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SEE PAGE IB It's Commerce Vs. Banks County In Dragway Finals SEE PAGE 10A Former Mayor Dr. A. J. Minish Dies SEE PAGE 5A Local Students Struggle On CRCT Vol. 133 No. 20 26 Pages 3 Sections Wednesday JULY 2, 2008 mainstreetnews.com 50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875 Red Cross Blood Drive Set For Tuesday The American Red Cross will hold a blood drive Tuesday, July 8, from noon to 6:00 p.m., at the First Baptist Church of Commerce Family Life Cen ter, 1345 S. Elm Street. The American Red Cross pro vides blood services to all area hospitals, including BJC Hospi tal, Athens Regional Medical Center and the Gainesville and Atlanta hospitals. Potential donors must be 17, weigh at least 110 pounds and be in good health. All donors will receive a Chick-fil-A coupon July Fourth Celebration Set In Nicholson Nicholson will celebrate Independence Day Friday, starting at 2 p.m. and culmi nating with fireworks. The event, at the park by City Hall, will include food, games, karaoke and live enter tainment. For information, call 706-757-3408. Mostly sunny: Partly cloudy: Low, 68; high, 92; Low, 69; high, 91; 20% chance rain 20% chance rain SATURDAY SUNDAY Isolated T-storms: Scattered T-strorms: Low, 68; high, 87; Low, 64; high, 88; 40% chance rain 30% chance rain Reservoir Levels Commerce: 697.6 (full) Bear Creek: 694.9 (.1 foot below full) Rainfall this month 0 inches Rainfall This Year 21.7 Inches Janelle Dague, 5, of Commerce takes a swing at a baseball in an inflatable game in the Kids’ Zone at last Saturday’s City Lights Downtown Festival. For more photos, see page 7B. Festival Draws Crowd To Downtown By Mark Beardsley The crowd was strong, the rain stayed away and vendors and businesses alike did a brisk business during Saturday’s City Lights Downtown Festival. “I think it went very well,” said Hasco Craver, who as executive director of the Downtown Development Authority was the person most responsible for putting on the festival. “I was very pleased with the turnout and the qual ity of the arts and crafts. The food vendors seemed to be well-received and the car show brought several hundred people to the downtown for that event alone.” But it was the music that stood out for Craver. “That guy playing last? He won a Grammy,” Craver said. “He played with Charlie Daniels for 20 years and co-wrote a lot of the songs like The Devil went Down to Georgia.’ You were hearing the guy who wrote those songs play them.” The farmers’ market had another week of good atten dance, and Craver said the 215 participants in the Star Chase 5K Road Race made it the big gest 5K this year in the county. “We had people from North Carolina, South Carolina and Alabama, from Warner Robins, Douglasville and Macon up here for the race,” he said. The participants seemed to like the new route — mostly along Broad and Elm streets — because it was flatter than the previous routes. “One of the runners brought a concert harp,” Craver reported. “She sat in the gazebo after the race when people were getting refreshments and played. It was neat.” The festival may have helped commerce in Commerce as well. Craver reported hearing of strong sales by the three down town restaurants and that sev eral local merchants said they had steady business all day. Like last year, the crowd built early and stayed strong through lunch, after which it tapered off until after 6:00, when it built again to peak during the fire works. “Really, it’s taxing for a lot of folks to sit outside that long. It’s the last weekend in June, so it is generally pretty hot,” Craver mused. “From 3:00 to 6:00 it’s really hot. People either escaped to the downtown restaurants or their living rooms, both of which are air conditioned, and then they come back for the music and the fireworks.” Craver said the food vendors stayed open until after 10:00, taking advantage of the crowd in and around Spencer Park for the fireworks. Volunteers who helped clean up the area after the festival left shortly after midnight. More Downtown Buildings Slated For Renovations Shubert & Companyj Gift Works, Both On South Broad, Due For Facelifts By Mark Beardsley Renovations will begin soon on two more buildings on South Broad Street. Reporting at last Wednesday’s meeting of the Downtown Development Authority, Executive Director Hasco Craver announced that the Shubert and Company build ing and Gift Works at the Joy Shoppe will soon be trans formed . “They are going to tear off the awning and restore it to the original,” said Craver of the Shubert building. To do that, the general con tractor will have to remove bricks that were placed to fill in