The City of Cleveland has announced that Lisa Ritchie has been selected as the sole finalist for the position of city clerk. The announcement was made during a called city council meeting Wednesday night.
Richie currently serves as Hall County Clerk, a position she has held since 2014.
Cleveland Mayor Josh Turner said, “We are thrilled that Ms. Ritchie will be coming on board as City Clerk. Her experience working in local government makes her an ideal candidate for the position.”
The Cleveland clerk position has been vacant since former clerk Connie Tracas was appointed finance director after the death of long-time finance director Beth Allen last August.
In July 2021, Ritchie turned down an offer from the Habersham County Commission to return to her old job as county clerk after Lindsay Underwood resigned. Ritchie held the position prior to working for Hall County. The commission voted 3-1 to hire her. Sources told Now Habersham that Ritchie was reluctant to accept a position for which she was not unanimously approved, among other reasons.
Her first day on the job as Cleveland City Clerk will be March 28.
Dean Dyer of WRWH Radio contributed to this report
COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are dropping off across the state and locally, data from state and national agencies show.
Statewide, cases have dropped 90 percent since the surge at the beginning of January. The Georgia Department of Health reported that during the case surge at the beginning of 2022, the state logged around 21,269 COVID-19 cases. The latest statewide report shows 1,948 cases.
Data from District 2 Public Health shows similar trends in the majority of Northeast Georgia’s counties, with cases dropping significantly in 11 of the 13 counties the district covers. Towns and Union Counties are seeing cases spike again.
Habersham County’s cases have dropped about 36 percent from the holidays to now. (Source: D2PH)
Vaccination rates are rising statewide, according to data from the Center for Disease Control (CDC). Habersham’s vaccination rate has increased slightly from the beginning of the year, rising from 41 percent of citizens being fully vaccinated to 42 percent being fully vaccinated.
Cases are dropping off in Habersham County Schools, too. Habersham County Schools Director of Nursing and Health Services, Crystal Holcomb, reported a total of 11 COVID-19 cases system-wide last week, with 7 student cases and 4 total staff cases. 8 of Habersham’s 14 schools are completely case-free.
Even with cases dropping, the GDPH says that vaccination is important.
“Georgians who were unvaccinated or partially vaccinated were 1.4 times more likely to test positive for COVID-19 and 5.9 times more likely to die from COVID-19,” the agency said in a Tweet.
A Time to be Born
James Edward “Skip” Orsborn was born on April 16, 1950, to the Late William Fitz Orsborn and in the home of Mrs. Martha Bell Orsborn.
A Time to Depart
On Tuesday, February 15, 2022, James “Skip” Graciously answered his call of riding that “White Horse.” Through his struggles and his fight, he has now surrendered and is now resting peacefully in the arms of the Lord.
James “Skip” is preceded in death by his Dad, two sisters, two brothers.
He leaves to cherish his life, his mother, Mrs. Martha Bell Orsborn of Cornelia, GA. Three sisters Ruth V. King and Carrie (Curt) Gibson, of Cornelia, Ga; and Debra (Joe) Brown of Hollywood, GA; and one Brother Tim (Sally) Brown of Alto.
He also leaves to cherish his memory a host of nieces, nephews as well as cousins and friends that loved him as well. He also had two very special young ladies in his life that he called his wife (Mrs. Shazmon Colbert) and his girlfriend (Ms. Portia Burns)
James “Skip’s” greatest pass time was watching wrestling anytime he could.
Funeral services are 3 pm on Saturday, February 19, 2022, in the Chapel of McGahee-Griffin & Stewart with Bishop Ernest Burns officiating.
The family will receive friends from 2-3 pm on Saturday at the funeral home.
Those in attendance are asked to please adhere to the public health and social distancing guidelines regarding COVID-19.
Windstream customers in North Georgia were happy to get reconnected after an outage on Wednesday left many of them without service. The outage, which happened just before noon on February 16, lasted for several hours.
