Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 2009
THE JACKSON HERALD
PAGE 3A
Louisiana Pacific plant to be sold
Emergency calls up; ‘back up’ available
By Mark Beardsley
A FINANCING snag isn’t
expected to derail an American
wood products firm from buying
the Louisiana Pacific plant on
U.S. 441 at Center.
The company, whose name
has not been released, hopes to
use the plant to produce wood
pellets used for fuel that would
be shipped by rail to the port
at Brunswick from which they
would be shipped to Europe.
Speaking to the Commerce
Area Business Association last
Wednesday, Scott Martin, chair
man of the Jackson County
Industrial Development Authority,
indicated that the proposed buyer
encountered a financial obstacle.
“The company has always
done this with or for someone
else,’’ Martin said. ‘This time
they’re doing it by themselves
and I think they ran into some
financing problems.’’
Martin said the problems are
not seen as insurmountable.
“It’s not a deal-breaker,’’ he
said. “I’m still hopeful. Not by
any stretch of the imagination
are we going to lose them to
anyone else.’’
Chamber of commerce presi
dent Shane Short said the com
pany would make a good fit for
the building.
“Apparently, the people who
use that product really like it,’’
he said. “It is real common in
Europe. My understanding is that
their competing company is from
Switzerland. We can grow pine
trees much more quickly in the
south and in Georgia than they
can, about a third faster.’’
What makes the fit especially
good, says Short, is that the new
company could utilize LP’s exist
ing supplier network.
“A lot of the equipment is the
same,’’ he added.
The LP facility — which has
been out of the production of
oriented strand board (OSB) for
months — was not on the market,
but the company was looking for
a similar facility. Short said.
“The company was very open
with us about who they were and
what they wanted to do,’’ Short
added. “We were very excited
about it working out. I hope it
does. It seems like a good fit.’’
Jefferson BOE purchases
Martin St. property for offices
BY SHARON HOGAN
THE JEFFERSON Board of
Education approved the purchase
of the Martin Institute Vocational
Building at the meeting on
Tuesday, June 9.
The BOE unanimously
approved the $115,000 purchase
price of the property currently
owned by Tom Cooley. It will be
used as office space.
The building was built in 1939,
BOE chairman Ronnie Hopkins
said. The property is located on
Martin Street and consists of two
tracts, one 0.185 acre tract and a
second tract of 0.015 acre.
Hopkins said adjacent property
owners, John and Pat Bell, have
offered to donate a 0.076 acre
tract to the school system. This
will help with entering and exit
ing the Cooley property, Hopkins
said.
Hopkins said the school system
would be “purchasing a piece of
history’’ in acquiring this prop
erty.
In other business:
•the board approved a letter
or recommendation seeking an
$8,000 charter system grant.
•the board approved closing a
Wachovia bank account.
•the board approved the fol
lowing personnel changes: resig
nation of Lesia Lucas, Jefferson
Middle School paraprofession-
al; re-employment of Sherrie
Gibney-Sherman, .5 charter sys
tem application/implementation
coordinator; employment of Allen
Thompson, Jefferson High School
teacher, Katie Sellers, JMS para-
professional and Laveda Daniels,
JMS paraprofessional; family
medical leave for Jon Breedlove,
JMS teacher; leave of absence
for Patricia Gilliam, Jefferson
Academy Paraprofessional; hir
ing substitute bus driver Cheri
Lynn Maisonneuve; hiring
Jefferson Elementary School
Plus workers - Erin Elizabeth
Roberts, Rachel Stoudenmire and
Courtney Clarke; and transfer for
Kim Rainey from .5 Academy
paraprofessional to JHS full-time
paraprofessional.
•Gibney-Sherman reported
that the Jefferson School System
scored above the state average in
the percentage of students passing
the CRCT at every grade level
and in every area tested.
•Gibney-Sherman said the
$8,000 planning grant for the
charter system will be presented
to the Department of Education on
July 1. The outline of the charter
system petition will be presented
at the Community Breakfast in
July and in August or September
visits will be made to successful
charter systems/school.
•Jackson said a Special
Purpose Local Option Sales Tax
(SPLOST) deposit of $193,617
was received in May. This was for
March sales, Jackson said. The
SPLOST fund balance at the end
of May was $874,849, Jackson
added.
The BOE will meet at 4 p.m.
July 9 at the boardroom of the
performing arts center.
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An ancillary benefit would
accrue to Commerce. Like LP,
the potential buyer of the site
uses natural gas in its production.
When LP shut down production
at the Center facility, the city lost
about $170,000 in profit — a
huge hit to the budget during the
economic downturn. Short said
his understanding was that the
company would use about two-
thirds as much natural gas as LP
used.
“Certainly that would help
Commerce,’’ he observed.
BYANGELA GARY
SEVERAL TIMES in the
past month, all of the county’s
ambulances have been on the
road and there has not been one
available. However, Jackson
County has agreements with
all of the surrounding counties
to serve as back up, so it hasn’t
been a major problem.
“The call volume has popped
up in the past month to month
and a half,’’ EMS director Steve
Nichols said. “We have had all
six trucks up and running.’’
Nichols said having all of
the units in use is still not as
common as it was two years
ago.
“We put the South Jackson
unit up one year ago and that
helped the problem,’’ he said.
Nichols said the county has
mutual aid agreements with
Hall, Barrow, Gwinnett, Banks
and Madison counties.
“We help each other out,’’ he
said. “They run out of trucks
just like we do. We pick up
calls for them too.’’
Nichols said the staff gets
paged when the last truck goes
out and the surrounding coun
ties are put on stand-by.
“Sometimes, they move
trucks up closer to our county
line,’’ he said.
It will cost approximately
$500,000 to add another medi
cal unit and it is in the plans
for 2011.
“We haven’t got to the point
when it’s crucial yet,’’ Nichols
said. “Having back up avail
able helps us.’’
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