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VOL. 132 NO. 24 42 PACES 5 SECTIONS PLUS INSERTS A PUBLICATION OF MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. JEFFERSON, JACKSON COUNTY GEORGIA 30549 50« COPY — Inside — Area news: •JHS drama cast set to perform "Treasure Island" page 2A Opinions: • Thanksgiving proclaimed page 4A Sports: •Dragons headed to Warrenton for second round of state playoffs on Friday ... .page 1B Features: •JMS Walking Club offers girls fitness and fun page 1C Other News: •School News pages 7-12B •Public Safety pages 8A •Legals pages 8-14C •Church News pages 9A •Obituaries page 10A s -e Officials plan for worst-case water shortage WHAT WOULD happen if the drought worsens, the Bear Creek Reservoir and Lake Lanier run dry and hundreds of shallow Jackson County wells dry up? That’s what local and state officials tried to anticipate in a “tabletop drought emer gency exercise” last Wednesday morning at Jackson County’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC). The point of the exercise — attended by about 30 city, county and state officials — seemed to be as much to acquaint participants with each other and to get them thinking ahead as it was about making definite plans for han dling the drought. Jackson County does not have a drought management plan, Carpenter pointed out, nor a priority list for water service. “The purpose of the exercise is to show our weaknesses and to build training,” he said. “One of the biggest disasters is nobody being on the same page.” With nine municipalities, at least seven pub lic water suppliers, a host of private water sys tems, a county government, the Environmental Protection Division, various law enforcement agencies, healthcare professionals and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) all with roles to play should the drought become severe, communication will be the backbone of any coordinated response. One of Friday’s first goals, said Carpenter, was “to bring together the public and private team players.” “Gosh, we’ve already met that goal,” he quipped early in the process. Other objectives including identifying and bringing together “key players” and clarify ing the roles of various agencies, orienting those people to the EOC (some did not know Jackson County had an emergency operations center), identifying resources that will be needed and methods of distributing them and stressing the importance of having a single, reliable point of contact for information. Dan Yeargin, with GEMA, stressed the importance of every group having someone at the table who can make decisions. “In a disaster, the worst thing to do is to exchange business cards and try to figure out who’s who,” he said. “You cannot send a warm body in here to represent you. You need someone who can make a decision, commit resources and spend money.” Much of the local management will begin with Steve Nichols, Jackson County’s new EMS director, who will be in charge of the EOC and the key contact for state and federal agencies. “He will be the liaison between you and county government. Please, please work through him,” Yeargin pleaded. Yeargin said GEMA already is responding to the drought, but he warned local officials that they must “take responsibility for your own preparedness. The state and federal gov ernments will come in and help you meet your objectives.” Key to tapping state and federal resources are official declarations of emergencies, from the governor on the state level, to the president for federal assistance. Similarly, said Yeargin, local governments must declare states of emer gencies to activate local emergency plans and emergency ordinances. continued on page 3A City radio again in the red No new sales shown in Oct. JEFFERSON’S controversial city-owned radio station floated in red ink again in October, los ing $8,558. The station only had $2,757 in revenue for the month compared to $11,315 in expenses. The radio venture was approved by the Jefferson City Council in April and is run by the city’s recre ation department. The low-power AM station was supposed to be a profit-making program earning the city some $300,000 in advertising profit per year. But since it went on in August, the station has struggled with low revenues, bad technology and questions about whether or not the city should have diverted city SPLOST funds to underwrite the venture. So far, Jefferson has spent $139,200 on the station, but only generated $7,785 in income. Of the total amount spent, $94,600 has gone to the consulting firm that sold the city on the idea last spring. No new advertising sales con tracts were sold in October, according to city officials. Many of the current advertising contracts are slated to expire in November. It had been rumored that the city was applying for an FM frequen cy, or that a FEMA grant would be forthcoming to underwrite the venture. But city officials said this week that no applications had been made for either an FM fre quency or any federal grants. Radio Jefferson YTD Finances Income $7,783 Expenses $139,185 Net Loss -$131,400 October Finances $2,757 Income Expenses Salaries Kevin Copp Kale McMillian Tamera Philabaum Shannon Petering Ben Dillard Caleb Thurmond Jeff Bush Cole Gardner Adam Laird Total Salaries Equipment Supplies Phone Lines Cable Total Expenses Net Monthly Loss $150 $150 $27 $646 $475 $1408 $444 $358 $982 $4,640 $5,483 $88 $812 $290 $11,315 -$8,558 FLORAL DESIGN Ladies gathered at the Harold Swindle Public Library in