Windstream spokesperson Scott Morris tells Now Habersham that a contractor installing fiber for another company cut Windstream’s fiber near the intersection of the Highway 82 Spur and Woods Bridge Road in Commerce. The resulting outage impacted “cell towers and some Windstream broadband and cable customers in North Georgia,” he says.
Windstream repair crews spliced in about 4,000 feet of new cable and all services were restored by around 5 p.m. Wednesday.
White County has lifted its burn ban due to improving weather conditions. Rain moved into the region on Thursday after days of continued dry, windy weather.
The county banned outdoor burning earlier this week as weather conditions helped fuel a wildfire that spread from one residence to nearly 200 acres just outside of Helen. According to the White County Public Safety Department, the Unicoi Wildfire was caused by a person illegally burning leaves, which got out of hand.
Although the Georgia Forestry Commission no longer requires a burn permit for small hand-piled vegetation, state law requires certain rules must be followed. Anyone not following these “SSTAR” rules may be cited and held liable for damage:
Space: Keep fires at least 25 feet from woodlands and forests.
Time: No burning before sunrise or after sunset.
Attendance: Someone must be on-site until the fire is extinguished.
Reasonable precautions:
– Keep tools and measures in place to prevent escaped fire;
– Keep a continuous pressurized water source on-site;
– Create a man-made or natural barrier to contain the fire;
– Keep hand tools/fire-containing equipment on site
– Weather awareness: No burning on NWS red flag warning days, Fire Danger designation of hazardous conditions – High/Extreme days, low relative humidity days, high winds, etc.
Space: Keep fires at least 25 feet from woodlands and forests.
Time: No burning before sunrise or after sunset.
Attendance: Someone must be on-site until the fire is extinguished.
It’s always advisable to check with your local burn permitting authority before burning outdoors to ensure that it’s safe to do so.
Saskia Swinton-Cineas, a Toccoa native, gets her first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at the Habersham mass vaccination site. (Photo: Hadley Cottingham, Now Habersham)
The delta variant of the coronavirus hospitalized and killed far more people in rural parts of Georgia than in urban areas, according to a study published Feb. 10, 2022, in JAMA Open Network.
The University of Cincinnati in collaboration with Augusta University examined how the third wave of COVID-19 — led by the fast-spreading delta variant — swept across the United States in the summer of 2021.
Using data from July 1 to Aug. 31, 2021, researchers showed further evidence for what leading health experts, including the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had already warned.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in June 2021 that everyone should get vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as possible.
“What concerns me is the heterogeneity of where we are across the country, because this virus is going to be an opportunist and it may not go to places in California that are 70% vaccinated, but it may well go to places in Georgia that are 20% vaccinated,” she said. “And these are preventable sicknesses and deaths.”
Even with the warnings, many of Georgia’s less-populated counties hovered around a 33% fully vaccinated rate as the delta variant arrived in June 2021. It quickly became the dominant source of COVID-19 cases in the state.
That more Georgians in areas of low vaccination did experience higher rates of hospitalization and deaths by COVID-19 during the summer of 2021 was virtually expected, this study shows vaccines save lives, a co-author said.
Dr. Phillip Coule, associate dean at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University said peer-reviewed research serves as an external validation to account for any factors that hadn’t been considered by the authors as well as any potential misinterpretation of the data when reaching the conclusions.
“The fact that this is a peer-reviewed study is very important for that purpose because non-peer-reviewed literature should be viewed a little more cautiously,” he said. “Typically, a panel of experts in the field look at the data and look at the manuscript in an independent fashion and have the ability to say, ‘Yes, I agree with this data in this assessment and that the data support the conclusions that have been reached and that the study approach was valid.'”
Despite high numbers of vaccinated people more recently contracting omicron, they are significantly less likely to experience severe illness and hospitalization than unvaccinated people, the study shows.
The COVID vaccine lessens the burden on a community in terms of transmission of the virus and outcomes from the virus, Coule said.
“And that’s what this study shows,” he said, “but that’s also what we see in our community.”
