Funding for the digitization of this title was provided by Georgia HomePLACE, a project of the Georgia Public Library Service.
About Jackson herald. (Jefferson, Jackson County, Ga.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (March 8, 2023)
o o THE ACKSON H Wednesday, March 8, 2023 ERALD VOL. 148 NO. 39 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 Pendergrass Geiman elected Pendergrass mayor pro tem A special election will be held June 20 to fill the unexpired term of Pender grass’ mayor following the death of long-time Mayor Monk Tolbert on Feb. 27. The special election will also fill the seat previously held by Harlan Robinson, who resigned last week. Both seats will also come up for election in Novem ber’s General Election. At its Feb. 28 meeting. the Pendergrass City Coun cil voted to elect Nick Gei man as mayor pro tem to replace Robinson. Geiman will chair the council’s meetings until a new mayor is elected. The council election of Geiman was required after the city attorney discovered that Robinson had been ap pointed, but not elected, to the mayor pro tem position. The city’s charter requires the mayor pro tem be elect ed, but that had not been done in recent years as the mayor had appointed the position. The council also elected Tara Underwood as succes sor mayor pro tem. Also on Feb. 28, the council voted to approve an overlay district for the city’s new town center, which is currently under construction. Public safety Education Rome man killed in wreck on 1-85 A Rome, Ga., man was killed in a single-vehicle wreck on 1-85 in Jackson County recently. William Vaughn Garrett, 57, of Rome, died at the scene of the wreck. Garrett was traveling southbound on 1-85 in a Chevrolet Tahoe on Feb. 26 around 3 a.m. when he lost control of the vehicle. The Tahoe overturned, struck the cable barrier in the median and traveled into the northbound lanes before coming to a final rest. No one else was injured in the wreck. Hoschton to submit modified council district plan to state legislature By Ben Munro drew the proposed city ben@mainstreetnews.com C0U ncil districts based on The City of Hoschton will move forward with plans to divide the town into city council districts, albeit with a different pro posal than previously pre sented. Hoschton leaders look to split the city into two voting districts with two councilmembers elected per district (they must re side within their respec tive district) and two other councilmembers elected at-large. Hoschton cur rently uses an at-large election format exclu sively that doesn’t require geographical disburse ment of its council mem bers. Under this new plan. District 1 would cover the far western portion of the city and part of the north ern end. District 2 would cover much of the south ern and central portions, all of the eastern segment, and a portion of the north ern end. The state’s general as sembly executive office population density using data from the 2020 cen sus. Hoschton leaders will now send this plan to the state legislature for ap proval. The city, via a pub lic notice, announced the introduction of a bill for this year’s regular session of the state general assem bly to create a new charter for Hoschton to allow for city council districts. The pursuit of coun cil districts comes as the southern portion of the city, with the large Cress- wind and Twin Fakes sub divisions. is projected to grow by 7,000 residents before 2030. Councilmember Tracy Carswell said during a Feb. 16 city council meet ing that districting would ensure all parts of town have representation on the council. He noted that at one time, four Hoschton council members lived in the same four-block area See Hoschton, page 2A MAILING LABEL Index Opinion 4A Public safety. 6A-7A School news 12A, 8B Social news 8A Sports 1B-3B Classifieds 9A Obituaries lOA-llA Legnls 4B-7B Chamber honors STARs STARS RECOGNIZED BY CHAMBER STAR students and their teachers were recently recognized by the Jackson County Area Chamber of Commerce. Shown here at the Chamber’s annual STAR banquet are (L to R) Amberly Roberts, teacher, and student, David Heard, of Jefferson High School; teacher Steven Bowles and student Kellen Salom of Jackson County High School; teacher Joseph Brubaker and student Jacob Buell of East Jackson Com prehensive High School; and teacher Travis Roye and student Scarlett Maze of Commerce High School. (Photo by Jackson County Area Chamber of Commerce.) Commerce, county Crowd packs town hall over Commerce parks and rec proposal By Alex Buffington aiex@mainstreetnews. com Commerce City Coun cil members faced a packed room during last week’s town hall meeting about the future of the city’s parks and recre ation department. It was a marathon of a meeting — lasting about 3 hours — during which a number of people spoke against a proposal to turn over the city’s rec department to the Jackson County Recre ation and Parks Department. The city has not made a decision on whether it will move forward with the pro posed merger. A second town hall meeting is planned this Saturday (March 11) at 11 a.m. at the Commerce Civic Center. BACKGROUND City leaders have been working over the past several years on plans to expand the city’s recreation department. Mayor Clark Hill said the city’s intention initially was to buy land and build new fa cilities. A crowd packed the Commerce City Council’s town hall meeting, Hill said the city first started looking at city- owned property on Small wood Dr. But there isn’t enough buildable land for an expansion there and the neighboring property own ers weren’t willing to sell their land. The city then looked at buying an alternative proper ty, 70-80 acres at the comer of Whitehill School Rd. When the city hired an engineer for the expansion, it learned the estimated cost to build addi- Mayor Clark Hill gives information on the back- See Commerce, page 2A ground of the city’s parks and rec department. piggly wiggly 415 Lee Street • Jefferson, GA WE CASH CHECKS! INCOME TAXES PAYROLL INSURANCE SSI DEPARTMENT OF LABOR SETTLEMENT MONEY ORDERS 14 14 0
