Plans for E-SPLOST referendum OK'd; S. Hall eatery closing

*The Lumpkin County Board of Education has authorized a referendum in March on renewing the county’s Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (E-SPLOST). The last E-SPLOST referendum in Lumpkin County was held in 2020. Next year’s vote is set for March 18, according to the Dahlonega Nugget.

*Another longtime South Hall eatery is closing. Smokehouse Barbecue on Atlanta Highway at Blackshear Place has been in business since 1978. No reason was given for closing the restaurant. The doors closed for the last time on Saturday. Nichols Diner, also located in that part of the county, closed Feb. 3 after nearly 50 years in business.

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.