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SPORTS
Dragons down Adairsville; only eight remain
Jefferson to visit Wilcox County Friday
As graduation quickly approches at Jefferson High School, the
Dragon baseball team continues to inch closer to its goal of
claiming the school's fourth state championship of the school
year. With a sweep Tuesday of a two-game set at Adairsville,
Jefferson moved into the Elite Eight round of the the State Class
A tournament.
Smith named Panther boys' basketball coach
The Jackson County Board of Education voted Thursday to hire
Hall County native Ron Smith as the new boys' basketball coach
at Jackson County Comprehensive High School.
"We're excited to have someone of Ron's reputation and stature
join our program," system superintendent Andy Byers said
of the move. "We look forward to our boys' basketball program
moving forward."
Neighboorhood News ..
MADISON COUNTY
Fortson murder trial postponed
The murder trial of Tracy Lea Fortson, which was scheduled to
start Monday in Madison County Superior Court, has been postponed
because reports from the GBI crime lab were not received in time
to proceed with the case.
County passes tougher noise ordinance
Madison County commissioners unanimously approved new a noise
ordinance Monday with "more teeth" than the old restrictions.
Under the new ordinance an officer may impound any "instrument,
device, object or mechanism" employed to create noise which
is "plainly audible" beyond a person's property line
during certain hours of the night.
Neighborhood News...
BANKS COUNTY
Sheriff seeks salary increase for deputies
BOC approves $380,000 instead of $420,000 sheriff requested.
The Banks County Board of Commissioners faced the challenge Friday
of trying to come to terms with sheriff Charles Chapman on a
raise for the county's deputies.
Baldwin mayor asks for resolution on closed sessions
The Baldwin mayor doesn't want to be the only one required to
sign a resolution to go into closed session.
At Thursday's work session, Mayor Mark Reed said he wants a resolution
drawn up concerning sessions closed to the public.
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The Jackson Herald
Jefferson, Georgia
Telephone: (706) 367-5233
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CHECKING OUT LASER
Local legal experts met with officials with the
Jefferson Police Department last week for a demonstration of
the department's two new Pro Laser II speed detection devices.
Shown are: Don Moore (L), state solicitor; Joe Booth (C), Jefferson
attorney; and Griggs Walls, Gainesville police officer.
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The home of Steven and Stacey
Orta of Ellis Smith Road, Apple Valley, was heavily damaged late
Friday morning by a fire. The Harrisburg and Jackson County Correctional
Institute fire departments answered the call at about 11:15 a.m.
on the Ellis Smith Road.
Surprise... Bill
Coming Due
ATHENS -- Harold Fletcher got a nasty surprise Wednesday morning.
The chairman of the Jackson County Board of Commissioners learned
that the county must come up with $644,377 by Jan. 1 for its
first payment on the Bear Creek Reservoir. The revelation was
made at a meeting of the Finance Committee of the Upper Oconee
Basin Water Authority, which is building the reservoir and treatment
plant.
It wasn't much comfort that Fletcher was not alone in his surprise.
Barrow County chairman Eddie Elder, who is chairman of the UOBWA,
was also shocked.
They shouldn't have been. It has been known since the bonds financing
the $60 million project were sold in 1997 that the first payment
would fall on Jan. 1, 2002.
What confused the commissioners is that the authority will start
sending "bills" each month in July for a sinking fund
from which the $1.436 million first payment will be made on Jan.
2.
"I think every member county had been told they would not
have to make a payment until Jan. 1, 2002," said Elder.
"I've got a big problem," said Fletcher. "We're
talking about $700,000. That's over a mill of taxes. We're going
to have to go from 2.5 (mills, last year's levy) to five or six
just to get back where we were. And this is on top of that."
The Finance Committee will recommend to the entire authority
at the authority's May 23 meeting that counties not be required
to pay the monthly sinking fund payments as long as they
have the total amount in time for the Jan. 1 payment.
Assuming they all made the monthly payments into the sinking
fund, Barrow County's share of the cost would be $582,284 and
Oconee County's would be $325,269. The sinking fund would generate
$115,043 interest to help make the total payment of $1,436,887.
Those counties who don't use the sinking fund system will have
to pay slightly more to offset the interest lost by not making
monthly payments.
Athens-Clarke is also a partner in the project but has no payment
schedule because it funded its share in advance with cash.
What makes the financial situation more difficult, at least in
Jackson County, is that from the beginning, county officials
have expect to have Bear Creek water to sell to customers starting
July 1. The most recent estimate is that the water won't get
to Jackson County customers until early October. That means plans
to make the monthly sinking fund payments from the proceeds of
sale of the water have fallen through.