This article appears on Now Habersham through a news partnership with GPB News
The Latin American Chamber of Commerce of Georgia (LACC) announced Wednesday that Georgia Power will provide a grant of $150,000 to support the LACC’s entrepreneurship, technical assistance and business support programs to benefit Latino and Latina entrepreneurs and business owners in northern and eastern Georgia.
The LACC has a collaborative relationship with both Latino and non-Latino non-profits in the North Georgia communities of Dalton, Athens, Augusta and Habersham County, all working to reach the Latino community through combined outreach efforts, educational workshops and one-on-one technical assistance.
LACC President and CEO Alejandro Coss (Hadley Cottingham/Now Habersham)
“With this grant from Georgia Power, the LACC will be able to continue to grow its entrepreneurship and technical assistance programs in Metro Atlanta and across northern and eastern Georgia, delivering culturally and linguistically relevant and appropriate programming in communities that are home to 70% percent of the state’s Latino population and to cities and counties where these programs and services are not currently being offered,” said LACC President and CEO Alejandro Coss.
“Georgia Power’s mission goes beyond delivering the clean, safe, reliable, affordable electricity our customers deserve and expect,” said Georgia Power East Region Vice President Jason Cuevas. “We are pleased to partner with and support organizations like LACC that strive to empower our communities and grow Georgia.”
The LACC entrepreneurship programs include in-person and virtual training, La Tienda Latina and La Cocina Latina business accelerators, and technical assistance and mentoring offered in Spanish with a curriculum designed for Latino and Latina entrepreneurs and business owners in Georgia.
So far, the bipartisan mental health measure remains mostly intact after being unveiled last month, but significant changes are expected in the coming week or so. (Jill Nolin/Georgia Recorder)
A bipartisan push to increase access to behavioral health treatment in Georgia drew objections from patient advocates troubled by provisions that would create patient registries and make it easier to involuntarily commit people with mental illness.
The 74-page bill, sponsored by House Speaker David Ralston, received its first public airing during a nearly three-hour, and at times emotional, committee hearing Wednesday. So far, the measure remains mostly intact after lawmakers unveiled it last month, but significant changes are expected in the coming week or so.
The wide-ranging proposal would step up enforcement of a 14-year-old federal parity law that requires health insurers to provide mental health and substance use benefits that are on par with physical care. The measure would also create a service cancelable loan program for mental health and substance abuse professionals in hopes of boosting the lagging workforce.
“If we do nothing else – and I’m confident we’re going to do a lot more – passing parity will help decrease the stigma,” said Rep. Sharon Cooper, a Marietta Republican who chairs the House Human Health and Services Committee. “Because as a legislative body, we will be saying that we believe having a mental illness is no different than having a medical illness such as heart disease or arthritis, and that is a big message that we need to get out.”
Advocates have rallied behind the behavioral health parity provision in a state that ranks near last for access to mental health services. They argue the federal law is not being enforced today in Georgia.
A lobbyist with the Georgia Association of Health Plans, which represents health insurers at the state Capitol, said the group does not support the changes surrounding parity as written in the House bill.
“It is time to enforce federal law in Georgia when it comes to parity. Full stop. No more excuses,” said Jeff Breedlove, chief of communications and policy at the Georgia Council on Substance Abuse.
But other elements of the speaker’s bill are also stirring controversy, such as proposals to create a registry for pediatric and adult patients who frequently use crisis services.
The measure would also encourage more court-ordered assisted outpatient treatment programs and loosen the criteria for having someone involuntarily committed by dropping the word “imminently” from state law. Instead, state law would require “a reasonable expectation that a life-endangering crisis or significant psychiatric deterioration will occur in the near future.”
“The goal of this package of reforms is to stem the flow of this population from the public health system in the criminal justice system,” said Henry County Superior Court Chief Judge Brian Amero, who is an accountability court judge and a member of a reform-minded commission behind many of the proposed changes in the bill.
“Accountability courts work, but with respect to this population, there are limits. And that is because, in the end, judges are not doctors and jails are not hospitals.
