Entries by Mike Buffington
Water project raises issues in Statham
Thursday night's called meeting of the Barrow County Water & Sewerage Authority in Statham was a learning experience for everyone.
[Full Story »]
CB&T fails; FDIC sells assets to SCBT
One of Northeast Georgia’s best-known community banks failed Friday, Jan. 29. Community Bank & Trust was taken over by state and federal regulators and the bank’s assets sold to SCBT, N.A. of Orangeburg, SC.
CB&T is based in Cornelia, GA, and has 36 branches, many in Northeast Georgia, including Jackson and Barrow counties. The firm pioneered supermarket banking in the area. It had assets of over $1.2 billion.
Officials said the bank would continue to operate under the CB&T name, but depositors would automatically become depositors of SCBT.
“This evening and over the weekend, depositors of Community Bank and Trust can access their money by writing checks or using ATM or debit cards,” the FDIC said in a news release. “Checks drawn on the bank will continue to be processed. Loan customers should continue to make their payments as usual.”
Officials said the bank’s failure would cost the Deposit Insurance Fund some $354.5 million.
The bank’s demise comes amid continuing real estate and foreclosure problems in the area. Although it is the largest local bank failure to date, most had expected the FDIC action to happen. The bank had been under a scathing cease and desist order since last summer and its bank rating status had fallen to the lowest level in recent months.
Customers who have questions about Friday’s transaction can call the FDIC toll-free at 1-800-430-7974. The phone number will be operational Friday evening until 9:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time (EST); on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., EST; on Sunday from noon to 6:00 p.m., EST; and thereafter from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., EST. Interested parties also can visit the FDIC's Web site at http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/cbt-cornelia.html
CB&T is based in Cornelia, GA, and has 36 branches, many in Northeast Georgia, including Jackson and Barrow counties. The firm pioneered supermarket banking in the area. It had assets of over $1.2 billion.
Officials said the bank would continue to operate under the CB&T name, but depositors would automatically become depositors of SCBT.
“This evening and over the weekend, depositors of Community Bank and Trust can access their money by writing checks or using ATM or debit cards,” the FDIC said in a news release. “Checks drawn on the bank will continue to be processed. Loan customers should continue to make their payments as usual.”
Officials said the bank’s failure would cost the Deposit Insurance Fund some $354.5 million.
The bank’s demise comes amid continuing real estate and foreclosure problems in the area. Although it is the largest local bank failure to date, most had expected the FDIC action to happen. The bank had been under a scathing cease and desist order since last summer and its bank rating status had fallen to the lowest level in recent months.
Customers who have questions about Friday’s transaction can call the FDIC toll-free at 1-800-430-7974. The phone number will be operational Friday evening until 9:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time (EST); on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., EST; on Sunday from noon to 6:00 p.m., EST; and thereafter from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., EST. Interested parties also can visit the FDIC's Web site at http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/cbt-cornelia.html
Car crashes into West Jackson Medicine Center
Three people were hurt Friday afternoon when a car crashed through the front door of West Jackson Medicine Center. The extent of the injuries was not known as of 3:30 p.m. Friday.
The incident ocurred around 2:15 p.m. Friday when a white Toyota with Jackson County tags rammed through the front of the drug store. The store is located on Hwy. 53 in Hoschton.
The car was totally inside the building and looked to have stopped near a pharmacy countertop.
Fire and rescue units from West Jackson and Barrow County responded, along with Jackson County Sheriff's Office dupties and Braselton police.
The incident ocurred around 2:15 p.m. Friday when a white Toyota with Jackson County tags rammed through the front of the drug store. The store is located on Hwy. 53 in Hoschton.
The car was totally inside the building and looked to have stopped near a pharmacy countertop.
Fire and rescue units from West Jackson and Barrow County responded, along with Jackson County Sheriff's Office dupties and Braselton police.
Yearwood fires back at critics
Barrow County Chairman Danny Yearwood in a statement to the media early Wednesday made his first public comment about the ongoing EEOC controversy involving race and gender allegations.
He also called into question the veracity of two of the people who have raised the discrimination allegations: Human Resources Director Norma Jean Brown and senior IT network engineer Sebastian Ododa.
And he refuted a recent complaint by Commissioner Ben Hendrix about the lack of communication over filling the CFO position that has been vacant for five months.
Brown said after reading the statement that the employment law attorney that now represents her, Ododa and two other employees, would respond with a statement this week.
