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About Jackson herald. (Jefferson, Jackson County, Ga.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 23, 2023)
o O 24 PAGES 2 SECTIONS PLUS INSERTS The Commerce News JEFFERSON, JACKSON COUNTY GEORGIA 30549 $1.00 COPY Elections Qualifying being held this week Qualifying for the Nov. 7 General Elec tion continues this week across Jackson County. Some municipalities are holding qualifying from Monday-Wednes- day, while others are holding qualifying from Wednesday-Friday. Full qualifying results will be posted on Jack- sonHeraldTODAY.com as available after quali fying closes on Wednes day and Friday. A com plete list will be in next week’s paper. Qualifying closes Wednesday for Arcade, Commerce, Jefferson, Maysville, Nicholson and Pendergrass. Qual ifying is set Wednes day-Friday in Braselton, Hoschton and Talmo. Early voting set for Pendergrass special election Early voting opens on Monday for the Pender grass City Council Sept. 19 special election. Bob Carter and Mallory Danner are competing in that race. See page 5A of this week’s paper for Carter’s and Danner’s responses to a Main- street News candidate questionnaire. Earlier voting is set: •Monday, Aug. 28, through Saturday, Sept. 2, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily •Tuesday, Sept. 5, through Saturday, Sept. 9, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily •Monday, Sept. 11, through Friday, Sept. 15, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Early voting will take place at the county elec tions center, located at 441 Gordon Street in Jefferson. Absentee ballots are also available. The deadline to request an absentee bal lot is Sept. 8. Visit https:// www.jacksoncountygov. com/195/Current-Ele chon-hiformahon for in formation on absentee ballots. MAILING LABEL Jackson BOC Local governments may appeal state tax ruling By Mike Buffington mike@mainstreetnews. com Six major government entities in Jackson County may jointly appeal a Geor gia Department of Audits & Accounts tax digest ratio study that showed Jackson County property valua tions are lower than they should be. The county was recently notified by the state that its tax digest was at 31%, below the 38% minimum threshold. The data was based on 2022 property sales in the county that compared a selected num ber of property sales in the county to what that prop erty was valued at on the county’s tax digest. This is the second year in a row the county has been below the minimum threshold. The previous ra tio study from 2021 led to this year’s large increase in property values. Those 2023 increases aren’t re flected in the 2022 ratio study, however. POSSIBLE APPEAL This week, the Jackson County Board of Com missioners, the Commerce City Council, the Jefferson City Council, the Jackson County School System, the Commerce City School System and the Jefferson City School System agreed to jointly retain a tax ap praisal expert to help the county figure out if the state made errors in its cal culations and to possibly draft an appeal to the state. The county has until Sept. 7 to file an appeal. The six groups met last week to discuss the issue and how to respond. The state department of audits uses a different formula than the coun ty to calculate the ratio, a formula it only recently implemented under a new director, officials said. “(The consultant) agreed to review our data and get back with me by the mid dle of next week,” said Commerce School System superintendent Joy Tolbert, who is helping coordinate the county’s response. “If he sees that our issue is methodology and he be lieves that he can make a good appeal for a flaw with the methodology, he will do the appeal. If he does not find an issue with the methodology to make a good appeal, he will not attempt the appeal.” Having the right sales ratio is critical to the coun ty’s school systems since it See Appeal, page 2A Tigers on the Town Photos by Amy Flint Football season has begun for high schools across Jackson County. The season kicked off on Friday (Aug. 18). Commerce High School hosted its annual Tigers on the Town pep rally on Thursday (Aug.17) to celebrate the opening of the season and cheer on the Tigers. Commerce High School hosted its an nual Tigers on the Town pep rally on Thursday (Aug.17) to celebrate the open ing of the season and cheer on the Tigers. See more photos from Tigers on the Town on page12B. Commerce High School hosted its annual Ti gers on the Town pep rally on Thursday (Aug. 17) in Spencer Park in downtown Commerce. Pendergrass Garage sales, grass height and noise among items Pendergrass looking to regulate The City of Pender grass is looking to im plement a series of new city ordinances that mostly revolve around regulating city “quality of life” issues. The city plans to train its police officers in code enforcement to respond to complaints. That will be done in a professional and low keyed manner, officials said. If a property owner refuses to comply with the provisions of the nuisance code, the prop erty owner will be cited with a police citation and will be required to appear in city court. The town’s council recently held a work session to go through the ordinance propos als. Among the items discussed were: Garage Sales: The council discussed the limit garage sales to two per year per prop erty owner; time to be See Pendergrass, page 2A Public safety GBI, JPD probing Jefferson murder Authorities are investigating a murder that reportedly happened Friday evening, Aug. 18, in Jefferson. Mateo Gomez, no age or address given, was reported ly found shot around 10:50 p.m. near the intersection of Business Hwy. 129 and Storey Porter Rd. Gomez was taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center, Gainesville, where he died from his injuries. The GBI has been called in by the Jefferson Police Department to assist with the investigation. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Jefferson Police Department at 706-367-5231 or the GBI Regional Investigative Office in Athens at 706- 542-7901. Anonymous tips can also be submitted by calling 1-800-597-TIPS (8477), online at https://gbi.georgia. gov/submit-tips-online, or by downloading the See Something, Send Something mobile app. Banks Crossing Work has begun on constructing a median along Hwy. 441 at Banks Crossing near Commerce. Banks Crossing- Commerce area facing a slew of DOT road work By Mike Buffington mike@mainstreetnews. com The Commerce-Banks County area has four ma jor road and bridge proj ects taking place with three of those four in the Banks Crossing corridor near Commerce. In addition to the on going widening of 1-85 through the area, Banks Crossing is also dealing with two other projects. The first is the exten sion Faulkner Rd. and realignment of Steven B. Tanger Blvd. That work is ongoing with tons of dirt being graded on the hill just north of East Ridge way Rd. (near the Home Depot). (That realignment may eliminate left turns off of Hwy. 441 north at the RaceTrac.) MEDIAN WORK The largest project in the area, however, is that work has begun on a long-an ticipated median on Hwy. 441 at Banks Crossing. The median will limit left turns along the area and See Roads, page 2A piggly wiggly HOME OF THE SLUSHEES n 1 ■ 14 14 0
