilletimes.com Parents and others can view just how many COVID-19 absences are being reported at their Hall County school thanks to a tracker on the district’s website. Those interested can click the banner labeled “Existing COVID positive absences at schools” on the main page of the district’s website to view data on how many students and staff members per school are absent due to a positive COVID-19 test. On Monday, the total among all the district’s schools was 25, with South Hall Middle School reporting the most cases at five total. In a YouTube video released on Monday, Hall County Superintendent Will Schofield said the data would be updated daily. The sheet also includes data on of the percentage of students whose temperatures were checked at various schools, as well as results of voluntary random COVID-19 tests performed. “We firmly believe that mitigation prac tices, that testing and tracing are the way that we will stay ahead of this pandemic, so that we can continue to meet the needs of our boys and girls,” Schofield said in the video. The district returned to school Monday on a hybrid schedule. The Times is proud to present our 2020 High School Football Kickoff Schedule, each publication starting on Aug. 22 and ending on Sept. 9 will highlight our local teams. Make sure to check back with us each week to hear about your favorite teams! PUBLICATION COVERAGE SCHEDULE Aug. 22: Gainesville and Lanier Christian Aug. 26: Johnson and Flowery Branch Aug. 29: Cherokee Bluff and North Hall Sep. 2:West Hall and Lakeview Academy Sep. 9: Chestatee and East Hall This sports coverage Northeast Georgia sponsored by Health System t £fmes gainesvillelimes.com Times file photo Hearing set on bus service changes BY JEFF GILL jgill@gainesvilletimes.com Hall Area Transit’s fixed- route public transportation system, Gainesville Connec tion, is looking to stop ser vice on two of its five routes, and the public will have opportunities to weigh in. The system is considering eliminating routes 20 and 30, which have many stops in the Gainesville area, including Northeast Georgia Medical Center Gainesville, as one of several operational changes in the system possi bly taking effect in October. Still, the two routes “have not been very effective,” said Phillippa Lewis Moss, director of Gainesville- Hall County Community Services. “They have low ridership. The routes we’re keeping are literally stand ing-room only.” Data shows the four- year average ridership was 20,428 for Route 20 and 21,770 for Route 30, Gainesville Connection What: Public hearings on proposed changes to the fixed-route public transportation system When/where: In-person hearings set for 9 a.m., 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. Monday, Aug. 31, at the Gainesville Connection Administration Building, 687 Main St., Gainesville. A virtual meeting also is set for 8 a.m. Sept. 8. To join the Zoom meeting, visit us02web. zoom.us/j/87992553721 and type in the meeting ID number, 87992553721. compared to numbers near 30,000 for other routes. Hall Area Transit also is proposing to reduce oper ating hours for routes 10, 40 and 50 from 6 a.m.-6 p.m. weekdays to 8 a.m.-4 p.m., which “seem to be the peak hours for people going to work, going to daycare, going to school,” Moss said. The biggest change is roll ing out WeGo, a new, shuttle like microtransit system that operates like Uber or Lyft, with users digitally schedul ing pick-up times or calling Hall Area Transit office to set up a ride. “This is a service that, because it’s so new and uses technology, will attract younger people, so this is an opportunity to really expand our ridership like noth ing else we’ve ever done before,” Phillippa Lewis Moss, director of Gaines- ville-Hall County Commu nity Services, previously told The Times. Gainesville-Hall County Community Services over sees Hall Area Transit. In-person public hearings on the proposed changes are set for 9 a.m., 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. Monday, Aug. 31, at the Gainesville Connection Administration Building, 687 Main St., Gainesville. A virtual meeting also is set for 8 a.m. Sept. 8. To join the Zoom meet ing, visit us02web.zoom. us/j/87992553721 and type in the meeting ID number, 87992553721. Comments can also be mailed to Moss at Hall Area Transit Gainesville Connection, 687 Main St., Gainesville, GA 30501, or emailed to her at pmoss@gainesvillega.gov.
