Newspaper Page Text
OLD TRADITIONS,
NEW TRADITIONS
High School Football Begins Friday
Preview Inside: All 4 Jackson Grid Squads
Tiger-Dragon Match-Up Friday: Page IB
Vol. 133
No. 28
30 Pages
3 Sections
50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875
Pep Rally
Set Thursday
The Commerce Down
town Development
Authority hopes to kick
the fall high school ath
letic season off to a good
start Thursday night,
Aug. 28.
The Tigers on the Town
Downtown Pep Rally will
recognize the Commerce
High School football
team, cheerleaders, band,
dance line, majorettes,
cross country team and
softball team. The sea
son opens the following
night at Tiger Stadium
against cross-county
rivals Jefferson.
Weather permitting, the
pep rally will take place
at 7:30 p.m. at Spencer
Park. If it rains, howev
er, the pep rally will be
Please Turn to Page 3A
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THURSDAY, AUG 28
Isolated T-storms: Low, 66;
high, 87; 30% chance rain
FRIDAY, AUG. 29
Partly cloudy: Low, 67; high,
90; 20% chance rain
SATURDAY, AUG 30
Isolated T-storms: Low, 67;
high, 91; 30% chance rain
SUNDAY, AUG. 31
Isolated T-storms: Low, 65;
high, 85; 30% chance rain
Reservoir Levels
Commerce: 699.5 (1.9 feet
above full)
Bear Creek: 689.5 (5.45 feet
below full)
Rainfall this month
2.85 inches
Rainfall This Year
31.6 Inches
INDEX
Births 5B
Church News 4B
Classified Ads 1-4C
Calendar 3A
Crime News 7-8A
News Roundup 2A
Obituaries 3B
Opinions 4-5A
School News 6A
Sports 1-2B
Social News 5-6B
CONTACT US
Phone: 706-335-2927
FAX: 706-387-5435
E-mail:
news@mainstreetnews.com
mark@mai nstreetnews. com
brandon@mainstreetnews.com
teresa@ma i nstreetnews. com
Mail: P.O. Box 459,
Commerce, GA, 30529
Fire and police personnel look through the wreckage of the mobile home
of Renae Bonds on Cedar Drive in Commerce. It was several minutes before
it was determined she was not home when a tornado lifted the trailer off its
foundation and smashed it to the ground about 100 feet away.
Tornado Touches Down
Near Cedar Drive Tuesday
By Mark Beardsley
A tornado spawned by
the remnants of Tropical
Storm Fay destroyed one
mobile home and damaged
several residences at about
4:30 Tuesday afternoon in
the Cedar Drive area of
Commerce.
No one was hurt by the
twister, which approached
from the southwest over
Washington Street, then
dipped to the ground for
mere seconds before reced
ing back into the clouds.
A mobile home on Cedar
Drive owned by Renae
Bonds was hardest hit.
The wind snatched it off
its foundation, blew it near
ly 100 feet and smashed
it to the ground near a
Georgia Power right of way.
Fortunately Bonds was not
home at the time. A tall
utility pole was blown over
the major Georgia Power
transmission line through
the area, and electric ser
vice was out.
The smell of natural gas
was evident around the
Bonds’ house. Water from a
severed service line poured
onto the ground.
“We saw it coming from
Hill Street," said Nathan
Anderson. “We saw it form
and go down."
The tornado also dam
aged the front deck and roof
of the residence of Willie
Pearl Daniel, 218 Ridgeway
Street.
'The bad thing is I don’t
have any homeowners’ insur
ance," she said. “I couldn’t
afford it no more."
Her son, Lamar Daniels,
saw it coming; the fam
ily took refuge in an inner
room.
“We saw it from the bank,"
said Sandra Haggard of
Regions Bank. “We saw it
back over Washington
Street. The clouds came
down and it started swirling
and we said 'there’s a tor
nado on the ground.”'
Haggard said “green light
ning" accompanied the
twister for the five seconds
as it was on the ground.
“I said, 'Oh God, that’s
the recreation department,”'
she recalled, to which Doug
Norwood, who was at the
bank replied, “No, it’s going
to hit my momma’s house."
Mrs. Daniel is his mother.
Several other residences
in the immediate area suf
fered lesser damage. A
tree fell on a mobile home,
whose elderly occupant was
shaken up but not injured.
