Newspaper Page Text
SEE PAGE IB
Basketball
Seasons Begin
This Weekend
SEE PAGE 5A
County May Lengthen School Day
SEE PAGE 5A
Authority Plans For More Drought
Vol. 133
No. 40
18 Pages
2 Sections
50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875
MaysvOle
Considering
Hefty Water
Rate Hike
By Justin Poole
Facing an income
shortfall due to declining
demand, the Maysville
City Council is consider
ing a 40 percent hike in
water fees. The current
minimum average bill of
$14.50 per month would
jump to $20.30 under the
plan.
Last Thursday, the
council continued work
on its budgets for 2009
and focused on the city’s
water and sewer depart
ment where the town proj
ects a $184,000 shortfall
without a rate increase.
Stephan Lewis, Lyn
Villyard and Mayor Jerry
Baker met earlier with
Chip McGaughey from
Engineering Management
Inc. to discuss the water
and sewer budget.
McGaughey said that the
Please Turn to Page 3A
THURSDAY, NOV. 20
Sunny: Low, 28; high, 60;
0% chance rain
FRIDAY, NOV. 21
Sunny: Low, 24; high, 49;
0% chance rain
SATURDAY, NOV. 22
Mostly sunny: Low, 26; high,
50; 10% chance rain
SUNDAY, NOV. 23
Sunny: Low, 35; high, 55;
0% chance rain
Local Reservoir Levels
Commerce: 697.7 (.1 feet above
full)
Bear Creek: 686.5 (8.5 feet
below full)
Rainfall this month
.74 inches
Rainfall This Year
41.01 Inches
INDEX
Church News 7B
Classified Ads 4-6B
Calendar 3 A
Crime News 6A
News Roundup 2A
Obituaries 9A
Opinions 4A
School News 1OA & 8B
Sports 1-3B
Social News 7A
General Election Runoff
Early Voting Under Way For Dec. 2 Election
Three statewide seats will be on
the ballot in the runoff election
Tuesday, Dec. 2. Early voting is
already under way this week.
Voters will have three seats to
decide:
•United States Senate: Saxby
Chambliss (R) and Jim Martin (D).
Chambliss is the incumbent.
•Public Service Commission:
Lauren “Bubba” McDonald (R) and
Jim Powell (D).
•Court of Appeals Judge: Sara
Doyle and Mike Sheffield, both
non-partisan.
Early voting is being held
through Friday of this week in
the Administrative Building in
Jefferson. Hours are 8 a.m. to 5
p.m. Next week, advance vot
ing will be held Monday through
Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
at the Administrative Building on
Athens Street in Jefferson.
Commerce Public Library patron Mary Smisson looks over the new books at
the Commerce Public Library. The library is 13th in line for state funding for
a $2 million expansion, but it could be three to four years before the money
is available.
Quick Funding Of library
Expansion Not Very Likely
By Mark Beardsley
With most of the local
funds in hand or commit
ted, the expansion of the
Commerce Public Library
is a matter of waiting on
state funding.
And no one knows how
long a wait to expect.
To date, the local fund
raising effort has sur
passed $500,000 and is
about $75,000 short of its
$583,000 goal, according to
Susan Harper, Commerce
library director. That’s
the local match needed
to “qualify” for Board of
Regents money — about
$1.5 million. The plan is to
add 5,000 square feet.
Commerce is currently
13th in line among quali
fied library projects.
Funding takes place
when the governor releases
capital outlay bonds. Last
year, Gov. Sonny Perdue
released funding for six
libraries.
“One time they funded
10,” commented Alan
Harkness, director of the
Piedmont Regional Library.
“It is not unusual for three
to five libraries to go
through.”
But these are unusual eco
nomic times. With the state
slashing budgets and the
city on a spending freeze,
what are the odds of sub
stantial funding for library
construction?
Surprisingly, Harkness
thinks they may be good.
Because library con
struction funding comes
from bonds, not out of the
state’s operating money,
Harkness says he believes
Perdue may be “more likely
to continue paying for con
struction, whereas he’s cut
ting everything else.
“The governor knows con
struction is good for the
state of Georgia,” he adds.
Just how soon Commerce
gets approved depends
upon how many projects
the governor funds and
whether some other project
gets inserted ahead of it.
