Hospital Authority Retains Same Board Members

Stephens County Hospital Authority will retain the same seven board members.  Monday, the other five Authority members voted unanimously  to re-appoint Stan Roberts and Max Brock to new six year terms.  Stephens County Hospital Administrator Ed Gambrell said both Roberts and Brock have provided valuable service to the Authority.  Roberts and Brock were re-appointed from a group of six nominees selected by the Stephens County Commissioners at their meeting last week.
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Toccoa-Stephens County Tomorrow Group Continues Work

Last Thursday, the Toccoa-Stephens County Tomorrow group held its second community input meeting at the Georgia Baptist Conference Center in Toccoa.  Barry Roberts is the Chairman and said the meeting allowed the group to update those involved in the initial meeting last year and talk about the vision statement the group created.  "That vision is 'Toccoa-Stephens County will set the standard for dynamic rural communities where residents take pride and contribute to ensure an unsurpassed quality of life'," said Roberts.  The group has identified 12 issues to work on that it believes are imperative to creating that vision based on previous input from the community.  "The number one, as identified in the first community input meeting, was economic development," said Roberts.  Other issues include education, land use and leadership.  Toccoa-Stephens County Tomorrow is a privately funded effort working in conjunction with the Toccoa-Stephens County Chamber of Commerce and the Fanning Institute from the University of Georgia.

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Pre-Job Fair in Lavonia Tuesday

The Georgia Department of Labor is hosting an event to assist people for a job fair in Stephens County later this month.  The Northeast Georgia Talent Attraction Kickoff is Tuesday from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. at the Lavonia First Baptist Church.  The event will include many workshops aimed at helping people prepare for the job fair such as marketing yourself using social media, resume writing, and interviewing skills. 




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Toccoa Falls College Reports Enrollment Gain

Toccoa Falls College welcomed the largest first-year class since 2007 when new students arrived to campus for orientation on Tuesday, August 20.  TFC President Robert M. Myers joined a group of faculty and sstaff volunteers to help the 276 members of the Class of 2017 move into their residence halls.  Additionally, the college has added a record 41 students to the online program which brings the total fall online enrollment to over 100 students for the first time in the school's history.  Toccoa Falls College Dean of Enrollment Dan Griffin said the school is pleased to welcome such a great class to the campus, calling them an extremely talented, academically minded and service oriented group of men and women.  TFC said it has now experienced its third straight year of enrollment gains, but the fall of 2013 serves as the 4th largest enrollment growth in the 106 year history of the college.

PROJECT MANAGERS VISIT STEPHENS COUNTY

Tim Martin met with 21 statewide Project Managers on their annual Bus Tour through Northeast Georgia.  SCDA hosted them on stops at Hayestone Brady Business Park and North Georgia Technical College-Currahee Campus.  Click on the link below to view their trip.

http://www.georgiaresourcecenter.com/NortheastBlog/

Toccoa Scarecrow Contest Coming Soon

The fourth annual Main Street Toccoa Scarecrow Contest will take place next month and Main Street Toccoa Events Coordinator Sharon Crosby said the contest is again open to everyone of Stephens County.  “We are encouraging businesses and families and schools and different organization to put up a scarecrow display in front of their business, or some people, if they are a non-profit, would put it in front of another business,” said Crosby.  “It is just a fun way to decorate our community.  Last year, we had such great success.  We had people going from business to business and place to place to see the creativity that people expressed.”  There is no registration fee to enter a scarecrow in the contest, but the deadline for registering in order to be included in the contest is September 27.  The contest does include a $150 first prize, $75 second prize, and a $50 third prize.  For those who need help getting started on their scarecrow, a scarecrow workshop will take place on Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon at Toccoa City Hall and is free to attend. 

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Stephens County Hospital Receives Joint Commission Re-Accreditation

Surveyors from the Joint Commission visited Stephens County Hospital late last month for three days to inspect the hospital in order to determine whether it would be re-accredited.  According to Hospital Adminstrator Ed Gambrell, the hospital has received that re-accreditation.  He called the report from the Joint Commission a very positive one.  “It was a great survey,” said Gambrell.  “There were, I think they said, 1200 standards that you have to comply with and there were only two that they called direct (findings) that we need to fix now and the other nine are things we should fix, but they are more of a suggestion than a requirement.”  Gambrell said the surveyors were very complementary of the hospital.  “One of them even commented that this was one of the best surveys he had participated on in a while,” said Gambrell.

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