About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (March 23, 2023)
Man found dead in Gainesville camper fire. INSIDE, 3A Thursday, March 23, 20231 GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA | gainesvilletimes.com Fed raises key interest rate by quarter-point despite bank turmoil. INSIDE, 4A Honestly Local Principal: Wrong student charged in fight East Hall High teen accused of kicking teacher in face during scuffle BY BEN ANDERSON banderson@ gainesvilletimes.com The principal says they charged the wrong student in the East Hall High School fight. Jhonny David Mendez, an 18-year-old student at East Hall High School, was recently accused of kick ing a teacher in the face during a fight with another student. Mendez was charged with felony battery and misdemeanor affray, jailed and later released on a $3,500 bond. But Principal Jeff Coo per told The Times it was actually the other student, a juvenile, who kicked teacher Heather Hawkins in the face, and he is now asking prosecutors to drop the charges and allowed Mendez to return to East Hall High rather than send ing him to The Foundry, the district’s remedial school for students who get in trouble. District Attorney Lee Darragh declined to say whether his office will drop the charges. “That decision still is pending,” he said over text. “I will confirm that Mr. Coo per, his Assistant Principal, the SRO and the teacher Ms. Hawkins showed up at my office this morning and we met for about an hour.” Darragh said felony bat tery is punishable by up to five years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine, and mis demeanor affray is pun ishable by up to 12 months to serve and up to a $1,000 fine. The other student was also charged. His name hasn’t been provided because he’s a juvenile, but he was charged with misde meanor battery and affray. The original version of events given by Hall County school officials went like this: Mendez and another student got into a fight over a girl, Mendez ended up on his back and accidentally struck Hawkins in the face while trying to kick the other student off him. Cooper now says it was the other student who kicked Hawkins and who threw the first strike. “David was punched first,” he said of Mendez. ■ Please see FIGHT, 3A Rail company pays fine Photos provided by Marine Environmental Incorporated On July 30, a Norfolk Southern employee reported a three-car freight train derailment. The company has paid $10,000 to the state Environmental Protection Division after soybeans spilled into Gainesville’s Flat Creek following the derailment. Deadline nears in NGHS, UHC contract talks BY JEFF GILL jgill@gainesvilletimes.com Contract extension talks are coming down to the wire between Northeast Georgia Health Sys tem and UnitedHealthcare. The contract, expiring April 30, covers care at all NGHS facilities, including all Northeast Georgia Medical Center hospitals, Northeast Georgia Physicians Group practices, Urgent Care locations, Georgia Heart Institute loca tions, Laurelwood, long-term care facilities and outpatient centers. And the war of words is heating up. “UnitedHealthcare has let you down,” NGHS says on a website devoted to the talks. “Despite our continued best efforts, we remain very far apart on key contract details. United wants to limit access to imaging, surgery and other services and is unwilling to pay equi tably for the care you need. We simply cannot accept a contract that threatens our ability to care for you the same way we have for nearly 70 years.” And UHC said in a statement that NGHS “is demanding a near 25% price hike over the next ■ Please see NGHS, 3A scon ROGERS I The Times Norfolk Southern penalized $10,000 for soybean spill in Flat Creek BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com Norfolk Southern paid $10,000 to the state Environ mental Protection Division in the aftermath of a soybean spill into Gainesville’s Flat Creek, leading to 443 tons of waste. According to the EPD, a Norfolk Southern employee reported July 30 a three-car freight train derailment from the day before, and each train hopper had a max capacity of 226,000 pounds. On Aug. 12, the Chatta hoochee Riverkeeper and governmental agencies started investigating a fishkill in Flat Creek. Becca Risser, the riverkeeper’s headwaters watershed specialist, said the dissolved oxygen was well below the level that becomes uninhabitable for fish. The initial Aug. 12 fishkill report found 21 bluegill and 74 mosquitofish were found dead in Flat Creek. Marion Environmental Inc., the cleanup company contracted by Norfolk South ern, said 443 tons of waste were disposed of in the process. Norfolk Southern’s system manager of hazardous materi als Robert Wood told the EPD in November that the cleanup cost roughly $323,000. Under Georgia law, Nor folk Southern could have faced a maximum penalty of $50,000 per day “for each day during which such violation continues.” On Feb. 7, the EPD sent Norfolk Southern a consent order with the $10,000 penalty to be paid. Three weeks later, the $10,000 payment was received. The riverkeeper checked on the oxygen levels in Flat Creek for a few months on a regular basis after the spill and saw it return to its normal levels of dissolved oxygen. “The fish have been com ing back,” Risser said. “I’ve been seeing more life in it.” Risser said most of the acute impacts of the spill have subsided, but Flat Creek has still faced other sources of pollution. Surrounded by an urban and industrial environment, Flat Creek has experienced high levels of bacteria fre quently, Risser said. “I can’t say for sure where they are coming from,” she said. “There’s a lot of poten tial sources, from the sewer collection system to indus tries in the area, chicken pro cessors. But overall, it’s just got a huge amount of activity in this watershed.” A map of Flat Creek shows where the July 30 rail car spill occured and five locations where Chattahoochee Riverkeeper took testing samples Headwaters of Flat Creek to Queens City Pkwy/GA-60 Hall Area Transit launched the WeGo vanpool service in 2020. The county commission will consider transitioning to zero-emission vehicles. Hall transit may move to vehicles with zero emissions BY BRIAN WELLMEIER bwellmeier@gainesvilletimes.com Transit services in Hall could take a first step to join a nationwide initiative to go green. County commissioners on Thursday will consider whether to transition Hall-Area Transit Services to zero-emission vehicles. Hall’s transit service, WeGo, operates under the Gainesville/Hall County Commu nity Services department and provides tran sit services in Gainesville and Hall County. If approved, Hall County would pay Plan ning Communities LLC $50,639 in grant money to develop a “zero emission vehicle transition plan for Hall Area Transit,” docu ments state. Joseph Boyd, the transportation planning director for Gainesville-Hall Metropolitan Planning Organization, explained specifics of the proposal following Monday’s work ses sion, stating, “The new infrastructure bill that came out in 2021 has earmarked funds for zero/low emission vehicles.” “But you cannot tap into (that funding) unless you have a transition plan,” he said. “We have to have the plan done. That will look at (Hall-Area Transit’s) fleet, look at their existing infrastructure and then tell them what they need to do to seamlessly transition.” Boyd said that while it’s still unclear how many emission-free vehicles the county could receive, he expects the execution of the plan to be swift following its approval. “The plan is going to be quick,” Boyd said. “It should be done by the end of June, and then Hall-Area Transit can apply for funds in (fiscal year) ’24. It’ll probably be a couple (vehicles) at a time. They’ll look at what they ■ Please see EMISSIONS, 4A
