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About Jackson herald. (Jefferson, Jackson County, Ga.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (April 19, 2023)
PAGE 2A THE JACKSON HERALD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2023 JCWSA reallocates funds for sewer master plan By Hannah Barron hannah@mainstreetnews. com The Jackson County Wa ter and Sewerage Authori ty reallocated funds for its sewer master plan project during its April 13 meeting. The authority is enter ing into another phase of the project and has asked research firm Freese and Nichols to look at sewer projections for particular lo cations, which is leading to a more detailed master plan than originally proposed. The authority voted to re allocate $75,000 from a re lated gravity mains project to cover a budget amend ment totaling $70,417. The sewer master plan is expected to be ready in the fall. The authority also adopt ed its water master plan, previously presented at the March 9 meeting. OTHER BUSINESS In other business April 13, the authority: • revisited the preliminary water and sewer applica tion for Heroes Elementary School, as requested by the Jackson County School Sys tem. The authority reduced the fire line connection fee from $18,750 to $10,250, so the school system will only be paying for the cost of the meter itself. The authority also reduced the domestic water connection fee by half, bringing the fee down to $50,000 from $100,000. • adopted a resolution au thorizing the condemnation for the Doster Creek sewer intercept project. Jefferson to celebrate Georgia Cities Week with number of events Jefferson will be celebrat ing “Georgia Cities Week” on April 23-29. The theme of this year's Georgia Cities Week is “Lighting the Way.” The city will hold a variety of events throughout the week, including: MONDAY, APRIL 24, LIGHT THE WAY TO A BRIGHT FUTURE The City of Jefferson will partner with Jefferson City School System. Four Jefferson High School students will work in depart ments for the day. learning how each serves the citizens of Jefferson in various ways. Jefferson Middle School students involved in Audio Visual classes will present a short video at the City Coun cil Meeting themed “Mentors that Light Our Way.” Jefferson Academy stu dents will create social media content for #JeffersonSpot- light, that will voice what makes Jefferson the best place to live. Jefferson Elementary School students will have the opportunity to illustrate their “favorite Jefferson Spot.” These drawings will brighten storefront windows down town. Citizens are invited to “Meet the Council” with re freshments at 5:15-6 p.m. (Jefferson Station Meeting Room) and stay for the city council voting session at 6 p.m. TUESDAY, APRIL 25, LIGHT THE WAY WITH KINDNESS Citizens are encouraged to take part in a day of kindness within the City of Jefferson by finding ways to brighten someone’s day. Use hashtags: #lightthewaywithkindness and #itsaGREATdayinJeffer- son WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, LIGHT THE WAY WITH HISTORY & HEROES Visit Crawford W. Long for tours with Dr. Long from 10 a.m.-12 p.m. “Touch-A-Truck” experi ence will be held at the civic center from 3:30-6:30 p.m. THURSDAY, APRIL 27, LIGHT THE WAY WITH GRATITUDE As a customer of the City of Jefferson’s Utilities, you are invited for Utilities Cus tomer Appreciation Lunch from 11 a.m.-l p.m. at Jeffer son Station. FRIDAY, APRIL 28, LIGHT THE WAY TO TOMORROW Enjoy a Movie in the Park, “Big Hero 6.” “We’re very proud of our city, its employees, citizens, the services provided, the partnerships, and the com munity we nurture. We are grateful for all who strive to make Jefferson shine,” Mi chele Head, Community De velopment Director, said. Cities across Georgia will be celebrating Georgia Cit ies Week, sponsored by the Georgia Municipal Associa tion (GMA). to showcase and celebrate cities and the many services they provide. Based in Atlanta, GMA is a volun tary. non-profit organization that provides legislative ad vocacy, educational, employ ee benefit and consulting services to its 538 member cities. For more information, call 706-367-5754 or email mhead@cityofjeffersonga. com Commerce continued from 1A caught like that,” Burchett said. “I want to make sure we’ve got the protocol for something like that.” Burchett noted the inci dent occurred on a Saturday evening and it took until Monday for the county to sort out who was supposed to come and retrieve the animal to have it tested for rabies. (Banks County does not have animal control.) City manager James Wascher said he would check with the Commerce Police Department and with Jackson County to see if they have protocols in place. Jackson County provides animal control for the city, which was part of the recent service delivery strategy ne gotiations. OTHER BUSINESS Also at its April 17 meet ing, the council approved: •a conditional use and variance for a landscape sup ply company to be located at 2602 North Broad St. The request was approved with a number of conditions. •a request from the Boys & Girls Club to host a 5K on June 10 at Spencer Park. The event will begin at 8:30 a.m. •street closures for Crui sin’ Commerce on May 13. Portions of State Street and Central Avenue will be closed during the event. The event will include a car show, swap meet and an event zone. The council also approved a beer garden/tap truck for the event. •new procedures for prop erty acquisition that would allow city staff to make small land purchases without it go ing to the city council. The new