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Wednesday, December 19, 2007 The Braselton News Page 3A Hoschton Northeast Georgia More budget changes on tap BY KERRI TESTEMENT oney carried over from the 2006 budget will give a financial boast to Hoschton’s 2007 budget. The Hoschton City Council is expected to approve amend ments to its 2007 budget tonight (Wednesday), following two pub lic hearings. Last week, council member Tom Walden said the 2007 budget amendments include $92,000 in 2006 carryover in the city’s gen eral fund budget, and $177,000 in 2006 carryover in Hoschton’s water and sewer fund. The city’s departments also made some budget cuts, while $77,281 is slated to be carried over to the 2008 general fund budget. For future budgets, the city should include the previous year’s carryover funds to reflect that the city already has money in the bank, Walden said. Despite the additional revenue from the 2006 budget, the city council is still projecting less income from key revenue sources. The council now estimates the city will receive $22,000 in build ing and sign permit fees, compared to $40,000 it proposed in October, when it slashed $80,000 in antici pated revenue from such fees. In October, the council amended its 2007 budget to reflect a 13 percent drop in revenue from the initially-proposed $923,710 to $798,808 for the general fund. The 2007 general fund bud get is slated to be amended to $831,858. The 2007 water and sewer bud get was also amended in October from $4.05 million to $3.71 mil lion. That budget is now proposed for $3.74 million, due to 2006 car ryover funds of $177,000. However, revenue of water and sewer installation and connection fees is expected to drop again — from $242,500 earmarked in October, to $137,500 with the lat est budget amendment. Recently, the Hoschton City Council approved a 2008 general fund budget of $771,110, which excludes $173,927 in sales tax rev enue. The water and sewer budget was approved for $969,528, with out $342,738 in sales tax funds. Hoschton Buford woman killed in Sunday accident on Hwy. 332 A single-vehicle accident on Sunday afternoon near Hoschton claimed the life of a Buford woman and hospitalized a Hoschton woman. According to the report with the Georgia State Patrol, the wreck hap pened around 3:30 p.m. on Hwy. 332 near its intersection with Hwy. 124. The report states the driver of a 2004 Chevrolet Trailblazer, Tonya Langley, 35, was driving south on Hwy. 332 when she lost control in a curve. Langley overcorrected and the vehicle crossed both lanes of Hwy. 332, left the road and struck a ditch on the front passenger side. The SUV overturned and landed upside down off the east side of the road. A passenger in the S UV, Eamestine Barrett Daniel, 62, was killed in the accident. Langley was transported to Northeast Georgia Medical Center, Gainesville, with visible injuries. Early deadlines set for holiday The deadlines for The Braselton News have been moved up due to the Christmas holiday. The news and ad deadline for next week’s issue will be at noon on Friday, Dec. 21. The newspaper office in Jefferson will be closed Tuesday, Dec. 25. The office will open as scheduled at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 26. Art Trax seeking artists The 2008 Art Trax, an outdoor celebration of fine arts and fine crafts, is seeking artists. Art Trax will be held Saturday, April 19, 2008, at the Hoschton Depot. The application deadline is Feb. 1, 2008. The event will also include performance art. For an application, contact Kathleen Gill at 404-202-3044 or visit www.ArtTrax.org. LAWSUIT — cont’d from page 1A two-inch water line and a six- inch water line it purchased from the Jackson County Water and Sewerage Authority, but not a sewer line. An attorney representing Hampton Homes told the judge that the property couldn’t be developed without sewer service. Braselton refused to provide sewer service, while Hoschton offered to provide service, he said. Jay admitted that the legal issues surrounding the service delivery strategy act are a confusing mat ter. “We (Braselton) think we are the only entity to service this area; they (Hoschton) think they are the only ones to service the area,” Jay said. Another legal matter for the judge to decide is if Braselton has standing the challenge Hoschton’s annexation of the Hampton Homes property. Hoschton contends that Braselton can’t challenge the annexation move, because the Hampton Homes property isn’t contiguous with Braselton’s town limits. “The town of Braselton doesn’t have any standing to challenge this annexation any more than Savannah or Columbus,” Mitchell said. Jay said Braselton wants the annexation declared null and void by the judge because Hoschton created an unincorporated “island” when it annexed and rezoned the property. A map of the property shows an area owned by another party with a 20-foot strip connecting that property to Maddox Road. The Hampton Homes property sur rounds the other property. Mitchell said two other cases decided by Georgia courts have ruled that such strips can avoid the problem of unincorporated “islands.” Mitchell further said that Braselton couldn’t provide sewer service to the property, as the town ordinances mandate that property be located in the town limits in order to receive sewer service. Jay said the Braselton Town Council can decide if it will pro vide sewer service to properties outside the town limits. Economic woes affecting local food bank services BY KRISTI REED Rising fuel prices, higher unemployment rates and a troubled housing sector have com bined to increase demand for services from area food banks. John Becker, president of the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia, said his agency serves the 65,000 people currently living in poverty in the northeast Georgia area. The United States Census Bureau defines poverty as two people with an income of less than $13,167 per year or one