Hall County’s government will hold a groundbreaking ceremony at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 8, to recognize the start of an expansion project at the Spout Springs Water Reclamation facility, located at 6818 Spout Springs Road in Flowery Branch.
“The Spout Springs Water Reclamation facility has served the growing South Hall population for several years now, but as this community continues to grow, its current capacity will not be able to serve at its current rate,” Hall County District 1 Commissioner Kathy Cooper said. “This expansion will allow the County to continue offering wastewater services to surrounding residents and contribute to the overall quality of life for the next 10 to 15 years.”
The expansion, upon completion is expected to boost the facility’s wastewater capacity from 750,000 gallons per day to 1.6 million gallons per day, according to county officials.
Facility upgrades include new ultraviolet light disinfection, a new aerobic digester, a new water booster pumping system, new filters and a vacuum truck receiving station.
The project, scheduled for completion in 2026, comes at a cost of $20.9 million and is funded by Special Purpose Local Options Sales Tax (SPLOST VIII) and the County’s water and sewer funds.
U.S. Sens. Raphael Warnock, Jon Ossoff, and the Senate Finance Committee chairman are asking the federal government to investigate what they consider excessive spending on the Georgia Pathways to Coverage program.
Pathways is Medicaid that’s only open to low-income adults who can complete and report 80 hours of work a month. Georgia is the only state actively enforcing work requirements for a Medicaid program.
So far, fewer than 5,000 people have enrolled, though the senators say the program has cost at least $40 million in taxpayer money.
Meanwhile, flaws persist. For example, the complicated enrollment process prevents some from enrolling, and those who do enroll can’t be guaranteed consistent coverage.
Pathways is set to end next September if it’s not extended by the incoming administration.
The Government Accountability Office has previously investigated spending in programs with work requirements and found a lack of oversight.
This article comes to Now Habersham in partnership with GPB News
El presidente electo Donald Trump escucha a Elon Musk previo al despegue del megacohete Starship de la empresa SpaceX, propiedad de Musk, para un vuelo de prueba desde Starbase en Boca Chica, Texas, el 19 de noviembre de 2024. (Brandon Bell/Pool vía AP, Archivo)
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — An online spat between factions of Donald Trump’s supporters over immigration and the tech industry has thrown internal divisions in his political movement into public display, previewing the fissures and contradictory views his coalition could bring to the White House.
The rift laid bare the tensions between the newest flank of Trump’s movement — wealthy members of the tech world, including billionaire Elon Musk and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and their call for more highly skilled workers in their industry — and people in Trump’s Make America Great Again base who championed his hardline immigration policies.
The debate touched off this week when Laura Loomer, a right-wing provocateur with a history of racist and conspiratorial comments, criticized Trump’s selection of Sriram Krishnan as an adviser on artificial intelligence policy in his coming administration. Krishnan favors the ability to bring more skilled immigrants into the U.S.
It bloomed into a larger debate with more figures from the hard-right weighing in about the need to hire U.S. workers, whether values in American culture can produce the best engineers, free speech on the internet, the newfound influence tech figures have in Trump’s world and what his political movement stands for.
Trump has not yet weighed in on the rift, and his presidential transition team did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Musk, the world’s richest man who has grown remarkably close to the president-elect, was a central figure in the debate, not only for his stature in Trump’s movement but his stance on the tech industry’s hiring of foreign workers.
Technology companies say H-1B visas for skilled workers, used by software engineers and others in the tech industry, are critical for hard-to-fill positions. But critics have said they undercut U.S. citizens who could take those jobs. Some on the right have called for the program to be eliminated, not expanded.
Born in South Africa, Musk was once on an a H-1B visa himself and defended the industry’s need to bring in foreign workers.
“There is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent,” he said in a post. “It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley.”
Trump’s own positions over the years have reflected the divide in his movement.
His tough immigration policies, including his pledge for a mass deportation, were central to his winning presidential campaign. He has focused on immigrants who come into the U.S. illegally, but he has also sought curbs on legal immigration, including family-based visas.
