About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 4, 2024)
LOCAL The Times, Gainesville, Georgia I gainesvilletimes.com Sunday, February 4, 2024 3A Former banker, philanthropist Rich White dies Kristen Oliver The Times In this file photo Rich White, then Georgia Mountain Food Bank board chair, discusses the legacy of Jim Mathis during the North Georgia Community Foundation’s annual Celebration of Community. BY JEFF GILL jgill@gainesvilletimes.com Rich White, a longtime Gainesville banker, philanthro pist and community volunteer, has died. Tributes poured in Friday, Feb. 2, about White, as details about his death weren't available. White “was an incredible leader who I had the privilege of working with at First National Bank/Regions Bank many years ago and more recently here at NGCF,” said Michelle R. Prater, president and CEO of North Georgia Community Foundation. A past chairman of the philan thropic group, White “remained engaged and active, being a strong supporter of our work for over 25 years and was always willing to step in and help when ever needed. He will be missed but we know his legacy will live on." White also was recently a member of the Gainesville Plan ning and Appeals Board. “He was just a servant leader in the community," said Doug Carter, the board's chairman. “He had a very distinguished professional career but equal to that was all the incredible volun teering he did as a leader within the community.” According to a University of North Georgia alumni webpage, White, a Gainesville native, graduated from then-Gainesville Junior College in 1968 with an associate degree and earned a bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Georgia. He then would go on to spend 30 years in banking, including leadership roles at First National Bank of Gainesville, which would become Regions Bank. He would become active in the community, including chairman of North Georgia Community Foundation, the Greater Hall County Chamber of Commerce and the Georgia Mountain Food Bank, according to the website. White also has served as chair man of the Hospital Author ity of Hall County & City of Gainesville. In 2016, he received a recog nition award at the food bank's annual Empty Bowl lunch fundraiser. “I'd like to thank all the employees who put a lot of work in every day,” he said at the event. “When you come out here and see this kind of turnout, and all the work they did to get ready for it, it's amazing what they've been able to do.” White's death comes on the heels of another community icon, James Mathis Jr., a former banker and president/CEO of the North Georgia Community Foundation, who died Monday, Jan. 29, at 77. “We lost two giants in the local banking and nonprofit community in one week,” said John Vardeman of Morton, Var- deman & Carlson, a Gainesville advertising agency. “It's a huge loss on a personal, professional and philanthropic level. Both men were so closely ingrained in our community and so many of our success stories.” Funeral home wants to officially add crematorium BY JEFF GILL jgill@gainesvilletimes.com Memorial Park South Funeral Home in Flow ery Branch has added a crematorium but has to jump through some hoops before it can start operations. The funeral home, which is at 4121 Falcon Parkway, went before City Council on Thursday, Feb. 1, with a request for a conditional use permit for the structure. A timeline of the project in city documents shows that while permit discus sions began in 2021, an application for the permit was “never completed or formally submitted.” The crematorium ended up getting built without the permit, but the funeral home “came back to us and said what do we need to do to make this right,” said Rich Atkinson, Flow ery Branch's director of planning and commu nity development, to the council. “Staff doesn't have any kind of problem with the use itself — it makes sense, it's perfectly fine,” he said. “But we have the hurdle now of making sure it was built correctly.” Atkinson added he's OK with issuing the per mit on the condition that “we have enough evi dence that it was built correctly.” A first vote is set for March 7. Other approvals would be needed, including from the Hall County Fire Mar shal's Office, Atkinson said. Jeff Gill The Times Memorial Park South Funeral Home in Flowery Branch. Authorities: Woman hits man in the head with hatchet behind Gainesville laundromat BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com A woman was charged with hitting a man Thursday, Feb. 1, in the head with a hatchet after an argument behind a Gainesville laundro mat, sending him to the hospital with serious injuries, according to authorities. Rachel Michelle Mill- wood, 40, was charged with aggravated assault. She was booked in to the Hall County Jail, where she remains with no bond. The Hall County Sheriff's Office said Mill- wood and the 42-year-old man were in an argu ment around 7:40 p.m. Thursday behind an Atlanta High way laundromat. The Sheriff's Office said it turned physical, with Millwood hitting the man in the head with a hatchet. Sheriff's Office spokeswoman B.J. Williams did not have specifics on the injury, as the investigator was going to speak with the man Friday, Feb. 2, in the hospital. The injuries were con sidered to not be life threatening, Williams said. The Sheriff's Office did not know the exact relationship between Millwood and the man nor the details of the instigating argument. Gainesville Police officers were already at the laundromat when the deputy arrived, inform ing the officer that the man had been trans ported to the hospital. Millwood