County park project gets $175,000 DNR grant
♦ The grant is part of an $8.4 million Land and Water Conservation Fund grant program.
Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources announced last week how it would distribute $8.4 million in Land and Water Conservation Fund grant program money, including one local project.
Gordon County will get $175 thousand as one of 27 projects across the state. The money will go towards Brookshire Park, a development on existing county-owned greenspace near the Oostanaula River by adding a picnic pavilion, parking spaces, a walking trail and disc golf, according to the DNR.
The 8.5 acre SPLOST project is located on Highway 156 West and currently consists of a public boat ramp into the Oostanaula River and gravel parking.
The original total budget for the project was $369,000.00, including the design fees and was originally proposed in 2018.
Selected LWCF applicants will be invited to submit formal application proposals which will be presented to the National Park Service for final approval, according to a Georgia DNR release.
Grantees are required to match the grant award on a dollar for dollar ratio making a $17.8 million total impact on Georgia’s parks and outdoor recreation areas.
“Heading outdoors is a long-held tradition and great pastime for Georgians. Whether you are 3 or 93, the great outdoors provides limitless opportunities for mental and physical wellness, enjoying time with loved ones while safely socially distanced, or just unplugging from our busy lives.” said Mark Williams, Commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources. “LWCF is a great tool for our state and local communities who understand the irreplaceable impact of outdoor recreation.”
Other nearby projects receiving money from the grant include $150 thousand for a mountain bike trail in Bartow County, $345 thousand for a soccer complex in Cedartown, $125 thousand for Nathan Dean Park in Rockmart, $122,500 for a municipal park in LaFayette, $200 thousand for the Golden Mile Trail in Ringgold, and $50 thousand for the Rocky Face Ridge Trail in Whitfield County.
LWCF has existed since 1965 with the intent on creating a partnership between the federal, state, and local governments. Grants help support communities to create close to home recreation areas by acquiring and developing park land as well as renovating local parks and outdoor recreation areas.
Georgia DNR conducts biannual grant application cycles for the LWCF grants. While maneuvering through a health crisis and realizing the importance of outdoor recreation, cities and counties all over the state submitted 76 proposals requesting $19.2 million. Of the seventy-six, 27 were selected. The complete list of the 27 projects is below. For more information about LWCF and these grants, visit www.gadnr.org/lwcf.
Problems with the operation of a conveyer belt system that transported chicken for freezing appear to be the cause of a liquid nitrogen release that killed six workers at a Georgia poultry processing plant, federal investigators said.
Chicken traveled down the conveyer before being submerged in a liquid nitrogen bath for flash freezing. “Unresolved operational issues” with the conveyer “appear to have resulted in the accidental release of liquid nitrogen in the flash freezing bath,” the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board said late Sunday in its latest findings about the Jan. 28 release.
Workers reported that a computerized measuring system indicated a low liquid level in the immersion bath, according to the board. The processing line that malfunctioned had been shut down on the morning of the release, the board said.
The release occurred at the Foundation Food Group plant in Gainesville about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta. The com
pany said in a statement late Monday that it was “fully cooperating” with investigators.
“We are committed to taking any additional measures necessary to further ensure the safety of our employees,” the company said.
The chemical safety board has previously said the line that failed was used to season, cook, freeze and package chicken, and the nitrogen system had been installed only weeks before.
Investigators have also said they found some tools near the freezer on the line, and it was undergoing “unplanned maintenance.” The investigation
is ongoing.
The release forced workers to escape through a fog of vaporizing liquid nitrogen. Eleven other workers and firefighters were taken to the hospital for treatment.
Gainesville is the hub of Georgia’s mammoth poultry industry, which relies on a heavily Latino workforce. Five of the six workers who died were Mexican citizens.
Immigration advocates have called on federal investigators to guarantee that any workers at the plant who are in the country illegally will not be deported if they come forward to share their observations.
The total number of deaths in Gordon County since the start of the pandemic rose to 83 over the last week, with four more COVID-19 deaths reported since late last Wednesday evening.
According to reports from the Department of Public Health, there have been 5,384 total confirmed cases of the virus in Gordon
County since it first hit locally in March. That figure includes 108 new confirmed positive cases over the last week.
Statewide, there have been 16,238 new confirmed cases of the virus reported since last Wednesday and 454 deaths.
These reports come just days after Gordon County Schools announced it would move Gordon Central and Sonoraville High School students to a hybrid instructional model through Monday, Feb. 22.
During this period, students will continue to receive instruction from their assigned classroom teachers utilizing Schoology but will only attend in-person classes two days per week, based upon their last name. Extracurricular activities will continue, unless otherwise notified by the school, and meals can still be obtained at school free of charge for any student who wishes to participate.
An instructional schedule telling students which days they should be completing in-person learning and which days they should utilize Schoology can be found online at www.gcbe.org.
“The decision to temporarily move to a hybrid schedule for Gordon Central and Sonoraville High is a precautionary measure and comes following an increase in active COVID cases, resulting in a higher number of precautionary quarantines,” the school said in a statement on Friday. “Having only half of the students in class at one time will allow for additional distancing among students within the classroom.”
The system has stated that it will re-evaluate the ongoing COVID situation at the end of the second week of hybrid instruction to determine whether a continuation of the model is necessary.