Pearl Chambers Parr, age 77, of Alto, Georgia, went to be with the Lord on Sunday, November 22, 2020.
Ms. Parr was born on October 17, 1943, in Maysville, Georgia, to the late Ernest Lee and Emma Lucille Chambers. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by daughter, LaVonne Parr Shannon, son, David Parr, brother, Roger Chambers, and a great-grandchild. Ms. Parr was a member of the Homer Presbyterian Church. She was a retired CNA.
Survivors include: two daughters and sons-in-law: Donna and Keith Ruark, Demorest, Georgia and Cindy and Duane Piper, Gainesville, Georgia; son and daughter-in-law, Chris and Ronda Parr, Lula, Georgia; son, Erik Parr, Alto, Georgia; sister, Thelma Nation, Maysville, Georgia; brother, Levis Chambers, Gillsville, Georgia; seventeen grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren also survive.
Private Graveside services will be held at the Homer Presbyterian Church Cemetery with Duane Piper officiating.
Arrangements are entrusted to the Whitfield Funeral Home, South Chapel, 1370 Industrial Blvd. Baldwin, Georgia 30511. Telephone 706-778-7123.
President-elect Joe Biden is promising to reinstate an Obama-era program that shields deportation for some undocumented people who were brought to the United States by their parents when they were children.
WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden is promising to reinstate an Obama-era program that shields deportation for some undocumented people who were brought to the United States by their parents when they were children.
But immigration advocates are pushing for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to not just be reaffirmed but expanded and written into law. They view that as a minimum goal in immigration policy, with deportation protection for DACA recipients’ family members extended as well.
“During the Trump administration, we’ve seen how fragile the program is and how easily it can be taken away,” said Krsna Avila, a staff attorney at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.
While the largest number of immigrants enrolled in DACA live in California, Illinois, and Texas, they are scattered across the nation. Georgia is home to about 21,000 DACA recipients, according to data from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, close to the number in Arizona and North Carolina.
A potential new, inclusive policy for DACA recipients is a ray of hope for Georgians like Jaime Rangel, whose parents brought him to Dalton’s carpet mill capital from Mexico when he was young.
Jaime Rangel
“As a DACA recipient, I’m hopeful for what the next four years under the Biden administration will bring for myself, my family, the more than 21,000 Georgian DACA recipients, and the entire undocumented population in this country,” said Rangel, a Georgia immigration associate with FWD.us. “I came to Georgia as an infant and have called it home ever since. For the first time in four years, I can take a deep breath knowing that the Biden administration is committed to immigration reform that will allow me and my loved ones to fully contribute to Georgia’s economy and communities and that will keep my family together.”
The DACA program was highlighted on Monday when Biden said he intends to nominate its architect, Alejandro Mayorkas, as his secretary of Homeland Security.
Mayorkas during the Obama administration served as the leader of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and also as deputy director of the Department of Human Services, which handles implementation and management of immigration policy.
“When I was very young, the United States provided my family and me a place of refuge. Now, I have been nominated to be the DHS Secretary and oversee the protection of all Americans and those who flee persecution in search of a better life for themselves and their loved ones,” Mayorkas tweeted Monday.
If confirmed, Mayorkas would be the first Latino to run the department, as well as the first immigrant.
Trump target
The Obama administration created DACA in 2012. Those enrolled were protected from deportation and also allowed to obtain a temporary work permit and driver’s license, and qualify for in-state tuition for higher education.
DACA, though, was a target for Trump, who rescinded the program in 2017, halting new applications and sending 700,000 recipients across the country into limbo. The Supreme Court in June ruled against the Trump administration, and a federal judge earlier this month ruled new administration rules on DACA are invalid. That case and related ones are pending and more rulings are expected soon.
Trump’s sweeping actions on immigration during the last four years have pushed advocates and immigration lawyers to lobby the Biden-Harris transition team to not only reinstate DACA but expand the program to include both recipients and their families.
Making those changes permanent through legislation, not just executive orders, would prevent uncertainty and an assault on immigration from happening again, advocates say.
“Status really controls your life,” said Madhuri Grewal, the federal immigration policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.
