About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 2020)
Kemp: COVID-19 vaccinations to start within weeks in Georgia, inside, » % i ,, & ,V . . VA- . -.VV. ' •’ ."'"W '• -v (the mmts Tuesday, December 1,2020 | GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA | gainesvilletimes.com Old Fashioned Christmas has arrived in Dahlonega. life, 4A Honestly Local Gainesville fire displaces 18 Photos by SCOTT ROGERS I The Times Versailles Apartments residents are turned away by Gainesville Fire personnel Monday, Nov. 30, following a fire at the Park Hill Drive apartments. Four apartments damaged by fire, smoke, water in complex BY JEFF GILL jgill@gainesvilletimes.com Eighteen people were displaced by a fire Monday, Nov. 30, at Versailles Apartments at 1687 Park Hill Drive in Gainesville, according to fire officials. No injuries were reported. Four apartments in the D building at the complex were damaged by either fire or smoke and water, Gainesville Fire spokesman Keith Smith said. The Salvation Army was providing temporary housing to 10 adults and 2 children, he said. “The six others had another apart ment to go to,” Smith said. Smoke wafted through the building, but four other apartments were in OK shape and residents were allowed to return home, he said. Investigators were trying to deter mine the cause of the fire. Firefighters were alerted to the fire by a resident who called “saying there was very heavy fire coming from the windows of this apartment,” Smith said, pointing to an apartment where firefight ers were still working. “There was very heavy fire damage in that apartment.” Smoke was pouring out of the roof of the building, “so we had to cut a hole in the roof to try to find out if there was fire (in that area) or just smoke,” Smith said. Alexis Cavarria, who lives in the D building, said he was asleep at the time of the fire. “Somebody woke me up and said, ‘You have to get up. We have a fire,’” he said. Upon leaving the building, “I saw a lot of smoke, not a lot of flames,” Cavar ria said, standing outside as firefighters went in and out of the building. He said his apartment wasn’t affected by the fire. County finishes ballot rescan Raffensperger could investigate Hall BY MEGAN REED mreed@gainesvilletimes.com Hall County has finished rescanning ballots in its recount of the presidential race, with other counties continuing work as the state’s deadline of midnight at the end of Wednesday, Dec. 2 approaches. Hall began on Tuesday, Nov. 24 and finished Saturday, Nov. 28. Results will be reported by the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office. Georgia counties previously did a hand recount of all ballots cast in the Nov. 3 presi dential race. That audit was requested by Sec retary of State Brad Raffensperger, and when the hand recount found a close margin — former Vice President Joe Biden led Presi dent Donald Trump by 0.25% statewide — the Trump cam paign requested a recount. Under state law, a candidate can request a recount if the margin is within 0.5%. This second recount has been done using machines, with county elections staff running ballots through scanners. The previous recount was done entirely by hand and included represen tatives of each major political party. Lori Wurtz, Hall County’s elections director, said that while the second recount was open for public observation, counties were not required to have a certain number of monitors from each party present. Party monitors could either go into the room where ballots were being scanned or observe from the hallway, Wurtz said. The county elections office had a public observation area with windows looking into the counting room. Some ballots that were rejected by scanners still need to be adjudicated before being counted. Adjudication panels have three people each — one person designated by the county elections board, along with one Republican and one Democrat. In the first count following the Nov. 3 election, Hall sent 1,093 ballots to the panels, although Wurtz said an exact number remaining in this count was unavailable Monday afternoon. Adjudication is set for 3:30 p.m. on Wednes day, Dec. 2, at the Hall County Government Center, 2875 Browns Bridge Road in Gaines ville. Panels will meet at the elections office, and the process is open for public viewing. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said during a news conference at the state Capitol Monday that his office continues to investigate any credible claims of illegal voting and viola tions of state election law. His office currently has more than 250 open cases from this year, he said. A spokesman for the Secretary of State’s Office said one of the investigations “deal ing with custody of ballots” involves Hall. He ■ Please see RECOUNT, 3A Hall to get season’s coldest temps this week BY KELSEY P0D0 kpodo@gainesvilletimes.com Hall County will experience its coldest tempera tures of the season this week, according to the National Weather Service. For Tuesday and Wednesday morning, Brian Lynn, meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Peachtree City office, said temperatures are fore casted to drop into the upper 20s. Looking at Georgia as a whole, Lynn said the National Weather Service’s meteorologists are antici pating a “warmer and drier winter.” However, he said this doesn’t rule out Northeast Georgia getting snow during the colder months. “This doesn’t mean you can’t get a system in-between that could cause some winter weather,” Lynn said. “It’s possible. It tends to happen later in the winter season.” Meteorologists forecasted snow flurries and sprin kles for Monday night. Lynn said those with the highest chance of snow build-up are the northernmost areas in Georgia including Towns, Union, Fannin, Gilmer and Murray counties. “It’s very limited to our mountain counties for what potential there is,” Lynn said. Times file photo Pedestrian dies after being hit by vehicle BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com A Gainesville woman died days after being hit by a car Friday, Nov. 28, on Thompson Bridge Road, police said. Sherri Anderson, 59, allegedly stepped into the path of a GMC Yukon after 7 p.m. Friday near Etta Vista Circle, Gainesville Police Lt. Kevin Holbrook said. “It’s believed that she was attempting to cross the road to go to the Chevron store there,” Holbrook said. Holbrook said Anderson was transported to Northeast Georgia Medical Center, where she succumbed to her injuries. The lieutenant said the driver stopped and cooperated with the investigators. “At this time, no charges are expected to be filed,” Holbrook said.
