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SOUTHEAST TOYOTA CUTBACKS Southeast Toyota is cutting its workforce by 33 employees and cut ting wages: Page 2A BREAK-EVEN SEASON Basketball Tigers end season with 49-20 loss in first round of state playoffs: Page IB Vol. 134 No. 3 16 Pages 2 Sections www.CommerceNewsTODAY.com The r MA Commerce News Wednesday MARCH 4, 2009 50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875 CHS Comes In Under Budget $14.6 Million Total Package Well Under Cost Expectations By Mark Beardsley After last Thursday’s bid opening for the construc tion of the new Commerce High School, superinten dent James E. “Mac” McCoy feels better about all of the delays in the project. “Yes sir, I do,” McCoy said. “If we had started when we wanted to, we probably wouldn’t have gotten these type of numbers. Everything worked out for the best.” The total of the 32 appar ent low bids was $14.6 mil lion — with an eight-percent contingency — or $99.40 per square foot.” “I was hoping to get this under $17 million. Adding the auxiliary gym (almost completed) would have put us at $18.5 million, but this is incredible,” McCoy said the day after the bids were opened. The system benefited from a number of “hungry” subcontractors trying to msm THURSDAY, MARCH 5 f Partly cloudy: Low, 43; high, 64; 0% chance rain FRIDAY, MARCH 6 Partly cloudy: Low, 52; high, 69; 0% chance rain SATURDAY, MARCH 7 j ■ y-wahT Few showers, Low 47; high, 74; 30% chance rain SUNDAY, MARCH 8 Partly cloudy: Low, 45; high, 62; 10% chance rain Precipitation this month 1.52 inches Precipitation This Year 9.04 Inches INDEX Church News 3B Classified Ads 6-8B Calendar 3A Crime News 6A News Roundup 2A Obituaries 4-5 B Opinions 4A School News 7A Sports 1-2B Social News 8A ride out the recession, but also from lower materials prices. “The biggest surprise for me was the fact that the price for steel came in $1 million under the projected cost,” McCoy said. The bids for steel were among the first to be opened at Charles Black Construction Co.’s Gainesville office. “Right off the bat, we were $ 1 million under the budget. We knew then something good was possible,” McCoy said. Attending the bid open ing with McCoy were Joy Tolbert, assistant superin tendent; Anne Stokey, book keeper; and board of educa tion member Rodney Gary. Approximately 50 repre sentatives of bidding com panies also attended. “This is by far the largest Cont. on Page 3A Gardens, Squirrels On City Council Agenda Mon. By Mark Beardsley The Commerce City Council will discuss propos als for establishing commu nity gardens and shooting squirrels Monday night. Otherwise, the 6:30 meet ing in the Commerce Room of the Commerce Civic Center will be short. As of Monday night’s work ses sion, the agenda contained but eight items. Forrest Green, a Carson Street resident, has asked for time to speak to the council about setting aside unused city land for community veg etable gardens. Green even offered to coordinate the effort. “I hope the idea meets with your eager enthusiasm,” his letter concluded. While no action was taken at the meeting, several pres ent spoke in support of the concept. The problem will be finding vacant land. “Y’all be thinking about some place to do it,” advised Mayor Charles L. “Buzzie” Hardy. Community vegetable gar dens are common across the country. Hardy, finance director Steve McKown and city manager Clarence Bryant all spoke of having seen such gardens in other locations. Green will also propose Monday that the city each spring hold a “Walk Around the Block Campaign” dur ing which residents would be encouraged to get out in Please Turn to Page 3A Still Thawing Out Mark Martin pulls his daughter Channing Martin on a sled, taking advantage of Sunday’s snowfall. While there electrical were outages in Commerce, power was fully restored Sunday night. Submitted photo Chandler Martin (no relation to Channing) sleds A Commerce police car blocks Lakeview Drive down his driveway early Sunday afternoon. due to a tree falling onto a power line. Area Digs Out From Winter Storm Jackson County continues to thaw out from its first real win ter storm in years Sunday. As of Tuesday, thousands of area resi dents remained without electrical service. By Tuesday morning, most streets were clear, but the poten tial for icy spots led officials in Jackson County and Commerce to cancel schools for the second day. Meanwhile, Jackson EMC worked feverishly to restore power to cus tomers — mostly in east Jackson and in Madison County — who had been without power since Sunday. As of Tuesday morning, some 13,070 customers were without power, and Jackson EMC could not predict when electricity might be restored. Snowfall began at about 1 p.m. in Commerce. The rain began to mix with sleet and in a matter of 20 minutes the temperature plunged five or more degrees, the sleet turned to snow and fell pretty much nonstop until after 10 p.m. The results were predictable. Law enforcement agencies went from one accident to the next, mostly vehicles that slid off the suddenly slick roads into ditches or medians. As the day wore on, local fire departments were called to help public works officials deal with downed trees and limbs, some over roads, some over utility lines and many over both. As soon as power was restored from tree or limb damage, often it went out because of another. “We were grabbing everybody we could to get roads opened last night,” said Steve Nichols, director of Emergency Medical Services Monday. “We had a tremendous amount of help. All of our fire departments helped out.” The coun ty also requested and got a Georgia Forestry Commission crew to help clear roads below Commerce. EMS teams had their work cut out for them as well. At least one crew found itself trapped on a sec tion of road between two downed trees, unable to reach its destina tion. Downed trees and slick roads Please Turn to Page 5A Authority Makes little Progress On Getting Access To Reservoir Sites By Mark Beardsley Approximately 150 people turned out for a meeting last Thursday about possible locations for a new county reservoir, but officials made little headway in gaining access to the sites. The Jackson County Water and Sewerage Authority hosted a three-hour drop- in event at the Jefferson Civic Center. The purposes were to provide informa tion about the Nicholson area sites in the running for a new county reservoir — and to talk people into letting surveyors onto the property. The first goal was fulfilled. Not the second. “We did no better on site access from our original results,” noted in-house engineer Fred Alke. The authority already had permission from 42 percent of the property owners. “Last night we garnered permission from 35 of the 84 (property owners) — that is still just 42 percent,” Alke said. Eric Klerk, the author ity’s manager, said people who signed permission for access Thursday night were the same ones who had already granted access to Please Turn to Page 2A Proposed reservoir sites o o