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f:r News Region Roundup
Rescued Puppies
Now Available
For Adoption
The dogs rescued from the
Nicholson “puppy mill” in
February are now up for adoption,
the Humane Society of Jackson
County (HSJC) has announced.
The Department of Agriculture,
Animal Control of Jackson
County, HSJC and several other
rescue or humane organizations
rescued 274 dogs from abuse and
neglectful conditions Feb. 28. As
of June 2, the civil portion of the
case has expired, and the dogs
can be adopted by the public.
The HSJC fostered 10 of the 274
dogs, and one of the Pomeranians
was pregnant. All the dogs have
had all vaccines and have been
spayed or neutered.
Those interested in adopt
ing one of these dogs may call
706-367-1111 or email agosnell@
alltel.net.
The HSJC adoption fee for dogs
is $90 and is $70 for cats. All avail
able pets may be seen at www.
petfinder.com.
Who's The Most
Conservative
House Candidate?
The candidates for Georgia’s
10 th U.S. congressional seat
spent Friday night invoking faith,
chiding liberal politics and even
exchanging verbal jabs at one
point as they presented their plat
forms in front of Madison County
Republicans.
Incumbent Paul Broun is try
ing to fend off challenger Barry
Fleming in the July 15 primary.
Broun, who is from Athens,
painted himself as one of the last
of the true conservatives standing
in Washington, DC, and a hard
line constitutionalist. Meanwhile
Fleming, a state senator from
Augusta, said he’s a major advo
cate of the free market system
and the choice for effective con
servative leadership.
As Broun and Fleming each
went to the podium at the hour-
long forum at the Madison County
High School theater, both candi
dates sought to prove he was the
superior conservative choice for
the party’s nomination.
Both agreed for the need to drill
for oil and seek alternate energy
sources to combat skyrocketing
fuel costs. Each politician is an
ardent supporter of the Fair Tax
proposal, though Fleming said it
took Broun eight months to co
sponsor it. The two also took
similar stances on the need to
secure national borders and make
English the United States official
language, though Broun says that
Fleming has criticized him for
introducing legislation regarding
the latter.
But both were harmonious in
their contempt for liberal input
— especially regarding the envi
ronment.
“The facts are that there are
people in this country that want
to rule everything that we do,”
Broun said while discussing glob
al warming. “They’re called liber
als.”
Fleming echoed those state
ments.
“What that tells you is that we do
have a lot of liberal extremists that
are really Chicken Little that are
saying, ‘the sky is falling’ on this
issue,” Fleming said.
Broun and Fleming both
appealed to religion on sever
al occasions, saying their faith
would drive their decision-making
in Washington, DC.
“I’m a Bible-believing Christian,”
were the first words out of Broun’s
mouth.
Fleming said he reads from the
book of Kings every time he runs
for office.
But the tone grew from religious
to contentious — and sometimes a
combination of the two — during
the forum.
Fleming took an opportu
nity, while talking about secur
ing national borders, to attack
Broun’s “no” vote on a federal
public housing bill. Fleming said
an amendment to that bill barred
illegal immigrants from attaining
federal housing.
“I am absolutely opposed to
people who are here illegally get
ting benefits on taxpayer dollars,”
he said.
Broun later refuted that charge.
Invoking the Ten Commandments,
Broun said Fleming is distorting
his voting record.
“In God’s inerrant word, in the
Ten Commandments, Barry, one
of the Ten Commandments is
‘I shall not bear false witness’
and you’ve already broken that
tonight,” said Broun to Fleming.
Broun then revisited his vote
on the housing issue, saying he
opposed the bill because of the
expense to taxpayers.
Broun said the amendment to the
Housing and Urban Development
bill was a “blank check on your
tax dollars,” mandating that all
government housing have a “radi
cal” environmental construction
agenda.
Broun added that the “no funds
from illegal aliens” part of the
amendment was a liberal ploy, he
said, to lure votes for the bill and
said that Fleming didn’t under
stand liberal deception.
“The way these liberal folks do it,
they stick these words in there.”
Broun said all an illegal alien
would have to do to get housing
would be say, “I’m not an illegal.”
The two exchanged a verbal spat
during Fleming’s final comments
when he claimed that Broun had
waffled on the issue of same-sex
marriage, something Broun says
he denounces.
Reminding Broun of his ear
lier citation of the Ninth
Commandment, Fleming referred
to a news article in the July 18,
2007, Athens Banner-Herald as his
source to back up his claim. “I
don’t want to be accused of bear
ing false witness again,” he said.
Saying that Broun was trying to
lure Democrat votes, Fleming said
Broun “came out saying that he
would be opposed to an amend
ment to the U.S. Constitution
to say that marriage was only
between a man and a woman.”
“That’s a lie,” Broun interjected,
while seated.
