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SEE PAGE IB SEE PAGE 12A Red-Hot Eagles To Open Region Tourney At Home Chamber Hands Out Awards At Annual Banquet Vol. 132 No. 52 24 Pages 3 Sections Wednesday FEBRUARY 6, 2008 mainstreetnews.com 50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875 Ron Johnson To Run For BOC Chair Republican Ron Johnson announced his candidacy for chair of the Jackson County Board of Commissioners. Johnson, a Republication since 1970, said he is running on a platform centered on “fis cal responsibility using zero- based budgeting to eliminate the fat in the county budget while emphasizing the need to be more responsive to the tax payers and business owners." The current property tax and millage rate concerns Johnson. “We have to freeze and lower taxes where and when we can," he said. “We are taxing our senior citizens and young adults out of the county. As our tax base grows with the growth of the county, so will revenues increase from this Please Turn to Page 3A INDEX Births 1OA Church News 9A Classified Ads 1-4C Calendar 3A Crime News 6-7A News Roundup 2A Obituaries 8A Opinions 4A School News 6-8B Sports 1-3B Social News .... 10-1 1A WEATHER OUTLOOK THURSDAY FRIDAY Mostly sunny: Sunny: Low, 34; high, 57; Low, 42; high, 62; 10% chance rain 10% chance rain SATURDAY SUNDAY Mostly sunny: Sunny: Low, 35; high, 56; Low, 26; high, 53; 10% chance rain 10% chance rain Reservoir Levels Commerce: 698.4 (.8 feet above full) Bear Creek: 695 (full) Rainfall this month 1.8 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 Results Sunday Sales, Recreation, No; Huckabee, Clinton Win Here Jackson County voters turned down the Sunday sale of alcoholic beverages in restaurants and defeat ed a $15 million bond issue Tuesday. They also backed Mike Huckabee’s bid for the Republican presidential nomination and sup ported Hillary Clinton’s run for the Democratic nomination. Nearly half — 49.7 percent — of Jackson County voters took part in the presidential preference pri mary and local referenda. Sunday mixed drink sales failed 6,311-6,056, a 51 percent-49 per cent margin. The recreation bond was defeated by a wider margin, 6,984-5,519. Among Republicans, Huckabee pulled 3,652 votes to 2,585 for John McCain and 2,368 for Mitt Romney. Clinton picked up 1,987 votes in Jackson County to 1,493 for Barak Obama. Minish South voters came in steadily all day Tuesday. A crew from Qore Property Science began doing geotechnical bores on the three-acre Walgreens site last Wednesday. The data from a dozen 10-15-foot holes will help engineers design the store’s foundation. Walgreens Coming 'As Soon As Possible' The new Walgreens store will be almost a mirror image of the CVS Pharmacy located diagonally across the intersection of Homer Road and Jefferson Road. An engineer working on the project spent almost an hour last Wednesday with Commerce offi cials in regard to the 14,550-square- foot store that is to be built “as soon as possible" on the three- acre site fronting North Broad Street and Homer Road. A geotechnical firm drilled a dozen 10-15-foot holes last week to gather information related to the store’s foundation. The project will require the removal of the BP convenience store, the adjacent tire store, The Pittman House and adjacent antique store and the first two houses north of the BP on North Broad Street. All but the Pittman House will be demolished. That historic struc ture is slated to be “removed by others," according to documents given to the city. The store’s front door — like that of CVS — will be in the corner fac ing the intersection. “When you walk out of the store and look ahead, you’ll be looking right at the front door of CVS," commented David Zellner, the director of planning and develop ment. The site plan calls for a retention pond on the back (Homer Road) side, but Zellner said city officials “are strongly urging" Walgreens to install an underground retention system — similar to that built on the CVS site. Officials did not offer a pro posed completion date. The store will also feature a drive-through pharmacy window. Commerce Falls Short At Conserving Water City Fails To Reach Governor's 10% Target Reduction For the second consecutive month, Commerce has failed to meet Gov. Sonny Perdue’s water reduction goal. The governor ordered water producers to cut sales by 10 per cent over the 2006-07 winter aver age. For December, Commerce achieved a reduction of almost nine percent. For January, the final figures are not in, but the city’s director of water and sewer operations, Bryan Harbin, says Commerce will again fail to reach the 10 percent goal. “We were over in