“There are those well-
connected people who
put their pork projects in,”
Harkness acknowledged.
“Last year, the governor
said he would respect the
list, and he denied the
pork. We would anticipate
that will continue.”
If so, it could take three
to four years before
Commerce gets its money.
By that time, cost estimates
on the proposed addition
will be dated, and it is not
clear whether the library
board will be able to adjust
its cost (and therefore both
its match and its grant)
or whether it will have to
make do with dollar figures
calculated years earlier.
At the Commerce Library
Board’s meeting Monday
night, Harkness said the
funding application for
the library expansion was
Cont. on Page 3A
library Making Huge Array Of
Practice Tests Available Online
By Mark Beardsley
The Piedmont Regional Library has
unveiled a powerful educational tool avail
able for anyone with a library card.
Learning Express is available through the
regional library website — www.prlib.org.
There one can find tutorials and practice
exams for a huge variety of standardized
tests, from the SAT to the Civil Service
exam, from the fourth grade diagnostic
tests in every subject to the ASYAB (mili
tary) tests.
“It is a way to reach people we don’t
normally reach,” Alan Harkness told the
Commerce Library Board Monday night.
“I am really pushing this. I think it’s a great
way to reach users.”
The regional
library funded
access to the site,
but it costs partici
pants — all public
libraries in Jackson,
Banks and Barrow
counties, and their
patrons — nothing.
“All you’ve got
to have is a library
card,” Harkness
explained.
Library patrons
can find Learning Express at the regional
Please Turn to Page 3A
Alan Harkness
Owners Slow
To Allow Access
To Reservoir Sites
Water Authority Plans 'Town Hall
Meeting' To Convince Property
Owners To Let Surveyors On Land
By Mark Beardsley
Officials trying to survey
three potential sites for a
Jackson County reservoir
are finding folks reluctant
to let them on their prop
erty.
“We’re still working on
getting permission to get
on the property,” report
ed Rob MacPherson of
Prime Engineering, the
company conducting the
water resources study for
Jackson County. The goal
of the study is to identify
one or more sites for drink
ing water reservoirs.
MacPherson made his
comments at the Nov. 13
meeting of the Jackson
County Water and
Sewerage Authority and
called access to property
“the biggest problem” his
company encounters.
According to the authori
ty’s chief in-house engineer
Fred Alke, only 42 percent
of 134 property owners
on or adjacent to the sites
have granted access.
Surveyors must get on
the property to get accu
rate readings on the terrain
so the engineers can calcu
late volume, yield and cost
factors as they determine
the feasibility of each site.
All of the sites are in
the general vicinity of
Nicholson. One is near
Hardman Creek, and sec
ond is on Little Curry
Creek and the third is
between the first two.
The authority sent let
ters to all property owners
whose land would be likely
to be affected. The mailing
included a return envelope
and a release form grant
ing access for surveying.
Some residents granted
access, some denied it —
in a few cases very angri-
Cont. on Page 3A
Paper To Go To Press
Early; Deadlines Advanced
The Commerce News will go to press a day early
next week, due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
That means all deadlines will be earlier.
The classified and display ad deadlines for the
Nov. 26 issue will be at noon Friday, Nov. 21. The
news deadline will be 4:00 p.m. Friday, Nov. 21.
The newspaper will be printed Tuesday, Nov. 25,
will be available at local stores that evening and will
arrive in Wednesday’s mail for local subscribers.
Two Annexations On
Planning Panel's Agenda
The Commerce Planning Commission should make
short work of its agenda Monday night.
The planners, who make recommendations to the
Commerce City Council, meet at 7:00 Monday in the
Peach Room of the Commerce Civic Center.
They’ll have two items to consider. Both are annexa
tion requests.
Rodney Gary wants to annex a vacant 1.086-acre lot at
234 Stark Road. Ali Kahn, who bought the Commerce
Land Company lot on U.S. 441 North, would like to do
the same thing. It’s less than a half acre.
Neither request should require much time. The plan
ning commission has not, in its recent history recom
mended that an annexation request be turned down.
The Commerce City Council will act on the recom
mendation at its Dec. 8 meeting at 6:30 in the Commerce
Room of the Commerce Civic Center.