Devon Orland (Contributed by Sara Lane)
But Devon Orland, litigation director with the Georgia Advocacy Office, warned the measure could result in the state having the highest hospitalization rates it has had in decades, undermining Georgia’s efforts to serve people with disabilities in the community when possible as required by a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
“The bill presumes that Georgia has a robust community-based mental health system where no such system exists,” she said.
Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, a Decatur Democrat who is one of the lead co-sponsors, acknowledged afterward that the involuntary commitment provision is a thorny issue but was adamant about keeping it in the bill.
“The national conversation is being more protective because we’re seeing too many people die, and we’re particularly seeing too many families frustrated by the lack of ability of law enforcement or medical staff to help people who are in crisis,” Oliver told reporters.
Orland also criticized the lack of an auditing process to ensure patients are properly served when involuntarily committed and blasted the creation of patient registries without “any protections” for those on the list.
“This will have an immediate and profound chilling effect on the willingness of people to seek support in mental health crisis, especially teens and young adults with little or no confidence in the ability of public or private sector technology to protect any single set of data through the course of their lifetimes and risk the potential to close many career paths,” Orland said.
Rep. Todd Jones, who is the other lead co-sponsor, said a database would help first responders understand when a person – someone like his son, who has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder – when they are interacting with has a history of mental illness. Jones’ wife shared their son’s story Wednesday and the difficulty they had acquiring consistent treatment.
“The first time my son was arrested, the police report says he was standing with a knife yelling that he was protecting Atlanta from the monsters,” the South Forsyth Republican said. “I thank God that the police officer that came across my son was trained properly to recognize that was a very good chance my son was in some type of mental psychosis and he didn’t really believe that monsters were about to attack Atlanta and he was going to be able to defend the entire city with a steak knife.”
But a database, he said, would have taken out the guesswork.
“There’s a fine line there. We have to protect my son’s privacy yet at the same time, hopefully help the first responder respond to my son’s issue – and many other Georgians just like my son – properly.”
Several advocates also pushed for mental health services that reflect the state’s cultural diversity, particularly when it comes to language access. One person shared a story of a Somali American being involuntarily committed who struggled to communicate to the three male officers arriving to pick her up that, as a Muslim, no man should touch her except her husband.
“It comes down to somebody hearing you clearly and connecting you quickly with the services that are needed,” said David Schaefer, research director for the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.
Lena Marie Pitts Allen, Age 88 of Demorest passed away Wednesday, February 16, 2022, following a period of declining health.
Born in Clarkesville, Georgia on July 14, 1933, she was the daughter of the late Fred and Belle Hinson Pitts. Marie was a retired banker and she was a homemaker. She was a volunteer for the American Red Cross and also volunteered at the Mt. Airy Voting Polls. Marie was a very active member at Hazel Creek Baptist Church where she was on the benevolence committee. She always baked cakes and pies for families who had lost loved ones and also volunteered in the AWANA program. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband Howard G. Allen, daughter Terrie Allen Willis; brothers and sister-in-law’s Phillip Pitts (Katie Pitts), Bill Pitts (Ruth), sisters, Dorothy Pitts Palmer (Ross), and Betty Pitts Tench (Pete).
Survivors include son and daughter-in-law Randy and Freida Allen of Clarkesville, GA; son-in-law, Jack Willis of Atlantic Beach, FL; numerous nieces, nephews, and extended family.
Funeral services will be held at 3:00 PM on Friday, February 18, 2022, at Hillside Memorial Chapel with the Rev. Trent Smith and Rev. Billy Burrell officiating. Interment will follow the service at Yonah Memorial Gardens. The family will receive friends at the funeral home on Friday, February 18, 2022, from 1-3 PM.
Former Baldwin Councilman Jeff Parrish approached the Baldwin City Council Monday night to discuss issues he, and other citizens, have with the city’s speed zone outside of Balwin Elementary School.
Parrish told the council that many citizens have come to him with their frustrations surrounding the speed zone, which issues tickets during school hours to people driving 11 miles per hour, or more, over the speed limit during school hours. Those concerns surrounded citizens contesting tickets, the revenue generated by tickets and a lack of protection for school children.
