IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Top Gwinnett County stories from Jan. 25-31

Flynt has worked for Gwinnett County Public Schools since 1994.

“It will be an interesting move,” he said. “I’m going to miss everybody here. It was a great run for a long time.”

Flynt isn’t expected to leave Gwinnett County Public Schools right away because current Columbia County School District Superintendent Sandra Carraway is not set to step down until June 30.

Flynt expects to be able to do the early part of the transition while continuing to work for GCPS, but anticipates leaving the district sometime in the spring.

“I’ll probably start the transition some time in March and we’ve got to determine the contract and everything, but probably finalize it sometime in April or May. That way I’ll have a little bit of time to spend with (Carraway) down there and walk through everything with her before she fully leaves ...

“I’ll do a little bit of both (working on the transition from Gwinnett and going down to Columbia County). I can Zoom on some things so I’m going to continue to do all of my work full time here and if I need to take a day or two off from here, I’ll just take a vacation day and work with them.”

Previous media reports from the Augusta area show Flynt had been one of three finalists for the superintendent’s position in Columbia County, along with an associate superintendent and assistant superintendent from the Columbia County school district. The Augusta Chronicle reported Flynt will be paid about $223,000, which is reportedly slightly less than what the retiring Columbia County superintendent is paid.

Since he oversaw operations in GCPS, Flynt’s departure as GCPS works to prepare for eventually vaccinating teachers and other school staff will be felt longterm in the district’s COVID response, particularly as he prepares this spring to take on his new role. He has been involved in overseeing the operational side of the school system’s response, and has been the person giving updates to the Gwinnett school board on how the district has been responding to the pandemic.

Two weeks ago, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux named Flynt as a member of her COVID advisory task force.

Flynt doesn’t see his departure hampering GCPS’ efforts on the pandemic, however.

“I’ll still be involved in that, although we’ve got a great team,” he said. “I’m the one who talks about it, but we have a really great team that’s actually putting all of the vaccination plans together and working really closely with the health department.

“So, that work is not going to slow down any. It will keep going. Even if I left today, it will keep going very well.”

Flynt’s departure also comes after former GCPS Associate Superintendent of Curriculum and Instructional Support Jonathan S. Patterson left GCPS last August to become the superintendent of Fayette County Schools.

This was the only superintendent’s job Flynt said he had sought.

He said he felt that, if he was going to pursue a superintendent’s job, this would be the right time, since his daughter will be starting high school in the fall and this will allow her to go through high school in one district rather than moving partway through.

Flynt also said he felt Columbia County — which, with a student population of about 28,000 students, is considerably smaller than Gwinnett County Public Schools — would be a good fit given his experiences in Gwinnett.

“Columbia is an excellent school system and they’ve been very well run and managed, and they’re growing,” he said. “When I saw the growth they have, they’re looking to open five or six schools in their next SPLOST and, of course, I’ve opened, since the time I’ve been at the district office, 38 schools.

“So, that was a pretty good fit being that they’re growing similar — a lot smaller, but very similar — to how Gwinnett was a number of years ago.”

As he looked back on his more than 26 years in Gwinnett County schools, Flynt said he was proud of the relationships he built over the years, as well as how the district as a whole has tried to meet the changing needs of its students.

“Our schools continue to improve every year,” Flynt said. “We’re doing new things and providing new opportunities for students. I mean you can’t just find that just anywhere.”

"What I will not do is be forced to have a COVID test, or any unnecessary medical test, done without a basis for doing so," Clark said in a statement on Facebook on Tuesday afternoon. "The seat that I hold for District 98 is not my seat, but the people’s seat. I work for you, and I cannot in good conscience watch expensive tests that should be given to Georgia citizens who desperately need them be wasted for nothing more than political optics at the Capitol.

"The CDC has been clear; a symptom-based strategy is more effective than a test-based strategy. With that said, if I had symptoms, I would not hesitate to be tested to protect others."

Speaking with reporters after being escorted off the House floor by Capitol Police, Clark accused Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, of overstepping his authority to limit members of the House from being present in the chamber. He also said the General Assembly’s COVID-19 testing program lacks teeth and is there for show rather than any effective safety practice.

