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Georgia star Jalen Carter charged
with racing in fatal wreck.
INSIDE, 3A
Thursday, March 2, 20231 GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA | gainesvilletimes.com
Georgia bill dies that sought to curb
gender talk in schools, inside, 4A
Honestly Local
GDOT holds public hearing over Inland Port impact
BY BRIAN WELLMEIER
bwellmeier
@gainesvilletimes.com
The Northeast Georgia Inland
Port, a regional cargo terminal
planned at Gateway Industrial Cen
tre off Ga. 365 and White Sulphur
Road, will fundamentally trans
form the dynamic of transportation
and traffic throughout the region.
With the port expected to be
fully operational by late 2024 or
early 2025, that was the prevailing
message conveyed by residents
and engineers during a public
hearing held at the Department of
Transportation’s District 1 office
Wednesday.
More than two dozen people from
Hall and surrounding counties in
attendance pored over renderings
of State Route 365 and discussed
various aspects of the port with
representatives of engineering con
sultant Arcadis and officials from
GDOT, which has begun a traffic
study to assess the potential impact
of the project on roads throughout
the region.
“We want to hear anything and
everything from the community
about what are problem areas,
what would like to see done differ
ently,” Deputy Project Manager for
Arcadis and Modern Mobility Part
ners Kirsten Mote said. “... .we’ve
collected data of existing conditions
to kind of show the level of conges
tion, crashes that are occuring in
the area, planned developments
that’s supposed to be coming, (and)
starting to model what the future
might look like based on data.”
Mote said that a Norfolk Southern
railway running parallel to Ga. 365
will be active with “a lot of transfers
from rail to truck” once the port
becomes operational, raising the
question of whether Norfolk plans
to finance needed improvements to
that railway infrastructure. Norfolk
has so far been absent from discus
sions with municipalities regarding
the Inland Port’s potential impact.
“The Georgia Port Authority
indicated that they’re going to
make some improvements on a
side-track, (where) they pull cars
off, and try not to impede traffic,”
Mote said.
Engineering consultants are “in
the process of estimating future
truck traffic” that could be gener
ated by the port, according to Mote.
“Trucks cannot be restricted
on state routes,” she said. "... local
routes can have truck restrictions.
There are several truck restrictions
already out there for signage - that
is a decision at the local county
level, so Hall County will be the one
to enforce that.”
■ Please see PORT, 3A
‘We’ve done a very good job’
Photos by SCOTT ROGERS I The Times
Construction crews hold loudspeakers Wednesday, March 1, inside the theater portion of the new West Hall High School performing
arts center.
Work underway on S15.2M performing arts center at West Hall High
The 31,000-square-foot theater will be able to seat 440 people, and it will also host
plays and events for other schools in the area including West Hall Middle School. It will
include a drama classroom and suites for band and chorus.
BY BEN ANDERSON
banderson@gainesvilletimes.com
After hundreds of teacher layoffs
and deep budget cuts in the midst of the
Great Recession, Hall County school
officials said there was one thing they
refused to cut: the arts.
Fast forward some 15 years and
Johnson High School now has a $10.1
million performing arts center, and
construction is well underway on a per
forming arts center at West Hall High,
planned to open in August.
“I think we’ve done a very good job as
far as supporting the arts,” said school
board chairman Craig Herrington.
The $15.2 million price tag also
includes campus-wide restroom and
locker room renovations, and a new
concessions area at the gym. The
old theater is being converted into a
video workspace and five additional
classrooms.
The 31,000-square-foot theater will
be able to seat 440 people, and it will
also host plays and events for other
schools in the area including West Hall
Middle School. It will include a drama
classroom and suites for band and
chorus.
“During the Great Recession, we
refused to reduce our fine arts pro
grams,” Superintendent Will Scho
field wrote in a letter to the editor in
response to a reader who claimed that
the arts are disappearing while the
school board plans to spend $8 mil
lion on a meat processing center. “Our
board of education has the option to
spend fine arts allotments in other
areas, but we don’t do this, because we
believe in the transformational impact
of fine arts.”
Schofield wrote that they have spent
over $43 million on four performing
arts centers, including centers at East
Hall High and North Hall High. He
wrote that they employ 100 arts teach
ers across its 37 schools and spend $8
to $9 million each year to pay their
salaries. They have also allocated
$2.82 million to expand the museum at
DaVinci Academy, a program of choice
at the Academies of Discovery at South
Hall.
School board member Mark Pettitt
also wrote a response letter. The West
Hall High performing arts center is
located in his district.
“Nearly 1,200 art courses are taught
each day in 95% of your Hall County
schools,” Pettitt wrote. “More than
16,000 students take art classes. Every
middle and high school offers both
band and chorus.”
'!• IWjiTTjj;
Self-storage
proposed at
North Hall site
BY JEFF GILL
jglll@galnesvllletlmes.com
A former North Hall health care site may
become the home of a 77,050-square-foot self
storage development.
Gainesville resident John S. Hemphill, who
owns and operates a storage business in Logan-
ville, is seeking to rezone the 7-acre site at 4916
Cleveland Highway for the development, which
also would include parking for boats and recre
ational vehicles.
The gated development would be across from
the longtime Dari Spot restaurant and south of
Brookton-Lula Road/Ga. 52.
Featuring six buildings and 10 boat and RV
parking spaces, the project could take two to five
years to complete, according to Hall County plan
ning documents.
“Self-storage is a low-intensity use, generat
ing low traffic volumes and minimal demand on
community resources,” Hemphill says in docu
ments about the project. “It is a service-related
operation providing storage solutions to area
residents.”
Gainesville-based Northeast Georgia Health
System owns the property, which is valued at
$148,400, according to Hall County property
records.
The site “was previously used as a health care
facility,” Hemphill said, adding that buildings
were torn down about 2012 and the property was
■ Please see STORAGE, 3A
Hall County Planning
Commission
What: Rezoning for proposed self-storage
development in North Hall
When: 5:15 p.m. Monday, March 6
Where: Hall County Government Center,
2875 Browns Bridge Road, Gainesville
JEFF GILL I The Times
A77,050-square-foot self-storage development
is proposed on a former health care site on
Cleveland Highway in North Hall.
Blackstock resigns
as Ga. Mountain
Food Bank director
BY BRIAN WELLMEIER
bwellmeier@gainesvilletimes.com
Georgia Mountain Food Bank, a regional non
profit organization that distributes meals across
a five-county service area, is looking for a new
executive director after the departure of Kay
Blackstock.
Blackstock led the organization for 15 years
before submitting her resignation Feb. 2.
She didn’t provide a reason for her decision
to resign, according to Interim Executive Direc
tor Rebecca Thurman.
“...(Blackstock’s) focus was always to make
sure that people who needed it most had food,”
Thurman said. “We will continue that work that
Kay and so many of the Food Bank’s biggest
founding supporters felt was so important to
the health and life of this community—that all
people should be able to live their lives free of
■ Please see BLACKSTOCK, 3A