Newspaper Page Text
THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS, WEDNESDAY. TULY 23, 2008 - PAGE 5A
Rezoning Sought To
Establish Recycling Station
Commerce could get its first
official recycling station in the
near future.
The Commerce Planning
Commission will make a rec
ommendation Monday night at
7:00 in the Peach Room of the
Commerce Civic Center on a
request by Keith Whitfield for a
conditional use permit to estab
lish such a business.
Whitfield reportedly has a ten
ant in the building located just
south of Ingles on U.S. 441 who
wants to offer the collection of
metals for recycling, according
to David Zellner, city planner.
The city just amended its zon
ing ordinance Monday night to
allow for both recycling stations
and recycling centers.
Under the ordinance, both
must be conditional uses in cer
tain zoning districts. A recycling
station provides for the collec
tion of materials that will be
transported off site for process
ing.
Keep Jackson County Beautiful
operates three bins for the col
lection of newsprint and other
recyclable paper in the parking
lot in front of Lanier Technical
Institute.
The Commerce City Council
would act on the planning com
mission’s recommendation at its
Aug. 11 meeting at 6:30 p.m.
in the Commerce Room of the
Commerce Civic Center.
Also on the planning commis
sion’s agenda for Monday is a
request by Tommy Smallwood
to rezone two lots on Harris
Street.
One of the lots is currently
R-3 (residential) and contains a
mobile home Smallwood hopes
to replace. The other is zoned
C-2 (commercial) and holds a
house. He seeks to have both
rezoned to R-5 (mobile homes).
— The Lonesome Writer
Council Tables Action On Walgreens'
Request For Variance On Sign Size
The Commerce City Council
wants to think about Walgreens’
request for a variance in the sign
ordinance for a month.
The council voted unanimously
Monday night to table the mat
ter.
Walgreens wants a monument-
style sign of 43 square feet. That’s
79 percent more square footage
than allowed by the city’s sign
ordinance.
The city’s planning commis
sion had recommended that
the request be denied. The sign
proposed Monday was at least
the third version proposed by
the company, all of which were
larger than allowed by the ordi
nance.
Doug McGee, the developer of
the North Broad Street site, pre
sented two possible sign designs
for the council’s consideration.
One met the code and the other
didn’t.
“What we have per your code,
I don’t think it looks too good,’’
he told the council, while the
one that is 79 percent larger than
the ordinance allows is “more in
keeping’’ with other signs in the
city.
Ward 4 Councilman Bob
Sosebee agreed that the noncon
forming sign was more attractive
than the one that meets the ordi
nance.
McGee argued that the
Walgreens request is “not out of
scale with what you’ve done in
the past,’’ and named several busi
nesses with signs of 70 to 84
square feet.
“We’re not proposing a sign
that’s out of scale with what you’ve
approved in the past,’’ he said.
Walgreens plans to open the
store in about four months,
according to McGee.
In other business Monday night,
the council amended its zoning
ordinance to provide for recycling
“stations" and recycling “centers"
as conditional uses in certain zon
ing classes, approved a condi
tional use permit requested by the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints for a church expan
sion project on Mt. Olive Road,
and approved setback varianc
es for Nelson Nix to rebuild an
accessory building at 115 Clayton
Street.
The council also adopted an
agreement with the Georgia
Municipal Association to amend
its retirement plan so as to pro
vide greater retirement benefits
and passed a budget amendment
of $65,800 to replace the roof on
City Hall.
City Approves Referendum On Increasing
Homestead Exemption For Low-Income Elderly
Cont. from Page 4A
What the writer says about
you might not even be true,
or at least not the way you
remember it. Laurie Lee
wrote an enchanting book
about his childhood in Slad,
Glouchestershire, England,
called Cider With Rosie. The
book became an international
best seller and made Lee a rich
man. He returned to his child
hood home, bought the nicest
house in town and settled in.
But the locals never accepted
him, resenting the notoriety
he brought and objecting to
the intimate details of their
lives that Lee discussed. If they
spoke to him at all, it was to
ask scornfully about his book:
"A pack o'lies, weren't it?"
Is any writing ever the
whole, entire, unvarnished
truth? Isn't it always distort
ed ("refined," as the writer
might say), in the writer's
brain, embellished and pret
tied up a bit? Most writers
get subtle hints from their
friends: "Henry, if you write
one more word about me,
I'll sue." Some of us are slow
learners, though, and my wife
hasn't actually gone that far
— yet.
Willis Cook is a retired electri
cal engineer who was born in
New Orleans and grew up in
the Mississippi Delta. He lives
on Varner Road in Franklin
County.
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Referendum Set Nov. 4 — Separate Ballot From General Election
Should the homestead exemp
tion from school taxes be doubled
for low-income senior citizens?
Commerce voters will make
that call during a special election
Tuesday, Nov. 4 — the same day as
the General Election.
Legislation introduced in the
General Assembly last year calls
for a referendum on whether
to raise the homestead exemp
tion from the current $20,000
to $40,000 — for taxpayers 65
or older and whose net income
— excluding certain retirement
income — is $18,000 or less. The
increase would apply only to
school taxes.
The Commerce City Council
officially called the election
Monday night.
It will complicate the Nov. 4
balloting experience, notes City
Clerk Shirley Willis.
For the General Election,
which is administered by the
probate judge of Jackson County
voters will be split between the
South Minish and North Minish
precincts. For the referendum,
which is a city election, voting
will be conducted only at the
J. Nolan Spear Public Safety
Complex on South Elm Street —
where the South Minish precinct
votes.
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That means Commerce resi
dents who vote at North Minish
will have to drive to the South
Minish precinct to vote in the
referendum, and South Minish
residents of Commerce will have
to vote a second time, on a sepa
rate ballot, most likely in one of
the fire station bays.
“I will have signs when they
vote in the county election to
come through there and vote
in the city referendum," said
City Clerk Shirley Willis, who
is the city’s election superin
tendent.
Superintendent of schools Dr.
James E. “Mac" McCoy said the
financial impact on the city school
system “would be minimal."
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