Newspaper Page Text
THE
ACKSON
m
w
y'T'i— r —rj
H Wednesday, March 4, 2009
ERALD
www.JacksonHeraldTODAY.com
VOL. 133 NO. 29 30 PACES 3 SECTIONS PLUS INSERTS A PUBLICATION OF MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. JEFFERSON, JACKSON COUNTY GEORGIA 30549 50« COPY
— Inside —
Area news:
•County still lacks
access to reservoir site
page 2A
•Southeast Toyota
making employee and
pay cuts
page 8A
Op/Ed:
•'Sikes' case a circus'
page 4A
Sports:
•JCCHS picks up first
season win page 1B
•JHS has trouble with
Madison Co., weather
page 1B
Features:
•Snow Day
page 1C
Other News:
•School News
. . . pages 9-1OA, 7-8 B
•Public Safety
pages 6-7A
•Legals
pages 10-12C
•Church News
page4B
•Obituaries
pages 5-6B
Sikes case ends in mistrial
Prosecutor vows to come back for another try
A MISTRIAL WAS declared last week
in the trial of former Arcade Mayor Joe
Sikes after a jury delib
erated for more than 10
hours. Sikes was on trial
on charges that he made
terroristic threats against
Arcade city officials in
2005.
After the hearing, pros
ecutor Ashley Wright of Augusta said
she would retry the case. Presiding Judge
John Ott of the Alcovy Judicial District
mentioned March 23 as a possible trial
week.
Wright and Ott were appointed to the
case after local officials recused them
selves because of a possible conflict of
interest. Sikes’ wife is a Jackson County
lawyer and former district attorney can
didate.
The jury was polled after the trial ended
and seven said Sikes was not guilty while
five felt he was guilty. Earlier in the delib
erations, one jury member said that it was
11-1 not guilty.
The jury foreman told the judge around
4 p.m. on Thursday that they could not
come to a unanimous decision. Ott told
the jury to go back to chambers and try
again. Less than two hours later, the jury
came back and said it could not come to a
unanimous verdict.
THREE DAYS OF TESTIMONY
Sikes, 57, was facing charges related to
a now-closed oil company he owned in the
town and to allegations he made terroristic
threats against Arcade city officials when
they revoked his business license after an
explosion at the facility killed a worker.
Judge Ott issued a directed verdict of
“not guilty” on six of the 12 charges fac
ing Sikes. Sikes was found not guilty on
three counts of transporting hazardous
waste without the proper permit and not
guilty on three counts of transporting haz
ardous waste to an unpermitted facility.
The charges that received the most
focus during the three-day trial were alle
gations that Sikes made threats against
Arcade officials after the city council
revoked his business license in 2005.
Several Arcade officials, including Mayor
Doug Haynie, testified early in the week
that Sikes’ comments had them scared for
their lives.
Sikes made his comments to former
Arcade police chief Dennis Bell. Bell
called then District Attorney Tim Madison
and was directed to call Sikes back and
tape record him.
Sikes said that he thought that he and
Bell were good friends and he was “just
venting” when he made the comments
about the council. He said that he and
Bell had previously talked about all types
of things, including personal matters and
he didn't believe that he would tell anyone
what they had discussed.
Sikes added that he and Bell were both
laughing when the phone call ended.
Sikes said he never contacted the city
council members or any of their family
members.
Among those testifying in the matter
were former DA Madison, who is cur
rently in jail after being convicted of theft
charges, and Bell, who was forced out of
his position by Arcade leaders last year.
Among those who were character wit
nesses for Sikes was Jackson County
Sheriff Stan Evans. Evans said that Bell
doesn’t have a credible reputation in the
law enforcement community.
SIKES
Snow storm blankets Jackson County
Schools close, power out, wrecks reported in wintry weather
* v a ■* V N a A r,!.,\
JACKSON EMC WORKS ON POWER POLE
Crews from Jackson EMC work to repair a power line on Ethridge Road in Jackson
County on Monday. Jackson EMC reported that falling trees downed five power
poles in Jackson County. At the height of the winter storm, Jackson EMC said
about 24,000 customers were without power. Photo provided by Jackson EMC
BYANGELA GARY
A WINTER storm that
brought several inches of snow
on Sunday resulted in schools
closing, power outages and
wrecks across Jackson County.
More than 20.000 people
were without power Sunday
and Monday, and several thou
sand still didn’t have power on
Tuesday. The Jackson County
School System was closed
Monday and Tuesday and the
Jefferson City School System
shut down on Monday. The
county government offices
were also closed on Monday.
