Newspaper Page Text
THE
ACKSON
/SD\
m
H Wednesday, April 15, 2009
ERALD
www.JacksonHeraldTODAY.com
VOL. 133 NO. 35 54 PACES 4 SECTIONS PLUS INSERTS A PUBLICATION OF MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. JEFFERSON, JACKSON COUNTY GEORGIA 30549 50« COPY
— Inside —
Area news:
•Water ban will likely
end this week, page 2A
•Two industrial pros
pects look at county
locations page 3A
•West Jackson festivals
coming up this week
end page 5A
Op /Ed:
•'Local schools rank
among state's best'
page 4A
Sports:
•Dragons take second
in relays
page 1B
Features:
•JHS AFJROTC wins
third at national event
page 1C
Other News:
•School News
pages 11 -14A, 5, 10,12B
•Public Safety
pages 6-8A
•Legals
pages 10-26C
•Church News
page 11B
•Obituaries
pages 8-9B
Q -R
JCCHS gym to be renovated
BY KERRI TESTEMENT
THE AGING gymnasium at Jackson
County Comprehensive High School is
about to get a facelift.
The Jackson County Board of Education
on Monday approved the expenditure of
$205,000 in sales tax funds for renovating
and improving the JCCHS gym.
The project will include a number of
significant changes that will upgrade the
gym, which is about 20 years old.
Among those changes are new plastic
bleachers that will be similar to those
at East Jackson Comprehensive High
School. District officials also looked at
comparable bleachers at Winder-Barrow
County school
superintendent
Shannon Adams
says SPLOST
funds are avail
able for the gym
work at JCCHS.
High School.
“The seating is better, to me, (and) the
way the handrails fold into the bleachers
when they're used is much better," said
Dennis Patrick, director of administrative
services for the school system.
The new bleachers and the cost to install
them at JCCHS will reach $105,000.
Other improvements at the JCCHS
gym will include a new heating and
air conditioning system, estimated at
$56,300; electrical upgrades that include
new lighting, estimated at $28,500; and
new interior paint, mostly on the ceiling,
estimated at $12,700.
The gym floor remains in excellent
shape and won't be replaced, Patrick
said.
Superintendent Shannon Adams said
the district has Special Purpose Local
Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) funds for
the JCCHS gym project available now.
Renovation should start soon, hopefully
by the end of the school year.
In related construction news, the school
board learned that a construction man
ager for several upcoming projects will be
selected on April 24.
That's a day after the district will accept
bids for several school construction proj
ects.
Those projects include additions and
modifications atNorth JacksonElementary
School, a new gym at JCCHS, a new
drama and chorus building at JCCHS, and
renovations and modifications at JCCHS.
Overall, the projects have an estimated
price tag of $10.5 million.
continued on page 2A
CLEARING A PATH
Department of Transportation workers cleared a tree that fell across Hwy. 332 during
the series of strong storms that passed through Jackson County Friday night and
Monday morning.
Strong storms pass through county
Trees down, power outages, wrecks reported
A SERIES of strong storms moved through
Jackson County Friday night and again Monday
morning with trees falling across county roads and
power outages and wrecks reported.
Friday night, the storms resulted in the Jackson
County EMA activating the weather warning sirens
twice for reported tornados in the area. Several
reports of tornados were given throughout the
county, but there were no confirmed touch downs.
Trees blown down across roadways were report
ed Friday night and quickly handled by Jackson
County Sheriff’s Office and the Jackson County
road department. Several power outages were also
reported due to downed power lines.
Two auto accidents were reported during the
Friday night storms and resulted in only minor
injures which were handled by Jackson County
Rescue and EMS.
One fire was reported Friday to an out building
on Nichols Road in the Plainview community with
Plainview, North Jackson and the Jackson County
Correctional Institute Fire Departments responding
and quickly extinguishing the fire. The fire was
reported as being started by a lightning strike.
Jackson County storm spotters and a local ama
teur radio club, North East Georgia Amateur Radio
Club/ ARES, were activated to monitor the storms
and advise of changing weather conditions.
MONDAY
Heavy rain Sunday night was followed by high
winds Monday morning, uprooting trees across
roads, on power lines and on houses. Jackson
EMC said Monday that about 30,000 customers
REPAIR WORK
Repairs were made at the Jefferson
bypass and Hwy. 11 after a traffic signal
was blown down.
were without power at midday with 8,000 of those
in the Jefferson area and 4,800 in the Neese area
of Madison County. Most of the power had been
restored by Monday evening.
The West Jackson Fire Department responded to
calls of trees being down across roads on Monday.
Especially hard hit was Hwy. 332, where trees
across the road shut down traffic for a time.
