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The Paper | Thursday, July 26, 2012
Crossroads Church to host July 28 back-to-school bash Crossroads Church of Jackson County envisions a gathering place where God can unveil what He has in store for the community. According to Pastor Rod Zwenke, the church recently closed on acreage on Highway 124 less than a mile from Highway 11 which will provide a place where people can go and connect and have a good time. On Saturday starting at 4 p.m., Crossroad Church of
Jackson County will host a celebration on its new property at 828 Highway 124. The fun will include face painting, tattoos, inflatables and games along with live music. The event will be capped off with a family movie night with the huge screen set up outdoors. The community is invited to attend the day of fun. The 95 acres of property has been bank-owned for more than two years and the
church was able to acquire the land which Zwenke describes as beautiful. “We want to see what God has in store for us,” said Zwenke. “It’s been a great faith journey to watch God provide the way He has.” Zwenke said the property will be a gathering place where so much can happen to connect people to God’s word. The future could include a coffee house, recreational opportunities with a
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Highway 211 widening project would improve access to the new hospital Kit Dunlap, president and CEO of the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce, said travel between regions is inevitable, so support for the sales tax should cross regional lines. “We have people going to Gwinnett County to work, and we have people living in Gwinnett coming up here to work,” she said. The Transportation Investment Act of 2010, which paved the way for the July 31 vote, set up transportation regions according to 12 regional commissions already established in the state. Under the law, each region individually approves or rejects the sales tax. Perhaps no area project spotlights the interlocking of regions more than Ga. 211 in Braselton. Hall is proposing to use sales tax money to widen Ga. 211 from Ga. 53/Winder Highway to the new Ga. 347/Friendship Road at Bayberry Drive. The project, expanding the road to four lanes from two, would cost about $40 million — more when adjusted for inflation — and would be completed by 2022, or at the end of the 10-year tax. The Northeast Georgia region calls for continuing the widening of the road from two
lanes to four lanes between Ga. 347 and I-85. The project, which would run by Chateau Elan resort, also calls for the construction of roundabouts at the proposed Braselton Parkway Extension near I-85 and at the interstate interchange. The new road would be completed by 2019. Scott Snedecor, a Ga. 211 businessman and chairman of the Braselton Community Improvement District’s board of directors, said he believes the area “offers tremendous growth potential.” “And transportation improvements are important to that growth,” he said. Hall officials have touted the Ga. 211 improvements as key to a burgeoning road network in the area, particularly with the development of the Northeast Georgia Health System’s River Place campus. River Place will feature a 100-bed hospital and two medical buildings. River Place is off Ga. 211 and the new Ga. 347. Hospital construction is scheduled to finish in the spring of 2014, and its opening is expected in the spring of 2015, officials have said. The Ga. 347 project, which recently won
park kind of atmosphere to enjoy. “We want to build a community,” said Zwenke, who suggests a retreat center or campgrounds, and perhaps ballfields in cooperation with the the parks and rec departments. The property has great vis-
approval by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division so that the contract could be awarded, would run as a four-lane and sixlane road between Ga. 211 and Interstate 985. The stretch in front of the new hospital will be built first, officials have said. “It’s exciting to know that we have to tear some things down and remove a few trees to prepare for the road,” said Anthony Williamson, health system vice president, in a May interview. “We’ve been working closely with the DOT throughout the life of this project.” Chad Bolton, the health system’s director of planning, said that Ga. 211 specifically “will help improve access to hospital emergency services. “We estimate approximately 10,000 ER visits in the first year after opening, with that number expected to more than double in the first five years,” he said. The new Ga. 347 also would cross Spout Springs Road, which is planned for a widening to four lanes and is included in Hall’s project list for the sales tax. The Ga. 211 project almost didn’t make Hall’s list. Officials added it at the last minute, after pulling the widening of Browns Bridge Road from McEver Road to Forsyth County. “Ga. 211 would connect two new four-lane (roads) and the new hospital, (and) that will be a model for transportation planning,” Tom Oliver, chairman of the Hall County Board of Commissioners, said at the time in justifying the move. Oliver, along with Ruth Bruner, Gainesville’s mayor at the time, served on the Geor-
