Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

VOL. 132 NO. 22 54 PAGES 5 SECTIONS PLUS INSERTS A PUBLICATION OF MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. JEFFERSON, JACKSON COUNTY GEORGIA 30549 50« COPY — Inside — Area news: •Highlights from the Halloween Walk page 20C •Officials addressing threat of staph infection page 3A Op/Ed: •'Something's fishy in Arcade' page 4A Sports: •JHS with a chance to win first region football title in 30 years on Friday page 1B Features: •Third annual Holiday Market draws large crowd page 7 C Other News: •School News pages 7-12B •Public Safety pages 8-9A •Legals pages 12-19C •Church News pages 8-9C •Obituaries pages 11-12A s -e Incumbents sweep city elections MARK IT THE “year of the incumbent.” In city elec tions across Jackson County, incumbents mostly ruled in Tuesday's balloting. In Jefferson, city council incumbents Steve Kinney and C.D. Kidd III won another term in office. In addition, political newcomer Roy Plott defeated Larry Benton for an open seat in which incumbent Philip Thompson didn't seek re-election. In the only contest ed Jefferson City Board of Education race, incumbent Willie Hughey won over chal lenger Tiffany Kidd. KINNEY KIDD Jefferson City Council Election Results District 1 Steve Kinney (I) 109 Stephanie Brazil 63 Joe Sikes 36 HUGHEY District 3 C.D. Kidd (I) 42 Shanta Dalton 33 District 5 Roy Plott 120 Larry Benton 98 PLOTT Jefferson Board of Education Election Results Willie Hughey® 55 Tiffany Kidd 19 PENDERGRASS In Pendergrass, five can didates were on the ballot for the two council seats up for re-election. The top two vote-getters out of a group of five candidates will take those seats. Those winners were Hilda Gee Pruitt, the mother-in-law of Mayor Monk Tolbert, with 107 votes; and James Thomas Marlowe with 87 votes. Also on the ballot were: Fletcher Culpepper, 19 votes; Harris Elrod, 19 votes; and Kay Weatherford, 18 votes. MAYSVILLE In Maysville, incumbent Mayor Jerry Baker beat former mayor Richard Presley 277-109. In the Ward 1 city council seat, Clay Dorsey won with 75 votes. Other can didates were George O’Kelly, who had 28 votes, and Eric Parkhill, who had 15 votes. In the Ward 2 race, Lynn Villyard won with 46 votes over challenger Roger Boswell n, who had 43 votes. In Ward 3, incumbent Rebecca McNeeley won with 38 votes over challenger Catherine Daniels, who had 37 votes. In Ward 4, Stephan Lewis was the winner with 62 votes. The other candidates were Ralph Phillips, with 26 votes, and Robert Smith, with 12 votes. OTHER RACES Incumbents also dominated elec tion results in Commerce (see roundup page inside for details. ) A city council race in Hoschton was the only place where an incumbent was defeated in Jackson County after Theresa Kenerly defeated incumbent James Keinard in the city council Post 6 race. In Braselton, voters approved the creation of a “tax allocation district” for downtown redevelopment in Tuesday's balloting. There were no contested races in Braselton. City lawyer resigns amid Bell probe Arcade PD chief’s status still uncertain ARCADE'S CITY lawyer has resigned, report edly over issues about how the town’s leaders are handling an inves tigation of police chief Dennis Bell. Arcade Mayor Doug Haynie confirmed this week that Richard Wingate had stepped down as city attorney a day before last Thursday's city council meeting at which the Bell matter was discussed. “They said that they didn’t think they had a good handle on the (Bell) situation and they (the law firm) withdrew,” Haynie said of Wingate's sudden departure. Jody Campbell of Lawrenceville is acting city attorney. The departure of Wingate comes continued on page 10A BELL — Veterans Day is November 11 — j i iMMli REMEMBERING VETERANS AT WHITE PLAINS BAPTIST CHURCH Dover (L) and David Gooch placed American flags on the graves of veterans buried at White Plains Baptist Church Monday in preparation for Veterans Day coming up November 11. The father and son, both veterans, also place flags for Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. See story on page 10A. Photo by Jana Mitcham Large crowd opposed to liquor vote BY ANGELA GARY IT WAS standing room only at the Jackson County Board of Commissioners meeting Monday night as more than 150 people attempted to get a February vote on Sunday liquor sales canceled. A petition with the names of 1,430 county residents opposing the vote was presented to the BOC. No action was taken by the board on the matter. “Our county already allows the sale of alcohol six days out of the seven,” said Jack Lawson, pastor of White Plains Baptist Church and chief spokesman for the group. “Is that not enough? Can we not reserve just one day out of seven for the tax- paying citizens of Jackson County who would like to be able to take their families to the restaurant of their choice on Sunday, the Lord's continued on page 10A LAWSON Outdoor water use cut back JACKSON COUNTY'S largest water provider is tightening its restric tions on the outdoor use of water from the dwindling Bear Creek Reservoir. In a called meet ing last Thursday, the Jackson County Water and Sewerage Authority agreed to allow the only car wash on its system to con tinue to operate — after it shows how it can reduce usage by 40-50 percent — and to allow its water to be used to mix mortar. But the authority eliminated all other exemptions to the level four of its drought management plan, including water used for grading and paving, power washing, hydro-seeding and landscaping. Thursday’s meeting was the follow up from seven days earlier when a num ber of businesses, most of them involved in construction or paving, appealed the elimination of the water use exemp tions. continued on page 10A uicim taac Former police chief will testify FORMER JEFFERSON police chief Darren Glenn will be allowed to testify when a series of proposed indictments against him is presented to the Jackson County Grand Jury on Dec. 4. In October, Jackson County Superior Court judge Bob Adamson dismissed 30 indictments handed down against Glenn in September. The indictments were thrown out because prosecutors from the Georgia Prosecuting Council in Atlanta did not let Glenn make a statement to the grand jury. Under Georgia law, law enforcement offices have the right to make a statement to the grand jury if they are facing indictment on charges related to their position. December's hearing will be the third time state prosecutors have attempted continued on page 10A JEFFERSON ENDS STREAK More than 3,500 fans turned out last Friday night for the Jefferson-Commerce football game at Memorial Stadium. The Dragons knocked off the Tigers for the first time in 12 years on the night. For complete coverage, turn to Sports on page 1B. Photo by Allen Luton Mayor, councilman defend radio JEFFERSON Mayor Jim Joiner and councilman Philip Thompson defended the city's controversial low-power city radio station during Monday night's council meeting. Councilman Bosie Griffith asked how long the city planned to continue sinking money into the radio venture. “How long are we going to sink money into something that is not doing what it was supposed to do?” Griffith asked. Griffith also asked for the projected cost of operating the station until the end of the year. City manager John Ward said those figures would be available at Monday night’s city council meeting. But Thompson and Joiner defended the radio venture. “We gave them very little money to start this business,” said Thompson. “I don’t know of any business that has started making money in the first few months of business.” Joiner blamed the station’s problems on Windstream. “If Windstream had held up then- end of the deal, they would have been up and running August 1 as planned,” he said. The station has been controversial because its broadcast cannot be heard over most of the city and because it has not sold very much advertising to sup port its operations. In addition, the city has come under fire for having diverted recreation SPLOST money away from recreation facilities to support the radio station’s hardware. The city has spent over $120,000 through September on the station. It operates under the city recreation department and was the brainchild of rec director Ben Dillard, who promised the council in April that the station would net the city a $300,000 per year profit.