“It’s dumb how we’re doing things telling everybody to do tests to make everybody feel comfortable,” Clark told reporters while not wearing a mask.

In his statement on Facebook, Clark said he wore a mask in the House chamber, had his temperature taken and practiced social distancing.

Ralston, who chastised House members earlier this month for not getting tested as the 2021 legislative session began, again urged members of the state House of Representatives to follow the testing rules.

“I don’t know how long [the coronavirus pandemic] is going to last,” Ralston declared from the House rostrum. “But it behooves us to do whatever we can to be safe … rather than go out there and get media attention for standing up to authority.”

Clark and Ralston have clashed in the past. Clark introduced a resolution two years ago calling on the speaker to resign, charging Ralston – a lawyer - with abusing his power by taking advantage of legislative leave policies to delay court cases on behalf of clients accused of various violent crimes.

The flap led to the passage of legislation tightening the rules governing when a legislator who is a lawyer can obtain a delay in a case citing his or her legislative duties.

On Tuesday, Ralston said he’s simply looking out for the health and safety of House members during a pandemic that has killed nearly 12,000 Georgians.

“I’ve been to too many funerals,” he said. “I get tired of going to them.”

But, Clark indicated he felt the Georgia Department of Public Health's resources were being misused by making legislators go through testing.

"At this time, the DPH focuses (should be) on the much-needed vaccinations, and unnecessary testing takes away resources for that initiative," he said on Facebook.

The speaker's move received the backing of the leaders of the Republicans and Democrats in the House on Tuesday afternoon. House Majority Leader Jon Burns, R-Newington, and House Minority Leader James Beverly, D-Macon, addressed the issue in a joint statement.

“We strongly support Speaker David Ralston in his efforts to preserve and protect the health and safety of the members and staff of the House of Representatives and all those who enter the doors of the Georgia State Capitol," they said in the statement.

"We agree that all members of the House of Representatives should comply with the testing procedures that have been implemented for their safety and the safety of their fellow Georgians.”

State Rep. Sam Park, D-Lawrenceville, said he is hoping for a quick resolution to the issue. Park is the chairman of the Gwinnett House Delegation.

"I appreciate Speaker Ralston for doing everything in his power to keep every member safe, and I hope David does comply with the rules and take a test," Park said.

Park explained that he sees the tests as being important for protecting members of the legislature. He pointed out that there are members of the Georgia House who fall in categories that are considered more vulnerable to getting the disease.

"We have vulnerable members, those who are over 65-years-old (and) one of our (Gwinnett) colleagues, newly elected Rep. Rebecca Mitchell, she's pregnant," Park said. "We just want to do everything possible to keep all of our members safe."

While Ralston was enforcing the COVID-19 testing rule in the House, Georgia Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan returned to the upper legislative chamber Tuesday after quarantining since testing positive two weeks ago. He urged lawmakers to comply with the twice-weekly testing requirement both the House and Senate have adopted.

“You’re all too valuable to have someone slip up and pass on [the virus] unknowingly,” Dugan, R-Carrollton, said from the Senate floor.

McMichen said Clark will be allowed to return to the House chamber upon complying with the testing policy.

— Staff Writer Curt Yeomans contributed to this report

Data from the Department of Public Health shows that, as of Friday, Gwinnett has seen 9,918 new COVID-19 cases, with an incidence rate of 1,021 for every 100,000 residents, over the last two weeks.

Chattahoochee County, with a population of 10,749 residents, had the state’s highest two-week incidence rate, at 1,433 cases for every 100,000 residents, although in reality that equated to 154 cases over the last two weeks.

The number of new COVID-19 cases seen in Gwinnett County and across Georgia has actually been declining in late January, but Georgia Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey told Gwinnett community and health leaders at a Gwinnett Cares virtual health summit this past week that the county, and the rest of the state, is not out of the woods yet.

