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About Jackson herald. (Jefferson, Jackson County, Ga.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2023)
o o THE ACKSON H Wednesday, March 1, 2023 ERALD VOL. 148 NO. 38 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 Republican Holt Pers- inger won Tuesday’s (Feb. 28) special runoff for the seat over fel low Republican Char lie Chase, garnering 59.25% of the vote to Chase’s 40.75%. Persinger wins State House District 119 runoff State House District 119 has its new representative. With 100% of precincts reporting. Republican Holt Persinger won Tuesday’s (Feb. 28) special runoff for the seat over fellow Repub lican Charlie Chase, gamer ing 59.25% of the vote to Chase’s 40.75%. House District 119 covers portions of Jackson County (in the Braselton-Hoschton area) and Barrow County. Persinger will fill the seat vacated by Danny Rampey. who was elected to the House last year but resigned from the post following his arrest on burglary charges in Barrow County. Persinger and Chase emerged from a seven-can- didate special election for Rampey"s seat on Jan. 31 after no one earned at least 50% of the vote. Runoff numbers Holt Persinger: 1,400 votes Charlie Chase: 963 votes Election Day votes: 1,327 Early voting ballots: 993 Absentee ballots: 43 Voter turnout: 5.83% MAILING LABEL Recreation Should Commerce turn over rec programs to county? Should the City of Com merce turn over its recre ation program and facili ties to the Jackson County Recreation Department to operate? That is the question cur rently being debated in the city as it tries to find a way forward for its small and under-funded recreation department. The issue also comes at a time when the county is expanding its recreation department, both by ac quiring land for new parks, building new facilities and offering new programs. How Commerce’s rec reation department might potentially fit into that larger picture remains to be seen. The proposal has generated some social me dia backlash in the city among some who want the city to keep its recreation department independent of the county. Others have voiced their support for the change. Two public input meet ings are scheduled in Com merce, one on March 2 at 6 p.m. and the second on March 11 at 11 a.m. Both will be held at the Com merce Civic Center. BACKGROUND The issue for Commerce comes down to money. To expand its recreation pro grams, the city will have to build additional facilities at an estimated cost of $20- $30 million. On top of that, an expanded program will require more operational funding beyond the city’s current $568,000 per year budget. Of that, around $77,500 comes from rec reation fees, the rest from city general funds. To afford new facilities will mean a tax hike in the city to pay for bond fund ing and to pay for addi tional ongoing operational expenses. The city had hoped it might use the gym at Commerce High School if a new high school were to be built. But at a De cember meeting with the city’s board of education, See Recreation, page 2A Maysville li'fl );v java** jfp - - jflL mfi kbtf AH iu Busload of Books recently made a stop at Maysville Elementary School. Pictured are: (front row, L-R) Jasper, the author and illustrator’s son, Ty ler Boynton, Aedan Clark, Karson Morris, Payton Hunt, author Matthew Swanson holding Dumbles, Myles Angel, Wyatt Hoffman and Assistant Principal Rebecca Grogan; and (back row, L-R) Principal Katie Warwick, Chandler Harbin, Wednesday Smith, teacher Julie Herron, Harper Hicks, Opal Wright, Jaldary Penaloza, Bellamy Kidd, illustrator Robbi Behr, Aik en Roberts, media specialist Rene’ Bridgewater, Kinsley Morris, Mikayla Nave, Marleigh Fowler, Makenna Payne and Pressley Gearin. Busload of Books tour makes stop at Maysville Elementary Friday brought a Busload of Books and a lot of fun to Maysville Elementary School. Children’s author/il lustrator duo Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr recently visited Maysville Elementary School during a nationwide literacy and creativity tour. One Title I school was chosen from each state for the tour. Maysville was the one school selected in the State of Georgia. Swanson and Behr, along with their four school-aged children, are spending the 2022-23 school year living and traveling in a converted school bus. This first-of-its-kind tour includes a nationwide book giveaway and the family road trip with a major re search study on the impact of creator/student engage ment. The key objectives are raising awareness of the challenges facing Amer ica’s public schools and empowering reading, cre ativity and collaboration in children ages 5 to 12. In addition to the tour’s central mission, Swanson and Behr will: • Partner with Build-A- Bear Foundation and First Book to distribute free books to students and ed ucators in Title I schools across America. • Conduct a research study with Washington College, in Chestertown, Md., to measure the impact of author/illustrator vis its (filling a key gap in the Maysville Elementary School students take turns petting Dumbles during the Busload of Books tour. research on this topic). • Share the virtual road trip via daily digital content - photos, essays, sketches See Busload, page 2A Index News 1A-3A, 5A Opinion 4A ruoiic saieiy. School news 0A-/A 8B Social news 8A, 12A Sports 1B-3B Classifieds 11A Obituaries 9A-10A Legals 4B-7B Inside Photo by Ben Munro Pamela Whitmire poses for a photo with her quarter horse, Lady, who will turn 40 on Monday (Feb. 27). Read the story on page 12A. Pendergrass Long-time mayor of Pendergrass dies Long-time Pendergrass Mayor Melvin “Monk” Tolbert has died. Tolbert died on Monday. Feb. 27, fol lowing an extended illness. He was 83 years old. Tolbert’s full obituary had not been released as of press-time. Services are set to be announced on Wednesday, March 1. Services and the full obituary will be shared on https://www.evansfuneralhomeinc. com/ Jackson BOC County ends 2022 with strong finances By Mike Buffington mike@mainstreetnews. com Although the Jackson County audit for 2022 has yet to be completed, pre liminary numbers indicate the county government ended the year strongly in the black. During an annual “re treat” meeting, the Jack- son County Board of Commissioners heard a report from county man ager Kevin Poe about the county’s financial status. For 2022, the county netted $20.1 million in revenues over expenses. Some $14.1 million of that was from the federal ARPA funds provided by Congress. Overall expenses were $2.2 million under budget for the year while reve nues — especially sales tax income — were far over budget. Local Option Sales Taxes exceeded the budgeted amount by $4 million on the year. In tergovernmental income was also far over budget at $1.2 million. For EMS. the county used $2.1 million of the ARPA funds to pay first responder salaries, saving the county from having to pay those from its usu al general fund sources. EMS expenses were up during the year due to overtime pay and the high er cost of medical supplies See Retreat, page 2A Jefferson council Jefferson’s capital projects to include gun range, new By Hannah Barron hannah@mainstreetnews. com A police gun range and a new fire station could soon be coming to Jefferson. The projects were among priorities discussed for 2023 and 2024 at the Jefferson City Council’s annual retreat on Feb. 16. The Jefferson Police fire station Department is looking at an outdoor gun range to qualify and train officers. The department current ly uses the range owned by the Jackson County Sher iff’s Office. The county agency has more officers to qualify and hosts a See Jefferson, page 2A piggly wiggly WE CASH CHECKS! INCOME TAXES PAYROLL INSURANCE SSI DEPARTMENT OF LABOR SETTLEMENT MONEY ORDERS 14 14 0
