During this Lenten season, our church is doing a series based on cultivating and letting go. Cultivate trust; let go of fear. Cultivate traits like faithfulness and steadfastness; let go of envy and anger.
Each week I am challenged. I often hold onto bad habits instead of releasing them. Katherine and I have talked often about the things that weigh us down and how hard it is to let them go. For instance, we both have a terrible sweet tooth that we blame for our indulgences. We allow ourselves so many sweets even though we know intellectually how little benefit we get.
Katherine and I are also terrible at paperwork and letting papers pile up. It’s an obvious fault if you enter either of our domains. At this tax season of the year, it’s even more overt as we struggle to get paperwork collected for our tax people.
I don’t think we’re alone in these struggles. I know a handful of people who seem to have it all under control, but the rest of us are in the messy boat together. I think it is especially true for caregivers since we are helping to manage more than one household.
There are many books written to assist people like Katherine and me, but who has the time to read them – much less implement them! Each year my new year’s resolution remains the same: exercise more, eat less, get papers cleared out, and read more. Every year I get to this March and April only to realize I haven’t done any of those things!
So I’ve decided to use this Lenten season to do some cultivating of better habits and letting go of bad habits. Rather than do the whole overwhelming task of the new year’s resolutions, I’m going to start small and add one new healthy habit. Rather than berating myself for not being on top of things, I’m going to be more generous to myself and forgive my shortcomings. I’m going to let go of my goal to be perfect and just be myself. Won’t you join me?
Mia Tretta, a survivor of a 2019 high school shooting in Santa Clarita, California, speaks during a press conference in the White House Rose Garden on April 11, 2022. (Facebook)
WASHINGTON (GA Recorder) — President Joe Biden Monday unveiled the Department of Justice’s plan to regulate untraceable firearms known as ghost guns, as well as announced his nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The Department of Justice’s final rule bans the business of manufacturing ghost guns, such as “buy build shoot” kits that can be bought online – without a background check – and easily assembled. Ghost guns are homemade guns that lack a serial number, making it difficult for law enforcement to trace the owner of the weapon if it’s found at a crime scene.
“This is basic common sense,” Biden said of the final rule.
The DOJ rule clarifies that those kits qualify as firearms and that the manufacturers of those kits must “become licensed and include serial numbers on the kits’ frame or receiver, and commercial sellers of these kits must become federally licensed and run background checks prior to a sale – just like they have to do with other commercially-made firearms,” the White House said in its statement.
Next to the president was a kit, the parts of the gun laid out to show how easy it was to assemble a gun. Biden picked up the incomplete gun, showing it to the press and attendees.
“It’s not hard to put together,” Biden said. “Anyone can order it in the mail … a terrorist, a domestic abuser.”
Those in attendance included gun control advocates, gun violence survivors and several Congressional Democrats such as Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Reps. Lucy McBath of Georgia, Mike Thompson of California and Adriano Espaillat and Jamaal Bowman of New York. McBath became a gun safety advocate after her son Jordan Davis was murdered in 2012 after an argument over music volume at a Florida gas station.
“Far too many families across the country continue to feel the pain and heartbreak that comes with losing a loved one. Right now, ghost guns are the weapon of choice for many violent criminals,” McBath said in a statement Monday. “Each time I stand in support of common-sense solutions to keep our families safe, I carry with me the memories of thousands of men, women, and children – children like my son Jordan – who are no longer with us because of senseless and preventable gun violence.”
During a Monday press briefing, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that the Biden administration’s goal is to always “reduce the impact of gun violence.”
Psaki said that the final rule from the DOJ about ghost guns is “supported by law enforcement and addresses what we know is a rising composition in gun crime across the country.”
The rule goes into effect later this year.
Biden also called on Congress to pass universal background checks and a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines during his announcement in the Rose Garden. He was also joined by Vice President Kamala Harris and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.
Biden also said during the Rose Garden event that he had tapped Steve Dettelbach, former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, to lead ATF due to his experience working with federal, state and local law enforcement dealing with domestic and religious violence and his prior work with the agency to prosecute complex cases.