person making less than $10,294. “There are a lot of people with basic needs,” Becker said. “Fuel prices and other factors have put a lot of people in that poverty region.” Currently, the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia has a two-day supply on hand to meet the needs of the community. Becker said food drives are critical in insuring the food bank has enough supplies to meet demand. “The word doesn’t get out,” Becker said. “[The food drives] are what keep folks having a rough time from suffering a lot worse. The critical canned goods go not only to people under poverty, but also go to people having emergencies. It’s a more universal type of thing.” This year, the food bank has shipped over 5 million pounds of food. Becker said most of the food is distributed through the food bank’s 250 partner agencies. Development director Tina Laseter said the food bank is currently seeking organizations and businesses willing to host food drives. “In very recent months, we’ve seen an increase in need,” she said. “At the same time, there has been a decrease in resources. This has made us branch out and depend on local community support more than ever.” Laseter said individuals and businesses can donate directly to the food bank or to any of its partner agencies. The primary difference between the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia and the smaller partner agencies is that the food bank can accept large quantities of both perishable and non-perishable items. “We partner with them because a lot of the organizations don’t have the capacity to store the food,” Laseter said. “We have the ability to take large quantities of food. A lot of these organizations are run by volunteers. We actu ally have the staff to solicit the food and get it in so that the volunteers can focus on distribu tion. We depend on our partner agencies to get the food to people.” Laseter said the food bank desperately needs help from community members. “This is one of our critical times,” Laseter More Help Individuals may also contact local partner agen cies including: •Banks-Jackson Food Bank, 706-335-5143. • Christian Outreach, 706-335-6084. •Duds & Spuds of Zion Baptist Church, 706-654-3205. • First Baptist Church of Jefferson, 706-367-8332. •Jackson Co. Food Pantry-Action, 706-367-9599. • Mulberry Baptist Association, 706-824-0063. • Romans Road Baptist Church, 706-367-2289. • Rising Families, 706-367-2240. •Barrow County Food Pantry, 770-867-3925. •Barrow Co. Food Pantry-Action, 770-307-3026. • East Side Baptist Church, 770-867-5774. •Women Walking Worthy, 678-732-6172. • Community Food Pantry, 770-535-1471. • Northside Family, 770-9834100. • Outreach Christian, 770-967-3136. • Spirit of Joy Christian, 770-965-3333. said. “We just want to make sure everyone has a happy holiday.” Businesses or organizations willing to host a food drive should contact Laseter at 706-354-8191 or send an email to donations@ foodbanknega.org. SCHOOLS — continued from page 1A made several changes to the maps. We have finalized the attendance lines for these three new clusters. We’re very happy with the results and looking forward to the two new school years.” Over 4,000 school boundary input forms were submitted by par ents and community members dur ing the redistricting process. Over 700 people attended the first pub lic input meeting which was held on November 13. Approximately 60 people attended a second input meeting held on November 15. Public input resulted in several changes to the originally proposed maps, most notably to the Hamilton Mill area. Originally, the school system proposed splitting the 2,300 home subdivision between two elementary schools. Residents submitted over 1,200 input forms opposing the split. As a result, the entire neighborhood will now attend the new Puckett’s Mill Elementary, which is scheduled to open in fall of 2008. Quintana said construction of Puckett’s Mill, as well as the other new schools, is on schedule. Construction crews are currently working on the electrical wiring, plumbing and pipes at Puckett’s Mill Elementary. Mountain View High School, the new relief high school the for the Mill Creek clus ter, is currently in the steel framing and masonry stage of construction. Grading is in progress for the relief middle school, Twin Rivers Middle School. “The 15 schools that we have scheduled to open in the next two years, 12 new schools and three replacement facilities, are all on schedule. We always open our schools on time,” Quintana said. Principals for the schools sched uled to open in fall of 2008 will be hired in the next few months. “These new principals will start working right away with the com munity,” Quintana said. “They start meeting with com munity members and parents and forming their school PTAs. Then students will have the opportuni ty to pick their school mascots. So, once we have the principals in place, then we’ll start working on building that community and work ing together to open the whole new school together.” In other school news: •Valerie Robinett of Ivy Creek Elementary School, recently gradu ated from GCPS’ inaugural Quality - Plus Leader Academy. The academy is a one year program of study that is designed to train future school administrators and principals. •Key Club members and Peer Leaders from Mill Creek High School are holding a toy drive throughout December to ben efit the Bread of Life Ministry in Lawrenceville. For more informa tion, call Mill Creek High School at 678-714-5850. •The National Recycling Coalition (NRC) recently honored GCPS for its polystyrene lunch tray recycling program. The NRC presented the school system with the “Outstanding K-12 School Program Award.” The program began in August of 2006 with 28 schools. During its first year, 59,609 GCPS students recy cled 6,339,000 trays or 38.4% of all trays used. 45 schools currently participate in the program. 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