As a presidential candidate in 2016, Trump called the H-1B visa program “very bad” and “unfair” for U.S. workers. After he became president, Trump in 2017 issued a “Buy American and Hire American” executive order, which directed Cabinet members to suggest changes to ensure H-1B visas were awarded to the highest-paid or most-skilled applicants to protect American workers.
During his 2024 campaign for president, as he made immigration his signature issue, Trump said immigrants in the country illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country” and promised to carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.
But in a sharp departure from his usual alarmist message around immigration generally, Trump told a podcast this year that he wants to give automatic green cards to foreign students who graduate from U.S. colleges.
“I think you should get automatically, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country,” he told the “All-In” podcast with people from the venture capital and technology world.
Those comments came on the cusp of Trump’s budding alliance with tech industry figures, but he did not make the idea a regular part of his campaign message or detail any plans to pursue such changes.
Eunice Ann McBride Schuermann, age 85, of St. Louis, Missouri, passed away on Sunday, December 22, 2024.
Born on October 20, 1939, in St. Louis, she was the daughter of the late Harold and Jesse Mallott McBride and the wife of the late Guy Schuermann. She owned and operated Oak Knoll Nursing Home in St. Louis, for a number of years.
A private family service will be planned at a later date.
FILE - Lisa Hyland, left, and other family members of Marc Fogel, who has been detained in Russia since August 2021, rally outside the White House for his release, July 15, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File)
Marc Fogel, a history teacher from Pennsylvania, is serving a 14-year prison sentence after being arrested in August 2021 at a Russian airport and possessing what his family and supporters said was medically prescribed marijuana.
After Fogel was omitted from a massive prisoner swap last August that resulted in the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and corporate security executive Paul Whelan, among others, his family’s lawyers made another push for the Biden administration to secure his freedom, including by designating him as wrongfully detained.
The State Department considers a range of factors in deciding whether to designate an American jailed in a foreign country as wrongfully detained, including if there’s credible information that the person is innocent. The factors also include if they are being held for the primary purpose of influencing U.S. policy or securing concessions from the U.S. government.
Officials confirmed Friday that Fogel had now received that designation.
“The United States has been working to secure Marc Fogel’s release for some time. We have long called for his humanitarian release and tried to include him in the August 1 deal, but were unable to. The Secretary determined Marc is wrongfully detained in October,” the department said in a statement.
The designation traditionally shifts supervision of a detainee’s case to the office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, a State Department office focused on negotiating for the release of hostages and other Americans classified as being wrongfully detained in other countries.
FILE - In advance of Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri's Congressional testimony, to illustrate the harms children face on social media, parent activists brought an "Instagrinch" to the Capitol building in Washington, Dec. 7, 2021. (Eric Kayne/AP Images for ParentsTogether, File)
Artificial intelligence. Abortion. Guns. Marijuana. Minimum wages. Name a hot topic, and chances are good there’s a new law about it taking effect in 2025 in one state or another.
Many of the laws launching in January are a result of legislation passed this year. Others stem from ballot measures approved by voters. Some face legal challenges.
Here’s a look at some of the most notable state laws taking effect:
Hollywood stars and child influencers
California, home to Hollywood and some of the largest technology companies, is seeking to rein in the artificial intelligence industry and put some parameters around social media stars. New laws seek to prevent the use of digital replicas of Hollywood actors and performers without permission and allow the estates of dead performers to sue over unauthorized AI use.
Parents who profit from social media posts featuring their children will be required to set aside some earnings for their young influencers. A new law also allows children to sue their parents for failing to do so.
Social media limits
New social media restrictions in several states face court challenges.
A Florida law bans children under 14 from having social media accounts and requires parental consent for ages 14 and 15. But enforcement is being delayed because of a lawsuit filed by two associations for online companies, with a hearing scheduled for late February.
A new Tennessee law also requires parental consent for minors to open accounts on social media. NetChoice, an industry group for online businesses, is challenging the law. Another new state law requires porn websites to verify that visitors are at least 18 years old. But the Free Speech Coalition, a trade association for the adult entertainment industry, has filed a challenge.
