Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

SEE PAGE 9A SEE PAGE IB '08 Tigers To Hit The Field This Friday East Jackson Middle School Gets A New Principal Vol. 133 No. 24 24 Pages 3 Sections Wednesday JULY 30, 2008 50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875 June Debt Pushes BJC Into Red Ink By Mark Beardsley What a difference a month makes. Thirty days ago, officials predicted that Banks-Jackson- Commerce Medical Center would end its 2007-08 fiscal year $124,000 in the black. But on Monday, Finance Director Bill Williams put the year-end estimate at $197,000 in the red — a number he said could climb with audit adjust ments. “We had more bad debt, $650,000, and charity care, $150,000 in June," Williams explained. “We had a much worse month in June than we anticipated.” Williams expects the explo sion of un-reimbursed health care to continue. He increased the amount budgeted for bad debt and charity care in the 2008-09 fiscal year, which began July 1, by two percent, to 12 percent. “It’s hitting all the hospitals," said Williams. “We are in an economic slump. People are losing their jobs and losing their health insurance. I don’t see an end to it right now; it will get worse before it gets better." Please Turn to Page 3A THURSDAY FRIDAY Scattered T-storms: Mostly sunny: Low, 70; high, 88; Low, 69; high, 94; 40% chance rain 20% chance rain SATURDAY SUNDAY / L J Mostly sunny: Mostly sunny: Low, 69; high, 92; Low, 69; high, 94; 20% chance rain 20% chance rain Reservoir Levels Commerce: 697.5 (.1 feet above full) Bear Creek: 693.4 (1.6 feet below full) Rainfall this month 4.20 inches Rainfall This Year 28.95 Inches INDEX Births 6B Church News 5B Classified Ads 1-4C Calendar 3A Crime News 6-7A News Roundup 2A Obituaries 4B Opinions 4-5 A School News 9A Sports 1-3B Social News 6-7B 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 General Primary Runoff Election Is Tuesday Who'll Show Up To Vote? 2 Local Races Hang In The Balance From Primary Where Less Than 20% Voted Jackson County voters will select a chairman of the board of commissioners and will help choose a new district attorney for the Piedmont Judicial Circuit Tuesday. But the question is who will turn out to vote in the primary runoff elections? Less than 20 percent of the county’s registered voters turned out for the June 15 primaries, which suggests turn out could be even lower for the runoff. Advance voting is under way at the Jackson County Administrative Building, Jefferson, through this week. Voting will take place from Bicknell Johnson 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Tuesday in all Jackson County voting pre cincts. Both the South Minish precinct (at the J. Nolan Spear Public Safety, Complex, South Elm Street) and the North Minish precinct (at the Commerce Recreation Department’s Carson Street office) will be open. There are only two local races, both on the Republican ballot. Front-runner Hunter Bicknell and Ron Johnson will fight for the chairmanship of the board of commissioners. Bicknell led Johnson 2,393-1,757 in the GOP primary. Both are from West Jackson. Tony Beatty finished a close third at 1,602 votes. In the district attorney’s case, Donna Sikes faces Brad Smith. Sikes polled 5,129 votes to Smith’s 4,820, while incum bent Rick Bridgeman came in third with 4,666. Sikes is from Jefferson, Smith from Barrow Sikes Smith County, and voters in Jackson, Banks and Barrow counties will participate in the runoff elec tion. The winners of those two races face no Democratic opposition in the fall. The Republican Party runoff is open to all voters who partici pated in the Republican Primary and to voters who did not vote in either primary July 15. Those who voted in the Democratic Primary can vote in the Democratic primary runoff, which features only one race, a runoff between Vernon Jones and Jim Martin for the right to face Saxby Chambliss in November for the U.S. Senate. The Democratic primary runoff is open to all voters who voted in the Democratic Primary July 15, and also to registered voters who did not vote at all July 15. Going Back In Time Work began this week on the first of two phas es of the renovation of Shubert and Company’s South Broad Street office. Owner Don Shubert checks on the progress of work by Lee Greene, Cameron Fitzpatrick and Lamar Wilbanks in removing the wooden awning as the first step in a process designed to restore the building as close as possible to its original style and condition. The project includes removing the awning and aluminum shingles above it, re pointing brick, and hopefully restoring upper- floor windows. A second phase is planned for the restoration of the brick wall on the side. When the work is done, every building in that block of South Broad Street will have been restored. Middle School Makes AYP CMS Makes 'Adequate Yearly Progress' For The First Time In Three Years By Mark Beardsley As the new school is about to begin, the Commerce City School System received official notice that it had met a major goal of the past school year. Commerce Middle School, for the first time in three years, met adequate yearly progress (AYP) under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The city system as a whole — and its other three schools — also made AYP. The key at CMS was getting math scores up for special edu cation students. That’s where CMS failed for two years, and if a school fails one of the 10 cat egories, it fails to meet AYP. Meeting AYP was perhaps the system’s biggest goal, and cer tainly that of Chuck Bell, who took over as principal a year ago. But Bell wasn’t ready to take credit for the improvement. “Lots of great things were going on before I arrived," he said. “The students and the teachers are the ones that deserve all the credit for making AYP this year. I’m really proud of what was accomplished there and hope it is a precursor to future achieve ment." Bell had been confident since late May that the school would meet the goal, but was relieved nonetheless last week when the Department of Education posted the results and it was official. The measurement was a little different this year. The state included passing marks of stu dents who flunked a test in spring but passed it as a make up exam. “We had a significant number of eighth graders pass the math test on the re-take," Bell said. “I was real pleased with the eighth grade progress there." The school would have met AYP even had the re-takes not been counted, Bell pointed out. Had the school failed for the third year in a row, CMS would have had to offer some kind of “supplemental services" to kids aimed at improving their performance. That would prob ably be tutoring, and Bell points out that recent research shows that the costly “supplemental services" are having negligible impact on CRCT scores. He seeks bigger improve ments. “AYP is a goal, but there is a heck of a lot more to having a world class school than meet ing AYP requirements," he said. “Even though we did meet that criteria, our special ed students Please Turn to Page 3A City Planning Commission Stands Behind Walgreens' Recommendation By Mark Beardsley The Commerce City Council may be on the fence about granting a variance in the city’s sign ordinance for Walgreens, but the Commerce Planning Commission is not. The planners, who make recommenda tions on land use and zoning matters for the city council, reaffirmed their opposi tion to the variance Monday night. “Sometimes, you’ve got to stand your ground," said Chairman Greg Perry. “If we approve this, we won’t have a sign ordi nance." “I agree," said member Johnny Eubanks. The one member of the group who at the June meeting supported Walgreens’ request, Joe Leffew, was absent for the July 28 meeting. Walgreens seeks a 43-square-foot sign with an electronic letterboard. The city ordinance limits the sign to 25 square feet and limits letterboards to showing time and temperature. Walgreens plans to use its let terboard for advertising. The planning commission voted 4-1 to recommend that the city council deny the request, but at its July 14 meeting the coun cil tabled the issue amid what appeared to be some support for granting the vari ance. At that time, the developer of the site at the corner of North Broad Street and Homer Road listed several other variances Please Turn to Page 5A