Newspaper Page Text
THE
ACKSON
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H Wednesday, August 3, 2011
ERALD
www.JacksonHeraldTODAY.com
VOL. 137 NO. 8 34 PACES 3 SECTIONS PLUS INSERTS A PUBLICATION OF MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. JEFFERSON, JACKSON COUNTY GEORGIA 30549 75« COPY
— Inside —
Area news:
•Reservoir still full,
despite drought
page 2A
•CRCT retests bring
score improvements
page 3 A
Op/Ed:
•'Camera brings the
craft in clear focus'
page 4 A
Sports:
School system to keep all furlough days
BY KERRI TESTEMENT
A CONCERN that
the Jackson County
School System could
return to a deficit bud
get has led district offi
cials to keep all of its
scheduled 10 furlough
days for employees this
school year.
Superintendent Shannon Adams told
district employees in a memo last week
that the school system will keep the 10
furlough days — after recent talks of
possibly eliminating one or more of the
cost-savings days in the wake of a better-
than-expected county tax digest.
Adams explained in an e-mail to
MainStreet Newspapers on Friday that the
decision to keep all of the furlough days
stems from the district’s efforts in 2009-
2010 to pull out of a $908,600 deficit. The
school system pulled out of that deficit
in a relatively short time, in part because
of layoffs, closing its Regional Evening
School and other cost-cutting measures.
“We exerted a lot of ‘financial energy’
to eliminate the budget deficit,” Adams
wrote. “We accomplished the task in about
half the time that the (Georgia Department
of Education) would ordinarily predict in
good financial times. We did not want to
fight that battle again.”
The Jackson County School System
plans to stay out of another deficit budget
by maintaining a healthy fund balance,
he added.
Although the county’s tax digest will
provide fewer tax dollars for the school
system, the reduction isn’t as much as offi
cials initially expected, Adams explained.
“At one point in time, we were con
cerned that the tax digest could come
in as much as 12-15 percent lower than
last year,” he wrote, “So when the actual
shortfall was only 4.85 percent, we were
extremely encouraged.”
That led Adams to say after the board
of education’s meeting on July 18 that the
school system may eliminate one or more
of its furlough days for employees.
Each furlough day saves the school
system $281,800 in salaries and benefits,
he wrote in a response to questions on
Friday.
“We will monitor the situation continu
ally, and if we feel that the restoration of
calendar reduction days is economically
viable, we certainly have the option to
go that route,” Adams wrote.
The Jackson County Board of Education
has adopted a spending resolution for July
and August, instead of a tentative fiscal
year budget. The new fiscal year started
on July 1.
The county tax digest wasn’t available
for the board of education meeting on July
18, when the latest spending resolution
was approved. Adams has said that once
the tax digest was completed, the board
would hold a called meeting to adopt a
tentative budget.
Adams wrote on Friday that there have
been no official discussions to increase
the school system’s tax millage rate in the
proposed tentative budget.
•Preseason practice
starts for local teams
page 1B
Features:
•Family holds 60th
reunion page 6C
Other News:
•Public Safety
pages 6-7A
•Legals
pages 9-1OC
•Church News
page 11B
•Obituaries
page 7B
•School News
pages 5-6B
m
\ '
J 4
BIG DAY
Jamie Halferty (center) and Hannah Halferty (right) accompany 6-year-old Michael
Halferty (left) to his first day of first grade at Jefferson Elementary School Monday.
See more photos on page 8A. Photo by Ben Munro
.Q -S
No more parties at the reservoir
Bear Creek authority addresses trespassing
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
THE OWNERS of the Bear
Creek Reservoir are prepared to
spend up to $12,000 to keep the
good old boys from partying,
fishing, drinking and getting into
mischief on reservoir property.
It seems that someone has
discovered a honey hole in the
Middle Oconee River near the
pumps that bring river water
into the reservoir. Some late-
night trespassing, fishing, a
little alcohol and loud music
have the Upper Oconee Basin
Water Authority worried about
its liability and about damage to
its property and equipment. A
burglary on an adjacent parcel
doesn’t help.
“The Operations Committee
feels there is definitely a need for
fencing,” reported Chris Thomas,
committee chairman, to the full
authority last Thursday.
According to Thomas, people
have used four-wheelers to create
a simple road down to the river
off Hwy. 330 at the river pump
station - driving right around a
series of “Private Property, No
Trespassing” signs.
“There are several people that
posted signs don’t mean any
thing to.” noted member Elton
Collins of Commerce.