“The mission of this agency isn’t partisan, it’s public safety,” Biden said, adding that Dettelbach was “exceptionally qualified” to run the agency.
“Steve’s record makes him ready on day one to lead the agency,” Biden said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement that with his nomination of Dettelbach “the President has selected a highly respected former prosecutor with deep experience working to reduce community violence and crime.”
Dettelbach said he has worked with ATF and its officials over his career and has great respect for its agents. He was unanimously confirmed in 2009 to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.
“Law enforcement is a very tough job, and no person and no agency is perfect,” he said. “But the president is right that the men and women of the ATF and the public that they protect deserve better support from us.”
Dettelbach said if he were confirmed, he would support the officials at the agency and “do everything in our power to protect the people of this nation every single day.”
This is Biden’s second nomination to ATF. He previously nominated Michigan native David Chipman, a gun violence prevention advocate who worked at the agency for 25 years. The White House withdrew his nomination due to his support for a ban on assault weapons and after it was clear not all 50 Senate Democrats would vote to confirm him to the ATF.
Georgia Recorder Deputy Editor Jill Nolin contributed to this report.
The U.S. Forest Service conducts controlled burns to reduce wildfire hazards and improve wildlife habitat. (file photo - USFS)
You may see more smoke in the skies over Rabun County this week. The U.S. Forest Service is scheduled to continue its controlled burn on the Warwoman Wildlife Management Area Monday.
The large-scale burn began on Sunday, April 10. It encompasses approximately 1706 acres along Hale Ridge, 10 miles northwest of Clayton.
The controlled burn area northwest of Clayton, GA. (Source: USFS)
Fire managers are actively burning off leaf litter, vegetation, and debris to reduce wildfire hazards and improve the wildlife habitat.
The public should avoid using the Rabun Bald Trail in the Warwoman WMA as the prescribed burn continues.
Fire managers routinely use controlled burns to restore 35,000 acres of the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests. As weather allows, these prescribed burns take place in October through December, and from early February through May.
To sign up for prescribed burn alerts, click here.
Atlanta Democratic state Sen. Donzella James is one of more than 110,000 Georgians hospitalized with COVID-19 since the pandemic claimed Georgia’s first reported death. She lowered her mask to speak during a senate committee hearing. (Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder)
(GA Recorder) — State Sen. Donzella James’ voice isn’t as strong as it used to be. In January 2021, James tested positive for COVID-19. She thought it was just her chronic bronchitis, but the next morning, she found herself in a crowded emergency room. After subsequent bouts of pneumonia and blood clots, she finally left the hospital in May.
James, an Atlanta Democrat, remains vigilant about COVID-19 today. “I saw people every day dying all around me,” she said. “I am concerned because I know far well what that COVID can do to you.”
“We know that our numbers are down because people are not really being tested,” said Rex Democratic state Rep. Sandra Scott. “We need to continue to encourage testing; we need to continue to encourage people to get vaccinated because we do not know where this virus stops.”
James is one of more than 110,000 Georgians hospitalized with COVID-19 since the pandemic claimed Georgia’s first reported death. She wears a mask everywhere and checks the latest numbers daily with an app on her phone. But not everyone is taking this level of care.
Mask, vaccine politics
Pandemic fatigue became an issue in Georgia before the end of 2020. Today, it’s normal once again to see people’s faces at the Capitol, in classrooms and on MARTA rides.
Posted notices of the federal public transportation mask mandate, which sparked a lawsuit from congressional Republicans last month, are still visible at MARTA stations around the metro Atlanta area. Unmasked passengers will theoretically be removed, but the rule isn’t strictly enforced. Keeping with the pandemic fatigue trend, free COVID-19 PCR testing at the Five Points station ended on March 29.
Nationwide, a March Gallup poll found that 3% of respondents said the top problem facing the United States is the coronavirus or diseases, the lowest percentage since the start of the pandemic. Data from the state health department shows at least 400 Georgians died from COVID-19 in March.
