Newspaper Page Text
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H Wednesday, January 27, 2010
ERALD
www.JacksonHeraldTODAY.com
VOL. 135 NO. 32 40 PACES 4 SECTIONS PLUS INSERTS A PUBLICATION OF MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. JEFFERSON, JACKSON COUNTY GEORGIA 30549 75« COPY
— Inside —
Area news:
•Old WJPS gym a
concern for parents
page 2A
• New general sur
geon joins BJC staff
page 2A
Op/Ed:
•'SPLOST is in dan
ger'
page 4A
Sports:
•Mat Panthers take
second at Walhalla
page 1B
Features:
•Donations can help
send Girl Scout cookies
to soldiers overseas
page 1C
Other News:
•Public Safety
pages 6-7A
•Legals
pages 7-20C
•Church News
page 6B
•Obituaries
page 7B
•School News
pages 8-11A, 8B
Q -R
Church expansion plans
Should new councilmember vote?
BYANGELA GARY
A REZONING for a
church expansion project
in Jefferson remains up in
the air until the issue over
whether or not new coun
cil member Kathy DuBose
can vote on the matter is
resolved.
A vote on the controver
sial request from Jefferson
United Methodist Church for a rezon
ing to do an expansion project was
on the agenda Monday night at the
Jefferson City Council meeting, but
no action was taken.
City attorney Ronnie Hopkins has
recommended that DuBose recuse
herself from voting since she
and her husband retained a law
yer before she took office on
the matter. The attorney spoke
at several recent council meet
ings in opposition to the zoning
change.
DuBose said at Monday’s
meeting that she wants to dis
cuss the vote issue with her
attorney, who is out of town.
The rezoning request will be on the
agenda at the next city council meet
ing slated for 6 p.m. on Monday, Feb.
8, at the civic center.
Jefferson UMC is asking to rezone
3.7 acres at Colley Street and Storey
Street to 0-1 (office institutional) with
DUBOSE
construction of a family life center
and 225 additional parking spaces
among the plans. Plans are for the 3.7
acres to be combined with two adja
cent parcels that are already zoned
0-1. Further phases of the project call
for two more buildings — a sanctuary
and an education building.
OTHER ZONING ISSUE
In other zoning business Monday
night, the council approved a request
from Thomas Ward to rezone 17.85
acres at Storey Lane and Hwy. 129
from C-2 (highway commercial) to
MFR (multi-family residential dis
trict). Plans are for a mixed use resi
dential project.
The plans are for an apartment
complex for senior citizens. The first
phase calls for 56 total housing units
on hold
with six units per building. All of the
units will be one level. Ward advised
this will be a for rent product. Five of
the units will be handicap accessible.
A full-time manager will be on-site.
Construction is expected to begin in
early 2011.
The council also approved a request
from Ward for a variance related to
the project. The city’s zoning regula
tions require a pool and tennis courts
for this type of development. The
variance will instead allow for the
construction of a community room,
computer room and gazebo.
In other business at the meeting,
Steve Kinney was elected to serve as
mayor pro tem and Steve Hogan was
named to serve on the city’s recreation
board.
First region contest
LOOKING FOR AN OPENING
Jefferson’s Joe Boyd (12) looks for an open man around East Jackson’s Deon
Sewell (15) as Rayshad Borders (5) looks on. The two schools met in their first
region contest of the season on Friday, with Jefferson taking the 66-55 victory.
Photo by Brandon Reed
Supreme Court upholds death
penalty ruling in murder case
BY ANGELA GARY
THE Georgia Supreme
Court upheld a death pen
alty sentence for Donnie
Lance, a Jackson County
man convicted 10 years
ago for murdering his ex-
wife and her boyfriend.
In April 2009, a judge
dismissed the death pen
alty verdict, but upheld the
conviction of Lance on the two murder
charges.
The reason for last year’s reversal of
the death sentence by the lower court was
because of “ineffective legal counsel.” The
court ruled that Lance’s lawyer didn’t inves
tigate his “mental capabilities.” The attorney
general, representing the state, appealed that
ruling to the Supreme Court. This week, the
Supreme Court ruled that even if information
on Lance’s mental capabilities was included,
it would not have changed the outcome of
the case.
“We conclude that the absence of deficien
cies in Lance’s trial counsel’s performance
would not in reasonable probability have
resulted in a different outcome in either
phase of Lance’s trial,” the judges wrote in
the ruling.