procedures could help speed up processes when the city is purchasing easements or rights-of-way. Commerce schools to hike meal prices By Mike Buffington The City of Commerce School System will hike meal prices for the 2023- 2024 school year. Breakfast prices for all schools will go from $1.50 to $2.00 while the adult breakfast rate will go from $1.95 to $2.25. Lunch rates are also going up and vary from school to school. Prima ry and elementary school rates will go from $2 to $2.25 while middle and high school prices will go from $2.50 to $2.75. Adult lunch prices will go from $3.75 to $4. The new rates were ap proved April 17 by the Commerce Board of Edu cation. The move is due to the higher costs of food prod ucts, said school nutrition al director Rich Friedman. Over the past two years, those costs have gone up 23% he noted in a report to the BOE. The new rates will bring Commerce in line with most other area school systems. NEW MATH TEXTBOOKS In other action, the BOE approved a large overhaul of its math textbooks. The BOE adopted a new set of books from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for all grades. The new textbooks will cost $255,400, but super intendent Joy Tolbert told the board that math books had not been updated since 2012. The new books will better align with new state curriculum guidelines, she said, as well as being more in line from grade- to-grade. ANDERSON RESIGNATION The board also accept ed the resignation of BOE member Nathan Anderson. The board will name a re placement for Anderson, whose term expires Dec. 31.2024. In personnel action, the board accepted the resig nation of curriculum direc tor Sandra Metts. SK FUNDS During its work session meeting, the BOE heard a financial report from Tol bert about the impending impact of SK Battery on the system. Due to the SK plant going onto the city’s tax digest, the school sys tem will lose around $2 million in state funding starting in FY2024. While SK doesn’t pay traditional city property taxes, it has been making payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT). Those funds, which have been accruing for the past few years, will be used to backfill for the loss of state funding. SK is impacting the school system’s finances by technically making the city’s tax digest “wealthi er.” Because state educa tion funds are partly based on the relative “wealth” of a school system’s tax digest, the higher digest means less net state fund ing. City of Hoschton hosting April 24 and 26 clean up events The City of Hoschton The April 24 event runs asked to meet at Hoschton tion, contact the city at seeks volunteers for April from 10 a.m. to noon and City Hall at 79 City downtownhoschton@city 24 and April 26 clean up the April 26 event from Square. ofhoschton.com. dates. 2-4 p.m. Volunteers are For more informa- Hoschton continued from 1A (DDA) Monday by the council after receiving nominations last week from the DDA for its two open posts. O’Leary becomes the first elected official on the DDA. She has served as mayor since January 2022. Mean while, Loveland brings 20 years of government administrative experi ence to the position. OTHER NEWS In other news, the council: •declined an electrical work bid for former Larry’s Garage prop erty on Broad St. Mayor Lauren O’Leary said she wanted to wait until the council finalized the city’s plan for the building before mov ing forward. •approved zoning ordinance amendments to reflect state zoning law changes. •approved a variance request from applicant. WJMP, LLC, to allow mountable curbs for a devel opment of 191 townhomes on West Jefferson St. •held the first of two readings for impact fee program changes resulting from a lawsuit settle ment between the city and Kolter Homes, which is developing the Twin Lakes and Cresswind subdi visions. According to city planner Jerry Weitz, the changes include refunding some fire fees, reducing the rate for townhouses and age-re stricted dwelling units for park and recreation fees and removing fire impact fees. •approved a resolution for Geor gia Cities Week. Hoschton’s activ ities include cleanup days on April 24 and April 26, a police vehicle presentation for kids and a kids’ art contest (ages 2-12). Public Notice LOGIC & ACCURACY NOTICE LOGIC AND ACCURACY TESTING PUBLIC NOTICE To be published in the legal organ of the county. O.C.G.A. §21-2-379.25, SEB Rule No. 183-1- 12.02(3)(b)l(i) ( Election Day) and SEB Rule No. 183-1-14-.02 (2) Notice is hereby given that the logic and accuracy testing and preparation of Voting equipment to be used in the June 20th, 2023 Special Election for the City of Pendergrass will begin as early as May 1st at 9:00AM (or once database has been received from the SOS Office). Testing will continue from day to day from 9AM-5PM until complete and members of the public representatives of the parties and bodies, and news media are entitled to be present during testing, but shall not interfere in any way with such testing. Said testing and preparation will be conducted at the Election Center located at 441 Gordon Street - Jefferson, GA 30549. Jennifer Logan Election and Voter Registration Director Jackson County Commerce City Schools REGISTRATION INFO Academic Year 2023/2024 Kindergarten y/ Contact Mandy Lund @ 706-335-5587 or V V Online application will open 4/10-4/28 Child must be 5 by 9/1/23 Required documents: Proof of Residency, Birth Certificate, Social Security number, Immunization form, Hearing/Dental/Vision GA 3300 form, Picture ID of the Parent/Legal Guardian. mandy.lund@commercecityschools.org
