County approves 3 industrial zoning sites
The Gordon County Commission approved four rezoning applications at Tuesday night’s regularly scheduled meeting at the GEM Theatre, 114 N. Wall St., including three large industrial sites off Highway 41.
A pair of properties owned by OWR LLC off Highway 41 in the area of Trimble Hollow Road were approved for rezoning from A-1 agricultural to I-2 heavy industrial. Those two parcels total about 60 acres combined.
Another 115 acre property owned by Thor Equities LLC on the Bartow County line off Highway 41 was approved for rezoning
from A-1 agricultural to I-1 light industrial.
The recent review of all three sites by the Northwest Georgia Regional Commis
sion was reported by the Calhoun Times near the end of January.
OWR will be responsible for improvements to a portion of Trimble Hollow Road as part of the agreement with the county.
While the OWR properties had no spoken opposition from any members of the public present, there were a good bit of concern expressed by neighboring Bartow County residents of a subdivision bordering the Thor development site.
Taylor Forsyth, homeowner’s association president for the bordering subdivision, explained the neighborhood’s wishes for an extension of a planned berm to give all homes a sightline and noise barrier from the planned millionsquare-foot Thor facility.
Bartow resident Norman Parker, whose personal home as well as a rental property would be most affected by the Thor plans reiterated his concerns about noise and light, but said a complete berm would help to preserve his quality of life and the value of his properties.
Thor Equities representatives, including Greg Berman said the company has a desire to be a good neighbor and agreed to look at extending the berm to satisfy residents.
Local attorney Terry Brumlow represents all three industrial developments as council.
A future home site was also approved for rezoning by the board. An 8.14 acre property on Timms Loop Road was rezoned from A-1
agricultural to RA-1 residential.
All four rezoning requests were approved by a 4-0 vote with commissioners Stewart, Owens, Cunningham and Potts present.
Also approved was the rewording of a previous typo in the ULDC Code regarding fire hydrant requirements and the re-appointment of Ken Padgett and David Mitchell to the Historic Preservation Commission with terms ending June 1 or 2023.
In his cash report, County Administrator Jim Ledbetter reported $70,126,773 in total funds on hand, up from $61,647,988 at the same time a year ago. He attributed part of the upswing to recent ad valorem tax collections as well as some COVID relief funds.
“Out of a COVID economy, we’re lucky to be up that well,” said Ledbetter, attributing the county’s financial success to “good, conservative fiscal management.”
Calhoun Elementary School conducted their annual Spelling Bee Wednesday. Jacob Bateman emerged as the Spelling Bee champion and Anthony Alvarez finished in second place. Other participants included Whit Queen, Addie Grace Hoblitzell, Dilan Lopez, Marley Roach, Mallie Reece, Jacob Bateman, Kathryn Land, Ayden Lampe, Lauren Daniel, Joey Errickson, Mac Howard, Antonio Wade, Harmony Garmon, Ransom Couch, Abby Anderson, Mohamed Herrek, Atticus Stephens, Jillian Bennett, Carly Wells, Anthony Alvarez and Tanisha Venkatesu.
A diversity study for racial and gender hiring across college sports found little change in scores that continue to lag behind the professional ranks.
Wednesday’s report card from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at Central Florida assigned an overall C-plus grade, a B for racial hiring and a C-plus for gender hiring for the 2019-20 sports season. Those were the same grades from last year in the report, which examines a range of positions including leadership at the NCAA headquarters, conference commissioners, athletics directors and head coaches across Divisions I, II and III.
The numeric scores fluctuated slightly and remained at the higher end since researchers revised the grading scale for the 2015-16 report to account for changing national demographics.
But they again trailed those of professional leagues reviewed in other TIDES studies: the NBA, NFL, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer and the WNBA. And it followed last month’s study that reported a significant “underrepresentation” of women and people of color in leadership positions at the Football Bowl Subdivision level of college athletics.
More concerning, lead report author and institute director Richard Lapchick said, was the fact that there has been little progress in many areas from a decade or more ago.
“When you put it in a historical perspective of some of the really important positions, the numbers are barely moving” from past years, Lapchick said in an interview with The Associated Press.
This year’s study found declines in people of color serving as head coaches for all men’s and women’s Division I teams overall, as well as men’s and women’s basketball specifically. The percentage of Division I football head-coaching positions held by people of color increased slightly to 10.6%, up from 10.3% a year earlier.
The study also found that white men continue to hold most positions as athletics director in Division I (72.3%), Division II (70.8%) and Division III (61.6%).
The NCAA headquarters earned high marks with a Bplus in racial hiring for both senior leadership and professional positions, along with an A-plus for gender in each area.
The report’s overall score was a 78.6, down from a 78.7 a year earlier. That came after the racial hiring score (80.2) fell 1.4 points while the gender hiring score (77) climbed 1.2 points.
Still, the lack of broader progress over years stood out.
Lapchick said 76.3% of administrators at the NCAA headquarters are white, a figure that remains almost unchanged from 2000 (76.6%). Whites held 86.5% of positions as Division I conference commissioners for the 2007-08 sports year, and that figure now stands at 86.7%. And women have gone from holding 39.5% of positions as head coach for women’s teams across all three divisions for the 2010-11 season to 41% today, he said.
In a statement, Derrick Gragg, NCAA senior vice president for inclusion, education and community engagement, said the report highlights that “there is still much work to do to infuse inclusion and equality further into athletics.” Gragg also said the NCAA headquarters has worked to diversify its senior leadership while creating the NCAA Leadership Collective to help schools identify minority job candidates.
“As organizations work to provide better diversity and inclusion, athletic leaders can also take significant steps to open more doors to people of color and women,” Gragg said. “There are too many diversity hiring gaps in college sports, and this racial and gender diversity report reveals that.”