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SEE PAGE IB
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Wrestling Tigers
Get Head Start
On Next Season
Candidates For BOC
Chair Spar Over
Debt From Reservoir
Vol. 133
No. 19
22 Pages
3 Sections
Wednesday
JUNE 25, 2008
mainstreetnews.com
50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875
Management
Stands Behind
Former Surgeon
The management of BJC
Medical Center stands firm
ly behind its former general
surgeon in the wake of his
resignation and a malpractice
lawsuit.
Dr. Keith Ash submitted his
resignation from the medical
center staff June 9; the next
day the hospital was served
with a malpractice lawsuit
filed by four of Ash’s former
patients.
The issue came up at
Monday’s meeting of the BJC
Medical Center Authority the
board that manages the medi
cal center.
“It was just bad timing that
he resigned on Monday and
we were served notice of the
suit on Tuesday,’’ commented
Jim Yarborough, CEO of the
medical center.
According to Yarborough,
officials had known for some
time that Ash wanted to relo
cate to a larger community
where he could be part of a
group. At BJC, he was a sole
practitioner, subject to being
on call 24 hours a day, 365
days a year.
Yarborough called the alle
gations against the hospital
“without merit,’’ and said the
authority’s attorney “is per
plexed about how they (the
Please Turn to Page 3A
THURSDAY FRIDAY
Partly cloudy: Isolated T-storms:
Low, 70; high, 95; Low, 70; high, 93;
10% chance rain 30% chance rain
SATURDAY SUNDAY
Isolated T-storms: Scattered T-storms:
Low, 69; high, 91; Low, 69; high, 88;
30% chance rain 40% chance rain
Reservoir Levels
Commerce: 699.5 (1.9 feet above full)
Bear Creek: 694.84 (.16 feet below full)
Rainfall this month
2.1 inches
Rainfall This Year
23.2 Inches
INDEX
Births 7B
Church News 4B
Classified Ads 1-4C
Calendar 3A
Crime News 8-9A
News Roundup 2A
Obituaries 5B
Opinions 4-5 A
Political Forum . . 1OA & 3B
Sports 1-2B
Social News 7-8B
CONTACT US
Phone: 706-335-2927
FAX: 70G3 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
First Farmers' Market
The first City to City Farmers’ Market opened last Saturday with nine vendors and scores
of customers. Most of the vendors sold out of their produce, including Melanie Freedman,
foreground, who sold more than 90 pounds — all that she had — of yellow squash and zuc
chini squash. The market will be in Commerce the next two Saturdays, June 28 and July 5,
after which it will be in Commerce the first and third Saturdays and in Jefferson the second
and fourth Saturdays of each month.
Special Blood Drive On July 3 To
Honor Nicholson's Todd Booth
By Mark Beardsley
Having received in excess of 30
pints during a battle with a can
cer-related disease, Todd Booth of
Nicholson knows the importance
of donating blood.
So do his church and friends,
and as Booth receives what may
be a life-saving transplant of
bone marrow Thursday July 3,
they’ll be holding a blood drive in
his honor at New Hope Baptist
Church.
The American Red Cross blood
drive, set from 2:00 p.m. to 8
p.m., has two purposes. One is
to honor Booth while helping the
Red Cross meet its blood needs.
The other is to raise awareness
of the National Bone Marrow
Registry that helped Booth find a
donor.
Diagnosed in May 2007 with
myelodysplasia — a disease that
will lead to leukemia — Booth’s
best hope for remission is the
transplant of the blood-producing
marrow to replace his bone mar
row. In the yearlong fight, Booth,
44, has learned a lot about blood
and bone marrow.
His road to a bone marrow
transplant began when Booth saw
Dr. Neel in Commerce to find
out why he had a shortness of
breath, and the cardiologist dis
covered that his hemoglobin was
exceptionally low.
“He basically said, ‘I don’t
know, it could be in the leukemia
family,”’ recalled Booth. “That was
‘‘That was like
dropping a bomb
on me. To be
honest, I thought
it had a lot to do
with my heart.”
— Todd Booth
like dropping a bomb on me. To
be honest, I thought it had a lot
to do with my heart.’’
His treatment took him to
the Georgia Cancer Center in
Athens, where he got his first
transfusion of two units of blood
and his first diagnosis. He began
taking some of the target-specific
chemotherapy drugs and getting
two units of blood every other
week, and platelets as frequently
as weekly. After two rounds of
chemotherapy, he started main
taining his blood level.
“In August, I was doing great,’’
he remembered.
By Thanksgiving, however,
blood levels were falling again,
and doctors at the Georgia
Cancer Center decided it was
time to get a second opinion,
so Booth went to the Dekalb
Medical Center for another bone
marrow biopsy.