Elton Collins, chairman of the Finance Committee, was philosophical.
"After 15 years, coming up two months off is fantastic,"
he said.
The reservoir is due to come on line Sept. 23 at the latest report.
It would take Jackson County a few weeks more to test and sanitize
its transmission line from the treatment plant to its system
so it can sell the water. Presently, Jackson County buys most
of its water from Commerce.
The authority must make two bond payments a year for 20 years.
By July 1, 2002, Jackson County must be ready to pay another
$1,144,705. To meet its Jan. 1 and July 1 obligations each year,
Jackson County would have to deposit $149,090 per month into
the sinking fund.
Mar-Jac buys property
in Jefferson for feed mill
Mar-Jac Poultry of Gainesville has purchased property on Benton
Road near Jefferson to locate a feed mill, but no firm plans
are in place as to when the facility will be built.
Pete Martin, complex manager of the Gainesville plant, said this
week that the company owns several tracts of land in the Jackson-Banks
area and has not decided when or where its next development will
be.
"Our plans are to build a feed mill," he said. "We
just purchase property. We have property in two locations in
Jackson County and we have property in Banks County. We haven't
even made the decision on which property we are going to yet...Our
long-range plans are for a feed mill."
Martin said there is a lot of work to be done before construction
could begin on a new facility.
"We don't have any idea when we would start that construction
because there is so much to be done prior to that," he said.
"We've got to get zoning done and our plans put together.
There is no way we could start construction within a year."
Martin said the facility would be a "state of the art mill"
that would not be a nuisance to close-by property owners. He
said plans call for the new mill to manufacture 6,000 tons of
feed per week, but there have been no plans made on the dimensions
of the facility.
"We've bought 70-something acres," he said. "We
only need three or four acres for a feed mill. All of the rest
of the property will be greenspace. It's the best thing that
could possibly happen to those homeowners...It's no surprise
to us that there will be some people upset, but if we go to Jefferson,
we'll be a great neighbor."
Commerce Takes
Aim At Rental Housing
City Council Proposes Enforcement Of Codes In Between Tenants
Like the ripples spreading outward from a stone thrown in a pond,
comments made by a Commerce citizen at the April Commerce City
Council meeting reverberated through the city government. And
they may result in tougher standards for rental housing.
At its May meeting Monday night, the city council asked city
manager Clarence Bryant to come up with a plan by which the city
government can eliminate substandard housing.
Ward 4 councilman Bob Sosebee put the issue on the table, remembering
citizen Joe Leffew's complaints at the April 9 meeting about
the city's abundance of poor housing. Leffew, in opposing the
city's endorsement of "affordable housing" complexes
in the city, observed that while Commerce residents may move
out of their substandard housing into the new units, other people
would move into the places they vacate.
"What he said last month really hit home," said Sosebee,
who asked Bryant to develop a plan so that once rental housing
becomes vacant, new tenants cannot move in until the property
is brought up to code.
Without such improvements, he said, "People will be moving
back into the same rat holes these people moved out of."
The mayor and council seemed to be in agreement.
"That's exactly right," offered Mayor Charles L. Hardy
Jr.
Councilman Richard Massey noted that often a house will be abandoned,
then someone will "slap some paint on it" and rent
it out. Councilman Donald Wilson pointed out a house on old U.S.
441 that "is a shame and a disgrace."
Bryant seemed hesitant. Although he pointed out that enforcing
the housing code would require the hiring of two additional people,
his principal reservation seemed to be whether the city council
had the backbone to follow through.
"You as elected officials can't get involved with this,"
he said. "You've got to make a commitment. Y'all got friends
and neighbors who own this kind of property ... We get 25 turn-ons
(utility reconnects) a week."
"If that's what it takes to get the job done, OK,"
replied Councilman Sam Brown.
"The people of Commerce want us to take the lead in enforcing
this," agreed Sosebee.
"There's an awful lot of substandard housing (in Com-merce),"
Bryant pointed out.
Adding a second inspector and an administrator to the office
of code enforcement would enable the city to enforce building
codes already in place. The city would inspect each unit of rental
housing, whether house, apartment or mobile home, between tenants,
requiring the owner to keep the property up to code.
Since the city is at the beginning of its budget preparations
for the 2001-02 fiscal year, Bryant can work a proposal into
the budget for the council's consideration.
Sewer line route
still under review
For the builder and opponents alike, the first Jackson County-built
sewer line has become a moving target.
