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About Jackson herald. (Jefferson, Jackson County, Ga.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 30, 2023)
o o 24 PAGES 2 SECTIONS PLUS INSERTS The Commerce News JEFFERSON, JACKSON COUNTY GEORGIA 30549 $1.00 COPY Jefferson Jefferson set to issue $12 million in bonds for aquatics center But city building authority has narrow y-2 vote to approve bonds By Mike Buffington mike@mainstreetnews.com The City of Jefferson is about set to go to market with $ 12 million in bonds to fund its aquatics center project. The Jefferson City Council voted to approve the bond package at its Aug. 28 meeting following a brief presenta tion by underwriters. The bonds are for 20 years with a blended rate of 3.97%. Underwriters said the bond proposal had received a “strong reception” from the market. The city is floating the bonds through its building authority, which met Aug. 29 and voted 3-2 to go forward with the bond sale. Voting against the bonds were former mayor Roy Plott and Doug Turco while Randall Reed, Patrick Brewer and chairman John Blackstock, who broke the tie, voted in favor. The bonds are scheduled to hit the market Sept. 27. Earlier this summer, the council vot ed to pursue the aquatics center proj ect after several years of discussion and controversy. The new facility is slated to be used by area swim teams and private citizens for a variety of aquatic uses, including competitions. It will be located on Old Pendergrass Rd. near the existing city recreation center. See Jefferson, page 2A Judicial State, local Banks Co. judicial move could impact Jackson, Barrow If Banks County is moved out of the Piedmont Judi cial Circuit, what would that move mean for Barrow and Jackson Counties? Banks has been pushing to jump out of the Pied mont Circuit for several years and move into the Mountain Judicial Circuit. The move would require legislative action and so far, those efforts have not been successful. But state legislative lead ers held a rare out-of-At lanta hearing in Homer last week to hear about the ef forts to have Banks move to the Mountain Circuit. “It is rare to come out of the committee room,” said legislative committee chairman Stan Gunter. “We want to hear why we should make a change or why we should leave it alone. What we hear will influence what happens in January.” State leaders said if the action is taken it would be “precedent-setting” be cause there has never been action to take a county out of one circuit and put it into another one. (The state has separated a county into its own circuit, however.) For Jackson and Bar- row counties, losing Banks County to another circuit might open the door to using one, or both, coun ties in a bid to realign the See Judicial, page 2A MAILING LABEL Local group works to get overdose reversal kits installed Overdose Reversal Kits have been installed at the State Capitol. The an nouncement comes after a months-long collaborative effort between lo cal and state leaders. Jackson County resident Jon Langston’s company, Langston and Langston, LLC, builds, initially stocks and installs the box es. A local Recovery Community Organization (RCO), such as REBOOT Jackson, then maintains and re-restocks the box as needed. Pictured here is one of the kits at the public entry security desk at the Capitol. A total of five boxes will be in the Capitol and one box will be in the office of the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. Members of the Georgia Council 4 Recovery are pictured. They are the RCO that will maintain these particular boxes. From L-R: Jeff Breedlove, Community Outreach Manager, DBHDD; Gene Conroy, Assistant Direc tor of Operations, Georgia Council 4 Recovery; Laurisa Guerrero, Execu tive Director, Georgia Council 4 Recovery; Jon Langston, Langston and Langston, LLC; Commissioner Kevin Tanner, DBHDD; Rep. Emory Duna- hoo Jr.; Jenn Langston, Executive Director, REBOOT Jackson; and Dave Scott, Treasurer, REBOOT Jackson. Overdose Reversal Kits have been installed at the State Capitol. Overdose Reversal Kits have been installed at the State Capitol. The announcement comes after a months-long collaborative effort between local and state leaders. Overdose REVERSAL KIT j Geori|ia ("C-ii ;.t,f it r:“.r Eteocvery : ri-ISiVT. TTfTt l>j±3 i Nuusenr Elections Qualifying closes, busy elections season ahead for municipalities It’s going to be a busy year for local elections. Qualifying ended last week for the Nov. 7 munici pal General Election. Seats are contested in nearly all of the county’s municipalities. Arcade and Talmo are the only two municipalities in the county that don’t have contested races. See the qualifying results: ARCADE •Three at-large council seats: Incumbents Cindy Bone, Jenny Buley and Tom Hays qualified. BRASELTON •District 1: Becky Richardson, incumbent, and Joshua Spearman •District 3: Jim Joedecke Jr., incumbent, and Tom Logan COMMERCE • Mayor: Clark Hill (incumbent) •City Council Ward 3: Mark Fitzpatrick (in cumbent) and Alicia Vargas • City Council Ward 4: Bobby Redmon (incum bent) •City Council Ward 5: Roshuanda Merritt, Marty Vitug and Ronald Silver. Incumbent Johnny Eubanks announced that he would not seek re-elec tion. • District 1 School Board: Nathan Anderson (in cumbent) • District 3 School Board: Matthew Dean • District 4 School Board: Kyle E. Moore (incum bent) • District 5 School Board: Cory Griffith HOSCHTON • Mayor (filling the unexpired term of Lauren O’Leary): Michael Beck, Debbie Martin and Nick Sutton • 2-year term (filling the unexpired term of Scott Mims): David Brown, Monti Robinson and Tam my Sweat •4-year terms (three spots open): Christina Brown, Scott Courier, Melba Moss, J.J. Jackson and Shannon Sell JEFFERSON • Council District 1: Steve Kinney, incumbent • Council District 3: Cody Cain, incumbent • Council District 5: Stephen Crawford, incumbent •School Board District 1: Catherine Peer and Ashley Wheaton Smith • School Board District 3: Willie Hughey, incum bent • School Board District 5: Guy Benson, incumbent MAYSVTLLE • Mayor: Richard Presley (incumbent) and Wil liam S. McLeish Jr • Council member Ward 2: Amanda Farley • Council member Ward 4: Brodriche D. Jack- son and Roy Dean NICHOLSON •Mayor: Steve Nichols and Jan Webster, in cumbent •Council seats (two available): Mike Barfield (incumbent), Dusty Durst and Lamar Watkins (incumbent) PENDERGRASS • Mayor: Nick Geiman (incumbent) • Councilmembers (three seats up for grabs): Gabriel Gomez (incumbent), Joshua Auten, Tara Bonner (incumbent) and Sylvia Basak TALMO • Two Talmo city council seats: James Buffington and Myra McEver, both incumbents piggly wiggly HOME OF THE SLUSHEES n M \
