Newspaper Page Text
SEE PAGE 10A
SEE PAGE IB
Tigers, Ladies
Head To Tallulah
Falls On Friday
Bluegrass Country
Christmas Coming
Up At The Library
Vol. 133
No. 42
18 Pages
2 Sections
50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875
Parade, Other Events To Usher In Christmas
Breakfast With Santa, Secret Santa Workshop, Car Show Saturday; Parade Sunday
A day of activities downtown Saturday and a
parade Sunday will usher the Christmas season
into Commerce.
Hometown Holidays will comprise Breakfast
with Santa, the Secret Santa Workshop and the
Hometown Holidays Hot Rod and Antique Car
Show Saturday.
Breakfast With Santa
The event leads with Breakfast With Santa
from 9:00 to 11:00 at Stonewalls BBQ, South
Broad Street.
Co-sponsored by the Downtown Development
Authority and the Four Seasons Garden Club,
Breakfast With Santa gives children a chance
to meet with Santa while their parents snap
photos.
The garden club will sell muffins and dough
nuts for $1 apiece and juice or hot chocolate
for $1 apiece. Parents will also be able to buy
a photo of their child with St. Nick for $5.
Proceeds will be donated to the Banks-Jackson
Emergency Food Bank.
Secret Santa Workshop
From noon to 3:00, the DDA and the Pilot
Club of Commerce will hold the Secret Santa
Workshop at the Commerce School of Dance
building on North Broad Street.
Seven to 10 local vendors will have special
merchandise — nothing over $10 — from which
children can make gift selections. Pilot Club
members will help children manage their money,
and gift-wrapping will be provided at no charge.
“The target age group is children 5 to 12," notes
Hasco Craver, executive director of the DDA.
Please Turn to Page 3A
Commerce is considering forming a special police unit to enforce non-traffic
trucking regulations on Commerce roads.
City Eying Special Police
Unit To Target Big Trucks
Random Drug Tests
Produce Just One
'Positive' In 4 Years
At CMS And CHS
New Hospital
Would Be On
Maysville Rd.
By Mark Beardsley
Should negotiations for
the sale of BJC Medical
Center to an Atlanta
group bear fruit, the new
owners plan to build a
new BJC Hospital as part
of a medical complex on
the Maysville Road.
Kevin Attarha, senior
development executive
for EDT Inc., indicates
that Doctors Hospital
of Georgia would take
advantage of an offer of
land made to BJC Medical
Center by Dr. James
Bouchard, who is devel
oping Commerce Medical
Village on the Maysville
Road.
Bouchard, a podiatrist,
had offered to donate up
to 65 acres to the BJC
Medical Center Authority
in 2007 after the authority
announced plans to build
a new hospital. The author
ity ultimately decided to
build on land donated by
Please Turn to Page 3A
THURSDAY, DEC 4
-
Showers: Low, 28; high, 56;
40% chance rain
FRIDAY, DEC 5
Mostly cloudy: Low, 29; high,
51; 10% chance rain
SATURDAY, DEC 6
—
Partly cloudy: Low, 30; high,
54; 10% chance rain
SUNDAY, DEC 7
Sunny: Low, 27; high, 49;
0% chance rain
Reservoir Levels
Commerce: 697.8 (.2 feet above
full)
Bear Creek: 687.46 (7.54 feet
below full)
Rainfall this month
.15 inches
Rainfall This Year
42.67 inches
INDEX
Births 8A
Church News 4B
Classified Ads 5-7B
Calendar 3 A
Crime News 7A
News Roundup 2A
Obituaries 8A
Opinions 4A
School News 1OA
Sports 1-2B
Social News 8A
4 8 7 9 1 4 1 4 1 " 9
By Mark Beardsley
Come July 1, the
Commerce Police
Department may
target tractor-trailer
rigs for safety vio
lations.
Commerce’s gov
ernment is consid
ering the creation
of a “motor carrier
compliance unit" focusing
on heavy trucks, particular
ly those that come through
the downtown, but also
trucks traveling on U.S.
441 and Interstate 85. The
move is seen as a means of
directing more traffic to the
bypass and slowing truck
traffic in the downtown.
City Manager Clarence
Bryant briefed the council
during Monday night’s
work session on discus
sions with the police
department about creating
the special unit. He empha
sized that it would require
no additional manpower,
but would cost $25,000 to
$30,000 for equipment and
a truck to haul it.
The unit would enforce
“DOT’’ rules, such as
weight restrictions.
By Mark Beardsley
Ninety-two percent of
Commerce High School
juniors met or exceeded
standards on the Georgia
High School Writing
Test given at the end of
September.
That’s one point above the
state average of 91 percent,
and a point lower than last
year’s 93 percent, according
to CHS counselor Elaine
Roller.
No decision has been
made, Bryant told the
council.
“I told the group to keep
getting data. Sometimes
you can’t afford to buy
a dress on sale,’’ he
remarked, referencing the
city’s budget challenges.
