Sunday Solutions — April 7, 2024
Good morning! We’re back from Easter break and hope you are ready to hop on some reads and discussions for your week. To some, eclipses are harbingers of change or signal new perspectives for those who observe them, so settle in for an interesting week. Let’s see where it goes.
NEWS
Plan: Move residents, houses. Then annex, rezone for …. houses
Residents of a mobile home community just outside Hinesville will be relocated — some along with their homes — to Walthourville after the city made a deal with a developer to annex the land from the county. Newbridge Residential Parks, LLC, would use the Georgia Homes at Live Oak Mobile Home Park land for apartments and townhomes. Many who live there — some for 25 years — say they were never contacted and first learned something could happen after they saw a new sign for rezoning at the park entrance. Liberty County reporter Robin Kemp wrote about the situation last week before the Hinesville City Council finalized its agreement Thursday with a 4-1 vote that added in some new contingencies for the annexation that include conversations and meetings with residents before the move. The annexation and rezoning for any new project would not be granted until after developers met the requirements and moved the residents.
In a follow-up to the meeting, Kemp wrote about the tough discussion and serious concerns at the council meeting, where residents again said their questions about the move remain unanswered. Even with the changes, residents are wary, worrying that the communications gaps mean a rocky and costly road ahead as Hinesville — in an effort to grow housing — helps to push them and their homes to another town.
NEWS
Elections changes on the way (again)
Five bills to reset voting and ballot processes passed the Georgia General Assembly. While some are specific, others take on topics that may or may not seem daunting. Capitol Beat’s Dave Williams breaks down the bills and what they do. Of note, one allows for fewer voting machines at a precinct and even closer access for poll watchers. It was co-sponsored by Savannah Rep. Jesse Petrea. Another subbed language in a bill on electric vehicle taxation and restructured the elections cycle for members of the Public Service Commission, the group that decides how much you pay for gas and electricity. That one allows members, including those who weren’t elected, to serve longer terms while waiting on the legislature to follow a court order.
From the week
Here are a few items to fuel your dinner conversations.
- End of internet subsidies for low-income households threatens telehealth access: Broadband internet — or lack of it — was exposed across rural Georgia and in poorer areas of cities during the pandemic when children had to attempt to keep up with school work with terrible service. Another offshoot of the Covid times was the new reliance for all ages on telehealth services. Now it’s a staple of rural communities where doctors are scarce and everywhere for older people who are always able to get out when they are sick.
- New FCC broadband standard increases the number of ‘underserved’ households in America: Speaking of internet service, the Federal Communications Commission has validated something we’ve all figured — basic broadband service doesn’t really cut it. In rural areas, more than 1 in 4 houses don’t even have basic, so that’s already a setback as our world goes wholly digital for everything from school to banking. According to Broadbandnow.com, Georgia ranks 21st in access to the new service standard of 100Mbps broadband. In Coastal Georgia, the lagging county is Liberty, where 81.6% have access to the new standard.
- Southwest Georgia hospital could reopen sooner than later with help from federal appropriations: Also on the care front, we learn that help for rural hospitals and treatment options is coming from the new federal budget. State help awaits the governor’s signature in the form of House Bill 1339 that would scale down what centers could do.
- Americans’ use of ChatGPT is ticking up, but few trust its election information: First of all, if you are relying on generative artificial intelligence (AI) for your elections info, please stop. The chatbot information aggregator Chat GPT is going to be helpful for a lot of things, but pulling credible information for local and national elections out of the ethernet is likely not it. The Pew Research Center has released a thorough look at what people are using AI for, who’s using it and who trusts it. We’re linking the whole thing for you to read.
A greater challenge
After a quiet Easter weekend, we hope you’re ready for your next test on news from the past weeks.
Leaderboard 3/17/24
First Place (10/10): Peaches
Second Place (5/10): Laurie, EMF33, Mikey, Becky C.
Third Place (4/10): BamaPhD
Overall Leaderboard
First Place – Peaches
Second Place – SG Mark
Third Place – Sandy B
You might notice that this week’s quiz is slightly longer than those on previous weeks. Since we took a holiday break last weekend, we wanted to give you a bit of an extra challenge. Enjoy!
Get out: McIntosh Blessing of the Fleet
As we’ve noted before, fresh shrimp is a Coastal Georgia jewel and shrimpers’ livelihoods are threatened by imported shrimp. Today is your chance to honor the past and show support for the future of McIntosh County’s shrimp fleet. The annual blessing and boat parade starts at 2 p.m. in Darien. Gates open for the festival at 10 a.m., vendors open at noon. Entry is free. Let’s eat.
Q&A
Author follows conservatism of congregation
Many of you may remember Sarah McCammon, a host now for National Public Radio who worked in Savannah for Georgia Public Broadcasting. She moved to NPR work in 2016 assigned to follow the presidential campaign for a new candidate to the race, Donald Trump. That assignment turned into a national career move and her work covering abortion rights and evangelical conservative influences has been honored more than once. Now she has a book that’s hit bestseller lists, The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church. Here’s the transcript of an interview with her by GPB host Pamela Kirkland.
EXPLAINER
Your second cup: Medicare and choices
If you’ve ever seen a commercial or gotten a solicitation call (or 50) about Medicare Advantage plans or you or someone you know has quickly purchased one of the packages, this story from KFF Health News may be for you. The popular plans are supplements to Medicare and offer savings on co-pays, drug coverage and other necessities. Some also come with requirements for prior authorization for treatment and limits on networks. And, when you sign up for them matters and making split-second decisions might not pay off. Experts recommend paying close attention to them for the next year to figure out what’s right for you when re-enrollment comes around next year.
We want to meet your friends! If you like this newsletter be sure to share it. Got a question or request, email us at staff@thecurrentga.org
Hinesville mobile home park residents fear for their future
By Robin Kemp
But the drastic action came without much warning — or information — for those most directly impacted by the move: the people living in the Georgia Homes at Live Oak Mobile Home Park. They are the same kind of working families that the new development plans aim to help, but that the developer has ignored and frozen out of decision-making.
Hinesville adds more special conditions to mobile home park deal
By Robin Kemp
Owner’s representative didn’t attend meeting, and city made deal contingent on company keeping its word to move tenants at no cost.
Georgia braces for another round of election law changes
By Dave Williams/Capitol Beat
Critics say ballot challenges won’t clean up rolls, will hurt eligible voters.
State PSC members could avoid voters for years as meter runs on Georgia Power rate hikes
By Stanley Dunlap/Georgia Recorder
Critics say Georgia Power customers are denied rights to elect members.
End of internet subsidies for low-income households threatens telehealth access
By Sarah Jane Tribble/KFF Health News
Program is expected to run out of money in April or May, according to the Federal Communications Commission.
Southwest Georgia hospital could reopen with help from federal appropriations
By Sofi Gratas/GPB News
A feasibility study underway will help decide the new model for the facility. Randolph County lost its only hospital in 2020 after decades of it being in operation.
Author Sarah McCammon talks her new book ‘The Exvangelicals’
By Pamela Kirkland/GPB News
Former Savannah journalist, author Sarah McCammon about her new book, “The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church.”
Federal prosecutors probe Camden County jail beating
By Jake Shore
The 2022 beating of Jarrett Hobbs by former Camden County jailers has become the focus of federal investigators, The Current learned. The beating was the first in a slew of incidents involving violence at the detention center and on the roads involving Camden deputies in the last two years .
The Current GA is part of The Trust Project.
Read our policies.
Support independent, solutions-based investigative journalism without bias, fear or favor on issues affecting Savannah and Coastal Georgia.
You must be logged in to post a comment.