Newspaper Page Text
THE
ACKSON
H Wednesday, September 29, 2021
ERALD
VOL. 147 NO. 16
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
County planners
Planners approve special use for kids camp plans
A major summer camp
facility for children with
special needs and their
families could soon start
construction in Jackson
County.
The long-planned camp
known as Camp Hooray is
to be located on 79 acres
in South Jackson and is
part of the program of Ex
tra Special People. Inc. of
Watkinsville.
The camp got an enthu
siastic thumbs-up by the
Jackson County Planning
Commission on Sept. 23
with a recommendation
of approval for a special
use permit for the prop
erty, located on Strick
land Lane off of Jefferson
River Rd. and New Kings
Bridge Rd.
The idea behind the
camp is to have full access
for campers who have a
variety of disabilities. At
build-out, the camp would
serve over 200 campers
per week during the sum
mer and would also be
used on a weekly basis
throughout the year.
Students from both the
University of Georgia and
Georgia Tech have been
involved in the concept
designs for the camp. Sev
eral local organizations,
including the Jefferson
Rotary Club, have made
donations to the camp.
ESP currently serves
around 30 counties in the
Northeast Georgia area
with programs for those
with disabilities, includ
ing around 50 children
from Jackson County.
OTHER ACTION
In other action Sept. 23.
the JCPC approved:
• rezoning 19 acres at
3110 Ila Rd. from A-2 to
R-l for a subdivision.
• rezoning 4 acres on
Mauldin Rd. Jefferson to
divide the property into
two tracts.
• rezoning 5 acres on
Chandler Bridge Rd. to
divide the property into
two tracts.
Concept plan for Camp Hooray.
Farm to Table
The Commerce Downtown Development Authority hosted its fifth annual
Farm to Table community dinner on Tuesday, Sept. 21. Chef Catalina Zuni
ga and her team prepared a locally-focused meal for attendees. The event
raised funds to go toward the construction of a farmers market pavilion.
As of Sept. 21, the city was about $4,000 shy of reaching its goal. Those
wishing to donate should contact Natalie at nataliet@commercega.org.
l ■
■ i
l ■ Vj
A crowd turned out to support the Commerce Farm to Table community
dinner on Sept. 21. The annual event raised funds for a future farmers
market pavilion for the town. Pictured are: Zoey Zellner, Sandra Haggard,
Ann Whitfield, Tina Ervin, Wanda Dean, Lisa Cochran, Tracy Wilson and
Angie Redmon. See more photos on page 3A.
MAILING LABEL
COVID update
COVID cases down
significantly; 9 more
deaths confirmed
Nine more Jackson
County residents have died
of COVID-19. accord
ing to a state update on
Monday, Sept. 27. Since
the start of the pandemic,
there have been 173 con
firmed COVID deaths in
the county and 13 proba
ble COVID deaths.
There have been 12,257
COVID cases among
Jackson County residents
since the start of the pan
demic. making Jackson
the fifth highest county in
the state per capita.
But there is some good
news this week: The num
ber of COVID cases has
A vaccination clinic
is planned
Oct. 2 from 3-6 p.m.
at the Empower
Center. See page
2A for details.
dropped significantly over
the past couple of weeks.
Jackson County has had
585 new cases over the
past two weeks. That’s still
higher than the state aver
age on a per capita-basis,
but it’s significantly lower
than it has been in recent
weeks.
See COVID, page 2A
Moratorium
Moratorium may slow new projects,
but won’t stop those already approved
Jackson County’s one-
year moratorium on resi
dential rezonings may slow
new developments, but
there are a lot of residential
lots already in the works
that may not be affected by
the moratorium.
A study by county offi
cials of existing lots and
land in unincorporated ar
eas of the county that could
be used for housing showed
that development is likely
to continue in the coming
months.
According to the study,
the unincorporated area of
the county currently has 917
lots platted and ready to be
built on and that are only
awaiting a building permit.
