Newspaper Page Text
SEE PAGE IB
Eagles Knock
Off Undefeated
Fannin County
SEE PAGE 5A
Are You Prepared
To Cope With A
Natural Disaster?
Vol. 132
No. 51
22 Pages
3 Sections
Wednesday
JANUARY 30, 2008
mainstreetnews.com
50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875
County Government
Jet Blue
A Candidate
For Jackson?
By Angela Gary
Jackson County could see Jet
Blue locating a maintenance
facility at the Jackson County
airport, improvements in oper
ation of the emergency servic
es department and a planned
employee evaluation.
Those possibilities were
among the reports given by
County Manager Darrell
Hampton Monday night when
the first day of a board of com
missioners retreat got under
way in Macon. The commis
sioners also had a full day
of meetings scheduled for
Tuesday and planned to meet
three hours Wednesday.
During the two-hour meeting
Monday afternoon, Hampton
presented updates on several
county departments since he
took over as county manager
several months ago.
As for the county airport,
Hampton said several plans
have been discussed for the
facility after the completion of
the runway extension project,
which will give the county a
5,000-foot runway. He said this
includes the possibility of Jet
Blue locating a maintenance
facility at the airport and a
major corporation housing its
jet at the airport.
Hampton also reported
Please Turn to Page 6A
INDEX
Births 7B
Church News 6B
Classified Ads 1-4C
Calendar 3A
Crime News 7-8A
News Roundup 2A
Obituaries 9A
Opinions 4A
School News 5-7B
Sports 1-3B
Social News 8B
WEATHER OUTLOOK
THURSDAY FRIDAY
Mostly cloudy: Mostly sunny:
Low, 41; high, 49; Low, 31; high, 52;
20% chance rain 10% chance rain
SATURDAY SUNDAY
Mostly sunny: Partly cloudy:
Low, 33; high, 60; Low, 38; high, 60;
10% chance rain 20% chance rain
Reservoir Levels
Commerce: 698.5 (.9 feet above full)
Bear Creek: 695 (full)
Rainfall this month
2.75 inches
CONTACT US
Phone: 706-335-2927
FAX: 70N3 87-5435
E-mail:
news@mainstreetnews.com
ma rk@ma i n streetnews. com
brandon@mainstreetnews.com
teresa@mainstreetnews.com
Mail: P.O. Box 459,
Commerce, GA 30529
Election Day Tuesday Nov. 4
Presidential Hopefuls, Sunday
Sales, Rec. Bonds On Ballot
John McCain or Rudy Guiliani? Barak Obama
or Hillary Clinton? Will Jackson County allow
the sale of mixed drinks and provide $15 million
to build or improve recreation facilities, or will it
stay dry Sundays and turn down new parks and
fields?
Those will be the questions facing Jackson
County voters next Tuesday
when they pick up bal- See Sample
lots for the Republican or
Democratic presidential
preference primaries and the
special county referendum.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in all
precincts. Advance and absentee balloting are
under way.
While the rest of the nation is focusing on next
week’s “Super Tuesday" voting impact on the
presidential races, Jackson County voters are also
looking at two key local referendums.
On Tuesday, voters will decide the fate of a $15
million bond referendum to expand the county’s
recreation facilities, and voters will also determine
if alcoholic beverages can be poured Sundays in
unincorporated areas of Jackson County.
Recreation Bonds
Among the projects to be funded from the
proposed recreation bonds would be a county
wide recreation center, land for more parks and
improvements at current facilities. Recreation
director Ricky Sanders said the facility plans were
developed by a citizens’ committee.
“If we can get this done, that will get us in good
shape for the next 15 to 20 years," Sanders said.
The projects would start soon after the bond
approval and would be completed in 24 to 36
months. If the bonds are approved, recreation
staff estimates that the average cost to a property
owner with a home valued at $150,000 will be
approximately $25 per year.
Sanders said one of the benefits of the bonds
would be increasing recreation programs for peo
ple of all ages, an expo center that could attract
large events to the county, and an indoor aquatic
center that could be used by area high schools.
The expo center would be used for agriculture
shows, rodeos, concerts and other events. It
would seat 4,000 to 5,000 people.
“We have a lot of agriculture in the county,"
Sanders said. “It will allow us to have a lot of
events that will bring people into the county."
Additional programs that could be added by the
new and expanded recreation facilities include
racquetball, adult volleyball and walking.
“We need to be providing more of these pro
grams," Sanders said.
Sunday Pouring
Perhaps the most controversial question on next
week’s ballot is a proposal to allow the Sunday sale
of alcohol by-the-drink in unincorporated areas of
the county. Although the measure only affects
unincorporated areas since cities are allowed to
adopt their own alcohol regulations, all voters in
the county living in both incorporated and unin
corporated areas will vote on the measure.
