About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 28, 2024)
Sunday, January 28,20241 GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA I gainesvilletimes.com After over 20 years in business, Nichols Diner is closing its doors for gOOd. INSIDE, 3A Honestly Local NGHS: Contract talks with insurer have ‘ceased’ BY JEFF GILL jgill@gainesvilletimes.com Contract talks have “ceased” between Gainesville-based Northeast Georgia Health System and UnitedHealthcare, the health system said Thursday, Jan. 25. “This is not the outcome we want for our patients, but Unit ed's senior leaders will not return our calls and refuse to talk with NGHS' executive leadership,” said Steve McNeilly, NGHS' chief operating officer of popu lation health and vice president of managed care operations, in a statement. “We have no choice but to focus our efforts now on clearly communicating with the com munities we serve and helping patients who are impacted in the limited ways we can.” McNeilly told The Times in an interview Friday, Jan. 26, that NGHS “does stand ready to resume negotiations with United if they're willing to meaning fully engage” with NGHS on the issues. UHC couldn't be reached for comment. However, in a Dec. 23 post on its website, UHC says, “It remains our top priority to reach an agree ment with NGHS that restores network access to the health sys tem at costs that are affordable for Georgians and employers. “We have made meaningful movement and compromises in each of our proposals as part of good-faith negotiation designed to reach an agreement. All of our proposals would ensure NGHS is reimbursed at rates that are more than fair and reasonable.” The two sides had been try ing to negotiate a contract that expired April 30. At that time, UHC said “NGHS refused to move off its demands for a more than 20% price hike over the next three years, includ ing a double-digit rate increase in the first year that would make its hospitals the most expensive in Georgia.” And NGHS said it “is actu ally only asking for a single-digit increase to bring UnitedHealth care in line with other commer cial insurance companies” and a proposal UHC sent on March 31 was “unreasonable. They know we cannot accept it.” NGHS says on its website SeeNGHSI3A Money on the bus Photos by Scott Rogers The Times Hall County bus driver Teresa Young was paid a yearly salary of nearly $150,000 in 2023. School officials have said they were unaware one of their drivers was paid that much. They have found no evidence of any wrongdoing. In this file photo, Young prepares for the school year Thursday, Aug, 4, 2022, by filling up at the bus shop on Atlanta Highway. How one Hall County bus driver made $150k last year Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources at Hall County School District Brad Brown. BY BEN ANDERSON banderson@gainesvilletimes.com A bus driver making $150,000 in a year? Yup, you read that right. Well, $ 149,747.46 to be exact. Last year, longtime Hall County bus driver Teresa Young earned six times the average bus driver salary of about $23,000. For comparison, the aver age principal earns $118,386 a year. And Young wasn't the only driver raking it in. Below are the salaries of the next nine highest paid bus drivers in Hall for the 2023 fiscal year, according to the Open Georgia website. • $97,072.93 •$93,384.16 •$90,191.25 • $90,003.01 • $85,833.78 • $85,465.60 •$72,135.69 •$70,747.81 •$64,601.13 If this news comes as a shock, you're not alone. Hall County School Dis trict's top officials — every one from the director of transportation, to the head of human resources, to the super intendent — said they were unaware that one of their driv ers was being so handsomely compensated. “I knew that she made a good living — I knew that she made more than most drivers — but I did not know that she made anywhere near that much,” said Clay Hobbs, the district's transportation director. “I first became aware Sun day morning when I got an email from a community member,” Superintendent Will Schofield recalled. “And that's when I — I don't usu ally bother people on Sun day — but I immediately asked Clay (Hobbs) and Brad (Brown, assistant superinten dent for human resources), ‘Is this accurate?' And they said, ‘We'll have to get back to you tomorrow.'” Brown looked into it and was shocked to discover that it was true. “It's like, ‘Oh, my good ness alive,' and the first thing I wanted to make sure (of) is that everything is above board,” Brown said. Brown, Hobbs and other school officials maintained that everything was, in fact, above board, and that there was no evidence that Young or the other drivers falsified any payroll documents. “She hadn't done anything wrong,” Hobbs said ofYoung. “She did what was asked of her.” But how in the world can a bus driver earn that much money? “She was actually doing the work of about three drivers. She has a very early start and she finishes very late in the day typically,” he said. “She's a very essential cog in the wheel that gets us where we need to go.” See Bus 14A Man convicted of murdering his girlfriend with dumbbell BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com A Gainesville man pleaded guilty to killing his girlfriend last year with a 10-pound dumbbell, according to court documents. Ivan Reyes-Jimenez, 51, pleaded guilty Thurs day, Jan. 25, to malice murder and other charges in the Jan. 17, 2023 death of Ana Sofia Martinez Campos, 33, of Gainesville. He was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Bonnie Oliver to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Hall County Sheriff's Office deputies responded Jan. 17,2023 to a 911 call in the 300 block of Cres cent Drive. Reyes-Jimenez was accused of hitting Campos in the head repeatedly with a 10-pound dumbbell. Hall County Sheriff's Office Investigator Rich ard Sinyard previously detailed statements by Reyes-Jimenez after being read his Miranda rights. “When we got to the end of it, Mr. Jimenez said, ‘I need an attorney because I'm guilty,'” Sinyard testified at a Feb. 10 Magistrate Court hearing. Sinyard also testified that Reyes-Jimenez was lifting weights while Campos was studying her Bible on the bed. The two began arguing when she called him a “son of a b—,” leading him to become violent, according to Sinyard's earlier testimony. Reyes-Jimenez was indicted on charges of mal ice murder, felony murder and aggravated assault. Northeastern Judicial Circuit District Attorney Lee Darragh said Reyes-Jimenez will not be eli gible for parole until he's 81. “He cooperated with the police and has no prior record,” Darragh said in a statement. “In the light of those factors, the disposition reached was right for the case.” The Times has reached out to Reyes-Jimenez's attorney, Larry Duttweiler. Scott Rogers The Times Ivan Reyes-Jimenez enters Hall County Magistrate Court Friday, Feb. 10. Man sentenced in arson case involving his own home BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com A Talmo man was sentenced to proba tion after pleading guilty to burning down the mobile home he was living in last year, according to court documents. Michael Timothy Sites, 34, pleaded guilty Jan. 16 to first-degree arson. Judge Brian Heck sentenced him to five years on probation. Hall County firefighters responded around 5:30 a.m. Feb. 25 to the 3700 block of Pratt Reece Road, where a fire destroyed a mobile home. Sites did not own the home but lived in it, according to information from court documents and the Hall County Sheriff's Office. The Sheriff's Office did not have information on a motive. “Investigators believe he lit a fire in a burn barrel and it spread to the gasoline he poured on the home,” the Sheriff's Office said at the time of Sites' arrest. Defense attorney Kyle Denslow declined to comment. The minimum sentence on first-degree arson is one year, while the maximum is 20 years. Sites will be subject to random drug screens at the direction of probation. He was sentenced under the First Offender Act, meaning Sites will have the case dis charged from his record without being found guilty if he fulfills the terms of his sentence. Sites also pleaded guilty to felony fleeing and eluding from an incident in October. He was sentenced to 24 months with the first half in confinement and the remainder on probation, which will run concurrently with the arson sentence. Sites was given credit for his time served since Oct. 15, and the Hall County Jail listed his expected release date as April 15. Je Sites