American Red Cross says need for blood donations still critical With extreme heat keeping some donors at home and severe storms forcing the cancellation of dozens of blood drives earlier in the month, the American Red Cross continues to have an emergency need for donors of all blood types. If at least two additional donors give at each blood drive through the end of July – above what the American Red Cross already expects to collect - the blood supply would be sufficient to meet patient needs. Red Cross blood donations are at the lowest they have been in 15 years. Public support from the organization’s late-June appeal helped temporarily stop a decline in the blood supply. However, the mid-week Independence Day and extreme summer weather have contributed to a decrease in donations lately. “We cannot thank enough the blood donors who have already rolled up a sleeve this summer,” said Randy Edwards, CEO of the Southern Blood Services Region. “We appreciate the support from donors in our region. We’re encouraging all eli-
gible donors who didn’t have a chance to give yet to step up and help patients by making an appointment, as well as those who gave earlier in the spring and are now again eligible.” Every two seconds, someone in the United States needs blood. As the nation’s single largest supplier of blood and blood products, the Red Cross is dedicated to ensuring that every patient who needs a lifesaving transfusion is able to receive one. In fact, the Red Cross must collect more than 17,000 pints of blood each day to meet the needs of patients at more than 3,000 hospitals and transfusion centers across the country.
parental permission in some states), weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health may be eligible to donate blood. High school students and other donors 18 years of age and younger also have to meet certain height and weight requirements. About the American Red Cross The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to vic-
ibility and allows the church to stay near Jefferson. Zwenke said the location will serve as the hub of the ministry. “We’ll plant churches from here,” he said. Reaching into the community is the mission, and the bash is the first outreach at the new site.
tims of disasters; supplies more than 40 percent of the nation’s blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a not-forprofit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or join the blog at http://blog. redcross.org.
“This is what it’s all about,” said Zwenke. “We believe the church is supposed to make a radical difference in the community and now we’ll have a homebase.” He said the church will be able to use the property multiple ways during the week to further impact people’s lives.
gia Mountains Transportation Roundtable, which set the projects list last summer for the July 31 vote. The sales tax has had plenty of detractors, with many saying it will hurt those with fixed incomes and that the still-feeble economy can’t absorb what is being called the “largest tax increase in Georgia history.” Bruce Hallowell, a Clarkesville resident who lived in Hall for many years, has said he believes — as many opponents do — that the tax would violate home rule of cities and counties. “There are several attorneys contending this is unconstitutional and will file suit on this issue,” he said. If the sales tax doesn’t pass in either the Georgia Mountains or Northeast Georgia regions, “the timeline for widening Ga. 211 ... is 2030 or longer,” said Teri Pope, spokeswoman for the DOT’s District 1, which includes Hall. She did say that, regardless, Halverson Development, a major land owner off Ga. 211, “wants to widen 211 to the side they own, so they would donate the property and pay construction costs.” “That section is the only part of the widening of the corridor that could occur if (the sales tax) does not pass,” Pope said. See more on the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax on Page 11A. Also see the Transportation Referendum webpage at http://www.dot.ga.gov/localgovernment/FundingPrograms for answers to other questions about the measure.
BRIEFLY
Furlough day on Friday for Jackson County employees; early voting still on Jackson County Government will observe a furlough day on Friday, July 27. Early voting will be available Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the auditorium of the Jackson County Admininstration Building located at 67 Athens St., in Jefferson, as well as at the two satellite early voting sites – Parks & Recreation Building at 204 Carson St., in Commerce, or at the Police Court Building located at 5040 Highway 53, in Braselton. County governmental offices will reopen on Monday, July 30. Furlough days for the last three months of 2012 have been rescinded.
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