Newspaper Page Text
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H Wednesday, March 3, 2010
ERALD
www.JacksonHeraldTODAY.com
VOL. 135 NO. 37 28 PACES 3 SECTIONS PLUS INSERTS A PUBLICATION OF MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. JEFFERSON, JACKSON COUNTY GEORGIA 30549 75« COPY
— Inside —
Area news:
•Corporate jets using
county airport
page 2A
•Maysville to follow
EPD guidelines
page 2A
•Census packets to
be sent out soon
page 2A
Op/Ed:
•'State cuts pure
politics'
page 4 A
Sports:
•JCCHS soccer picks up
a win over JHS
page 1B
Features:
PIEDMONT
CASA
mi CHI1I1IM
•A CASA story
page 1C
•JCCO gets praise
from the First Lady
page 1C
Other News:
•Public Safety
pages 6-7A
•Legals
pages 4-5C
•Church News
pages 10-11A
•Obituaries
pages 8-9A
•School News
pages 8B, 7C
Shooting victim found in wrecked vehicle
BYANGELA GARY
DEPUTIES called to a wrecked
vehicle on Lipscomb Lake Road
Monday evening found a dead man
with a gunshot wound in the back of
his head.
The victim has not been identified
but has been described as a “young
Hispanic male.” The body has been
sent to the state crime lab.
“We are pursuing it as an active case
and foul play is suspected,” Major
David Cochran of the Jackson County
Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday morn
ing.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation
is assisting with the case.
Deputies were first called to the scene
on reports of a wrecked vehicle at
Lipscomb Lake Road near Buffington
Road in Pendergrass. The victim was
found in a black Grand Jeep Cherokee
that was off the road in a wooded area.
“He had wrecked,” Cochran said.
Calling it a day
SCHOOLS GET OUT EARLY
School officials called for early release of students Tuesday as wintry precipitation
moved through the area. Even as the snow began turning to rain, a light dusting of
snow still topped some cars as Jefferson police officer Fred Wilson directed traffic
departing from Jefferson Academy and middle school. Photo by Jana Mitcham
Proposed SPLOST won’t
cover new water projects
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
THE JACKSON County Water
and Sewerage Authority has built
hundreds of miles of water lines
with revenue from the special
purpose local option sales tax
(SPLOST), but those days are
over.
If voters choose to approve
another round of SPLOST on July
20, not a penny of the estimated
$47.5 million in revenue generated
over six years will go to putting
pipe in the ground for the county
wide water provider.
What money it gets will go to
retire debt.
While the county’s final plan
for spending its 70 percent share
of projected revenue are far from
final, whatever money is ear
marked for JCW&SA will be
directed at paying off the county’s
debt for the Bear Creek Reservoir.
“I’m hopeful we can get a tit
tle in there to help them with
their sewer debt too, but it won’t
be much,” said Hunter Bicknell,
chairman of the Jackson County
Board of Commissioners.
Bicknell is a former chairman
of JCW&SA and is aware of its
debt issues.
“We think that’s great, but we
would tike to have money for our
sewer debt service, which is at
least as pricey as Bear Creek,” said
Eric Klerk, manager of JCW&SA.
“We have at least $10 million in
sewer debt service and 530 sewer
customers. You can see that the
math doesn’t work, so we would
tike to have SPLOST for sewer
debt service as well.”
Aggravating the situation is that
the authority took on most of its
sewer-related debt at the behest
of the commissioners, who were
promoting the development of
industrial properties. For example,
the authority ran up several million
dollars in debt building a tine to
Valentine Industrial Park, going
under Interstate 85. That helped
the park attract major companies
and boosted Jackson County’s tax
digest, but it hurt the authority’s
finances considerably.
“Jackson County gets the tax
revenue, but they’re (all of the
park’s tenants) all small users
(of water and sewerage servic
es),” Klerk noted. “We’re getting
slaughtered.”
According to Klerk, the author
ity’s bond payments on sewer
debt amount to about $145,000 a
month.
It’s the revenue from the sale
of water that keeps the authority
afloat, even after Jackson County
began funding the Bear Creek debt
from its general fund. Revenue
from water sales, however, will
not be sufficient to fund any new
water projects.
According to Klerk, the authori
ty feels that its water infrastructure
is sufficient to meet demand for
the foreseeable future. Any devel
oper who needs Jackson County
water will be expected to build
any tine extensions required to tap
on, he said.
“We know we’re saturated in
West Jackson,” Klerksaid. “InEast
Jackson, we have some on Cooper
Farm Road and (Highway) 334.1
don’t know how much develop
ment they’re looking at.”
Not much.
Residential development in all
continued on page 3A
Four charged in kennel
case are again indicted
12 SPLOST meetings ahead
BYANGELA GARY
FOUR PEOPLE arrested in
2008 for animal cruelty due
to conditions at a Nicholson
kennel were again indicted by
a Jackson County grand jury
last week.
The original indictment had
several issues which led to the
four being again indicted. A
trial date has not been set.
