Members of the 2nd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment of the U.S. Army unload equipment in Romania. The German based unit joined other US troops already there as part of a coordinated deployment of NATO forces across eastern Europe. The effort is part of NATO's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (photo 2nd Calvary Regiment Facebook)
WASHINGTON (GA Recorder) — U.S. Reps. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, a Democrat, and Warren Davidson of Ohio, a Republican, are leading a broad, bipartisan coalition of lawmakers urging the president to not send U.S. troops into Ukraine, or declare war, before receiving authorization from Congress.
President Joe Biden has not dispatched troops to Ukraine following Russia’s invasion and has said he does not intend to do so, but on Tuesday announced sanctions on Russia, as well as on its oligarchs. Biden also said he would move U.S. forces and equipment already in Europe to the three Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
In a Tuesday letter to Biden, the House members cited Article I in the Constitution that gives Congress the power to finance and declare war, along with Article II that names the president as commander-in-chief.
They noted that “the War Powers Resolution of 1973 was passed into law after multiple presidential administrations failed to receive congressional approval for over a decade of unauthorized involvement by U.S. Armed Forces in hostilities in Southeast Asia.”
The Democratic and Republican lawmakers acknowledged there’s no intention now to place U.S. troops in Ukraine.
“However, if the ongoing situation compels you to introduce the brave men and women of our military into Ukraine, their lives would inherently be put at risk if Russia chooses to invade,” the lawmakers said in the letter.
“Therefore, we ask that your decisions comport with the Constitution and our nation’s laws by consulting with Congress to receive authorization before any such deployment.”
DeFazio said in a statement that the letter is meant to reaffirm the War Powers Resolution, which “states that Congressional authorization is required before the ‘introduction of United States Armed Forces into hostilities, or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances.’”
“Should your administration seek to introduce U.S. Armed Forces into hostilities or decline to remove any U.S. military personnel currently deployed inside Ukraine from unauthorized hostilities or imminent hostilities, Congress stands ready to deliberate over the potentially monumental implications of such scenarios,” according to the letter.
“The American people, through their representatives in Congress, deserve to have a say before U.S. troops are placed in harm’s way or the U.S. becomes involved in yet another foreign conflict,” lawmakers wrote.
Bipartisan members of Congress banded together on Tuesday to urge Biden to place tough sanctions on Russia, though some Republicans remained highly critical of Biden.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Monday directed troops to begin moving into two areas within eastern Ukraine, the Luhansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic.
Nearly 50 lawmakers signed the DeFazio-Davidson letter, including Democrats Cori Bush of Missouri, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, Darren Soto of Florida, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and Mark Pocan and Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, along with Republicans Matt Gaetz, Bill Posey and Kat Cammack of Florida, Matt Rosendale of Montana, Yvette Herrell of New Mexico, Andy Biggs, David Schweikert and Paul Gosar of Arizona, Peter Meijer of Michigan, Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska and Ben Cline and Morgan Griffith of Virginia, among others.
A large crowd at the Senate Education and Youth Committee supported eliminating school mask mandates. (Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder)
ATLANTA (GA Recorder) — Republican state lawmakers’ fight against COVID-19 mandates gained steam Wednesday, with committees advancing bills that would relax restrictions on school mask requirements and prohibit governments from requiring proof of vaccination at public buildings or to use services.
A House committee advanced the Gov. Brian Kemp-backed bill that allows parents to opt their children out of masks requirements at public and charter schools. Also on Wednesday, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee passed Senate Bill 345 that prohibits state and local governments, including public universities, from requiring proof of a COVID-19 vaccination through June 2023.
The Senate measure, sponsored by Chickamauga Republican Sen. Jeff Mullis, passed with a 7-4 vote, bans government agencies from requiring so-called vaccine passports to gain access at public buildings or to obtain licenses, permits and use other services
The latest revision specifies only proof of COVID-19 vaccinations would be banned and it sets an expiration date in June 2023.