As of last Thursday, Thomas
said a couple of vendors have
looked at the site in preparation
for submitting a bid. He specu
lated that the work could be
done for about $10,000.
On a motion by Collins, the
authority authorized the com
mittee to spend up to $12,000 to
seal off the area.
In other matters, the author
ity took care of some house
keeping issues. Its Resource
Management Commission re
elected Collins as its chairman,
named Jackson County Board
of Commissioners’ chairman
Hunter Bicknell as vice chair
man and re-elected Mott Beck,
administrative assistant at the
Northeast Georgia Regional
Commission as secretary.
The Resource Management
Commission is made up of rep
resentatives of the entities that
use water from the reservoir. It
meets just once a year — that
was last Thursday for 2011 —
and Collins represents it on the
authority.
The authority shortly there
after re-elected Oconee County
banker Amrey Harden as its at-
large member (he’s served since
continued on page 5A
Back to school
County students return
to classroom Thursday
JACKSON COUNTY stu
dents will return to the class
room on Thursday. The new
school year began Monday for
Jefferson City Schools.
For the 2011-2012 school
year, county school superinten
dent Shannon Adams foresees a
minimal increase in the student
populations.
“We don’t anticipate any great
growth, obviously, because prac
tically nobody is moving into
the community,” said Shannon
Adams, superintendent of the
Jackson County School System.
“We might grow a little bit,
but we don’t anticipate it being
much.”
The Jackson County School
System is slated to start the
new school year with an esti
mated 7.200 students — about
the same number of children
enrolled in the district at the end
of last school year, according to
Adams.
The Jefferson City School
System had 2.759 students for
the first day of class. The district
ended the previous school year
with 2,760 students.
“More times than not, the
enrollment goes up over the first
10 days of school,” superinten
dent John Jackson said. “I antic
ipate the 10th day enrollment to
be approximately 2,800.”
Meeting set Aug. 10 on
regional road projects
BYANGELA GARY
THE NORTHEAST Georgia
Regional Transportation
Roundtable (RTR) will meet on
Wednesday, August 10, at 12:30
p.m. at the Oconee County Civic
Center to review proposed road
projects.
The projects would be funded
by a penny tax for transporta
tion that will go before voters
in 2012.
The RTR will review the draft
list of projects developed by the
executive committee.
Proposed projects in Jackson
County include a Braselton
Parkway extension. Jefferson
bypass from State Route 82
to State Route 15 Alt., Gum
Springs Church Road at Jackson
Trail, State Route 11 intersection
improvements, Hog Mountain
Road from Valentine Industrial
Parkway to State Route 82,1-85
at State Route 60 proposed inter
change. Sam Freeman Road
extension from State Route
523 to State Route 124, State
Route 11 at State Route 124/
Galilee Church Road intersec
tion improvements. State Route
53 improvements, State Route
82 at County Farm Road inter
section improvements, State
Route 82 realignment/Airport
Road, State Street/State Route
326 from Hwy. 441 to Hwy.
98. Thompson Mill Road at
Ednaville Road intersection,
west side parallel taxiway at the
county airport, widening and
reconstruction of Hwy. 53, wid
ening projects along 1-85 and
widening of State Route 11/
Hwy. 129 from State Route 332
to State Route 323.
Public meetings will be held
next month at three locations
throughout the region. The
schedule is as follows:
•September 8,6 p.m., Oconee
County Civic Center, focusing
on Jackson, Barrow, Clarke and
Oconee counties.
•September 13, 6 p.m.,
Crawford Depot, focusing on
Elbert, Greene, Madison and
Oglethorpe counties.
•September 22, 6 p.m., loca
tion to be determined in Newton
County, focusing on Jasper.
Morgan, Newton, and Walton
counties.
BOC agrees for Jefferson to
handle county inspections
BYANGELA GARY
JACKSON County leaders
agreed Monday on a proposal
to contract to use the City of
Jefferson’s building inspector to
handle building inspections for
the county.
At an earlier board of com
mission meeting, planning direc
tor Gina Mitsdarffer presented a
plan to contract with the City
of Jefferson to use its build
ing inspector. Danny Atkins, on
an as-needed basis. The county
would use Atkins a minimum of
10 hours per week and as many
as 20 hours per week.
The county will pay the city
$39.25 per hour for Atkins’ ser
vices, which includes his salary,
benefits, workers compensation
and insurance.
The county building inspec
tor position is vacant follow
ing the retirement of Jerry
Lord, who was working 20
continued on page 5A
•Culinary training
held for school nutri
tion staff page 7 C