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About The Commerce news. (Commerce, Ga.) 1???-current | View Entire Issue (July 9, 2008)
SEE PAGE IB SEE PAGES 8-12A Tigers To Open 2008 Season Against Dragons Political Candidates Profiled SEE PAGE 7A Candidates Report On Contributions Vol. 133 No. 21 28 Pages 3 Sections Wednesday JULY 9, 2008 www.CommerceNewsTODAY.com 50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875 Advance Voting Through Friday At Rec. Center Advance voting for the Tuesday, July 15, election is under way and three sites are open in Jackson County, including one in Commerce. Voters may go to the Administrative Building in Jefferson, or the two new vot ing sites, one in Commerce and one in Braselton. The Commerce site is located at 204 Carson Street (Recreation Department) and the other at 5040 Highway 53, the Braselton Municipal and Police Building. Each satellite can accom modate any Jackson County voter wishing to vote early for the July Primary Election. Early voting will be held though Friday. Nicholson OKs 08-09 Budget By Brandon Reed A unanimous vote by the Nicholson City Council put the city’s budget into place for the 2008-2009 fiscal year. The budget totals are $678,000 in expenses with rev enues projected at the same amount. The new budget reflects no Please Turn to Page 3A THURSDAY FRIDAY Scattered T-storms: Scattered T-storms: Low, 69; high, 89; Low, 70; high, 89; 40% chance rain 40% chance rain SATURDAY SUNDAY Scattered T-storms: Isolated T-storms: Low, 69; high, 91; Low, 70; high, 95; 40% chance rain 40% chance rain Reservoir Levels Commerce: 697.5 (.1 feet below full) Bear Creek: 694.29 (.71 feet below full) Rainfall this month .10 inches Rainfall This Year 21.8 Inches INDEX Births 10B Church News 4B Classified Ads 1-4C Calendar 3A Crime News 6-7B News Roundup 2A Obituaries 5B Opinions 4-5 A School News 1 2A Sports 1-4B Social News .... 101 1 B CONTACT US Phone: 706-335-2927 FAX: 70A3 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 The Republican Primary Commission Races In Election Spotlight Beatty Bicknell Or Johnson? Hardy Or Thompson? Beatty Bicknell Johnson Hardy When the Republican Primary is over Tuesday night, Jackson County will have selected three county commissioners, a district attorney and a sheriff. No Democrats qualified for county races, although Nicholson resident Bobby Saxon awaits the winner of the GOP contest for the 10 District seat in the U.S. Congress featuring one-term incumbent Paul Broun and chal lenger Barry Fleming. Countywide, however, it’s all Republican, so Tuesday’s winners will be unopposed in November. Three Republicans—Tony Beatty Hunter Bicknell and Ron Johnson — are vying to succeed Pat Bell as chairman of the Jackson County Board of Commissioners. Bell did not seek re-election. If no one gets more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two candidates will face off in a runoff election Tuesday, Aug. 5. In the District 2 race — which includes the Commerce and Maysville areas — incumbent Jody Thompson faces challenger Chas Hardy. In the Jefferson area, incumbent Tom Crow will take on Amanda Spivey for the District 1 seat. Long-time incumbent sheriff Stan Evans is being challenged by former Hoschton city councilman Jim Keinard, while for the Piedmont Circuit’s district attorney seat (the circuit covers Jackson, Banks and Barrow counties), incumbent Rick Bridgeman faces opposition from Donna Golden Sikes and Brad Smith. Meanwhile, in the race for the Jackson County Board of Education Post 1 seat, incumbent Michael Cronic will face Bret Schwartz. If necessary, there will be a runoff Aug. 5. Approximately 30,700 Jackson For Election Returns, visit www. Com merceNewsTODAY.com Thompson County resi dents are eligible to vote, accord ing to Brenda Fulcher, voter registrar, and some of them have already cast ballots. As of Monday, approximately 130 absentee ballots had been cast. Advance voting is under way at the Jackson County Administrative Building and at the Commerce Recreation Department’s Carson Street office. It will be offered from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily through Friday. The polls will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. July 15. Commerce area (Minish District) voters will have two polling plac es, the North Minish precinct at the recreation office on Carson Street, and the South Minish pre cinct at the J. Nolan Spear Jr. Public Safety Complex on South Elm Street. Probate Judge Margaret Deadwyler, who oversees elec tions in Jackson County, said interest in the July 15 primaries has been light — which suggests a low voter turnout. “We haven’t seen much inter est in the absentee ballots,’’ she remarked. “Thirty-five percent would be a good turnout for this one.’’ Getting The Building Ready It may be summer vacation for local students, but not for schools’ custodial staffs, which are working full time to get local schools ready for the arrival of kids in August. Commerce Primary School custodian Elaine Gatheright puts a second coat of wax on the lunchroom floor in the childless quiet of July 3. Photo by Mark Beardsley Commerce Signs On For 5.865 Megawatts From New Nuclear Reactors At Plant Vogtle 'The first unit comes online in 2016> so I expect we'll get half of it the frstyear and the other half the next.' —Commerce City Manager Clarence Bryant Co-owners of the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant — including the city of Commerce — announced their intent to maintain their pro portionate share of ownership in the proposed Units 3 and 4. As co-owners of two existing units at Plant Vogtle, the utilities had the rights to participate in the new Vogtle units but were required to make a final commitment by July 2. Earlier this year, Georgia Power, acting for itself and for Plant Vogtle’s co-owners (Oglethorpe Power, Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and Dalton Utilities), entered a contract with Westinghouse Electric Company and The Shaw Group Inc.’s Power Group, for the development and construction of two nuclear units. Oglethorpe Power, MEAG Power and Dalton Utilities have informed Georgia Power that they will maintain the following exist ing ownership shares in the new units: Oglethorpe Power, 30 per cent; MEAG Power, 22.7 percent; and Dalton Utilities, 1.6 percent. Georgia Power’s proportionate share is 45.7 percent. Commerce’s share is expected to be 5.865 megawatts. Its cur rent peak is about 14 megawatts, according to City Manager Clarence Bryant. Of the purchase, .865 megawatts will be deferred until 2036 — dur ing which it will be sold to third parties. The five megawatts are expected to be available to the city in 2016-2017 as the two nucle ar units come online. “The first unit comes online in 2016, so I expect we’ll get half of it the first year and the other half the next,’’ Bryant said. The cost of the purchase has not been made public under a con fidentiality agreement between the partners and Westinghouse, but should be released within a couple of weeks, Bryant said. “Plant Vogtle’s co-owners rep resent communities throughout Georgia, and we believe these col lective decisions reflect the strong support our co-owners share in the proposed units,’’ said Mike Garrett, Georgia Power president and CEO. “Through our participation in this planned expansion of Plant Vogtle, Oglethorpe Power and our member EMCs are taking action to help ensure that Georgians Please Turn to Page 3A Council Postpones Meeting To July 21 Walgreens Sign Variance To Be On The Agenda By Mark Beardsley With several of its members attending a Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia meeting next week, the Commerce City Council has postponed its July meeting by a week. The council will meet Monday July 21, at 6:30 p.m. in the Commerce Room of the Commerce Civic Center. It will face an extremely light agenda, the highlight of which will be four items sent to it by the Commerce Planning Commission. Chief among those is Walgreens’ request for a vari ance in the city sign ordinance. The planning commission has recommended that the council reject the store’s request for a 43-square-foot sign containing an LED letterboard to be used to market store sale items. The city ordinance limits signs to 24 square feet and LED signs to just time and temperature. There are just two other LED signs in town. At the work session, the council appeared to be lean ing strongly toward denying the variance. 'This is probably one thing Greg (Perry, chairman of the planning commission) Please Turn to Page 3A