Originally, Senate Bill 345 covered all vaccinations, which would’ve prevented school districts from mandatory shots children have taken for measles and chickenpox for decades.
It also excludes hospital authorities so that medical facilities can comply with federal immunization mandates for health care workers.
“I’ve had three vaccinations, two (doses) and then the booster,” Mullis said. “I think everybody should have the vaccination. I just don’t think the state government should mandate it.”
Brandt Lewis, who manages the New Georgia Project’s vaccination program aimed at Black people and other minorities, says it’s difficult enough to deal with vaccine hesitancy often precipitated by misinformation without also having government rules that could lead to unintended consequences.
“Senate Bill 345 is aimed at prohibiting Georgians from keeping all of us honest to our neighbors and preserving the health of the most vulnerable of our society, our seniors,” Lewis said.
Democratic Sen. Michelle Au, an epidemiologist from Johns Creek, asked how long it will take for a vaccine taken by more than half the world’s population to become considered an acceptable requirement for school attendance.
“I think it’s great that we have required vaccination for school (but) why is the COVID vaccine different?” she said.
Sen. Dean Burke, a physician and Bainbridge Republican, said the addition of a sunset provision in the summer 2023 alleviated his chief concerns of enacting the policy for an unpredictable virus.
“I think all of us in the medical community are concerned about with COVID-19 is the fact that it has proven itself to be a very adaptive mutation and I’m hesitant to support anything that would kind of tie our hands up to what might happen in the future,” Burke said.
As the cultural battle that pits the scope of government authority against personal freedom in a public health crisis continues, vaccinations and school mask mandates remain a major line of demarcation that often divides along party lines.
Republican Sen. Jeff Mullis’ bill would prohibit state and local governments from requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccinations to access public facilities and services. The paper vaccination record card is the most common form of “vaccine passport.” Dept. of Defense photo by EJ Hersom
Other states, including neighboring Florida, have introduced or passed legislation rolling back government vaccination mandates and school mask policies.
A Utah bill under consideration also bans employers from mandating that their staff is vaccinated and the government ban covers any type of required proof of immunization.
A lobbyist with the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia said the organization is unaware of any local governments that currently require vaccine documentation.
During Wednesday’s Senate meeting, Taylor Hawkins, with the conservative organization Frontline Policy Action, said the group supports a bill that reinforces people’s ability to make their own health care decisions.
“The idea that the state or local government could cram down a mandate that could prohibit public services based on whether or not citizens have received a treatment, which many have a religious or health reason as to why they cannot receive it, is a repugnant idea,” Hawkins said.
Soon after, the Senate Education and Youth Committee passed another Kemp-backed COVID-19 bill aimed at eliminating public school mask mandates.
Under the bill, schools and districts could only require masks if they allow parents to exempt their children. Like the vaccine documentation bill, the face covering mandate ban is set to expire June 2023.
Republicans on the committee said the goal is to empower parents to make medical decisions for their children.
“This should not be a Democrat versus Republican issue,” said Dahlonega Republican Sen. Steve Gooch. “This is about the children. And if you listen to the families all over Georgia, both Democrat and Republican, especially the moms, they support this legislation. We better start listening to the voters in the state because they’re fed up with some mandates from the local schools on these masks.”
Atlanta Democratic Sen. Sonya Halpern questioned the apparent rush in the Georgia General Assembly to relax pandemic restrictions.
Sen. Sonya Halpern. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder.
“A bill just passed out that would eliminate schools being able to even ask for vaccination records around COVID, and now we’re talking about eliminating having the ability to decide at the local level whether or not masks will be (required),” she said. “And so my question here is why in the world are we completely alienating the typical rules around allowing what’s happening on the ground locally, to be able to now say that this needs to be codified across the state?”
The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends universal indoor masking for anyone in a k-12 school.
Sen. Elena Parent, a Decatur Democrat, said she was concerned the proposed law would limit schools’ options in case another, more transmissible viral variant arises.