The police chief at the time the cameras were installed told the council that if a person wanted to contest their ticket, they could do so in the city’s municipal court. Parrish says that wasn’t true.
“That’s clearly what we were told, [but] that’s not what can happen,” he told the council.
Parrish says that when people receive those tickets if they want to contest them they have to go through the speeding camera company, Blue Line Solutions, which determines the validity of their contested ticket.
“This is a civil ticket. The only thing a person can do is expect to get a civil hearing, it’s not even referred to as court. So if they feel like they got the citation in error, what they can do once they’ve gotten the citation is they can contact Blue Line by filling out their forms and writing their narrative, and then Blue Line gets to decide whether they can have a civil hearing or not.”
Parrish, who was on the Baldwin City Council when the speed zone cameras were approved, says that they were given inaccurate information and that that inaccuracy sets a precedent for other issues, like the revenue generated by the tickets, coming to light.
Protecting Baldwin Elementary’s children
Willingham Avenue runs parallel to Baldwin Elementary School’s playground separated from the road by grass and a chainlink fence. The speeding camera was presented to the city as a deterrent to drivers who would drive unsafely by the school, but Parrish claims that the speed zone wasn’t about protecting children— it was about making money off of Baldwin’s speeders.
The council disagreed.
Baldwin Councilman Larry Lewallen says the speed zone exists to protect the children playing on the Baldwin Elementary School playground. (Hadley Cottingham/Now Habersham)
“This was the [former police] chief’s idea and my idea, and it was all for the safety of [those] kids hanging on that chainlink fence,” Councilman Larry Lewallen told Parrish. “If these people can’t abide by the law and do what the law says, that’s like somebody out here running drugs. If they’re doing something illegal, they need to be caught.”
Parrish says the council should have looked at adding infrastructure around the school to slow cars down, like speed bumps in the roads, or building a barrier in between the road and the playground to keep cars that go off the road away from the children. He also said the school could move its playground behind the school.
“First of all, we as a council, myself included, should have considered alternatives to the safety of those children at school,” Parrish said. “That speed zone camera is not going to stop one DUI driver, or anybody else speeding through there, if it goes off the road and hits those children.”
Councilwoman Alice Venter and Councilman Lewallen told Parrish that those ideas were easier said than done.
Lewallen said that due to the roads surrounding the elementary school, the students couldn’t all be moved behind the school to use the playground. Venter said the road is county-owned, and that any changes to that road would have to be done by the county, not Baldwin.
Councilwoman Alice Venter defended the city’s speed zone at the council’s Monday meeting, calling speeding in the school zone “disturbing.” (Hadley Cottingham/Now Habersham)
The meeting began to get heated when Councilwoman Venter brought up that the only reason people were frustrated with the speed zone was because they received a ticket for speeding in a school zone, something that she called “disturbing.”
“If you were speeding in a school zone, you are breaking the law,” Councilwoman Venter said. “And you are upset that you got caught endangering children?”
Parrish agreed with Venter that speeding in a school zone was wrong, but continued to show disapproval for the school zone speed cameras. The issue he continued to bring forward was that the council needed to use the ticket revenue to protect the elementary schoolers.
“I think the problem people are having with revenue, is that it appears . . . it’s all about safety for the kids, but we’re not spending the revenue on safety or the kids,” Parrish said.
Speed zone revenue
The city receives the majority of ticket revenue from the speed zone, with a portion going to Blue Line Solutions per their agreement with the company. Baldwin currently uses speed zone revenue to supplement the city’s public safety department needs, like upgrading fire department gear and purchasing new equipment for the police department.
Parrish argues that money shouldn’t be given to the city’s public safety, and should be improving safety around the school, either by investing in infrastructure changes or giving those funds to the school system to implement safety changes.
Parrish also brought up that he believes the city is illegally running the speed cameras because the city does not have a 24/7 police department, which he says Georgia law requires cities who run radar speed-checking technology to have.
