Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

SEE PAGE 11A Snakes Alive This Saturday At The Library SEE PAGE 6A 'Christians' Turn To Hooters Girls For Help SEE PAGE 6A Is Commerce Council Cause Of Drought? Vol. 133 No. 17 26 Pages 3 Sections Wednesday JUNE 11, 2008 mainstreetnews.com 50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875 Bear Creek Capacity Is Suspect Water Restrictions Eased In City Yard Watering, Washing Of Cars OK On Odd-Even Schedule Three Days A Week Can the Bear CreekReservoir really produce 58 million gal lons of water per day? Jackson County officials appear increasingly convinced that estimates of the regional reservoir’s capacity are wrong. That concern is driving the county’s push to develop its own reservoir to meet future needs. But, while everyone agrees that Jackson County needs more water sources, but con cern over spending $300,000 in a weak economy may keep Jackson County from tapping into $40 million in state grant funds. The Jackson County Water and Sewerage Authority will discuss with the county com missioners a proposed engi neering “scope of work’’ for selecting a reservoir site in the hope of getting the county to pick up most or all of the esti mated $294,400 cost. Prime Engineering’s Rob MacPherson presented the scope of work and a timeline by which the authority could meet an Aug. 29 deadline for applying for the state funds. The board of commission- PleaseTurn to Page 5A W THURSDAY FRIDAY W' f,t K Isolated T-storms: Isolated T-storms: Low, 69; high, 88; Low, 71; high, 93; 30% chance rain 30% chance rain SATURDAY SUNDAY Scattered T-storms: Scattered T-storms: Low, 68; high, 91; Low, 67; high, 85; 40% chance rain 40% chance rain Reservoir Levels Commerce: 697.6 (full) Bear Creek: 695 (full) Rainfall this month 0 inches Rainfall This Year 21.75 Inches Births . . . 1OA Church News . . . . . . 6B Classified Ads . . . . 1-4C Calendar . . . 3A Crime News . . . . . 7-8A News Roundup . . . . 2A Obituaries . . . 9A Opinions . . 4-5A School News. . . . 7-1 OB Sports . . 1-2B Social News . . . . 8-12A CONTACT US Phone: 706-335-2927 FAX: 706387-5435 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 Gentlemen, start your sprinklers. From midnight to 10 a.m. on an odd-even sched ule, of course. City Manager Clarence Bryant announced Monday night that Commerce residents will be able to use water outdoors on an odd-even schedule by the end of the week. “You can wash your car, water your lawn, whatever you want to do,’’ Bryant advised. Like many other water providers in North Georgia, Commerce has been working with the EPD for months to try to get the water use restrictions reduced. At Monday night’s council meeting, Bryant announced that a letter from the EPD granting that relief was expected “tomorrow or the next day’’ (Tuesday or Wednesday) following “10 or 12 conversations with the EPD over the last three days.’’ The watering of yards and landscapes will follow a schedule in which residents with odd-numbered street addresses can water from midnight to 10 a.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, while those with even-numbered addresses can water during the same hours Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. “You can wash your car, you can pressure wash your house,’’ said Bryan Harbin, the city’s director of water and sewer opera tions. “Basically, you can use outdoor water on the odd-even schedule.’’ The odd-even schedule applies to those other functions, but not the midnight to 10 a.m. restriction, Harbin said. Last summer, the EPD and Gov. Sonny Perdue placed severe restrictions on 61 North Georgia counties in reaction to the Please Turn to Page 3A Easy Way To Beat The Heat Anna Williamson and Erica Zelada, both of Jefferson, found at Hurricane Shoals County Park. Hundreds of other area an easy way to beat the 96-degree heat Sunday afternoon, residents did the same thing, packing the park during the They relaxed in the cool waters of the North Oconee River near-record heat wave. Photo by Mark Beardsley School Board Seeks Clarification On Ownership, Usage Of 'City lights' Funds By Brandon Reed The Commerce Board of Education is trying to figure out how to handle the money raised by the City Lights Festival. According to finance director Ann Stokey, proceeds from the City Lights Festival were given to the school system in the past for safe keeping, with the inten tion being to use the funds to help build a fine arts facility. The problem, she says, is there are no documents that can be found that indicate what the money is for, or who the money belongs to. The money actually came from two sources. Proceeds