Newspaper Page Text
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THE
ACKSON
H Wednesday, December 28, 2022
ERALD
VOL. 148 NO. 29
20 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
Headlines
from 2022
Another year has come
and gone and a New Year
begins this Sunday. Jan. 1.
Take a look at the head
lines from 2022:
JANUARY
• County BOE gives
OK to new junior mid
dle school on Skelton
Rd. site — A plan for a
junior middle school at its
Skelton Road campus got
a green light at the Jan. 10
meeting of the Jackson
County Board of Educa
tion.
• County topped re
cent COVID peak —
Jackson County topped
an earlier peak in daily
COVID case numbers.
The county reached a new
peak on Jan. 1. with 214
confirmed cases report
ed on that day. But the
county topped that again
on Jan. 6, with 222 con
firmed cases. The county
topped that again on Jan.
11 with 248 new COVID
cases reported on that day.
• Clerici to run for
House District 31 seat
— Jackson County Board
of Education chairman
Don Clerici announced he
wouldn’t run for re-elec
tion to the board this
year and instead sought
the state representative’s
seat for District 31 held
by Rep. Tommy Benton,
who is retiring at the end
of 2022.
• County spared of
major damage from
winter storm — Winter
Storm Izzy made its way
to Jackson County on
Sunday. Jan. 16, bringing
snow and ice to the area.
While there were power
outages and downed trees
and limbs, the county was
largely spared of major
damage.
• Arcade swears in
new police chief — The
City of Arcade swore
in its new police chief,
Mike Adams, on Jan. 10.
Adams replaced former
police chief Randy Wil
liams, who announced his
retirement last month.
• Commerce appeals
early voting site change
— Commerce appealed
a decision by the county
elections board to relocate
an early voting location.
• Jefferson childcare
center employee charged
with molestation — An
after-school teacher at
Bright Beginnings, a Jef
ferson daycare center, was
arrested Jan. 13 on child
See Headlines, page 2A
MAILING LABEL
Goodbye, 2022
Newsmaker of the Year:
Langstons build recovery community
Many Newsmakers of the
Year are public officials or
people in the community who
make headlines, but there are
others in the community who
work behind the scenes to
shape the county.
While their efforts don’t al
ways make the headlines, Jon
and Jenn Langston and the
team at Reboot Jackson work
daily to provide a community
for people in recovery from
substance abuse and mental
health challenges. For their role
in providing recovery services
and support in Jackson Coun
ty, the Langstons and Reboot
Jackson are the 2022 News
maker of the Year.
BACKGROUND
Recovery is personal for the
Langstons, both of whom are in
long-term recovery.
Jon grew up in Commerce
and has been free of substance
use disorder for 14 years.
“It was a road from age of
13 to 38 that I was in active use
disorder," he said.
Jenn, who grew up in Gwin
nett County, has been in recov
ery for nine years. She and Jon
met when she moved to Athens
after beginning her recovery.
She then began working for the
Georgia Council on Substance
Abuse (now the Georgia Coun
cil for Recovery) in the NICU
program, helping moms who
tested positive when they had
a baby. It was there that she
heard about Recovery Commu
nity Organizations (RCOs).
"Jon and I decided that we
wanted to pursue that here in
Jackson County," Jenn said."...
Both of us in our own recover
ies have been in a place where
you get help and then you give
help because when you give
it back, you get more rewards
than from being helped.”
See Reboot, page 3A
Marty Clark (center) was recently sworn in as the
new District 5 member on the Jackson County
Board of Commissioners.
Political
Story of the Year:
Reapportionment
shifts county’s
balance of power
As a mid-term election year,
2022 saw a lot of political ac
tion.
But the biggest political
story of the year was the long
term impact reapportionment
from the 2020 census had on
the county’s governments.
Due to growth, the Jackson
County Board of Commission
ers added a fifth district seat
which will be filled by Marty
Clark on Jan. 1. The BOC will
also get another new member
in 2023 as Chad Bingham re
places Ralph Richardson, Jr. on
the board. Richardson retired
after serving two terms on the
board. Bingham won election
for the seat.
Both Bingham and Clark
will represent the fast-growing
West Jackson Area. With the
addition of Clark’s seat, the
BOC is now weighted mostly
to the West and Central part
of Jackson County. Out of the
six commission seats, four
are in the hands of members
from Jefferson to West Jack-
son Area (Clark, Bingham, Jim
Hix and chairman Tom Crow.)
Chas Hardy represents most
of the east side of the county
around Commerce and Marty
Seagraves represents the south
ern part of the county from
Nicholson way over to Arcade
and the Barrow County line.
Now, both the BOC and
county BOE reflect the mas
sive amount of growth that’s
happened in the county — the
political influence has official
ly moved to the county’s west
side.
Locally, the elections didn’t
generate too much heat. What
did become contentious, how
ever, were the lengthy, behind-
the-scenes talks between the
county government and the
county’s towns over how to
divide the county’s sales tax
dollars.
One long-time mayor said
the lengthy stalemate on the
LOST issue was the most
contentious they’d seen in
city-county relations.
The issue was linked to the
census as the county’s popula
tion grew more in unincorpo
rated areas than in incorporated
towns. That means the county
government will get a lower
See Political, page 5A
Education Story of the Year:
Brown takes helm of JCSS
Submitted photo
At a called board meeting, Philip Brown took the
oath of office to become the next superintendent
of the Jackson County School System.
A lot of events in local
education efforts happened
in 2022. But the top educa
tion story of the year was the
hiring of a new superinten
dent for the Jackson County
School System following the
retirement of former superin
tendent April Howard.
Howard had served as su
perintendent for a decade,
taking it through a trou
bled financial time and then
through a massive amount of
growth.
Brown stepped into that
fray of growth and has be
gun to put his own stamp
on the system’s governance
team. It’s likely that within
the next few weeks. Brown
will see his system top the
10,000-student mark.
Brown had been principal
of North Oconee for the past
11 years and served as the
principal of Oconee County
See Education, page 5A
Economic Story of the Year:
SK Battery continues expansion
i i Mt=i—i 1
While it might begin to
sound a little like a Christ
mas song getting too much
airplay, the major economic
story of the year for Jackson
County continues to be the
impact of SK Battery on the
area.
John Scott, Jackson Coun
ty’s director of economic de
velopment, cited the expan
sion of SK as having a major
impact on the county during
2022. As the year ends, Scott
said SK had hired around
3,000 people, “which is way
more than the start of the
year,” he said.
Scott also cited the long
term impact the extra lanes
being added to 1-85 in the
county as likely to have a
major impact on future devel
opment (construction is con
tinuing) and that a lot of ad
ditional industrial real estate
was added in the year as well.
Perhaps the largest single
announcement in local eco
nomic growth in 2022 was
addition of a milling factory
to be located in the former LP
building in South Jackson on
Hwy. 441 in the community
of Center.
Steves & Sons, Inc., a high
volume and family-owned
millwork manufacturer, will
invest over $100 million and
create 170 jobs over the next
three years with its state-of-
the-art facility, state leaders
said. The firm builds doors
for Home Depot and other
retailers. Based in Texas, the
firm is also building a facility
in Turner County, Ga.
Also of note, the City of
Commerce gave the OK for
an expansion of the Bana
Road industrial park near 1-85
and the Maysville-Commerce
road. That large project will
eventually have over 6 mil
lion sq. ft. of industrial space
among multiple buildings.
Pendergrass also added
some warehouse develop
ments in 2022, as did Jeffer
son on Hog Mountain Rd.
In a related issue, work
force housing in the way of
See Economic, page 3A
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