SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2026 · Issue No. 76 · 11 min read
A 47-yard kick puts Milton alone in first
Plus Freemanville Road reopens early, the city manager on the email he tried to take back, and early voting's final week.
This issue is presented by Amber Kuhn · At Home Property Group |
A Milton resident who has sold more than $80 million in homes. Amber has guided buyers and sellers through more than $80 million in sales since 2018, pairing nearly two decades in corporate talent acquisition with relationship-first real estate. Bolst North Atlanta, top 2% nationally, and a repeat Atlanta Home Magazine All-Star.
404.441.7582 · amberkuhn@athomepg.com Sponsored · Amber Kuhn, At Home Property Group |
|
In this issue Alone in first. Milton scored 32 points after halftime at Gainesville, and a 47-yard kick won it. Freemanville Road is open. The new bridge opened Friday, more than a week early. And. The city manager explains the email he tried to take back and won’t discuss the fired detective. Also: three regional honors for Parks and Rec, a green space poll, early voting’s final week, 52 house lots at the Planning Commission and the week ahead, Halloween included. |
Top of Mind
the one thing to know this morning
Milton 49, Gainesville 46: a 47-yard kick for first place
Milton trailed Gainesville 30-17 at halftime Friday night. Then the Eagles scored 32 points in the second half, and won 49-46 on the road to take sole possession of first place in their region.
The last three came from kicker Ryan Jung, whom USA TODAY’s game story calls the nation’s No. 1 kicker. His 47-yard field goal put Milton ahead in the final minute.
It was his second long one of the night. Jung also made a 50-yarder with a tenth of a second left before halftime. Those were the two longest kicks of his season. He picked a good night for both.
The comeback took two plays to get going. Sheldon Atchison broke off an 80-yard run, and Derrick Baker scored from 7 yards out on the next snap. Later in the half, Milton turned a blocked Gainesville field goal into a touchdown for a 38-30 lead, and the teams traded scores the rest of the way.
Gainesville, ranked eighth in Georgia by MaxPreps coming in, lost its quarterback, Clemson commit Kharim Hughley, to an ankle injury before halftime, and he didn’t return. Sophomore Cooper Papka threw three touchdown passes in his place.
Milton is 7-1, and 4-0 in region play. Two region games are left: at Riverwood this Friday, Oct. 30, then Roswell at home on Nov. 6.
The Scoreboard
every game, both schools, the night it finishes
Friday, Oct. 23 · football | ||||||
| ||||||
This Friday, Oct. 30 · 7:30 p.m. | ||||||
| ||||||
Scores: MaxPreps and Georgia Public Broadcasting. Records from our results. Rankings and standings: MaxPreps; rankings dated Oct. 22, before Friday’s games. | ||||||
Region 7 standings. Milton 4-0, Gainesville 4-1, Roswell 4-1.
Bears hang on. Cambridge led St. Pius X 10-0 at halftime and won 17-13 at home, after the Golden Lions scored all 13 of their points in the fourth quarter. At 4-1, the Bears are second in Region 6 behind unbeaten Blessed Trinity, where they play Nov. 6 after a week off.
Flag football. At home on Wednesday, Oct. 21, Milton beat Buford 19-6 and East Coweta 24-0, and the Eagles are 12-1. Cambridge lost 20-6 to Seckinger and 27-6 at unbeaten North Forsyth (10-0); the Bears are 3-5. Every schedule and score →
The Drive
roads, closures, and what to route around
Freemanville Road is open again. A Georgia Department of Transportation crew reopened the new bridge over Cooper Sandy Creek to traffic in both directions Friday afternoon, the city said. That’s more than a week ahead of the end-of-October target we reported Oct. 8, and nearly five months after the detours began May 26. If you learned the detour by heart, you can forget it now.
The job isn’t finished. Crews will be back around the bridge in the coming months for the rest of the project, the city said, so watch for workers when you drive through.
Following Up
Krokoff explains the email he tried to pull back, and why the city won't release it
On Oct. 19, resident Sarah Moen told the City Council that a land-use question she sent City Hall in August brought back “an accidental reply all email from the City Manager directed to the City Attorney,” followed by “five frantic recall messages,” requests to take the email back. We asked the city about it that night, and reported her account in our Oct. 20 issue.