from the City Lights Festival — up until last year when it became the City Lights Downtown Festival — went toward the construc tion of a Bill Anderson Center for the Performing Arts, named after the country music legend whose star-studded concerts were the centerpiece of the festival. The organizing group was an unofficial entity, and Anderson and the committee are not connected to the cur rent City Lights Downtown Festival. But the Commerce City Council also voted to give to the fund the (approximately) $215,000 insurance repayment of money stolen by former (and late) police chief George Grimes. At the end of May, the account held just under $470,000. The board directed Superintendent Dr. James E. “Mac’’ McCoy to contact the city of Commerce, asking for a letter stating what the funds were for and how they can be used. Stokey said another possibil ity is that the school system could return the money to the city, and let the city decide what to do with the funds. The options would include return ing the money to the school system to assist in the planned high school auditorium, or pos sibly the city building a stand alone facility. Stokey said the state’s audi tors have questioned why the money is on the board’s books. Update On ‘Practice Gym’ Also on Monday night, McCoy updated the board on the construction of the “prac tice gym’’ for the high school. The facility is planned for con struction next to the football field, and will be utilized for a concession stand, restroom and locker room facilities. It would also serve as the interim gym during the construction of the new high school. “We’ve met with band boost ers, athletic directors and administrators, and everyone is in agreement that if we can get it as close to the field as possible, that would be the best thing to do,’’ McCoy said. McCoy said he would meet with the engineers with Robertson Loia Roof to discuss the site plan. In other business: •The board approved a spending resolution to allow the system to move into the next fiscal year. A line item budget has been prepared, but McCoy said the system is wait ing on the tax digest from the county. •McCoy told the board that the SPLOST deposits for May totaled $118,068, with an over all total of $1.5 million. “We have enough in our SPLOST account to pay for the first five payments of our bond referendum,’’ McCoy said. “That takes care of almost two and a half years, so far.’’ • The board went into a closed meeting for just over one hour. After coming out of the closed meeting, the board voted to approve several new hires, including Trudy Smith Please Turn to Page 3A Budget Means A ,44-MiII Tax Increase Commerce taxpayers can expect a slight increase in their city taxes this year. The city council unanimously approved a $32.4 million tentative bud get Monday night that will require a .44-mill tax increase. For the owner of property assessed at $100,000, that’s a $44 increase. ‘This is an increase over last year, but we’re still under what it was two years ago and three years ago,’’ said Finance Director Steve McKown. The budget includes funding for SPLOST projects — revenue already on hand, notes McKown. “If you back that out, it’s at $29.9 million, compared to $29.1 million last year,’’ he said. About half of that increase came in the General Fund, which provides revenue for most city departments and services. It’s projected at $5.8 million this year, up from $5,483 million last year. McKown said fuel costs are up 10.6 percent, and natural gas purchases are going up about $800,000 for the same number of units as last year. The budget provides one new employ ee, an additional school resource offi cer whose salary will be paid half by the city and half by the school system. Employees will get two-percent cost-of- Please Turn to Page 3A EJMS To Get New Principal For Next Year By Kerri Testement East Jackson Middle School will start the next school year with a new prin cipal. Frank Sarratt, who has been the principal at the school for three years, submitted a resignation letter June 2 to the Jackson County Board of Education. The board accepted his res ignation during a brief called meeting Thursday. Sarratt’s last day at EJMS will be June 30. He cited family health and medical issues in his resignation letter. “East Jackson Middle School will always hold a special place in my heart,’’ he wrote. “Perhaps it is because of the signifi cant challenge it presented in 2005,’’ he continued. “Perhaps it is because of the tremendous success we enjoyed in each of the following years. In either case, I am delighted to report that East Jackson Middle School is presently on a solid foundation.’’