On top of that, the county
has another 1,300 lots zoned
for residential that are in the
process of getting the vari
ous permits needed to build
on.
That means that over
2,100 new homes could be
built without any rezoning
approvals.
In addition to that, the
county has around 4,800
additional acres that are not
platted, but that are zoned
for residential use. The only
restriction on that property
now would be in obtaining
a county-issued land dis
turbance permit, something
that has time-based restric
tions under the new morato
rium.
“I believe the moratori
um will slow “new” devel
opment, in terms of items
needing to be properly
zoned, considering the year
long timeframe on map
amendments and rezoning
applications that would
be applicable to this,” said
county development manag
er Jamie Dove. “Those will
take some time themselves
to get through the process
once it is opened back up,
but in terms of LDPs slow
ing down and dirt moving,
I don’t believe there will be
See Moratorium, page 2A
Nov. 2 election
Voter registration deadline Oct. 4
The deadline to register
for the Nov. 2 general mu
nicipal election is coming
up on Monday, Oct. 4.
Elections are planned in
Arcade, Braselton, Com
merce, Hoschton. Jefferson
and Nicholson.
In Arcade, four people
qualified for two at-large
council seats, including in
cumbents Debra Gammon
and Ron Smith, along with
challengers Leah Hollett
and Steven Kirby Lavender.
All three of Braselton s
races are contested. In the
mayoral race, Hardy John
son, former councilman in
District 4, will face Kurt
Ward. Mayor Bill Orr is not
seeking reelection. James
Murphy and Jeff Gardner
qualified for the Braselton
Town Council District 4
seat. And District 2 incum
bent, Peggy Slappey, will
face challenger Richard
Harper.
In Commerce, Eric
Gatheright and Andre Rol
lins are vying for the Com
merce City Council Ward
1 seat. Incumbent Archie
Chaney is not seeking re-
election. City Council Ward
2 incumbent, Darren Ow-
ensby, will face challeng
er, Brad Coker. Commerce
residents will also have a
chance to vote on a refer
endum on whether to allow
the sale of distilled spirits in
town.
In Hoschton, Lauren
O’Leary is challenging in
cumbent mayor Shannon
Sell.
In Jefferson, City Coun
cil District 2 incumbent
Malcolm Gramley will face
challenger Dawn Maddox.
In Nicholson, Thomas
Gary, incumbent; Dusty
Durst, incumbent; and Josh
ua Burkhalter qualified for
two at-large council seats.
Jefferson
Jefferson adopts budget and millage rate
By Kyle Funderburk
kyle@mainstreetnews. com
After multiple discus
sions, the Jefferson City
Council adopted its FY2022
budget and a millage rate of
5.3 mills on Sept. 27.
Both budget and millage
were passed unanimously
by the council.
The 5.3 mill rate was
originally controversial
with some council members
who wanted a lower rate.
However, finance director
Amie Pirkle and city man
ager Priscilla Murphy told
the council that the 5.3 mill
rate was needed to avoid
budget cuts.
FY2022 BUDGET
HIGHLIGHTS
The FY2022 budget at
$12.99 million and includes
additional spending in the
fire and police departments.
The fire department bud
get includes the hiring of
three new fire captains, one
for each shift. Fire chief
Mark Duke’s rationale for
the budget request was that
the department needed to
grow with the city.
See Jefferson, page 2A
Commerce planners
Church bells could ring in Commerce
Church bells could soon
be ringing again in Com
merce following action on
Sept. 27 by the Commerce
Planning Commission.
The board gave a rec
ommendation of approval
to a decibel level variance
for First Baptist Church of
Commerce to install a digi
tal system that would chime
bell sounds in town. Todd
Chandler, the church’s min
ister of music, said that un
like real bells, the volume of
sound with a digital system
could be controlled.
“It’s been a long time
since we had church bells
ringing in Commerce,” said
vice-chairman Andre Roll
ins about the system.
The church plans to in
stall a 3,200 watt Caril
lon Bell System with four
See Commerce, page 3A