Lance was convicted in 1999 of the brutal
murder of his ex-wife, Joy Love Lance, and
her boyfriend, Dwight “Butch” Wood Jr. The
jury deliberated for one hour after seven days
of testimony ended before coming back with
a recommendation for the death penalty.
LANCE
Maysville still discussing 2010 budget
BY KATIE HUSTON
NO ACTION was taken
Thursday night in Maysville
on the city’s proposed 2010
budget.
The council will further
discuss city finances at their
regularly scheduled meeting
Thursday, Jan. 28.
Currently, the town’s
millage rates will remain
unchanged for 2010 at .810
mills for Banks County and
1.764 for Jackson County.
Cutbacks in the proposed
budget include the reduction
of fulltime police depart
ment employees from four
fulltime positions to three,
and the addition of one part
time position, saving the city
over $18,000.
Also up for consideration
is the possible addition of a
part-time position at city hall
to assist City Clerk Barbara
Thomas.
Mayor Jerry Baker said
that he had no intention of
getting city workers off fur
loughs for 2010. Council
member Steven Lewis urged
the mayor to consider fur
loughing, but only through
July, and then reevaluating
city finances to see if it could
afford ending the furloughs.
No decision was made.
The city is also looking
at closing city hall and the
library one day a month for
the upcoming year.
“Basically, it would save
us on utilities that one day
a month,” Baker said. “It’s
been a proven fact.”
The council also took in
consideration winning a
lawsuit with the Maysville
Family Practice, if the city
ends up taking legal action.
However, Baker remarked
that it would bring in little
revenue.
Maysville is also consider
ing implementing an admin
istrative fee when it issues
building permits. Thomas
will evaluate the contract
with the county to see if it is
something the city is inter
ested in.
Additional funds included
in the budget are the $750,000
federal loan for the sewer
rehabilitation project as well
as the $500,000 in federal
continued on page 5A
Teacher planning days
to be used for furlough
THE JACKSON
County School System
will use three teacher
planning days for its
state-mandated furlough
days.
The furlough days
for the county school
system will be Friday,
March 12; Thursday, April 1; and
Friday, May 28, which is the last
day of teacher post-planning.
Superintendent Shannon
Adams said in a statement on
Thursday that should school
days be missed due to inclement
weather conditions, those days
will be switched to furlough
days — allowing the district to
retain the same number of plan
ning days.
Gov. Sonny Perdue recently
announced a mid-term budget for
the 2010 fiscal year that includes
three additional furlough days
for teachers and most other
state employees before July 1.
Already, school systems have
taken some furlough days this
school year.
“We regret having to imple
ment these mandates, but ulti
mately we know that such
measures are necessitated by
the ongoing economic crisis
brought about by shortfalls in
state revenue,” Adams said in a
statement.
The Jackson County School
System tried to schedule
the furlough days so that
student learning would be
minimally impacted and to
provide as little disruption
as possible for students,
parents and the commu
nity, he added.
The latest round of fur
lough days will apply to instruc
tional staff, such as teachers,
counselors, media specialists,
technology specialists, Pre-K
resource coordinators, nurses
and paraprofessionals.
Like the previous furlough
days, the district will spread the
salary reductions throughout the
remainder of the 12-month pay
roll period.
Other employee categories,
such as administrators (except
for 12-month certified person
nel), clerical, maintenance, food
service, transportation (including
bus drivers), custodial, central
registration and technology sup
port will apply for furlough days
using the AESOP program with
supervisor approval required,
Adams wrote in his statement.
These days must be applied for
and taken prior to the last week
of school.
Certified employees who are
on a 12-month contract will be
required to take two addition
al furlough days, for a total of
seven days.
ADAMS
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DOLLAR GENERAL COMING TO NICHOLSON
Crews started clearing the site of the Dollar General in
Nicholson on Tuesday. The store will be located on a site
next to River of Life Worship Center on Highway 441.
Photo by Sharon Hogan
Nicholson postpones action
on comprehensive plan
BY SHARON HOGAN
AT THURSDAY’S work session meeting of the Nicholson
City Council, the council tabled any action on the resolution to
adopt a partial comprehensive plan update.
Two of four council members, Bobby Crawford and Lamar
Watkins, and Mayor Ronnie Maxwell were the only ones pres
ent at Thursday’s meeting. Council members Chuck Wheeler
and Howard Wilbanks were absent.
Watkins made the motion to table any action on the resolu
tion until all council members were present.
Maxwell advised the council that the city is in jeop
ardy of losing its certified city status if this resolution is not
approved.
“We are way behind on this now,” Maxwell said.