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SEE PAGE IB Tigers Start Practice For The 2008 Season SEE PAGES 6A, 4-5B It's Back To School Thursday In Commerce And Jackson County Vol. 133 No. 25 20 Pages 3 Sections Wednesday AUGUST 6, 2008 50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875 Maysville To Seek 5 New Wells By Justin Poole Maysville is preparing to develop five new wells to sup plement its drinking water sup- ply. At Monday’s meeting, the city council approved letting Chip McGaughey from EMI proceed with the first phase of a five-phase well development program. The total cost will be approximately $404,000. The project is expected to be com pleted in 18 months. The council wants to pay for the project as the funds are available and as the different phases of the project become ready. According to McGaughey, the first phase is for a hydro geologist to locate potential well sites and to contact the property owners and have the city work on gaining access to the locations. Depending on the cooperation of property owners, that phase could be complete in as little as two months. Council member Stephen Lewis asked McGaughey if the city could pay for the project as each phase came up. McGaughey said that that could be done so that the city Please Turn to Page 3A W THURSDAY FRIDAY 6*t Scattered T-storms: Isolated T-storms: Low, 68; high, 92; Low, 65; high, 87; 40% chance rain 30% chance rain SATURDAY SUNDAY w Partly cloudy: Partly cloudy: Low, 64; high, 90; Low, 69; high, 91; 20% chance rain 20% chance rain Reservoir Levels Commerce: 697.4 (.2 feet below full) Bear Creek: 692.9 (2.1 feet below full) Rainfall this month .4 inches Rainfall This Year 18.65 Inches Births . . . 7B Church News . . . . . . 6B Classified Ads . . . . . 1-4C Calendar . . . 3A Crime News . . . . . . . 7A News Roundup . . . . . 2A Obituaries . . . 8A Opinions . . . 4A School News. . . . . . 4-5 B Sports . . 1-3B Social News . . . . . . 7-8 B CONTACT US Phone: 706-335-2927 FAX: 706387-5435 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 Bicknell Wins Chairman's Race; 2008 Smith Prevails For District Attorney Jackson County voters elected West Jackson resident Hunter Bicknell as chairman of the Board of Commissioners Tuesday night. And voters in Jackson, Barrow and Banks counties elected assis tant district attorney Brad Smith as their new district attorney. Bicknell, the front-runner in the July 15 primary, captured 60 percent of the vote in beating Hoschton resident Ron Johnson 2,648-1,788. Bicknell had polled 41 percent of the July 15 vote. He received 2,393 votes to 1,757 for Johnson and 1,602 for former commission er Tony Beatty. Bicknell carried both the South Minish and North Minish districts Tuesday en route to victory. “I’m just real pleased the voters have spoken and decided they would like for me to be the one to lead the board of commissioners for the next four years,’’ Bicknell said Tuesday night. “I plan to work real hard and just prove myself BOC Chairman Bicknell 2,648 Johnson 1,788 District Attorney Sikes 4,218 Smith 5,502 worthy of their confidence in me.’’ Some 18.36 percent of Jackson County’s registered voters partici pated. District Attorney Barrow resi dent Brad Smith parlayed a second-place finish July 15 into a relatively easy victory in Tuesday’s run off. Sikes carried Banks County, but Smith won both Jackson and / Bicknell Smith Barrow coun ties to put away Donna Golden Sikes, 5,502-4,218. That race became par ticularly bitter when Sikes attempted to link Smith to former DA Please Turn to Page 2A Rabies Scare Has Happy Ending For Commerce Boy Nicholson Votes To Establish A Kyle Welch poses with kittens Miriam and Abigail, surving siblings of a six-week old kitten whose behavior led officials to believe it was rabid. CDC Foul-Up Brings 11-Year-Old Within Minutes Of Starting Rabies Treatment By Mark Beardsley An 11-year-old Commerce boy came within minutes of under going treatment for rabies when officials misplaced the head of a kitten sent to the Centers for Disease Control to be tested for rabies. But an insistent emergency room doctor intervened, the CDC tracked down the misplaced pack age, and the test turned out nega tive for rabies. Kyle Welch, to say the least, was greatly relieved. “I didn’t want to get the shots,’’ he said at about 5:00 Friday as he cuddled Miriam and Abigail, surviving siblings of the six-week old kitten whose bite started the whole scare. Kyle’s mother, Amy, had stopped at a house on Old Kings Bridge Road Sunday, July 27, where “free kittens’’ were offered. She picked up three, brought them home to the Welch’s A-frame house on Park Street and fed them. “About two hours later, one was staggering around like it was drunk, started dragging its hind legs and was foaming at the mouth,’’ she recalled. The next morning before they could get the animal to the