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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.