Newspaper Page Text
Page 2A
The Braselton News
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Area N e ws
Jackson Countv
Hall County
BOC postpones action on impact fees
Officers training to enforce immigration law
BY ANGELA GARY
The Jackson County Board of
Commissioners postponed action
on implementing impact fees
Monday night and decided to dis
cuss the matter further at its board
retreat next week.
The retreat will be held Monday
through Wednesday, Jan. 28-30, at
the Fairfield Inn, Macon.
Monday night, commissioner
Jody Thompson expressed res
ervations about implementing
impact fees at this time. He said
that builders are already strug
gling due to the housing bust. He
also questioned the county spend
ing additional money on consul
tants about impact fees.
A contract was presented with
Ross & Associates to proceed
with implementing impact fees.
The cost for the first phase of the
project is $27,601. The total fee
will be $78,301, according to the
contract.
BOC chairman Pat Bell also said
she has concerns about impact
fees.
“The timing bothers me,” she
said.
OTHER BUSINESS
In other business, the BOC:
•appointed Ken Botts to serve
on the county airport authority. He
replaces Bill Warnell, who asked
not to be reappointed.
•appointed Jeff Perry to serve on
the county planning commission.
He replaces Catherine Daniels,
who asked not to be reappointed.
•reappointed John Derochers to
serve on the county parks and rec
reation committee.
•named Robert House to serve
on the newly-formed historic
courthouse restoration committee.
•approved a rate schedule from
BM&K PC for providing engi
neering and construction manage
ment services. Projects the com
pany are handling for the county
include the economic/industrial
roads and sanitary sewer program
and the county jail.
•approved a resolution finaliz
ing the county’s pre-disaster haz
ard mitigation plan. The plan
was designed and completed by
the Northeast Georgia Regional
Development Center and was man
dated by the Federal Emergency
Management Agency.
•approved the consultant ser
vices agreement with Moreland
Altobelli for monitoring and
engineering the county landfill
site. The Georgia Department of
Natural Resources requires moni
toring of the ground water and
methane gas.
•approved a lease agreement
between the county and Badcock
Store to lease a building at 661
South Elm Street in Commerce for
$2,500 a month. The county owns
the shopping center and Badcock
rents a portion of it for its furni
ture store. The rest of the shop
ping center houses Lanier Tech’s
Commerce campus.
•approved a lease agreement
with Hazel Parks for the county’s
EMS station located at 5787 Holly
Springs Road in Pendergrass for
$700 per month.
•approved a contract with
Dorfman Consulting for $12,500
to conduct a community services
study. The study will include the
following: The overall percentage
of local government revenues and
expenditures by land use category
and the ratio of total revenues to
local expenditures for each land
use category.
•set the qualifying fees for
county positions up for re-election
this year. This includes board of
commission chairman, commis
sioners, sheriff, tax commissioner,
superior court clerk, state court
judge, probate court judge, magis
trate court judge, solicitor general,
coroner, surveyor and board of
education members. The qualify
ing fees are based on the salaries
of the positions.
•adopted regulations for use of
recreation facilities at the Bear
Creek Reservoir.
O fficers from Hall County
and Whitfield County
Sheriff’s Offices recently
began a rigorous five-week training
course in Gainesville, where they
will learn to enforce immigration
law as part of the 287(g) program.
The Immigration and Customs
Enforcement Division (ICE) 287(g)
program provides in-depth training
on a variety of enforcement topics,
including immigration law, inter-
cultural relations, and how to use
Department of Homeland Security
databases to help positively identify
criminals and immigration viola
tors.
Once Memorandums of
Agreement (MOAs) are signed by
ICE and the county sheriff’s offices,
the local officers will be authorized
to use the skills learned as part of
the training. ICE and the counties
will work together and potentially
finalize those agreements before the
conclusion of the course.
The agreement will enable offi
cers to determine the immigration
status of those processed through
the county jails or those encountered
during the normal course of duties
and to initiate removal proceedings
for those found to be in the country
illegally.
Aside from Hall and Whitfield
County, officers from six other local
law enforcement agencies will attend
the first training session of 2008 held
at the Hall County Sheriff’s Office
Training Center. They include:
•Hall County Sheriff’s Office,
nine officers
Area counties to share ‘Work Ready’ grant funds
Jackson and nine other coun
ties will share a $500,000 “Work
Ready” grant to help attract life
science-related business and
industry to the area.
Gov. Sonny Perdue announced
$3.5 million in grants to seven
Georgia regions in the Work
Ready Program. Jackson’s in
a region — the governor calls
it “the Innovative Crescent” —
with Barrow, Clarke, DeKalb,
Gwinnett, Madison, Morgan,
Oconee, Oglethorpe and Walton
counties.