But advocates also recognize that passage by a divided Congress likely would be tough. Democrats will control the House, though by a narrower margin, and Republicans could hold on to their majority in the Senate, depending on the results of two runoff races in Georgia.
Reinstatement of the DACA program by Biden is something that advocates either expect to see on day one of the new administration or within the first 100 days Biden is in office. The incoming administration will be transitioning in the middle of a pandemic and has said that handling COVID-19 will be its first priority, along with several policies, including immigration.
Grewal added that not only does there need to be a change in the law for DACA recipients to have a path for citizenship, but also for the millions of undocumented people in the U.S. It’s estimated that there are more than 11 million undocumented people living in the U.S., according to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank that studies migration.
Medicaid benefits
Health care is another DACA concern.
Only two states with the highest number of DACA recipients—New York and California—-offer Medicaid benefits to the Dreamers, which is what immigrants eligible for DACA are sometimes called. As the U.S. struggles to contain a pandemic that has killed more than a quarter of a million Americans, advocates want the incoming Biden administration to require all states to offer Medicaid benefits for DACA recipients through the federal human services department.
“So many front line (DACA) workers don’t even have health care,” said Megan Essaheb, Director of Immigration Advocacy for Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC. Under an Obama administration memo, DACA recipients were excluded from Medicaid.
“It’s just been such a roller coaster ride with the Trump administration trying to end the program,” Essaheb said. “It’s really hard to plan for your future.”
She added that a public campaign to reach out to undocumented people from the Asian community, where there’s been a low sign-up rate, would be beneficial as well.
“There’s more stigma in Asian immigrant communities around being undocumented,” she said, adding that there is also a “fear and mistrust in government and a lack of campaign for Asian immigrants.”
Often public campaigns about DACA are targeted for Latinos and there is less stigma about being undocumented, Essaheb said.
While Mexico is the top country of origin for the U.S. undocumented immigration population, the second-fastest growing group of undocumented immigrants is Asians, according to Pew Research.
There are about 30,000 DACA recipients in the Asian community, according to the Asian advocacy group.
DACA recipients are also supposed to be allowed to leave the U.S. for work reasons or to take care of family abroad and return into the country, but under the Trump administration, “that is something that has not been safe,” Essaheb said.
Advocates are hoping that with the Biden administration reinstating the program, those recipients can resume travel out of the country if needed.
Parents, too
But reinstating the DACA program is the bare minimum, said Avila, the staff attorney at the legal resource center, adding that the Biden administration should expand the program and lay out a legislative pathway for citizenship.
“Helping undocumented youth isn’t just about reinstating DACA, so advocates want to see that administration show us that they really care about our communities,” he said. “We’re asking for a long overdue legislative fix that not only protects undocumented youth, but our parents as well.”
Grewal, from the ACLU, points out that the incoming Biden administration can be bold on immigration policies, similar to how the Trump administration tested the limits of the U.S. immigration system.
Some of the most consequential policies the Trump administration carried out included the separation of migrant children from their families, the building of the wall at the Southern border and increased incarceration of undocumented immigrants.
“The flip side of that is that we have seen what the executive branch can do on immigration,” she said. “In order to see a reversal of what Trump did, the Biden administration needs to be as equally bold and visionary on immigration in order to offer relief to the families that have really borne the brunt of four years of attacks on their communities.”
Georgia Recorder Editor John McCosh contributed to this report. This article appears in partnership with Georgia Recorder
After Habersham County’s latest SPLOST passed with overwhelming support, the Habersham County Animal Shelter is preparing for the upcoming changes that come along with it.
Habersham animal shelter residents excitedly await the news about their temporary home– but they’re even more thrilled about finding their fur-ever homes.
“We are so excited with the SPLOST passing because the animal shelter was one of the items that was on the SPLOST,” Madi Nix, Habersham County Animal Care and Control Director said. “I mean, it’s been something that we have dreamed about– I know I have– since I started here about 10 years ago.”
The recently passed SPLOST includes $1.75 million for a new Animal Shelter, which the county desperately needs.