Several new California measures aimed at combating political deepfakes are also being challenged, including one requiring large social media platforms to remove deceptive content related to elections and another allowing any individual to sue for damages over the use of AI to create fabricated images or videos in political ads.
School rules on gender
In a first nationally, California will start enforcing a law prohibiting school districts from adopting policies that require staff to notify parents if their children change their gender identification. The law was a priority for Democratic lawmakers who wanted to halt such policies passed by several districts.
Abortion coverage
Many states have passed laws limiting or protecting abortion rights since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a nationwide right to the procedure in 2022. One of the latest is the Democratic-led state of Delaware. A law there will require the state employee health plan and Medicaid plans for lower-income residents to cover abortions with no deductible, copayments or other cost-sharing requirements.
Gun control
A new Minnesota law prohibits guns with “binary triggers” that allow for more rapid fire, causing a weapon to fire one round when the trigger is pulled and another when it is released.
In Delaware, a law adds colleges and universities to a list of school zones where guns are prohibited, with exceptions for those working in their official capacity such as law officers and commissioned security guards.
Medical marijuana
Kentucky is becoming the latest state to let people use marijuana for medical purposes. To apply for a state medical cannabis card, people must get written certification from a medical provider of a qualifying condition, such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, epilepsy, chronic nausea or post-traumatic stress disorder. Nearly four-fifths of U.S. states have now legalized medical marijuana.
Minimum wages
Minimum wage workers in more than 20 states are due to receive raises in January. The highest minimum wages will be in Washington, California and Connecticut, all of which will top $16 an hour after modest increases.
The largest increases are scheduled in Delaware, where the minimum wage will rise by $1.75 to $15 an hour, and in Nebraska, where a ballot measure approved by voters in 2022 will add $1.50 to the current minimum of $12 an hour.
Twenty other states still follow the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
Safer traveling
In Oregon, using drugs on public transit will be considered a misdemeanor crime of interfering with public transportation. While the measure worked its way through the legislature, multiple transportation officials said drug use on buses and trains, and at transit stops and stations, was making passengers and drivers feel less safe.
In Missouri, law enforcement officers have spent the past 16 months issuing warnings to motorists that handheld cellphone use is illegal. Starting with the new year, penalties will kick in: a $150 fine for the first violation, progressing to $500 for third and subsequent offenses and up to 15 years imprisonment if a driver using a cellphone cause an injury or death. But police must notice a primary violation, such as speeding or weaving across lanes, to cite motorists for violating the cellphone law.
Montana is the only state that hasn’t banned texting while driving, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Tax breaks
Tenants in Arizona will no longer have to pay tax on their monthly rent, thanks to the repeal of a law that had allowed cities and towns to impose such taxes. While a victory for renters, the new law is a financial loss for governments. An analysis by Arizona’s nonpartisan Joint Legislative Budget Committee estimated that $230 million would be lost in municipal tax revenue during the first full fiscal year of implementation.
Meanwhile Alabama will offer tax credits to businesses that help employees with child care costs.
Kansas is eliminating its 2% sales tax on groceries. It also is cutting individual income taxes by dropping the top tax rate, increasing a credit for child care expenses and exempting all Social Security income from taxes, among other things. Taxpayers are expected to save about $320 million a year going forward.
Voting rights
An Oklahoma law expands voting privileges to people who have been convicted of felonies but had their sentences discharged or commuted, including commutations for crimes that have been reclassified from felonies to misdemeanors. Former state Sen. George Young, an Oklahoma City Democrat, carried the bill in the Senate.
“I think it’s very important that people who have gone through trials and tribulations in their life, that we have a system that brings them back and allows them to participate as contributing citizens,” Young said.
Hall County is offering Christmas tree disposal sites to the public though Monday, Jan. 6.
As part of the “Bring One for the Chipper” tree recycling program, members of the public can bring live trees to any one of Hall’s 12 compactor sites as well as the recycling center, according to county officials.
“This initiative not only serves as a way to turn discarded Christmas trees into a great resource for County residents, but it also keeps the trees from taking up valuable space at the Hall County Landfill,” Hall County Resource Recovery Supervisor Bobby Purdum said.
