Memorial Park Funeral Home

Vass was sheriff from 1992 to 2000, a career highlighted by his work during the 1996 Olympics.He and then-Gainesville Police Chief Fred Hayes had the huge task of coordinating security at the Lake Lanier rowing and canoe/kayak venue.A Democrat, he was unsuccessful in a bid for the state Senate in 2000 against Casey Cagle, who is now lieutenant governor.At 74, he tried to seek another elected office in 2008 as a Republican, running for Hall County clerk of court. "I have done retirement well," Vass said at the time. "I’d like to be able to serve the public again."He lost in the GOP primary, and the office eventually was won by Charles Baker.Memorial Park Funeral Home in Gainesville is handling arrangements.

Frost, who owns the Memorial Park Funeral Homes business, lives in Braselton and said he wanted to contribute to the water park.It will feature eight spray grounds of varying heights and pressures in Braselton Park, according to the bid response sheet provided by Jennifer Scott, town manager.The project doesn’t have an end date in sight, but Scott said the mayor and town council recently chose national company Lanier Plans DBA KorKat Inc. as the contractor.The company has one location based out of Carrollton and specializes in playgrounds, spray parks and other outdoor equipment. After a review of each proposal, the town chose KorKat because its proposal offered the most spray zones. It will design and deliver the new water spray park seven weeks from when the order is placed, and it will take another eight weeks to install.Braselton started seeking a contractor and put out its proposal specifications in late December and gave companies until Jan. 30 to send in their proposals.Other proposals came from Aquatic Management Inc., Bliss Products & Services, Great Southern Recreation, and Splash Zone.

The marble elephant will be planted at the stadium — the home of Gainesville Red Elephants’ football, soccer and lacrosse teams, the Times of Gainesville (http://bit.ly/2kNRPG5) reported. The statue will be located at the home team entrance where players make their traditional “elephant walk.”The elephant weighs 9,986 pounds and stands about 7-feet tall. It’s a gift from Jack Frost, a connoisseur of the arts and owner of Memorial Park Funeral Home.Frost traveled across the globe twice to the marble statue, finding it on display in Vietnam. After seeing it, he couldn’t resist buying the elephant.When Frost returned to Gainesville, he described the marble elephant to his operations manager at the time — the late James “Bimbo” Brewer — and asked him whether it would be something Gainesville High School would like to have as a gift.Brewer reached out through his daughter, Erin Still, to Gainesville High Principal Tom Smith, who said he’d welcome the gift. Still is co-chairman of the committee working on the school’s 125th anniversary to be commemorated Feb. 26.“They sent us a picture of (the elephant),” Smith said. “The biggest thing was trying to find a place that it could be displayed. We felt that on campus we already had elephant representation. … We felt that the elephant walk out there at City Park was an appropriate place to put it to where it represents what a great gift it was. … It’ll be a great view from Green Street for everybody that passes by to see the grand elephant.”The elephant’s trip to the United States turned into an odyssey when the ship carrying the statue had to find safe port after it came across a super typhoon roaring through the South China Sea around Christmas, said Scott Wiley, vice president of operations at the funeral home.“It had to port for a while,” Wiley said of the ship carrying the elephant. “It finally arrived at the Port of Savannah in mid-January.”A crew hauled the crated statue to Bobby Gruhn Field at City Park on Thursday with the aid of a crane, lift the 5-ton monument to a sturdy cement base...