The city says they will have their attorney look into the legalities he brought up, but their police chief, Jeff Branyon, who was present at the meeting says they are in compliance with laws surrounding radar technology.
Hearing concerns
Even with tensions running high as Parrish and Councilwoman Venter argued their positions, the council listened to and responded to the concerns he presented.
“Through the thinly veiled allegations and the insults, I do see some validity to this,” Councilman Maarten Venter told Parrish. “First off, understand that I come from a police state originally. I abhor cameras and abhor everything associated with surveillance. That being said, the decline in the number of feed trucks barreling down Willingham Avenue, which have nearly hit me several times, is welcome.”
Parrish suggested the council should change the protocol of the speed zone to make the first ticket a warning, and any subsequent tickets would be fined. The council did seem interested in looking into changing the speed zone’s protocol to fit a first-time-offense warning system.
Baldwin City Councilman Maarten Venter agreed with his wife’s standpoint on the speed zone but was sympathetic to Parrish’s concerns.. (Hadley Cottingham/Now Habersham)
“I do agree, I’ve always thought the first ticket should be a warning,” Councilman Venter said. “With that being said . . . a lot of people are happy to spout off on social media and run their mouth, but when the rubber meets the road and they can come in here and talk, like you did today, to the council, the decision-makers, nobody wants to do it.”
Councilman Venter and Mayor Joe Elam both encouraged concerned citizens to share their concerns with the council so that they could get a better understanding of the community’s concerns with the speed zone.
The city’s attorney is looking into the legal issues Parrish raised, and the council expressed interest in further discussing changes to the ticketing process to make the first ticket a warning.
Firefighters discovered the body of 68-year-old Andrew Donaldson inside the burned out remains of his home on Meadow Drive in Oakwood on Feb. 14, 2022. (photo by Hall County Fire Services)
Hall County sheriff’s investigators say a man found dead in an Oakwood house fire on Valentine’s Day had been shot. They’ve charged his grandson with murder.
Firefighters discovered the body of 68-year-old Andrew Donaldson in his burning home on Meadow Drive Monday. An autopsy revealed he had been shot.
During their investigation, HCSO investigators determined Donaldson’s 29-year-old grandson, Lorenzo Moss, of Wisconsin, was allegedly involved in the death. U.S. Marshals arrested Moss at a location in Brown Deer, Wisconsin, on Wednesday.
“Investigators believe Moss traveled from Wisconsin to Georgia, but the reason for his trip is unclear at this time,” says Hall County Sheriff’s Public Information Officer BJ Williams.
While investigators believe the fire was set to destroy evidence of the shooting, it remains unclear whether Donaldson died as a result of the shooting or fire. The investigation is ongoing and officials are withholding further information at this time.
Hall County investigators charged Moss with malice murder. Other charges are pending.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has charged a Toccoa man with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer after he allegedly tried to steal a gun away from a Stephens County deputy. 36-year-old Joel Eugene Keller was shot while struggling with the deputy over the gun, the GBI says. The deputy was not hurt.
According to the initial investigation, the deputy attempted to stop a pickup truck on Yearwood Road in Toccoa around 1:17 p.m. Tuesday, February 15. The driver, who the GBI later identified as Keller, reportedly refused to stop and the deputy pursued him.
The pursuit ended on Broad River Road when the pickup truck wrecked. Keller then allegedly got out of the vehicle and approached the deputy.
“There was a struggle between the driver and deputy and during this struggle, the deputy’s gun was unholstered,” GBI spokesperson Nelly Miles says. “The deputy and the driver fought over the gun during which the deputy fired one shot, striking the driver.”
Paramedics airlifted Keller to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville. The GBI says he’s in stable condition.
The Stephens County Sheriff’s Office asked the GBI to conduct an independent investigation into the shooting, which is standard protocol when officers are involved. Miles says the GBI investigation is active and ongoing. More charges are expected to be filed.
Once the investigation is complete, the GBI will turn the case file over to the Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office for review.
This is the 14th officer-involved shooting the GBI has been asked to investigate in 2022.
