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.
