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THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2011
Mayfield Dairy to close visitors center in Braselton
i ,.
ICE CREAM TREAT
Cindy Stephens and her sons, Griffin Stephens, 9, and Chase Stephens, 5, of
Maysville, pick out their ice cream from the Mayfield Dairy Visitors Center ice
cream parlor on Tuesday. The visitors center will close Oct. 31.
Photo by Kerri Testement
BY KERRI TESTEMENT
THE MAYFIELD Dairy
Visitors Center in Braselton —
one of the largest tourism spots
in the region — will close at
the end of October, according
to officials.
Mayfield Dairy’s parent
company. Deans Foods, said
it will close the visitors center
— which features tours of the
Braselton milk production facil
ity, a gift shop and ice cream
parlor — on Monday. Oct. 31.
Tours will end on Friday, Oct.
14.
The Mayfield Dairy milk
production facility in Braselton
will remain open. The company
doesn’t make ice cream at the
local plant.
Closing the visitors center
wasn’t an easy decision, accord
ing to a spokesperson.
“Mayfield is one of the coun
try’s leading dairy brands, and it
is an important part of the Dean
Foods portfolio,” said Jamaison
Schuler, senior manager for cor
porate communications at Dean
Foods. “Challenging economic
conditions have affected the
entire dairy industry. We have
had to make difficult choices to
ensure that the Mayfield brand
and Dean Foods as a whole
remain competitive.”
Since the visitors center
opened in 1997. it has remained
a popular tourist destination in
Jackson County and Northeast
Georgia — even during the poor
economy.
The Mayfield Dairy Visitors
Center in Braselton welcomes
about 200,000 visitors a year,
according to Schuler. That fig
ure has remained constant in
recent years and wasn’t a reason
for the decision to close the visi
tors center, he added.
“We enjoy sharing the
Mayfield story with the visiting
public through the interactive
center, but its current operating
structure is not economically
sustainable,” Schuler said in a
statement. ‘This decision was a
difficult but necessary one that
will help us continue to invest in
the Mayfield brand and the hun
dreds of employees that produce
and sell Mayfield products.”
Still, officials in Braselton
said they were “saddened and
shocked” by the news of closing
the visitors center at Mayfield
Dairy.
Town manager Jennifer
Dees issued a statement
— distributed through a
regional tourism representa
tive of the Georgia Department
of Economic Development —
about the closure.
“Those visitors are important
not only to Braselton but to the
entire State of Georgia,” she
said in the statement. “School
children come from all across
the state to see the educational
tours and eat some dam good
ice cream. It’s an industry that
is clean and family friendly and
we are thrilled to have it in
Braselton.”
Dees said town officials will
do their best to keep the visi
tors center, if at all possible.
She asked folks to call Scottie
Mayfield, president of Mayfield
Dairy, at 1-800-362-9546 and
him ask to get Dean Foods to
keep the center open. The visi
tors center and town also posted
a rallying cry to save the facility
from closure on their Facebook
pages.
Dean Foods intends to keep
the visitors center in Braselton
closed at least through the end
of the year, while the com
pany evaluates whether it can
operate the facility in a man
ner that is less costly, accord
ing to Schuler.
“At this point, we said it’s
going to remain closed indefi
nitely, but we always look at
an opportunity when it comes
along,” Schuler said. “Again,
it’s a difficult decision, but I
wouldn’t say it’s permanent
— but we can’t, at this point,
make promises in the future,
either. So, we’re officially
closing it through at least the
end of this year.”
The Mayfield Dairy Visitors
Center in Braselton employs
three full-time employees and
a number of temporary sea
sonal workers. Schuler said.
Depending on the season.
the milk production facil
ity in Braselton has 180-200
employees at a time.
Schuler said it has been
humbling to see the commu
nity rally behind the visitors
center to keep it open, but he
emphasized that the Mayfield
Dairy brand remains strong
and isn’t leaving.
A visitors center at Mayfield
Dairy’s headquarters in
Athens, Tenn.. will remain
open, he added.
The Braselton visitors cen
ter is offering its gift shop
items on sale prior to the clo
sure, Tours of the facility are
available Mondays through
Fridays, from 10 a.m. to 4
p.m.; and Saturdays, from
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Mayfield
Dairy is located on Broadway
Avenue (Ga. Hwy. 124) in
Braselton.
County buys 13 acres, several buildings for airport
Jackson County BOC
Tax bills could be a
little lower in county
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
BECAUSE PROPERTY val
ues have fallen over the past 12
months and the Jackson County
Board of Commissioners set the
2011 property tax rate pretty
much at last year’s levels, county
taxpayers might actually see
marginally lower tax bills this
fall than last.
Meeting Friday afternoon, the
board set the rate at 9.58 mills
for incorporated areas, which is
up three one-hundredths of a mill
over last year, and at 8.61 mills
for unincorporated areas — the
same as last year.
The difference between the
two sets of rates is because resi
dents of unincorporated areas get
a rollback from the proceeds of
the insurance premium tax col
lected by the county. Residents
of municipalities do not get that
rollback because the cities also
collect (and spend) that tax.
