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About Jackson herald. (Jefferson, Jackson County, Ga.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 13, 2023)
PAGE 2A THE JACKSON HERALD WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2023 FLAG FOLDING Members of the Jefferson High School AFJROTC Group participated in the Jefferson Remembers Ceremony at Jackson County Baptist Church on Sun day, September 10. The service remembered the first responders who gave their lives on September 11,2001, and recognized first responders in the local area. The cadets presented the colors and conducted a flag-folding ceremony to honor the first responders. The cadets pictured are Collin Larsen, Emily Larsen, Ellie Larsen, Andrew Perkins, Vincent Grantham and Lili Figueroa. Special election is Tuesday in Pendergrass Election Day is coming up next week for the Pendergrass special election. Bob Carter and Mallory Danner are competing in the Sept. 19 race for the Pendergrass City Council. Election Day voting will take place on Sept. 19 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Pender grass City Hall. Early voting continues this week for the special election. Early voting is being held through Friday, Sept. 15, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Early voting will take place at the coun ty elections center, located at 441 Gordon Street in Jefferson. Visit https://www.jacksoncountygov. com/195/Current-Election-Information for information on absentee ballots. Art in the Park coming up Sept. 16-17 Art in the Park will be held Sept. 16- ments, living history and the duck dash. 17 at Hurricane Shoals Park. Homs are Admission and parking are free. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. for both days. For more information, visit www.hurri The popular annual event features a 5K caneshoalspark.org. mill race, arts and crafts, grist mill, kids’ The park is located at 416 Hurricane zone, Heritage Village, Civil War reenact- Shoals Road, Maysville. First Jefferson TODAY magazine inside The first issue of the Jefferson TODAY Free copies are also available at The magazine can be found inside this week’s Jackson Herald office in downtown Jef- paper for residents in the Jefferson mail- ferson. ing area. VOLUNTEERS FOR SEPT. 11 The Southampton Falls volunteer group, Southampton Serves, recently hand ed out flowers and cookies to first responder residents and decorated the neighborhood entrances in honor of the 9/11 anniversary. Southhampton Falls is located in Hoschton. Commerce continued from iA Jefferson continued from iA Clarke and Jackson counties and the City of Jefferson — already have Flock cameras in place. Those cameras have been instrumental in helping Commerce police find sus pects in two recent major incidents. The first was the robbery shooting at the former an tique store at Banks Cross ing in July 2022. One man was shot during the robbery and his wife was able to re call a few letters from the suspects’ license plate. Au thorities entered that data entered the Flock system and matched it to the type of vehicle that witnesses/vid eo saw. That helped police identity the suspects and detectives were able to find them and make an arrest. “We wouldn’t have been able to do that that quickly without the information that we got from the Flock cam eras,” Harmon said. The second incident was the recent minder outside of Hardee’s. Flock cameras alerted authorities that the suspect had crossed back into Jackson County and police were able to arrest him before he made it back to Commerce. The reimbursable grant will cover the costs of the cameras for four years. City leaders can decide if they want to continue the pro gram after that. SK battery America has also said it’s willing to help fund additional cameras. MILLAGE RATE APPROVAL COMING The council is also slated to adopt its 2023-24 millage rate at its Sept. 18 meeting. Commerce plans to keep its millage rate at 4.36 mills for the 2023-24 budget year. Wascher cited a number of reasons the city is keep ing its current millage rate instead of rolling it back. Specifically, Wascher noted the city is expect ed to take a cut in its local option sales tax revenues. LOST revenues are split between the county and mu nicipalities based on Census population. Due to faster growth in other portions of the county, the City of Com merce’s share of LOST will decrease, resulting in a