Marie Hughes, 55, James
Ronnie Hughes, 56, Jennifer
Hughes Epps, 35, and Brandy
Stone, 26, were each indicted
on two felony counts of aggra
vated cruelty to animals and
133 misdemeanor counts of
cruelty to animals.
The charges stem from
allegations of animal cruelty
at L&D Kennel and Farm,
Nicholson.
BYANGELA GARY
THREE MEN were indicted
by a Jackson County grand jury
in the severe beating of a South
Jackson man in October.
Timothy Lamar Ransom, Bob
David Scott and Danny Maurice
Weathers were all indicted
on four counts of aggravated
assault, one count of kidnapping
and two counts of aggravated
battery.
At the time of the arrests late
last year, law enforcement offi
cials said the beating was report-
Each felony count of aggra
vated cruelty to animals carries
a sentence of one to five years
in prison and a fine of up to
$15,000. Each misdemeanor
count of cruelty to animals car
ries up to 12 months in jail and
a fine of up to $1,000.
The four were arrested in
February 2008 following
allegations of neglect at the
Nicholson kennel. The arrests
came after a former employee
filed a complaint about the con
ditions at the kennel, including
lack of proper food, shelter and
care for the almost 300 puppies
and dogs on the 23-acre site on
Sanford Road.
The animals were impound
ed shortly after the arrest and
were later offered for adop
tion.
edly over a drug transaction.
The victim, Robert Jermaine
Hull, 25, Athens, was found on
the roadside in South Jackson
severely beaten. Reports indi
cate he was dragged down the
road by three men in a white
Cadillac, who then pulled him
across several yards and left him
in some bushes in a front yard.
Law enforcement officials
said the man was beaten around
the head and abdomen and the
back of his head appeared as if it
had been dragged on a road.
Clark now
faces second
murder charge
BYANGELA GARY
A COMMERCE man sen
tenced last year to life in prison
is now facing a second mur
der charge stemming from the
death of his wife.
Robert Clark pled guilty to
murdering his 6-year-old grand
son in June and was sentenced
to life in prison without the pos
sibility of parole.
Last week, a Jackson County
grand jury indicted him on
murder charges in the death of
his wife, Linda, who died in
October.
Michael I^evigne, a kinder
garten student at Commerce
Primary School, was killed by
a gunshot wound to the chest
in the Troy Street, Commerce,
home of his grandparents.
Police say Clark shot his wife,
Linda Dale Clark, 58, in the
chest/stomach area before he
himself was shot by police offi
cers after he fired a weapon at
them. Police believe Clark shot
and killed his grandson in a fit
of rage over a watermelon.
In court in June, Clark had
a cast on his arm from injuries
he sustained in the shooting.
He was given the opportunity
to speak, but did not give any
statement. He only answered
questions from Judge Joe
Booth, acknowledging that it
was his decision to plead guilty
and that he understood the con
sequences.
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
REPRESENTATIVES of gov
ernment in Jackson County will
meet 12 times through June 17 to
hammer out a plan for extending
the special purpose local option
sales tax (SPLOST) another six
years and to revise the county’s
service delivery strategy under
House Bill 489.
Nearly 40 elected officials or
managers gathered at the Jackson
County Courthouse last Thursday
night to formally begin the two
processes.
In addition to approving meet
ing schedules, each government
was asked to name a point of con
tact for disseminating information
and a person who could speak for
each government in negotiations
for both initiatives.
SPLOST
Four of the meetings are aimed
at developing specific projects and
strategies to assure that a July
20 referendum on extending the
SPLOST is approved by voters.
The current tax — dubbed
SPLOST 4 — will expire June 30,
2011, having generated as much
as $53 million. If that tax flow is
to continue uninterrupted, voters
must approve SPLOST 5 in either
July or November.
SALES TAX revenues to the
Jackson County government in
2009 declined 12.6 percent.
Jackson County generated $5
million in sales tax dollars last
year. But that was a $725,000
decline from 2008 and a $1.3 mil
lion drop from the peak of $6.3
County finance director John
Hulsey explained that officials
expect a six-year levy to bring in
$47.5 million.
“Given the decline in the econ
omy and the declining sales tax
we’re seeing... we had to revise all
the numbers downward,” Hulsey
explained. He added that the num
ber was based on conservative
projections — declining revenue
continuing in 2011 and minimal
increases thereafter.
“It is certainly not going to be as
much as it’s been in the past,” he
concluded.
The group did not get into spe
cifics of how the money would
be allocated. Board of commis
sioners chairman Hunter Bicknell
indicated that the lion’s share oi
the county portion will go to retire
debt on the jail and the Bear Creek
Reservoir, but some would also
go to recreation and roads and
bridges — very similar to the cur
rent allocation.
Instead, the focus was on meet
ing an April 19 deadline by which
all of the governments must agree
on the allocation and use of the
money and get the information in
to the state.
continued on page 3A
million in 2007.
Local governments have been
tracking the decline in sales taxes
since it is a key source of rev
enue.
The county had budgeted $5.3
million in sales tax revenues for
the year.
Three indicted in beating
of South Jackson man
Sales tax revenue down 12.6%