Newspaper Page Text
THE
ACKSON
r ',y
MW.
H Wednesday, March 30, 2011
ERALD
www.JacksonHeraldTODAY.com
VOL. 136 NO. 42 46 PACES 4 SECTIONS PLUS INSERTS A PUBLICATION OF MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. JEFFERSON, JACKSON COUNTY GEORGIA 30549 75« COPY
— Inside —
Area news:
•Jefferson looks at
expanding athletic
facilities page 2A
•Thousands attend
funeral of slain officer
page 8A
Op/Ed:
•'Are Americans will
ing to make sacrifices?'
page 4 A
Sports:
•Thai exchange stu
dent stars on tennis court
for Jackson County
page 1B
Features:
•Long-time beauty
shop closes its doors
page 1C
Other News:
•Public Safety
pages 6-8A
•Legals
pages 10-24C
•Church News
page 7B
•Obituaries
page 6B
•School News
pages 8-12B
O -S
Ethics complaint filed in Nicholson
Former council member writes to ethics board about ‘injustice’
FORMER NICHOLSON council
member, Carol L. (Faye) Seagraves,
has filed an ethics complaint against a
City of Nicholson council member.
In her letter to the ethics board
dated January 8, 2011, Seagraves said,
“I come before you today to right an
injustice. I tried to handle this through
regular council meetings, but was told
that an Ethics Committee would have
to be formed in order to hear my
complaint.”
Seagraves alleges that during her
time in office, 2006-2009, the mayor
and council received travel expenses
for taking their personal vehicles to
the Georgia Municipal Association
(GMA) Convention in Savannah.
Seagraves said council member
Lamar Watkins signed that he was
driving and he took travel expenses
even though he actually rode with
council member Howard Wilbanks to
the convention.
“Watkins did not operate his own
vehicle, but he took monies from the
Nicholson City Budget Funds,”
Seagraves said. “Mr. Watkins
has been asked repeatedly
to reimburse the city for the
funds he illegally received, but
he has yet to do so.”
Seagraves stated in the let
ter, “Taking money for some
thing that you didn’t do is
wrong on any level, especially
if you are a publicly elected official
taking money from the people who
elected you.”
Seagraves asked the ethics
board to do what is right and
fair for the City and people of
Nicholson.
“An ethics ordinance is
something that the City can
be proud of and is the closest
thing. I believe, that you can get
to the Ten Commandments,”
Seagraves said.
Seagraves lists the amount of money
that she believes Watkins owes the
city as $210.
SEAGRAVES
JHS TAKES ON EJCHS
Jefferson’s Stephen Chambers is shown during Jefferson High School’s soccer
match against East Jackson Comprehensive High School Friday. The Dragons
defeated EJCHS, 3-1. Photo by Ben Munro
Airport authority adopts minimum
standards, looking at new zoning
BY BEN MUNRO
THE JACKSON County Airport Authority has
adopted a set of minimum standards and regula
tions for commercial operations as it works toward
trying to establish a special airport zoning within
the next two years.
The authority approved the standards and regula
tions at its March 22 meeting.
“These will go in place, if we adopt them, until
we get done with the full zoning classification,”
chairman Shannon Sell said prior to the board
voting.
Sell said these minimum standards and regula
tions would most likely be incorporated by the
county if and when the new airport zoning is
established.
“Hopefully that day will be within the next year
or 18 months,” Sell said.
In other business conducted at the meeting last
week, the authority:
•heard from an audience member who wanted
the airport authority meetings moved back to the
airport and another audience member who wanted
to see finance reports from the JCAA. Authority
members said they moved the meetings to insure
it had sufficient seating should a meeting draw a
large crowd and said the financial reports are pub
lic record and would be provided to anyone who
requested financial figures.
•agreed to move forward with questionnaires for
continued on page 3A
BOE looks at construction possibilities
Jefferson board
holds retreat
BY BEN MUNRO
THE JEFFERSON school
board got a peek at poten
tial plans for three bond-
approved construction proj
ects Friday as part of its
weekend retreat.
Craig Buckley of James
W. Buckley and Associates
showed the Jefferson Board
of Education (BOE) some
initial drawings of new aca
demic wings at both Jefferson
Elementary School and
Jefferson High School, as
well as a spacious, arena-like
gym for the high school.
Jefferson voters passed a
bond referendum March 15
related to the Education Local
Option Sales Tax (ELOST) to
issue bonds - up to $25 mil
lion - to fund these projects.
The elementary school
project will add 21,696
square feet to the campus
-12 classrooms and a new
kitchen and cafeteria - while
an additional 6,555 square
feet of space will be reno
vated. The current cafeteria
and kitchen will be converted
into three classrooms, giving
the elementary school a total
of 15 new rooms.
