Newspaper Page Text
SEE PAGE IB
SEE PAGE 8B
Eagles Notch
Second Win
Of The Season
GOP Faithful
Hold Rally For
McCain-Palin
Vol. 133
No. 36
22 Pages
2 Sections
Politics
Saxon Says
He's Gaining
On Broun
Democratic candidate
Major Bobby Saxon says
he is closing the gap in
the race for
Georgia’s 10th
Congressional
District, show
ing a difference
of less than ten
percent in an
internal poll.
According to the Saxon
campaign, final poll
results showed 41 percent
of respondents stating
they intended to vote for
Republican incumbent
Paul Broun, 31.3 percent
stating they would vote
for Saxon, 3 percent
declined to participate,
and 24.7 percent said they
remain undecided less
than a month before the
election.
The campaign said
the survey questioned
300 respondents, drawn
from random sampling
Please Turn to Page 3A
THURSDAY, OCT. 23
£
Partly cloudy: Low, 47; high,
64; 10% chance rain
FRIDAY, OCT 24
Rain: Low, 52; high, 57; 70%
chance rain
SATURDAY, OCT. 25
Few showers: Low, 49; high,
62; 30% chance rain
SUNDAY, OCT. 26
jtflK
Partly cloudy: Low, 43; high,
68; 10% chance rain
Reservoir Levels
Commerce: 697.6 (full)
Bear Creek: 687.11 (7.89 feet
below full)
Rainfall this month
2.83 inches
Rainfall This Year
39.98 Inches
INDEX
Births 9B
Church News 8A
Classified Ads 3-7B
Calendar 3 A
Crime News 6A
News Roundup 2A
Obituaries 9A
Opinions 4-5A
School News ...9 &10B
Sports 1-3B
Social News 1 2A
50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875
18 Percent Have Already Voted For President
More than 18 percent of Jackson
County’s voters have already cast
their ballots in the presidential
election.
As of Friday, 6,339 early votes
had been cast at the Jackson
County Voter Registrar’s office
at the administrative building in
Jefferson. There are approximately
35,000 registered voters, an office
spokesman said.
Officials are expecting a huge
turnout nationwide, thanks to a
spirited race between Arizona
Sen. John McCain and Illinois Sen.
Barack Obama. Voting early is one
way to avoid any Election Day
lines.
Early voting can take place at the
Administrative Building through
Oct. 31. Hours are 8:00 to 5:00
Mondays through Fridays.
But during the week of Oct. 27,
satellite offices in Commerce and
Braselton will expand the advance
voting option. Local voters will
be able to cast their ballots at
the Commerce Recreation Center
office at 204 Carson Street and at
the Braselton municipal complex
from 9:00 to 7:00 Monday though
Friday that week.
Commerce Election
Voters in Commerce’s Ward 1
have not been as enthusiastic about
advance voting. As of Monday
morning, only 10 ballots had been
cast. Early voting on the Ward 1
special election and on the refer
endum to increase the homestead
exemption for low-income senior
citizens on school taxes will take
place at City Hall.
“We haven’t had a big turnout
at all,” noted City Clerk Shirley
Willis. “I don’t think we’ve had 20
people altogether.”
Because Commerce residents
will have a city election, North
Minish city residents who want to
vote will have to go to two places
on election day — the Commerce
Recreation Department office on
Carson Street for the presidential
election (administered locally by
Jackson County) and the J. Nolan
Spear Public Safety Complex on
South Elm Street for the Ward 1
election and the referendum. City
residents in South Minish will vote
in two separate places at the public
safety complex on election day.
Passage of the referendum would
increase the homestead exemption
from school taxes for city resi
dents from $20,000 to $40,000 for
people over 65 with a household
income under $18,000.
New Kiwanis Officers Installed
The Commerce Kiwanis Club Vandiver, treasurer; Dianne Nalley,
installed its officers at its annual ban- president; and Steve McKown, vice
quet Oct. 7. Left to right are Hasco president. They are pictured in front
Craver, secretary; Mark McCannon, of the club’s original charter, found
immediate past president; Brian recently at Athens First Bank & Trust.
Climatologist: Winter, Spring
Rainfall Harder To Predict In '08
By Mark Beardsley
The La Nina atmospheric
condition that contributed
to Georgia’s drought last
year is gone, but local
water managers should
“plan for a dry year,” advis
es state climatologist David
E. Stooksbury.
A year ago, Stooksbury
accurately predicted that
winter and spring rains
would fill local reservoirs
but that rainfall would
be well under normal,
the drought would con
tinue and lakes Lanier and
Allatoona would not refill.
This year, he’s not com
fortable making any predic
tion.
“Unlike last year, where
it was very straightforward
with us being in a strong
La Nina pattern, we will
be in a neutral pattern,”
Stooksbury said in a tele
phone interview last week.