“The doctor said we needed to
look at a transplant,’’ Booth said.
Many of his friends asked if
they could be tested for a match.
His pastor, the Rev. Mike Stowers,
contacted the Red Cross, which
For information on bone mar
row transplants, go to www.
marrow.org
For information on donating
blood, go to www.givelife.org
got a grant to do some screening.
They scheduled the blood drive
and added the screening.
“They will just test people with
a mouth swab and see if they’re
interested in donating bone mar
row,’’ said Stowers, who added
that there is no charge for the
screening.
“We hope to have at least 50
people,’’ said Stowers. “Of that,
I would expect 35 to be able to
donate. I’d like to shoot for a hun
dred. You don’t have to be able
to donate blood to be a bone
marrow donor, and people could
make a donation to the Red
Cross or sign up for the bone
marrow registry.’’
New Hope Baptist Church is
located at 211 Stapler Drive, at
the corner of U.S. 441 and Old
Kings Bridge Road a mile south
of Benton Elementary School.
Booth will enter the hospital
Thursday to begin chemotherapy.
Essentially, the process destroys
his bone marrow to prepare him
for its replacement. He’s been
walking daily to build up stamina.
Booth operates Auto Paint
Specialty, on the Commerce
Road in Athens. The family also
owns the Carquest stores in
Commerce and Jefferson.
Music, Food
To Highlight
City Lights
Festival Sat.
Road Race, Farmers Market, Car Show, Food, Arts
& Crafts, Games, Music & Fireworks Offered
Hundreds of people are expect
ed in downtown Commerce
Saturday for a festival that
promises to offer something for
everyone.
A farmer’s market and road
race will kick off the City Lights
Downtown Festival at 7:00 and
8:00 Saturday, while a pre Fourth
of July fireworks exhibition at
dusk will end it.
In between, visitors will find a
car show, food, arts and crafts
booths, music, games and other
entertainment all day long.
The first event — the Star Chase
5K Road Race—will start and end
at Willoughby Park on Clayton
Street, a new venue. Most of the
race will be along Broad and Elm
streets downtown.
“The public needs to recognize
that there may be a delay in
traffic for half an hour Saturday
morning along that route,’’
advises Hasco Craver, execu
tive director of the Downtown
Development Authority, which
hosts the festival.
Everything else takes place in
or adjacent to Spencer Park,
located on South Elm Street.
More than 30 booths are due
to be open by 8:00 a.m„ offering
all sorts of food from barbe
cue to Jamaican, from funnel
cakes to snow cones, not to
mention oil paintings, purses
and pocketbooks, hand-blown
glass, wooden objects, baskets,
potted plants and plant contain
ers. There will be an “animal
encounters’’ exhibit as part of
a “kids’ zone’’ in the city park
ing lot across Pine Street from
Spencer Park.
The number of food booths
was trimmed back this year in
recognition of what’s already
available in the downtown.
Festival Schedule
7:00 - farmers' market
8:00 - road race
8:00 - booths open
10:00 - car show
1 1:00 - music begins
Dusk - fireworks
Music Schedule
1 1:00 - The Solstice Sisters
12:15 - Peter Aland and
Some Good
1:30 - Curley Maple
2:45- 16 Tons
4:00 - The Healers
6:00 - Fatback Deluxe
8:00 - Tommy Crain and the
Crosstown All stars
“We’ve got three restaurants
now,’’ Craver noted. “People are
going to want to drop in for food
and for air conditioning during
the festival.’’
Music begins at 11:00. Groups
to be featured include The
Solstice Sisters, Athens, a
folk, country bluegrass band;
Peter Aland and Some Good,
Athens, an acoustic jazz band;
Curley Maple, Athens, featur
ing bluegrass/Americana music;
16 Tons, Athens, a bluegrass
group; The Healers, Athens, a
traditional blues band; Fatback
Deluxe, Atlanta, an acoustic
blues band; and Tommy Crain
and The Crosstown Allstars, an
Atlanta band that plays the blues
and classic Southern Rock.
The car show will take up
all parking spaces on South
Broad and South Elm streets
from Central Avenue to below
Spencer Park, Craver notes.
“We have plenty of off-street
parking. Look for the signs,’’ he
advises.
Fhe Fun Of Science
Ruhani Gilanie Qadri, 12, stirs a chemical mixture as “Mad
Scientist” Nina Kirkpatrick adds chemicals to a potion whose
ultimate reaction will produce a foamy “elephant’s tooth-
brush.’The science program was part of last Thursday’s Story
Hour program at the Commerce Public Library. This Thursday,
juggler Ron Anglin will perform at 2:00.