At the high school, plans
call to tear down an annex
on the northern section of
campus to build the new
classroom annex. The new
classroom building will con
tain 18 new classrooms and
a new kitchen. The current
kitchen will also be converted
into a lab, giving Jefferson
High School 19 new class
rooms. This project will add
31,579 square feet to the high
school.
Buckley’s initial drawings
had the new gym located on
the northern portion of the
high school property, sepa
rate from the campus. But
there’s interest in moving the
gym closer to the high school
building.
“I think the closer I make
it, the better.” he said.
The new gym, which spans
68,710 square feet in these
drawings, could feature a
number of amenities. Among
the possibilities are arena-
style seating (each seat would
have a back) surrounding the
court, two 50 x 94 side-by-
side courts available when the
gym bleachers are retracted, a
wrestling practice room, two
classrooms, coaches offices,
five locker rooms, a training
room and a 5.000 square foot
weight room.
The venue could seat up
to 1,500, but bumping the
capacity to 2,000 wouldn’t
add that much square foot
age, Buckley said.
School leaders must decide
which part of the high school
to build first - the academic
wing or the gym. One option,
Buckley said, is to start the
gym and then begin the aca
demic expansion midway
through the gym project to
allow both jobs to finish
around the same time. Or the
BOE could opt to finish the
continued on page 3A
Jefferson closes meeting
to discuss land acquisition
BYANGELA GARY
JEFFERSON leaders con
tinue to meet behind closed
doors to discuss land acquisi
tion.
The city council met in
closed session Monday night
for 30 minutes to discuss prop
erty-related issues. No action
was taken after the closed
session. Two weeks ago, the
council met in closed session
for 45 minutes to discuss land
acquisition.
At the meeting this week,
engineer Jerry Hood and public
works director Jeff Killip were
asked to stay for the closed
session.
In other business Monday
night, the council:
•approved a resolution sup
porting the department of
transportation’s contract for
acquisition of rights-of-way
needed for the Martin Luther
King Jr. Drive road improve
ment project.
•in a 3-1 vote, approved an
employee insurance benefits
plan that is an increase of 11
percent. Councilman Steve
Kinney voted against this,
while C.D. Kidd III, Bosie
Griffith and Roy Plott voted in
favor of it.
•approved a resolution rec
ognizing Georgia Cities Week.
168 new Food Stamp
applications reported
THE JACKSON County
Department of Family and
Children Services had 168
new Food Stamp applica
tions for February, bringing
the total number of cases to
3,974.
This is one of the reports
given at the March meeting
of the DFCS board.
Also in February, 208 fam
ily Medicaid applications
were taken and 10 temporary
assistance for needy families
(TANF) applications were
handed in. There were 2,779
total family Medicaid cases
and 78 TANF cases for the
month of February.
In other business at the
monthly meeting:
•Jackson County DFCS
director Jacqueline Franklin
reported a total of 112 active
child care cases with 277
children served; 1,290 total
active adult, blind and dis
abled (ABD) cases with 81
ABD applications taken in
February.
•Franklin presented the
February report showing 82
foster care cases; 10 inves
tigations; 21 ongoing child
protective services (CPS)
cases; 45 diversions; six CPS
safety resources and seven
secondary assignments.
•Franklin reported 687
people came to the office at
DFCS during the month of
February.
•Franklin presented the
total expense for county
funds at $1,766.
The next DFCS board
meeting is set for 10 a.m. on
Wednesday, April 27, in the
DFCS office, Athens Sheet,
Jefferson.
Bear Creek Reservoir provided
3 billion gallons of water in ‘10
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
THE BEAR Creek
Reservoir in Jackson County
remained at full pool all of
2010 while providing over 3
billion gallons of water for
residents of Jackson. Barrow.
Clarke and Oconee counties.
The owners of the reser
voir — the Upper Oconee
Basin Water Authority —
accepted last Wednesday the
2010 annual report highlight
ing the year’s statistics.
During 2010, the operators
of the reservoir withdrew 1.7
billion gallons of water from
the Middle Oconee River to
pump into the reservoir. For
the same period, the author
ity treated 2.5 billion gallons.
The reservoir was augmented
by 47.7 inches of rain during
the year.
Jackson County, which
purchased just under 900 mil
lion gallons, was the largest
user of water in the reservoir,
followed by Oconee County
at 859 million gallons and
Barrow at 776 million.
Athens-Clarke is also a
partner in the Bear Creek
Reservoir, but it only with
draws from the reservoir
when necessary to supple
ment its direct withdrawals
from the river, and it treats
the raw water in its own
treatment plant. Athens-
Clarke withdrew 544 million
gallons from the reservoir
during 2010, according to
the report.
The water plant’s produc
tion peaked in July at just
under 300 million gallons for
the month. The lowest usage
was February, when sales to
counties dipped to under 200
continued on page 3A