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LOCAL The Times, Gainesville, Georgia lgainesvilletimes.com Midweek Edition-February 7-8, 2024 5A Hall Schools changes bus driver pay policy BY BEN ANDERSON banderson@gainesvilletimes.com Editor’s note: This published in a previous E-Paper edition and is being provided here for print-only readers. Hall County School District has changed its policy for how it pays bus drivers to pick up homeless students, which could lead to sharp pay cuts for some of its highest- paid drivers. The move comes after district officials learned that one of their drivers, Teresa Young, earned nearly $150,000 last year by driv ing additional routes that included a large number of homeless students. Under the original policy, driv ers were paid $15 each time they transported a homeless student to or from school, and they also received an additional hour of pay for each pickup or dropoff. Under the new policy, drivers will still receive an hour of pay for the first homeless student pickup, but they will now be paid hourly for any additional pickups, and they will no longer be paid $ 15 for each pickup. Young says she averaged about 25 homeless student pickups per week last year, which translated to an additional 25 hours of pay. Those additional hours quickly pushed her into overtime and made her the highest-paid driver in the district by far. Young was earning the maximum pay for bus driv ers, which is $36 per hour. Sev eral other drivers earned well over $90,000. The average bus driver sal ary is about $20,000 for drivers who don't do any extra runs, and about $32,000 for drivers who do. The average teacher earns about $65,000 a year. Young has estimated that roughly one-third of her $150,000 salary last year came from picking up homeless students. The Times has asked district officials how much drivers like Young would have earned last year if the new policy was in effect. District officials maintain that no drivers or their supervisors falsified any payroll documents. Everything was above board, they say. Under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987, public school districts are required to provide transportation to home less students. The old policy was meant to incentivize bus drivers to go above and beyond the 20 hours they are required to work each week, and it seemed like a prudent policy when the district had only a handful of homeless students. But over the years, the number of homeless students riding the bus has grown to around 165, and dis trict officials now say the policy is outdated. “It was an old pay policy that never got updated, and it worked at the time ... and it was a fair way to compensate drivers for what they were doing," Director of Trans portation Clay Hobbs previously told The Times. “But what hap pened is the growth in that whole McKinney-Vento population was not anticipated to this degree." Controversial S. Hall development moves through planning BY BRIAN WELLMEIER bwellmeier@ gainesvilletimes.com Planning Board commission ers unanimously voted Monday to reject a large-scale residential development with ties to District 1 Commissioner Kathy Cooper. Several Flowery Branch resi dents criticized Cooper for her role as a listing agent on the $1.3 million deal after the proposal was tabled in late-November, calling her real estate title a con flict with her position as the rep resentative of their district. Cooper, a realtor for Braselton- based Funari Realty, vowed to recuse herself when the proposal goes before county commission ers and said she didn't consider her role a conflict of interest. “I don't influence any of the other commissioners on their vote. I don't talk to them about it, so they're open to vote however they want to,” Cooper told The Times in November. “I don't see it that way.” Before a vote was taken Mon day, William Deal, a representa tive of the developer, announced a reduction from 324 to 314 lots planned on 117 acres in South Hall. With final approval, the pro posed 192 detached single fam ily homes and 122 townhomes would be built off Guth, JM Turk and Stanley roads in Flowery Branch. The request by Peachtree Cor- ners-based applicant Thompson O'Brien Kappler & Nasuti PC seeks to rezone the property from agricultural-residential III to planned residential development. During the meeting, Deal pointed to a “diverse” blend of zoning classifications in the area that he said have “tended toward more intense and more dense res idential development.” “There's been a move toward more intensity, and we can cer tainly see more intensity in the area,” Deal said. “The compre hensive plan for that area does mention a two unit per acre den sity, but we don't read the com prehensive plan as being that black and white...the compre hensive plan states, under this character area, that there ‘may be opportunities for variations in housing size and types.'” As proposed, the project exceeds the threshold for maxi mum density set by Hall Coun ty's Comprehensive Plan. Planning issues Deal was grilled by planning commissioners in November after it was revealed that the devel opment, as proposed, would've “landlocked” nearby homeowner Mark Faul's property without access to Stanley Road. Now, new site plans have Stan ley Road “tracing the curve that exists there,” according to Deal, and driveways “don't have to be moved.” “There's minimal impact to existing Stanley Road, but we will be improving Stanley Road as it connects to JM Turk Road,” Deal told commissioners. In response to issues involving access points, Deal also proposed a “second vehicle entrance only through Guth Road, though this route would be “limited for resi dents” and reserved only for emer gency vehicles. At least seven nearby homeown ers again spoke against the project Monday. During public comments, Faul began to comment on what he considered the “ethical” dilemma of Cooper's role before he was interrupted by Planning Chairman Chris Braswell. “We don't have any judgment on that,” Braswell said, “...we're not going down that road.” Faul then shifted his focus to the “five to seven” variances requested in the developer's application and stated, “Variances should be the exception, not the norm, but there's so many requests for vari ances, the zoning itself is a vari ance also.” Janet Myers, of Flowery Branch, expressed opposition to the proposal — which she called “not comparable” to other devel opment in the