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Vol. 133 No. 27 20 Pages 3 Sections Wednesday AUGUST 20, 2008 50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875 DDA To Show 'Shrek The Third' Friday In Park The Commerce Downtown Development Authority will hold its second annual back- to-school movie event Friday night. The DDA will show “Shrek the Third" at dusk (about 8:30 p.m.) in Spencer Park. There is no admission charge, and free concessions will also be available. “Make a night of it," encour ages Hasco Craver, the DDA’s executive director. “Stop by one of our downtown restau rants and grab a bite to eat, visit one of our downtown’s specialty shops, or simply walk along the sidewalks and admire the currently under way or recently completed property rehabilitations." Downtown Pep Rally Set Aug. 28 The Commerce Downtown Development Authority hopes to kick the fall high school ath letic season Thursday night, Aug. 28. The Tigers on the Town Downtown Pep Rally will rec ognize the Commerce High School football team, cheer leaders, band, dance line, majorettes, cross country team and softball team. The DDA and the Commerce Area Business Association will also recognize the 2007-08 teachers of the year for the city school system. In addition, a drawing will be held at the event for four sets of two CHS season tickets and parking passes for all home athletic events. Registration slips are available at participat ing downtown businesses. W THURSDAY FRIDAY Mostly sunny: Isolated T-storms: Low, 68; high, 88; Low, 68; high, 85; 10% chance rain 30% chance rain SATURDAY SUNDAY Isolated T-storms: Isolated T-storms: Low, 66; high, 85; Low, 65; high, 84; 30% chance rain 30% chance rain Reservoir Levels Commerce: 697.1 (.5 feet below full) Bear Creek: 690.6 (4.4 feet below full) Rainfall this month .5 inches Rainfall This Year 25.05 Inches INDEX Births 6B Church News 7B Classified Ads 1-4C Calendar 3A Crime News 7-8A News Roundup 2A Obituaries 3B Opinions 4-5 A School News 8B Sports 1-2B Social News 6B 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 City Schools: State Budget Cuts A 'Moving Target' System Will Have To Dip Into Reserves To Meet Governor's Budget Proposals By Mark Beardsley The Commerce City School System has finalized its budget, but that doesn’t mean spending for the 2008-09 school year is set in stone. Far from it. With a state in a fis cal crisis and Gov. Sonny Perdue calling for budget cuts in numer ous areas, the man who is respon sible for making it all work is still sweating. Perdue has called for cuts in K-12 spending of two percent in the current fiscal year and three percent in the next. In addition (see separate story), he wants to eliminate the Homeowners Tax Relief Grant, much of which goes to school systems. “Needless to say, we’re still fight ing a moving target," commented James E. “Mac" McCoy, superintendent of the Commerce system. The two-percent/three- percent cuts are the “lat est we’ve got," McCoy said. They just happen to come on top of an austerity cut that has already cost the system $250,000. “Add all that together and you’ve got trouble," he said. The Commerce Board of Education is fortunate to have a $1.5 million fund balance (reserves) at present. Based on just the “austerity" reduction, the current budget proj ects having reserves of $738,000 at the end of the year. “With a kind of fore sight, we cut a little bit more than the two per cent, not knowing what to cut," said McCoy. If the further cuts occur, it’ll take a lot more cutting — more than some school systems can handle, according to McCoy. He points to Oglethorpe County, where the reserves are “already depleted" and the system is at the maximum millage rate. “I know for a fact that a number of school systems in our RESA (Regional Education Services Agency) can’t raise any more taxes and their reserves are on empty," McCoy says. Please Turn to Page 3A Mac McCoy The Department of Corrections’ decision to cost the city of Commerce a number of low-cost close the I.W. Davis Probation Detention Center maintenance workers, in Jefferson as a budget-trimming measure will Closing Of Detention Center Could Be Costly For Commerce Another Request For Sign Variance Coming Before City By Mark Beardsley The Department of Corrections’ decision to close the I.W. Davis Probation Detention Center has Commerce scrambling to deter mine the effect on its operations. “I just heard about it Thursday or Friday. This is something we’re going to have to discuss," noted City Manager Clarence Bryant. The city gets one to two full-time workers for its recreation depart ment and another detainee each for its civic center and police department, according to Bryant. “If we’ve got to replace them manpower-wise, we’re going to be hurting," he said, pointing out that for the recreation maintenance worker, the city might require the equivalent of a full-time employee — which means the cost of salary and benefits. The city pays nothing for the I.W. Davis detainees, who are required to work as part of their The BJC Medical Center is using a multi-prong approach to finding a new general surgeon. Administrator Jim Yarborough reported to the medical center’s governing authority Monday afternoon that the medical cen ter has engaged several firms to assist in the search. “We’re getting (resumes), but there is not a candidate at this time we feel we want to inter view," he said, calling the search “a shotgun approach." The hospital hopes to replace Dr. Keith Ash, who resigned in June to relocate to a larger practice. Yarborough also told the authority that Dr. Fareha Rahim is working on getting an associ- sentences. The city picks them up in the mornings and takes them back in the evenings, but with no guard required, the expense is minimal. Commerce also has a crew from the Jackson County Correctional Institute, for which it pays about $45,000 a year, Bryant said. That crew does right of way main tenance, and the cost is basi cally the salary and benefits of the guard, and the cost of the vehicle. “We’ll have to sit down, see how many positions