The proposed route has changed twice and now the Jackson County
Water and Sewerage Authority must consider whether to change
the design to accommodate wastes from Hoschton.
Much of Thursday night's meeting of the water and sewerage authority
was spent discussing the project, which includes trunk lines
up the Middle Oconee River and Dosters Creek.
The route remains a controversy, in part because it has been
changed and then changed back, and in part because other parts
of the route have not been changed. Alienated and angry property
owners continue to challenge the authority, which appears unable
to make up its mind where the pipe should run.
On Thursday night, two previously satisfied property owners accused
the authority of breaking a promise to relocate the section of
line crossing their property; and a third property owner reiterated
her complaints about the effect of the line on her land.
The precise location of the line along the route will not be
known for several weeks. General manager Jerry Waddell reported
that 95 percent of the field work on surveying is completed,
but that it will take a few weeks for that data to be incorporated
into a route map.
Even as the line's location remains in limbo, the characteristics
of the line itself are subject to change.
Hoschton has asked that the authority treat its 75,000 to 100,000
gallons per day of municipal wastes while the city upgrades its
treatment plant. To do that, the authority would have to make
a connection with Hoschton and increase the capacity of
virtually every part of the proposed Middle Oconee - Dosters
Creek system. The connection would add about 5.5 square miles
of potential service area to the proposed system.
The authority took no action Thursday night, but Waddell suggested
that it might be possible to work a three-way venture that connects
both Hoschton and Braselton to the county system while sharing
the costs.
The county's engineering firm, Metcalf & Eddy, estimates
that the cost of making the Hoschton connection would be $2.07
million. That includes increasing the sizes of all lines, installing
new lines, adding a pump station near Jackson Trail Road, and
increasing the capacity of two previously planned pump stations.
Gas Costs, Capital
Improvements Push Proposed Commerce Budget Up 50%
FY 2001-2002 Proposed City Budget Tops
$29 Million. The first draft of the proposed 2001-2002 Commerce
budget is almost 50 percent higher than the current city budget.
The $29.46 million the city proposes to spend is 49.8 percent
higher than the $19.69 million 2000-01 budget now in place.
Unexpectedly high prices for natural gas and $5.65 million in
capital expenditures most of it to upgrade the city's sewer
plant account for most of the increase.
In fact, the high gas prices pushed actual spending by the city
up more than $3 million in the current budget; City Manager Clarence
Bryant projects actual spending this year to hit $22.6 million
because of high gas prices.
In addition, the city rolled a lot of capital expenditures from
this year's budget over into the proposed budget.
The only rate increase in the budget, Bryant said, is a 75-cent
per thousand cubic foot (mcf) increase in the city's profit margin
on natural gas. Last year, the city shaved its margin to help
keep gas prices from being any higher; the result was that the
gas department will show a loss of $50,000 to $100,000 this year,
according to Bryant.
"We don't have enough margin in our budget to meet our operational
needs," Bryant explained. Those "operational needs"
include $824,420 transferred to fund other city operations.
While there are no water and sewer rate increases in the budget,
that doesn't mean those rates won't be raised. The city seeks
a grant/loan combination from the Rural Development Administration
for its sewer plant expansion. That agency could demand rate
increases of the city to guarantee loan repayment.
SCHOOL FUNDS
The city budget includes a proposed $1,684,875 appropriation
for the city school system, a number that will have to be adjusted.
The Commerce Board of Education approved its tentative budget
Monday night (see separate story), and it contained a line item
of $1,754,895 for local appropriations. That would be an increase
of 12.5 percent.
On paper, the budget shows substantial increases in spending
for the Administrative Department, mayor and council and Finance
Department over what was budgeted this year. What caused the
"increases," Bryant explained, was an attempt to spread
among the utility departments expenses for those departments.
It worked well when the budget was created, but the city could
not retrieve the data back from the computer without going over
every invoice. So, on paper, it looks like the Finance Department,
whose budget was $98,254 and which is projected to spend $334,176,
is grossly over budget. The same kind of aberration occurred
in the line items for the mayor and council and the Administrative
Department.
The mayor and council will hold their first budget work session
Monday night at 7:30. The city council will adopt a tentative
budget in June and a final budget in July, after all of the FY
2000-01 figures are finalized.
State names Braselton's
tap as second best
The water coming from Braselton's taps has been rated among the
tastiest in the state.
The Georgia Water and Pollution Control Association announced
May 10 in Decatur that Braselton's drinking water was second
in Georgia out of over 100 cities competing in the organization's
annual water taste test.
Rome's water placed first in the contest.
The water was judged by about a dozen politicians and officials
in the Environmental Protection Division, who did blind taste
tests.
