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Four Burned In Mobile Home Fire In Nicholson See Page 7 A Fire Dept. Chickenque Saturday The Commerce Fire Department will hold its 32nd annual chickenque Saturday. The department will serve 2,500 chicken plates between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. at the J. Nolan Spear Jr. Public Safety Complex on South Elm Street. Tickets are $6.50 apiece and are available from local firemen. They include half a barbecued chicken, beans, applesauce, bread and chips. Corn on the cob will be available for $1 an ear "while it lasts." Pick-up will be by drive-through. Vol. 133 No. 10 26 Pages 3 Sections Wednesday APRIL 23, 2008 mainstreetnews.com 50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875 Fridays After 5 Family Movie Set In Spencer Park On Friday Jerry Seinfeld and 'The Bee Movie” will come to Spencer Park Friday night. For free. The Commerce Downtown Development Authority will kick off its four-event “Fridays After Five” calendar with one of 2007’s top movies, a G-rated animated comedy about the life of worker bee Barry B. Benson who, after graduating from college, is not satisfied with a career in producing honey. The event will start at dusk — about 7:30. There will be con cessions available. “People can also bring a pic nic and eat in the park,” notes Hasco Craver, executive direc tor of the DDA, who put the program together.. Prior to the movie, the city of Commerce will have a dis play of some of its equipment as part of its observation of Georgia Cities Week. Other Friday Events The schedule of Fridays After Five includes: May 9: Boss Laura and Jimmy T, a classic/southern rock group May 23: Curly Maple, a blue- grass group June 6: “Surf’s Up,” a G-rated family movie The events are funded with a grant from the Grassroots Art Council. WEATHER THURSDAY FRIDAY V Partly cloudy: Morning clouds: Low, 57; high, 82; Low, 57; nigh, 82; 10% chance rain 20% chance rain SATURDAY SUNDAY Scattered T-storms: Thunderstorms: Low, 57; high, 80; Low, 58; high, 80; 50% chance rain 40% chance rain Reservoir Levels Commerce: 698.2 (.6 feet above full) Bear Creek: 695 (full) Rainfall This Month 2.85 inches Rainfall this year: 17.75 inches INDEX Births 8 A Church News 7B Classified Ads 1-6C Calendar 3A Crime News 7A News Roundup 2A Obituaries 6B Opinions 4-5A School News. . 9A 8-10B Sports 1-4B Social News 8A 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 m v fc A ti ^^1 #> Prom Time In Commerce Commerce High School students enjoyed “A Megan Lord and Mary Beth Irvin are pictured Masquerade Ball” for their junior-senior prom on the dance floor. For more photos, see Page Friday night at the Commerce Civic Center. 9A. Photo by Lyn Sengupta Katlin Wilson, Amber Haggard, Wes Lewis, 5th Graders Show 'Huge' Gain In Writing Scores 5th Grade Writing Assessment - Comparison Data (Expressed in %) Commerce Middle School’s fifth graders pulled off a major turnaround in one critical state standardized test. “Eighty-seven percent of the 121 students met or exceeded state performance standards on the 2008 Georgia Fifth Grade Writing Assessment,” announced Principal Chuck Bell. “A whop ping 37 percent of those students exceeded standards.” In 2007, the school fell short of the state average by 15 per cent when only 55 percent of the kids met or exceeded the state standards, and only five percent exceeded them. The percentage of students who failed to meet performance stan dards dropped from 46 percent in 2007 to 12 percent in 2008. “Led by language arts teacher Lori Martin, the fifth grade team of teachers participated in profes sional learning, established strate gies and developed lessons that ensured students were extreme ly well prepared for this year’s assessment,” Bell pointed out. However, he also noted that the effort covered the entire fifth grade staff. “There was a great amount of focus and a very specific goal set by that teaching team,” Bell continued. “It was a goal they (the entire fifth-grade team) spe cifically embraced. It wasn’t just Language Arts. That team of teachers made it happen.” Bell called the turnaround “huge.” Tackson County Politics Talk Starting Of Another Bond Vote For Recreation Facilities Is another recreation bond vote in store for Jackson County voters? “It’s been discussed,” notes county Recreation Director Ricky Sanders.” It has been discussed among the three county rec reation directors, Sanders said, but no figures have been thrown out and no elected officials have been involved. Jackson County voters