Newspaper Page Text
SEE PAGE 1B
SEE PAGE 11A
Locals Win
Honors At Young
Farmers' Show
Vol. 132
No. 41
26 Pages
3 Sections
Commerce News
Wednesday
NOVEMBER 21, 2007
mainstreetnews.com
50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875
Steve Perry
To Be Honored
At Reception
The Commerce Board of
Education will host a reception
at its Thursday,
Dec. 6, work
session to
honor outgo
ing chairman
Steve Perry.
Perry did not
choose to run
for re-election.
The event
will be held
in the Commerce High School
media center at 7:00 p.m.
Steve Perry
Atlanta Opera
Bringing 'Cold
Sassy Tree'
To Commerce
The Atlanta Opera plans
a special performance in
Commerce.
Four vocalists and a pianist
will put on a 55-minute show
of excerpts and highlights
from the operatic version of
Olive Ann Burns’ novel, “Cold
Sassy Tree,” which is set in
Commerce.
The tentative date is
Tuesday, Jan. 8, reports Hasco
Craver, executive director of
the Commerce Downtown
Development Authority.
“They received a grant (to per
form “Cold Sassy Tree”) and
one of the stipulations is that
they have to do arts outreach,”
Craver said. “How better to
do community outreach with
“Cold Sassy Tree” than to go to
Cold Sassy itself and perform
in Commerce?”
Please Turn to Page 3A
I N D E X
Church News 6B
Classified Ads . . . 1-4C
Calendar 3A
Crime News .... 7-8A
News Roundup . . . . 2A
Obituaries 9A
Opinions 4A
School News. . . .8-10B
Sports 1-4B
Social News . . 10-11A
WEATHER OUTLOOK
THURSDAY FRIDAY
THURSDAY FRIDAY
Showers: Partly cloudy:
Low, 36; high, 45; Low, 34; high, 57;
40% chance rain 10% chance rain
SATURDAY SUNDAY
Partly cloudy: Showers:
Low, 32; high, 56; Low, 34; high, 56;
10% rain chance 40% chance rain
CONTACT US
Phone: 706-335-2927
FAX: 706-387-5435
E-mail:
news@mainstreetnews.com
mark@mainstreetnews. com
brandon@mainstreetnews.com
teresa@mainstreetnews.com
Mail: PO. Box 459,
Commerce, GA 30529
A Long, Cold Night In Chickamauga
For those who endured the long drive to Trojans stole a 16-14 victory on a last-second
Gordon Lee High School last Friday night, it desperation pass and a roughing-the-passer
was a long, cold evening. Commerce Tiger fans penalty to eliminate Commerce from the Class
did their best to keep warm as the Gordon Lee A playoffs. See pages 1B and 3B.
City Council Moves December
Meetings Back By One Week
Council Wants More Time To Mull
Crucial Electricity Purchase Decision
The Commerce City Council
has moved its December work
session and regular meeting back
one week.
The work session will be held
Monday, Dec. 10, and the regular
meeting Monday, Dec. 17.
The council expects to approve
its contract with the Municipal
Electric Association of Georgia
(MEAG) for participation in the
construction of the new nuclear
power turbine at Plant Vogtle
in December. The deadline for
returning a signed contract to
MEAG is Jan. 1.
The city would like to buy up to
10 megawatts of base load (always
available) power, which is due to
come online in 2015 or 2016, said
City Manager Clarence Bryant.
What the city can buy depends
upon the number of megawatts
the MEAG cities sign up for. A
megawatt is a unit of electricity
equal to one million watts.
“We are eligible for 3.2 mega
watts if everybody took their full
share, but not everyone will,”
said Bryant. The most recent
numbers suggest that Commerce
could get at least 4.9 megawatts,
but officials will attend a MEAG
meeting Wednesday, Dec. 12,
that will be the final opportunity
for cities to opt into purchasing
power. Bryant thinks more cities
might drop out, freeing up more
of the capacity for those who
participate, and the city council
meetings are being moved so the
city can act on the basis of the
Dec. 12 meeting.
Commerce’s current MEAG
base load is around 14 mega
watts, said Bryant, and its aver
age usage is close to that figure.