Tax bills are expected to go
out by Oct. 20, with a due date
of Dec. 20.
In a related matter, the com
missioners approved a resolution
designating the furlough days
for 2012.
Also on Friday, the board
approved its fiscal year 2012
budget totaling $65.7 million, an
increase of $3.5 million or 5.64
percent, over the FY 2010 bud
get. The General Fund budget of
$35.6 million is down $133,228
from last year.
“It has certainly been very
challenging,” finance director
John Hulsey told the board as he
recommended the rates.
To balance the budget, county
employees will experience 12
furlough days again in 2012.
In addition, county employees
choosing lower health insurance
deductibles will pay more for
insurance, the county will draw
down its reserves by $2.2 mil
lion and. for the third consecu
tive year, there is no contingency
fund. If the sale of heavy equip
ment produces the expected
$1.75 million, the use of reserves
will drop accordingly, Hulsey
noted.
Hulsey pointed out that due
to tax appraisal challenges, the
county tax digest dropped $22
million since the commission
ers advertised their proposed tax
rates and five-year tax history.
“That means the county lost
$22,000 a mill,” he observed.
Overall, the property tax levy
is expected to produce 4.5 per
cent less revenue than in 2011. a
decrease of $855,740.
In other business, the commis
sioners agreed to pursue the re
issuing of $21.6 million in bonds
in on the new courthouse in the
hope of saving up to $342,000.
By a 4-1 vote, the commissioners
authorized finance director John
Hulsey to proceed with a pro
posal offered by Jamie Wilson of
Merchant Capital.
Commissioner Tom Crow
voted against the measure. Before
the motion to approve the recom
mendation, Crow made a motion
to put the proposal out for bids to
be considered at a regular BOC
meeting, but the motion died for
lack of a second.
“We bid out a $500 lawnmow-
er, but we’re talking thousands of
dollars here and I think we ought
to go through the same process,”
Crow said. He added that since
bond rates appear to be falling,
there was little chance that a
delay would reduce the attrac
tiveness of refinancing.
Bruce Yates made the motion,
seconded by Chas Hardy,
to name Merchant Capital as
the underwriter and Miller &
Miller as the bond counsel. The
bonds will be issued through the
Jefferson Building Authority.
Clarification on monument
An article in last week’s Herald previewing the unveiling of a
bronze soldier atop a Confederate monument did not state that the
original monument, still standing on the square opposite the new
monument, was dedicated in 1911 after having been erected by the
United Daughters of the Confederacy. The soldier atop the original
monument was broken in 1940. The new monument is separate,
erected by the Sons of the Confederacy, and has the bronze soldier
on top. We regret any confusion over this matter.
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
THE JACKSON County
acquisition of 13 acres and
several buildings adjacent to
its county airport for the bar
gain basement price of $44,169
solves a longstanding problem.
That outlay represents just 2.5
percent of the total $1,766,745
purchase price. The Georgia
Department of Transportation
will chip in another $44,169,
but the heavy financial lifting
is being done by American tax
payers, as the Federal Aviation
Administration will expend
$1,678,408 in federal money on
the project.
The Jackson County Board of
Commissioners signed the con-
Home damaged
in fire Sunday
A SOUTH Jackson home was
damaged in a fire Sunday.
The South Jackson, Arcade
and Jackson County Correctional
Institute fire department respond
ed to 178 Crystal Lane, Bogart,
on a reported structure fire. Upon
arrival, they found a two-story
single family residence with fire
showing.
The residents were not home
at the time of the fire and the fire
was detected by nearby neigh
bors. The fire was extinguished
without any injuries being report
ed and the residence was listed as
heavily damaged.
The cause of the fire is under
investigation by the South Jackson
Fire Department.
tract administered by the Georgia
Department of Transportation at
a called meeting last Friday.
“It’s cleaning up a mistake
the county made 25-30 years
ago,” explained Shannon Sell,
chairman of the Jackson County
Airport Authority. “They gave
him (original owner Leroy
Allen) access to that runway
25-30 years ago. They’re (the
FAA) doing this all over the
country.”
The move will give Jackson
County control of what is termed
a “through-the-fence” operation
that, because of security con
cerns, is considered a liability by
the FAA — direct access to the
airport runways.
Max Allen, son of the late
Leroy Allen, operates a business
out of the property, which com
prises several tracts and several
buildings, including a couple of
hangar/shop buildings.
The airport authority has no
immediate plans for using the
property.
“This has been a long process,
years, and the FAA finally got
the money to pull the trigger,”
Sell explained. “We do not have
any definite plans to use the
buildings other than for county
use. We have talked about every
thing from a fire station to the
storage of airport equipment.”
The property is owned by
Virginia Allen.
Sell says the purchase is a
bargain for the county.
“The Jackson County share,
for what we’re getting, is a
homerun,” he said.
He added that it’s been a long
time coming.
‘This hasn’t come overnight,”
said Sell. “This is the result of
some hard work from a lot of
people.”
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