From the podium, Fleming con
tinued .
“I’ve supported that since I’ve
been in the state house and
will support it when I’m in the
Congress,” he said. “Now he has
flip-flopped on that in an elec
tion year and now he says he’s
for it and I’m glad that he came
around.”
Broun, again, was irked.
“I introduced the marriage pro
tection amendment, folks, to the
constitution,” Broun intervened,
before he was shushed by mod
erator Ralph Hudgens.
“I’m not going to interrupt him,
so I’ll ask that he not do the same
for me,” Fleming said.
The two shook hands at the end
of the forum and proceeded to
separately work the room at the
MCHS theatre, drumming up sup
port for the July 15 primary.
Jefferson Budget
Up 3 Percent
Over Last Year
Jefferson leaders continue to
review a proposed $6.6 million
budget for next year, up three
percent over the current budget,
while making cuts to requests
from departments.
The original proposed budget,
which included all of the requests
from department heads, was $7.2
million. City manager John Ward
has since trimmed some of the
requests, with the largest cuts
coming from the proposed recre
ation budget.
“We have cut corners,” Ward
said. “We are in remarkable
shape compared to where we
were just over one year ago.”
At a work session Monday
night, Ward said that $136,000
has been taken out of the pro
posed recreation budget, includ
ing funds for a mower and ice
machine.
Mayor Jim Joiner stressed that
County School Budget: No Property Tax Increase
By Kerri Testement
The Jackson County Board of
Education has given an initial
approval of its 2009 fiscal year
budget for $92.4 million.
It’s a budget that doesn’t include
a deficit or proposed property
tax hike, but does foresee cuts in
some departments from a previ
ously proposed budget.
The 2009 budget is a 9.9 percent
increase from the 2008 budget of
$83.2 million.
Jeff Sanchez, assistant superin
tendent for finance and informa
tion systems, said the board may
adopt the final budget during the
fall.
In the meantime, the board
authorized the superintendent to
seek bids for a $12 million Tax
Anticipation Note (TAN) until
the district receives finalized tax
digest information to adopt the
budget.
Sanchez told the board that the
tighter economy is affecting the
budgets of every family and busi
ness.
“We need to just hold the line on
this one,” he said Thursday.
Sanchez said the district is still
looking for expenses to cut and
determine funding priorities,
should the projected county tax
digest increase five percent.
“It’s also a year that we can
catch our breath,” Sanchez said.
“Instead of taking on new proj
ects, we can sharpen the ones
we’ve got.”
The school board initially looked
at a budget during its retreat in
May at Glen Ella Resort that
topped $95.8 million and included
a projected $2 million deficit.
Since then, the county school
system has learned that its local
fair share for the budget increased
by $1.2 million, up to $7.2 mil
lion.
Sanchez said the school system
“pulled out all of the stops” to trim
costs when it learned about the
additional costs for local taxpay
ers.
Some of those measures includ
ed trimming more than $2.1 mil
lion in technology projects, new
vehicles and funding additional
textbooks.
The system is considering a plan
to swap textbooks among schools
and order sets for classrooms,
Sanchez said. Eventually, stu
dents may turn to instruction on
the internet instead of textbooks
for their studies, he added.
Board chairperson Kathy
Wilbanks asked that all funding
options for textbooks be consid
ered.
“We’re certainly going to get
what the kids need, but if we’re
just buying a $125 textbook and
they’re just sitting in the class
room, then there might be a better
way,” Wilbanks said.
The district, however, is pur
chasing several new textbooks
and related materials for science
and math in various grades.
The system is also proposing
buying five new buses instead
of seven. That move would save
about $160,000.
Another cost-saving measure
may include taking a second look
at non-essential school field trips.
The Jackson County School
System logged more than 40,000
miles last school year for non-
essential field trips, excluding
those for music and athletic pro
grams.
The proposed budget estimates
that diesel fuel for school buses
will hit $4.50 a gallon. The school
system recently paid $4.01 a gal
lon for diesel fuel.
Instruction is the top expense
for the county school system.
That figure is expected to rise
seven percent — from $40 million
in the 2008 budget to $44 million.
Jackson County plans to hire
36 additional teachers for the
2008-2009 school year. Gum
Springs Elementary School will
open in August.
Sanchez noted that within
two years, the school system
has also opened East Jackson
Comprehensive High School and
Kings Bridge Middle School. The
district used to open a new school
about every five years, he said.
For the next school year, the
Jackson County School System
will have more than 551 teach
ers, 159 paraprofessionals, 88 bus
drivers, 77 custodian personnel,
36 administrators and 15 counsel
ors among its staff totaling 1,027
employees.
More than 83 percent of the
general fund budget includes sala
ries and benefits.