At the end of this year’s legislative session, some at the state Capitol were still taking stringent precautions.
State Rep. Sandra Scott said she’ll sometimes take her mask off for pictures depending on the circumstances. She’s shown here wearing a face shield on the state House floor during the 2021 General Assembly. (Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder)
“We still have about 12 legislators that sit upstairs in the balcony, and I am one of those,” said Scott. “We do not want to sit on the floor with that close proximity to people. I just think it’s too close when people are not wearing their masks.”
Scott said she’s just recently gotten comfortable going to events, and she’ll sometimes take her mask off for pictures depending on the circumstances. In Georgia, photos of Democratic leaders without masks have become a go-to way for conservatives to score political points.
The context of Warnock’s photo is still unclear, but it is permissible to briefly remove a mask on a plane long enough to eat or drink. Last week, Warnock tested positive for COVID-19. In an announcement on Twitter, he encouraged people to get vaccinated.
“Let’s take politics out of this health crisis that we have,” James said.
Georgia’s vaccination rate is still among the lowest in the country, according to the latest CDC data. According to the state health department, 56% of Georgians have been fully vaccinated, and 40% of those individuals have received a booster shot.
“A majority of those who were not vaccinated, they have had some kind of COVID infection,” said Isaac Chun-Hai Fung, an associate professor of epidemiology at Georgia Southern University, explaining that many Georgians now have some form of immunity.
Fung said the latest Omicron sub-variant, BA.2, is unlikely to cause a surge in cases as large as Georgia’s most recent wave, but he stressed that immunity doesn’t last forever.
“At the end of this year, we might see another wave, and in those circumstances, putting on face masks is both a personal choice to protect ourselves but also a civic responsibility to protect other vulnerable individuals,” Fung said.
Weighing risks of return to normal
Elliott Gray, 31, has chronic kidney disease, which places him at higher risk for a severe COVID-19 infection. Gray recently moved from Savannah to Sandy Springs, in part to get treatment at Emory Health Center.
Gray was hospitalized with pulmonary embolisms in December 2020, and his doctors suspected they were caused by an otherwise asymptomatic case of COVID-19.
“I spent three weeks in the hospital because of lung damage,” he said.
Elliott Gray and his two daughters, Charlotte (left) and Emily (right), avoid places where they know people won’t be masked. (Contributed by Elliott Gray)
Gray still calculates the risks each time he leaves his house, and he avoids places where he knows people won’t be masked. Adding to his concern, Gray’s 8-year-old daughter, who lives in Savannah, has epilepsy. He says because a higher temperature can cause more frequent seizures, Charlotte is still wearing a mask at school for her safety.
“Things are going well, keeping in mind that this pandemic has not left us,” Johnson said. “We could go from a mask mandate to shutting our city down if the health conditions warrant it.”
Johnson said that his medical advisory team still reviews COVID-19 numbers daily, and he’s meeting with them periodically.
“In some ways, I do think we need to get relatively back to normal because it is going to be around, and I don’t think we’re ever going to get rid of it,” Gray said. “I do think we should probably normalize wearing masks though, in general.”
In late March, Gray’s children visited him for their spring break, and they took a trip to the Fernbank Museum. Asked what others could do to ease some of the anxiety for immunocompromised individuals and families, Gray requested to simply be kept in mind.
“Honestly, just remember that we’re here; just remember that what you do affects people that you don’t know,” Gray said. “If you go out sick and you don’t cover your face, you might kill someone. I don’t think people realize that.”
The North Georgia Technical College horticulture program is hosting the college’s annual spring plant sale from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Apr. 11-14 and Apr. 18-21, at the Clarkesville campus greenhouses.
The sale includes a wide assortment of annuals and perennials; various astilbes, ferns, and hostas; peppers; tomatoes; thornless blackberry and blueberry plants; ornamental grasses; native and non-native shrubs and trees; and more.
Cards, cash, and checks are accepted, and all sales must be made in person. Everyone is encouraged to come early for the best selection and variety.