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Local school
boards say renew SPLOST
The Jackson County, Jefferson and Commerce boards of education
met Monday evening in a joint effort to call for a renewal of
the one-cent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST).
Revenue from the tax would be split among the three systems based
on enrollment.
Both Jackson County and Commerce plan to call a bond referendum
this fall that would be paid for with SPLOST funds, while Jefferson
will pay off existing bond debt. There is some speculation, however,
that Jefferson may also call a bond referendum.
The Jackson County school system would receive 64.57 percent
of the proposed SPLOST funds, up to a maximum of nearly $28 million
over the five-year period. Jefferson is in line for 18.92 percent,
or just over eight million, and Commerce 16.51 percent, or seven
million.
SPLOST funds must be earmarked in advance. All three systems
are planning, or are currently involved in, expansion projects.
Jefferson's new middle school is expected to be ready during
the 2001-02 school year and Commerce plans to build a new middle
school as well. Jackson County has approved the preliminary site
plan for a new middle school that could be ready in late 2002,
and a new high school is expected to be built in East Jackson
in coming years.
Though payments from the current SPLOST have dropped off a bit
in recent months, the maximum of $25 million is still expected
to be reached in January or February. The proposed new SPLOST
would become effective after the current maximum amount is met.
Water treatment
plant behind schedule
Any hopes of Jackson County getting water from the Bear Creek
Reservoir in July have been put to rest.
The water will not be available to the Jackson County water system
until October at the earliest.
Until recently, the Upper Oconee Basin Water Authority has held
fast to its July 1 deadline by which treated water will be ready.
A week ago, the engineer overseeing construction conceded that
it would probably be sometime in August before water could flow.
Now, says Elton Collins, a member of the authority, the contractor
building the water plant at the site says it will be at least
Sept. 23 before purified water will be processed at the treatment
plant.
"It could slide a little more, possibly," Collins told
members of the Jackson County Water and Sewerage Authority last
Thursday night.
Even if the water plant is finished that day, water won't flow
to Jackson County customers for several weeks, says the water
and sewerage authority's engineer.
Charlie Armentrout pointed out Thursday night that once the water
plant is operational, it will take "several weeks"
to test, flush and sanitize the 36-inch line bringing the water
to the county system. Flushing, said Armentrout, requires 10,000
gallons per minute, and before the water can be released, it
must be fed into a holding pond to dechlorinate before it can
be released to drain into area streams.
Delays in the reservoir are a concern because county officials
planned to use revenue from selling the water to make the county's
bond payments on its share of the $63 million project. The county's
first payment is in January. Annual payments are $2.1 million.
BOC, authority
to hold retreat
The Jackson County Board of Commissioners and representatives
of the chamber of commerce and the water authority will hold
a "retreat" Friday to try to reach a consensus on how
to approach water and sewer development in the county.
Steve Dempsey of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government from
the University of Georgia will moderate the day-long event at
the Carmel Retreat Center, located off the Jackson Trail Road.
Participants will include the county commissioners, county manager
Skip Nalley, members of the Industrial Development Authority,
the Jackson County Water and Sewerage Authority and Pepe Cummings,
Randall Pugh and Charles Blair of the Jackson County Area Chamber
of Commerce.
"More than anything, we're doing this to find out if folks
are headed in the same direction with the items they think are
priorities, with respect to their organizations," said Cummings,
president of the chamber.
JHS seniors to
graduate Friday
Dressed in cap and gown, Jefferson High School seniors will march
around the track at the JHS Memorial Stadium to the sounds of
a bagpipe during a graduation ceremony held at 7 p.m. Friday
night.
Some 63 seniors are expected to graduate during commencement
ceremonies.
STAR Student Brooklyne Marlowe will give a welcome and valedictorian
Michael Newton and salutatorians Brian Ferguson and Jacob Cole
will also speak.
In the event of rain Friday evening, graduation will be held
at 10 a.m. Saturday. If rain continues Saturday morning, the
event will be held at 2 p.m. that afternoon.
If inclement weather continues, graduation will be held at 2
p.m. Sunday. Construction at the high school gymnasium precludes
the event being held indoors.
WWII vets to be
saluted
A salute to "The Greatest Generation" will be held
at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 25, at Panther Stadium at Jackson County
Comprehensive High School.
Veterans of World War II, along with those who served from Korea
to the present in the Armed Forces, will be honored. Veterans,
or those who know of one living in Jackson County, are asked
to call the Jackson County Board of Education office at 367-5151
to give their name and address. All will be invited to the event.
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