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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 mmhe 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.