He added that he would
take a close look at the
city’s financial picture after
the first of the year.
If implemented, the unit
would start in July with
the new budget year. But
before then, the city must
get the blessings of the
state government and
have an officer or officers
trained and certified.
Bryant pointed out that
officers “don’t have to have
a reason to pull a truck
over’’ and that “there is
hardly a truck you stop that
you don’t write a ticket for.’’
Ticket revenue is cer-
“Six students exceeded
standards and eight did not
meet them,’’ said Roller.
All but one special educa
tion student passed the test,
said Roller, and a number of
ESOL (English as a Second
Language) did not, accord
ing to Roller.
Statewide, the percentage
of students exceeding stan
dards was up one point,
while there were more sig
nificant increases in the per-
tainly part of the equation,
and Bryant told the council
that the “cost and revenue
relationship’’ for
such a unit is
“favorable.’’
Bryant said
the special unit
would utilize the
department’s
canine unit and
pointed out that the city’s
largest cash confiscation
— $160,000 — came from a
truck.
Councilman Bob Sosebee,
who chairs the city’s
Downtown Development
Authority, backed the idea
from the standpoint of
downtown safety, saying
he supported “anything we
can do to reduce truck traf
fic and speeding through
downtown.’’
“From a DDA perspec
tive, we’d like to see a
reduction and a slowdown
(of truck traffic) in the
downtown,’’ he added.
Councilman Mark
Fitzpatrick advised Bryant
to make application to the
state for permission and to
reserve classroom space
for local officers.
centage of developmentally
disabled or “language learn
ers’’ who passed.
“Our high schools are
doing an excellent job of
teaching our students the
importance of writing and
the results are showing on
the GHSWT,’’ said Kathy
Cox, state superintendent
of schools. “Using our new
curriculum, the Georgia
Please Turn to Page 3A
By Mark Beardsley
In four years of random
drug tests conducted at
Commerce High School
and Commerce Middle
School, only one student
has tested positive for
drugs.
Implemented in 2004, the
tests — 10 a month at CHS
and five per month at CMS
— are given to randomly-
chosen students who are
either in extracurricular
activities or have driving
permits. They consist of a
mouth swab that is sent to
an Atlanta company for
testing. Tests can be taken
at any time during school
on any school day.
“Everybody passes it
every time,’’ said CHS
counselor Elaine Roller,
who keeps statistics for
her school.
The tests are admin
istered by Sandy Davis,
school nurse. The swabs
are sent by UPS to Clinical
Reference Laboratory, and
results are usually back to
the schools in 48 hours.
The swab is designed to
detect illegal drugs and
narcotics. With four years
of no negatives, the ques
tion is, are the tests accu-
Public health officials are
interested in hearing from
parents and others about
Jackson County’s high rate
of teen pregnancy.
The Jackson County Teen
Pregnancy Coalition will
hold a discussion about
the issue Thursday, Dec.
11, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
at the First Baptist Church
of Commerce.
RSVP with Maria Jackson
at 770-532-6334, extension
3557.
The meeting is an infor
mal follow-up to the previ
ous “teen pregnancy sum
mit,’’ explains Beth Heath,
Jackson County nurse
manager.
“At the last meeting,
we had some people say
we needed more paren-
rate?
“Am I surprised?’’
responded CHS assistant
principal Terry Canup.
“That’s hard to say. You like
to feel like you’re deterring
student drug use and the
program is working’’
Just the same, Canup
admitted that there is a
possibility that the “win
dow" between when stu
dents use drugs and the
test is administered may
be a contributing factor.
“We use a swab test
that takes saliva from the
mouth," he said. 'The test
we use has to be adminis
tered within 24 hours (of
drug use)."
In one incident, a stu
dent refused to take the
drug test. After the stu
dent’s parents were con
tacted and consented, the
student was given the test
— and tested negative for
drug use.
Roller says anecdotal evi
dence suggests that drug
use among students is “not
a huge problem."
“At least not during
school," she qualified. “The
kids may come back and
Cont. on Page 3A
want to know what their
thoughts are and what they
would like us to try to do."
Heath stressed that the
meeting will be infor
mal, discussion-oriented.
Participants may also be
asked to fill out a survey.
The Rev. Murray Brett of
Grace Baptist Mission will
speak briefly on “Recovering
our Virtue" at the beginning
of the meeting.
The most recent statis
tics indicate that Jackson
County has the highest rate
of births to teenagers in the
10-county health district —
higher than the Georgia
average, which is among
the highest in America.
Light refreshments will
be served.
'There is hardly a truck you stop
that you don't write a ticket for.' —
City Manager Clarence Bryant
92 Percent Of CHS Juniors
Pass Georgia Writing Test
Group Meeting To Ponder
County's Teen Pregnancy Rate
Parental Input Sought On CausesSolutions
tal input," she said. “We