“Although our case numbers have gone down over the last couple of weeks, somewhat, the numbers are still extraordinarily high,” Toomey said. “The numbers of cases, hospitalizations are higher than we’ve ever reported in Georgia before and it’s just very, very concerning.”

Georgia as a whole saw 74,394 new cases, with an incidence rate of 687 for every 100,000 residents, over the same period.

Two weeks earlier, on Jan. 15, Gwinnett was reporting a two-week total of 10,263 new cases, with an incidence rate of 1,057 cases per 100,000 residents, while the state had a two-week total of 92,964 cases and an two-week incidence rate of 858 cases per 100,000 residents following a post holidays spike in COVID-19.

To date, Gwinnett County has seen a total of 72,848 COVID-19 cases, with an incidence rate of 7,501 cases for every 100,000 residents, since last March. It leads the state in overall cases and has had 693 confirmed COVID-19 deaths, 49 probable deaths and 4,483 hospitalizations.

The county’s overall case total means about 7.5% of its population — which the Department of Public Health pegs at 971,145 — has gotten COVID-19 since the pandemic arrived in Georgia last spring.

The county is part of a cluster that also includes Hall, Jackson, Walton and Barrow counties where the two-week new case numbers are among the highest in the state.

Toomey said Georgia has been seeing “thousands and thousands” of COVID outbreaks.

“We recognize we have had more outbreaks from COVID in a month than we usually have in the entire state for all diseases in a year,” she said. “I think that puts it into perspective.”

Statewide, Georgia has seen 741,991 COVID-19 cases, 12,410 confirmed deaths, 1,576 probable deaths, 49,869 hospitalizations and 8,360 ICU admissions since March.

On top of the original COVID-19 strain that arrived in Georgia, Toomey said several variants of the disease are now showing up in the state.

“Initially, we identified six variants across the metro Atlanta area (but) we now have seven more, so 13 total,” Toomey said. “We’ve ramped up the surveillance for the variant because if we have 13 spread throughout the state, it means we have many, many, many cases because we’re only testing a small fraction.”

The state’s public health commissioner also said the state is continuing to do “intensive contact tracing” where the variants are showing up so health officials can see how and where they are spreading. They also want to see what risk factors exist in the community that are allowing the variants to spread.

She said the so-called UK variant is believed to be easier to transmit from one person to the next, and may be more dangerous — although the commissioner said studies are ongoing to confirm whether it is more dangerous than the original strain.

“This makes our vaccine efforts even more important, and I know that many of you have been challenged either to get a vaccination for yourselves or, as providers, get vaccine for your practice,” Toomey said.

Toomey acknowledged the struggles Georgia has faced in getting people vaccinated. She said there were 230,000 doses available to allocate in the state on Tuesday, but there were 2.6 million requests for the vaccine.

The public health commissioner said the state had a supply of about 100,000 first vaccine doses a week, and 80,000 second dose vaccinations, as of this past Tuesday.

“That’s very little when you consider a state as big as ours, a population as big as ours that will eventually need vaccine,” Toomey said. “Just the current group that we’re vaccinating is over 2 million people and we haven’t made a dent in that.

“And, quite frankly we are just struggling to be able to adequately provide vaccine to those who can give the vaccinations in their offices or in mass vaccination sites because mass vaccination sites are tremendous to reach many, many people, but for the frail and elderly, it’s simply not a practical way and we still need to rely on local pharmacies and maybe visiting nurses and other home visitation organizations who can reach people in their homes.”

In response to the Facebook post about the article and Duncan’s statement, O’Lenick posted a comment in which she stated, “then end early voting.” That prompted a backlash from Gwinnett County Commissioner Kirkland Carden and the Stacey Abrams-founded group, Fair Fight.

“Alice O’Lenick has revealed herself to be a political extremist dedicated to pushing a radical partisan agenda. She is clearly not capable of representing the interests of Gwinnett County or our voters,” Carden said. “In light of her disgraceful anti-democracy statements, I call on Ms. O’Lenick to immediately resign from her position as Gwinnett County Board of Elections Chair.”

