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PAGE 6A - THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS, WEDNESDAY. APRIL 30, 2008
Jackson May
Give Water
Tank Away
Championship Chili
Wayne Neal Chevrolet, Commerce, placed Saturday, April 19, at YearOne in Braselton.
second in both “Best Tasting Chili” and The Wayne Neal chili was also selected as the
“Showmanship” at the Jackson County “People’s Choice” winner.
Area Chamber of Commerce’s chili cook-off
Leftover SPLOST Funds
To Help Mitigate Drought
A water tank decommissioned
in Jackson County could soon
be put in service in Madison
County.
A vote April 17 by the Jackson
County Water and Sewerage
Authority to declare its 150,000-
gallon Center tank “surplus” paves
the way for the Madison County
water system to acquire the tank.
Madison County officials, know
ing that the tank’s been empty
and offline for years, have made
initial inquiries about taking it off
Jackson County’s hands.
The deal sounded good, since
the best offer the authority had
up to that point was to pay a
scrap metal company $15,000
to remove the system’s original
water tank.
“I’d tell them they couldn’t start
until tomorrow,” quipped member
Andy Goodman when the offer
was announced a couple of weeks
ago at a work session.
The tank is of no use to Jackson
County because of its lack of
height and its small capacity.
“It’s no longer useful to us,”
explained manager Eric Klerk.
“We increased the pressure zone it
sits in and because it is a relative
ly short water tank, it’s become
obsolete.”
Some tanks can be raised in
height — not the Center tank.
“If we leave it where it is, it
becomes an eyesore, then a liabil
ity,” Klerk added.
As a courtesy, however, the
authority agreed to notify other
water systems in the county of the
tank’s availability. If there is any
other interest, the authority will
negotiate an arrangement.
The tank was built in the earliest
days of the authority’s operations
and stored water pumped from
Athens-Clarke. It is in good con
dition, reported water services
supervisor Stacy Jenkins.
As the county water system
grew, so did the county’s water
storage needs. According to Klerk,
the authority buys tanks that hold
750,000 or 1 million gallons.
A little money left over from
water projects will help the
Jackson County Water and
Sewerage Authority better man
age the next drought.
The authority voted last
Thursday to use money left over
from SPLOST-backed bonds to
fund an emergency water con
nection with Gainesville and re
chlorination stations expected
to reduce water wasted by line
flushings.
Manager Eric Klerk said the
authority needed to quickly allo
cate the money or risk being
caught in an arbitrage situa
tion — where it would have to
refund interest earned on the
leftover money, which he esti
mated at “between $300,000 and
$400,000.”
The connection with Gainesville
would give the authority an
additional water source during
drought. Gainesville officials
reportedly told the authority
last year that it could buy virtu
ally unlimited amounts of water,
which comes from Lake Lanier.
The authority gets most of
its water from the Bear Creek
Reservoir, but relied heavily on
Commerce water last fall when
the drought peaked. With the
state climatologist warning that
the drought will resume this
spring, officials are anxious to
solidify another water source.
The connection could also
enable Jackson County to supply
Gainesville in an emergency.
The re-chlorination stations are
expected to cut down on the fre
quency with which county lines
must be flushed by enabling the
authority to maintain the required
levels of chlorine.
The authority caught a lot of
flak during the height of the
drought when residents saw
massive amounts of water being
flushed to meet those levels.
“We dumped a lot of water last
summer and still had a problem
with the residual,” noted Klerk.
The devices will inject chlo
rine at the pump stations on
Apple Valley and Galilee Church
roads. Some flushing will still
be required, if only to move the
chlorine along the lines, many of
which are dead-ends.
Climatologist Holds To Drought Forecast
Rains Help, But North Georgia
Remains In A Severe Drought
The winter rains brought needed
nourishment to the parched earth,
but north Georgia remains in an
extreme drought.
State climatologist David Emory
Stooksbury issued a report last
week stating that the precipitation
in recent months provided some
relief, but didn’t end the drought.
He noted that Oct. 1 through
the middle of April “is considered
Georgia’s moisture recharge peri
od, when the state typically gets
more rain than moisture loses due
to evaporation and plant use.”
“North Georgia didn’t receive
enough rain to fully recharge soil
moisture, groundwater, streams
or reservoirs,” wrote Stooksbury.
“Since Oct. 1, north Georgia has
received only 70 percent to 80
percent of normal rainfall.”
Stooksbury said most north
Geogia streams are at or near
record low flows for late April.
“Both Lake Lanier and Lake
Hartwell are well below desired
levels for late April,” wrote
Stooksbury. “Smaller reservoirs
are near full, though. However,
with the extremely low stream
flows across north Georgia, these
smaller reservoirs must be man
aged well because drought condi
tions are expected to continue.”