Volunteers for Literacy expects to race up to 2,200 rubber ducks in the Soque River during the 60th annual Mountain Laurel Festival on Saturday, May 21, 2022. (file photo)
Are you creative? Competitive? Interested in helping people? Then Volunteers for Literacy of Habersham County is looking for you.
The nonprofit is seeking sponsors and racers for this year’s VFL Rubber Duck Race on the Soque River. The race will be held in conjunction with Clarkesville’s Mountain Laurel Festival on May 21. The winner will receive $1,000. The second-place prize is $500 and the third-place winner will receive $250.
“As the VFL Rubber Duck race enters its second decade, we are proud to be an event that caps off the day for Clarkesville’s Mountain Laurel Festival, which has entertained so many people for sixty years,” says Johnny Bailey now in his 11th year of serving as chair of the duck race.
Duck race tickets are $5 each, 5 for $20, or 25 for $100. Tickets are on sale now at vflhabersham.com and at the Cornelia and Clarkesville Libraries, A to Zinc Health Store and Smoothie Bar in Clarkesville, and at Elizabeth & Company in Clarkesville.
Dec-A-Duck
Businesses, individuals, neighborhoods, and schools are encouraged to help sponsor this year’s race. For $100, sponsors will be publicly recognized in race promotions and will receive a rubber duck to decorate for the Dec-A-Duck contest.
The Dec-A-Duck entry from Morito Scovill, “Rosie the Riveter” won the People’s Choice Award in 2021. (VFL)
This 5th annual event will be judged during the Mountain Laurel Festival. Categories are Most Creative Duck, Best All-Around Duck, Best Children’s Book/Fairy Tale-Themed Duck, and People’s Choice.
The decorated ducks will be on display for community viewing at the Clarkesville and Cornelia Libraries from May 6 through May 20. Businesses may also have the option of displaying their Dec-A-Duck at their business.
Where your money goes
Proceeds from ticket sales and duck race sponsorships will go to support literacy programs in Habersham County including:
The Dictionary Project which provides free dictionaries to all public school 3rd graders;
District Scripps Spelling Bee;
English classes for local immigrants, including childcare and transportation;
VFL Book Bank which contains thousands of books that are given to underserved children throughout the year;
Little Free Libraries of which VFL has built and installed 17 around the county;
GED and HiSet scholarships;
One Book Habersham – a 3-month-long community-wide reading event that concludes with a public appearance and presentation by the featured author.
Students at Baldwin Elementary show off their new dictionaries provided by Volunteers for Literacy.
“As we know, the ability to speak, read, and write is essential,” says Dr. Don Gnecco, VFL board president. “Volunteers for Literacy is continually striving to reach our goal of 100% literacy in Habersham County so that everyone can successfully participate in and contribute to our community. It takes all of us, together.”
VFL is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. All ticket purchases and sponsorships are tax-deductible.
To sign up as a sponsor of this year’s duck race or for more information, call 706-949-3157 or email [email protected].
Crosby Hoopaugh celebrated his first Easter with a bunny onesie and a picture with the Easter Bunny. (Hadley Cottingham/Now Habersham)
The weekend before Easter was a success in Clarkesville, with Easter Bunny photos, egg hunting and family fun making an April morning with snow flurries feel just a little bit warmer.
Several new families got to enjoy their first of many Clarkesville traditions: photos with the Easter Bunny at the Mauldin House. New babies Crosby and Wyatt met the Easter Bunny for the first time, and their families got their very first Easter pictures. It’s a sweet moment that their parents can enjoy forever.
Wyatt, just 3 months old, met the Easter Bunny for the first time on Saturday. (Hadley Cottingham/Now Habersham)
Crosby and Wyatt were just two of at least 75 children who had their photos made with the Easter Bunny at Clarkesville’s Mauldin House and Gardens, and Clarkesville Main Street Director Trudy Crunkleton says that part of the fun is seeing those little ones grow up.
“There are a lot of people who come every year for tradition,” Crunkleton said. The Easter Bunny himself even said he recognized many of the children he took photos with, and that he loves seeing them year after year.