upstairs windows, he noted. “That is the last piece of prop erty on that block to be restored to the original,” Craver noted. He also announced that Lee and Gina Hagan, owners of Gift Works at the Joy Shoppe, “have a contractor lined up.” Their building was due to be renovated, but the process sped up when the former awning and facade began to separate from the building last December and had to be removed. Craver also reported that Paul Kinetra appears to have a possible buyer for the former Logo Express building on State Street. Craver said the prospect wants to create a restaurant downstairs and a two-bedroom, two-bathroom true loft apart ment upstairs. Also on the subject of down town buildings, Craver said Mark McCannon has purchased the building housing his Edward Jones office on State Street and plans some interior and exterior renovations, including replac ing windows, painting the front and placing an awning over the front door. In other business, member Keith Ariail reported that the DDA’s design committee met with Mayor Charles L. “Buzzie” Hardy Jr. and Mayor Pro Tem Please Turn to Page 3A Ham Radio Operators Prepare For Emergencies By Mark Beardsley When severe weather knocks down the cell phone towers and destroys landlines, how will essential communication be possible? That’s where local amateur radio enthusiasts will step in to help emergency medical person nel and law enforcement with the critical communications necessary to protect lives and properties. Twenty-five to 30 ham radio enthusiasts conducted an exer cise of that scenario Saturday and Sunday from the city park at Nicholson, where they set up seven antennas and radio stations and made contact with amateur radio operators from across the country. The occasion was the American Radio Relay League’s annual field day. Two local clubs, the Northeast Georgia Amateur Radio Club and the Athens Amateur Radio Club, simulated an emergency situation to test equipment and techniques that would be utilized in an emer gency. The exercise was conducted under the assumption that there Please Turn to Page 6A Commerce News Launches New Website IlNDEXl Church News 6B Classified Ads 1- 4C Calendar 3A Crime News 7-8A News Roundup 2A Obituaries 1 OA Opinions 4A School News 8B Sports 1 -3B Social News 8-9B 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 CommerceNewsTODAY.com To Provide Online News Updates Today has arrived. Anew source of community information is being launched this week by The Commerce News — www.CommerceNewsTODAY. com (The site is not case sensitive; capital letters are used only for clarity.) The new website is also part of one of the most sophisticated newspaper web networks in the state and operates under the umbrella of www.MainStreetNews.com which aggregates Northeast Georgia news from Jackson, Banks, Madison and Barrow counties. “This is an exciting new development in how we can keep the local community informed,” said Mike Buffington, co-pub lisher of Mainstreet Newspapers Inc., the parent company of The Commerce News. M. Buffington said the CommerceNewsTODAY site and its sister sites will all have real-time updating on election night July 15. The new CommerceNewsTODAY.com site will allow viewers to add comments to articles and to subscribe to email or cell phone updates. In addition to new individual news sites in the counties, the new system also aggre gates local sports and obituaries onto free standing sister sites. “If you follow sports in the area, the new www.MainstreetNewsSPORTS.com will be the place to look for a broad overview,” said M. Buffington. From an online advertising standpoint, the multiple linked sites offer advertisers an unlimited number of combinations for reaching various niche audiences. S. Buffington also said the new system of cross-linked sites is just in its beginning stages and more features are scheduled to be added in the coming weeks. Other New Websites www.MainstreetNews .com (The parent site which aggregates news and information from all of its linked sites.) www.MainstreetNewsSPORTS.com (Regional sports website that aggregates sports news from all the newspaper web sites.) www.MainstreetNewsOBITS.com (Regional website that aggregates death notices and obituaries from all the newspa per websites.) www.BanksNewsTODAY.com (Website with news and views from The Banks County News.) wwwMadisonJ ournalTODAY.com (Website with news and views from The Madison County Journal.) www.JacksonHeraldTODAY.com (Website with news and views from The Jackson Herald.) www.BraseltonNewsTODAY.com (Website with news and views from The Braselton News.) wwwBarrowJ ournal.com (Website with news and views from Barrow County.)