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VOL. 133 NO. 14 46 PAGES 4 SECTIONS PLUS INSERTS A PUBLICATION OF MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. JEFFERSON, JACKSON COUNTY GEORGIA 30549 50<f COPY
•Taste of Jackson
draws crowd. . page 2A
•Arcade approves
$1.4 million budget
page 3A
Op/Ed:
•'"Be a man," says
lawmaker'.... page 4A
Sports:
fWJF ^
•PeachState hosts the
World Crown... page 1B
Features:
•Local woman heads
to Cowgirl Camp
page 1C
Other News:
•School News
pages 9A, 8-1 OB
•Public Safety
pages 6-7A
•Legals
pages 9-25 C
•Church News
page 7B
•Obituaries
page 6B
County school bus system to change
Pickups by grade, longer elementary day on the table
BY KERRI TESTEMENT
A MAJOR SHIFT for stu
dents who ride buses in the
Jackson County School System
is in the planning stages.
Among the proposals being
discussed for next fall is the
transporting of K-5th grade stu
dents on one bus, and 6th-12th
grade students on a separate
bus. In addition, the district may
add more time to the length of
the day for elementary school
students, officials said. It’s also
possible that middle and high
school days will be impacted in
some minor way.
“We have not made any
substantial changes in our bus
transportation system since
1990,” Superintendent Shannon
Adams said at Thursday's board
of education work session. “We
have added routes, added driv
ers, added buses, but no real
changes in the way the actual
program is structured.”
Adams said despite an effi
cient transportation department,
too many students are spending
too much time on school buses
after school.
“We would like to get kids
home earlier in the afternoons,”
Adams said. “We have a lot of
kids on the bus too long.”
Adams called the proposed
changes “significant.”
“It will affect a lot of
people next year,” he said.
“Communication will be criti
cal when we do have some
thing to put out as a way to
address the issue.”
A committee to address the
transportation changes will
meet on Wednesday, Nov. 12.
continued on page 3A
Jackson Park
rezoning on
Nov. 20 agenda
BYANGELA GARY
A PROPOSED rezoning for a major
industrial development in South Jackson
will be on the Nov. 20 agenda of the
Jackson County Planning Commission.
The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at the
Administrative Building in Jefferson.
The request for the proposed Jackson
Park development was originally set
for Sept. 23, but was moved due to one
of the proposed zoning classifications
being left out of the ad announcing the
meeting. The hearing was re-advertised
to be on the agenda of the Oct. 23 meet
ing. At that meeting, it was announced
that the applicant had asked it be post
poned until the Nov. 20 meeting.
Forestar Real Estate Group is asking
for a zoning change that would allow
the development of a 701-acre industrial
park along Hwy. 129, starting 1.3 miles
north of the Athens-Clarke County line
at Mary Collier Road. The property is
a large tract of forestland across from
South Jackson Elementary School.
The proposal calls for the construc
tion of 7.5 million square feet of ware
house space on 20 building sites. The
project would be completed in four
phases with the first part to be com
pleted in 2010 and the final phase to be
completed in 2018.
The project’s value at build-out is
expected to be $376 million. Annual
property tax at build-out is projected at
$5.6 million. The project is expected to
bring 1,500 new jobs to the county.
A traffic study was prepared by
Florence & Hutcheson Inc., Kennesaw,
and the recommendations include con
structing a traffic signal at the intersec
tion of Hwy. 129 and Hwy. 330 and a
westbound right turn lane at the inter
section of Hwy. 129 and State Route 8.
Several area residents have already
begun planning their opposition to the
project and have spoken out against
continued on page 3A
FIRE RESCURE TRAINING
Members of several Jackson County fire departments, includ
ing firemen from South Jackson and the Jackson County
Correctional Institute, did a weekend of special training on
Saturday and Sunday. The focus of the training was on the
rapid rescue of firemen who become injured while fighting a
fire. Here, firemen practice lowering an injured fireman from a
flat roof. Members of the Jefferson Fire Department and state
fire-training officials coordinated the training classes.
Sheriff: Two-day
furlough to not
be necessary
BYANGELA GARY
AFTER ASKING employees to take a two-
day furlough before the end of the year and
agreeing to do so himself, Sheriff Stan Evans
said this week that furloughs
won’t be necessary after all.
Evans said that Jackson
County finance director John
Hulsey told him last week that
the county’s budget shortfall is
not as much as expected.
“During our meeting, it was
determined that the total amount we were
being asked to cut was five percent of the total
of unspent funds instead of five percent of our
total approved budget for the remaining two
months,” Evans said. “This figure was quite
a bit less than what was first thought and can
be achieved through line item cuts in unspent
funds for the remaining two months, thus elimi
nating the need for employee furloughs.”
The sheriff said he will continue the hiring
freeze and the elimination of overtime for the
remainder of 2008.
“We can easily achieve the requested five per
cent cuts and, in fact, should be able to show a
greater percentage than requested,” Evans said.
Jefferson to expand
sports complex
BY KERRI TESTEMENT
Jefferson is moving forward with long-term
plans to expand its sports complex on Old
Pendergrass Road.
The city council agreed on Wednesday, Nov.
5, to buy 39 acres next to the existing 100-acre
sports complex for $535,000. The move fol
lowed a 45-minute closed-door meeting to
discuss property acquisition.
The council decided to approve a 60-day
contract for the property, which would become
legally binding after that period. However,
Jefferson still has the option to back out of the
deal, according to city manager John Ward.
continued on page 3A
No more babies at BJC
Hospital to close labor and delivery
By Mark Beardsley
TRYING to shave its operat
ing deficit, BJC Medical Center
is closing its labor and delivery
services, leaving three doctors
scrambling to make alternative
arrangements for patients.
“December 9 is the abso
lute last day we will deliver
a baby,” announced CEO Jim
Yarborough.
The cutback includes closing
Commerce Women’s Clinic,
a hospital-owned OB practice
run by Dr. David Sauls, whose
contract with BJC expires Dec.
9. The move will also bring to
an end the delivery of babies
by doctors Bob Marshbum and
Beth Sullivan.
The move hits Sauls hard
est. He’s been working to
get 14 patients scheduled for
delivery into other facilities in
Gainesville and Athens.
“It was always more of a
community service here,” Sauls
acknowledged. “It never was a
profitable office for providing
these services.”
Sauls said he’d realized that
the long-term outlook for pro
viding OB services was at risk,
but he’d figured to get more
notice if and when the service
was terminated.
“I had hoped that if this were
to happen, we would have
many months to work things
out instead of one month,” he
said.
Sauls, who works a couple of
shifts in the emergency room,
said he may do more of that
kind of work. He’s ruled out
starting a new OB/GYN prac
tice in another location, due to
the cost.
continued on page 3A
i
PLACING MEMORIAL CROSSES
Students from Jackson County Comprehensive High School helped erect crosses in
memory and honor of veterans on the side of the cemetery in front of Jefferson City
Hall. Photo by Justin Poole