Newspaper Page Text
THE
ACKSON
H Wednesday, September 15, 2021
ERALD
VOL. 147 NO. 14
24 PACES 2 SECTIONS PLUS INSERTS
Merged in 2017 with
The Commerce News
A PUBLICATION OF MainStreet Newspapers, Inc.
JEFFERSON, JACKSON COUNTY GEORGIA S0549 $1.00 COPY
Jefferson
Jefferson passes moratorium on public use permits after heated debate
By Kyle Funderburk
kyle@mainstreetnews. com
For the foreseeable future,
the City of Jefferson will not
grant permits for street activi
ty, sidewalk activity and pub
lic facilities.
The Jefferson City Coun
cil passed a moratorium on
such permits during its Sept.
13 work session, much to
the chagrin of Mike Martin,
owner of Revival Hall Tap-
room and a candidate for city
council in the upcoming No
vember election. Martin sees
the moratorium as an attack
on his business, which often
draws people downtown and
onto the sidewalk area of the
south square.
The moratorium is slated
to be lifted at the first council
meeting in January, or when
the city completes a new
parking lot downtown.
Mayor Jon Howell and
members of the city coun
cil were adamant about only
wanting to halt private events
from happening on pub
lic properties. Howell also
said the moratorium won't
keep Revival Hall from hav
ing food trucks at the south
square as it does frequently
on weekends.
Councilman Mark Mobley
proposed the moratorium in
the wake of Revival Hall's
second-anniversary event,
which saw the closure of the
south town square parking
lot. Other nearby businesses
complained about the situa
tion at the council's August
meeting.
Since then, tensions about
the situation have apparently
been ratcheted-up on social
media.
Jay McClay from Diesel
Donuts said “misinforma
tion” had put him and fellow
business and building owners
on the south square in a bad
light.
“The picture that is being
painted is that we’re against
Mike bringing people to this
area,” McClay said. “My
self, Ray [Stanjevich] from
Friends, Alex [Jerebie],
we’re painted to be villains
here through social media.
I share business with Mike,
same customers, we even
share staff. I have no problem
bringing people down here.
Again, clarity needs to be
made, it’s choking 40-percent
of the parking lot that kills us.
There are 14 parking spaces
for nine businesses, it just
doesn’t work. That’s what
we're fighting for. It's not
against Mike, we want peo
ple to come, the more people
the better. It's that simple.
We're doing everything we
can to stay open every day
through a pandemic and it’s
not easy. Adding a parking
issue, choking up the whole
parking lot doesn’t help the
situation at all. We don't have
a problem with anybody, we
just don’t want the parking
See Jefferson, page 2A
Art in the Park
9/11
Masks
30th annual
Art in the
Park Festival
coming up
at Hurricane
Shoals Park
Bluegrass music, artisans,
5K race, living history exhib
its and lots of food....all this
and more will be happening at
the 30th annual Art in the Park
Festival at Hurricane Shoals
Park.
This year’s event will be
held on Saturday, September
18, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and
Sunday, September 19. from
12:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Ad
mission, parking, and entrance
to all the exhibits are free.
The Tumbling Waters Blue-
grass Festival lineup includes
Deja Blue Grass Band, Blue-
grass Confidential. The Heard,
Brush Fire and 3 Bucks Shy.
Throughout the weekend,
gospel music will be show
cased in the Miles Wilson
Matthews Chapel in the Her
itage Village.
Saturday morning’s ac
tivities kick off with the 5K
Mill Race at 8 a.m. A wide
selection of handmade arts
and crafts will highlight the
vendor area and a new and ex
panded kids zone will include
games, inflatables. animals
and cookie decorating.
Visitors can learn about
the history of Jackson Coun
ty by playing a round of putt
putt golf on the “Spirit of the
River” course. The course fea
tures wood carvings, a canoe.
See Festival, page 2A
MAILING LABEL
Never Forget
Photo by Wesleigh Sagon
The Jefferson High School ROTC hosted its 9/11 program on Friday,
Sept. 10. Shown is Bryli Woodall, director of personnel for JROTC.
Those in attendance at the program include: the Jefferson fire station,
Jefferson Police Department and Jackson County Sheriff’s Office,
American Legion and local veteran organizations. Due to COVID-19,
the ceremony was live streamed for students to view inside their class
room. This is the 20-year anniversary of the attacks. See more on 9A.