fi nancial hit for the town. Wascher noted the city also saw a huge hike in in surance premiums this year that weren’t expected. UDC HEARING AND ADOPTION After months of discus sions, the city is finally ready to adopt its Unified Development Code. Both the city council and the town’s planning commission have been dis cussing the matter and dis secting the different compo nents of the UDC over the past year. Numerous stories in The Jackson Herald have outlined the details over the months. The city council will hold a public hearing on the pro posal on Sept. 18 and could adopt the UDC following that hearing. Assistant city manager Matt Hailey went over some final details on Sept. 5 to address some of the issues brought up at a joint meet ing of the counciI/planning commission. Notable discussion Sept. 5 included: •Carports on residential structures must match the primary residence. That in cludes metal carports that are popular in the city. •Requiring bump-outs or on-site parking in subdivi sions. The move is aimed at alleviating traffic issues in neighborhoods as guests park on the sidewalks or side of the streets. •Chain link fences will be prohibited in the front yard of a residence, but permitted elsewhere. Cattle gates will be prohibited. OTHER BUSINESS Also slated for a vote Sept. 18 include: •reappointing Jon Massey and John Freeman to the city’s rec advisory board. •two requests for beer/ wine licenses at the Cor ner Station, 9195 Jefferson Street, and Warrens Pack age, 2715 Old Maysville Road. •an annexation request and R-l zoning for a little over an acre at 687 De lia Drive. No changes are planned on the property, which has an existing resi dence. •rezoning of 562, 580 and 600 Homer Road to C-2 to allow a company to use the property for sales/repairs of tractors/lawn equipment. Lanier Outdoor Equipment, currently located beside Hardee’s, plans to relocate to the site. Owners of the business said they have out grown the current facility. •a three-way stop at Clay ton and Oak streets. There have been complaints about speeding in the area, •revised permitting fees. ways, leaves the city coun cil with few good options. The tract was original ly part of a larger 17-acre tract rezoned to multi-fam ily housing (MFR) in 2009 by the city. One of the conditions of the original MFR zoning was that the property would be devel oped for 55+ individuals. Since 2009, part of the property has been devel oped, leaving the 8 acres under discussion unde veloped. Over the years, several modifications have been made to the original rezoning, according to staff reports. Rob Alexander told the council Monday night that his request is to modify the conditions to do away with the 55+ requirement for the remaining 8 acres and to allow disturbing the vegetation on the north property line buffer to ac commodate a sewer line issue, but then building a fence or tall vegetation buffer to replace it. Alexander said the plans call for building 55 town- home condominiums on the property in the price range of $350,000 each with a minimum of 80% owner-occupied. But his request fell into a roiling debate in the city about allowing more hous ing that might attract addi tional students into the city school system, which is al ready dealing with growth pressures. Alexander noted that concern in his remarks to the council, saying that his late grandfather, Jack Da vidson who once owned the property, was a long time member of the Jeffer son Board of Education. Alexander also noted that his wife is currently an assistant principal in the school system. He said he is sensitive to the issues related to the school sys tem and that the townho- mes would, among other things, be limited to no more than two bedrooms to help quell their use by families with multiple children. But the Jefferson School System sent a letter on Sept. 8 to the council op posing removing the 55+ condition for the develop ment. In addition, Jeffer son High School football coach Travis Nolan, who lives near the proposed development, was one of several people who spoke in opposition to the project Monday night. “At the end of the day, it’s about money,” he said. The issue is also com plicated at the personal level:Alexander is part of the law firm Davidson, Hopkins & Alexander with city council attorney Ronnie Hopkins, who also serves as the chairman of the Jefferson Board of Ed ucation. In addition to concerns about