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PAGE 2A BANKS COUNTY NEWS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2020 Economic Story of the Year Mount Vernon Mills shutting down end of an era By ANGELA GARY angela@mainstreetnews.com In early 2020, plans were announced that Mount Ver non Mills in Alto would be closing. For more than five de cades, the mill provided a job for residents of Banks and Habersham counties. Some employees started working there as a teenager and were still there when decades later when it shut down. In some families, second generations of the same family worked at the plant. When the Mount Vernon Mills closed in Alto, it the end of a piece of history for many people in the com munity. For this reason, the clos ing of the plant has been named the Economic Story of the Year. When the plant closed, it employed 600 people, 65 of them being Banks Coun ty residents. "As we have received notification of the closing of Mt. Vernon Mills, for merly known as Riegel, our hearts are moved with compassion and much prayer has been spoken for all the families that will be affected by this action," Mayor Audrey Turner said when the announcement was made. “Of the over 600 employees, many have worked there most of their lives and some whole fami lies are employed there. We know life always brings change and, according to Romans 8:28 KJV, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose so we trust that He will lead each one into their new purpose and meet every need according to His mighty power as we look to Him.” Political Story of the Year Election year brings new chairman to BOC; two new commissioners By ANGELA GARY angela@mainstreetnews.com It was a whirlwind elec tion year with voters elect ing a new chairman to the Banks County Board of Commissioners and two new commissioners. A re count led to a change in the candidates in the run-off for one of the BOC seats; while a recount was held in the presidential race following a request from President Trump. All of the election news in 2020 has been named the Political Story of the Year. It was a close race for the BOC chairmanship with Charles Turk winning with 1,970 votes, while Will Ramsey had 1,906 votes. Turk ended up taking office early after Chairman Jim my Hooper resigned due to medical reasons. In the District 1 Banks County Board of Commis sion race, Bo Garrison won in a three-person race with out a run-off, taking 55 per cent of the vote. In the District 4 BOC commission race, it first looked like Keith Gardiner and Bob Blackwell were the top two vote-getters and would be in a run-off. Fol lowing the election. Black- well was up by two votes over William Reems. However, due to a dis crepancy in the District 4 County Commissioner race in the total number of votes cast and the total number of absentee paper ballots cast, as discovered by the Banks County Election Superin tendent on election night. the absentee ballots were re-scanned by the IT Tech from Dominion Voting. The re-scanned count was different from the scanned votes on election night. Since the vote counts were different, the Election Su perintendent chose for the paper absentee ballots to be counted by hand by the Board of Elections. In the hand count, Black- well received 857 votes and Reems received 860 votes. Therefore, Reems and Gar diner were in the run-off. Gardiner won the run-off for the District 4 commis sion seat. At the year’s end there was also a recount in the presidential race. The re count of ballots in Banks County confirmed the orig inal election returns that President Donald Trump heavily carried the county over Democrat Joe Biden. The machine recount was completed in the county as part of a statewide recount requested by the Trump ad ministration. In Banks County, the re count showed that Trump got 7,795 votes and Biden received 932. Trump filed numerous un successful court challenges in Georgia and several other swing states in a bid to over turn election results where he lost to Biden. The state’s recount comes as election officials prepare for a runoff for Georgia’s two senate seats. The bal ance of power in the Senate could be decided in those races. COVID vaccine available to EMS front line workers By ANGELA GARY angela@mainstreetne ws .com Banks County Emergency Medical Service workers have been offered the COVID vaccine by Georgia Public Health. “Public health is currently offering it to our EMS front line workers (EMTs and paramedics) and fire first respond ers,” Deidra Moore, Banks County EMA/E-911 direc tor states. “They rolled out them first along with nurses / healthcare and nursing homes.” Thirty-five of the vaccine has been given so far in Banks County. Anyone that would be classified as “Tier 1A” is encouraged to call the Health Department for vaccine scheduling. Moore said the next round of the COVID vaccine that comes to Banks County will reportedly be for others in public safety, including law enforcement, 911, public safe ty command staff and other vital emergency services. “I am sure more will be included with that group but I have not heard the details further yet,” Moore stated. 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