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Page 2A The Braselton News Wednesday, October 10, 2007 Area N e ws Jackson Countv Board of Commissioners County votes to keep tax rate the same BY ANGELA GARY F ollowing a huge public outcry at three pub lic hearings, the Jackson County Board of Commissioners voted last Thursday not to raise its property tax millage rate as earlier planned. The rates will be the same, or lower, than last year at 8.73 mills for unincorporated areas and 9.59 mills for incorporated areas. The incorporated rate is down slightly from last year’s rate of 9.77 mills. Despite holding the rates the same, some taxpay ers will still see a tax increase due to higher proper ty assessments. A reassessment was done earlier in the year and many taxpayers saw their values jump. Overall, the county’s digest increased 24 percent since last year, some due to new growth, but some also due to the higher assessments. The BOC had initially proposed to hike its mill- age rate by 1.5 mills, then cut that to .97 mills and later to a proposed .49 mill tax rate increase. But after hundreds of citizens protested the higher rate during a series of three budget hearings, the board began to restudy the budget. The final approved budget is $54.7 million, an increase of 12.64 percent. Items cut from the bud get included 15 positions for the new jail instead of the recommended 35. In addition, the county proj ects additional revenue from increased commercial development fees to offset some $416,000 that had been designated to subsidize the county develop ment office. “It’s been a long and challenging process,” said finance director John Hulsey last week. “We appre ciate the input of the citizens. It adds a lot of value to the decisions we make.” Commissioner Dwain Smith said, “I know John went through hell and high water to get this budget done.” Jackson Countv Water and Sewerage Authority Tougher water restrictions expected Thursday With the regional reservoir pro jected to run out of water by the end of the year, the Jackson County Water and Sewerage Authority intends to toughen water restric tions for its 6,600 customers on Thursday. The authority plans to eliminate every exception to the ban on outdoor watering. It meets at 7:00 p.m. Thursday in the office of the Jackson County Area Chamber of Commerce. Like the rest of the state, Jackson County is at level four in its drought contingency plan — in fact, it was at level four before the Environmental Protection Division put the northern half of the state on its strictest water restrictions. But, declaring a “water emergency, the authority will further restrict the use of water. Level four contains various exceptions, including commercial use of water for nurseries, pressure washing, car washes, the instal lation of landscapes, washing in pesticides and herbicides on turf, construction, sod production, gar den centers and fruit and vegetable growers. The authority’s manager, Eric Klerk, said most inquiries have come from landscapers, but there have also been some from irri gation contractors, hydro-seeding operations, and power washing businesses. “If we’re willing to take the heat, we can be selective,” advised Chairman Hunter Bicknell, at an authority work session last Thursday. He hastened to add, “We don’t want to be putting people out of business.” The plan is to enact the total ban, then handle requests for exemp tions on a case-by-case basis. The greater concern is that barring some unexpected large amounts of rain, the water short age could become a matter of pub lic health. Were supplies to reach a crisis, it is conceivable that water service could be curtailed on a rotating basis, the consequences of which no one fully understands. “This is all new for us,” Bicknell noted. “It’s uncharted and we don’t know how to go about it. It may come to us having to educate the Drought leaves JCWSA to guess on budget Its main concern during the drought is being able to pro vide water to its customers, but the drought raises another criti cal issue for the Jackson County Water and Sewerage authority. How will the drought affect the authority’s finances? As it prepares a budget for 2008, the authority can only guess at what effect the drought will have on both revenues and expenditures, but it is clear that it will hurt. On the revenue side, the strict est water restrictions on record are designed to curb customer usage — sales — which means diminished cash flow until water restrictions are eased, which isn’t likely to happen before spring. But because it may have to buy water from other sources at pre mium prices as the drought deep ens, the cost of operations could go up as well. The authority has a draft ver sion of its 2008 budget, and will probably approve the final ver sion in November or December. In the back of everyone’s mind is what the drought will do to the numbers. The draft budget, which projects a modest increase in water sales, shows a deficit of $1.8 million. However, included in cost esti mates are non-cash costs such as depreciation ($1.68 million) and the amortization of the author ity’s capacity in the Bear Creek Reservoir ($336,592 which pres ents a conundrum, since the board of commissioners, not the author ity, owns that capacity). “You are showing you are cash-flowing,” said Vice Chairman Randall Pugh. “There is a net loss, but a break even cash flow.” “We are producing enough cash to meet our obligations,” agreed Judy Davis, administrative assis tant for accounting. “Depreciation is not built into School bomb threat people.” The authority gets most of its water from the Bear Creek Reservoir. Currently, it is also buy ing water from Commerce, largely to supply Jefferson, which is out of water and has already eliminat ed the level four exceptions. The authority expects to be able to get 300,000 gallons per day starting this week from Braselton, which is getting it from Gwinnett County, and is considering another connec tion with Braselton’s system that would allow it to buy more. It is also talking with Gainesville about buying water. As the drought deepens, howev er, none of those sources are nec essarily guaranteed. Commerce, for example, has indicated “all bets are off’ regarding selling water to the county if its reservoir gets to a foot below full pool. “We’ve got to take dire steps at this point,” Bicknell said. The authority will send out a mailing to its customers encour aging conservation