Newspaper Page Text
o
O
THE
ACKSON
H Wednesday, February 22, 2023
ERALD
VOL. 148 NO. 37
20 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
Election
® VOTE
II 11 I
House
District 119
runoff is
Tuesday
A runoff election to fill
the House District 119 seat
will be held on Tuesday,
Feb. 28. Jackson County
residents who live in House
District 119 can cast their
votes on Election Day at
the Braselton Police and
Municipal Court Building
on Tuesday, Feb. 28, from
7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Charlie Chase and Holt
Persinger, both Repub
licans, are vying for the
House District 119 seat.
The seat was vacated by
Rep. Elect Danny Rampey
following his arrest in Bar-
row County. House District
119 covers Barrow County
and a small portion of Jack-
son County in the Braselton
and Hoschton area.
Other details about the
election include:
•Early voting: Early vot
ing for the runoff election
for Jackson County resi
dents who live in House
District 119 is being held
this week through Friday,
Feb. 24, from 9 a.m. to
5 p.m. Early voting is being
held at the Ponchie Beck
Election Center, located at
441 Gordon St.. Jefferson.
•Absentee ballots: A drop
box will be available for ab
sentee ballots at the Ponchie
Beck Election Center (lo
cated inside) during all early
voting hours and will close
on February 24 at 5 p.m.
On Election Day, absentee
ballots may be dropped off
until February 28 at 7 p.m.
to the election staff locat
ed at 441 Gordon Street in
Jefferson. Absentee ballots
will not be received at the
polling location on Election
Day.
MAILING LABEL
Commerce council
Commerce considers turning over rec dept
By Alex Buffington
alex@mainstreetnews. com
Commerce leaders got an
update this week on efforts to
revamp and expand the city's
recreation offerings. The dis
cussion included a potential
move to turn over the city’s
recreation department to Jack-
son County. If the proposal is
approved, the city would turn
over its recreation department
operations, facilities and future
expansions to the county.
City Manager James
Wascher gave an update at
the Commerce City Council’s
Monday (Feb. 20) meeting.
The city plans to hold two
public input sessions to dis
cuss the options on Thursday,
March 2, at 6 p.m., and Sat
urday, March 11, at 11 a.m. at
the civic center.
BACKGROUND
The city has been discuss
ing revamping and expanding
its recreation department for
the past several years. City
leaders initially planned to buy
land and construct new recre
ation facilities. But they hadn’t
anticipated the high price tag
for such a project.
New construction is esti
mated to cost around $20-$30
million. That doesn't cover the
price of the land, or the ongo
ing expenses for operations.
The city would likely need
to take out a bond and/or raise
the millage rate to cover the
cost of construction, land pur
chases and ongoing operation
costs, if it pursues that option.
The city began looking
at another alternative — a
possible partnership with
to county
Jackson County for recreation
improvements — around
the time of Service Delivery
Strategy (SDS) negotiations
last year. Council members
Johnny Eubanks and Bobby
Redmon, along with Wascher,
have since met with Commis
sioner Chas Hardy and coun
ty staff to discuss recreation
See Recreation, page 2A
Early spring scenes
Hoschton
While winter won’t officially end for another month, signs of spring are pop
ping up across Jackson County. Daffodils, forsythia and saucer magno
lias are showing off their blooms around the area during an unusual spate
of warm weather. Pictured are daffodils in bloom at a property on Com-
merce-Jefferson Road.
Daffodils and forsythia bloom on Dogwood Trail in Commerce.
While the spring sea
son won’t begin until
next month, signs
of early spring are
popping up across
the county. Here,
a saucer magnolia
blooms in downtown
Jefferson, one of the
earliest late-winter/
early-spring bloom
ers in the area.
Across Jackson
County, daffodils
and forsythia are in
bloom.
Index
News
1A-3A, 5A
Opinion
,.4A
Public safety.
6A-7A
School news
8A, HA
Social news
12A, 8B
Sports
1B-3B
Classifieds
9A
Obituaries
10A
legals
4B-7B
Inside
Officer Nick
Hobbs was named
the Jefferson
Police Depart
ment's Officer of
the Year. Read
about the award
winners on page
3A.
Hoschton considers
dividing city into
council districts
By Ben Munro
ben@mainstreetnews.com
Hoschton elected offi
cials may represent spe
cific geographical areas
in the city, shifting from
the current at-large format
used for elections.
City leaders discussed
the change during their
Feb. 16 meeting, indi
cating the majority of
the council favored split
ting Hoschton into three
council districts with two
councilpersons represent
ing each district. Dividing
Hoschton into council dis
tricts would require state
legislative approval.
But councilman Tracy
Carswell said at Monday’s
See Hoschton, page 2A
Jackson County BOE
Jackson County hires
two new principals
The Jackson County
Board of Education re
cently approved the hiring
of Johnathan Harris and
Amy Adams as school
principals for the coming
year.
Harris was named prin
cipal of East Jackson Mid
dle School and Adams
was named principal of
South Jackson Elementary
School. Harris and Adams
will begin their new posi
tions on June 1. They will
step into their new roles
following the retirements
of Mrs. Kim Johnson and
Mrs. Resa Brooksher,
which will take place on
May 31.
Harris and Adams are
no strangers to Jackson
County. Harris taught at
East Jackson Comprehen
sive High School from
See Principals, page 2A
Public safety
Handful of stolen tags
connected to out-of-
state citations, tolls
By Alex Buffington
alex@mainstreetnews. com
A handful of county res
idents have received cita
tions in the mail in recent
weeks for traffic tolls or
fines from New Jersey and
New York that were linked
to old vehicle tags. The
problem is, the people had
turned in those vehicle tags
years ago to be destroyed.
Tax Commissioner Can
dace Taylor-Heaton said
they’ve had about 15 peo
ple who’ve been impacted
by the issue. She said the
county turned in the tags
to be destroyed in 2019-
2020 to their recycling
vendor. Encore Recycling.
Taylor-Heaton said they’d
never had an issue with the
company until now.
“When I questioned the
manager on-site about
how these tags got out, he
reassured me that all tags
are destroyed immediate
ly. Apparently, that isn’t
the case because 2-3 years
later, we have tags that
were in those batches we
took that have made their
way to upstate New York/
New Jersey and they are
See Tags, page 2A
Trappy
Ipiggly wiggly
415 Lee St.
Jefferson, GA
Pepsi, Dr. Pepper,
Mtn. Dew
2 Liters
STOP BY!
14 14 0