“I mean, you can see we can’t predict the future when it comes to disease,” she said. “So why not then limit this to COVID and its currently known variants, versus trying to preempt pandemics and diseases that we have no idea, we can’t even imagine right now?”
“I would state that I’m 42 years old, and this is the first pandemic that I’ve lived through,” said the bill’s sponsor, Buford Republican Clint Dixon. “And then I think that, again, parents have a fundamental right on the decisions, especially with their children and their upbringing, and I think that it should not be limited to just COVID.”
“None of us know what the future holds,” he added. “And as things come before us in life, we deal with them at that time. Worrying about something that we don’t know anything about is like sitting in a rocking chair and rocking in it, it gives you something to do, but it isn’t going to get you anywhere.”
Parent asked Dixon whether he consulted with any health experts in writing the bill, including Georgia Department of Public Health Director Dr. Kathleen Toomey. Dixon said the governor might have done so.
Republicans on the committee pointed out that children account for only a tiny fraction of the state’s nearly 30,000 COVID-19 deaths. Medical experts say COVID-19 typically causes only mild symptoms in young people, but there are rare exceptions, and children can spread the disease to more vulnerable adults.
Dr. Isaac Chun-Hai Fung, associate professor of epidemiology at the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health at Georgia Southern University, said he has questions about the two bills.
“Are we moving too fast to limit the power of the state and local governments as well as schools and school districts to do what is needed, should we enter another public health crisis again? Isn’t it prudent to take legislative actions in a cautious manner and consider the wide range of possibilities into the future?”
“Given the rapid evolution of the virus, we may not know what the future looks like for this pandemic,” he added. “We won’t even know when another virus emerges and leads us into another pandemic again.”
Atlanta Democratic Sen. Donzella James said she’s still worried about the current pandemic. James said she spent six months in the hospital battling a bad case of COVID-19 and urged her colleagues to take the threat more seriously.
“This is no joke. This was at the hospital, WellStar, not far from here. This is real. Please understand that you can catch this, this is real. I got blessed by God, I guess, to be here today. But I wish you would look at the fact that the masks not only protect you, they protect the people around you too.”
You could feel the energy from the opening tip, as the Tallulah Falls Lady Indians cruised to a 55-34 win over visiting Mt. Pisgah on Wednesday evening, securing the program’s 3rd Sweet 16 berth.
TFS (14-4), the region champions out of 8-AA, outscored Mt. Pisgah (9-16) 24-12 in the first half on the way to the win. After the visitors came out with the hot hand, it was 6-3 with Tallulah trailing. A big 17-0 run that spanned to the second quarter put TFS up for good.
Veronaye Charlton, Kailyn Neal, and Molly Mitchell all connected on 3-pointers in the opening quarter, and a Breelyn Wood jumper just before the buzzer had the Lady Indians up 18-6. Mt. Pisgah went on a 6-0 run later in the second, but it was 24-12 going into the break in favor of the Lady Indians, who used 5 different scorers in the first half and forced many turnovers on the press. Both Charlton and Denika Lightbourne, who had a 3-point play in the first as part of the big run, had 7 points apiece in the first half.
Mt. Pisgah narrowed the gap to 33-26 in the third quarter with timely shots, but Lightbourne scored 8 of Tallulah’s 11 points in the quarter to keep TFS up 35-26 heading into the final stanza. The Lady Indians were up by as many as 23 points during the second half, and Lightbourne had 15 points in the second half alone.
Lightbourne led all scorers with 22 points, while Charlton closed with 16, Neal 6, Mitchell 5, Macy Murdock 3, Wood 2, and Barrett Whitener one. The Lady Indians made 5 3-pointers, including 2 apiece for Charlton and Neal.
The Lady Indians advance to the second round, the Sweet 16, and will play host on Friday to Heritage, who took down Eagle’s Landing Christian on Tuesday night in their first round game. It marks the first Sweet 16 run since the 2019-20 season for TFS.
The #9-ranked TFS Indians secured the program’s third Sweet 16 berth with an electrifying 59-39 win over visiting Mt. Bethel on Wednesday in the opening round of the GHSA State Playoffs.