Photo by Annika Sorrow
Joe Ruttar speaks to
those who came to
honor the lives lost
on 9/11 and those
who died in active
duty during an Ameri
can Legion event held
Saturday. See more
coverage from the
event on page 12A.
Commerce council
Commerce to ‘pause’ growth for a while
Commerce plans to
push the “pause” button on
growth in the city until it can
make plans for additional
infrastructure.
While it's not an official
moratorium on rezonings
as both Jackson County and
Banks County have recently
done, Commerce's pause
could have the same impact.
The move came during
an off-agenda discussion at
the Sept. 7 meeting of the
city council. City manag
er James Wascher told the
council that his staff had
calculated how much wa
ter and sewerage capacity
the city has now compared
to the estimated need from
known commercial, indus
trial and residential projects
in the works.
Based on that. Wascher
said the city has about three
to four years of capacity left
and noted that it would take
that long to get some of the
projects for expansion of
those services completed.
“In the interim. I think
we need to be very careful
about what projects we’re
going to be looking at and
entertaining and in many
cases, we may not be able
See Growth, page 2A
Community members
call for schools to
mask, get vaccinated
While anti-maskers and
anti-vaxxers have gotten a lot
of media attention in recent
weeks, pro-masking individ
uals recently appealed to two
local boards of education to en
act or enforce greater masking
mandates in local schools.
Five members of the Jef
ferson community urged the
Jefferson Board of Education
on Sept. 9 to reconsider its
lack of a mask mandate across
Jefferson’s four schools. The
speakers pointed out how the
COVID-19 Delta variant is
more contagious for children
than the original COVID-19
vims.
Two community members
also called on the Jackson
County Board of Education
to enforce its masking rules,
citing social media posts that
show students and teachers
ignoring the system's mask
mandate.
The pro-masking comments
come in contrast to a recent
anti-masking outburst at a
meeting of the Jackson Coun
ty Board of Education where
false information was spread
about masking and vaccina
tions by some audience mem
bers.
JEFFERSON CITY
SCHOOL SYSTEM
Winther Hardy, in a pre
pared statement to the Jeffer
son BOE, compared the school
system's lack of mask mandate
to a “drunk driving a school
bus.” Hardy is a COVID-19
See Masks, page 2A
Commerce
Rucker withdraws
candidacy in
Ward 1 race
By Alex Buffington
alex@mainstreetnews.com
Stacey Rucker has with
drawn from the Commerce
City Council Ward 1 race.
The move comes after
Andre Rollins, another can
didate for the Ward 1 seat,
filed a challenge against
Rucker’s candidacy, alleg
ing that Rucker did not meet
the residency requirement
to run for office.
Rollins alleged that Ruck
er does not live at the 327
Hill Street address listed on
her qualifying documents,
claiming she actually lives
in Banks County. Rollins
cited both utility records for
the Hill Street residence and
Rucker’s voting records.
Candidates for Com
merce City Council must
reside in the city for at least
12 months prior to qualify
ing for election.
A hearing on the candi
dacy challenge had been set
for Tuesday, Sept. 14. That
hearing was cancelled.
With Rucker out of the
race, Andre Rollins and Eric
Gatheright are the two re
maining candidates seeking
to fill the Commerce City
Council Ward 1 seat to be
vacated by Archie Chaney.
The election is set for Nov.
2.
COVID-19
Four more COVID
deaths reported in county
Four more people have
died of COVID-19 in Jack-
son County.
As of Sept. 13, there have
been 159 reported deaths
among county residents
since the start of the pan
demic, along with 13 prob
able COVID deaths. (The
four new deaths did not
necessarily occur this past
week since there is a lag in
state reporting of deaths.)
The county has had
11,663 confirmed COVID
cases, the fifth highest coun
ty in the state per capita.
Over the past two weeks,
there have been 1,038 new
cases reported in Jack-
son. That rate per capita is
nearly double the state av
erage (1,390 new cases per
100,000 residents in Jack-
son County, compared to
745 new cases per 100,000
residents statewide).
Meanwhile, the number
of fully vaccinated residents
reached 39% this week, still
below the state average of
45%.