All trees must be undecorated, and no artificial trees will be accepted, as all live trees will be recycled into mulch – available free of charge to Hall County residents.
“If you don’t have a tree to recycle, chances are you have collected more than a few cardboard boxes this holiday season, so we also want to remind our citizens to recycle those at any of our 12 compactor sites or the recycling center,” Purdum said.
Free mulch may be picked up from the Hall County Landfill, which is located at 1700 Oakbrook Dr. in Gainesville, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
To find your nearest compactor site, visit hallcounty.org. For questions or more information, contact Resource Recovery at 770-535-8284.
President-elect Donald Trump will face significant hurdles to enacting his campaign pledge to ban transgender youth from participating in school sports that align with their gender identity. (Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump repeatedly said during the campaign that, if elected back to the White House, he would pursue a ban on transgender youth participating in school sports that align with their gender identity.
As he prepares to take office in January, experts and LGBTQ+ advocates told States Newsroom the effort would face significant delays and challenges as legal pushback from LGBTQ+ advocacy groups can be expected every step of the way.
Trump’s repeated vow to “keep men out of women’s sports” reflects his broader anti-trans agenda. Administration efforts would come as an increasing number of states have passed laws banning trans students from participating in sports that align with their gender identity.
The Trump-Vance transition team did not offer any concrete details when asked about specifics but shared a statement from spokesperson Karoline Leavitt.
“The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail,” Leavitt wrote. “He will deliver.”
Reversing the final rule for Title IX
The U.S. Education Department, under President Joe Biden, released updated regulations to Title IX in April that strengthen federal protections for LGBTQ+ students. The final rule does not explicitly reference trans athletes’ sports participation — a separate decision the administration put on hold.
The Education Department said Dec. 20 it was withdrawing a proposed rule that would have allowed schools to block some transgender athletes from competing on sports teams that match their gender identities while also preventing across-the-board bans.
Title IX is a landmark federal civil rights law that bars schools that receive federal funding from sex-based discrimination.
The president-elect has pledged, while speaking about trans students’ sports participation, to reverse the Biden administration’s final rule for Title IX on his first day back in office.
The Biden administration’s final rule was met with forceful pushback from GOP attorneys general. A series of legal challenges in states across the country have created a policy patchwork of the final rule and weakened the Biden administration’s vision for enforcement.
But if Trump were to try to reverse the final rule, experts say the effort would take an extended period and require adherence to the rulemaking process outlined in the Administrative Procedure Act, or APA.
The APA rules how federal agencies propose and roll out regulations. That process can take months, creating a barrier for a president seeking to undo a prior administration’s rule.
Cathryn Oakley, senior director of legal policy at the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, said that while a subsequent administration can undo the current Title IX regulations, it would take “a tremendous amount of work because a regulation has the force of law … so long as the administration has complied with the APA.”
For the Trump administration to undo those regulations, it would need to start at the beginning, propose its own rules and go through the entire process.
“I think it seems fairly likely that that’s something that they’re going to pursue, but that’s not something that the president has the capability to do on day one,” she said.
Oakley noted that the updated regulations also have the force of law because they interpret a law that already exists — Title IX.
The Trump administration is “bound by Title IX, which in fact has these protections related to gender identity,” she said.
Preparing to push back
But any action from the Trump administration regarding trans athletes’ sports participation is sure to be met with legal challenges from LGBTQ+ advocacy groups.
Oakley said though “we have many real reasons to be concerned” about what the Trump administration would do when it comes to Title IX protections and in general for LGBTQ+ people, “we also need to be cautious that we do not concede anything either.”
“We need to be trying to ground ourselves in the actual legal reality that the president-elect will be facing when he comes into office and be able to fight with the tools that we have and not concede anything in advance.”
Biden rule does not address athletics
The U.S. Education Department under Biden never decided on a separate rule establishing new criteria regarding trans athletes.
Shiwali Patel, a Title IX lawyer and senior director of safe and inclusive schools at the National Women’s Law Center, said “we could see some sort of announcement about changing the Title IX rule to address athletics” under the Trump administration.
