Newspaper Page Text
SEE PAGE IB
SEE PAGE 5A
Eagles Rally
Late For First
Region Victory
Jackson Man
Tries To Unseat
Rep. Paul Broun
Vol. 133
No. 31
22 Pages
2 Sections
50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875
Art In The
The Aug. 26 Tornado
Park Festival
This Weekend
A silent auction and
miniature golf are new
additions for the Art in
the Park festival. The 18th
annual event will be held
Sept. 20-21 at Hurricane
Shoals Park, located
between Jefferson and
Maysville.
The festival hours will be
10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday,
Sept. 20, and noon to 5:30
p.m. Sunday, Sept. 21.
Silent auction items will
include two Georgia foot
ball game tickets, a kids’
bicycle and a canoe made
from trees at the park. The
silent auction will be held
at the Tumbling Waters
Society booth.
The new “Spirit of the
River" miniature golf
course at Hurricane
Shoals Park will be open
during the festival. Carved
bears, Native Americans
and replicas of the chapel
and cabins at the park are
depicted in the course.
A wide variety of food,
Please Turn to Page 3A
THURSDAY, SEPT. 18
Sunny: Low, 59; high, 83;
20% chance rain
FRIDAY, SEPT. 19
Mostly sunny: Low, 60; high,
80; 20% chance rain
SATURDAY, SEPT. 20
f
Partly cloudy: Low, 58; high,
78; 20% chance rain
SUNDAY, SEPT. 21
Partly cloudy: Low, 58; high,
77; 20% chance rain
Reservoir Levels
Commerce: 697.1 (0.1 feet
above full)
Bear Creek: 689.8 (5.2 feet
below full)
Rainfall this month
3.00 inches
Rainfall This Year
37.15 Inches
INDEX
Births 7A
Church News 6B
Classified Ads 1-4C
Calendar 3A
Crime News 6A
News Roundup 2A
Obituaries 6B
Opinions 4-5A
School News 9-1OA
Sports 1-3B
Social News 7-8A
Volunteers Still Needed For Repairs
Volunteers take a mobile home down to its frame to repair a roof damaged
by the Aug. 26 tornado. Volunteers are needed to help complete the work,
organizers say. Submitted photo
Three weeks after a tor
nado touched down in
Commerce, volunteers
struggle to repair the dam
age to local residences.
“We are still working
on homes. We still need
volunteers to come out,"
said Barbara Pattman,
who as secretary of
Mt. Pleasant United
Methodist Church has
found herself coordinat
ing volunteer efforts.
The storm damaged
approximately 36 resi
dences, almost none of
which were insured. Local
United Methodist churches
are matching volunteers
with work to be done. Last
Saturday, said Pattman,
25-30 volunteers from
Warren Chapel United
Methodist Church, Powder
Springs United Methodist
Church, the First United
Methodist Church of
Athens, and Chapelwood
United Methodist Church,
Athens, replaced roofs on
two homes.
“We’re expecting vol
unteers from Griffin and
Blairsville this Saturday,"
Pattman said.
The biggest challenge is
to dry in damaged mobile
homes where limbs or trees
came through roofs, fol
lowed by rain. The workers
have had to go back almost
to the frames to repair the
damage.
The work could last a
couple more weeks, but
Pattman says it would go a
lot faster if there were more
workers.
“If we can just get enough
people out to help us —
about five teams we could
put in different areas — we
could get a lot done," she
said. She also pointed out
that the sooner the resi
dences are dried in, the less
the repair will entail.
“We’ve still got roofs and
floors to put in," she said.
“I went to one Saturday
where a tree had caved it in.
You couldn’t see the dam
age from the road, but the
living room was caved in.
They had to go down to the
frame, almost."
Pattman said there may
be other residences whose
owners or occupants have
no insurance but who
are not yet scheduled to
receive assistance. She’s
been through the neigh
borhoods trying to find
those people. Anyone who
has storm damage that
is not covered by insur
ance should contact her
(706-870-4195) or Tommy
Rainey of New Salem
United Methodist Church
(228-363-1223) for assis
tance.