Downed tree limbs or other
damage were reported on
Cole Court and Ashworth
Mobile Home Park.
Officials closed Old U.S.
441 (Homer Road) at 5:10 to
keep onlookers out.
Commerce police, fire and
rescue workers were quick
ly on the scene. Jackson
County EMS rolled in, and
the county road depart
ment was summoned. The
American Red Cross was
en route to the area by 5:10.
Planners Seek
Sign Variance
Moratorium
Until New Commerce Sign
Ordinance Is Approved
The Commerce Planning Commission wants a time
out from considering requests for variances in its sign
ordinance.
After voting unanimously to recommend that the
city council deny a request from Pinnacle Bank for a
variance on the size of its sign, the planning commis
sion, by a similar vote, recommended that the council
declare a moratorium on further requests until the city’s
new sign ordinance is approved.
The move comes after a recent run of requests,
starting with Ingles and including Walgreens and now
Pinnacle, which wanted three times the square footage
allowed by the ordinance.
Chairman Greg Perry made the motion to request
the city council to enact a moratorium “until the new
ordinance is in place."
That could be two to three months, according to the
city’s planning official, David Zellner.
The city council will act on that recommendation at its
Please Turn to Page 3A
Fay Brings Boost
To Local Reservoirs
By Mark Beardsley
With falling reservoir
levels and an extremely
dry August, local water
managers had their fin
gers crossed as rem
nants of Tropical Storm
Fay threatened to bring
heavy rains through today
(Wednesday).
While the Atlanta area
hoped Fay would recharge
Lake Lanier, the people
responsible for providing
water in Jackson County
have their own lakes to
fill.
As of last Lriday, the Bear
Creek Reservoir was more
than five feet below full,
the Commerce reservoir
was six-tenths of a foot
low and dropping and
Jefferson’s reservoir was
at 5.5 feet below full, forc
ing Jefferson to buy water
from Jackson County
By dawn Tuesday Lay
appeared to be deliver
ing. More than two inch
es of rain fell in most of
Commerce. The total at
the city’s water plant hit
1.5 inches (after .7 inches
Sunday night), and the
lake had risen .3 feet by
early Tuesday and was ris
ing.
“They got a lot more
rain in Banks County
Maysville and Gillsville
(the drainage basin for the
reservoir), than we did,"
explained Bryan Harbin,
Commerce’s director of
water and sewer opera
tions.
In southwest Jackson
County for the first time
in more than two weeks,
Cont. on Page 3A
Officials from Wayne
Neal Chevrolet and
four local high schools
pose with the four 2008
Chevrolet Impalas the
dealership donated to
the schools’ driver edu
cation programs.
Photo by Mark Beardsley
Auto Dealer Goes All Out For Driver Ed
By Mark Beardsley
Christmas came early for
the driver education pro
grams of Commerce, East
Jackson, Jackson County
Comprehensive and
Jefferson high schools.
And Santa Claus was
Wayne Neal Chevrolet.
The Commerce automo
bile dealership donated
four fresh-from-the-factory
2008 Chevrolet Impalas
to the driver ed programs,
each painted in the school
colors, complete with Tiger
or Panther paws, Eagles or
Dragons.
“Lor the first time, stu
dents are excited about
being in a driver education
car," said East Jackson DE
instructor Jimmy Williams.
“This is cool."
East Jackson teaches
six driver ed classes a
year comprising 110-120
students, Williams said,
mostly sophomores and
juniors.
Commerce will offer a
class over the winter holi
days and another over
spring holidays, totaling
about 50 students.
Jefferson’s program will
reach 40 students per year,
while some 170 JCCHS stu
dents are expected to slip
behind the wheel.
“We do the classroom part
over the holidays and the
driving part after school
and on weekends," said
long-time driver ed teacher
David Cash.
Students get 30 hours of
coursework and six hours
behind the wheel.
For JCCHS and Jefferson,
Wayne Neal salvaged the
programs. Another dealer
had committed to providing
a car for JCCHS, but because
of economic circumstances
backed out, according to
Superintendent Shannon
Adams.
At Jefferson, the story
was the same, according to
Superintendent Dr. James
Jackson, who said the sys
tem was faced with the
options of buying its own
car, dropping the program
or hoping someone would
donate a car.
“Fortunately another
sponsor came through," he
said.