THURSDAY March 8, 2018 BARTOW COUNTY’S ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER 75 CENTS Commissioner Taylor approves new county park BY NEIL B. MCGAHEE “This is a resolution before the House of ises. I don’t give a lot of chance for its suc- the standard agreement we have with all Lake Allatoona from the U.S. Army Corps [email protected] Representatives, House Bill 158,” County cess.” cities,” Olson said. “The amendment ad- of Engineers, wanted to close the lease. Manager Peter Olson explained. “When “Yeah,” Taylor retorted. “Good luck justs the fee for housing prisoners and for “The Corps of Engineers has agreed to Bartow County Commissioner Steve the state commits money for a specific pur- with that.” accompanying a prisoner to a hospital” allow the county to lease the park,” he said. Taylor started his public meeting Wednes- pose, they bind it to that purpose. Unfortu- Taylor also signed agreements with the Olson said the city of White, which “We just have to get it through the Corp’s day by attempting something more futile nately, the money they collect for that cities of Adairsville and White, which had broke away from the animal control agree- bureaucracy.” than killing an elephant with a peashooter specific purpose doesn’t get reallocated; it a far better chance of happening. ment in the past, had requested to rejoin. Olson said a county employee would — getting money from the state’s dedi- gets dumped into the general fund. This is “We have amended the standard jail He also said the Girls Scouts of Atlanta, cated fees collection. an effort to get them to stick to their prom- agreement with Adairsville, which is like which had leased Camp Pine Acres, on SEE TAYLOR, PAGE 3A Cartersville Chick-fil-A at Cherokee Place to close this summer BY JAMES SWIFT [email protected] Cartersville residents who have been devouring spicy chicken sandwiches and Ice Dream Cones at the Chick-fil-A at 115 Chero- kee Place over the last two decades have a few more months to bid the restaurant farewell. Glenn Jordan, who has operated the Cartersville restaurant since Nov. 1995, told The Daily Tribune News that the eatery will close this summer. It will then be demolished and replaced by a larger Chick-fil-A restaurant, which is tentatively scheduled for an Oc- tober opening. “Depending on volume and just whatever store layout you’ve got 20-something years ago, they choose to either add on things or just totally knock it down,” Jordan said. “We’ve been Band- Aided several times, they’ve added on space where they could but there’s just no more room in the kitchen for extra equipment, for extra refrigeration and lots of other things we probably need to do to stay up to code with the health department.” Corporate officials asked him six months ago if he’d prefer mak- ing incremental improvements to the restaurant over time or to simply rebuild it from scratch. “They come in the middle of the night and they knock every- thing down and they put it back together really fast so you have a lot of problems,” he said. “So instead of being down a month, I just chose to be down for five months. That way, everything’s A CAUSE FOR ALARM brand new, back up to code, with new equipment. There’ll be some things in the drive-thru, some canopies and things that’ll make peo- ple being out there a lot easier — there will be heaters out there, fans out there, so my employees will be better taken care of.” Fire departments provide smoke detectors amid rise in fatalities He said the new building will be on the same parcel of land. He estimates it will be about 4,800-square-feet — an upgrade of about BY MARIE NESMITH ing. A house should have more than 1,300-square-feet compared to the current building. [email protected] one smoke alarm located according “It’ll probably be about the same number of seats, it’s just the to the manufacturer’s recommen- kitchen that’s got to be about four times bigger,” he said. “It’ll be Out of Georgia’s 159 counties, dations.” on the same piece of property. It’ll just be better positioned to han- Bartow ranked among the highest With daylight saving time kick- dle the traffic flow and get people in and out of the building with- in terms of fire fatalities last year. ing off this weekend, fire officials out them having to walk across the drive-thru lane.” Recording six, Bartow tied Fulton are advising area residents to While the higher-ups at Chick-fil-A are targeting an early June and trailed only behind Gwinnett’s change their smoke alarm batteries and Chatham’s postings of eight. and make sure the device is work- closure, Jordan said he’s pushing to move the date up to late May. “It’s very concerning when you ing correctly. On Sunday at 2 a.m., He anticipates the rebuilding process to take about 18-20 weeks, hear [this] kind of statistic and even time will “spring forward” as peo- depending on the weather. more when it’s in your own ple set their clocks ahead one hour. “The lot is big enough, so they’re going to flatten it, take every- county,” said Bartow County Fire “The annual change to daylight thing down to the dirt and reposition the store where I’ll have more Department Sgt. Jody Jamison, saving time is the perfect opportu- drive-thru queue [so] there’ll be more cars to be able to go in the who also serves as the fire safety nity to make sure your smoke drive-thru,” he said. “You’ll be able to walk up to the store without education coordinator. “We at Bar- alarms are working properly,” crossing those lanes. That seems easy, but if you’re an old person, tow County Fire Department take Georgia Insurance and Safety Fire you can get run over real easy — actually, I’ve had two employees fire safety education very seriously Commissioner Ralph Hudgens get hit, and they weren’t old.” for this very reason. Our ultimate stated in a news release. “Changing Jordan said there will be no layoffs during the reconstruction goal is to have zero fire fatalities in the batteries in each device is the time. Bartow County. easiest way to ensure continued “My biggest concern is taking care of my people, and if it means “A majority of fire fatalities na- protection of your family and prop- us losing money for a couple of months, it’s OK because I don’t tionwide did not have a working erty.” want to have to lose them,” he said. “They’re the most important smoke [alarm]. However, to our The release reported 89 of the 94 knowledge, some of the fire fatali- residential fires in Georgia last year part of the business.” ties in Bartow County did have were in homes without working He said many employees will be shifted to the Chick-fil-A working smoke alarms. Of the six smoke alarms. This year, from Jan. restaurant in Emerson, and that sandwiches and other menu items fire fatalities in Bartow County in 1 to March 5, 21 residential fires — will be “imported” from the LakePoint site at 94 Old Allatoona 2017, two of them were the result RANDY PARKER/THE DAILY TRIBUNE NEWS in homes without viable smoke Road to a trailer near the Target shopping center parking lot. of outside burning or a vehicle fire Sgt. Scott Hoke of the Bartow County Fire Department stands alarms — have resulted in the “There will be a very limited menu and I won’t be able to handle and the other four were in two sep- beside smoke alarms that are provided to those who cannot deaths of 25 Georgians. the kind of business that we do here,” he said, “but we will have afford one. arate structure fires.” “Smoke alarms are very critical some food on this side of town for people who really need a Chick- Underscoring the need for more Glenda Croy, perished later. escaping to attempt to rescue the in the early detection of a fire in fil-A fix.” than one smoke alarm in each “In a single residential structure two family members that were your home and could mean the dif- structure, Jamison shared the story fire, three [residents] were killed as missing. ference in life and death,” Jamison SEE CHICK-FIL-A, PAGE 7A of a residential fire in Kingston the result of the fire,” Jamison said. “In that case, the family did have said. “A majority of the fire fatali- Dec. 29, 2017, where two adult “Two individuals were unable to one working smoke alarm, but it ties are due to not having working brothers — Scottie and Jeffrey escape due to smoke inhalation and was remote to where the fire started smoke alarms or not having a Croy — died at the scene from one family member died as a result and possibly delayed notification of smoke inhalation and their mother, of returning to the structure after the fire while the family was sleep- SEE ALARMS, PAGE 6A CES launches 3rd annual March for Babies campaign BY DONNA HARRIS title of top fundraising school in the state at the dents raised more than any other school in the [email protected] end of the two-week fundraiser.