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o o THE ACKSON H Wednesday, September 22, 2021 ERALD VOL. 147 NO. 15 24 PACES 2 SECTIONS PLUS INSERTS Merged in 2017 with The Commerce News A PUBLICATION OF MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. JEFFERSON, JACKSON COUNTY GEORGIA 30549 $1.00 COPY Moratorium BOC OKs one-year housing moratorium By Mike Buffington mike@mainstreetnews. com Jackson County has slammed the brakes on most new residential develop ments in unincorporated ar eas for the next 12 months. In a unanimous vote Sept. 20, the Jackson County Board of Commissioners agreed to extend a morato rium on new map amend ments and rezonings for po tential residential projects until September 2022. The BOC had put a 45-day mor atorium in place on Aug. 16. While the move will halt new projects, it will not af fect existing construction in ongoing projects where rezonings and permits have already been approved. Nor will it affect residential con struction inside the county's nine municipalities which have their own zoning rules and regulations. Another wrinkle in the moratorium is that Land Disturbance Permits (LDP) will be allowed for recent- ly-rezoned residential proj ects if those LDR’s are filed by Oct. 15, or within one year of the rezoning. During the moratorium, county leaders plan to con sider creating impact fees on new housing in the coun ty, a move that could help fund some capital projects for improved infrastructure to accommodate the growth. The county may also make changes to its Unified De velopment Code during the year. The move comes after several months of public pushback against a boom in the county’s residential development. Traffic and crowded schools have been the main complaints at a number of local meetings. In addition to the county's moratorium. Commerce has said it will “pause” further residential development to study its own infrastruc ture needs and neighboring Banks County has a resi dential moratorium in place through the middle of De cember as it reviews its sub division regulations. During a Commerce City Council meeting on Sept. 20. one citizen praised the city’s moratorium and called on the county and all cities to do a joint moratorium on new residential projects. “I would just like to suggest that Commerce, See Moratorium, page 2A Art in the Park Photos by Wesleigh Sagon Members of The Tumbling Waters Society recently hosted the Art in the Park festival, along with the annual Duck Dash. There were 850 rubber ducks that raced down the shoals to place in the competition. This year’s winners are: first place, Honar Jordan; second place, Barbara Gooch; and third place, Sandra Fite. The Tumbling Waters Society, along with Jackson County Parks and Recreation, hosted its 30th anniversary Art in the Park festival at Hurricane Shoals Park. The festival which was held Saturday, Sept. 18 - Sunday, Sept. 19, drew in a crowd of 3,500 visitors over the course of the two-day affair. The festival featured handmade crafts, homemade goodies, food vendors, a 5K Mill Race, duck dash, kids’ zone, miniature golf, heritage village activities, Civil War reenactments and encampment in the Heritage Village and the annual Tony and Ann lanuario Blue Grass Festival. Adam Garrison operated and told the history of the grist mill at Hurricane Shoals Park during the annual Art in the Park festival. Bags of corn meal were for sale outside the mill. See more on page 9A. Jackson BOC BOC looks to lower millage rate Jefferson Martin withdraws from Jefferson council race Mike Martin has with drawn from the Jefferson City Council District 2 race, Martin’s withdrawal leaves two candidates in the election: Incumbent Mal colm Gramley and chal lenger Dawn Maddox. The election is set Nov. 2. COVID-19 5 more deaths reported; case totals going down Five more COVID-19 deaths were reported in Jackson County over the past week. The Georgia De partment of Public Health reports 164 county residents have died during the pan demic (along with 13 proba ble COVID deaths). It’s not clear if those deaths occurred last week, or if there’s a lag in the state's reporting. Meanwhile, the number of cases being reported in the county has gone down. On Sept. 20. the moving 7-day average was 53 cases per day in Jackson County, down from 77 the week pri or (Sept. 13). Over the past two weeks, there have been 915 new COVID cases reported in See COVID, page 2A MAILING LABEL 4 8 7 9 1 4 1 4 0 2 By Morgan Ervin The Jackson County Board of Commissioners plans to lower its