rejected a $15 million bond issue Leb. 5, that, had it passed, would have built a host of amenities for the county — but none for Jefferson and Commerce. Ironically, voters in those two municipalities supported the initiative, while those in the county rejected it. “We got so many calls after it failed, wanting to know if we were going to try to do it again,” Sanders said. The bond would have provided more fields for county youths, something Sanders says Jackson County must address “sooner or later.” “We started having practices on Wednesday nights because we don’t have enough fields (to schedule around Wednesday nights)” Sanders commented. That led to complaints, and allegations that Sanders moved practices to a night heretofore closed to prac tices, because of the bond vote failure. Please Turn to Page 3A Tackson County Ejections On Your Mark, Get Set: Political Qualifying To Begin Monday Qualifying for elected posi tions on this year’s ballot in Jackson County will begin Monday, April 28, at 9 a.m., and end Lriday, May 2, at noon. Those running for an elect ed office must qualify at the local headquarters of either the Republican or Democratic par ties during that time. The primary elections will be held Tuesday, July 15. Voters must choose either a Republican or Democratic ballot for that election. A run-off election after the primary, if needed, will be held Tuesday, Aug. 5. The general election will be held Tuesday, Nov. 4. A run-off election, if needed, is planned for Tuesday, Dec. 2. Non-partisan races in Jackson County will be on the general election ballot in November. On The Ballot The following offices in Jackson County will be on the ballot for the 2008 election: •Jackson County Board of Education, post 1 (Michael Cronic, incumbent). • Jackson County BOE, post 4 (Lynne Massey Wheeler, incum bent). •State Court judge (Jerry Gray, incumbent). •Solicitor General (Donald Moore, incumbent). • County Surveyor (Dan Venable, incumbent). • Magistrate Judge (Billy Chandler, incumbent). •Coroner (Keith Whitfield, incumbent). •Sheriff (Stan Evans, incum bent). • Probate Judge (Margaret Deadwyler, incumbent). • Tax Commissioner (Don Elrod, incumbent). •Jackson County Board of Commissioners chairperson (Pat Bell, incumbent). •Jackson County BOC, dis trict 2 (Jody Thompson, incum bent). •Jackson County BOC, dis trict 1 (Tom Crow, incumbent). •Clerk of Superior Court (Camie Thomas, incumbent). • District Attorney for the Piedmont Judicial Circuit (Rick Bridgeman, incumbent). It's Deja Vu Time For City Planning Board Some Familiar Issues On Agenda For Monday Night Meeting If members of the Commerce Planning Commission experi ence the feeling of deja vu Monday night, it’ll be under standable. When the planning commis sion meets at 7:00 p.m. in the Peach Room of the Commerce Civic Center, everything on the agenda is a repeat, most of it from last month’s meet ing. For example, the planners will have a second go at Walgreens’ request of a variance in the size of its sign and an LED message board. The planning commission heard that request for a sign three times larger than is allowed under the city sign ordinance — and the LED sign not allowed under the ordinance, and the planners opted to table the mat ter for 30 days to consider how the zoning ordinance should be interpreted. And, the planners last month recommended that the city council amend the section of its ordinance dealing with util ity buildings — but the council didn’t like the recommendation and ordered the planners to revisit the matter. It’s also on the agenda for Monday. The recommendation was to increase the allowable size of such structures to half the square footage of the “foot print” of the house, limit them to one story in height, require that they be built of the same materials as the dwelling, and to allow up to two outbuild ings for larger lots and one for smaller lots. The city council voiced oppo sition to the limit in the height, to the restrictions on building materials, and to allowing more outbuildings on some lots than others, whiich they termed dis criminatory. The third issue on Monday’s agenda is a proposed recom mendation to change the maxi mum height of front-yard fenc es from three feet to four feet. The planning commission has discussed that at two meetings, but has yet to make a recom mendation. One of the concerns voiced when the matter last came up was that fences — especially thosed designed to keep dogs in the yard — have some kind of arrangement so city meter readers can get in to do their job once a month.