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THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2017
PLANE MAKES EMERGENCY LANDING
ON JACKSON COUNTY HIGHWAY
A small passenger plane made an emergency
landing on Hwy. 441 near Cabin Creek Road
Tuesday afternoon. The Greenville, S.C., pilot
landed the small plane on the highway in Jackson
County after he lost an engine. He was the only
person on the plane and was uninjured in the
incident. Nicholson Area Fire, EMS crews and the
Jackson County Sheriff’s Office responded to the
incident which occurred around 4 p.m.
Photo from Nicholson Area
Fire and Rescue Facebook.
Hoschton man kills
himself during traffic stop
A Hoschton man shot himself Thursday night during a
traffic stop after he was pulled over for running off the road.
Brian James, 53, of Hoschton, shot himself as deputies
were demanding he get out of his truck, according to the
Jackson County Sheriffs Office incident report.
Deputies stopped James’ vehicle on McNeal Road at Hwy.
60 around 10 p.m. on Aug. 10 after his vehicle failed to main
tain the lane multiple times.
He was reportedly fidgeting, talkative and kept covering
his mouth and sounded like he had something in his mouth.
James told the deputy that he was nervous and he was
“causing him a lot of anxiety.”
A backup deputy was called and said he smelled alcohol
in the vehicle.
James also placed his hands on the steering wheel without
being asked to by the backup deputy.
He said he was coming from the Tilted Kilt and lived “just
down the road.”
“Brian kept stating that he was almost home and just want
ed to go home,” the backup deputy wrote.
While the first deputy was writing up a warning for failure
to maintain lane, the backup deputy asked James to get out of
the vehicle so they could do a field sobriety test.
He refused to comply with the deputy's commands for him
to get out of the vehicle. After the deputy told him he was
going to pull him out of the truck and arrest him for obstruc
tion, James locked the door.
“Brian then dropped his hands and raised his right hand
really quickly holding a black pistol,” the backup deputy
wrote.
He reportedly yelled to the other deputy, “He’s got a gun.”
The deputies said they drew their weapons and backed
away. They took cover behind their vehicle.
James fired a shot inside his truck. Officers commanded
him to drop the gun and show his hands, but he didn’t com
ply. They assumed he may have shot himself.
Additional units eventually arrived and officers confirmed
James had committed suicide by shooting himself, according
to the incident report.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was called. After the
GBI investigated the scene, James’ body was removed and
his truck was towed.
Maysville slated to vote
on rezonings Wed.
BY CHARLES PHELPS
The Maysville City Council was slated to vote Wednesday
on two rezoning requests after the group failed to gamer a
quorum for the votes at Monday night’s meeting.
The first request was from Austin Hall for property at 16
Cora Way from Agricultural to Rural Residential 3. No one
spoke Monday night in opposition to that request.
The second rezoning bid did gather some opposition Mon
day. Eric Hardy has requested that property at 135 Rilla Lane
be rezoned from Agricultural to Rural Residential 1. Hardy is
planning to build a house on two acres at the location.
But the move was opposed by some neighbors who didn’t
want access to the property to come from Rilla Lane. Hardy
said Monday night that he planned to move the access point
to Comer Street.
Maysville ends
2016 in the black
The Town of Maysville ended 2016 in the black and with
a pile of cash in the bank.
Maysville’s general fund had income of $737,800 and
expenses of $586,600. After adjustments, the town netted
$160,300 on the year, pushing its unrestricted reserves to
$921,700.
The town’s water and sewer fund ended the year with
$764,300 in reserves.
BOE continued from 1A
Monday night, the BOE:
• approved hiring five additional special education para-
professionals in the system.
• approved revised job descriptions for assistant super
intendent of human resources and student support services
and for assistant superintendent for operations. The board
also approved the creation of a chief financial officer posi
tion and a reorganization of its administrative structure.
In related actions, the board moved Annah Dodge from
finance director to chief finance director and agreed to
buy a new software system to handle accounting and other
financial demands.
Jefferson mulls massive retail center
By Ben Munro
Neither city leaders nor citizens voiced public opposition
to a proposed major retail center in Jefferson during a Mon
day night meeting.
The center would bring 1.49 million square feet of com
mercial retail space to the intersection of the Hwy. 129
Bypass and Holder’s Siding Road.
The applicant, Centurion Partners, LLC, seeks the rezone
and annexation of 235.58 acres from medium density res
idential to highway commercial for the shopping center.
The council will vote on both items at its Aug. 28 meeting.