La Nina is character
ized by unusually cold
ocean temperatures in
the Equatorial Pacific and
produces warm and dry
weather.
Lacking either a La Nina
pattern or its opposite, El
Nino, anything is possible.
“We know looking back
at past winters when it was
neutral, some were warm,
some had average tempera
tures and some were very
cold,” Stooksbury said. “We
also know that some were
very wet, some were very
normal and some were
very dry, so we don’t have
much guidance looking at
neutral patterns.”
For water managers,
that’s not good news, but at
least it’s not bad news.
While a “normal” winter
and spring would bring suf
ficient rain to fill the Bear
Creek Reservoir, it would
probably not be enough to
re-fill Lanier, Allatoona or
Lake Hartwell.
The National Oceanic
and Atmospheric
Please Turn to Page 3A
County Government
Center Tract Gets Commercial Zoning
By Angela Gary
In a 3-2 vote, the
Jackson County Board of
Commissioners agreed
Monday night to a rezon
ing request to develop a
commercial project on Hwy.
441 at Center. The action
comes after a lawsuit was
filed against the county over
an earlier denial of a rezon
ing for this property.
Winder attorney John
Stell Jr. requested, on behalf
of property owner Tim
Brooks, that the 42 acres on
Hwy. 441 be changed from
A-2 to HRC.
Commissioners Dwain
Smith, Bruce Yates and
Tom Crow voted to approve
the zoning change. BOC
chairman Pat Bell and com
missioner Jody Thompson
voted against the motion to
approve.
When the request came
before the Jackson County
Planning Commission, the
vote was 2-2 to deny the
zoning change.
At the BOC meeting
Monday night, four people
spoke in opposition to the
request, including Terry
Archer, who has a poultry
farm across the road from
the property.
“Y’all say you want to pro
tect farmers,” Archer said.
“Now is the time to do it.
Stand up and do it.”
Angeline Scarborough
asked that the request be
denied because sewer ser
vice is not offered on the
site.
“Until the infrastructure is
there, we should not grant
this,” she said.
One of the conditions of
the approval is that Brooks
must connect to sewer when
it becomes available.
In other zoning business,
the BOC unanimously
approved a request from
Barbara Mize to rezone
8.541 acres at 601 Adams
Road, Jefferson, from A-2 to
A-R to divide the property
into two lots.
Medical Center's
CFO Resigns As
Finances Decline
By Mark Beardsley
A disagreement over its
audit has cost BJC Medical
Center its chief financial
officer.
Administrator Jim
Yarborough said Bill
Williams resigned by e-mail
last month.
That happened as
Williams and the auditor
working on year-end fig
ures and reportedly had
widely divergent views on
a key indicator of the medi
cal center’s fiscal health.
“I cannot comment on
that,” said Yarborough,
when asked of the cir
cumstances under which
Williams left. He denied
that Williams had been
fired.
Williams and the audi
tor reportedly disagreed
strongly over the amount
of accounts receivable BJC
was likely to collect. That
figure would have a large
impact on the picture of
the medical center’s fiscal
health for the fiscal year
that ended June 30.
Yarborough would not
elaborate on the spread
between the two view
points, but he said a third
party — a former chief
financial officer — has
been hired to conduct a
similar analysis.
In mid-June, Williams
forecast that BJC would
end its fiscal year June
30 about $124,000 in the
black. By the end of July, he
projected that it would end
last fiscal year $197,000 in
the red.
Yarborough this week
did not estimate what the
year-end results might
be, but he conceded that
finances are not the best.
The facility lost $156,000
in September, compared
to showing a $16,823 prof
it for the same month in
2007.
As it tries to find a part
ner to help it build a new
hospital, BJC’s financial
picture is increasingly
important.
“There is no science to
estimates on receivables
and their collectability,”
Yarborough said. He esti
mated that the facility has
$9-$10 million in receiv
ables, of which it would be
lucky to collect 50 cents
on the dollar.
The audit is expected
to be available by next
month. Yarborough said
any adjustments from
Williams’ figures will be
noted.
Economic Factors
The weak economy isn’t
helping, nor is the fact that
the hospital has still not
replaced general surgeon
Keith Ash, who resigned
last spring.
Yarborough said admis
sions for September were
“almost identical” to those
of the same month last
year, “but a lot of the stays
were shorter.”
He estimated the average
daily census at the hospital
to be about 15 persons.
“But 90 percent of our
surgeries are treated on an
outpatient basis,” he point
ed out.
The number of surger
ies has been reduced by
about half since Ash left,
Yarborough acknowl
edged .
As for a replacement, the
CEO said the medical cen
ter has received a number
of resumes and conducted
some telephone interviews
but has not invited any of
the applicants for an in-
person interview.
A tough economy and the loss of its general
surgeon have hurt. BJC’s revenue declined by
more than $172,000 in September, compared to
September 2007.