“One of the most exciting things I am ready for is having a facility with proper ventilation that people will not walk in and go ‘pee-yew.’ It doesn’t matter how much you clean in a facility like this, if you don’t have proper ventilation, you cannot get the cat smell out,” Nix said. “We’re also excited to have somewhere that the community wants to come to instead of a sad, depressing jail-type facility for animals.”
Alongside these exciting developments for the Habersham shelter, volunteers have stepped up to help the shelter get some spiffy new signage for the exciting changes ahead.
Habersham officials welcome the new Animal Care and Control sign, which catches the attention of those driving past; Pictured from right to left: Mike Bramlett, Madi Nix, and Randy Haney
“We had a great volunteer and friend of the shelter, Lori Attaway, who decided that she was going to help us get a new shelter sign,” Nix said. “There had been many times when Miss Lori had come to do volunteer transports for us or come help us out with a thing or two, and with her being not from the area, she would constantly miss the entrance to the shelter. And so she finally said, you know what? I’m buying these guys’ a sign.”
The Habersham Animal Care and Control team unveiled their new sign at a public gathering Friday, Nov. 20. No county commissioners attended.
Members of the Georgia Fraternal Order of Police from North Georgia Mountains Lodge 112 present three ballistic vests to the Alto Police Department. Shown, left to right, are Alto Police Officer Mike Tanksley, Alto Mayor Audrey Turner, Alto Police Chief Joshua Ivey, North Georgia Mountains Lodge 112 Secretary Ron Baumes, North Georgia Mountains Lodge 112, President/State Trustee Michael Palmer, North Georgia Mountains Lodge 112 V.P. Matthew Nall. (Hadley Cottingham/Now Habersham)
In this season of thanks and of giving, Alto Police are thankful for a potential lifesaving gift they just received.
The Georgia Fraternal Order of Police donated three ballistic vests to the Alto Police Department. The vests also come equipped with a tourniquet in case officers are shot in the limbs.
North Georgia Mountains Lodge 112 President and Georgia FOP State Lodge Trustee Michael Palmer presented the vests to Alto Police Chief Josh Ivey on Nov. 23. The vests cost around $2,000 and were donated through the Georgia FOP’s Protect the Protectors Program.
Operation Protect the Protector is designed to donate ballistic vests to law enforcement agencies across Georgia, specifically agencies with limited budgets.
“Officer safety is a very important issue to all of us in law enforcement, and the ballistic vest has been proven to save lives and reduce injuries,” says Palmer. “Every officer should wear a ballistic vest every day. The FOP is working to ensure that more officers within our state have this extra level of security.”
In small departments with limited funds, vests often are not issued as standard gear, but rather, must be purchased by the officers themselves, Palmer explains. This can be very costly, as vests generally run in the hundreds of dollars and must be replaced every few years.
Palmer, a retired police officer, recalls purchasing his own vest when he started on the force in 1976. He says it’s special to him to be able to “present these vests to officers that I have worked with over the years.”
North Georgia Mountains Lodge 112 has also ordered vests for police departments in Demorest and Dillard. The vests are paid for through donations made to the Georgia FOP Foundation.
Donations to the Foundation may be made by mail or online, but Palmer cautions, don’t ever donate to FOP over the phone. “We do not do phone solicitation,” he stresses. “FOP in Georgia does not do telemarketing at all.”
The Georgia FOP represents more than 5,265 law enforcement members across the state. To date, the organization has donated 949 ballistic vests to 163 agencies in Georgia. As the most recent recipient, Chief Ivey says he is grateful. “We hope we never need them, but if we do, we have them,”
One of the items up for auction is this landscape by John Kollock. (Photos provided by the Habersham County Libraries.)
The Habersham County Libraries’ silent auction is under way at both the Cornelia and the Clarkesville branches. Each branch has a variety of items on display, mostly things that are art-related.
To participate, visit the libraries and place a bid on the items that interest you. Bid sheets with photos corresponding to each item are on display nearby.
A variety of items are available, such as this painting by artist Sarah Samsel, this handmade bear gourd, a painted bull skull. (Photos provided by the Habersham County libraries.)
The auction will run through December 11. The libraries’ goal is to raise $500 at each library. All funds raised stay in the local budgets. Annual fundraising is a part of the libraries’ annual budget.