“Given the rhetoric that has come out of the Trump administration and this continued focus on trans athletes, I think we very well should and could expect to see something from the Trump administration on this, which is very harmful,” Patel told States Newsroom.
The Trump administration could also try to pursue a national ban via legislation in Congress.
The U.S. House approved a bill last year that would prohibit trans athletes from competing in sports that align with their gender identity. And in July, the chamber passed a measure that would reverse Biden’s final rule for Title IX.
But Patel said she could not see how any measure in Congress could get through the U.S. Senate’s filibuster, which requires at least 60 votes to pass most legislation. There will be 45 Democratic senators in the incoming Congress, though independent Sens. Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont caucus with the Democrats.
Despite Washington soon entering a GOP trifecta in the U.S. House, Senate and White House, narrow margins could hinder any potential anti-trans legislation from the Trump administration.
Broader anti-trans legislation
Across the country, 25 states have enacted a law that bans trans students from participating in sports that align with their gender identity, according to the Movement Advancement Project, or MAP, an independent think tank.
Logan Casey, director of policy research at MAP, said proponents of these sports bans are using them as a starting point to enact a broader anti-trans agenda.
“In many cases, these sports bans have been one of the first anti-trans laws enacted in recent years in many states, but then states that enact one of these sports bans then go on to enact additional anti-trans or anti-LGBTQ laws,” Casey told States Newsroom.
Casey described any controversy around trans people playing sports as “entirely manufactured.”
“In just five years, we’ve gone from zero states to more than half the country having one of these bans on the books, and that’s really, really fast in the policy world,” he said.
In March 2020, Idaho became the first state to enact this type of ban.
In 1922, the world was introduced to Count Orlok, now commonly known as Nosferatu, played by Max Schreck. His horrific appearance set the stage for what was arguably one of the most influential horror movie characters ever.
In 1979, director Werner Herzog put his own spin on the character, which was an homage to the original while simultaneously being an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The original was an unofficial adaptation.
Now it’s 2024 and writer/director Robert Eggers of The Witch, TheLighthouse, and The Northman has made his own version. For the most part, it’s a horror movie that does honor the previous efforts but also puts its own stamp on the mythology. That has its pluses and minuses.
The story stays true to the spirit of the source material by setting up Bill Skarsgard as Count Orlok, a vampiric monstrosity who wants to sell his dilapidated castle in 1838 Germany. Nicholas Hoult plays Thomas Hutter, a real estate agent in charge of closing the deal in Transylvania, where the Count resides.
Skarsgard brings a grotesque and menacing presence to the character, and it’s genuinely frightening. He’s very much in the same vein as his predecessors in the sense that he doesn’t hide his hideous physical features, such as his distorted head and slender body. That remains relatively consistent despite much of the movie keeping Orlok in the dark. It actually adds to the foreboding tone.
Lily-Rose Depp costars as Thomas’ wife, Ellen, who was haunted by a supernatural creature as a child and now has a premonition that same creature is out to haunt her and her husband. She ended up getting seizures as a child from the creature and her premonitions intensify into adulthood after Orlok realizes the connection between Thomas and Ellen. Depp gives an emotionally charged performance, but there are also moments where she becomes hysterical, to the point that it’s borderline campy.
Thomas and Ellen need help to face the impending threat and so they call for outside help. Aaron Taylor-Johnson costars as a skeptic reluctantly drawn into the fight. Ralph Ineson is a doctor who tries to cure Ellen of her supposed insanity and Willem Dafoe is a scientist who has experience in dealing with the occult.
From a purely technical perspective, Nosferatu soars as a film dripping with atmosphere at every turn. The production design, costumes, makeup, and score are sensational to the point that they all add to the atmosphere rather than undermine it. There’s a great sense of German Expression in scene after scene, with ominous shots highlighting the sinister, brooding design, and it really does feel like it’s taking inspiration from the 1922 original.
However, its narrative structure occasionally loses momentum due to some deliberately paved scenes, which somewhat grind the movie to a halt. I think scenes with the obligatory exposition could’ve been handled better by showing us more of Count Orlok’s powers.
