Newspaper Page Text
THE
ACKSON
r ',y
MW.
H Wednesday, January 19, 2011
ERALD
www.JacksonHeraldTODAY.com
VOL. 136 NO. 32 48 PACES 4 SECTIONS PLUS INSERTS A PUBLICATION OF MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. JEFFERSON, JACKSON COUNTY GEORGIA 30549 75<t COPY
— Inside
Area news:
Benton proposes new legislative measures
•Committee assign
ments given for area
representatives
page 3 A
Op/Ed:
•'The first victim'
page 4A
Sports:
•Dragons break out of
slump with 94-75 win
over Oglethorpe Co.
page 1B
Features:
•Clyde Beck named to
Atlanta Country Music
Hall of Fame
page 1C
•Breast cancer sup
port group meets in
Braselton page 3C
Other News:
•Public Safety
pages 6-7A
•Legals
pages 8-24C
•Church News
page 9B
•Obituaries
pages 10-11B
•School News
pages 5-7B
O -s
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
AS THE GEORGIA
General Assembly gets into full
swing next week, Rep. Tommy
Benton is working to get two
pieces of legislation from last
year made into law.
Benton (R-Jefferson) repre
sents House District 31, which
includes most of Jackson
County.
One is his House Bill 40, which would
require the addition of bitter tasting chemi
cal denatonium benzoate to antifreeze sold
in Georgia.
The other is legislation requested by
local school superintendents that would
end a requirement that school attendance
notifications sent to parents and guardians
be sent by registered mail.
The first bill, Benton says, would save
the lives of pets. The second would save
Jackson County's school system about
$10,000 a year.
“The antifreeze bill, I dropped that on
(Jan. 10),” Benton said this Monday. “It
was read for the first time and assigned to
a committee.”
The bill stalled in the Senate last year.
“It’s a good bill, a good safety bill,” he
said. “It probably should have been done
years ago. Since I’ve been work
ing on this, four other states have
passed similar legislation. There
are now 13 or 14 other states
who have this in place.”
Benton introduced the legisla
tion at the request of a former
student, whose dogs had been
poisoned by antifreeze. He also
points out that a Cobb County
police officer and a Forsyth
County firefighter were both poisoned to
death by Lynn Turner, who died recently
while serving life sentences for those
crimes.
The school-related bill came out of a
meeting last year with the local RESA
group. School superintendents cited the
high cost of meeting the requirement of
sending attendance notifications by regis
tered mail, which Benton says costs about
$4 per letter.
“Jackson County said it would save
them over $10,000 a year.” Benton said.
“It's also costing them one person to
handle all the letters. I understand that
in Gwinnett County, it would save about
$50,000.”
By the time a school system sends such
a letter, it would have attempted to contact
the student's parents by mail, by a phone
call and, if there is an e-mail address, by
e-mail. Benton said he has an opinion
from the attorney general that eliminating
the registered letter requirement will not
affect due process.
“We’ve got a tremendous number of
kids missing a tremendous number of
days, especially in middle school and
elementary school,” Benton said.
Benton introduced the bill last year, but
it stalled in the Rules Committee.
SLOW START TO 2011 SESSION
The winter storm got the 2011 session
of the General Assembly off to a slow
start.
Officials convened Monday, Jan. 10, for
the inauguration of Gov. Nathan Deal and
came back Wednesday, Jan. 12, for his
state of the state address.
“And then we came right home. The
roads in Atlanta were just terrible,” Benton
remarked.
Benton is off this week, but the House
Appropriation Committee is handling
budget hearings. The full House will
reconvene Monday for the whole week.
Like last year, balancing the state bud
get is the major issue. Part of that will
involve recommendations from the Special
Council on Tax Reform and Fairness —
where it is widely believed that there
will be an attempt to remove some of the
exemptions from the state sales tax.
If that's the case, the House will merely
have an up or down vote — no ability to
amend the document on the floor of the
House.
“We have never, that I know of, been
able to amend a tax bill on the floor of the
House,” Benton noted.
In its report, the tax council recom
mends removing the tax exemption on
groceries. It also recommends ceasing
“sales tax holidays,” eliminating sales tax
exemptions for government authorities
( such as the Jackson County Water and
Sewerage Authority), applying sales taxes
to casual sales of personal property (cars,
boats, etc.), taxing some personal ser
vices, and requiring companies who sell
to Georgians via mail or online to levy the
sales tax.
CONTACT BENTON
District 31 Rep. Tommy Benton can
be reached by phone at 706-367-5891
(home) or 404-656-0177 (office): or by
e-mail at tommy.benton@house.ga.gov.
For daily updates on legislative action
and links to Georgia representatives, U.S.
Congressmen, Senators and other offi
cials, visit Benton's website at www.tom-
mybenton.com.
BENTON
MT. CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCH YOUNG ADULT CHOIR
Members of the young adult choir at Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Commerce
are shown above. The group held a mini-gospel music concert prior to the start
of Sunday’s MLK celebration held at the Jackson EMC building. See page 12A for
more on the event. Photo by Katie Huston
BOC chairman Bicknell pitches
case for regional road sales tax
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
JACKSON COUNTY vot
ers will have another tax deci
sion to make in August 2012.
Will they vote to approve a
10-year one-cent sales tax to
fund transportation needs and
to access state transportation
dollars, or will they reject the
tax and see state funding for
local transportation projects
fall?