veteri narian, the kitten bit Kyle, punc turing the skin. Veterinarians at Commerce Veterinary Hospital suspected rabies, but the only way to tell for sure is to kill the suspect animal and ship its head to the Centers for Disease Control for determi nation. “They told us it would be two or three days and someone from the health department would call me and answer questions,’’ Mrs. Welch said. That’s the normal protocol, explained Dr. Kinsey Phillips of Commerce Veterinary Hospital. “Normally, if it is negative, they may notify us in two days. If it’s positive, they notify us pretty much immediately,’’ he said. He added that “suspicion was high’’ that the Welch’s kitten was rabid. Please Turn to Page 3A Municipal Court By Brandon Reed The City of Nicholson now has a municipal court. The city council voted unani mously Monday night to approve an ordinance allowing for a judge, clerk and associated personnel needed to operate the court. The court is to adjudicate the enforcement of ordinances in the city. The city also has made a change to its code enforcement officer’s position. The council had hired Dan Crumley for that position back in April. But Mayor Ronnie Maxwell said Monday night that an agree ment couldn’t be reached in making the position full or part time, so Crumley resigned. “It was amiable,’’ Maxwell said Monday night. “He had a differ ent vision for the position than we had.” Maxwell said Ivan Spindola, who has worked as an officer for Gainesville and Hall County, has been hired to take the part time position. Spindola will work with the city building inspector in enforcing the city’s codes. Maxwell said he hopes the position will be operating by September. Also on Monday night, Maxwell announced that he and city attorney Rob Russell will look into the legal requirements for zoning and that he expects to start basic discussions regarding zoning in the next few months. “I am not asking for compli cated and confusing zoning,’’ Maxwell said. “Just some basic zoning we can all agree upon so we can enforce our ordinances in a fair and impartial manner.’’ Other Business The council also voted unani mously to approve a minimum housing standards ordinance. The ordinance will take the place of several ordinances already in place. It also defines enforce ment, complaints, investigations and penalties. Three new ordinances had their first reading Monday night. Russell introduced the ordinanc es, which includes defining the authority the city has in the building and maintaining of streets and that anyone working in the right-of-way on the side walks will have to be properly permitted by the city. The first reading of an ordi nance defining the rules and procedures for city council meetings and public hearings was also held. The ordinance outlines how the council can meet and establishes the proce dures the council will follow for meetings. The third ordinance establish es the city’s open records policy. Russell said the city will adopt the state’s open record policy. Walgreens' Sign Variance (Again) On City Council Agenda The Commerce City Council appears ready to split the baby on the longstanding Walgreens request for a sign variance. The matter will be on the agenda for Monday night’s city council meeting at 6:30 in the Commerce Room of the Commerce Civic Center — as it has been for the past several meetings. The issue was most recently tabled from the July 21 meeting. Based on comments by coun- cilmen at Monday’s work ses sion, the council seems prepared to allow Walgreens the electronic letterboard sign it wants — but to limit the total signage to the 24 square feet required in the ordinance. Walgreens’ latest proposal was for a 43-square-foot sign that included the digital letterboard. The compromise on the let terboard is that it would not be restricted to time and tempera ture as required by the ordinance. That is based on a purported statement from City Attorney John Stell that the city cannot restrict the content of such a sign once it is approved. But what happens at coun cil work sessions often stays at work sessions, so Monday night’s comments aren’t neces sarily accurate predictors of next Monday’s action. Nonetheless, council members appeared will ing to stand on the 24-square- foot maximum sign. “They have hundreds of dif ferent signs and some of them would fit in our ordinance,’’ observed Mayor Pro Tem Dusty Slater. “There’s signs out there they can go with that will fit our ordinance,’’ agreed Ward 1 Councilman Wayne Gholston. “They just want what they want.’’ “They ought to stay within the ordinance and let them have a digital board within the 24 square feet,’’ said Ward 4 Councilman Please Turn to Page 3A Construction on the newWalgreens continues as the Commerce City Council mulls how to respond to the company’s request for a larger sign than allowed by the city’s sign ordinance.