This version of Nosferatu is effective entertainment, and I’m recommending it for its remarkable visual flair. Eggers’ respect for the material elevates the performances.
Nothing will ever match the symphony of horror quite like the original did, but this Nosferatu has enough bite.
Grade: B+
(Rated R for bloody violent content, graphic nudity and some sexual content.)
Cathy Jane Collins Sutton, age 73, of Gainesville, Georgia, entered rest on Tuesday, December 24, 2024.
Mrs. Sutton was born on June 25, 1951, in Hall County, Georgia, to the late Henry Ford Collins and Joyce Wilson Collins. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, John Dale Sutton; sister, Mary Nell Brown; mother-in-law, Dorothy Kinsey Sutton; and brother-in-law, Charles “Ed” Holland.
Cathy’s greatest joy in life was her family, and her first priority was always being a nurturing mother to her two daughters, Amanda and Lisa. With a passion for learning and a determination to provide the best for her children, Cathy returned to school after Amanda was born, earning her bachelor’s degree while balancing the responsibilities of raising her young family. Even after Lisa’s birth, Cathy persevered, completing her education and fulfilling her dream of becoming a teacher. Cathy dedicated over 30 years to early childhood education, beginning her career in daycares and later serving as a beloved teacher in the Hall County School System. She made a lasting impact on countless young lives, sharing her warmth, kindness, and love of learning with every child she taught. After her well-deserved retirement, Cathy enjoyed spending her days in the company of her family and embracing her most treasured role as “Granny” to her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Survivors include her daughter, Amanda Sutton, of Gainesville; daughter and son-in-law, Lisa and Scott Northrop, of Villa Rica; grandchildren, Caleb Sutton, Jacki Sutton and Randall Guthrie, Tony Sutton, Cathy Northrop, and John Northrop; great-grandchildren, Oakland Guthrie, Hardin Guthrie; sister, Peggy Holland, of Gainesville; sister and brother-in-law, Lynne and Stuart Jones, of Blairsville; sister-in-law, Janice Dixon, of Gainesville; and several nieces and nephews as well.
Graveside Services will be held at 2:00 p.m., Saturday, December 28, 2024, at the Yonah Memorial Gardens, with Rev. Terry Rice officiating.
The family will receive friends directly following the graveside service.
Flowers will be accepted, or memorials may be made to the National Kidney Foundation, 30 East 33rd Street, New York, NY 10016
Arrangements have been entrusted to Whitfield Funeral Homes & Crematory, North Chapel, 245 Central Avenue, Demorest, Georgia 30535. Telephone: 706-778-1700.
The Mt. Airy Town Council will hold a called meeting Friday, December 27 to discuss several matters and hold a public hearing for the proposed 2025 operating budget. (Jerry Neace/NowHabersham.com)
The Mt. Airy Town Council will convene for a called meeting on Friday, December 27, at 6:30 p.m. to discuss several important matters affecting the town and its residents. The primary agenda item will be a public hearing on the proposed 2025 operating budget. The council will present the budget for public review and allow residents to provide input before it is finalized.
HB 581 and FLOST
Following the budget hearing, the council will turn its attention to House Bill 581, also known as the Statewide Floating Homestead Exemption and Flexible Local Option Sales Tax (FLOST). This bill, signed into law by Governor Brian Kemp in April, was approved by Georgia voters in the November referendum.
The legislation is complex, with several key provisions affecting property taxes, local sales tax limits, and an “opt-out” provision for local governments. It also establishes a new FLOST. The Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) and the Association County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG) have released resources to help local governments and residents navigate the changes. The council will discuss the implications of these changes during the meeting.
Other business
In addition to the budget hearing and discussion on House Bill 581, the council will consider a resolution to join the First Responder PTSD Fund. This fund, created through House Bill 451 and signed into law this year, is part of the Ashley Wilson Act, named after a Gwinnett County police officer who experienced PTSD after witnessing her partner being shot in the line of duty and dying in her arms. The fund aims to provide financial support for first responders who suffer from PTSD due to the traumatic events they witness in their roles.