and trying to impress upon them the severity of the situation, Klerk said. the rates, so the customers are not funding it, but it’s the only way to get an accurate picture,” Pugh pointed out. The budget - in its draft form — calls for expenses of $7.7 million, but Chairman Hunter Bicknell asked manager Eric Klerk to rec ommend places where $100,000 to $200,000 could be trimmed without affecting operations. The budget anticipates $5.9 million in revenue, with $3.45 million of that coming from the sale of water. Sewer revenue is projected at $150,000. JHS student charged with making bomb threat A 15-year-old male has been charged with making terroristic threats for alleging calling 911 last week and making a bomb threat. The ninth grade Jefferson High School student is being held at the Youth Detention Center in Gainesville. He is facing charg es from the Jefferson Police Department and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office. On Wednesday, Oct. 3, a 911 operator received a phone call stating that there was a bomb in every school in Jackson County. Some of the schools were evacu ated after the bomb threat was reported. No bombs were found. The Jackson County district attorney’s office is reviewing the investigator’s reports and will make a determination in regards to the youth being prosecuted through the juvenile or adult divi sion of the criminal justice sys tem. Jackson Countv Water and Sewerage Authority JCWSA planning for more reservoirs Jackson County is taking its first baby steps toward the establish ment of one or more new drinking water reservoirs. Prime Engineering, the consul tant for the Jackson County Water and Sewerage Authority — and in this case for the Jackson County Board of Commissioners — has completed a county water resources master plan. That document identifies — in general terms — 13 potential res ervoirs that could provide the 45 million gallons per day (mgd) that will be required throughout Jackson County by the year 2045. Those sites are fraught with issues ranging from the limitations of their potential volume to relocation of wetlands, power lines, gas lines and roads, not to mention state and fed eral government permits and regu lations, all of which will affect the eventual decisions regarding which should be pursued. Some of the reservoirs already exist as private lakes or water shed lakes. Most would require the pumping of water from a river to fill them; some would require the raising of their dams. Most are located on streams, but some would be “off-line,” in which case they would rely totally on water pumped from elsewhere. Richard Check and Rob MacPherson of Prime presented a brief report on the analysis at the water authority’s Oct. 4 work session. They will make a similar presentation to the Jackson County Board of Commissioners in the near future. The analysis includes data on every current water system, treat ment plant and reservoir already in service, population and water use projections. It also covers all expansions being planned. What it lacks at this point is any cost esti mate for the construction of any of the reservoirs. There is some sense of urgency about the need to acquire one or more sites before they become too expensive or are built upon. “At some point in time, they will become unavailable if you don’t lock down the sites,” noted Vice Chairman Randall Pugh. Time frame for acquisition, per mitting and construction are from five to 15 years. The potential reservoirs range from 14 to 687 acres, with a pro jected production from 3 to 41.1 mgd. Jackson County consumed an average of 5.7 mgd, with a peak of 8.61 mgd during 2006. Counting the Bear Creek Reservoir, water plants can treat a total of about 20 mgd of water — barring situa tions such as the current drought. Jefferson and Braselton expect to bring on line within five to 10 years two reservoirs that will add about 9 mgd of capacity. Jackson Countv Board of Education County B0E approves $171 million budget The Jackson County Board of Education now has its budget in place for FY08. The board voted unanimously Monday night to approve a $171 million budget. The BOE’s millage rate is stay ing the same as last year at 18.9 mills for general operations and 3.1 mills for bond payments. The bond rate is a little less than last year. The budget breaks down to around $11,604 per pupil in the system, officials said. The state picks up 48.7 percent of the costs while 51.3 percent is paid for locally. Some budget increases were seen due to additional personnel with the opening of the two new schools in the county. In other financial updates, the BOE learned that July SPLOST collections were $593,243, an $118,000 increase over June’s col lection. “We would like to see that trend continue so we don’t have such erratic collection in terms of SPLOST revenue,” said superin tendent Shannon Adams. CONSTRUCTION UPDATE The board also heard an update on school construction Monday night: • Gum Springs elementary school is continuing on schedule. • At East Jackson Comprehensive High School, the punch list is 90 percent complete and the gym floor problem has been fixed. • At Kings Bridge Middle School, the punch list is 98 percent com plete and the gym is ready for use. • Grading has been completed at the new athletic fields behind JCCHS and the irrigation system is being worked on. • Work on South Jackson Middle School’s bus canopy has been com pleted. OTHER BUSINESS In other business: •The board heard about the pro cess to fill the Post 1 BOE vacancy (see separate story). •The board heard the attendance report which showed the county has had a 96.69 percent attendance rate for the school year so far. •The board voted to approve the system’s application for a $5,000 Career Academy Planning Grant. The exploratory grant will inves tigate the possibility of creating a charter school at Gordon Street. •The board heard school account ability reports for North Jackson Elementary School, East Jackson Middle School, West Jackson Middle School, Jackson County Comprehensive High School and the Gordon Street Center. •The board recognized North Jackson Elementary as a 2007 National Blue Ribbon School. •The board recognized Benton Elementary, East Jackson Elementary, Maysville Elementary, North Jackson Elementary, South Jackson Elementary and West Jackson Elementary as Title 1 Distinguished schools for the 2007-08 school year. 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