the impact on city schools, several people spoke against allowing encroachment into the buffer zone on the north side of the property. They said the existing trees and vegetation should be left undisturbed. Neighbor ing homeowners said they were concerned about hav ing privacy behind their houses from the townho- mes. Alexander argued that building a tall fence or planting appropriate veg etation along the buffer would offer more privacy than leaving the vegetation that is already there. But the discussion also veered off into questions about what constitutes a 55+ community; does that mean everyone who lives there has to be 55+, or just one member of the house hold? City planning consul tant Jerry Weitz advised the city to be careful about going too far away from federal laws which govern housing rules for 55+ indi viduals. The discussion also delved into questions about owner-occupied is sues vs. rentals. BOE continued from iA acquisition of land for new school facil ities. CALENDARS SET In other business, the system also ad opted its school calendars for the next two years. Next summer, teachers will return on July 25 and students will begin class on Aug. 1. Classes are set to end on May 21, 2025. In 2025, students will return to class on July 31 and end the year on May 20, 2026. The calendars were set from input from both system staff members and parent ad visory boards. NOTICE The Jackson County Board of Commissioners does hereby announce that the millage rate will be set at a meeting to be held at the Jackson County Corthouse on Monday, September 18, 2023 at 6:00pm and pursuant to the requirements of O.C.G.A. § 48-5-32 does hereby publish thefollowing presentation of the current year's tax digest and levy, along with the history of the tax digest and levy for the past five years. CURRENT 2023 PROPERTY TAX DIGEST AND 5 YEAR HISTORY OF LEVY U N UNINCORPORATED 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 Real & Personal 1,667,671,079 1,766,333,206 1,853,245,334 2,140,021,135 2,364,963,267 3,300,312,842 1 N c Motor Vehicles 32,435,090 27,795,850 25,581,170 21,805,118 20,707,630 24,292,640 V Mobile Homes 5,020,410 5,111,603 5,223,703 4,301,664 5,373,836 8,296,922 O A L U Timber -100% 368,014 400,284 250,190 318,256 564,352 139,604 R Heavy Duty Equipment 0 0 0 0 0 0 O E Gross Digest 1,705,494,593 1,799,640,943 1,884,300,397 2,166,446,173 2,391,609,085 3,333,042,008 R Less Exemptions 328,344,613 326,667,326 333,835,859 315,014,275 369,056,423 585,673,230 A NET DIGEST VALUE 1,377,149,980 1,472,973,617 1,550,464,538 1,851,431,898 2,022,552,662 2,747,368,778 E D R Gross Maintenance & Operation Millage 13.9000 13.9000 13.9000 11.9000 11.8360 12.2880 A Less Rollbacks (Local Option Sales A T 4.4840 4.7340 4.9500 3.8400 3.9500 6.1170 R E Tax & Insurance Premium) E NET M&O MILLAGE RATE 9.4160 9.1660 8.9500 8.0600 7.8860 6.1710 TAX NET M&O TAXES LEVIED $12,967,244 $13,501,276 $13,876,658 $14,922,541 $15,949,850 $16,954,013 INCORPORATED 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 1 N C Real & Personal 1,580,189,060 1,721,509,125 1,953,257,285 2,285,769,069 2,679,266,842 3,894,794,484 Motor Vehicles 18,209,430 15,848,600 13,760,770 11,876,660 11,283,710 12,729,960 0 V Mobile Homes 1,676,124 1,706,232 1,712,059 1,707,912 1,896,701 2,639,731 R A Timber -100% 15,107 4,937 46,140 0 0 38,820 O U Heavy Duty Equipment 0 0 0 0 0 0 R E Gross Digest 1,600,089,721 1,739,068,894 1,968,776,254 2,299,353,641 2,692,447,253 3,910,202,995 A T Less Exemptions 331,759,464 374,593,436 360,550,264 394,402,504 481,051,545 975,216,895 E NET DIGEST VALUE 1,268,330,257 1,364,475,458 1,608,225,990 1,904,951,137 2,211,395,708 2,934,986,100 D R Gross Maintenance & Operation Millage 13.9000 13.9000 13.9000 11.9000 11.8510 12.3430 A A Less Rollback (Local Option R 2.9670 3.0870 3.4530 2.4120 2.5900 4.5950 E Sales Tax) A NET M&O MILLAGE RATE 10.9330 10.8130 10.4470 9.4880 9.2610 7.7480 TAX NET M&O TAXES LEVIED $13,866,655 $14,754,073 $16,801,137 $18,074,176 $20,479,736 $22,740,272 TOTAL COUNTY 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 \ TOTAL DIGEST VALUE 2,645,480,237 2,837,449,075 3,158,690,528 3,756,383,035 4,233,948,370 5,682,354,878 \ TOTAL M&O TAXES LEVIED $26,833,899 $28,255,349 $30,677,795 $32,996,717 $36,429,586 $39,694,285 \ Net Tax $ Increase $1,421,450 $2,422,445 $2,318,923 $3,432,868 $3,264,699 Net Tax % Increase 5.30% 8.57% 7.56% 10.40% 8.96%