The city was pleased with the number of families that came out in the cold on Saturday to not only take photos with the Easter Bunny, but enjoy the Mauldin House Gardens Easter decor and free treats. Officials say that more than 50 families joined in the fun.
The Hall County Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the cause of a fire that broke out Sunday afternoon inside a mobile home in Gainesville.
Shortly after 1 p.m., firefighters with Hall County Fire Rescue and the Gainesville City Fire Department responded to the blaze in the 100 block of Odell Street.
The first units to arrive found heavy smoke and fire coming out of a mobile home. The fire was quickly controlled and extinguished, says Hall County Fire spokesperson Chief Christie Grice.
There was no one at home at the time of the blaze and no injuries were reported.
The fire broke out in the same neighborhood where a man died in a house fire in March. That fire was ruled accidental.
Blustery cold wind and April snow showers could not keep away eager Easter egg hunters from Clarkesville. About 300 people turned out Saturday for the 5th annual Easter Eggstravaganza at Clarkesville First United Methodist Church.
The event included three Easter egg hunts suitable for different ages, bounce houses, games, crafts, and snacks.
“We’re a community-driven church,” says CFUMC’s Director of Communications Christy Hinson in explaining the church’s involvement in hosting this special annual event.
CFUMC Communications Director Christy Hinson greets Saturday’s honored guest.
On your mark, get set, go…
Clarkesville First UMC Rev. Keith Cox welcomes the children and families to the Easter Eggstravaganza.
The Easter Bunny hopped inside the church fellowship hall to warm up and say ‘hi’ to the kids.
Who needs candy when the eggs are bright and shiny?
Children enjoyed crafts and snacks inside the church fellowship hall – a nice respite from the cold.
Michael Bay. The name alone elicits a polarizing reaction. While some enjoy his loud, overblown movies, others hate them for the same reason. He always manages to deliver a bang for your buck, but a lot of the time, it comes at the expense of story and characters.
His latest vehicle (no pun intended), Ambulance, falls somewhere in between. It isn’t the incomprehensible drivel that the Transformers sequels were, but he still has a long way to go with finding a plot to balance his penchant for pyrotechnics.
Ambulance stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Danny Sharp, a professional criminal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (the remake of Candyman and The Matrix Resurrections) as his adopted brother Will, a former Marine.
Will’s wife needs cancer surgery which costs $231,000 and Danny gives him the chance to get the money by helping him rob a bank in Los Angeles. They escape with the money via an ambulance, but soon they’re cornered by every cop in L.A. and the rest of the movie becomes an elaborate chase. This is where Bay’s strengths come into play.
Eiza Gonzalez costars as an EMT whose taken hostage. She does what she can to convince Will to abandon Danny as he becomes increasingly hostile as the chase progresses.
Enough about the plot. The only reason anyone goes to see a Michael Bay movie is for the action. In this movie, he gives us the typical chases, shootouts and explosions that might make some audiences need to buy a hearing aid afterward.
Ambulance is sort of a cross between Heat and Speed, but it doesn’t have the intelligence or originality that those movies had. Instead, the movie has all of the subtlety of a heavy metal band trying to keep the noise down.
Granted, Bay is still in his comfort zone and the action is technically proficient at times, but he also still suffers from the same philosophy of “more is more.”
After a while, I got tired of seeing cars flip and explode with rapid-fire editing while the characters shout out dialogue.
This marks an improvement away from the Transformers sequels, but Bay still needs to work on finding a story that fits the action successfully.
Ambulance isn’t exactly DOA, but the script does come close to flatlining.
Grade: C+
(Rated R for intense violence, bloody images and language throughout.)
Citizens have asked what to do about the old county courthouse for years, and a developer in Clarkesville has the topic front and center once again for the county to mull over.
The old county courthouse, built in 1963, has sat vacant since 2019. The county built its current courthouse in 2013, and a new administration building in 2019, rendering the old courthouse useless.
The courthouse had been slated for demolition for months before the county commission voted to put it on hold in June, following a presentation from Clarkesville-based designer Lew Oliver. While many disdain the 70’s-style yellow brick exterior and brassy- gold bell tower of the old courthouse, there are those who prefer to see it renovated.