“The demographics show that this is really a need here in
Jefferson.” said Darrell Gamer, who represented Centurion
at the meeting. “So we’re really looking forward to doing
this here.”
Councilman Malcolm Gramley asked Gamer if the
developer had issues with the 11 conditions attached to the
rezoning.
“We"re going to make it work,” Gamer said.
When asked for a timetable for when work might start,
Gamer noted that a significant amount of engineering work
still needs to be done at the site.
“We’re going to take what the land is going to allow us
over there.” he said. “There’s a lot of rock to deal with.”
Gamer said he’s received interest from multiple parties
looking to locate in the retail space — including restaurants
and both big box and small box retailers.
“Every sort has called,” he said.
Gramley said the city needs the retail.
“I certainly hope this is going to be the beginning of it
and not just simply an exercise in rezoning.” Gramley told
Gamer.
LARGE DISTRUBTION CENTER DISCUSSED
A proposed annexation and rezoning of 95.13 acres on
Logics Parkway, if granted, would allow the construction
of 1.2 million square feet of distribution space.
The applicant, Jackson County Industrial Partners (JCIP),
has asked the Jefferson City Council to accept the 95.13-
acre tract into the city and rezone it from agricultural to
light industrial.
If the rezoning and annexation are approved, develop
ment will begin at the first of the year.
The plans call for two buildings, though the original pro
posal called for three buildings, which would have totaled
2.1 million square feet in distribution space. Those plans
were changed after residents voiced concerns about indus
trial property encroaching on the area.
Jackson County Industrial Partners has talked with IDI
about possibly developing this plan as Phase II of its park.
Original plans called for an entrance on the applicant’s
property, but an agreement with IDI has been reached to
allow JCIP to access the property through one of IDI’s
roads.
Gramley asked if the road system could service two addi
tional businesses. Tim Abney, representing the applicant,
said a traffic engineer and the DOT said a traffic light was
not warranted with two more buildings.
“But if there’s more traffic studies that we need to do to
ease everybody’s concerns, we’d be glad to address that,”
Abney said.
Jefferson’s planning staff recommended denial of the
plans. Councilman Mark Mobley asked if the project was
at an impasse.
“To answer your question, are we at an impasse? No.
we’ve tried to address everything to make it be consistent
with Phase I as much as possible, so when it’s done and
built out it looks like one big park,” Abney said.
No one spoke in opposition to the rezone or the annex
ation.
The plans also call for a variance from the one parking
space per 2,000 square foot minimum to one parking space
per 3,000 square feet and a landscape strip reduction from
20 feet to 10 feet.
COUNCIL FEARS TRAFFIC ‘DISASTER’
AT PROPOSED TRUCK STOP
The Jefferson City Council is wary of a proposed Circle
K Truck Stop on Dry Pond Road near 1-85. The DOT will
not permit a traffic signal in the area, leading city leaders to
believe the project would create major traffic issues.
Concerns centered around the traffic that already exists
in the area, including the trucks leaving and entering the
industrial park near the proposed site. The fear is the added
volume of trucks exiting the interstate to refuel will only
exacerbate the problem without a traffic light.
“It’s going to be a disaster,” councilman Don Kupis said.
The proposed site already meets all the zoning require
ments but was brought before the council through the
Development of Regional Impact (DRI) process.
D.O.T. REJECTS SIDEWALK WORK
The Georgia Department of Transportation has deemed
the much-delayed and federally-funded sidewalk construct
ed along Old Pendergrass Road unacceptable, according to
Jefferson public works director Jeff Killip.
The DOT used a contractor for the project, which was
plagued with constant hold-ups during construction.
According to Killip, the DOT compiled a pages-long
punch list of issues during a walkthrough last Friday. The
DOT plans to send the list to the contractor, who will
have 60 days to complete the work. If the work remains
unfinished at the end of the 60-day period, the DOT can
terminate the contract with the contractor once 30 more
days have passed.
Killip said he didn’t expect the DOT to send that list until
September.
As a result, drainage issues created by the construction of
the sidewalk will not be resolved for a few more months.
PRELIMINARY BUDGET PRESENTED
The city council saw a preliminary 2018 budget that calls
for $9.26 million in spending, up nearly 10 percent from the
2017 budget. The city has the option to roll back its millage
rate, but the budget figures are based on maintaining the
current rate of 6.185 to help pay for additional staff and
services. Preserving that rate will require the city to hold
multiple public hearings in September.