City To Take
Budget Hit From
LP's Shutdown
Loss Of Natural Gas Sales
Could Cost City $170,000
A Helping Hand In Hoschton
Commerce officials recently contributed seven scarecrows (one for each
elected official) to Hoschton’s world record effort. Left to right are Bob
Sosebee, Commerce city council member; Bill Copenhaver, Hoschton mayor;
Charles “Buzzie” Hardy, Commerce mayor; Hasco Craver, executive director
of the Commerce Downtown Development Authority; and Richard Massey,
Commerce council member. The official word is not yet in, but Hoschton offi
cials believe they have broken the record. Photo by Kerri Testement
Drought Response
City Seeks Cheap Way
To Add Reservoir Capacity
By Mark Beardsley
If it can get the blessing of
state agencies, Commerce
could add 100 days of
capacity to its reservoir for
less than $50,000.
That’s a considerably large
“if," however.
A minor item at a recent
city council meeting was
a budget amendment of
$19,000 to hire Schnabel
Engineering, Alpharetta, to
conduct a feasibility study
on raising the elevation or
the reservoir.
The hope is that Commerce
can raise the water level
of its 305-acre Bob Waters
Reservoir in Banks County
by two feet. Each foot of
increase would amount to
almost 100 million gallons
of water.
Before that can happen,
the city has to get the approv
al of the Safe Dams divi
sion of the Environmental
Protection Division and the
Broad River Soil and Water
Conservation District. It
may be a case where the
cost of the project is less
than that of the engineer
ing.
It’s not the mechanics, but
the permitting process that
raises the most concerns.
“We feel like the dam
can handle it," commented
Bryan Harbin, director of
water and sewer operations
for the city.
And the permitting?"
“I have no idea with today’s
environment," Harbin said.
“Look what happened to
Jefferson."
Jefferson has been work
ing 10 years on its Parks
Creek Reservoir, but once
the EPD indicated it intend
ed to approve a withdrawal
permit, the Upper Oconee
Basin Water Authority peti
tioned the EPD to delay
issuing the permit so it can
have more time to raise
Please Turn to Page 3A
By Mark Beardsley
The Commerce City
Council set its tax rate in
a called meeting Monday
night, but the budget it sup
ports is already in trouble,
thanks to the closing of
Louisiana-Pacific’s plant in
Center.
“We’re looking at about
a mill of taxes," said City
Manager Clarence Bryant.
In English, that means
the closing of the oriented
strand board plant will cost
the city about $177,000 in
profit from the sale of nat
ural gas. That’s about the
value of a mill of taxes.
LP is (was) the city’s larg
est natural gas customer.
Although the city’s prof
it per unit (a unit is an
mcf — 1,000 cubic feet of
gas) is very small, the vast
amount purchased makes
it a major contributor to
the city’s income from gas
sales.
Essentially, LP’s clo
sure means that the city’s
General Fund will have
about $177,000 fewer
dollars per year. Profits
from the gas and electric
sales are transferred to
the General Fund every
year where they provide
revenue for most city ser
vices, from the library to
the police department.
Typically, $850,000 to
$900,000 per year is trans
ferred out of the Gas Fund
to the General Fund.
“We’re looking at a pretty
good hit,” Bryant comment
ed late last week. “There is
really no way to overcome
it in our rate structure. It
would take raising every
body else a dollar a unit to
overcome that."
LP’s closing could be
temporary. Its product
is used primarily in the
housing industry, which
has been strangled by the
economic slowdown. A
recovery might induce LP
Please Turn to Page 3A
Free Movie In The Park Friday
The Downtown Development Authority will present
“Shrek the Third" as a “movie in the park" Friday night,
Sept. 19, at dusk.
The movie will be shown in Spencer Park at about 8:00
p.m. There is no admission charge and free popcorn,
soda and candy will be available as well.
Attendees are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or
blankets.
The Movie in the Park had been scheduled for Aug. 22
and billed as a back-to-school event. It was rescheduled
because of the weather and set this Friday to coincide
with an open date for the Commerce Tiger football team.