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UNEASY ANTICIPATION The Commerce School System waits to see just how much the state will cut next school year's funding and what it will mean to personnel and programs. Page 5A NEARLY HfTlESS Carl Allen blanks Towns County with a one-hit shutout. Page IB Vol. 134 No. 7 18 Pages 2 Sections www.CommerceNewsTODAY.com Commerce Slews Wednesday APRIL 1, 2009 50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875 Law Enforcement Agencies Seek Stimulus Funds Recovery And Reinvestment Act Offers Grants To States, Counties, Cities By Mark Beardsley Local law enforcement agencies have their hands out for federal stimulus funds to help de-stimulate crime. Commerce will ask for almost $21,000 for its drug interdiction effort, Jefferson will seek almost $27,000 for updated technolo gy and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office will seek $33,000 for yet-to-be determined purposes. All of the agencies will submit requests under the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program administered by the Department of Justice with funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Money is made available based on a formula of population and violent crime. Sixty percent goes to the state governments and 40 percent will be allocated to local jurisdictions. Commerce qualifies for $20,993, Jefferson for $26,909 and the sheriff’s office for $33,016. “The funds have to support a specific pro gram,’’ explained Commerce chief of police John W. Gaissert. “We only have two bona fide programs, our school resource officers and drug interdiction. The way the grant is written, to qualify you have to be support ing a particular program, and we’re sup- Please Turn to Page 7A DNR Weighs In On 'Animal Pest' Ordinance By Mark Beardsley People hoping to rid themselves of pesky squir rels under a new city ordi nance should hold their fire. The Wildlife Resources Division of the Department of Natural Resources served notice Monday that before anyone takes a shot at a marauding squirrel under the city’s “Animal Pests’’ ordinance they’ll need to get a state permit. In fact, they must get the state permit before the city issues a permit. Please Turn to Page 3A cmm THURSDAY, APRIL 2 Isolated T-storms: Low, 53; high, 70; 30% chance rain FRIDAY, APRIL 3 Partly cloudy: Low, 43; high, 67; 10% chance rain SATURDAY, APRIL 4 Sunny, 32; Low, 51; high, 75; 0% chance rain SUNDAY, APRIL 5 Showers: Low, 52; high, 67; 60% chance rain Precipitation this month 0.00 inches Precipitation This Year 14.25 Inches INDEX Church News 9A Classified Ads 4-6B Calendar 3A Crime News 7A News Roundup 2A Obituaries 7-8A Opinions 4A School News ..10A, 8B Sports 1-2B Social News 8A Linda and Charles Exley stand by the tree that fell on their Parkview Drive house Saturday morning. Two years of drought virtually destroyed the red oak’s root system, explained arborist Jay Hobson. Photo by Mark Beardsley Storm Damage: Red Oak KO's Parkview Drive House Big Tree Falls Saturday fust Hours After Couple Signs Contract To Have It Removed By Mark Beardsley Linda Exley may get that master bed room in the Parkview Drive house in which she grew up. Mother Nature threw a big wrench into the remodeling she and husband Charles were undertaking in the house she inherited from her parents, the late Mr. and Mrs. W.R. Lang. In a demonstration that timing is, indeed, everything, weakened by two years of drought that killed its roots, soil saturated by water, and a sudden gust of wind, caused a huge red oak to crash into the house just hours after the Exleys signed a contract to have the tree removed. The massive trunk hit the roof right above the library where the Exleys were working at about 2:45 p.m. Saturday. Charles looked up and saw the tree slowly falling. “The power had just gone off,’’ explained Linda Exley, giving a tour of the damage, “and I was re-booting the computer. I’m here and Charles is here, and he says, ‘Linda, we need to get as far from here as we can.”’ They couldn’t move but a few feet. The tree struck the wall between two windows. Luckily, it didn’t fall through the roof onto the Exleys. “This house was built in 1957 by Charlie Brown and Charles Thompson,’’ Linda explained. “If this were a new house, it would not be standing. It’s hard for me to believe the house is still standing.’’ Linda inherited the house from her The tree caused extensive dam age to the northern end of the Exley house. parents, and the couple decided to move from Stone Mountain back to Commerce. They’ve been remodeling ever since. Fortunately, most of the work was done at the opposite end from where the tree struck. The Exleys viewed the carnage with good humor. “This house doesn’t have a real master bedroom,’’ Linda explained. “Maybe I’ll get one now.’’ She pointed to a widescreen TV in the living room where the Vanderbilt women were leading Maryland in the first half of the NCAA quarterfinals. “At least it didn’t get my new TV,’’ she remarked. She pointed out that the kitchen and living room had been renovated. The couple had taken up carpet and refin- Please Turn to Page 3A Time To Expand? Regional Authority Eyes Increasing Water Plant Capacity By Mark Beardsley Although they’re currently using less than 20 percent of its capacity, Jackson and two other counties will likely start work soon on expand ing their water treatment plant at the Bear Creek Reservoir. Meeting last Wednesday, the Upper Oconee Basin Water Authority voted to begin a two-year process that would add 5.5 mgd of capacity. Jackson County owns 44.6 percent of the plant’s 21 mil lion gallon per day (mgd) capacity. Barrow owns 33.98 percent and Oconee County 21.4 percent. When the project is completed, each would retain the cur rent percentage of owner ship. During March the plant produced an average of less than 5 mgd. However, during the summer of 2007 the plant peaked at 16 mgd, spurring the interest in the expansion. Subsequently, the drought hit and water sales plummeted. Hunter Bicknell, chairman of the Jackson County Board of Commissioners, point ed out that with Jackson County “not using any where near its share means there is additional capacity for others to use’’ short of expanding the plant. What he didn’t say was that Jackson would expect payment for use of that capacity. Nonetheless, Jackson will participate in the expansion, he said. The project, which involves mostly equipment upgrades to push more water through the existing filters, carries a small per- unit price compared to a bricks and mortar expan sion. “Personally, I don’t feel we have any great urgency for construction,’’ Bicknell advised. “But Jackson County intends to retrain its percentage entitlement in the expansion.’’ Please Turn to Page 3A Dollar Value Of Local Foreclosures Soars Numbers Suggest Upscale Houses, Properties, Land Being Foreclosed The number of foreclo sures in Jackson County for the upcoming April sale date dropped slightly from March, down to 97 from 108. But while the raw count was down, the dollars involved soared for April to a new all-time high of $85.2 million for the month. That is near ly double the amount of foreclosure dollars from the previous record set in January, when $43.5 mil lion was foreclosed. For the first four months of 2009, nearly $173 mil lion has been foreclosed on in Jackson County, a whop ping 286 percent increase over the first four months of 2008. The jump in values com bined with the flattening of the raw count suggests foreclosures are now affect ing larger homes and larger tracts of land far beyond the “subprime’’ market. April’s count decline was mostly due to 21 last-min ute cancellations of foreclo sure proceedings by banks, perhaps in anticipation of federal intervention in the foreclosure market. Although the count was down from the month before, April’s foreclosures in Jackson County are more than twice the number from April 2008, which had only 45 foreclosures. For the first four months of 2009, there have been 356 foreclosure proceed ings in Jackson County, up 17 percent from the first four months of 2008. °