CMYK Thursday, November 13, 2014
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FFA at West Jackson Middle 2nd in US. 9A
Former school will be leased to church By LEANNE AKIN
lakin@clickthepaper.com
With the former South Jackson Elementary School no longer to be used as a K-12 facility, the Jackson County Board of Education agreed Monday to lease the Highway 129 facility to The Church at Southside. A group of church members who were in attendance with Pastor Jeff Williams stood to be recognized “We look foward to this partnership,” said Superintendent of Schools Dr. April Howard, who noted that The Church at Southside is already a partner with the school system in its support of students. Howard invited Pastor Williams to the stage for the signing of the six-year lease which can be renewed for an additional oneyear term. A request for proposal was advertised after
Cost to upgrade South Jackson Elementary facilities greater than available state funding hearings were conducted to close the school facility. In other items on the board’s consent agenda was the: ■■ Approval of the proposal of Central Office banking services to be awarded to Mountain Valley Bank. ■■ Approval of the Title I Budget for FY15. ■■ Approval of an Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (ESPLOST) expenditure in an amount up to $12,000 to replace the existing package unit HVAC and surrounding fence at the central office. ■■ Approval of the renaming of West Jack-
son Intermediate School to West Jackson Elementary School for FY16. The transfer of West Jackson Intermediate School principal Troy Johnson to be principal of the renamed Pre-K-5 school was also approved effective July 1, 2015. ■■ Approval of recommended personnel action including the hiring of Jessica Adams, Custodian, SJES; Tina Johnston, Bus Driver; Susan Manley, Special Education Paraprofessional, EJMS; Kirsten Meehan, Paraprofessional, SJES; Mistie Waters, 6th Grade Teacher, WJMS (effective Nov. 20, pending release from current contract and completion of JCSS requirements);
■■ Approval of the transfer of Melanie Bryson, Special Education Paraprofessional, Shared Services 100 percent to 88 percent; Kris Hale, Special Education Paraprofessional, EJMS to EJES; Linda Bell, Principal, WJPS to District Leadership (effective July 1, 2015); Allan Dillow, Maintenance Supervisor, System to Maintenance/Custodian, EJCHS; and Josh Patton, HVAC, System to Maintenance Supervisor. ■■ Approval of recommended personnel action including the resignation/Ttermination of Megan Fulcher, Special Education Paraprofessional, EJES; Alicia King, 6th Grade Teacher, WJMS; Kasey Odom, Maintenance, System; Margaret Retter, Food Service Assistant, EJCHS; Joy Washburn, Special Education Paraprofessional, WJMS Also medical leave of absence was granted to Belinda Cain, Food Service, EJCHS.
Jackson Co. looking to Comcast for tech service
Santa comes to Braselton
Santa Claus made an appearance during Saturday’s Lighting of the Tree celebration which serves as the official kickoff of “Celebrate the Holidays in Braselton. “ The jolly ol’ elf will no doubt be back a couple of times before Christmas with the Victorian Christmas-themed parade stepping off at 10:30 a.m. this Saturday, the day of the festival in Braselton Park from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. As Andy Garrison wrapped up the reading of “Twas the Night Before Christmas” with children gathered around his chair in front of a beautifully decorated hearth, Santa arrived in grand style and pulled the switch to light the tree perched high atop the Braselton Brothers Store. See more scenes on Page 6A and at ClickThePaper.com.
Jackson County government is hopeful that Comcast Cable Communications can provide stability and reliability for Ethernet service for the county’s computer systems. On Monday, the Board of Commissioners is expected to approve a master services agreement with Comcast for Ethernet services for $43,152 per year. The move may fuel the potential for Comcast to bring residential service offerings with fiber being laid from Hoschton where Comcast Business is already serving some business customers with a faster speed and more reliable Internet service. At the Nov. 3 work session, County Manager Kevin Poe said, “Windstream Communications is currently the sole service provider for Ethernet service for the county’s computer system. Having only one option for such service does not put the county in a good position when negotiating for better service and/or charges for service. “At times, Windstream has provided a poor level of service and we have experienced numerous outages which highly impact our ability to operate all of our computer platforms for our various operations at the high level we and the public expect,” said Poe. Jackson County Director of Information Technology Justin King agreed and pointed out that critical public safety operations have been negatively impacted when Windstream service “is down for an hour or two or all day long.”
Health system slated to receive hospital on Dec. 18 1 million man hours without any lost time accidents celebrated with Turner Construction at Northeast Georgia Medical Center Braselton By LEANNE AKIN
lakin@clickthepaper.com
More than a million man hours have been worked at the construction site of Northeast Georgia Medical Center Braselton without any lost time accidents, and the milestone was celebrated by the hospital, Turner Construction and subcontractors during a Nov. 6 luncheon. The event, catered by Papa Jack’s Country Kitchen, found more than 400 gathered on the third floor of the new medical office building to commemorate the safety achievement. To ready the new hospital for its April 1, 2015 opening, the facility will be turned over by Turner Construction to hospital officials on Dec. 18. The medical office building will be opening in mid-January. “This is a huge accomplishment for any construction project, but especially on a complex healthcare project such as this,” said Rudy Lonergan, the hospital’s director of facilities development. Related to the entire
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construction project and especially the safety component, he said, “Turner has a good plan and it’s a great team effort.” James Welch, superintendent for Turner, has been on the job for two and a half years beginning with meetings in July 2012 at the Gainesville hospital with Lonergan. He recalls walking the property and being on the hospital site as the first trees were being cut. On the day before the man hour safety celebration, trees were being cleared for the bridge which will connect the hospital site to the existing Medical Plaza One. Welch said the medical equipment is now coming in and being set up. He says there have been many highlights in the project including the excitement of the recent arrival of the MRI magnet. A crane was onsite earlier in the week to bring the MRI magnet through the ER Department and the cath lab equipment is to be set up this week. The parking lot will also be paved this week.
See HOSPITAL, 3A
Volume 9, Number 3 Obituaries 4A Police report 2A Puzzles 8B School News 9A Sports 1-2B
LeAnne Akin The Paper
Interior work for Northeast Georgia Medical Center Braselton is pushing into high gear as the facility is scheduled to be turned over to hospital officials on Dec. 18. A safety milestone of one million man hours worked without any lost time accidents was celebrated during a Nov. 6 luncheon. See more scenes at ClickThePaper.com and on Page 3A. A special announcement related to the new Braselton hospital will be made Thursday during the wrapup celebration of The Medical Center Foundation’s Healthy Journey Campaign.
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