O’Lenick previously made headlines and stirred controversy after she told the Gwinnett GOP that she wanted to see the Georgia General Assembly make changes to election laws, such as banning absentee ballot drop boxes and scaling back no excuse voting, so Republicans “at least have a shot at winning.”

That comment, along with others that came to light when they were reported by the Daily Post, prompted the majority of Gwinnett’s legislative delegation as well as more than a dozen civil and voting rights groups, including Fair Fight, to demand O’Lenick’s resignation while accusing her of trying to suppress voters.

It also inspired the hashtag, #AliceMustGo, which spread quickly after it was created by the Lincoln Project — a group formed to work for the defeat of former President Donald Trump in last year’s election — and became the second-highest trending item on Twitter in the U.S. at one point on Jan. 19.

She has so far resisted the calls for her resignation, and claimed at an elections board meeting that her suggested election law changes were not voter suppression.

But her remark on Facebook has reignited some of those calls.

“Still refusing to resign following her threat to state legislators in which she explicitly pushed for changes to election laws for the purpose of benefiting Republican chances to win future Georgia elections, Gwinnett County’s elections chief Alice O’Lenick has staked out a new position: Ending early voting,” Fair Fight, a group that has worked for the last two years to drive up voter turnout and voter access, said in a statement.

“The idea that any elections official would entertain forcing all voters in her county to vote on Election Day is absurd and cruel, and ending early voting in Georgia is undemocratic and untenable. She is not capable of performing the most basic duties of her office, and she must resign.”

O’Lenick said she had no comment about the new requests for her to step down.

Federal agents raiding Goines’ lab found multiple laptops, USB storage devices, cell phones, printers, blank card stock, security holograms for driver’s licenses of several U.S. states, two handguns and other related items, said Bobby Christine, acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.

“Identity theft and credit card fraud has become an all too common problem,” Christine said. “The actions of thieves like Goines can severely damage citizens’ lives and credit.

“We encourage all citizens to monitor their credit for any suspicious activity, and if they find any, to contact law enforcement immediately.”

Goines has a background in law enforcement He formerly served as a detention officer at the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office, where he rose to the rank of sergeant.

Goines was convicted last October after he pleaded guilty to charges of access device fraud and possession of device-making equipment.

After he completes his prison sentence, he will spend three years on supervised release.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI.

The county commission has already approved the purchase of much of the mall property for $23 million in December so the upcoming called URA meeting, which will take place at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, is somewhat of a formality.

But, this is not the same commission that voted to buy the mall. The commission has seen three of its five seats change hands since the vote was taken at the end of 2020 to buy the ailing mall, whose interior retail spaces are largely vacant and mostly blocked off from visitors.

Due to the way the Urban Redevelopment Agency is set up, county commissioners are both the Board of Commissioners and the Urban Redevelopment Agency board, which means they must vote twice on approving each URA action.

In addition to the 2:30 p.m. called URA meeting, the commission will also take up the question of issuing the bonds — as the actual Board of Commissioners — at their regular 2 p.m. business meeting Tuesday. County staff is expected to come back to the commission on March 2 to get approval of the pricing for the bonds.

The Macy’s, Beauty Master, Mega Mart and former Sears anchor spaces are not included in the purchase since they are separately owned from the rest of the mall.

Records show he was booked in the jail on Thursday and was still there Saturday morning.

“Detectives believe that Jordan was at the location for his job as a pest control worker when he was approached by Wilson outside of one of the apartments,” Flynn said. “At this time, a motive for the murder is not clear. Wilson was quickly identified by detectives who followed up on evidence at the scene.”

Police were called to the Sugar Mill Apartments complex located at 855 Walther Boulevard just after 10 a.m. Thursday on a report of a shot fired and a man found lying at the bottom of a stairwell. Officers arrived to find Jordan was dead from a gunshot wound.

“The Georgia Gwinnett Campus was initially put on lockdown as officers searched the area for potential suspects,” Flynn said. “A K9 unit responded and a thorough search of the area was conducted. Once the search was completed the lockdown was lifted.”