Some damage to houses was also reported in the
Commerce area with trees on a house on Mt. Olive
Road. County officials also reported damage to a
house on Hale Road.
Jefferson BOE to apply
for charter school status
BY BRANDON REED
AFTER DISCUSSING the matter in-depth at a recent retreat,
the Jefferson Board of Education has decided to move forward
and seek charter school status.
At a meeting last week, the BOE voted unanimously to
approve a letter of intent to submit an application for a charter
school.
Superintendent John Jackson said the letter is non-binding,
but had to be sent to the state department by May 1 to have the
option of making a charter application by November.
“What we're looking to do is see if this will make us better,"
said chairman Ronnie Hopkins. “We feel like we’re doing a good
job, but we can always look for improvement, and this is one of
the places that we think has the potential to make us better."
In other action, the BOE voted to appoint Damon Wilbanks
to serve as the delegate to the GSBA Delegate assembly, with
Angela McKinney to serve as an alternate.
Jefferson BOE
expects revenue
shortfall in June
BY BRANDON REED
THE JEFFERSON Board of
Education is facing a budget short
fall for its fiscal year, which ends
in June.
Superintendent John Jackson told
the BOE at a meeting Thursday
afternoon that the system is looking
at a projected revenue shortfall of
$724,000. He said part of that short
fall includes an estimated $250,000
in delayed tax collection, which may
improve before the fiscal year ends.
The system anticipates having a
reserve fund balance of $1.8 to $2
million dollars by year’s end.
Arcade pulls out of Quad
Cities Planning Commission
BY BRANDON REED
THE ARCADE City
Council has voted to pull out
of the Quad Cities Planning
Commission.
The council voted unani
mously Monday night to
withdraw from the partner
ship with Jefferson and Talmo.
Pendergrass, one of the origi
nal four members of the group
which shared zoning and
building code officials, pulled
out earlier.
Mayor Doug Haynie told
the council that with the eco
nomic downturn, there had not
been a building permit issued
for Arcade in over a year.
Haynie said the city is looking
at absorbing around $22,000
in its share of operation costs
for Quad Cities for the rest of
the year.
Haynie, who made the rec
ommendation to leave the part
nership, said the decision was
difficult.
“I was a part of the initial
formation of this particular
group and I didn't want to
give up on it,” he said. “But we
can’t put the city on the hook
for $22,000 in a time where the
budget doesn’t allow for us to
spend $2,700 for a website."
The city will have to adopt
all the ordinances that were
set up by Quad Cities and will
have to work out enforcement
by the city police department.
The city’s planning and zon
ing will be handled by an inde
pendent engineering firm on
an as-needed basis.
continued on page 2A
Foreclosures up 39%
FORECLOSURES in
Jackson County are up 39
percent year-to-date through
the May sale date.
Some 534 foreclosure
actions have been taken since
the first of the year, up 39
percent from 383 actions for
the first five months of 2008.
In 2008, a total of 1,050
foreclosure actions took place
in Jackson County.
Jackson County
Foreclosures
2009
2008
January
66
82
February
145
93
March
108
84
April
97
45
May
118
79
YTD
534
383
+39%
Unemployment insurance
claims increase in March
UNEMPLOYMENT IN
Jackson County showed no
signs of relenting in March
as 559 people made first time
unemployment insurance
claims. That number was
up 120 percent from March
2008 and was a six percent
increase from February this
year.
As an economic indicator,
rising first time unemploy
ment claims often portend a
rise in the overall unemploy
ment. Jackson County was at
10.2 percent unemployment
in February and March’s rate
won’t be released until later
this month.
Jackson County
First Time Unemployment
Insurance Claims
November 2008 —336
December 2008 —696
January 2009 —722
February 2009 —527
March 2009 -559
While unemployment
insurance claims were up
in March, they were below
December and January num
bers. In December, 696 peo
ple in Jackson County filed
for unemployment insurance
while 722 filed in January.
Man sentenced in area
bank fraud scheme
A CLEVELAND man was
sentenced last week to three
years in prison on federal
charges of conspiracy to com
mit bank fraud that involved
property in Pendergrass.
Andrew John Smith, 29,
had pled guilty to the charges
in January. He worked for
United International Mortgage
in Buford at the time of the
fraud.
According to prosecutors.
Smith and a co-conspirator
were caught in an FBI sting
after they had arranged for
some Pendergrass property to
be inflated from $2 million to
$4 million in value on which
to get a $3.2 million fraudu
lent loan. Smith then attempted
to negotiate a side deal with
the sellers for a $2 million
kickback, but the sellers were
working with authorities in the
case.
The FBI is continuing to
look into the case, authori
ties said in a news release last
week.
O