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.