The campus sent out an alert to school community at about 10:40 a.m. to seek shelter, although GGC later said that was when a “soft” lockdown began, and that a subsequent “hard” lockdown began at 11:18 a.m.

“Violent threat on GGC campus,” an alert on the college’s website, similar to one sent by text to the campus community at 10:40 a.m., stated at 11 a.m. “Find safe area, LOCK and BARRICADE doors. If near a building ENTER. Police responding. Updates to follow. Employees report your status to your supervisor.”

The lockdown was lifted at 11:29 a.m., college officials said.

Jail records show that while Wilson has been arrested before, it has been nearly seven years since he was booked into the Gwinnett County Jail. The most violent charge he had previously been arrested on was burglary in 2014.

The address listed for him in the jail records is for a shopping center in Atlanta.

Actual enforcement of the parking rules will begin March 1.

“Illegally parked vehicles create street hazards for those backing out of driveways and those who cannot see oncoming traffic due to hills or curves,” said Chief Tim Wallis. “Violators prevent access by Emergency Response and Support Vehicles and block access to fire hydrants. In addition, illegally parked vehicles are more subject to vandalism and theft.”

As part of the building up to enforcement beginning, Lawrenceville police will leave violation notices on the windshields of vehicles that illegally park during the grace period that will be in place throughout February.

These will effectively be warnings, although habitual violators or drivers whose parked vehicle creates an immediate safety issue will receive a citation.

But the warnings will stop once full enforcement begins in March.

Anyone who would like to report a concern or see a full list of parking ordinances can visit linktr.ee/lawrencevillepolice.

The city's Code of Ordinances outlines the following parking rules:

"(a) It shall be unlawful at any time to permit any vehicle to stand, stop or park in any of the following places except in compliance with the directions of a law enforcement official or traffic control device:

"(1) In an intersection;

"(2) In a crosswalk;

"(3) Within 20 feet of any intersection or crosswalk;

"(4) At any place where the vehicle would block the use of the driveway;

"(5) At any place where the standing, stopping or parking of a vehicle will reduce the useable width of the roadway for moving traffic to less than 20 feet;

"(6) At any place in the area of Nash Street from Neal Boulevard to Clayton Street next to the Lawrenceville City Hall;

"(7) Overnight (10:00 p.m.—6:00 a.m.) parking shall be prohibited in all public right-of-way. Nothing shall prohibit parking in designated parking spaces.

"(b) The Police Chief or any other person authorized by the Council shall cause signs to be posted in all areas where parking is prohibited."

The milestone dog was Timber, a brindle colored terrier mix.

“It means a lot to us,” Walker said of the milestone. “We didn’t think we’d be able to do those numbers when we first started. Granted I’ve only been doing the program for three years, but just in the past three years, we’ve grown at great rate, especially due to social media, our Facebook page, and our website. We’ve got a great following and the people who adopt dogs from us, they spread the word too.

“But, we’re just very proud of what we’re able to do.”

In all, five dogs and two cats were adopted out of the Jail Dogs and Jail Cats programs on Saturday.

Jail Dogs began in 2010 and Jail Cats came along in 2013. The programs currently include 23 dogs and four cats. The numbers can fluctuate at any given time, however, between 12 and 30 dogs and one to 10 cats.

In addition to the 1,001 dogs that have been adopted, 107 cats have been adopted from the Jail Cats program.

“We rehabilitate some of the dogs that come through,” Walker said. “Most of these dogs come from local shelters and they’re unwanted and they’re strays and nobody comes to get them, so we go and rescue them via our partner rescue, the Society of Humane Friends of Georgia, and we’re able to bring them over to the jail.”

At the jail, the dogs and cats are rotated between three inmates each. They live with the inmates and the inmates are responsible for taking care of them.

“We teach the inmates how to train the dogs and how to take care of the dogs,” Walker said. “We have an amazing group of volunteers that come in and volunteer a lot of their time to do training, grooming and all of these things, and the inmates are actually learning these skills also, especially training and just how to care for something.