area. She also said the applicant's current plan would adversely impact traffic, quality of life and property values. “As homeowners, we are exceedingly concerned about the proposed high density housing development,” Myers said. “We want to emphatically state that we do not oppose development. Rather, we zealously oppose a development that is not thought fully contemplated, is in stark con trast to the surrounding properties and poses both short and long term effects...it's not consistent with Hall County's Comprehensive Plan.” President of Elah Valley subdi vision's Homeowners Association Bill Doucher also voiced opposi tion to commissioners and said “the density just doesn't match at all,” then called on the planning board to recommend denial of the application. “Fook at (subdivisions) Grand view and Quailwood — and they are nowhere close to this kind of density,” he said. “They have a rea sonable density that matches this area ... and I noticed the last time the applicant was here, he talked about Royal Fakes and other (sub divisions). This time, he's dropped those and now talking about dif ferent subdivisions farther away - that have different densities than we have on JM Turk Road.” Mark Dunn then told commis sioners that a meeting between Deal and members of the commu nity in December “didn't go very well,” and that “this (development) is not conducive for this area.” “I hope you take your staff's rec ommendation and do not approve this proposal,” he said. Planning commissioners went on to vote 5-0 to recommend denial of the item, which is now expected to appear before Hall County's Board of Commission ers at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 14 at the Hall County Government Center for a final decision. Local homeless population expected to rise 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 giv ing out warm food, hot showers, clothes and other neces sary items. BY BEN ANDERSON banderson@gainesvilletimes.com Editor’s note: This pub lished in a previous E-Paper edition and is being provided here for print-only readers. The number of home less 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. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires communities nationwide to conduct a point-in-time count of the number of people and households experiencing homelessness in a single night. The Georgia Department of Community 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 canceled 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 from the last one, which is consis tent with a nationwide trend,” said Mike Fisher, the street outreach director 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 represent an absolute depiction of homelessness,” but nevertheless “presents a framework used to assess homeless needs and measure progress annually.” Fisher echoed that point and said this year's count went smoothly. “I feel like we were pretty well prepared,” 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 skyrocket 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 hous ing ... it's very difficult to get people housed,” Williams 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.” Man sentenced to lesser charges in sexual battery case BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com A Winder man was sentenced to probation on reduced charges from a sexual battery case involving two girls, according to court documents. Matthew Matias Silva, 47, pleaded guilty Jan. 25 to four counts of sexual battery on a minor. Superior Court Judge Bonnie Oliver sentenced him to 10 years on probation. The Hall County Sheriff's Office origi nally arrested Silva in May 2018 on a chaige of child molestation and sexual battery. Silva was indicted on four counts of child molestation involving two different girls, according to the indictment. Their ages were not specified in the indictment beyond being under the age of 16. The indictment listed the offense dates as being in 2016 and 2018. When asked about the reduced charges and probated sentence, Northeastern Judicial Circuit District Attor ney Fee Darragh said it was “extensively analyzed” by his staff “in regards to the nature and quality of the evidence, potential defenses and other factors.” Darragh said the resolution was appro priate, though he did not detail the issues involved. The district attorney added that his office “takes sexual assaults on children and adults very seriously, though reductions in charges and sentences are sometimes necessary depending on the individual case.” Silva will not be required to register as a sex offender. Silva was sentenced as a First Offender, meaning his case will be discharged without being found guilty if he fulfills the terms of his sentence. Silva's defense attorney, Carry Duttweiler, did not return multiple requests for comment. Silva Annual Chamber Business Expo set for Feb. 15 at Lanier Tech Using interactive exhibits, some 60 area companies are scheduled to show off their products and services at the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce's annual Business Expo on Feb. 15. The event, which is open to the pub lic at no charge, is set for 11 a.m.-4 p.m. at Fanier Technical College's Ramsey Conference Center at 2535 Fanier Tech Drive, Gainesville. A shuttle service will be available, as well. The event also features prizes and giveaways. Also featured is a luncheon at noon. Focal restaurateur Angel Retana is the main speaker. Reservations are required, as space is limited. The charge is $15 for Chamber members and $25 for non-members. Jeff Gill Police: Woman arrested after ramming gate BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com Editor’s note: This published in a previous E-Paper edition and is being provided here for print-only readers. A Hampton woman was arrested Thursday, Feb. 1, after ramming into Old Federal Campground's entry gate twice and caus ing 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 vehicle into the campground'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 campground, Flowery Branch Police said officers responded to the apartments 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. “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 Federal 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 acci dent and reckless conduct. The Sheriff's Office also charged her with felony second-degree criminal dam age to property and 12 misdemeanor traffic offenses. Moore