The budget calls for $3.69 million in property tax collec
tions, up 14 percent from the previous year.
Capital improvement projects total $2.47 million. City
clerk and interim city manager Priscilla Murphy called this
“the whole wish list” from all the department heads.
“I was hoping over the next couple of weeks that we
could have some kind of feedback from the council,” she
said.
Murphy said she’s already working on a list of what she
thinks should be done. She’s also gathering more informa
tion and options regarding some of the projects. The $2.47
million figure includes $1,175 million for a gymnastics
building at the recreation department.
“Although we bring in good money for gymnastics, with
our costs coming out of that, the best I can tell, we can’t
sustain a building, we can’t really operate a building, so we
would be putting more burden on the taxpayers to subsidize
this program.”
Murphy added: “I’m pretty sure the next time you see
this, for the meantime, I won’t have that building in there,
until we know more about it.”
QUINN VACATES SEAT TO RUN FOR MAYOR
Jefferson councilman Steve Quinn has resigned his Dis
trict 3 seat to ran for mayor and made that decision public
at the end of Monday night’s meeting.
Quinn, who served as a councilman for six years, thanked
the city’s employees, the city’s police and fire departments
and Jefferson residents.
“I’d especially like to thank the citizens,” he said. “It’s
been an honor.”
Mayor Roy Plott — the man Quinn is running against —
praised Quinn for his service to the city.
“I don’t know of anybody who has more passion or more
dedication to the job,” Plott said. “He’s represented the third
ward (district) in a spectacular way.”
Quinn received a standing ovation.
Following Quinn’s resignation, the council approved a
resolution to hold a special election for his District 3 seat.
Commerce BOE will keep same tax rate
By Ron Bridgeman
Commerce property tax
payers may have a slight
tax reduction based on the
board of education’s inten
tion to maintain the cur
rent millage rate of 19.139
mills.
Supt. Joy Tolbert told
the board last week the
rollback rate, which would
generate the same tax rev
enue as last year, would be
19.216 mills.
She recommended, and
the board agreed Monday
night, to maintain the cur
rent millage rate.
The school district’s
net digest for 2017 is
$161.8 million. It is down
about $650,000 because
Northridge Medical Cen
ter went to a nonprofit
status and is no longer on
the tax rolls.
Tolbert said staying
with the same millage rate
probably would cost the
schools about $12,000 in
tax revenue. The budget is
nearly $13.7 million. This
district anticipates $13.5
million in revenue.
ENERGY WORK
The district has been
undergoing an ener
gy-conservation program
with ABM. The compa
ny has been working for
most of a year to replace
equipment. The work
has included reroofing,
installing new heating
and air conditioning equip
ment, putting in new water
fountains and low-flow
toilets.
Jason Anderson. ABM
representative, told the
board Monday the work is
nearly complete.
He said the company has
to finish getting the con
trols for the system online
and functioning.
A punch list and com
pleting that punch list are
the items remaining before
the district signs a comple
tion letter.
ABM guarantees the dis
trict savings month over
month to help pay for the
costs of the renovations.
OTHER BUSINES
•Students at the middle
school are getting up to
50 minutes a day more
instruction, Principal Der
rick Maxwell told the
board. That is because bus
routes have been re-worked
through the summer.
Maxwell said the chang
es should generate about
180 more hours per year
for instruction.
“I don’t think it had
much cost,” he said. “We’re
using our time more wise
ly.”
CITY OF JEFFERSON
CALL FOR SPECIAL ELECTION
Public Notice is hereby given that, in accordance with
O.C.G.A. 21-2-540, a non-partisan special election will be
held in the City of Jefferson, Georgia, to elect the District 3
Councilmember to fill the unexpired term of Councilmember
Steve Quinn, who has resigned. This call for Special Election
is issued pursuant to the Resolution adopted by the Jefferson
City Council on August 14, 2017. The special election will be
held on the 7th day of November, 2017. The candidate de
clared the winner of the election shall serve the remainder of
the District 3 term, which term shall expire December 31,2019.
Those residents who wish to qualify as candidates in the
election shall file a NOTICE OF CANDIDACY AND AFFI
DAVIT in the Office of the City Clerk no earlier than 8:30 a.m.
on August 21, 2017 and no later than 4:30 p.m. on August
23, 2017. All candidates shall pay a qualifying fee of $75.00.
All persons who are not registered to vote and who de
sire to register to vote in the special election may reg
ister to vote with Jackson County Registration & Elec
tions through the close of business on October 10, 2017.