Commissioner Steve Worley said Wednesday morning that during a two-hour closed session Tuesday night, Yearwood said he planned to release the statement the following morning. But Worley said Yearwood didn’t elaborate on what he was going to say.
Asked if he felt the statement was accurate, Worley said: “No comment on the rest of it. I am going to be meeting with him face to face about it.”
This is the second time a board member appears to have violated its own agreement not to communicate publicly about the ongoing race and gender allegations while a private attorney investigates the allegations.
Worley said he could not comment any further about Yearwood’s statement because he personally is not going to violate that board action.
Commissioner Larry Joe Wilburn late last year apologized for talking about the case to a private citizen. Wilburn publicly criticized recent news coverage during the “citizen comment” time at the board’s meeting Tuesday night, but did not again mention the EEOC allegations. [Full Story »]
He also called into question the veracity of two of the people who have raised the discrimination allegations: Human Resources Director Norma Jean Brown and senior IT network engineer Sebastian Ododa.
And he refuted a recent complaint by Commissioner Ben Hendrix about the lack of communication over filling the CFO position that has been vacant for five months.
Brown said after reading the statement that the employment law attorney that now represents her, Ododa and two other employees, would respond with a statement this week.
Commissioner Steve Worley said Wednesday morning that during a two-hour closed session Tuesday night, Yearwood said he planned to release the statement the following morning. But Worley said Yearwood didn’t elaborate on what he was going to say.
Asked if he felt the statement was accurate, Worley said: “No comment on the rest of it. I am going to be meeting with him face to face about it.”
This is the second time a board member appears to have violated its own agreement not to communicate publicly about the ongoing race and gender allegations while a private attorney investigates the allegations.
Worley said he could not comment any further about Yearwood’s statement because he personally is not going to violate that board action.
Commissioner Larry Joe Wilburn late last year apologized for talking about the case to a private citizen. Wilburn publicly criticized recent news coverage during the “citizen comment” time at the board’s meeting Tuesday night, but did not again mention the EEOC allegations. [Full Story »]
Bramlett looks to pass BOE chairman's torch
Barrow County Board of Education chairman Bill Bramlett is looking to pass the torch to another BOE member.
[Full Story »]
‘N-word’ spelled out in complaint
An African-American manager in Barrow County’s government has informed the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that a department manager and a member of the Barrow County Board of Commissioners used racial slurs about her in 2009.
Sophia “Tonie” Russell, manager of Geographic Information Services (GIS), said in a document filed Dec. 8, 2009 with the EEOC that her “current supervisor” allegedly has called her, along with other African-American employees of the county government, a “nigger.”
She also alleges that a “white male” commissioner referred to her as a “little nigger girl” and “stupid” and that he told someone in the human resources department: “That nigger (Mrs. Russell) can go work with (a hostile co-worker) or get fired.”
The allegations are spelled out in an amendment to the original EEOC complaint Russell filed in August 2009 shortly after her demotion in connection with the board of commissioners’ June 2009 cost-saving actions.
Her amended complaint is the first public disclosure that at least one of the subjects of the county’s investigation sits on the board of commissioners.
The document does not name the officials who allegedly uttered the remarks, but it does identify their positions.
Russell’s “current supervisor” is Lyn Clement, who as director of the recently created Barrow County Community and County Development Department supervises all three African-American employees with offices in the county government’s headquarters on East Broad Street.
The December complaint does not indicate that either Clement or the unnamed commissioner made racist remarks directly to Russell, but that the allegations are based on “information and belief.”
For the full story, see the Jan. 6, 2010 issue of the Barrow Journal.
Sophia “Tonie” Russell, manager of Geographic Information Services (GIS), said in a document filed Dec. 8, 2009 with the EEOC that her “current supervisor” allegedly has called her, along with other African-American employees of the county government, a “nigger.”
She also alleges that a “white male” commissioner referred to her as a “little nigger girl” and “stupid” and that he told someone in the human resources department: “That nigger (Mrs. Russell) can go work with (a hostile co-worker) or get fired.”
The allegations are spelled out in an amendment to the original EEOC complaint Russell filed in August 2009 shortly after her demotion in connection with the board of commissioners’ June 2009 cost-saving actions.
Her amended complaint is the first public disclosure that at least one of the subjects of the county’s investigation sits on the board of commissioners.