Most of the emphasis, and thus
the spending, will be in education,
aimed at keeping kids in high
school, in part by improving their
performance in life science class
es, says Howard Ledford, cam
pus coordinator for the Commerce
campus of Lanier Technical col
lege, who has been involved with
the Work Ready Program on
behalf of the Jackson County Area
Chamber of Commerce.
“We are going to work in life
sciences,” Ledford said. “It used
to be ‘biotechnology,’ but we’ve
broadened the concept. It’s really
the same, but a lot of people
thought ‘biotechnology’ was nar
rowly defined. It covers every
thing from agriculture to advanced
medical research.”
Under the program, certain exist
ing jobs will be “profiled” and
employees will be encouraged to
become certified as “Work Ready”
in those fields. It’s a means of help
ing existing and future employers
in those areas more quickly find
competent employees.
Much of the grant money, how
ever, is expected to be used to help
shore up high school programs.
Ledford said the Jackson County
funds could be used “to work
in the programs” of Commerce,
Jefferson and Jackson County’s
high schools “offering credit
recovery or different courses to
supplement what they’re already
doing, or anything that Lanier
Tech might partner with them to
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increase the curriculum.”
The money will be divvied up
among the counties by a yet-to-
be established formula. Divided
among 10 counties, it’s not exactly
a windfall, Ledford notes, point
ing out that Gwinnett alone could
have absorbed the entire grant.
Ledford anticipates that much of
the money will go toward comput
er software to offer credit recovery
— help for failing or almost fail
ing students in science classes.
“All of the counties will be try
ing to help encourage what the
governor wants, and that is to
increase the high school gradu
ation rate,” he said. “The grant
will specifically target life sci
ence areas, but once they purchase
the software, it will benefit other
areas too.”
•Whitfield County Sheriff’s
Office, six officers
•Butler County Sheriff’s Office,
Ohio, eight officers
•Durham Police Department,
N.C., one officer
•Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office,
N.C., five officers
•Colorado State Patrol, two offi
cers
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•Llorida Department
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“We are looking for
ward to working with
the Hall and Whitfield
County Sheriff’s Offices
to help identify and
remove criminal illegal
aliens from our com
munities,” said Sheriff (ret.) Jim
Pendergraph, executive director for
ICE’s Office of State and Local
Coordination. “These partnerships
have proven extremely successful
and will help to strengthen the exist
ing relationships between federal
and local law enforcement agen
cies.”
Sheriff Steve Cronic said: “The
Hall County Sheriff’s office has
a long history of partnering with
local, state and federal agencies to
help address numerous local issues
such as illegal drugs, gangs and
violent crime. We are looking for
ward to this most recent partnership
with the Immigration and Customs
Enforcement Division (ICE) through
the 287G program in the hopes
of furthering our efforts to combat
these types of issues.”
Cronic further noted that “this
program is not anti immigrant — its
focus is simply those individuals
who have entered our country ille
gally and continue to break the law
while here.”
The 287(g) program is named
after the section of law under the
Immigration and Nationality Act,
which authorizes ICE to train local
officers to enforce immigration law.
The program has received more
than $25 million dollars for training
and other associated costs under the
current FY 2008 - up from just over
$15 million the program received
last fiscal year.
Currently, 34 local
enforcement agencies
spanning the nation
have signed MOAs with
ICE, and nearly 600 offi
cers have been trained
and certified to enforce
immigration law. The
officers from those
agencies are credited for
identifying more than
37,000 with possible
immigration violations
in the past two years.
The 287(g) program is only one
component under the ICE ACCESS
(Agreements of Cooperation in
Communities to Enhance Safety
and Security) umbrella of services
offered for assistance to local law
enforcement officers. ICE ACCESS
will provide local law enforcement
agencies an opportunity to team with
ICE to combat specific challenges in
their communities.
Other ICE ACCESS enforcement
options include the creation of local
task forces targeting specific chal
lenges like gangs or document fraud,
the presence of a Criminal Alien
Program (CAP) team in local deten
tion facilities to identify criminal
aliens, or training to utilize the ICE
Law Enforcement Support Center
(LESC) which provides officers the
ability to inquire about a person’s
immigration and criminal history.
ICE agents and officers will
meet with agencies requesting ICE
ACCESS assistance to assess local
needs. Based upon these assess
ments, ICE and local agencies will
determine which type of partner
ship is most beneficial and sustain
able before entering into an official
agreement.
Law enforcement agencies inter
ested in reviewing the enforcement
programs under the ICE ACCESS
program are encouraged to call their
local ICE office or visit www.ice.
gov for more information.
CRONIC
Submit your school or social news from Braselton,
Hoschton, Chateau Elan, Mill Creek, South Hall or West
Jackson by e-mailing news@mainstreetnews.com, faxing
items to 706-387-5421 or calling 706-367-5986.
Feature story ideas are also welcomed.
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