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Celebrating The life Of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Citizens observe the birthday of civil rights leader Page 12A "\ J Vol. 132 No. 50 24 Pages 3 Sections Wednesday JANUARY 23, 2008 mainstreet news. com 50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875 Georgia Power Line Failure Cause Of Outage The power outage early Sunday morning was caused by a feeder line from Georgia Power Company Commerce City Manager Clarence Bryant reports. One of the power company’s feeder lines to the South Elm Street substation suffered a partial failure, he said. “What we did was to dis connect the substation and switch the circuit to the other substation and brought it (the power) back up while they did what they did. Then we switched it back," Bryant said. Recent improvements to the city electrical system included sufficient upgrades so that the entire city can be operated off either one of the city’s two substations. According to Bryant, only one phase of Georgia Power’s three-phase line was out, so many Commerce residents had power — though suffi ciently diminished — during most of the outage. Once Georgia Power repaired the line, the city’s Electric Department switched the circuit back to the origi nal substation. The problem lasted about two hours; power was totally out for about a half hour. Bryant said he was not aware of what damaged the Georgia Power line. INDEX Births 10A Church News 6B Classified Ads 1-4C Calendar 3A Crime News 7-8A News Roundup 2A Obituaries 9A Opinions 4A School News 7-8B Sports 1-3B Social News .... 101 2A WEATHER OUTLOOK THURSDAY FRIDAY Sunny: Partly cloudy: Low, 19; high, 37; Low, 33; high, 44; 10% chance rain 20% chance rain SATURDAY SUNDAY 1 VH-O'D* vl Showers: Partly cloudy: Low, 38 high, 40; Low, 39; high, 62; 40% chance rain 20% chance rain Reservoir Levels Commerce: 698.5 (.9 feet above full) Bear Creek: 695 (full) Rainfall this month 2.6 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 State Water Plan Locals Scramble For Leverage On Water Panels 25-Member Panels Appointed By Governor, Lt. Governor; House Speaker To Determine Local Water Use Policies Local governments are jockey ing to get representation on the “water planning districts’’ that will implement the state water man agement plan passed last week by the Georgia General Assembly. Most of Jackson County falls // in the Upper Oconee District, but Braselton — because its city limits reach into Gwinnett County — has been placed in the Metro North Georgia Water Planning District. Commerce, because its reservoir and treatment plant are both in the Broad River Watershed, will be in the Savannah-Upper Ogeechee district. Each district will have 25 board members, at least eight of which must be elected officials, and the others of whom will come from various constituencies. Gov. Sonny Perdue will appoint 13, the Speaker of the House, Glenn Richardson, will appoint six, and Lt. Governor Casey Cagle will appoint six. “What we want to do is, with the water planning district we will be in, we want to ensure that we get as well represented as possible,’’ explained Hunter Bicknell, who chairs the Jackson County Water and Sewerage Authority. County and municipal elected officials met a couple of weeks ago to plot strategy. Out of that came three poten tial “nominees’’ for seats on the Upper Oconee District, whose names would be submitted to the Republican leadership for con sideration. Interestingly, Braselton Mayor Pat Graham is one of the names to be offered, even though her town will be in the Metro North Georgia District. Graham has agreed to serve, Please Turn to Page 3A What we want to do is, with the water plan ning district we will be in, we want to ensure that we get as well represented as possible. ff Hunter Bicknell, Chairman, Jackson County Water & Sewerage Authority MNGWPD MidrtleS icmulgci Chattel Artanmhj, Lower Flint OcMockvix Lt.-.-—; y iLJwannc<? Satilla Georgia’s water planning districts Not Even Close Two Storms, Two Misses The much-anticipated winter storms that were to blow across Jackson County last week amounted to almost noth ing. The Thursday morning storm, above, produced about a quarter inch of snow that never stuck and total precipitation of almost an inch. The “one to seven inches” of ice and snow widely predicted for Saturday afternoon produced no mea surable amounts of snow in the Commerce area and total precipitation of less than a half an inch. Engineer: Economic Development Roads Make Money For Jackson Prediction: '08 Projects To Be As 'Profitable'As '04 Work The $15.7 million debt Jackson County incurred in 2004 for building roads to spur economic development has already turned a “profit.’’ Speaking to the Commerce Kiwanis Club last week, Don Clerici, former county engineer and now a paid consultant serv ing as the county’s “capital proj ects manager,’’ used data from that bond issue as justification for the county’s recent decision to incur another $42 million of debt for similar projects. According to Clerici, the 2,800 acres adjoining six roads com pleted with the 2004 bond money produced $209,000 in proper ty taxes in 2004. That figure increased tenfold to $2,090,000 in 2007. While the roads turned a “prof it’’ by 2007, the county’s share of that property tax was $590,000, far short of the annual debt ser vice of $1.35 million. “What the data tells you is that we had a big return on the 2004 road program,’’ Clerici stated. “What it proved is that we are carrying the debt service and the big winners in this are our school systems.’’ School taxes on the property amounted to $114,000 in 2003; in 2007, the same property pro duced $1.2 million in taxes — an amount likely to grow significant ly since the land along the roads is only “six to seven percent built out,’’ according to Clerici. The county projects that in five to seven years, the total tax gen erated by the 2,800 acres affect ed by the 2004 road program will hit $8.1 million, generating $2.56 million for county maintenance and operations and $4.8 million for the school systems. Roads built or improved with that package include Braselton Industrial Parkway, Valentine Industrial Parkway, Concord Road, Steve Reynolds Industrial Parkway, Possum Creek Road, Stephen B. Tanger Boulevard and Zion Church Road. The bond issue also included renovation of the old Bi-Lo shopping center in Commerce to house a cam pus of Lanier Technical College and sewer projects to service the two Commerce roads (Stephen B. Tanger Boulevard and Steve Reynolds Industrial Parkway). 2008 Road Program Armed with data to validate the first road project, the county set about to make similar projec tions about what the 2008 road program might produce. “That (the analysis of the 2004 project) gave us the horsepower and momentum to move into what we call our 2008 road proj ects,’’ Clerici stated. To justify it, he added, the county did a “snapshot’’ of the industrial land near the roads and made a pro jection as to what will happen to its value. There are approximately 5,400 acres adjacent to the proposed projects. In 2007, they generated $2.5 million in property taxes. Clerici projects that in five to seven years they will produce $12.2 million a year and increase the county tax digest by more than three-quarters of a billion dollars. “It was a smart investment in 2004,’’ he said. “We’ve proven it. We’re going to take the same model and move forward.’’ Included in the 2008 program are the following projects: Tier One: development of a county transportation plan and water and sewerage plan, $500,000; improvements to John B. Brooks Road, $3.8 mil lion; a study of potential new interchanges on Interstate 85, $250,000; and engineering for improvements to Hwy. 53, $300,000. Tier two: Commerce Retail Please Turn to Page 3A Jackson County Government Board Tables Action On 'Impact Fees' By Angela Gary The Jackson County Board of Commissioners postponed action on implementing impact fees Monday night and decided to discuss the matter further at its board retreat next week. The retreat will be held Monday through Wednesday, Jan. 28-30, at the Fairfield Inn, Macon. Monday night, commissioner Jody Thompson expressed res ervations about implementing impact fees when builders are already struggling due to the housing slump. He also ques tioned the county spending additional money on consul tants about impact fees. A $78,301 contract with Ross & Associates to proceed with implementing impact fees was presented. The cost for the first phase of the project is $27,601. Chairman Pat Bell also said she has concerns about impact fees. “The timing bothers me,’’ she Please Turn to Page 3A Only One Item On Planning Commission Agenda Monday The Commerce Planning Commission has but one item on the agenda for its monthly meeting Monday night at 7:00 in the Peach Room of the Commerce Civic Center. That is a request by Steven Sears of 193 Willow Street for a vari ance on the size of an accessory building. The planning commission makes recommendations on land use and zoning matters to the Commerce City Council. It meets on the third Monday night of each month. Whatever recommendation the planning commission makes on Sears’ variance request will be acted upon by the city council at its regular meeting Monday, Feb. 11, at 6:30 at the civic center.