Finally, the council will finalize the allocation of its American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds. Local governments must submit their ARPA fund allocations by December 31, or they risk having the funds returned. The council will finalize its plans to ensure compliance with this federal deadline.
Residents of Mt. Airy are encouraged to attend the meeting and participate in the budget public hearing. The meeting will take place at the Town Hall located at 1231 Dicks Hill Parkway in Mt. Airy.
Joey Terrell serves one of his final days as Habersham County's Sheriff (Brian Wellmeier/Now Habersham)
Sheriff Joey Terrell soon will bid farewell after 15 years as Habersham County’s top law enforcement officer.
Sheriff-elect Robin Krockum will step into the role as sheriff on Jan. 1. After retiring as chief of the Demorest Police Department in May, Krockum ran unopposed and was elected in November.
Long before he was elected, Terrell, now 55, started his career at the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office in September of 1995.
The beginning
Originally born in Canton, Ohio, Terrell and his family came to North Georgia when he was four-years-old. Terrell felt drawn to law enforcement from the beginning, he said, mostly for a desire to help and defend the vulnerable.
“I love helping the people who can’t help themselves,” Terrell said. “There’s no better feeling than going in and helping somebody who can’t help themselves.”
Through the years since he was hired, Terrell rose through the ranks and first worked in the jail, then on a radio, then as a deputy. Terrell then went on to serve as corporal, sergeant and back to shift sergeant.
Joey Terrell
But in 2008, Terrell resigned from the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office for a very specific purpose. It was a “burning desire,” as he described it. Something that told him he could run things better than the current administration – that he could improve the very agency he’d served under.
“I didn’t like how deputies acted and treated folks,” Terrell said. “I didn’t like the fact that (officers) didn’t make any money. I always felt like we were stepchildren of the county.”
That first election
Following his resignation, Terrell said he took that “leap of faith” and launched his first campaign to run for sheriff. His opponent was Habersham’s acting sheriff, DeRay Fincher – his former superior, as it were. Terrell had put it all on the line, but he believed some things needed to change and, if elected, he was bent on bringing that change.
At one point, uncertain of the political world, Terrell sought counsel from a friend and mentor from Hall County. He told him: “Always run like you’re one vote behind.” And that’s what he did.
In 2008, of around five candidates running in the primary, Terrell didn’t quite reach 50% of the vote. It came down to a runoff: Fincher v. Terrell.
At home with his family, Terrell hovered by the radio when the announcement came. In angst, he listened to the live coverage as the results poured in. Then the race was called.
Terrell won.
And at that moment, one of his first thoughts was: “What am I going to do now?”
“I said, ‘Wow,’” Terrell said of his win in 2008. “I guess I’m going to be sheriff, and then it was like, ‘Now what?’”
Habersham County Sheriff Joey Terrell (Brian Wellmeier/Now Habersham)
Terrell’s legacy
In the years since, Habersham County Sheriff’s Office has seen an overall transformation under Terrell’s leadership. From technological advancements, compliance with rigorous state standards and bolstered human resources, Terrell has gradually guided policy into the modern era.
“It’s almost like we’ve come out of the 19th Century and into the 21st Century,” Terrell said. “Technology, training, manpower – a little bit of everything. We kind of had our hands full (in 2009). We had a policy, but it was a botched policy…we’ve come miles and miles and miles of where we were at.”
Public safety and other policy changes to come out of Terrell’s administration include:
No chasing suspects out of state
No chasing motorcycles.
Hiring school resource officers
Pay raises for employees
Obtaining state certification
These achievements, however, perhaps hold greater weight beyond the surface.
Habersham County has one of only seven sheriff’s offices in Georgia to achieve state certification, according to Terrell. Through the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police, certification requires agencies to meet about 130 standards.
This covers policy over protocol and training, technology, patrol tactics, hiring processes, investigation strategies, use-of-force and administrative duties.
Terrell brought Habersham County up to those state certification standards in 2010, maintaining those standards ever since.
Krockum said he’ll see that these standards continue to be maintained after he takes office.
“These are state and national standards that help us with liability, (obtaining) grants and insurance discounts,” Krockum said. “Certain grants aren’t available unless you’re a certified agency.”