The Jackson County School
System estimates it will receive
$35.4 million in local funds and
$32.8 million in state funds for
the 2009 budget. Grant funds are
anticipated at $23.3 million, along
with a $1.1 million balance to
start the budget July 1.
The budget includes a projected
ending balance of $504,438 June
30, 2009.
The cost of educating a child
in the county school system is
expected to reach $12,457. Of
that amount, $6,467 would be pro
vided by local funds and $5,989
from the state.
as many cuts as possible need to
be taken.
“We’re in dire straights as far as
the economy goes,” he said. “We
don’t need to be thinking about
spending anything we don’t have
to ... We issued one housing
permit last month. There isn’t
anything moving.”
Among the increases in the
total budget include funds for
health insurance, property liabil
ity insurance and gasoline.
Jackson Audit
Reflects Growth
In Government
While there were no major sur
prises in the Jackson County
2007 audit, the impact of a grow
ing county government were evi
dent. Overall revenues to the
county, excluding borrowing,
grew 5.5 percent in 2007 over
2006, topping $49 million.
But General Fund expenses,
which is the core county fund
and not as subject to wide swings
of borrowing, grew by 15 percent.
Indeed, were it not for having
allocated $1 million in borrowed
funds for future use, the county’s
General Fund would have been
in the red for the year.
One of the problems for the
county in 2007 was a drop in ser
vice charges by the county ambu
lance department to $766,000,
down from $843,000 in 2006
on top of a growth in ambu
lance expenses. That forced the
county’s overall support of the
ambulance service up 39 percent
from $1.56 million in 2006 to
$2.16 million last year.
As in past years, the county’s
major source of revenue con
tinued to be property and sales
taxes in 2007 and its major area
of expense was public safety,
which includes the sheriff’s
department, county jail, EMS,
and other departments.
Vendors Sought
For Braselton
Festival July 4
The Celebrate Braselton festi
val — set for Friday, July 4, — is
seeking parade and vendor par
ticipants.
The festival, which is sponsored
by the town, will be held at the
Braselton Park.
The town is seeking organiza
tions — such as scout troops, ath
letic teams, pageant winners and
marching bands — and cools cars
to participate in a parade.
A parade will begin at 10 a.m.
and will go through downtown
Braselton on Ga. Hwy. 53.
Music will begin in the park at 11
am. “The Bored Executives” will per
form at 1 pm. and Elizabeth Cook
and Band will perform at 5 pm.
At dusk, a fireworks show
behind Publix on Ga. Hwy. 211
will begin.
Vendor booths will be open in
the park from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. The
town is seeking vendors, such
as antiques, crafts, food, jewelry,
purses, kiddie crafts and recre
ational activities.
For more information, call
the Town of Braselton at
706-654-3915.
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UNITY LODGE
F & A.M.
No. 36, Jefferson, GA
1st Tuesday of each month, 7:30 p.m.
Dwight Wier • 706-367-5882
Borders St. behind Tabo’s 2so
JEFFERSON ROTARY CLUB
Meets Tuesdays
Jefferson City Clubhouse
12:30 p.m. • (706) 654-2237
Clay Eubanks, President
COMMERCE
AMERICAN LEGION
Commerce Rec. Dept. Post 93
Carson Street - 1st Mon. night
Each Month, 7:30 p.m.
335-6400
Citizens Organized for
Pipeline Safety
investigating the health risks to citizens from
underground pipelines and booster stations in
Madison Co. Meetings 6:30 p.m. at the Colbert
Grove Baptist Church the 2nd Thurs. of each
month. 706-783-4702. Pd.04/09
JEFFERSON
AMERICAN LEGION
Albert Gordon Post 56
Each 3rd Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.
Harvie Lance, Commander
Phone (706) 654-1274 aio
White Plains Baptist Church
Faith Bible Class meets every Sunday morning
at 10:00 a.m. It is a place where strangers
become friends and friends become family.
706-367-5650
White Plains Baptist Church
3650 Hwy. 124 West, Jefferson, GA 30549
The Jackson Co. Republican Party
Would like you to meet us for
breakfast the second Sat. of each
month, 8:00 at The Jefferson
House. For more information, call
706-652-2967 or email
fishyglass@yahoo.com Pd.li/os
BANKS COUNTY
AMERICAN LEGION
Post 215
Meets each 3rd Thursday, 7 p.m.
In Homer, GA at the
American Legion Building on
Historic Highway 441 pd.06/08
• VETERANS OF
FOREIGN WARS
Post 4872, Hurricane Shoals Convention Ctr.
Each 4th Monday, 7:00 p.m.
Mike Buffington, Commander
Phone 706-335-6532 263
JEFFERSON LIONS CLUB
Meets 2nd & 4th Monday
Jefferson City Clubhouse
6:30 p.m. • (706) 367-1400
Mark Bradley, President
iior pe asi» TffiFr m
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