The Indians (20-5) grabbed the win over Mt. Bethel (13-11), clinching the Sweet 16 berth (first since 2016-17) and the 20th win of the season as well. The Indians led from start to finish, though it took awhile for the game’s first basket. Nearly a full 4 minutes into a scoreless game, Charlie Cody splashed a 3-pointer from the top of the key. Moments later, TFS went on an 8-0 run to take control of the game. Devonte Allen’s 3-pointer pushed it to 14-4, as he had 7 points in the quarter.
Up 16-4 into the second, the Indians then rode a 9-0 run and continued to stretch the lead. Anfernee Hanna ignited the packed crowd with a 3-pointer and a slam dunk that got the lead up to 20 at 27-7. The jam forced a timeout, and TFS was up 31-9 at the break, holding Mt. Bethel to single digits in the first half. Both Hanna and Allen paced the offense in the first half with 13 and 11 points, respectively.
Mt. Bethel made the game a little interesting by taking a 26-point deficit down to 13 points midway through the 3rd, but Gavin Page and Hanna connected on back-to-back triples to pump the lead back to 45-26. Page, who was held scoreless in the first half, had all of his 14 points in the second half, and made good on 4 trifectas. The Indians held a comfortable 19-point margin at 45-26 going into the final period. Page dropped in a pair from beyond the arc in the final quarter to staple down the win.
Hanna led in scoring with 18 points, while Allen had 17 and Page 14. Milos Vico finished with 4 points, Cody had 3, Lincoln Hall 2, and KC Respress one point in the win.
The 20-win season and Sweet 16 berth are the third time achieving those feats in school history. TFS will take on the winner of the #1 Greenforest vs #4 Brookstone game. If Greenforest wins, they will host in the second round. If Brookstone wins that matchup, the Indians will host again.
The intersection near Stoney's Restaurant and Ingles will become a roundabout. (Source: Georgia Department of Transportation)
The Georgia Department of Transportation has been installing them across Georgia for years, now, roundabouts are coming to Habersham.
At a meeting Tuesday night for county and city officials, GDOT District Traffic Engineer Jason Dykes and District Pre-construction Engineer SueAnne Decker confirmed that two roundabouts will make their way to Habersham County within the next two years.
The two projects will convert Clarkesville and Demorest intersections into roundabouts, making the traffic flow more easily and improving safety in the area, according to GDOT engineers. Dykes says that a standard intersection has 32 points where a crash can occur, while a roundabout brings those points down to just eight.
“My experience with roundabouts is that they move traffic better and safer,” Clarkesville City Manager Kieth Dickerson says.
The roundabouts will be big enough that semi-trucks and school buses will be able to pass through them without issue, GDOT says.
GDOT announced that they will bring a roundabout to the intersection of GA-197 and GA-385/SR 17, located by Stoney’s Restaurant and Ingles in Clarkesville.
This Clarkesville intersection is slated to become a roundabout in late 2023, or early 2024. (Hadley Cottingham/Now Habersham)
The project was first introduced to the public in May of 2021, and after opening a survey to hear citizen opinions on the project, they were met with strong opposition. One of those concerns the GDOT heard was how the roundabout would affect the location of Stoney’s Restaurant, which has been in the community since 1965.
GDOT’s current plan for the roundabout takes those concerns into consideration, with roundabout entrances and exits going between businesses like Stoney’s and the gas station at the intersection. The current roads at that intersection would stay where they are to become entrance and exit points for the roundabout.
Management at Stoney’s says that GDOT hasn’t made them aware that they’re moving forward with the roundabout project, but they hope they take their customers into consideration during construction.
“Our drive-thru comes through here, and [so does] our front parking,” Stoney’s Restaurant Manager Ruby Evans said. She says many of the restaurant’s elderly customers struggle to get into the restaurant because of how close the parking is to the intersection, and that they have to get their food through the drive-thru.
