About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 4, 2024)
Punxsutawney Phil doesn’t see his shadow, predicts an early spring. INSIDE,4A Sunday, February4,20241 GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA I gainesvilletimes.com Honestly Local Police: Woman arrested after ramming into gate BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com A Hampton woman was arrested Thursday, Feb. 1, after ramming into Old Federal Campground's entry gate twice and causing other property damage in South Hall, according to authorities. Starlita Yvonne Moore, 40, was charged with two counts of felony interference with government property among other charges from incidents around Flowery Branch. She was booked in to the Hall County Jail, where she remains with a $49,370 bond. Authorities said the woman rammed her vehi cle into the camp- ground's entry gate twice and damaged the gate at the Tree Park Apartments in Flowery Branch. The first incident happened around 11:45 a.m. Thursday when deputies were called about Moore driving through the gate “and was attempting to enter the lake in a vehicle," according to the Sheriff's Office. After Moore left the camp ground, Flowery Branch Police said officers responded to the apart ments around 12:28 p.m. Thursday to reports of a woman “banging on an apartment door while holding a firearm and yelling.” Officers learned en route that Moore had rammed through the security gate as well as another vehicle in the complex, police said. See Gate 13A lipp An Atlanta area woman crashed through the gate twice at Old Federal Campground, according to authorities. Scott Rogers The Times ‘A nationwide trend’ Photos by Scott Rogers The Times Volunteers set up a serving table for area homeless gather Friday, Feb. 2, at a site off Dorsey Street in Gainesville giving out warm food, hot showers, clothes and other necessary items. Homeless population in Gainesville expected to rise by 30% BY BEN ANDERSON banderson@gainesvilletimes.com The number of homeless people in Hall County is expected to have risen nearly one-third since 2022, accord ing to the preliminary results of the biannual homeless count. Every other year, the U.S. Depart ment of Housing and Urban Devel opment requires communities nationwide to conduct a point-in time count of the number of people and households experiencing home lessness in a single night. The Georgia Department of Com munity Affairs organizes the count statewide and usually releases its report in the spring or summer. In 2022, Hall County had a total homeless count of 479, including 317 who were unsheltered. That was a more than threefold increase com pared to 2019, when there were 149 homeless people, 57 of whom were unsheltered. (The count was can celed in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.) This year's tally hasn't been made official yet, “but I can safely say that we're going to show a 30% increase Men pick through donated clothes. from the last one, which is consistent with a nationwide trend,” said Mike Fisher, the street outreach direc tor for Ninth District Opportunity, a local nonprofit that serves low- income families. That could put Hall County's total homeless population at more than 620, and even that figure is likely a substantial undercount. As DCA notes in its last report, “the data collected does not repre sent an absolute depiction of home lessness,” but nevertheless “presents a framework used to assess home less needs and measure progress annually.” Fisher echoed that point and said this year's count went smoothly. See Homeless 13A Woman gets prison for not reporting sexual abuse BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com A Hall County woman was sentenced to prison time after not reporting ongoing child sexual abuse involving her husband, who was previ ously convicted of impregnating a young girl, according to court documents. Kelsey Anderson, 36, pleaded guilty Tuesday, Jan. 30, to two counts of second-degree child cru elty and tampering with evidence. She was sen tenced by Superior Court Judge Jason Deal to 15 years with the first four years in prison. The judge gave Anderson credit for time served since her arrest, and the remainder of her sentence after prison can be served on probation. Her defense attorney, Katherine Knudsen, said during the hearing her client had already served 14 months. Brandon Anderson, 38, was sentenced Dec. 5 to 50 years in prison with life on probation. Anderson pleaded guilty to rape, aggravated child molestation, aggravated sodomy, aggra vated sexual battery, child molestation and aggra vated assault. Brandon Anderson will face the sex offender conditions of probation upon release from prison. The case started in October 2022 when inves tigators learned that a 15-year-old girl had been sexually abused and had two children that were fathered by Anderson. The victim's sister told authorities that Ander son and the victim “were having sex almost every day” after school, Assistant District Attor ney Rachel Bennett said at the December plea hearing. Cover stories were concocted when the girl got pregnant for the first time at the age of 12, the prosecution said. The second child was born in December 2021. Kelsey Anderson was indicted on first-degree and second-degree child cruelty as well as tam pering with evidence. The first-degree cruelty charge alleged Kelsey Anderson caused “cruel physical pain by removing keloids” from the victim's ear with a rubber band. The two counts of second-degree cruelty charged Anderson with not reporting the ongoing sexual abuse, and the tampering charge concerned obstructing the prosecution of Brandon Anderson by concealing a cellphone. The two second-degree charges concerned the girl who was sexually abused as well as the girl who witnessed the abuse. The first-degree child cruelty charge was dis missed at the plea. Kelsey Anderson was ordered to complete domestic violence classes and child sexual abuse See Anderson 13A Gainesville’s tourism market made $20 million in 2023 BY BRIAN WELLMEIER bwellmeier@gainesvilletimes.com The tourism industry in Gainesville continued to thrive in 2023. Money invested in tourism paid off last year, according to city officials, as Gainesville saw a total economic impact of $20 million from events and conferences in 2023. “That's the first time we've hit that mark,” Tourism Director Robyn Lynch told council at a work session Thursday, Feb. 1. “I'd say 11 % of that was (from) conferences and 89% were sports related, so those num bers really continue to show that sports brings in the most as far as economic impact from tourism.” The city also reported an economic impact of $3.5 mil lion from tourism activity and nearly $600,000 collected from hotel/motel tax in the fourth quarter of 2023 - “the highest” amount of quarterly revenue ever recorded in that category, Lynch said. The recent figures show a notable increase from the final quarter of 2022 - when Gaines ville reaped more than $2 mil lion between October and December from tourism-driven consumer activity. “I just want to say that I'm just amazed at how you can keep your fingers in all these programs and all of these activ ities - all of the growth and expansion and development,” Councilwoman Barbara Brooks told Lynch. “I'm really proud of the work we do and the people on your team.” Councilman Zack Thompson seconded Brook's statement and said, “This is next level tour ism stuff. This is good. Thanks so much to you and your staff for doing this. Since I've come on council, we've made leaps and bounds in our tourism department.” Councilwoman Juli Hayes also praised Lynch's department and its employees. “The fact that we're hitting record high tourism and hotel/motel nights in November and December is really encouraging and says a lot about what your team is doing.” Gainesville's Christmas See Tourism 13A
