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SEE PAGE IB SEE PAGE 7 A Dragons Sweep Tigers In Basketball Officers Treated For Smoke Inhalation At Fire Vol. 132 No. 49 24 Pages 3 Sections Wednesday JANUARY 16, 2008 mainstreet news. com 50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875 ML King Celebration Is Sunday The 24th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration in Jackson County will be held Sunday Jan. 20, at St. Paul First Baptist Church, located at 573 Gordon Street in Jefferson. The celebration will begin at 3:30 p.m. with a gospel music concert presented by “One Accord" of Commerce. The ecumenical service will begin at 4 p.m. The featured speaker will be Steve Jones, Superior Court judge of the Western Judicial Circuit, which includes Oconee and Athens-Clarke. He was appointed judge in November 1995 by Gov. Zell Miller. Prior to this, he served as municipal court judge for Athens-Clarke County from 1992 to 1995 and as assistant district attorney for the Western Judicial Circuit from 1987 to 1992. He served as director of the child sup port recovery unit from 1978 to 1985. A native of Athens-Clarke County, Jones is married to the former Lillian Kincey. AWARDS Several awards in different categories will be presented to citizens from throughout Northeast Georgia. Among those to be recognized are Jefferson Motors, Entrepreneur of the Year; and Mrs. Brenda Duncan, retired Jefferson city clerk. INDEX Births 10A Church News 6B Classified Ads 1-4C Calendar 3A Crime News 7-8A News Roundup 2A Obituaries 9A Opinions 4-5A School News 7-8B Sports 1-3B Social News .... 101 1A WEATHER OUTLOOK THURSDAY FRIDAY Light rain/ice: Partly cloudy: Low, 32; high, 41; Low, 33; high, 52; 60% chance rain 10% chance rain SATURDAY SUNDAY Partly cloudy: Sunny: Low, 19; high, 43; Low, 24; high, 43; 10% chance rain 10% chance rain Reservoir Levels Commerce: 698 (.4 feet above full) Bear Creek: 694.5 (.5 feet below full) Rainfall this month 1.25 inches CONTACT US Phone: 706-335-2927 FAX: 706-387-5435 E-mail: news@ma i n streetnews. com mark@mainstreetnews.com brandon@mainstreetnews.com teresa@ma i n streetnews. com Mail: P.O. Box 459, Commerce, GA 30529 'Cold Sassy Tree' — The Opera Ben Perkins, Amy Kier, Adam Cannedy and Amy Little, mem bers of the Atlanta Opera, performed parts of the opera “Cold Sassy Tree” last Tuesday night, Jan. 8, at the Commerce Cultural Center. Approximately 100 people turned out for the perfor mance. Photo by Hasco Craver Dr. Paul Sergent Is New School Board Chairman By Ben Munro Dr. Paul Sergent has moved over to the school board chair man’s seat for 2008 following the departure of former chair man Steve Perry whose term expired in December 2007. The move became official fol lowing a unanimous vote by Sergent’s fellow Commerce Board of Education (BOE) mem bers Monday night at the school board’s first regular meeting of 2008. Sergent, who represents District 5, had previously served as vice chairman and has held office since 2002 when he took over for former board member Lanny Pope. Longtime Commerce BOE member Mary Seabolt now moves over to Sergent’s vice chair spot, after being appointed Monday night, while the law firm of Harbin and Hartley has been retained as the school system’s legal counsel. This was also the first regular meeting for new board member Rodney Gary, who represents District 4, which Perry had served since 1996. CHS Receives Anonymous $3,000 Commerce High School has received $3,000 from an anony mous donor that will be used to provide scholarship money for one or more CHS seniors, which ever the school chooses. The money came to Commerce through the North Georgia Community Foundation. This one-time scholarship will be known as the Northeast Georgia Please Turn to Page 3A County Starting Process Of Updating Comprehensive Plan The Jackson County government will gear up this year for the massive undertaking of upgrading its comprehensive plan. The comprehensive plan, which is scheduled to be done by March 20, 2010, will develop “a vision for the quality of life we desire for all stakeholders," according to Commissioner Bruce Yates. Yates presented a slide show to members of the Jackson County Area Chamber of Commerce last Wednesday morning in which he attempted to demonstrate the need for and drum up enthusiasm for a project required by the state government. The plan’s purpose is to guide development in terms of zoning, land use, transportation and infrastructure development. The goal, said Yates, is to get a huge cross section of the county’s populace involved in the process. “Jackson County needs your help," he pleaded. “We hope we will have your involvement and