The project will cost $2.6 million and would go to construction in late 2023 or early 2024.
GDOT is also planning to create another roundabout at the four-way stop on SR-115 and GA-105 in Demorest, which gets backed up regularly. The project is estimated to cost $2.8 million, and construction would begin late this year or early next year.
The 115 and 105 intersections will become a roundabout by next year. (Source: Georgia Department of Transportation)
The county public works department repaired New Liberty Road in 2021 after sustaining major storm damage. (Hadley Cottingham, Now Habersham)
The Habersham County Commission is discussing bringing a TSPLOST back to the citizens for a vote in November. The county last brought a TSPLOST to a vote in 2018, which citizens did not pass.
In order to have a TSPLOST, a county must have a SPLOST in place. Banks, Rabun and Lumpkin Counties currently have a TSPLOST enacted.
A Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, or TSPLOST, is an additional one-percent sales tax that allocates those collected tax dollars to transportation-related county projects. For Habersham, those projects would center around roads and bridges.
The commission is referring to the TSPLOST as a “Roads and Bridges SPLOST.”
“We feel like that really does a better job of describing what it would be for Habersham County,” County Manager Alicia Vaughn said. “We would want the majority of this money to be spent on roads and bridges and maintenance of our roads, road construction, culverts, that kind of thing.”
Vaughn says that due to project backlog and lack of funding for maintaining county roads, the county should consider the TSPLOST.
County Manager Alicia Vaughn presents information to commissioners regarding the TSPLOST. (Hadley Cottingham/Now Habersham)
“We have deteriorating infrastructure, we have project backlogs, … we have a list of work orders that we cannot get to,” Vaughn said. “Some of the reasons are because we don’t have enough staff, but certainly a lot of the reasons are we don’t have enough funding.”
The county estimates the additional sales tax could bring in a total of $40 to $45 million dollars over the course of the five-year TSPLOST. Vaughn says it would allow the county to redistribute SPLOST funds that the county would have allocated to the road and bridge-related projects to cover other capital projects.
The TSPLOST funds could be shared with county municipalities solely on an intergovernmental agreement basis.
According to Habersham County Public Works Director Jerry Baggett, the county currently does not have any allocated general funds for road repaving. Road paving, Vaughn says, is currently paid for through LMIG and SPLOST.
Baggett says that 50 percent of Habersham’s paved roads are in good condition, 25 percent are in fair condition, and 25 percent are in poor condition. He says that 100 percent of Habersham’s dirt and gravel roads are in poor condition.
He says that the estimated cost of taking care of the county’s roads and bridges, as well as equipment to maintain them, in 2022 is $26 million. The road department is slated to receive $18 million for SPLOST.
“Getting this TSPLOST would allow us to make up for that $7.9 million deficit that we currently have,” Baggett said. That deficit does not include the cost of making new or repaving old roads.
Bagget says it would cost about $1.1 million to repave one mile of road.
Commissioner Dustin Mealor expressed his interest in using TSPLOST funds to improve the safety of GA-365, but at this time there is no confirmation is it would be legal to use TSPLOST funds on a state road.
If the commission decides to move forward with putting the TSPLOST up for a vote, they’ll have to enact their referendum by July to have it on the ballot. The county will need to make a complete list of projects and costs, as well as schedule educational community opportunities regarding the TSPLOST, before then.
Georgia Department of Transportation representatives met Tuesday night with local government officials to discuss transportation projects in the area. Among the items they discussed was the possible use of TSPLOST funds for work on GA 365.
GDOT also announced during Tuesday’s meeting it has decided to build a roundabout at the intersection of GA 197 and GA 385/SR 17 in Clarkesville. Now Habersham will have more on the development of that project coming up later today. Check back here for updates.
COVID-19 cases continue to drop across the Northeast Georgia region, with counties that had seen case spikes over the past few weeks dropping off to promising lows.
Case numbers in many counties in the District Two Public Health Region, including Habersham County, are close to reaching pre-holiday season levels. As these numbers continue to trend downward, there may be hope the region could see case numbers similar to those in the spring of 2021.