was detained a short distance away on Fyman Street by Gainesville Police. The Times has reached out to Gainesville Police for information on Mill wood's detention. Millwood 117 homes nearby Flowery Branch downtown OK’d A proposed 117-home sub division near downtown Flow ery Branch has been approved. Flowery Branch City Coun cil voted Thursday, Feb. 1, to give its initial OK to PR Fand Investments EEC's request to build the development on 23 acres at 5170 Church St., south of Gainesville Street, a road leading from McEver Road to the downtown area. Amenities would include a 1,196-square-foot covered pavilion, three pickleball courts, a dog park and a “pas sive recreation area,” accord ing to a site plan submitted to Flowery Branch. PR Fand Investments also is seeking to rezone 12 acres in the city and annex and rezone another 11 acres for the devel opment, which also would be off Chattahoochee Street. A final vote is set for Feb. 15. Jeff Gill FROM 1A Homeless “I feel like we were pretty well pre pared,” he said. “We had an incredible amount of people helping us. ... Now, it's safe to say that this number is a gross undercount. But, you know, it's the best we could do with the way the program's designed.” The Salvation Army, a low-barrier homeless shelter in Gainesville with about 50 beds, has seen demand sky rocket in recent years. “Just to give you an example, last year we might have gotten a phone call every couple of weeks for a displaced family,” said Salvation Army's Program Director Kelly Williams. “Now we're getting three to four a week.” When asked what explains the growth in the homeless population, Williams and Fisher pointed to a familiar culprit: the lack of affordable housing. “Even if they're employed, without that low-income housing ... it's very difficult to get people housed,” Wil liams said. “If you could afford your rent, but you were living paycheck to paycheck and your rent goes up $400 and your paycheck doesn't go up, then you can no longer afford that housing.” “They're doing everything that's being asked of them,” Fisher said of Hall County's homeless population. “But there’s just no place for them to go, even if they make all the right decisions.” FROM 1A Gate “Dispatch advised responding officers the (woman) was possibly suicidal and had also rammed a security gate at Old Federal Park prior to the call at Tree Park Apartments,” police said in a news release. After leaving the apartment complex, a Sheriff's Office deputy tried to pull over the woman, but she did not stop. She went through the gate again at Old Fed eral Campground and stopped her car at the boat ramp, police said. She then got out of her car and “entered the lake on foot before being detained,” police said. Police found a firearm in the front seat of the car. No one was injured. Police are unsure of the motive. Flowery Branch Police charged her with two counts of criminal damage to property, two counts of leaving the scene of an accident and reckless conduct. The Sheriff's Office also charged her with felony second-degree criminal damage to property and 12 misde meanor traffic offenses. FROM 1A Tourism Parade again was the largest event of the fourth quarter, with a total of 15,000 people present and a record number of 138 participating floats and bands. Community involvement was a clear contributor to last year's success in the fall, as a record number of square- crows representing 51 businesses and local non-profit organizations set up displays on the square and 65 busi nesses offered candy downtown more than 4,000 trick or treaters in October. “People really love that, and it really is a draw for people to come downtown to take a look at (the squarecrows),” Fynch said. FROM 1A Anderson prevention training if accepted into a program. She must also attend out patient behavioral health and take medication as prescribed. In a tearful hearing, the victims told Anderson how she failed to protect them. “You called me a slut, a whore because I supposedly took your husband's love from you,” one girl said. Given the amount of time already spent behind bars, Knudsen asked for Ander son to be released on time served. Knudsen said her client has received a behavioral health assessment and treat ment plan during her deten tion. The defense attorney also mentioned there were allegations of domestic vio lence committed by Ander son's husband. Knudsen said she felt her client “can really ben efit from domestic violence classes so that this cycle does not get repeated.” “She is not the perpetrator of the rape,” Knudsen said during the hearing. “She did not know this was happen ing for a significant period of time.” Bennett said she felt the particularly egregious part of Kelsey Anderson's case was tampering with evi dence, going to show that she “took it one step further by trying to protect him after everything had come forward.” The sides agreed to a cap of four years of custo dial sentence, pointing to how Anderson called law enforcement in October 2022. “There's no telling how much longer this would have been going on for had she not ended up picking up the phone that day and calling law enforcement,” Bennett said. “... We are all grateful that she did make that decision, even if it was two months too late.” Bennett recommended 10 years with four years in prison on the child cruelty charge and five years of probation consecutively for tampering with evidence. The Times reached out to Knudsen following the hearing for comment. Scott Rogers The Times Kelsey Anderson in Hall County Superior Court during her plea hearing Tuesday, Jan. 30.