The idea has been met with strong resistance by
several local ministers, several of whom have writ
ten letters to the newspaper opposing the vote.
Signs have also been placed around the county
urging a “No" vote on the measure.
Please Turn to Page 3A
City May Move
To Restrict
Utility Buildings
Number Of Variance Requests Moves
Planning Commission To Consider
New Rules For Accessory Buildings
Steven Sears may get to build
a 720-square-foot utility building
behind his Willow Street house,
but the next applicant for a vari
ance on a utility building might
not be so lucky.
After lengthy consider
ation — and some conditions
— the Commerce Planning
Commission voted unanimous
ly Monday to recommend that
the city council approve Sears’
request.
But the issue clearly troubled
Chairman Greg Perry, who
noted that in recent months the
planning commission has expe
rienced “a rash of people build
ing accessory buildings."
Under the existing ordinance,
such buildings are limited in size
to 25 percent of the “footprint"
of the primary dwelling unit. All
of the requests have been for
larger buildings than the ordi
nance allows — and all were
approved.
“I can’t figure out why every
body is building accessory build
ings," Perry stated.
Recent variances approved by
the city have allowed accessory
buildings that were 51, 100, 85.9
and 99.2 percent as big as the
houses on the lots.
“What about signs and the
sign ordinance, and how big
are we going to let these acces
sory buildings get?" asked Perry,
broadening the discussion.
In the end, director of plan
ning and development David
Zellner agreed to draft a pro
posed amendment to the city
zoning ordinance to handle
accessory buildings. The plan
ning commission would presum
ably recommend its passage to
the city council, which would
have the final say.
Zellner also got the commis
sion’s approval to send a let
ter to the city council seeking
approval to hire someone to re
write the city’s sign ordinance,
a document that has been weak
ened by a number of variances
approved by the city council.
Please Turn to Page 3A
County Government
Commissioners Changing
Meeting To 'Work Session'
The Jackson County Board of Commissioners has discussed
for several months whether an additional meeting is needed each
month to handle the county business.
The commissioners finally reached a decision at their retreat
Tuesday. The plan is to keep the same monthly meeting schedule
but to designate the first meeting as a “work session."
The first meeting, held at 6 p.m. on the first Monday of the month
at the courthouse, will be the work session. No action will be taken
at work sessions.
The second meeting, held at 6 p.m. on the third Monday of the
month at the courthouse, will be the regular meeting. At this meet
ing, action will be taken on items discussed at the work session.
The change becomes effective in March.
Traffic Stop Produces Marijuana Stash
Commerce police confiscated 11 one-pound bags of marijuana
from a southbound vehicle on Interstate 85 Monday afternoon.
library Hopes
To Meet Fund
Goal By June
The Commerce Public
Library hopes to complete
its fund-raising effort for its
library expansion project by
June 30.
The campaign, led by volun
teer chairperson Tricia Massey,
has raised close to $350,000 of
the $583,035 needed to match
state revenue for a $2 mil
lion expansion that would add
5,000 square feet.
The library would like to
reach its goal by June 30 to
qualify for funding in the next
state budget. There is a fear
that failure to get funding for
the project in that budget will
result in the cost of the expan
sion escalating.
“If you don’t get funded
Please Turn to Page 5A
A West Virginia man faces a
drug trafficking charge after
Commerce police found 11
pounds of marijuana in his vehi
cle.
Detective Chad Knight said
an officer pulled over a rented
Dodge Charger driven by Jerel
Addison Garner, 26, of 5001
Church Drive, Charleston, WV,
for failure to maintain a lane
and following too closely.
It didn’t take long for a routine
traffic case to turn into a major
drug bust. “As you approached
the vehicle, you could smell
marijuana," Knight said. 'There
were also a bunch of air freshen
ers in the car and, being a rental
vehicle, that is one of the things
that alerted us that something
might be in the vehicle."
The man allegedly told police
that he was headed to Atlanta to
spend a couple of weeks, but he
had little luggage for such a stay
— another area of suspicion.
Knight said Garner had a small
amount of marijuana in the front
of the car, along with a pipe for
smoking it, but the department’s
drug dog, Cosmo, also alerted
on the vehicle’s trunk. Officers
found a duffel bag containing
11 one-pound bags of marijuana.
The contraband was packaged
in one-gallon freezer bags that
were then vacuum-sealed.
The department has con
tacted the Drug Enforcement
Administration for assistance
with the case.
“We’re looking at some phone
numbers to see where he might
have been headed or who he
was going to meet," said Knight,
who suggested that the suspect’s
story “doesn’t make a lot of
sense right now."
Marijuana generally sells for
about $800 a pound in the area,
Knight said, but the department
is still trying to determine if
Garner was headed to Atlanta
to sell the marijuana, to buy
more or to exchange it for other
drugs.
“We think he was going to
either pick up more or make an
exchange," the detective said.