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About Jackson herald. (Jefferson, Jackson County, Ga.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 22, 2023)
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