“We’re in perfect posture. The
people who made the MEAG
contract decision in the 70s did a
great job,” he said.
But with its usage right at its
allocation, the city must buy
power for times of peak demand.
The city council recently signed
a contract to buy peak power
until its Vogtle allocation comes
online.
As for the Vogtle share, Bryant
says buying too much power is
preferable to buying too little.
“The feeling is that with the
price of electricity, if you have
excess, you’ll be able to sell it
and make money,” he explained.
When Vogtle was built, the
owners had to get a construc
tion permit to build it and an
operating permit once construc
tion was completed. But, dur
ing the course of construction,
the requirements of the operat
ing permit continued to change,
forcing changes in construction
that inflated the cost of the plant
by billions of dollars and delayed
its completion by years. That is
not expected to occur as the new
reactor is added, Bryant said.
“The bottom line is it looks like
all of the permits will be in place
prior to construction,” he said.
Maysville Debates Rescue Building Repairs
By Chris Bridges
Maysville rescue chief Richard
Parr made a plea to the town
council last week for repairs to his
department’s headquarters build
ing.
Parr said the 15-year old build
ing has never had any work done
to it and has reached the criti
cal stage. Mayor Jerry Baker had
asked Parr to get two quotes on
needed repairs, and both were in
the $20,000 range.
Parr said the problems include
leaky ceilings, no training room,
out-of-code bathrooms which are
not handicap accessible and the
building is not air conditioned. A
sink in the building is falling off
the wall.
Parr was asked if a grant could
be applied for to help with the
cost for repairs. The chief said
grants can only be used for pur
chasing equipment, and since the
city owned the building grants are
not available.
City clerk Barbara Thomas said
the city might be able to apply for
a grant but the rescue department
could not.
Please Turn to Page 3A
What If
There's No
Rain By May?
'Drought Emergency Exercise' Used
To Get State, Local Officials Thinking
What would happen if the
drought worsens, the Bear Creek
Reservoir and Lake Lanier run
dry and hundreds of shallow
Jackson County wells dry up?
That’s what local and state
officials tried to anticipate in
a “tabletop drought emergency
exercise” last Wednesday morn
ing at Jackson County’s emer
gency operations center (EOC).
The point of the exercise —
attended by about 30 city, coun
ty and state officials — seemed
to be as much to acquaint par
ticipants with each other and
to get them thinking ahead as
about making definite plans for
handling the drought.
Jackson County does not have
a drought management plan,
Scott Carpenter, director of
Jackson County EMS , pointed
out, nor even a priority list for
water service.
“The purpose of the exercise is
to show our weaknesses and to
build training,” he said. “One of
the biggest disasters is nobody
being on the same page.”
With nine municipalities, at
least seven public water sup
pliers, a host of private water
systems, a county government,
the Environmental Protection
Division, various law enforce-
Please Turn to Page 6A
Glenn Richardson To
Speak To Kiwanis Club
Author Of Proposed Constitutional
Amendment To Raise Georgia Sales Tax
Georgia House of Representatives Glenn Richardson will speak
to the Commerce Kiwanis Club Thursday, Dec. 6, at noon at the
Commerce Civic Center.
Richardson, a Republican from Douglas County, is the author of
House Resolution 900, a proposed constitutional amendment that
would eliminate most property taxes in exchange for an increase in
the state sales tax to 6.5 percent.
The proposal, opposed by most local governments and boards of
education, is generating a lot of interest — and controversy — in part
because opponents foresee a likely revenue shortage in Georgia, in
part because the sales tax would be extended to cover a lot of items
not currently taxed (including doctor’s visits, prescription drugs and
groceries) and partly because under the new system, the state would
effectively control all local school board budgets.
For information, contact Keith Ariail at 706-335-5519.
Dry Fall,
But Very
Colorful
Georgia may be
in a record drought,
but the fall leaves
in Jackson County
have been spec
tacular. The fall
foliage hit its color
peak last week, with
brilliant hues of
red, orange and yel
low almost every
where. These leaves
were on trees on
Commerce school
property along
Lakeview Drive.