Jackson County Board of
Commissioners chairman
Hunter Bicknell outlined the
scope of House Bill 277.
which gives voters in each
of 12 districts in the state the
option of approving the sales
tax. at the Jan. 13 meeting of
the Commerce Kiwanis Club.
Jackson is lumped into
a “regional transportation
roundtable” with Barrow,
Clarke, Elbert. Greene. Jasper,
Madison, Morgan. Newton.
Oconee. Oglethorpe and
Walton counties — the same
counties that make up the
Northeast Georgia Regional
Commission.
The referendum on the tax,
which will include a list of
specific projects, is slated for
Aug. 21, 2012. Fifty percent
plus one vote district-wide will
determine whether
the tax is levied, so
even if a majority
of Jackson County
voters oppose the
tax it would be
enacted if a major
ity of votes cast
in the district sup
ported the tax.
The roundtable
comprises two members from
each of the counties — the
chairman of the board of
commissioners and a mayor
selected by the mayors of
that county. Jackson's repre
sentatives are Bicknell and
Jefferson mayor Jim Joiner.
That group elected a five-
member executive committee
and made Bicknell its chair
man.
“For a number of years,
the state has been under-
investing in transportation
infrastructure,” Bicknell told
the Kiwanis Club. “Instead,
Georgia has relied upon
infrastructure put in place
years ago to support existing
development and continued
growth.”
According to Bicknell,
Georgia spends fewer dol
lars per capita on transpor
tation than any state
in the U.S., except
Tennessee.
“The opportunity
to vote on a region
al sales tax is an
acknowledgement
of the need to invest
more heavily in trans
portation infrastruc
ture to support the
state's continued growth,” he
said, adding that without that
money, “Georgia’s transpor
tation network will continue
to deteriorate and diminish
Georgia's ability to compete
for jobs and growth in the
future. This also holds true for
Jackson County and Northeast
Georgia.”
Bicknell acknowledged that
getting voters to add another
penny of sales tax will be a
tough sell. The key, he said,
will be to develop a list of
projects that will appeal to
voters.
“If we don’t have a good
list of projects, the citizens
will not accept it. It will not
pass.” Bicknell said. “It may
not pass anyway.”
According to Bicknell, if
the referendum passed, it
continued on page 9A
BICKNELL
WJ Relay for Life kick off
rescheduled for Tuesday
BY KERRI TESTEMENT
A KICKOFF for the inau
gural Braselton-Hoschton Relay
for Life has been rescheduled
for Tuesday. Jan. 25, after last
week’s event was cancelled
because of the winter storm.
The American Cancer Society
will hold the kick off event for
the new Relay of Life at the
Braselton Community Room
— located in the lower level
of the Braselton Police and
Municipal Court Building on
Ga. Hwy. 53.
Refreshments will be served
at 5:30 p.m„ and a program
starts at 6 p.m.
The kick off event will feature
Tony Funari, a Braselton coun
cil member who has survived
non-Hodgkin's lymphoma; and
Georgia Saunders, wife of Ernie
Saunders — a five-time cancer
survivor. Funari will represent
Braselton and Saunders will rep
resent Hoschton.
Braselton Mayor Bill Orr and
Hoschton Mayor Erma Denney
are also slated to attend the free
event.
At the kick off event, par
ticipants will be told how to
get involved in Relay for Life
— including establishing a team,
walking in the survivor lap or
sponsoring the event. It also will
include information about fund
raising and event logistics, and
will introduce the leadership and
honorary chairpersons.
While the Braselton-Hoschton
Relay for Life will be the second
Relay event in Jackson County,
anyone from the Braselton-
Hoschton area in Barrow. Hall
and Gwinnett counties is wel
comed to participate, accord
ing to Victoria Patrick, senior
community manager for the
American Cancer Society.
The inaugural Braselton-
Hoschton Relay for Life will
begin at 7 p.m. on Friday, May
6, at the new Hoschton Park,
located next to West Jackson
Primary School on Ga. Hwy.
53.
Anyone wishing to regis
ter a team, join a team, sign
up for the survivor activi
ties or with other questions
may view the event informa
tion at www.RelayForLife.org/
BraseltonHoschtonGA.
Team meeting dates will
be Feb. 8. March 8, and April
12, each in the Braselton
Community Room, at 7 p.m.
For answers to other questions,
contact Patrick at 770-307-7956
or Victoria.Patrick@cancer.org.
First Georgia Bank to
close Commerce office
FIRST GEORGIA Bank
will close its Commerce
office, located on South
Elm Street, the company
announced last week. The
projected date — which is
subject to change — is April
15.
It is also closing an office
in Villa Rica as part of what
it calls “an internal reorgani
zation designed to improve
operating efficiencies by
reducing expenses.”
First Georgia is under a
state consent order to increase
board of directors' participa
tion, reduce bad loans and
raise investor cash.
Jackie Whitfield, who
manages the branch, will be
relocated to the company’s
Homer office.
A spokesman for First
Georgia declined to provide
any further information —
including how many local
employees will lose their
jobs.
“It is my understanding
that we are not comment
ing beyond the press release
other than that Jackie is mov
ing to the Homer office.” said
Teresa Martin, executive vice
president and chief financial
officer.
The company's news
release indicated that cus
tomer accounts from the
Commerce office will be
automatically transferred to
another office of the bank.
Letters to affected customers
will be mailed out in the near
future, the release added.
The company also has an
office in Jefferson.