Jackson County was one of
the hardest-hit areas in Georgia
during Sunday’s winter storm,
where reports of at least five
inches of snow were report
ed in the county. A state of
emergency was also called in
Jackson County on Sunday due
to the road conditions.
The Jackson County 911
center received 1,529 storm-
related calls on Sunday. This
included lines and trees being
down, vehicles running off the
road, wrecks, power outages,
medical calls and transformers
blowing and causing tree fires.
Nearly 1,000 Georgia
Department of Transportation
employees utilizing more than
200 pieces of equipment were
utilized across the state dur
ing this winter weather event.
They pushed snow out of the
roadways, treated roadways
and bridges and removed fallen
or broken trees. In Jackson
County, the county road depart
ment and the Georgia Forestry
Commission also worked to
keep roads clear.
Jackson EMC crews replaced
25 broken poles Monday.
During this time, crews found
30 additional broken poles.
“Downed limbs and trees
are forcing crews to literally
cut their way into areas with
outages,” EMC spokesman
Bonnie Jones said. “In addi
tion, three inches of rain fol
lowed by eight inches of snow
have made access difficult for
the cooperative’s trucks...The
number of customers without
power has fluctuated as crews
find and report additional
equipment problems, homes
without power that had not pre
viously been reported and lines
that are down in more than one
location. In addition, some
restoration work may require
working lines to be de-ener
gized while repairs are made to
broken poles.”
Downed transmission lines
knocked out power to two of
the cooperative’s Madison
County substations.
Jackson EMC pulled all
available crews from its other
districts, and added 35 con
tractor crews. In addition,
eight crews from neighboring
Sawnee EMC and GreyStone
Power assisted.
70 percent of
county still
in agriculture
Comprehensive
plan update given
BYANGELA GARY
THE MAJORITY of the
land in Jackson County contin
ues to be agriculture.
Consultant David Sutton
presented information gath
ered during the update of the
county’s comprehensive plan
to the board of commissioners
Monday night. The findings
include that 70 percent of the
county’s 220,000 acres is des
ignated as agriculture. Some
13 percent of the land is used
for single family residences; 1.4
percent is industrial and 0.71
percent is commercial. Other
land uses include duplexes,
mobile homes, public institu
tional, parks and recreation and
undeveloped property.
Sutton said staff used aerial
photos and made visits to the
property to compile this infor
mation.
“Your plan is conceptually
very strong,” Sutton said of the
county’s land use plan. “The
zoning must be consistent with
the character areas. In this, you
are ahead of other communi
ties.”
Sutton said data will be used
to update the future land use
plan. The information has also
been presented to Moreland
AltobeUi Inc. to use in the
transportation plan that is being
developed for the county.
City meetings
rescheduled
CITY COUNCIL meetings
in Nicholson and Maysville
that were scheduled for this
past Monday night were can
celled due to the snow storm.
The Nicholson meeting has
been rescheduled for 7 p.m.
Thursday. The Maysville meet
ing will be at 7 p.m. Monday.
Commissioners consider funds for chamber, furniture for jail
BYANGELA GARY
AGAIN funding $100,000 to the cham
ber of commerce and approving more
than $280,000 for furniture at the new jail
were among the items discussed by the
Jackson County Board of Commissioners
Monday night.
The BOC will take action on these
items when it meets at 6 p.m. on Monday,
March 16, at the courthouse.
At this week’s meeting, the BOC heard
a request from the chamber of commerce
to again provide $100,000 for the year.
This money was included in the budget.
The BOC also heard from consultant
Don Clerici that the low bid for furniture
for the new jail and fire training center
was $280,061 from Fowler’s.
Other items discussed that will also be
on the agenda for action at the March 16
meeting include:
•a request that the county provide vet
eran assistance information two days a
week for two hours each day.
•a request from Dewina Jones to move
a mobile home that is older than 10 years
old into a mobile home park at 1614
Pocket Road.
•a grant application for $149,725 for an
industrial systems technology training lab
at the Lanier Tech campus in Commerce.
ACTION ITEMS
The BOC did take action on the follow
ing items at the meeting Monday night:
•denied a request from Juanita Sanford
to refund $5,541 in property taxes she
paid that was billed in error. She was
refunded for the past three years which
is the maximum amount of time the law
provides for refunds to be given.
•agreed after a 20-minute closed ses
sion to settle a lawsuit with Shirley Ruth
Johnson over a zoning issue. Details of
the settlement were not given.