Habersham County Sheriff Joey Terrell stands out outside Habersham County Detention Center on one of his final days in office (Brian Wellmeier/Now Habersham)
While in office, Terrell has more than doubled staffing numbers at Habersham County’s Sheriff’s Office. Some of those account for crucial positions like patrol deputies, jailers, investigators and other personnel.
For context, before Terrell took office, there were 50-60 staff members within the agency. Now, that number is up to around 105.
Even under county budget constraints, Terrell also has pushed to replace countless vehicles and secured funding for enhanced technology for deputies and officers throughout his agency.
With four terms under his belt, Terrell said he’s continued to follow that piece of advice through every election cycle: Always run like you’re one vote behind. And he’s won every time.
“That’s what I always did,” he said. “I always worked hard at it, put out signs and went and talked to folks.”
Work left to do
Krockum, who started his career at the sheriff’s office alongside Terrell, will have a series of challenges to work with county commissioners on in the years ahead. One of the biggest could be the Habersham County Jail, which is known to have limited capacity, instances of potential rights violations and an array of obsolescence issues.
Terrell said he’d like to see the detention institution focus on new provisions that create opportunity for inmates to prevent, or at least lower, recidivism.
“We just don’t have the available space,” Terrell said. “That’s the other side of just keeping people locked up. If we could try and help change their lifestyle, maybe they won’t be back in jail.”
Robin Krockum has been appointed as Chief Deputy for the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office, seen with Sheriff Joey Terrell. (Habersham County Rob Moore)
Krockum, who has worked closely with Terrell over the years, also expressed a need for additional resources and space to foster a more supportive environment for the 162 incarcerated individuals inside Habersham’s jail. Like Terrell, he’s confident this could break cycles of criminal behavior.
“If they don’t have something like that, then they get back out and get with the same people and reoffend,” Krockum said. “Then they’re right back in (jail).”
Krockum, who had Terrell’s support even before his announcement to run, said he’ll continue to push for progress in the sheriff’s office.
“I would never want to see it go backward,” Krockum said. “We’ve got shared views on a lot of things. (Terrell and I) have worked with each other for years.”
Krockum, 52, has a 28-year career in law enforcement – first with the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office before he joined the Demorest Police Department. Krockum went on to lead Alto’s Police Department as chief when it was founded.
He came back to Habersham County Sheriff’s Office as a patrol commander under Terrell in 2009, then he returned to Demorest as police chief in 2016 until his retirement earlier this year.
“I’m both excited and nervous,” Krockum said. “I’ve been a chief, but this is a lot different…I knew what (Terrell’s) vision was, and I want to keep moving forward. The advantage I have is I’ve worked with everybody here.”
Probate Judge Pam Wooley administers the oath of office to Sheriff Robin Krockum while his wife Meadow holds the Bible. (Jerry Neace/NowHabersham.com)
Why now? And what’s next?
Asked what compelled him not to run for office again, Terrell said he just “felt it was time.”
“Like, when it was time to run – now, it’s time to step away,” Terrell said. “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I believe in term limits. Nobody should have an office forever. I don’t care what it is. We have term limits for president. We have term limits for governor. I think we need term limits for every other office. I don’t think we should have terms that go on for 50 years.”
Just days before he’s set to leave an office he’s held for so long, Terrell now finds himself with a similar thought he had when he was first elected.
“What am I going to do now?”
On Friday, Dec. 20, despite a passion for long-time hobbies like older-model cars, Terrell said he still hasn’t discovered that answer.
“I don’t know what exactly the plan is,” he said. “But I’m excited to see where it’s going. I’ve done this, primarily, for 29 years. I’ve done a whole lot of other stuff on the side, also…I don’t want to stay in office until I can’t do anything. I want to go and enjoy life and do something else. I want to have another career for a little while. None of us is afforded tomorrow, but I’m kind of excited to see what I can do beyond law enforcement.”
Again, Terrell remarked, “It’s time.”
Habersham County Sheriff Joey Terrell soon bids farewell as the top officer of the sheriff’s office (Brian Wellmeier/Now Habersham)
