The city of Norcross recently announced that its NorcrossWorks web site has been relaunched.
According to the city, NorcrossWorks is a user-friendly website whereby employers can post and advertise openings at no cost. All a business has to do is complete a simple form which will be reviewed and posted by the Economic Development Department.
Likewise, job seekers can access job postings and apply.
"This platform aims to address some of the city’s labor, income and educational gaps, which have all been exacerbated by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rapidly changing nature of the global economy," a statement from the city said. "The goal is to serve both businesses (employers) and individuals in the labor market (job seekers) by connecting both parties together."
Norcross Mayor Craig Newton said the relaunch is particularly timely due to current economic conditions. To learn more about the site, go to norcrossworks.com.
And now here’s your Gwinnett County sports update presented by Tom Wages funeral home. Grayson head football coach Adam Carter has resigned to become head football coach at Lowndes, Lowndes County Schools announced Tuesday morning.
Carter has been the Rams’ head coach the last four years with a 45-9 record highlighted by going 14-0 and winning the Class AAAAAAA state championship in the pandemic-affected 2020 season. Grayson also made the 2021 semifinals and the quarterfinals in 2019 and 2022. Prior to being hired at Grayson, Carter went 12-1 in one season as Creekview’s head coach. He was previously an assistant at Camden County, Paulding County, Marietta, Reinhardt and South Carolina State, as well as head coach at Bradwell Institute in 2013.
How strong is the upcoming partnership between Lawrenceville and the Gwinnett/Walton Habitat for Humanity group?
Strong enough for the city to pledge 15-person weekend shifts by city employees to help on two of the builds for the nonprofit.
That's the unique part of the agreement, which the city announced at its Dec. 14 council meeting. The City Council approved a project to build four houses in the upcoming year in the Lawrenceville city limits, located in the Saddle Shoals neighborhood off Springlake Road. The project will begin in the first quarter of 2023. Part of Habitat for Humanity’s business model is for future owners and community leaders to work side-by-side to make their dreams of homeownership a reality. But what makes this project unique is the fact that other city employees from Lawrenceville will help with the builds.
According to city officials, Lawrenceville will provide $100,000 to the project using ARPA funding for construction. Gwinnett/Walton Habitat for Humanity will sell the homes to individuals meeting the income requirements of the Habitat program.
City officials said the homes will contain at least 1,500 square feet of heated space, a two-car garage and a working fireplace and chimney.
A group of Georgians is suing the state over its failure to provide health benefits for transgender people through the State Health Benefit Plan, which provides health coverage for state employees, including public school employees.
Two of the plaintiffs in the case work for the state, while one is the son of a state employee covered by the State Health Benefit Plan. The lawsuit maintains the failure to provide the medical services, including gender-confirming surgery, amounts to discrimination based on sex. The Campaign for Southern Equality, an LGBTQ advocacy group with members in Georgia, is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
Medicare and many other private insurance companies already cover the treatments. Recent lawsuits have successfully pushed other health plans in Georgia to provide gender-confirming treatment, including surgery. A lawsuit forced the University System of Georgia to cover the medical care in 2018. Earlier this year, a federal district judge ruled employers cannot deny or exclude coverage for gender-confirming care for transgender people after a Houston County policy denied coverage for a county employee who wanted the surgery. In July, the state Medicaid program changed its policy to cover transgender health-care, including gender-confirmation surgery, as part of a settlement in a separate lawsuit.
The state Public Service Commission (PSC) approved a $1.8 billion rate increase requested by Georgia Power Tuesday that embraced most of an agreement between the agency’s staff and the company presented last week.
Commissioners slightly lowered the upper limit on profits Georgia Power will be allowed to keep and sweetened incentives to be offered to encourage the development of solar energy and the deployment of electric vehicle charging stations. But the PSC stopped short of more far-reaching changes proposed by Commissioner Lauren “Bubba” McDonald, who provided the lone opposition in Tuesday’s 4-1 vote.
The $1.8 billion rate hike – down from Georgia Power’s original request of $2.9 billion – will raise the average residential customer’s bill by $3.60 per month starting Jan. 1. That’s down significantly from the $14.90 monthly increase customers would have seen next year under the original front-loaded three-year request the company proposed in June. Instead, customer rates will go up by 4.5% in 2024 and again in 2025 under the agreement between Georgia Power and the PSC’s Public Interest Advocacy Staff.
The commission set the return on equity (ROE) for the utility at the staff-recommended level of 10.5%, down from the 11% the company sought.
But commission Chair Tricia Pridemore amended the upper limit of the “earnings band” – the range within which the utility can earn profits for its shareholders without sharing them with customers – to 11.9%, slightly below the 12% Georgia Power requested and currently receives. The PSC staff had recommended reducing the upper limit to 11.5%.
Chris Womack, Georgia Power’s chairman, president, and CEO, said in September the company expects to file a request in February for unrecovered fuel costs to account for the volatility of the energy market resulting from factors including rising natural gas prices and the impacts of the war in Ukraine.
The utility also will be looking to the PSC to recover the costs of bringing into service the two new nuclear reactors being built at Plant Vogtle.
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