The climatologist said moisture
loss from soils is typically greater
than rainfall during the spring and
summer months.
“If Georgia has normal weather
this summer, we can expect the
soils to continue to dry out and
groundwater levels, stream flows
and reservoir levels to drop across
the entire state,” he wrote.
Last fall, Stooksbury predicted
that winter rains might recharge
some local reservoirs, but that
streams would not recover, posing
problems in spring and summer.
Updated drought information is
available at www.georgiadrought.
org. The state drought web site
includes information on how to
deal with the drought.
The University of Georgia state
wide network of automated weath
er stations can be found at www.
georgiaweather.net.
News Photos
Available Online
MainStreet Newspapers Inc.
offers staff-produced photos
from its five newspapers avail
able for the ordering of prints
online at its website, main-
streetnews.com. The company
owns The Commerce News, The
Jackson Herald, The Madison
County Journal, The Braselton
News and The Banks County
News.
Access to the photos cata
logue is available from a button
on the mainstreetnews.com
website. There will be approxi
mately a one-week lag time
between the time photos are
published and their availability
at the online site.
Those who don’t have Internet
access in their homes may visit
area public libraries that offer
the service.
Mrs. Laurinda Johnson
Program Manager
Direct: 706 - 201 -5590
Office: 706-583-8001
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Authority To Move
Lines For Intersection
Improvement Project
One more step toward improv
ing a dangerous intersection is
about to take place.
The Jackson County Water
and Sewerage Authority autho
rized its chairman and secretary
to sign a contract with the low
bidder for moving water lines at
the intersection of Apple Valley
Road and Georgia Highway 15
(Jefferson-Commerce Road)
April 17.
The approval is pending cer
tification of the $85,000 low
bid by Dale Construction
Company and a letter from
the Jackson County Board
of Commissioners confirm
ing that it will reimburse the
authority for part of the proj
ect.
The county plans to realign the
intersection, taking out some
of the curve and flattening the
roadway to improve visibility.
The intersection has become
an issue as school bus traffic
through it has increased with the
construction of East Jackson
Elementary, Middle and High
schools.
The county hopes to begin
work on the project as soon as
school is out.
The water authority will
assume the costs of relocating
any lines in the road rights of
way, while the county is expect
ed to pay to relocate those on
private easements.
Appointed DA To
Run For Re-Election
Piedmont Judicial
Circuit District
Attorney Rick
Bridgeman has
announced that he
will seek election to
the office of district
attorney, a position
that he has held since
his appointment by
Gov. Sonny Perdue
Sept. 6, 2007.
“It has been my privilege to
serve the citizens of Banks,
Barrow and Jackson counties
as their district attorney these
past seven months,” Bridgeman
said. “Since 1995, I have built
a record as a tough yet fair
prosecutor, dedicated to pro
tecting Georgians and holding
offenders accountable. I am
committed to bringing a culture
of excellence to the office of dis
trict attorney and remaining a
faithful and trustworthy steward
of that important public office.
“I have a new vision for a
district attorney’s office that
focuses on serving the public,
working with our criminal jus
tice partners to vindicate the
rights of victims and law abid
ing citizens and seeking justice
on each and every case,” he
continued.
Bridgeman, a resident of
Hoschton, previously served
as an assistant district attorney
in the Piedmont, Northern and
Mountain judicial circuits.
Prior to completing law school,
Bridgeman served as an inves
tigator in the DeKalb
County Solicitor’s
Office.
Bridgeman obtained
his B.A. degree in
criminology from the
University of Maryland
and his law degree from
Georgia State University
College of Law. He is
admitted to the Georgia
Court of Appeals, the
Georgia Supreme Court and the
United States Supreme Court
and is a member of the Georgia
District Attorneys’ Association
and the National Association of
District Attorneys.
Bridgeman serves as the co
chair of the Piedmont Judicial
Circuit Family Violence Task
Force, as an ex-officio mem
ber of the board of direc
tors of the Tree House Child
Advocacy Center, and a mem
ber of the Piedmont Circuit
Child Abuse Task Force. He
is also the chairperson of the
local Child Fatality Review
Committee and a member of
the Jackson County Police
Chief’s Association.
Bridgeman and his wife,
Genoria, have been married for
17 years. They previously served
as foster parents for Jackson
and Banks counties and have
three children, Joshua, Jasmine
and Matthew.
Bridgeman and his family
are members of Zion Baptist
Church, Braselton. He is also a
Gideon.
Rick Bridgeman
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