December by 20,000 gallons per day. That is less than seven gallons per residential customer per day," Harbin points out — equal to maybe three commode flushes a day per household. Eighty-five percent of Commerce’s water customers are residential. “We need our residents to do a little more," Harbin added. “Look at the brochure (on water saving tips) we sent out. ‘Think at the sink’ is the big thing in Athens." Most domestic water use is in the bathroom, where older commodes can take up to three gallons per flush. But Harbin says careful homeowners can save a little water in a lot of Water Usage Comparison Here's how some area water providers stacked up to the governor's 10 percent reduction man- date. Numbers represent January 2008's usage as a percentage of January 2007 use. A number of 90 or lower means the user met the governor's requirement. Athens-Clarke 78 Jackson County 59 Jefferson 78 Commerce 92 Braselton 89 Barrow County 79 Banks County 80 Nicholson 56 Comer 92 Hoschton 89 Danielsville 160 Homer 89 Maysville 129 lla 88 Colbert 9 ways, from not running the water while brushing teeth to only run ning the dishwasher when it’s full (and use the water miser and light wash settings if they’re avail able)." Perdue urged people to take shorter showers. “Spread out over 3,900 meter connections, those little things can add up," Harbin points out. The average residential cus tomer used 3,900 gallons during January, which is down 7.6 per cent from the average of 4,225 gallons per day in January 2006. Year-round, Commerce residents use an average of 5,400 gallons per day. Because it failed to cut sales by 10 percent for December, the city must provide additional infor mation to the Environmental Protection Division. “There are some new forms we got Friday from the EPD. They’re looking at per capita usage for commercial, industrial and resi dential customers. They’re going to start looking at where we’re not making it," said Harbin. The fear is that eventually the EPD will begin fining water sys tems for falling short of the man dated reduction. The figures do not include the extra water Commerce has been selling to retail customers from Maysville to Banks County to Please Turn to Page 3A Maysville Police Won't Serve Gillsville By Chris Bridges Maysville will not provide police protection for Gillsville. The Maysville City Council turned down a request from Gillsville for police protection Monday night after expressing numerous concerns. City attor ney Gary Freeman expresed concerns about extending police coverage to Gillsville. “It’s hard enough to take care of your own town," Freeman said. “What does our town get for tak ing on this responsibility? Would we be covered if something goes wrong?" Maysville police chief Clarence Sullens said he has not researched the issue of extending coverage, but said in other instances where this has been tried it has not worked. Council member Stephan Lewis said he didn’t know if it was something he wanted to do. “We would have to buy another police car, because you couldn’t leave Maysville without a full force," Lewis said. “We had to bite the bullet and start our own police department. I think they have to find another way." City Ready To Trade Plastic Bags For Paper For Yard Wastes Next fall whenyou put your leaves out by the road for Commerce Public Works Department employ ees to pick up, think paper, not plastic. The city council appears poised to adopt an ordinance Monday night requiring that yard wastes be bagged in biodegradable paper bags. Why? Because the city has found nobody wants its free mulch made from yard wastes that are ground up — along with the plastic bags — at the old city dump. A decade ago, Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division banned yard wastes from landfills in an attempt to conserve landfill space. Like many other communities, Commerce opted to have its wastes ground into mulch, which it gives away. But since the plastic bags are ground up along with the leaves and limbs, the mulch is rife with large and small pieces of plastic bags. “We can’t give away our mulch because it’s got the plastic in it," said City Manager Clarence Bryant. The ordinance will also specify exactly how tree trimmings should be prepared and where all wastes must be placed to be picked up, but for most Commerce residents the big change is going from plas tic bags to paper. The “limb and yard waste ordinance" will be on the agen da for Monday night’s council meeting, which occurs at 6:30 in the Commerce Room of the Commerce Civic Center. If the council passes the ordi nance — no one expressed oppo sition at the work session this Please Turn to Page 3A