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The Commerce News
JEFFERSON, JACKSON COUNTY GEORGIA 30549 $1.00 COPY
Elections
Qualifying
coming up
nextweek
Qualifying is coming
up next week for the
Nov. 7 General Election
in municipalities across
Jackson County.
Details from each
town include:
ARCADE
•Qualifying dates:
Aug. 21-23 from
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
• Seats on the ballot:
Three at-large Arcade
City Council seats
•Qualifying fees: $54
• Location: Arcade
City Hall
BRASELTON
•Qualifying dates:
Aug. 23-25 from
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
• Seats on the ballot:
Braselton Town Coun
cil District 1 (currently
held by Becky Rich
ardson) and District 3
(currently held by Jim
Joedecke Jr.).
•Qualifying fees:
$180.
•Location: Braselton
Town Hall
COMMERCE
•Qualifying dates:
Aug. 21-23 from
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
• City council seats
on the ballot: Mayor,
councilman ward III,
councilman ward IV
and councilman ward V.
•Qualifying fees:
Mayor, $126; council
seats, $81
• Board of Educa
tion seats on the bal
lot: School board dis
trict III, school board
district IV and school
board district V. A spe
cial election for school
board district I will
also be held (the spe
cial election is required
because Nathan Ander
son previously stepped
down from the position.
He has since been reap
pointed to the seat, but
the initial resignation
prompted the special
election).
•Qualifying fees for
school board seats: $72.
• Location: Com
merce City Hall
HOSCHTON
•Qualifying dates:
Aug. 23-25 from
8:30 a.m. to noon and
See Qualifying, page 2A
MAILING LABEL
Growth
Report: Millennials driving growth
County\ city and
school leaders hear
details of county’s
growth and needs
Everyone knows that
Jackson County is expe
riencing a high rate of
growth and last week, the
exact nature of that growth
was the topic of a rare joint
meeting that brought to
gether representatives of
all the county’s major gov
ernments.
Facilitated by the Jack-
son County Area Chamber
of Commerce, the meeting
featured business consul
tant and data analyst Mark
Kooyman who took the
group through some of the
details about the county’s
Mark Kooyman speaking to a group of Jackson
County leaders about growth in the community.
evolving population. He
also highlighted some of
the top issues the county
faces as it continues to be
one of the fastest growing
communities in the nation.
“It was a lot (of infor
mation) and we should
probably get back together
and talk about this again,”
said chamber President &
CEO Jim Shaw. “Hopefully
we’ll have this sort of gath
ering (again) soon.”
One of Kooyman’s key
topics was how the millen
nial generation is driving
demographic change both
in the county and across the
nation.
Millennials, now ages
29-44, will make up 60%
of the nation’s workforce
by 2025, he said. Lon
ger-term, he noted that as
millennials become empty
nesters in the future, that
will challenge the commu
nity’s schools and health
care systems.
Kooyman said that small
towns are “genuine” and
that has a lot of appeal for
millennials.
To cater to millennials,
Kooyman said Jackson
County needs to develop
more gathering spaces in
its downtowns that would
appeal to millennials and
their families. The coun
ty also needs to develop
some co-working spaces
as well, noting that a lot of
white-collar workers now
work remotely several days
a week and need space to
do that.
One of the key problems
Kooyman discussed was
the lack of retail devel
opment in the county. He
said the county was losing
40% in restaurant sales to
the surrounding area due
to a lack of local restau
rants. Several other retail
See Growth, page 2A
Football
Friday Night Lights to shine again
Photo by Amy Flint
The Commerce Tigers won a decisive victory last week over Holy Innocents 34-
14 in scrimmage play. The Tigers will open regular season play at home Friday
night against Southside Christian of Simpsonville, S.C. The game will start at
7:30 p.m. Pictured is CHS ball carrier Jaiden Daniels leaving Holy Innocents de
fenders behind during the Tigers’ victory in last week’s scrimmage.
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The Jackson County High
School Panthers are looking
to keep their winning ways
going when they open the
season Friday night against
Dawson County. The Pan
thers are coming off of a 12-3
scrimmage game win against
East Jackson High School last
week. For its part, EJCHS will
have its opener Friday night
at home against Oglethorpe
County. See more on page 1B.
The Jefferson High School Dragons are getting ready for Friday night’s opener
against Alpharetta at home. Last week, the Dragons dropped a close scrimmage
game to Marist 24-20. The Dragons are ranked #9 in the 5A class according to
MaxPreps.
Banks County, Commerce
Banks County company sues
SK Battery over fire damage
By Angela Gary
A Banks County man
claims that a battery com
pany is responsible for the
fire that destroyed several
buildings.
Scott Ledford, owner of
Metro Site, has filed a law
suit against SK Battery of
Commerce. Ledford con
tends that the company in
cluded batteries that were
not allowed in items they
disposed of at his company.
He is seeking $26.5 million
in damages.
Metro Site, located on
Industrial Boulevard at
Banks Crossing, was heav
ily damaged in the fire in
mid-July.
The lawsuit states: “This
is a case about a foreign
company that ignored the
risk of harm posed by its il
legal and intentional dump
ing of hazardous materials
into a roll-off container it
knew was bound for a pub
lic recycling facility. The
company’s disregard for a
known risk led to the total
destruction of a local recy
cling business. This action
is brought to recover dam
ages caused by intentional
misconduct, and to prevent
this illegal dumping of haz
ardous waste from ever
happening again.”
SK Battery America,
Inc. manufactures pouch
cell lithium-ion batteries
(LIBs). The LIBs are sold
to Ford for its F-150 Light
ning truck, and to Volk
swagen for its ID.4 electric
vehicle.
Metro Site, Inc. is a lo
cal recycling and disposal
company that has been re
cycling the non-hazardous
waste generated by SK
Battery America, Inc., for
the past three years.
The lawsuit states,
“SK Battery America,
Inc. regularly dumped its
See SK, page 2A
Property taxes
State to county: Property
values not high enough
Jackson County proper
ty appraisals skyrocketted
this year and led to some
heated meetings between
citizens and public offi
cials.
Despite that jump in local
values, the state now says
Jackson County appraisals
aren’t high enough.
The annual state ratio
study of property sales
showed that the county’s
ratio of sales price vs.
appraised price was only
31.96%. The ratio is sup
posed to be between 38%
to 42%.
The state sampled 1,012
property transactions from
2022 in the study compar
ing the property’s actual
sales price against what
the county had it valued at
for property taxes.
County leaders called a
meeting early this week
of local officials to dis
cuss the matter and to
possibly file a challenge
to the data. The county
has 30 days to appeal.