Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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.