Commissioner Bruce Harkness told the commission at that time that there were people interested in buying the courthouse— something he still says today.
Previous interest
The courthouse has a history of receiving interest and bids, but ultimately, no sales have gone through.
The courthouse has sat empty since 2019 after the county built a new administration building. (file photo)
In 2019, the commission approved a contract to sell the old courthouse to Wayne Enterprises South LLC for $1 million. The developer planned to renovate the courthouse into apartments, but the deal fell through in 2020.
Commissioner Bruce Harkness has told the commission and public multiple times that he is aware of offers for the courthouse property but did not reply to a follow-up request for comment to clarify those offers. County officials also did not provide further information on Harkness’s claims.
Commission Chairman Bruce Palmer and Commissioner Ty Akins both tell Now Habersham that they aren’t aware of any offers for the courthouse.
“To my knowledge, we do not have any written offers on the old courthouse,” Palmer said. “We had people look at the old courthouse that once they looked at it they were no longer interested.”
So while the courthouse continued to sit empty, Oliver, whose office is across from the vacant building, drew up a plan.
Clarkesville’s plans for development
Oliver, an Atlanta designer who based his firm in Clarkesville, presented the City of Clarkesville with plans to renovate their downtown in the summer of 2020. While his plans go above and beyond the city’s current scope of possible work, his plans have received awards and piqued the interest of the city council.
“He [Lew Oliver] approached us about a concept of redoing the downtown,” Clarkesville City Manager Keith Dickerson tells Now Habersham. “We said ‘we really don’t have funding for that.’ He said they would redesign the downtown, and the only thing we’d have to pay for is the artist’s renderings from it. We felt like we could jump on board with that.”
Dickerson says plans like Oliver’s are usually expensive, and what the city ended up paying was “relatively cheap.”
Oliver presented his plan to the Clarkesville Council and citizens in the summer of 2020.
It’s not the first time plans like this have come to Clarkesville. In 2015, the Georgia Downtown Renaissance Partnership presented plans to Clarkesville to work on updates to much of the downtown, plans that have some similarities to Oliver’s.
Dickerson found more plans with ideas similar to Oliver’s in city documents from 2016, where the council had discussed making changes to the park outside the courthouse to make the gazebo the center of Downtown Clarkesville again.
The proposed Clarkesville master plan includes building a designated town square around the gazebo, facelifts to downtown businesses and the rehabilitation of the old courthouse. City Manager Dickerson says that some of these ideas, like adding a pond to Pitts Park, aren’t possible. (Photo: Lew Oliver, LLC.)
“This is not the first time this idea has come up,” Dickerson said. “The idea is to refocus the energy back to the square again, where it’s kind of lost as you’re just driving through right now. It’s just a pass-through, where if you have to go around [it], it tends to make it more of a focal point and we all sort of agreed to that. But it takes a long time to work with GDOT to make something like that happen.”
While Oliver’s plans may be something the city can look at doing in the future, Dickerson says they aren’t something the city can finance now. Oliver’s plan for the courthouse, though, is something that the city feels is achievable through the development authority.
The Habersham County Development Authority
Oliver plans to renovate the courthouse into apartments, and to make that happen, the city wants to turn the ownership of the courthouse over from the county to Habersham’s Development Authority.
Oliver’s concept sketch for the courthouse renovation would turn the dated building into an art-deco-style apartment building. Renovations are estimated to cost around $6.5 million. (Lew Oliver/Lew Oliver Inc.)
“They have different conduits and things that they can do with the DCA [Georgia Department of Community Affairs], the state,” Dickerson says. “There are other things that they can get, they can even be a conduit for low-interest loans. And the county really can’t do that, just like the city really can’t do that. But our downtown development authority . . . can do that.”
The city sent a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to the county commissioners in mid-March to transfer the ownership of the courthouse to the development authority, something they thought the commission would support.
But it didn’t get the reaction they were expecting.
