Lanier claims another life; hotel planned in east Gainesville

*A 23-year-old man drowned in Lake Lanier Saturday afternoon. It happened at Lanier Park in Gwinnett County. Authorities say the body of Edgar Steven Cruz Martinez was found in about ten feet of water near where he had been swimming. It was the second drowning in Lanier in less than a week. A Lawrenceville man died Monday night at Hall County’s Van Pugh Park.

*A 90-room Residence Inn is planned in east Gainesville on White Sulphur Road at Huntington Drive near a Kroger-anchored shopping center. Developers hope to start construction next year with a 2025 opening.

About the Author

Ken Stanford is Online News Editor for GLORY 97.5, a position he has held since August 2022.

Ken was born in Moultrie, Georgia, and says he knew from the time he was 5 or 6 he wanted to be a “radio announcer.” That dream was realized when he was hired by Moultrie radio station WMTM in 1960 at the age of 15 as a weekend disc jockey. A 1963 graduate of Moultrie (now Colquitt County) High School, he has spent his whole career in Georgia working for stations in Atlanta, Marietta, and Gainesville – most recently as News Director for 40 years at WDUN in Gainesville. He is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force Reserves.

Ken retired in 2011 but came out of retirement last year to help GLORY, on a part-time basis, beef-up its online news presence.

He is the recipient of many Associated Press awards and is a former judge of state and national Associated Press broadcast news contests. In 2005, he was presented with the Georgia Associated Press Broadcasters Association’s President’s Award for Excellence in Journalism and in 2019 was inducted into the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame.

He lives in Gainesville with his wife of 52 years, the former Sandra McKnight of Clio, Alabama, and they have one child, a daughter, Lisa, who lives in Cumming with her family.