your commitment to involvement." This year will be spent gathering the data, what Yates termed a “com munity assessment." Future tasks will include seeking that community participation and coming up with a “community agenda." The assessment, said Yates, will include potential issues and oppor tunities, an analysis of existing development patterns, consideration of the current land use map, identification of areas needing special atten- PleaseTurn to Page 5A Bear Creek Reservoir To Be Full By End Of Week Water Restrictions To Continue Indefinitely The Bear Creek Reservoir is expected to be full again later this week for the first time since early June. Kevin Williams, who man ages the regional reservoir and treatment plant for JJ&G and the Upper Oconee Basin Water Authority, reported Monday that the 505-acre lake has recovered to the 694.5-foot level — just a foot below full pool. “Hopefully, it will be at full pool by the end of the week," said Williams, who also reported that the authority’s pump station on the Middle Oconee River is running full bore 24 hours a day. At that rate, they add 60 million gallons per day to the reservoir, which is located off Georgia Highway 330 in south west Jackson County. The lake was last full in the first week of June, according to Williams. In mid-October, it was more than 14 feet low, and offi cials were worried that it would run dry before Christmas. Meanwhile, consumption of water by Athens-Clarke, Barrow, Jackson and Oconee counties remains “down pretty significant ly" due to conservation measures implemented to combat what is being called a record drought. Water Restrictions To Continue The filling of the reservoir by no means signals the end of the drought. State climatologist David Stooksbury has all along predicted that Bear Creek might recover, but he also forecasts a “strong likelihood" of a warm, dry winter and spring that would preclude the recovery of streams and rivers from the drought. The pinch, he said, will be next summer if the drought continues. And while local reservoirs may be full, lakes Lanier and Allatoona, which provide water to Metro Atlanta, remain dan gerously low and are driving state water policy — including severe restrictions on the out door use of water throughout most of North Georgia. Commerce Enters New Year $ 1 Million In The Black The city of Commerce starts 2008 $1 million in the black, thanks to strong sales of electric ity and substantial income from the special purpose local option sales tax. While the calendar year has ended, Commerce is six months into its fiscal year, which start ed July 1. According to City Manager Clarence Bryant, the utility funds are in the black by about $500,000 and the SPLOST account by the same amount. Bryant and Finance Director Steve McKown briefed the city council on financial matters at Monday night’s council meeting. The city sold 39 million more gallons of water this fiscal year than at the same point last year, thanks to purchases by Jackson County, much of which went to Jefferson. Electricity sales were also up — as was the cost of pur chasing electricity, also because of the drought. The only utility fund that was down, Bryant said, was the Gas Fund, which as of Dec. 31 was off $481,000 from last year, where a cold December spurred sales. “Most of that is from our two biggest customers, Louisiana Pacific and Huber," Bryant said. “They aren’t running much." Both plants make oriented strand board, for which the mar ket is depressed due to the hous ing slump. Please Turn to Page 3A Superior Court Judge Joe Booth installs Massey, Ward 5; and Bob Sosebee, Ward 4, at recently re-elected Commerce councilmen Monday night’s city council meeting. (from left) Mark Fitzpatrick, Ward 3; Richard Relief Coming To Cooper Farm Road $1.3 Million Project To Bring County Water To Area Of Dry Wells By spring, residents of Cooper Farm Road between Nicholson and Center will have access to county water. The Jackson County Water and Sewerage Authority voted last Thursday to approve a $1.37 mil lion contract for what it calls its “East Priority 2" water project. Residents of the road appeared before the authority last year complaining that their wells were dry, unproductive and in some cases yielded water with high levels of minerals. The low bidder is Dale Construction Company, which has done a number of water proj ects for the authority. “He’s a very good contractor, very easy to work with. He’s jam- up," advised manager Eric Klerk. In addition to the bid, the authority approved a $25,000 contingency fund for rock. The bid includes labor and materials and came in almost $300,000 less than had been pro- PleaseTurn to Page 5A