millage rate this year by around 1 mill. County manager Kevin Poe is proposing to lower the rate from 8.95 mills to 8.0 mills for unincorporat ed areas and to 9.428 mills from 10.447 mills for in corporated areas. “We are proposing a re duction in the millage rate from 8.95 mils to 8.0 mils. The rollback rate would have been 8.06 so I pro pose that we knock off ad ditional .06 mills and make it an even 8 mills for unin corporated,” said Poe. Revenues from property taxes are projected to total $36.7 million, an increase of roughly $3.2 million. Even with a lower mill- age rate, property tax rev enues are still projected to increase due to new growth in the tax digest. The 2021 tax digest shows the coun ty’s net digest values total $1.8 billion in unincorpo rated areas and $1.9 bil lion in incorporated areas. In total, the county digest value reached over $3.7 billion, an increase of over $1 billion since 2016. BUDGET Poe presented his budget plan to the BOC on Sept. 15 during a called meeting. The budget includes just over $100 million in total expenditures and other fi nancing uses and roughly $97.9 million in total rev enue funds, leaving the county with a nearly $3 million shortfall. Despite an increase in total revenues of roughly $9.7 million from 2021. those increases were matched and sometimes surpassed by increases in expenditures. General fund expenditures are projected to grow by $6.8 million in FY22. nearly doubling the general fund's projected revenue increases of $3.8 million, which brings the general fund budget to an excess of about $3 million in expenditures over reve nues. To remedy the $3 million See Budget, page 2A Commerce Townhomes get nod; church request withdrawn in Commerce By Alex Buffington alex@mainstreetnews. com A request to put town- homes on the site of a for mer mobile home park got the nod from Commerce leaders this week. At its Monday (Sept. 20) meeting, the Com merce City Council vot ed to approve a rezoning request from Presidential Oaks Properties for 8.62 acres at 155 Waterworks Rd. with a handful of con ditions. The group had re quested a rezoning from R-5 to R-6. Council mem bers Mark Fitzpatrick and Archie Chaney were op posed to the vote. Developers initially proposed 64 townhomes on the property, but later reduced that number to 28 townhomes (and two sin gle-family homes). The Commerce Plan ning and Zoning Commis sion recommended denial of the project after several area residents voiced op position, citing concerns with traffic, infrastucture and the impact on the Commerce City School System. The Commerce City Council ultimately vot ed to approve the request with a slew of conditions. Up to 28 townhomes can be constructed (in addi tion to the two single-fam ily homes) and the final plat will go before the planning commission. Notable conditions in clude limiting the number of units that can be rented at one time to 20% and al lowing only one entrance to the development (which must be off Waterworks Rd.). Additionally, on street parking is prohibited and the development must be maintained by a home owner’s association. Other conditions put regulations See Commerce, page 2A Schools Only one county high school below state SAT average Three out of four high schools in Jackson Coun ty scored at least as high as the state average on the SAT. The Georgia Depart ment of Education re leased 2021 SAT results on Friday, Sept. 17. Jefferson High School had the highest average in the county, with a total score mean of 1123. That's followed by Jackson County Com prehensive High School, 1081, and Commerce High School, which tied with the state average at 1077. East Jackson Compre hensive High School had the lowest average in the county and fell below the state average with a 1029 total score mean. See a breakdown of reading/writing and math scores: •Commerce: 1077 total; 554. reading and writing; and 523, math •Jefferson: 1123 total; 566. reading and writing; and 557, math •East Jackson: 1029 to tal; 520, reading and writ ing; and 508. math •Jackson County: 1081 total; 542, reading and writing; and 539, math •State: 1077 total; 546, reading and writing; and 531. math Public safety Man shot in Sept. 11 altercation A Sept. 11 shooting on Pine St. in Jefferson left one man seriously injured and a second man under arrest. Desmond Rakestraw, 18, was charged with aggravat ed assault in the incident. He reportedly shot Demontae Starks, 18, twice in the upper body. The Jefferson Police Department and the GBI are in vestigating the incident.