The document does not name the officials who allegedly uttered the remarks, but it does identify their positions.
Russell’s “current supervisor” is Lyn Clement, who as director of the recently created Barrow County Community and County Development Department supervises all three African-American employees with offices in the county government’s headquarters on East Broad Street.
The December complaint does not indicate that either Clement or the unnamed commissioner made racist remarks directly to Russell, but that the allegations are based on “information and belief.”
For the full story, see the Jan. 6, 2010 issue of the Barrow Journal.
County gave away house without bids
They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
So, apparently, is the value of some county property.
When the Joint Development Authority of Winder-Barrow County in 2007 purchased about 205 acres of land from a local family with $7.5 million in proceeds from county-backed bonds, a single-family home and other structures on the land were seen as liabilities rather than as assets.
As part of the sale, the family selling the property to the JDA was given a year to remove everything on the property other than the fence and they could have pocketed the additional cash if there had been any buyers, according to JDA Chairman David Smith.
There were none.
So when nearby resident Ken Shook a few months ago approached Smith about moving the vacant and vandalized house to a 20-acre site he owns just down Hwy. 82, Smith says he talked to a few colleagues, including commission chairman Danny Yearwood, and gave Shook the go-ahead. In effect, the county gave away the house without bids or an auction. [Full Story »]
So, apparently, is the value of some county property.
When the Joint Development Authority of Winder-Barrow County in 2007 purchased about 205 acres of land from a local family with $7.5 million in proceeds from county-backed bonds, a single-family home and other structures on the land were seen as liabilities rather than as assets.
As part of the sale, the family selling the property to the JDA was given a year to remove everything on the property other than the fence and they could have pocketed the additional cash if there had been any buyers, according to JDA Chairman David Smith.
There were none.
So when nearby resident Ken Shook a few months ago approached Smith about moving the vacant and vandalized house to a 20-acre site he owns just down Hwy. 82, Smith says he talked to a few colleagues, including commission chairman Danny Yearwood, and gave Shook the go-ahead. In effect, the county gave away the house without bids or an auction. [Full Story »]
County receiving lots of tax payments
Barrow County taxpayers didn’t let holiday shopping and the U.S. recession keep them from filling the coffers of the county government and the public schools.
[Full Story »]
[Full Story »]
Elections supervisor leaving for Gwinnett job
Barrow County’s elections supervisor has resigned to become the assistant elections supervisor in Gwinnett County.
[Full Story »]
Chick-fil-A coming to Hwy. 316
Barrow County residents are likely to “eat mor chikin” in 2010.
Chick-fil-A, Inc., last week closed on the sale of a one-acre site off Ga. 316 where a new restaurant will open as soon as April 1 across from the Barrow Crossing retail center.
It is one of only five new Georgia locations that are planned by the company in the upcoming year, said Chick-fil-A spokesperson Brenda Green.
“We’re looking to build a freestanding unit there sometime during the second quarter in 2010,” she said. “It’s just a good business decision. There are great retailers there and we are looking forward to building out further in Georgia.”
The recession apparently isn’t reducing consumers’ taste for Chick-fil-A products.
“We hit $3 billion in sales last week,” Green said.
Wayne Bartlett of Maynard & Bartlett Realty Group LLP said the sale of the 1.23-acre site closed Dec. 10. The seller was K & J Properties LLC, which owns three acres at that location, according to tax information posted on the county government’s web site. The sales price will not be public information until the new deed is recorded. [Full Story »]
Chick-fil-A, Inc., last week closed on the sale of a one-acre site off Ga. 316 where a new restaurant will open as soon as April 1 across from the Barrow Crossing retail center.
It is one of only five new Georgia locations that are planned by the company in the upcoming year, said Chick-fil-A spokesperson Brenda Green.
“We’re looking to build a freestanding unit there sometime during the second quarter in 2010,” she said. “It’s just a good business decision. There are great retailers there and we are looking forward to building out further in Georgia.”
The recession apparently isn’t reducing consumers’ taste for Chick-fil-A products.
“We hit $3 billion in sales last week,” Green said.
Wayne Bartlett of Maynard & Bartlett Realty Group LLP said the sale of the 1.23-acre site closed Dec. 10. The seller was K & J Properties LLC, which owns three acres at that location, according to tax information posted on the county government’s web site. The sales price will not be public information until the new deed is recorded. [Full Story »]
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