About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 9, 2020)
LOCAL The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.comMidweek Edition - September 9-10, 2020 7A BOATS ■ Continued from 1A estimated up to 2,400 boats turned up to participate, based on the nearly 1,700 boats that responded to an RVSP request, as well as the 500 to 600 boats that he said appeared to join the parade on the spot. Hundreds more gathered on shorelines at parks and marinas to wit ness the spectacle. “It was amazing,” Melton said, adding that he rode on a personal watercraft to better stage the boats. “It blows me away the support that North Georgia gave us. It just shows people coming together and supporting our great nation.” The thousands of people who showed up rode in boats from the Buford Dam to Port Royale Marina in Forsyth County and back dressed in red, white and blue, throwing fists in the air and trading horn blows with others whose boats were decorated in the same style. Many waved Trump signs or posed with cardboard cut outs of the president as they made their way around the lake from about 11 a.m. until around 2 p.m. Melton said the group had also observed a moment of silence and prayer for Department of Natural Resources region supervi sor Capt. Stan Elrod before setting off. Elrod, 49, was a 28-year veteran of the department who worked in the DNR’s Gainesville office. He was killed Thurs day, Sept. 3, after being struck by a car. “That was great just to see how many people respected him as a person and as a law enforcement officer and to see everybody come together and celebrate his life and what he’s done for our community,” Melton said. Similar parades support ing patriotism and Trump have been happening around the country in recent days, and more are planned in days ahead. ‘I don’t think we’ve ever seen this’ The parade set off from the dam around 11 a.m., just after the National Anthem could be heard blaring from a loudspeaker. At the end of the song, cheers grew from the crowd and boat horns drowned out the birds chirp ing and waves breaking on the shores at West Bank Park. That’s where Cumming residents Mary and Jim Fasano stopped by to see the gathering. “I think it’s great, and it’s a great sign of patriotism, to say the least,” Jim Fasano said, adding that the couple has lived in the area for two decades. “I don’t think we’ve ever seen this.” While the couple has a boat, they opted to stay off the water and watch the parade from the shore on Sunday. That many boats in one area is just too much action on the water, they Photos by BEN HENDREN I Forsyth County News Above, Below right: Boaters show their support during the Great American Boat Parade on Lake Lanier on Sunday, Sept. 6. Organizer Dustin Melton estimated that around 2,300 boats participated Photos by THOMAS HARTWELL I The Times Boaters show their support during the boat parade. said. “There’s a lot of new boat ers, and there’s people who will rent a boat, and they have no clue how to drive a boat,” Mary Fasano said, her husband adding that wind and the choppy water caused by the number of vessels were also concerns. While most were sup portive or indifferent to the parade, others watched in disappointment. Sisters Ahtziri, 15, and Ibana Giron, 13, of Atlanta, called the parade “disgust ing.” The two said they couldn’t understand the sup port of the president, who they called a racist. They said it made them uncom fortable while watching from the shore as their fam ily, all people of color, pre pared food over the grill. “After everything that man (Trump) has said toward women, immigrants, Hispanics, Black people, I feel like it’s very disrespect ful toward them to have a parade,” Ahtziri, a high school sophomore, who is Hispanic, said gesturing to her family’s picnic. “It just ruins the mood.” Ibana, an eighth grader at Tucker Middle School, said she asked a nearby boat if they would move farther away from her family’s pic nic, and was cursed at. “They’re very disrespect ful,” she said. At Old Federal Park in Flowery Branch, Gainesville residents Phil and Debbie Loveless searched for the best observation post near the shore, dressed in Ameri can flag attire. “I’ve just been watching it on TV,” Debbie Love less said, referring to other boat parades that had taken place. “If there’s something that comes close enough to us, then we need to go.” Debbie Loveless said she hoped the boaters would be safe, noting a boating accident that sunk “several boats” at a similar parade in Texas Saturday. But, she added, she wasn’t too concerned. Both Phil and Debbie Loveless said they wanted to come show their support for the president, who they say has delivered on his cam paign promises and whose political beliefs align with their own. Dawsonville resident Michael Stull echoed the Gainesville couple. He said when he found out about the parade, he wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Stull stood with a crowd of others on the partially constructed bridge that will replace Browns Bridge on Ga. Highway 369 while waving a large Trump flag and trading cheers as boats passed underneath him at around 2 p.m. Passing motorists honked their support at Stulls’ group as they drove by. Near where the crowd gathered, a man sold Trump shirts, flags and bumper stickers. “I think we should keep doing this. I think we should do it every week until every thing’s said and done,” he said, referring to the Nov. 3 general election. He paused to cheer when a boater approaching the bridge honked a horn and shouted “12 more years” from below. “He’s just an awe some president.” At the parade’s halfway point, Cumming residents Katherine and Corey Way- land relaxed with a group on a friend’s boat after partici pating in the parade earlier in the day. Other parade-watchers who’d come to the Port Royale Marina to see the mass of vessels showed their American spirit, one dress ing as George Washington and another dressing in a full-body American flag suit. The Waylands said they, too, showed up to support Trump and said they were proud of his work on immi gration and the economy. Katherine Wayland called the parade “unbelievable.” “Chills. I had chills the entire time. It was amazing,” she said, adding that even on choppy water, attendance was worth it. “We saw Mexi cans, Black people, we saw every race holding Ameri can flags and cheering. .. (It was) 100% the best thing I’ve ever done.” Law enforcement on lake reported no incidents Mark McKinnon, a spokesman for DNR’s law enforcement division, said the agency sent five or six boats out on the lake with two game wardens in each boat during the parade. He also said the agency would ask any groups of 50 or more to disperse, if they were not properly distanced. None that he knew of had to be asked, McKinnon added. Game Warden Kevin Goss, who attended for a patrol, said he’d never seen more boats on the lake before. “It was busier than July Fourth on a Saturday with clear weather,” Goss said. Sisters Ahtziri and Ibana Giron, as well as their extended family have a picnic Sunday at West Bank Park in Forsyth County. VOTE ■ Continued from 1A ■ Murrayville branch of the Hall County Library System ■ Spout Springs branch of the Hall County Library System ■ Chicopee Woods Agri cultural Center activities hall Voters will be able to drop off their completed absentee ballots at the early voting locations. The county will also keep its absentee ballot drop box in front of the Hall County Government Center at 2875 Browns Bridge Road in Gainesville. Ballots can also be mailed in or dropped off in-person at the elections office. The elections board also voted Tuesday to authorize the elections office to find an eighth location west of Interstate 985 and south of Browns Bridge Road to serve people in that area. Elections Director Lori Wurtz said each location costs about $27,680 for early voting. Wurtz said turnout is expected to be high, with statewide projections at about 80%. That would mean more than 100,000 people voting in Hall, she said. Wurtz said some locations that would not normally be available for voting are now empty due to COVID-19 clo sures, and the pandemic has also made elections officials adapt as they prepare for November. “I want voting to be as accessible as possible for Hall County voters, whether they’re voting in person early, in person on Election Day or absentee by mail,” Wurtz said. “I want them to have as many options avail able to them as we can pro vide. These seven locations likely won’t be available like this again, but this is just the circumstances that we’re in because of COVID.” 1575 DAHLONEGA HWY. • CUMMING, GA 30040 (678) 771-5372 • WWW.HOPEWELL-ROOFING.COM