“Some of these guys have never really had anything to care for before, and you give them the responsibility of a dog and it really changes their mindset. It gives them something positive to focus on while they’re incarcerated.”

The reason why the dogs are rotated between inmates, Walker said, is so they don’t form a strong attachment to any one particular person before they are adopted.

The dogs stay with the inmates in the jail until they are adopted, and the people adopting them have to meet criteria set by the Society of Humane Friends of Georgia, according to Walker.

“It’s a case-by-case (situation),” he said about what the qualifications are. “The rescue sets those qualifications, so if you have a pet, they have to be current on their vaccines, they have to be on heartworm, flea and tick prevention. Things of that nature.

“And, the home setting, lets say it’s a Husky, we’ll make sure you have a fenced in back yard. It’s just things like that, but it varies case-by-case.”

There have been occasions where former inmates have gone on to adopt the dog they cared for after they got out of jail. Walker said none of the dogs adopted Saturday were adopted by a former inmate handler, however.

“We open that up for the inmates once they get out, or if they have somebody at home that can put in the application,” Walker said. “They still have to pass every qualification that a normal application would have to go through, but we do give them that option.

“We’ll hold them for them if they’re really interested and can pass that application for when they get out.”

“Multiple emergency units were dispatched to the location, including uniform officers, EMS, SWAT, the Hazardous Device Unit, K9 and a police helicopter,” Flynn said. “The store was closed for over two hours before investigators learned that Stone’s ex-wife was the owner of the business. She was able to tell detectives that Stone had been harassing her and had previously been arrested for violation of a protection order against her.”

Stone faces a charge of transmitting a false public alarm and a warrant has been taken out for his arrest. Police believe he may still be in the Atlanta area and are asking the public to step forward with tips about his whereabouts.

There had been concerns about violence across the country on the day of Biden’s inauguration in light of an incident where supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as members of Congress were gathered to confirm Biden’s victory in the Electoral College.

Flynn said Stone was identified as the 911 caller from the 911 recording and discovered the phone call was in fact made from the Atlanta area.

Anyone who has information on Stone’s whereabouts is asked to call detectives at 770-513-5300 or Crime Stoppers at 404-577-8477. They can also visit www.stopcrimeATL.com. There is a cash rewards offered by Crime Stoppers for information that leads to an arrest and indictment.

Tipsters should reference Case No. 21-004930.

One issue that emerged, as Wilbanks talked to the Daily Post about the request on Wednesday, is the possibility that the vaccine won’t be available once educator’s opportunity to get vaccinated came up in Phase 1B.

“I certainly want to make the vaccine possible for teachers who want it and I was in a meeting at the Governor’s Mansion last week where this was talked about and it’s not a matter of what group you’re necessarily in,” Wilbanks told the Daily Post on Wednesday. “It’s a matter, really now more than ever, of ‘Is vaccine available?’

“I don’t know if they’ve got enough vaccine to do everyone in 1A, much less 1B. We found out yesterday or the day before that a lot of the vaccine that they thought was ordered by the previous administration didn’t get ordered and that seems to be the concern now is that no matter where you stack up, is there going to be enough for the time that people want it, which is now?”

The letter from the superintendents comes after 13 school board members from six districts around metro Atlanta, including Gwinnett County Board of Education members Tarece Johnson and Karen Watkins, sent their own letter to Kemp asking him to prioritize educators in the vaccine rollout. There have been a growing number of educators in the metro area who have died from COVID-19.

“While most sectors of our economy have strong voices to champion their perspectives, we stand as champions for the men and women who dedicate their lives to educating our students,” the school board members wrote. “COVID-19 has put a spotlight on the importance of our public schools, and we urgently call for the following actions to promote safer face-to-face instruction.”

There has been a high demand already seen in the vaccine rollout, with frontline health care workers, emergency responders and Georgians over 65 already eligible to receive the vaccine by appointment. That has led to complaints from people who have said they experienced struggles getting appointments to get a vaccine as they fill up quickly after they are made available.

A Gwinnett County Public Schools survey showed that more than 13,500 of the district’s 24,900 employees, including both full- and part-time staff as well as active substitutes, have expressed an interest in getting vaccinated by the health department once they are eligible.

