Flowery Branch: Adult businesses to get new rules

Flowery Branch City Council will convene this morning to discuss a new adult business ordinance and update the existing unsafe structure and nuisance ordinance. The council will hear the second reading of a proposed adult business ordinance and will determine whether the new ordinance is sufficient to allow the old ordinance to be repealed and replaced. Flowery Branch Planning Director James Riker said the adult business ordinance is ...

North Hall steps closer to development

The Hall County Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval of a developer's rezoning request Monday that could allow 2,736 houses to be built in Lula. Property owners Ferdinand and Felix Mayr-Meinhof submitted a request to the planning commission to rezone a 1,507-acre tract of land in North Hall from agricultural residential and vacation cottage to planned residential and commercial development. Named after the creek flowing through the property, the ...

Gainesville: All four lanes of Ga. 53 open Wednesday

Weather permitting, the Georgia Department of Transportation on Wednesday plans to open all four lanes of Dawsonville Highway.

Don't fret; there's still time to mail some Christmas cheer

If you mailed your Christmas cards on Monday, you were not alone.

Ex-Gainesville Elementary teacher accused of fondling four students

A former Gainesville Elementary schoolteacher remains jailed without bond on charges of molesting four of his students in the classroom, Gainesville police said Monday.

Murphy will lie in honor at Capitol Friday

ATLANTA - Deceased Georgia House Speaker Tom Murphy will lie in honor at the state Capitol on Friday. Gov. Sonny Perdue said that Murphy's family had initially wanted only private services but was persuaded that the public would want to pay their respects.

Gainesville: Mother wins $50K in lottery

Wendy Roberson, of Gainesville, plans to buy a new house for her four children after winning thousands in the lottery earlier this month. Roberson, 33, won $50,000 playing the Georgia Lottery instant game Jumbo Bucks Classic.

Leads sought in Golden Pantry robbery

The Golden Pantry on Ga. 53 South at Tanners Mill Road was robbed shortly before 10 p.m. Monday.

Vigil planned to honor teen killed in Easter wreck

GAINESVILLE - Songs and spoken remembrances are planned as part of a candlelight vigil tonight for Charles Caston, a North Hall High School senior who died in an April 8 car wreck. The event is set for 7 p.m. in the gymnasium of the Georgia Mountains YMCA at 2455 Howard Road off Ga. 365. Caston worked for more than a year for the YMCA, but never saw ...

Donated vehicle to help fight fires

GAINESVILLE - In the past, Gainesville firefighters have had to hoof it to emergencies in the woods or on the shores of Lake Lanier. Only two months ago, a small brush fire continued to burn while firefighters walked a mile carrying shovels, rakes, hoses and extinguishers to a fire their trucks could not access. "That's a good little trek trying to drag all your equipment with you," ...

Demorest: College’s business school gets national accreditation

Piedmont College's Walker School of Business Administration has received national accreditation from the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs after a two-year review.

Gainesville schools seek charter status

GAINESVILLE - Gainesville city schools is one of several school districts statewide so far that is pursuing a status that would give them more freedom to reform without stiff state regulations.

Students give food for a cause

Courtney Cantrell, 4, loads canned food into the back of a truck on Monday afternoon. Cantrell and her classmates in Brittanie Holcombe's after-school class at Little House Academy in Murrayville collected the food to help the less fortunate at nearby Lanier Elementary School. Eventually, the idea spread from the after-school group of 15 kids, ages 5-12, to other classes at the day care facility. When school counselor Rochelle Edmonds came by to ...

Two cities plan ways to keep storm water clean

Flowery Branch and Oakwood are currently in the process of establishing a five-year storm water management plan to meet the requirements of the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Water Act. Since 2003, numerous cities with a population of less than 100,000 have been required to take painstaking measures to ensure that commercial and residential operations do not contaminate water resources by way of natural or man-made storm water. "It's ...

Drought can’t stop annual winter plunge in lake

The first day of the new year means one thing for dozens of local residents - it's time to put on swimming trunks. Lanier Canoe and Kayak Club, a nonprofit organization for Olympic flat water canoe and kayak hopefuls, will hold its 11th Annual Polar Bear Swim on Jan. 1 at the former Olympic venue at Clarks Bridge Park. Each New Year's Day for the past 10 years, nearly 100 ...

Fair Street students may use tablet computers next fall

Gainesville's technology director gave City Board of Education members a Kuno tablet computer to play with briefly Monday night.

McEver still closed, fire official reports

Under sunny skies and no trace of rain, area governments worked Monday to fix roads that had been damaged, some seriously, by fierce storms overnight Sunday.

Atheists to put books next to Bibles in state parks

Boil water advisories still in effect for some

A boil water advisory is in effect for those served by Flowery Branch along with 18 homes at the end of Trudy Drive served by Gainesville.

Eyes on the Road: More feet added to Ga. 53 fix in Dawson County

An additional 500 feet of Thompson Road will be closed as part of a Georgia Department of Transportation project to rebuild the road's intersection at Ga. 53 in Dawson County.

New law to help vets get into workforce

Retired Hall County military veterans Stephen McGruder and Johnny Varner hope a new Georgia law will aid them in helping vets seamlessly transition into the civilian workforce.

Fellowship to help Gainesville student study law at Mercer

Whit Carmon was stepping off the bus after delivering his final term paper at the University of Georgia when his phone rang.

New state law to protect federal park rangers

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Ranger Ken Weiner is still suffering physically from when he was attacked last year at Burton Mill Park.

South Hall flooding causes county to declare emergency

Early Sunday storms rocked Hall County, leaving heavy flooding, collapsed roads and other damage in its wake.

Ga. water negotiator's role may be seen as conflict

Rock in the Spring concert benefits local school

Concertgoers look over items in a silent auction Saturday night at the Rock in the Spring fundraiser at Brenau University ampitheater. Proceeds benefit the local school Challenged Child and Friends, an early intervention center in Gainesville that provides special needs and typically developing children the opportunity to learn together and from each other. Local musicians Mid Life Crisis played at the event. Local musicians Mid Life Crisis perform Saturday night for the audience at the Brenau ...

Riverside Military Academy opens campus home for president

Riverside Military Academy welcomed a new addition to its campus Saturday, something it hasn't had since 2005: A home for the school president.

Powerball: Did these numbers change your life?

Winning numbers: 22-10-13-14-52

Groups gather at Lake Lanier to promote boating safety

In anticipation of the summertime increase in lake recreation, the Lake Lanier Association held a Boating Safety Awareness Day Saturday at Lake Lanier Islands resort.

Nonprofits, state agencies work to help victims of human trafficking

Jennifer Robson sits in front of her laptop computer and scrolls through a list of ads on an adult website, looking for a local woman to call.