The Cornelia Library branch is located at 301 North Main Street in Cornelia and is open Monday and Tuesday from 9 am-6 pm, Wednesday and Friday from 9 am-5 pm, and Thursday from 9 am-7 pm.
The Clarkesville Library branch is located at 178 East Green Street in Clarkesville and is open Monday through Thursday from 10 am-6 pm, Friday from 10 am-5 pm, and Saturday from10 am-2 pm.
Note that both libraries are following CDC COVID-19 requirements and encourage both mask wearing and social distancing while inside the library buildings.
The Sautee Nacoochee Community Association is proud to announce the receipt of a Technology & Education Award from the Southeastern Museums Conference for our Heart & Heritage of the Northeast Georgia Mountains phone app. Many people worked on the project, including, from left to right: David Greear, SNCA History Committee; Patrick Larson, Georgia Mountains Regional Commission; Alan Hall, Chair, SNCA Board of Directors; Noah Bryant, SNCA Intern from UNG; Patrick Brennan, SNCA Executive Director; Madison Hatfield, SNCA Intern from Piedmont College; Craig Bryant, White County Commission and SNCA Board of Directors; Helen Fincher Hardman, SNCA Board of Directors; Judy Lovell, White County Historical Society; Mary Geidel, SNCA History Committee; Jennie Inglis, SNCA Development & Marketing Coordinator. (Photo by Wayne Hardy, White County News)
The Sautee Nacoochee Community Association is pleased to announce they are a recipient of the 2020 Southeastern Museums Conference Bronze Award for the telephone application and brochure, “The Heart & Heritage of the Northeast Georgia Mountains.” The SEMC Technology Competition recognizes excellence in the use of technology within southeastern museums and celebrates the accomplishments of their work.
The app is available to both Android and iPhone smartphones. It provides maps, directions based upon location, and an audio guide to critical points of interest. In conjunction with the app, a 12-panel, full-color brochure, Explore Helen & Sautee, was created for the Landmarks & Sites tour for those that do not have phone access or choose not to download the app.
This is Sautee Nacoochee’s award winning app icon.
Four tours are currently offered within the app. They are: Landmarks & Sites; Plein Air: Outdoor Vistas; Folk Potters of Northeast Georgia; and Local Pottery Shops. Several additional tours are planned. The website version of the application is available at http://HelenSauteeGa.oncell.com.
As technology gains importance throughout the museum field, expectations and standards were exceptionally high for this year’s applicants. The SEMC Technology Competition received a record-breaking number of applications from a wide variety of museums across the southeast.
Winning entries were expected to demonstrate innovation, effective design, accessibility, creativity, and recognition of institutional identity. Recipients of the awards were judged by an appointed jury of museum professionals across the region who specialize in the fields of digital media and technology.
Partners in establishing this county-wide resource include:
Appalachian Regional Commission
Georgia Mountains Regional Commission
White County (Georgia) Commission
White County Historical Society
Sautee Nacoochee History Museum, a committee of the Sautee Nacoochee Community Association, with matching funding from the Gregory New/History Museum Fund
Private and business investors with gifts averaging $50.00 or more.
The award winners were announced in October, during the virtual 2020 Southeastern Museums Conference Annual Meeting. This designation recognizes the Sautee Nacoochee Center’s contribution to professional standards in Southeastern museums.
For additional information, contact Patrick Brennan at [email protected] or at 706.878.3300. The Sautee Nacoochee Community Association is a 501(c)3, membership-based non-profit organization whose mission is to value and nuture individual creativity, along with the historical, cultural and environmental resources of the Sautee and Nacoochee valleys and surrounding areas.
For information about the Sautee Nacoochee Center, visit www.snca.org or call 706-878-3300. SNC is located at 283 Hwy 255 N, Sautee Nacoochee, GA 30571.
About the Southeastern Museums Conference
The Southeastern Museums Conference (SEMC), a nonprofit membership organization, is an association of museums, museum staff, independent professionals and corporate partners. It focuses on the Southeastern United State including: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Puerto Rico, and US Virgin Islands.