In addition to Wilbanks and Downs, the other metro area school chiefs calling on Kemp to move teachers and district staff to Phase 1A include: Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Lisa Herring; Clayton County Schools Superintendent Morcease Beasley; Cobb County Schools Superintendent Chris Ragsdale; City Schools of Decatur Superintendent David Dude; DeKalb County Schools Superintendent Cheryl Watson-Harris; Forsyth County Schools Superintendent Jeff Bearden; Fulton County Schools Superintendent Mike Looney; Marietta City Schools Superintendent Grant Rivera; and Rockdale County Schools Superintendent Terry Oatts.

“As superintendents, we hear each day from families who implore us to not return to a full virtual model,” the superintendents wrote in their letter to the governor. “Likewise, we hear each day from teachers who are scared about the threat of COVID-19 to them and their loved ones. At its heart, a school is a group of students and a group of educators; the magic that happens depends on both groups being together.

“We need your help because our ability to remain open depends significantly on our staff feeling safe and staying healthy. The longer we delay in vaccinating our teachers and school staff, the more we risk having to close our doors once again. The educators in our districts have given tirelessly in time, effort and dedication, especially during the pandemic. We ask you to recognize their value and importance to our communities and our state.”

But, while the superintendents and school board members are focusing on convincing Kemp to prioritize teachers in the vaccine rollout, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux, D-Ga., is working on convincing President Joe Biden to do the same thing.

Bourdeaux sent a letter to the president on Wednesday, telling him that teachers have died and others have quit their jobs because they were concerned about the health and safety of their families. In the letter, she referenced the death of Gwinnett County paraprofessional Maude Jones, who died earlier this month from COVID-19.

Jones was hospitalized with COVID-19 a few days before she was set to enter retirement, and her family has said it believes she was exposed to the disease at the school where she worked.

“In the 7th district, the COVID-19 safety standards as well as their enforcement varies significantly by school district — and even from school to school within a district,” Bourdeaux wrote in the letter. “As a result, we have heard from many teachers and support staff who are afraid because they have been asked to put their health and lives on the line, and risk the health and lives of their families, to keep their jobs.

“I urge your administration to prioritize the vaccination of teachers and school support staff, as well as the development of clear guidelines for testing and contact tracing at schools. We also need clear federal guidelines strongly encouraging the use of masks on school property, safe building design, and safe practices in the school building and classroom.”

Under the agreement, the city was required to buy and renovate property for a new post office. The new post office, a former SunTrust Bank location, is located at 2440 Wisteria Drive. It opened in November.

“The U.S. Postal Service required that the only way to get them to agree to move was to find a new and better facility within one-half mile of their current operation,” Snellville City Manager Butch Sanders said. “We located the old bank building, negotiated and purchased it from SunTrust and then renovated both inside and out to USPS standards.”

The completion of the exchange agreement and acquisition are the latest steps in bringing the mixed use development to the city’s downtown area.

In November, the city agreed to partner with developer MidCast LLC to design, build and lease the City Market building planned for The Grove and in December Mayor and Council approved the construction contracts for the parking deck with Winter Construction.

“By working closely with the U.S. Postal Service, the city was able to acquire a piece of property vital to making The Grove at Towne Center development a reality,” Snellville Mayor Barbara Bender said. “In the months to come, residents will see a lot of activity in The Grove which will result in a transformation of our downtown and give them a world-class mixed use development they can enjoy and be proud of.”

The costs associated with the Post Office acquisition and move totaled $2.25 million, $98,374 under budget, city officials said.

The Grove at Towne Center will be a large scale, mixed-use town center property, comprising 18 acres between Oak Road, Wisteria Drive, North Road and Clower Street, in downtown Snellville. The Grove at Towne Center’s first phase will include over 50,000 square feet of retail, restaurant, office, and entertainment space, and approximately 250 multi-family luxury apartments.

In addition, the new Elizabeth Williams Library will be constructed and include a second-floor business development/ accelerator space.