STORY: :: Georgia prepares for winter weather

with brine and road treatments

:: January 8, 2025

:: Forest Park, Georgia

:: Natalie Dale, Spokesperson, Georgia department of Transportation

“Brine is that mixture of water and salt. So the brine goes straight from these tanks into those tankers. And then you also have a system of pipes here where from the brine production unit outside — so where we’re churning up that granular salt and water, it feeds into the tanks.”

“We sit in a very precarious place here in Metro Atlanta. And a lot of what we get is ice which is very different. It is hard, if not impossible, to plow sheets of ice. It is easier to plow that big, fluffy snow that you do get in the North. So we have to develop a winter weather plan that is specific to southern winters which are very different than northern winters.”

GDOT’s MAU manages the state’s largest brine operation, producing and storing hundreds of thousands of gallons of brine to treat roads before and during winter storms.

This operation is crucial for preventing ice buildup on major highways, such as Interstates 75, 85, I-20, and 285, which are prioritized for treatment during storms.

GDOT spokesperson Natalie Dale says Georgia’s primary challenge during winter weather is ice, not snow.

“We sit in a very precarious place here in Metro Atlanta. And a lot of what we get is ice,” Dale said. “It is hard, if not impossible, to plow sheets of ice. It’s easier to plow the big, fluffy snow you get up north.”

Starting at midnight, GDOT crews and vehicles will begin brining roads as snow and ice are expected to impact the region on Friday.

Due to the forecast of a winter storm with snow and ice, the following schools will be closed on Friday, January 10. Now Habersham will update the list as we receive the official notification from the school administration.

Schools

Tallulah Falls School as well as all extracurricular activities including the basketball games against Georgia Walton which have been postponed.

Colleges

Athens Technical College closed Friday.

If you would like to have your school or daycare added to our list, please email [email protected]

As the Bulldogs turn their attention to the 2025 college football season, the team will be entering a new era of Georgia football.

The Georgia Bulldogs 2024 college football season ended just over a week ago and the transfer portal entires, draft declarations, and coaching changes that subsequently follow the conclusion of a season have begun taking place. But as the post-mortem era of the Dawgs’ season brings changes throughout the building, Georgia football as a whole is undergoing a change as well.

This year’s senior class at the University of Georgia finished their careers as the winningest class in Bulldog history and were an integral part of the team’s two conference titles and back-to-back national championships that ushered in a new era of dominance that had never been seen by Georgia fans. But with the collegiate careers of the most successful Bulldog class ever now over, the Dawgs’ “renaissance era” of dominance has seemingly reached its conclusion as well.

A handful of the Bulldogs’ starters this season had playing experience in a national championship game. Names such as Malaki Starks, Carson Beck, Tate Ratledge, Mykel Williams, and others provided the team with real-game experience and a cultural understanding of what it took to win a national championship. But with the exception of a few returning seniors such as Oscar Delp and Dillon Bell, virtually none of Georgia’s starters in 2025 will have any experience in national championship games. Subsequently, the first-hand “championship experience” that is often required to win a national title within the roster has greatly been diminished.

As alarming as this news may be for Bulldog fans, it is certainly not the end of the world. After all, the Dawgs’ 2024 roster showcased numerous flashes of championship culture throughout the season. Flashes such as the team’s overtime win over Texas in the SEC Championship and an eight-overtime thriller against Georgia Tech at home prove that future rosters are more than capable of rebuilding the culture and habits that it takes to win the final game of the season.

The Georgia Bulldogs’ 2021 and 2022 rosters provided an incredible foundation for following teams to compete for national titles. But as members of those teams depart, conferences realign, and the College Football Playoff format changes, it is time to turn the page on Georgia’s “renaissance era” of dominance and usher in a new era of Georgia Football. An era that provides the team with a new championship culture and experiences that provide succeeding teams with the ability to continue the incredible legacy of the Georgia Bulldogs.

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