Concerns from the county commission
What the city expected to be support for the MOU at the March commission meeting dwindled when Commissioner Harkness pointed out that the executive summary, a rundown of an item the commission votes on, said that the development authority “would require the gazebo to be relocated.” Dickerson says that wasn’t part of the MOU at all.
“That was not talked about in the memo,” Dickerson said. “That was not discussed at any point in time . . . that was never discussed with us. We didn’t know anything about it. And my understanding is somehow it inadvertently got put in there.”
Commissioner Harkness refused to go forward with the MOU due to the statement in the executive summary.
Commissioner Dustin Mealor struggled with the thought of handing over a piece of taxpayer-owned property to a developer for very little cost. He says that the county would be giving the property to “a wealthy developer who is just going to get wealthier off of the project.” (Hadley Cottingham/Now Habersham)
What the MOU does state, however, is that the development authority can sell the courthouse to Oliver for $10 if he agrees to develop it to the standards they set forth. Something Commissioner Dustin Mealor wasn’t sure about.
“I struggle . . . with the fact that . . . the commission itself has gained a reputation of jumping into projects that cost our citizens by way of the initial investment in the . . . project falling though, to the point where we then have to sell property,” Mealor told the commission during their March work session. “I feel like there is a consensus, at least among the people I’ve spoken with, that there is zero support for not just giving the property [away]— and I get the developmental prospects of it— but it’s the prospect of giving it to someone for no value whatsoever and giving it to a wealthy developer who is just going to get wealthier off of the project.”
Harkness shared similar sentiments, that they would be giving a piece of taxpayer-owned property over to a private entity. But Palmer argues that the way it sits, it isn’t doing anything for the taxpayers, and it isn’t generating any tax revenue to pay for services for citizens.
Chairman Bruce Palmer argues that the courthouse currently has no benefit to the taxpayers, and that developing the property would not only generate taxes on the building, but tax revenue from rent. (Hadley Cottingham/Now Habersham)
“In my opinion, it’s much better to transfer to the development authority,” Palmer tells Now Habersham. “They are able to work with a developer to encourage [the] development of the property into something that will be a benefit to the county, city and the citizens. If the county sells it then there is nothing we can say about what happens to it. It could sit empty for years.”
The renovations to turn the courthouse into apartments are estimated to cost $6.5 million, and the property would remain on the county’s tax rolls during, and after, the renovations.
The commission originally voted down accepting the MOU 3-2, with Akins and Palmer in favor. The commissioners then voted to table the measure until their April 18 meeting, which passed 3-2, with Harkness and Commissioner Jimmy Tench in opposition, to further research the MOU and Oliver’s plan.
Transferring the property
County Manager Alicia Vaughn says that everything moving forward with the building process would be negotiable, and at the end of the day, all the MOU does is allow the development authority more opportunities to develop the property.
With two commissioners in favor, the city thinks there’s a chance to gain the favor of the other sitting commissioners. At the end of the day, though, Dickerson says that if the transfer to the development authority doesn’t work, it can be transferred back.
“The biggest fear of this was if . . . a private individual buys this and they don’t have enough money to do anything with it, it’s just up for sale again,” Dickerson said, alluding to the courthouse’s past sale failures. “We’ve got one plan right now, my understanding is there is one plan and some ways to make it work. Let’s just see if they can go with it. It’s not something that can’t be undone. If they failed to meet the requirements of the development authority, then it can be stopped.”
The American Red Cross was called to assist two adults and one child after their home caught fire Friday morning.
(Hall County Fire Services)
Hall County Fire Rescue responded to a residential house fire just after 11 a.m. in the 3300 block of Windward Gate in South Hall County. When crews arrived, the two-story home was approximately fifty percent consumed in fire.
Hall County Fire Rescue used an aerial truck to help extinguish the flames. The fire was put out and crews cleared the scene around 1:30 p.m.
No one was injured in the fire, according to Hall County Fire Services.
The cause of the fire is unknown at this time and will be under investigation by the Hall County Fire Marshal’s Office.