Nicholson for a lesson in floral design Tuesday night. The group put together Christmas arrangements. Pictued are: (L-R) Angie Brock, Shanda Jones, Dana Kitchens and Gail Maxwell. Health board wants more county funding BY BRANDON REED THE JACKSON County Board of Health will soon request an increase in funding from the county gov ernment. Manager Beth Heath told the board that the health department received only $30,000 in county funding increase rather than the $140,000 requested. Heath said more money was needed because of a decrease in fees and Medicaid reimbursement. Heath said the priority has to be to keep clinic services going and to keep employees in the system. Board chairman Henry Slocum asked for figures on what funds are needed and said he will go to the January meeting of the Jackson County Board of Commissioners to ask for a funding hike. FEE HIKE DISCUSSED The board also heard a request on increasing envi ronmental health fees. With the adoption of new food service regulations by the state, more time is needed to perform inspections. District environmental health director Todd Johnson asked the board to consider a fee increase to com pensate for the increase in time the inspections are expected to take. WATER SHORTAGE The board also heard from District Health director Claude Burnett about water shortages in the area. He told the board that counties using Bear Creek Reservoir are in a tight situation. He said he thinks the reservoir will be down to one quarter full by the third week in January and Athens may be out of water by early in February without more rain. The board did not vote on any items in the meeting, due to a lack of a quorum. Kids photos due Nov. 26 THE DEADLINE for accepting pho tos for MainStreet Newspapers’ annual children’s Christmas section will be Monday, Nov. 26, at 5 p.m. The special section will be in the news stands of The Jackson Herald, The Commerce News and The Banks County News on Wednesday, Dec. 19. The newspapers will be accepting photographs of children age 8 years and younger. The child must live in Jackson or Banks counties. Photos of grandchildren will be taken only if the child resides with the grandparents (which must be stated when submitting the photo). Please submit the following informa tion along with the photo: The first and last name and age of each child shown, as well as the parents’ names, their city of residence and phone number. Black and white or color photos can be used, but no Polaroids or photographs printed out from a laser printer. Digital photos with the above information may be e-mailed to news@mainstreetnews. com. The e-mail MUST contain the subject line “Christmas Kids Photo.” The photos may be dropped off at any of the newspaper offices and may be picked up there after Dec. 19. WORK CONTINUES ON BYPASS The traffic light installation project on the bypass in Jefferson contin ued this week with the continued closure of the Jefferson side of Old Pendergrass Road. The two detour routes are Holders Siding Road and Old Swimming Pool Road. This side of the bypass will be closed for a minimum of three weeks, weather permitting. Crews will be grad ing and removing pavement this week. Plans for next week include hauling dirt to build the fill sections. Crews also plan to install drain age.The intersection is being upgraded with turning lanes and a traffic signal off Old Pendergrass Road at the bypass. Photo by April Reese Sorrow ‘Not crisis mode ’ says chamber leader of water ARE PEOPLE overreacting to the severity of Georgia’s historic drought? That was the discussion when the Jackson County Area Chamber of Commerce board of directors met last Friday. “We’re not in a crisis mode,” chairman Jim Yarborough said, “not in a mode where we’re shut ting down businesses.” Yarborough told his board of directors of concerns that new business or industry might “cross us off’ their list of potential sites because of the current drought and that people are overreacting to media reports of the drought’s severity. Yarborough said that locally there is “no reason to worry” and pointed to the “long-term availability” of water in Jackson County. The matter first came up as Roy Stowe, chairman of the chamber’s economic development commit tee, discussed a recent commit tee meeting and its members’ thoughts on the drought. Stowe said the chamber should get the message out that, relative to other areas, “we’re in good shape waterwise” and “proactive” about dealing with the drought. He said all of the media reports of the drought “are beginning to resonate with the people looking at this area.” Pat Bell, chairman of the Jackson County Board of Commissioners, didn’t take such a glass-half-full approach to the drought, but she did suggest that Jackson County is handling it well. “This is one thing that has real ly drawn us together,” she told the chamber board. “The water authority has done a tremendous job. This county was way ahead of everyone else.” The interim, however, is anoth er story. “The biggest problem is going to be June, July, August and September of next year,” she said. Adding that she’d been told how many inches of rain it would take to fill the reservoir, she said, “It can’t be done in the next year.” Bell’s comments echoed those made two days earlier by David Stooksbury, the state’s climatolo gist who told a group that the real worry is the status of local water sources next July, August and September should Georgia go through the expected dry spring and winter.