SEMC works to:
Provide educational and professional development opportunities
Improve the interchange of ideas and information
Encourage respect and collegiality
The Southeastern Museums Conference (SEMC) is dedicated to providing a safe, inclusive, and welcoming conference experience for everyone. It does not tolerate discrimination or harassment in any form.
Habersham County Animal Care and Control along with Cornerstone Animal Hospital will hold a Drive-Thru Rabies Clinic at the Habersham County Animal Shelter on Saturday, December 5, from 1-3 p.m.
One year vaccinations will be $10 and three-year vaccinations will be $20. In order to be eligible for a three-year vaccine, proof of a current rabies vaccine (Certificate) is required.
The clinic will be held in the parking lot of HCACC, Located at 4231 B. Toccoa Highway, Clarkesville GA 30523.
A Poor People's Campaign caravan circled Georgia's Capitol Monday to show sympathy for the 250,000 Americans who have died from the COVID-19 pandemic. (Stanley Dunlap/Georgia Recorder)
The COVID-19 pandemic is particularly hard on 65-year-old Jarvis Jenkins, who says he’s dealt with constant panic attacks after losing five of his Albany high school classmates to the virus this year.
That’s why the Atlanta resident joined a car caravan Monday at the state Capitol to call attention to a disease that’s putting many of his surviving friends and family at risk.
Similar scenes played out in two dozen other state capitals across the country Monday as part of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival to mourn the quarter-million Americans who have died from COVID.
The caravan circled Georgia’s state capitol Monday afternoon to bring attention to the spiking infections nationwide and the importance of a peaceful transition as President-elect Joe Biden and his administration seeks to get a handle on the pandemic when he takes office in January.
Jenkins, a 1972 Monroe High graduate who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, said his spirits have picked up some by helping out others through church.
“I don’t know how long we can keep on going with this but I know we got to do something about this here because this is real,” Jenkins said. “And people don’t get it until it hits home. That happened to me when I lost five of my classmates. We went to high school together, we went to class reunions together, we did functions together, but now they’re no longer with us.”
As of Monday evening, there have been more than 406,000 reported COVID-19 cases in Georgia and 8,644 confirmed deaths, according to the state Department of Health’s dashboard.
And in recent weeks, the U.S. has broken daily records, for new reported COVID-19 infections, with more than 40 states designated in the coronavirus red zone by a Nov. 8 White House Coronavirus Task Force report.
Atlanta’s Chris Brown, 37, said he helped coordinate the Georgia caravan because COVID-19 is devastating to many people from both large cities and rural areas.
“We want change so we have to be able to get ourselves involved,” Brown said. “This is why I’m speaking up for the voiceless.”
The message of the Poor People’s campaign, co-chaired by Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, to watch out for people who have the least resonates with Betty Jo Stevens, who also participated in Monday’s caravan.
“There’s no reason there had to be as many deaths as there will be,” she said. “We need to do what we can to make less suffering and more just.”
John Harold Jordan, age 89 of Lula, Georgia, passed away on Sunday, November 22, 2020, at Northeast Georgia Medical Center Hospice.
Born in Banks County, Georgia on June 25, 1931, he was the son of the late Hoyt D. Jordan and Ethel Jones Jordan. Mr. Jordan was retired from Mt. Vernon Mills, Alto, Georgia, and was a member of Rock Springs Baptist Church where he served as Deacon for many years. Mr. Jordan proudly served his country in the United States Air Force during the Korean War.
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by a brother, Charles Swayne Jordan; sisters, Lavern J. Saxon and Wilma J. Sheridan; sisters-in-law, Brenda Parker Jordan and Lynn Caudell Jordan; brothers-in-law, Ralph Dooley, Ulysess Carpenter, Odos Sheridan, and Jackie Wilson.
Surviving are his sisters and brothers-in-law, Bobbie J. Carpenter of Lula, Margaret J. Dooley of Warner Robins, Emily J. Perry (Buford) of Commerce, Gayle J. Wright (Wesley) of Bogart, Elaine J. Fleming (Doug) of Alto; brothers and sisters-in-law, Talmadge Jordan (Joyce) of Maysville, Richard Jordan (Patsy) of Lula, Dayle Jordan of Lula, Stanley Jordan (Cathy) of Tignal; brother-in-law, David (Sonny) Saxon of Lula; special niece, Janie Sheridan Wilkes; many nieces and nephews.
