Newspaper Page Text
THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS, WEDNESDAY. MARCH 4, 2009 - PAGE 5A
DDA Hopes City's Interested In Parking
♦ifrif
Traffic makes its way slowly north on 1-85 during
the midst of Sunday’s snowstorm.
—Thawing Out After Storm
Cont. from Page 1A
made getting to the scene
of an emergency call chal
lenging. Nichols said EMS
transported “10 or 12 storm-
related cases" in addition to
normal medical calls. No
fatalities were reported.
Nichols said most of the
problems were in the south
ern half of the county. In
all, 911 dispatched 945 calls,
and fielded another 584
calls for information that
came into the 911 center.
“That’s a busy night,"
Nichols noted.
A news release from
Jackson EMC noted that
the heavy snow resulted in
thousands of power outages
for Jackson EMC custom
ers, according to a com
pany spokesperson. At the
height of the storm, nearly
24,000 customers were with
out power. The company
brought in crews from its
Gainesville and Gwinnett
districts, contractor crews
and had four crews from
nearby cooperatives.
The hardest hit areas
were Jackson County and
Madison County, where
falling trees have downed
EMC power lines and broke
power poles (2 in Jackson
County and 55 in Madison
County). Two of the coop
erative’s substations in
Madison County were with
out power due to a problem
with a transmission line that
brings power into the sub
stations from the statewide
electric grid.
“While we have no esti
mate on how long resto
ration will take, crews will
continue to work to clear
the outages as quickly as
possible, working as fast as
the situation and safety con
cerns allow," a spokesman
said.
The snowfall quit late
Sunday night, but over
night’s freezing tempera
tures made the roadways
treacherous Monday morn
ing. Even where roads had
been plowed, melting ice
froze over, creating extreme
ly slick spots.
Snowfall in Commerce
ranged from 3.25 to about
six inches.
Much of the city was with
out power due to a breaker
problem at the city’s south-
side substation, said city
manager Clarence Bryant.
“We had a team of folks
here from MEAG and
Georgia Power yesterday
and they were back today,"
he said. “We ended up
transferring the load to the
north station." In addition,
said Bryant, trees and limbs
were “knocking out power
lines left and right."
In addition, the transmis
sion line feeding the substa
tion kept going offline.
All local schools were can
celed for Monday, and late
that day officials decided
to call them off for Tuesday
as well.
By Mark Beardsley
The Commerce Down
town Development
Authority hopes that city
officials noted the inter
est in resolving downtown
parking issues expressed by
town hall meeting partici
pants.
Meeting for the first time
since the Feb. 19 meeting
— where five times as many
people cited parking as any
other issue of importance
— the DDA broached the
subject only briefly.
“It was good that some of
the new business owners
were there and were very
vocal about it," said Keith
Ariail, vice chairman.
The DDA wants the city to
adopt a parking ordinance
that, among other things,
Daylight Saving
Time Starts Sun.
It’s time to “spring forward"
by an hour.
Daylight saving time (DST)
starts this Sunday morning,
March 8.
To have the proper time,
set all clocks and other time
pieces forward one hour
before retiring Saturday
night.
Standard time will resume
Sunday, Nov. 1.
Walgreens To
Open On Friday
Walgreens will open this
week.
The new store will hold an
“open house" from 4 p.m.
to 9 p.m. Thursday and will
have a ribbon-cutting open
ing ceremony Friday morn
ing at 10:00.
The store is located on
Homer Road at the intersec
tion with North Broad —
diagonally across from the
CVS Pharmacy.
FISH DAY!
NEW LOCATION!
Thursday, March 12 • 8-9 a.m.
Shirley Feed & Seed
2439 N. Elm St. • Commerce, Ga • 335-2162
4-6” Catfish $35.00 per 1 □□
6-8” Catfish $55.00 per 100
8-11 ” Catfish $95.00 per 100
We also carry: Largemouth Bass • Crappie • Koi’ • Bluecjill
■ Hybrid Bluegill • Grasscarp ■ Minnows - Red Ear Bream
Call ahead for large quantity orders.
501-676-3768 • www.stockmypond.com
CASA
Co*i*i 1»kI«I a.
IOI CHILOtlN
Piedmont CASA Presents Its
4th Annual Casino Night Event:
Benefiting Abused and
Neglected Children in
Banks, Barrow, and Jackson
Counties
A*
\>\ e *
Saturday, March 7th
7:00 p.m.