Moen had asked the Council to consider a moratorium at its Aug. 17 meeting, a temporary freeze on approving big developments on land zoned for agriculture. The email called her request “largely an effort to get ahead of an absurd fabricated narrative that Council has somehow given a ‘head nod’” to Restoration Church’s plans, as we reported Thursday.
City Manager Steven Krokoff answered at 5:08 p.m. Thursday, after Thursday’s issue had gone out. His answer, in full:
“I sent an email to the City Attorney seeking legal advice on a constituent’s question. When I realized I had inadvertently included the constituent, I attempted to recall it because it was intended as a privileged communication with our attorney. My purpose was to get legal guidance so we could provide an accurate, helpful response.
“My reference to an ‘absurd fabricated narrative’ concerned the suggestion that Council had already given a ‘head nod’ to the development. I was not accusing the constituent of fabricating anything. My assumption was, in fact, the opposite: that she had heard that same suggestion and was seeking a moratorium in response. That is why I described her request as an effort to ‘get ahead of’ the narrative.
“The attorney-client communications exemption is O.C.G.A. § 50-18-72(a)(41).
“The City Clerk’s Office will follow up with an estimated timeline for producing the records responsive to her narrowed request.”
Attorney-client privilege keeps a client’s requests for legal advice confidential, and that section of the state’s open-records law lets the city withhold them.
The records. When Moen asked for that email under the state’s open-records law, the city held back its text, along with a second email he sent four minutes later to the same people, without her. On Friday we asked whether the city still treats the first one as privileged even though Moen has a copy, and whether the second was a re-send.
Krokoff answered that afternoon: “My initial email was intended for the City Attorney and was inadvertently sent to a constituent. The City maintains that this mistake did not waive the attorney-client privilege protecting that communication.”
The second email, he wrote, “was also directed to the City Attorney and contained privileged communications. Both emails are therefore exempt from disclosure” under the open-records exemption for legal advice. He did not say whether the second email was a re-send.
The city is withholding both emails from her records request, though Moen already has the first.
The Camera Files
No comment on personnel. Two days after we sent the city questions about the August firing of detective Randy Dula, City Manager Steven Krokoff wrote us Thursday: “We do not comment on the substance of pending litigation or individual personnel matters.”
Dula’s lawyer says the firing came after Dula used the city’s Flock license-plate cameras seven times to find his wife during medical emergencies. The city hasn’t said why it fired him.
The city takes that approach, he wrote, “to respect employee privacy and allow disputed issues to be addressed through the appropriate process,” and to protect “taxpayers’ interests.” “That does not change our obligation to provide public records as required by law.”
Records for 11 more of our records requests, Dula’s firing file among them, are due by Nov. 4, the city says. Until then, the camera map and every policy version we have are on our site.
Around Milton
Three honors for Parks and Rec. Milton Parks and Recreation is the Agency of the Year for District 7 of the Georgia Recreation and Parks Association, which covers northeast Georgia, the city announced Friday. Two of its five full-time staff won, too: Outdoor Recreation Supervisor Jen Young, known as “Ranger Jen,” is the district’s Parks and Outdoors Professional of the Year, and Recreation Coordinator Matthew Graney is its Programmer of the Year.
Reader poll · One tap What should Milton’s city-owned green space be for first? The city holds a drop-in open house on its Greenprint, the plan for seven city-owned green spaces, Tuesday from 1 to 3 p.m. at City Hall. Tell us first.
Tap once and you’ll see how everyone else voted. Results Tuesday. |
Got a better idea for that land? Just reply with it, and we’ll print a few with Tuesday’s results.
Your Vote
Early voting’s final stretch. Today is the last weekend day to vote early, from noon to 5 p.m. After that it’s weekdays only, with sites open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day this week. Friday, Oct. 30, is the last day.
The one early voting site in Milton is the library at 855 Mayfield Road, but any Fulton voter can use any early voting site in the county.
The count so far. In-person early votes in Fulton reached 191,311 after Friday, Oct. 23, the county’s unofficial daily count shows. Of those, 8,548 were cast at the Milton Library, which any Fulton voter can use. Six sites have taken more.
Mailing your ballot back? A mail ballot counts only if the county has it in hand when the polls close, 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3. (The deadline to ask for one passed Friday.) Milton’s library is not among the county’s seven drop box sites.
The two nearest Milton are inside libraries: Alpharetta’s, at 10 Park Plaza, and East Roswell’s, at 2301 Holcomb Bridge Road. The county says its drop boxes are open only during early voting hours, which end Friday, Oct. 30, at 7 p.m.