The family would like to express their thanks to Northeast Georgia Medical Center Hospice and Hill Haven Nursing Home for their care.
Funeral services are scheduled for 1 pm, Wednesday, November 25, 2020, in the Chapel of McGahee-Griffin and Stewart with Rev. Swayne Cochran officiating. Interment will follow in Rock Springs Baptist Church Cemetery with Rev. Mark Stroud officiating. Full military honors will be provided by the United States Air Force and the Grant Reeves VFW Post #7720.
The family will accept friends from 11 am until the service hour on Wednesday at the funeral home.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to Rock Springs Baptist Church, 747 Rock Springs Road, Lula, GA 30554.
Those in attendance are asked to please adhere to the public health and social distancing guidelines regarding COVID-19.
A husband and wife are in jail in Habersham County, accused of trafficking heroin.
Habersham County Sheriff’s deputies arrested 38-year-old Alisha Gay Dover of Clarkesville during a traffic stop on GA-365 in Baldwin on Friday, November 20. Her husband, Andrew Dover, 43, was with her at the time.
Law enforcement officers say they discovered 56 grams of heroin on Alisha Dover when they took her to jail for DUI. Investigators say she and her husband Andrew Dover had picked up the drugs in Atlanta prior to their arrest. (photo by ARDEO)
Deputies charged Alisha Dover with DUI and other traffic offenses. When they took her to jail, authorities say they discovered approximately 56 grams of heroin on her. Andrew Dover was then also arrested and jailed.
“The investigation revealed that both Alisha and Andrew had gone to Atlanta and picked up the heroin prior to the traffic stop,” says Trent Hillsman of the Appalachian Regional Drug Enforcement Office (ARDEO).
The heroin has a street value of $11,200.
Hillsman says officials had previously received information “into the illegal activities of the Dovers,” but was not specific. The couple had been under investigation for about five months.
A judge denied bond for the Dovers. They remained in custody as of late Monday afternoon, according to online jail records.
Hillsman says the investigation is still active and ongoing.
Officials encourage citizens to report suspicious drug activity by direct message on the ARDEO Facebook page, calling 706-348-7410, or contacting your local Sheriff’s Office or Police Department.
A motorcycle accident early Monday morning in Stephens County claimed the life of an Eastanollee man. John Anthony Horvath, 31, was thrown from his bike and killed after running into a mailbox.
According to State Troopers, Horvath was driving a Suzuki GSR600 north on Ridgeland Road around 7 a.m. Nov. 23 when he ran onto the shoulder of the road in a curve and struck the mailbox. The impact threw him off the bike and he landed on the side of the road.
Horvath was pronounced dead at the scene.
Troopers from Georgia State Patrol Post 7 in Toccoa investigated the fatal accident.
A head-on collision in White County over the weekend seriously injured five people, including two small children.
The accident happened around 2:20 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 22, on US 129/GA 11 near White County High School.
According to the Georgia State Patrol, Samantha Wade, 26, of Cleveland, was driving south in a Toyota Rav4 when she crossed the centerline and struck a northbound Ford Edge driven by Gerrit Moot, 50, of Blairsville. The crash injured both drivers and all three passengers in Wade’s vehicle.
Serenity Butler, 6, of Cleveland was critically injured. Life Flight flew her and 4-year-old Shiloh Hernandez, also of Cleveland, to an Atlanta area hospital.
White County EMS transported Wade and Moot to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville. 29-year-old Casie Sidel of Cleveland was taken by ambulance to Habersham Medical Center in Demorest.
Drugs and alcohol are not suspected to be a factor in the collision, according to SFC Auston Allen of Georgia State Patrol Post 6 in Gainesville. Charges are pending against Wade.
John Harold Jordan, age 89 of Lula, Georgia, passed away on Sunday, November 22, 2020, at Northeast Georgia Medical Center Hospice.