we have and see if we can refill them through the county’s organization," said Bryant Monday. “I’m not sure we can. They want a certified guard, and we’re not going to send some body to school for eight weeks to get certified.” The closure is expected to help the Department of Corrections meet a six-percent budget cut ate, a doctor now in Pakistan who has worked in the United States. “Both have a comfort level that they’re going to enjoy working together," said Yarborough, who added that it may be some time before the potential associate is able to get a visa worked out. According to Yarborough, the doctor moved from a U.S. prac tice back to Pakistan to care for his aging parents, who have since died. In other business at the authori ty’s August meeting, Yarborough announced that the Joint Commission on Accreditation conducted a surprise survey of the medical center’s lab and respiratory services depart- proposed by Gov. Sonny Perdue in light of declining state rev enue due to the economic slowdown. Closing I.W. Davis is expected to save DOC $2.4 million annually. The probation detention cen ter has been a handy source of labor and expertise for the city. It provided a construction crew to renovate the Commerce Civic Center, at no charge to the city, and another crew that provided outside maintenance for a few years. Future plans for the state-owned facility have not been determined but Jackson County leaders have expressed an interesting in leas ing the building. County Manager Darrell Hampton said Monday that the county has sent the state a letter stating its interest in the building. He said the county doesn’t yet have any definite plans for the facility. ments, recording only minor suggestions for improvement. He also told the authority that the hospital has received a grant for a Georgia Tech to imple ment “lean methodology" at the medical center. Training for senior management will begin in September. “We’ll pick one or two areas," said Yarborough. “This would have cost us a lot of money if we’d had to hire a consul tant." Also, through its emergency services provider, Yarborough said, the hospital has been offered the “Disney model" for customer service at no cost. The idea, he said, is to begin treating patients more like guests. Having finally disposed of the Walgreens’ request for a variance in the sign ordinance, another business has requested a similar variance. Pinnacle Bank, which pur chased the Athens First Bank & Trust office on North Broad Street, seeks a variance as it changes the sign to reflect the new ownership. “They want to reface the sign out there," explains Commerce planner David Zellner. The Commerce Planning Commission will hear the request Monday night at 7:00 in the Peach Room of the Commerce Civic Center. The Commerce City Council will act on the plan ning commission’s recommen dation at its Sept. 8 meeting. That current sign, 72 square feet, like many others in the downtown, was erected before BOC To Tap Reserves To The Tune Of $2 Million By Angela Gary Jackson County plans to dip into its $8.6 million in reserves to the tune of $2 million to meet a 19 percent hike in spending in 2009. The Jackson County Board of Commissioners gave tentative approval Monday night for the 2009 budget. Final action on the budget is scheduled for Sept. 4 at 10 a.m. Although the county is increas ing spending in its general fund by $6.6 million, the property tax millage rate is set to drop slightly to 9.49 mills in incor porated areas and to 8.61 mills in unincorporated areas. Fast year’s rates were 9.59 and 8.73 respectively. The county’s general fund spending is slated to increase from $34.7 million to $41.4 million in 2009. Much of the increase is to meet debt service payments and to fill 57 new posi tions to man the new jail. The county’s debt service payments will jump 89 percent in 2009, from $4.4 million to $8.3 million. The majority of the county’s debt service payments will be on bonds for the new jail and for bonds used to build eco nomic development roads for industrial growth. The county’s overall budget for all funds is $67 million in 2009, the sign ordinance was adopt ed. Under the ordinance, the new sign must comply, Zellner explains. The existing sign is three times the maximum square footage allowed under the ordinance. The only other item on the agenda is a request by Danny Allen for a zoning change for a 1.6-acre lot on Harmony Street so he can get the power turned back on in a nonconforming mobile home. According to the city zoning ordinance, nonconforming prop erty unoccupied for six months or longer must be brought into conformance before it is reoc cupied. Allen, who lives in South Carolina, seeks to have the lot re-zoned from R-3 (residential single-family) to R-5 (mobile homes). up 22 percent over 2008. Among the highlights of the 2009 proposed budget: • The county is doubling its support to the health depart ment to $230,800. The county said there’s been a “dramatic increase in patient care" at the department because of the eco nomic downturn. • In capital outlay for 2009, the budget calls for $428,000 in fleet vehicle replacements, patrol car replacements at $575,000 and two new ambu lances at $400,000. • The county plans to subsi dize the planning and zoning department with an additional $370,500. • The county recreation depart ment is receiving an increase of $205,600 in part to create a new maintenance position for the new East Jackson Park and due to repositioning mowing costs directly to the department out of the budgets of other depart ments. • Overall county salaries are up nearly 13 percent in 2009, $1.5 million, mostly to pay for 57 additional jail positions. Other new positions included in the budget are six paramedics for the new South Jackson EMS; a correctional officer for the East Jackson Park; a full-time EMA director; a solid waste correc tions officer; a buildings and grounds maintenance position; and two solid waste part-time attendants. Medical Center Uses Multi-Prong Approach To Finding New Surgeon County Budget To Grow By 19% But Tax Rates To Dip