(Source: District 2 Public Health)
All of the District Two counties, which include Banks, Dawson, Forsyth, Franklin, Habersham, Hall, Hart, Lumpkin, Rabun, Stephens, Towns, Union and White Counties are all seeing decreasing COVID-19 cases.
The Center for Disease Control continues to report a downward trend in COVID-19 hospitalizations statewide.
To see the full report District Two Public Health COVID-19 report, click here.
Two former White County Emergency Service workers are accused of breaking into their former workplace and stealing medication. Deputies arrested Rondal Coy Robinson and Kelly Rae Cronin on February 18 after executing a search warrant on Robinson’s Cleveland residence.
On February 16, Northeast Georgia Medical Center, which runs White County EMS, contacted the White County Sheriff’s Office about a burglary at the EMS building. Officials identified the 51-year-old Robinson and 34-year-old Cronin as suspects.
“Sheriff’s Office investigators executed a search warrant at Robinson’s residence and as a result, both were arrested at the home,” says WCSO Capt. Clay Hammond.
Investigators charged the former EMS workers with 2nd-degree burglary, felony theft by taking, interference with government property, and possession of a Schedule II controlled substance. Robinson and Cronin were released from jail on a $12,500 bond each.
The TJ Maxx, located in the Habersham Village Shopping Center, is set to be completed by the end of this summer or beginning of this fall. (Hadley Cottingham/Now Habersham)
Crews have been hard at work at the future location of the Cornelia TJ Maxx, located in the old K-Mart shopping center, and bargain hunters could be shopping in style as soon as this summer.
Construction has been a challenge for businesses nationally, and the project was originally slated for completion by the spring of 2022. In October, the City of Cornelia said that due to supply chain issues, the discount department store likely wouldn’t open until the fall.
(Hadley Cottingham/Now Habersham)
But with progress moving along better than expected and crews working on the inside of the building, TJ Maxx could be ready to open for business by the end of the summer, according to Cornelia Community Development Director, Jessie Owensby.
The TJ Maxx will be another new addition to the Habersham Village Shopping Center, with Bealls Outlet opening in the summer of 2021 and a Dunkin’ Donuts in progress in the same shopping center.
The proposal seeks to lift Georgia from near last in rankings sizing up access to mental health treatment and gained momentum after the COVID-19 revealed gaps in the state’s behavioral health system. File Photo. (Jill Nolin/Georgia Recorder)
ATLANTA (GA Recorder) — A proposed database of children with frequent encounters with the state’s crisis services has been dropped from a wide-ranging mental health bill.
Much of the now 75-page bill remains intact even as debates continue over proposals to loosen criteria to have someone involuntarily committed for treatment, encouraging more court-ordered assisted outpatient treatment programs across the state, and requiring insurers to provide behavioral health benefits that are on par with physical care.
“The pediatric registry is something we’re going to continue to look at it,” Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, a Decatur Democrat, said Wednesday. “It is an issue. The ‘frequent flyer child’ is an issue coming in and out of the ER. We’re not done with it.”
Oliver said she is particularly concerned about the thousands of children in foster care who have experienced significant trauma at a young age. It’s a concern shared with her colleagues.
“The earlier the detection the better, whether it’s autism, any syndromes that we see,” said state Rep. Karen Mathiak, a Griffin Republican. “So, I agree in protecting children because we don’t want them to be labeled, but I don’t want them getting lost in the system either.”
The proposal would, however, still create an adult registry within assisted outpatient programs across the state, which is a form of involuntary care.
The bill tasks the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities with creating a database of people with behavioral health issues with “high utilization of services” or other troubling patterns of behavior.
Patient advocates have warned the bill could lead to the highest hospitalization rates in decades.
A House panel continued to collect feedback on the bill Wednesday but did not vote. Oliver said afterward she hopes to see the bill advance in the coming week. Crossover Day, when one bill must clear at least one chamber to have a clear path to becoming law, is less than a month away.