After that, the options are the mail or a county election office. The closest is the North Annex, 7741 Roswell Road, Room 251, in Sandy Springs; the county asks voters to call 404-612-7020 to confirm its hours. Polling places can’t accept a mail ballot.
Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3. Unlike early voting, Election Day voting happens only at the polling place assigned to you. Polls run from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and if you’re in line before 7 p.m., you can still vote. Look up yours on the state’s My Voter Page.
Before you go. Our Oct. 20 issue laid out each race and question Milton voters will see. The two state House District 47 candidates answered our seven questions in the Oct. 13 issue.
The Agenda
public meetings this week and next
Wednesday: plans for 52 house lots. On Wednesday, Oct. 28, the Planning Commission meets at 6 p.m. in Council Chambers at City Hall, opening with public comment. Two subdivision plans are up for review:
- →Brookecrest (the sections its plans call Pods C and D): 42 lots of at least one acre each, divided from 53.31 acres at 12400 King Road and 740 and 800 Cox Road, zoned AG-1 (agricultural). The agenda lists the Harry Schwartz Trust and Toll Southeast LP Company Inc. as owner and applicant.
- →Harmony at Highway 9: 10 lots on 3.79 acres at 265 Five Acre Road in Deerfield, for Epic Design & Build.
Also up: a permit for The Wilds Early Learning Academy to run a preschool for up to 20 children per half-day session, in a 750-square-foot space at 12457 Broadwell Road in Crabapple. On permits like that one, the commission makes a recommendation and City Council decides.
One more item, a package of code changes on “the retention of large tracts” and building standards for AG-1 lots, is listed too. City staff is asking the commission to put it off to a later meeting to allow more work. The agenda and packet →
This Week in Milton
the calendar, day by day
Halloween, Saturday. Hyde Brewing’s drive-in movie night for golf carts runs from 3:30 to 10 p.m.: trick-or-treating with the staff, Georgia vs. Florida on the LED screen, then Ghostbusters (1984).
Thursday, food trucks. Wanderlust, the recurring food truck night downtown, is back from 4 to 8 p.m., in Market District Crabapple’s parking area and Crabapple Market’s gravel lot. The city lists three more dates: Nov. 12, Dec. 3 and Dec. 10.
Sunday, October 25
- →3:00 PM · Live music · Six Bridges Crabapple, until 6 p.m.
Monday, October 26
- →11:00 AM · Red Cross Blood Drive (book an appointment) · Six Bridges Crabapple, until 4 p.m.
Tuesday, October 27
- →1:00 PM · Greenprint Public Open House (drop in; ideas for seven city-owned greenspaces) · Council Chambers, City Hall, until 3 p.m.
- →1:00 PM · Friends of the Milton Library’s weekly Tuesday book sale · Milton Branch Library, until 5:30 p.m.
- →5:00 PM · YA Film Club (ages 13 and up; register) · Milton Branch Library, until 6:30 p.m. (free)
- →6:30 PM · Trivia · Six Bridges Crabapple, until 8:30 p.m.
Wednesday, October 28
- →6:30 PM · Music Bingo · Six Bridges Crabapple, until 8 p.m.
Thursday, October 29
- →4:00 PM · Wanderlust Food Truck Fest · Market District Crabapple and Crabapple Market, until 8 p.m.
- →6:00 PM · Acoustic Tom · Hyde Brewing, until 9 p.m.
Friday, October 30
- →6:00 PM · Live music · Six Bridges Crabapple, until 9 p.m.
Saturday, October 31
- →12:00 PM · RPG Alliance: Teen D&D (ages 15 to 17; register) · Milton Branch Library, until 4 p.m. (free)
- →3:30 PM · Halloween drive-in golf cart movie night · Hyde Brewing, until 10 p.m.
- →6:00 PM · Live music with Kenny & Mollie & Sarah · Six Bridges Crabapple, until 9 p.m.
Off the calendar. Tuesday’s library talk on financial fraud and scams, which we listed Thursday, has dropped off the library’s online calendar. Two other library programs from that list are now full: Monday’s CRAFTer Dark mini pumpkin class and Wednesday’s Pre-K Art Class.
See the full Milton calendar → · Got an event? Submit it
Spot something we missed? Just reply. Every correction we have run is on our corrections page.