Commerce Civic Center
Dinner and Mixed Drinks (cash bar) by LongHorn Steakhouse
Beer & Wine Open Bar Dancing Entry in Grand Prize Raffle
Casino Games with Professional Dealers
Surprise Giveaways All Night
Weeklong Vacation for 4 at the
Holiday Beach Resort
Destin, Florida
Tickets $75 Each
Reserved Tables of 8 $600;
$500 for CASAblanca 2008
Table Reservers
For tickets, table reservations, or
contributions to Piedmont CASA
please call 706-387-6375
or visit
www.piedmontcasa.org
would enforce two-hour
parking. It’s an issue the city
council has not seriously
discussed.
For its part, the DDA is try
ing to acquire one more off-
street parking lot, improve
signage directing people
to the lots and make some
improvements to those lots.
“Let’s get the signs up, get
the lots finished and get the
ordinance in place before
we do anything," advised
member Clark Hill.
Hill pointed out that
Subway is working to relo
cate its restaurant from the
south end of town at the old
Walmart shopping center to
the Hood Building on North
Elm Street.
“When Subway moves into
the Hood Building, we’re
really going to have a park
ing problem," he said.
At the town hall meeting,
participants noted not just
the lack of available park
ing, but also raised con
cerns about the safety of
off-street parking lots and of
downtown parking spaces
with traffic speeding along
Broad and Elm streets.
Also on Friday, execu
tive director Hasco Craver
reported that the U.S.
Department of Agriculture
has indicated it has approved
the bid specifications for
the renovation of the DDA’s
Pine Street building.
The project, which will
comprise meeting space,
public rest rooms and a
“business development cen
ter," is being funded largely
by a USDA grant. Craver
said a letter confirming the
approval is imminent.
“When do we go out for
bid?" Hill asked.
“As soon as I get that let
ter. Tomorrow is possible,"
Craver responded.
Business Closing
While Subway’s move
is imminent, Craver also
reported that Peyton’s Place
is closing its South Broad
Street store. He said the
owner has taken a full-time
job and cannot keep the
business open.
The DDA also approved
a facade grant of $112.50
to pay half of the cost of
the sign for Simply Serene
Day Spa on Pine Street.
The facade grant program is
funded by local banks.
Tanger Optimistic About Future
By Mark Beardsley
“We’re watching, we’re
optimistic, we’re confi
dent," the general manager
of Tanger Factory Outlet
Centers in Commerce told
the Commerce Kiwanis
Club last Thursday.
In spite of a recession that
is devastating to traditional
retail stores, Mark Valentine
told the Commerce Kiwanis
Club that Tanger is doing
just fine.
Locally, he said, sales were
up slightly in 2008, although
December sales were down
three percent from the same
period in 2007. January
2009 sales, however, were
up over 2008.
Eight stores in Tanger II
closed at the end of the
year, Valentine pointed out,
adding that stores looking
to get out of their lease
typically shut their doors
in January after the heavy
holiday sales season.
“None of those closings
were reflective of the envi
ronment in Commerce or
Georgia," Valentine said.
Those closings cre
ated some opportunities
for stores that wanted to
expand. For example, Rue
21 wanted to expand. When
Big Dog closed its store,
Tanger management con
vinced its next-door neigh
bor, Totes, to relocate, and
then combined the two
spaces to give Rue 21 a
larger store.
Tanger announced that
Coach, a high-end seller of
women’s pocketbooks and
accessories, will open in
May in one of the stores
currently under construc
tion.
According to Valentine,
Tanger II is “99 percent
leased." As for the new
stores, he pointed out that
the company “doesn’t turn
dirt until it (new space) is 60
percent leased. We’re not
going to build to spec," he
added.
That kind of approach
has kept Tanger favored by
financial analysts, Valentine
said. The company in 2008
produced a four-percent
return to shareholders.
Tanger Town Centre is
not doing as well, Valentine
said, with a vacancy rate
upwards of 20 percent.
Currently, the Gwinnett-
Atlanta area is Tanger’s
primary market, producing
15-18 percent of revenue,
with Greenville-Anderson
next at 14-15 percent,
Valentine said.
But he noted that the
importance of the local
market — Banks, Jackson,
Madison, Franklin and sur
rounding counties — contin
ues to grow. Once just five
to six percent of sales, those
counties now produce more
than double that amount.
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