The proposal seeks to lift Georgia from near last in rankings sizing up access to mental health treatment and gained momentum after COVID-19 revealed gaps in the state’s behavioral health system.
“We are here in an effort to make Georgia a top-ranking state for mental health,” said Kim Jones, director of NAMI Georgia. “Our goal is to go from ranking 48th in the United States to being in the top tier for mental health.”
Jones, who serves on a reform-minded commission formed in 2019, told lawmakers Wednesday the measure is the culmination of the “delicate compromise and negotiations” among advocates and others who have backed the bill.
Laura Bizzarro Russo, age 82 of Clarkesville, passed away on Tuesday, February 22, 2022.
Born on March 23, 1939 in Paduli, Italy, she was a daughter of the late Rocco Bizzarro and Clementina Dellavalle Bizzarro. Laura was a loving mother. She attended St. Marks Catholic Church.
In addition to her parents, she was also preceded in death by her husband Carmine Russo; and daughter, Antoinette Russo; 8 brothers and sisters.
She is survived by her sons, Dominick Russo (Graziana) of Yonkers, New York, Achille Russo (Jeanine) of Clarkesville, Rocky Russo (Andrea) of Parrish, Florida; daughter, Marilyn Russo (Robert Burroughs) of Demorest; nine grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, two brothers, Girolamo Bizzarro and Mario Bizzarro; 2 sisiters, Rosa Andriola and Anna Cimangelo and a host of nieces, nephews and cousins.
Wednesday’s morning commute was slowed by heavy rain and wrecks on GA 365 in Habersham and Hall counties. The first wreck happened just before 7:30 a.m. at the Demorest Mt. Airy intersection.
According to Georgia State Patrol Post 7 in Toccoa, Estela Juan, 17, of Cornelia, was driving a Ford F150 pickup truck north on GA 365 when he rear-ended a Honda Civic driven by Jose Huertaleyva, 31, of Alto. Following that collision, a Honda Accord, driven by Carlos Guillen, 17, of Alto, rear-ended the pickup.
Juan suffered a minor injury, troopers say. The wreck did not injure any of the other drivers or their passengers. Habersham EMS says they did not transport anyone from the scene.
Approximately 45 minutes later, there were two crashes on GA 365 South in the area of Whitehall Road in Hall County.
Troopers with Georgia State Patrol Post 6 in Gainesville say Asa Wood, 27, of Demorest was driving a Dodge Challenger that hydroplaned and struck a guardrail. It bounced off the guardrail and struck another vehicle on the inside lane.
Three vehicles attempting to avoid the first wreck then wound up crashing.
The drivers involved in the second crash are identified as Erica Carter, 33, of Hiawassee; John Hicks, 65, of Box Elder, South Dakota; and Jamie King, 34, of Hiawassee.
Troopers say Carter was driving a Jeep Cherokee and slightly swerved into the median to avoid the first wreck. As she did, Hicks began moving from the outside to the inside lane as King followed him. Troopers say King was following too closely and swerved right to avoid hitting the Jeep Cherokee. As he did, the Mazda CX-9 he was driving struck Hicks’ Ford Escape. The impact of the crash caused the Mazda to rotate and strike the Jeep.
Initial reports indicated there were no injuries, but EMS did transport four people to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville to be checked for possible injuries. GSP says King and a passenger in her vehicle, Angelia McNeil, 50, of Lula, were transported along with Hicks and his passenger, Jacob Hicks, 34, of Demorest.
Troopers charged Wood with driving too fast for conditions in connection with the first wreck. They charged King with following too closely and a seatbelt violation.
The wrecks temporarily stalled traffic as crews worked to clear the wreckage from the highway.
Drivers are urged to use extra caution this week while traveling. Rain is making the roads slick. Patchy dense fog also poses a hazard. Forecasters call for patchy dense fog late tonight through early Thursday mainly south of the I-20 corridor. Rain is expected to continue off and on across Northeast Georgia through the weekend.
