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HEADING TO STATE TOURNEY After winning the Region 8-A Tournament, the Commerce High School Lady Tiger golfers are headed to the state meet. Page IB COMING DOWN CHS gym is demolished to make room for the construction of new school: Page 12A Vol. 134 No. 10 22 Pages 2 Sections www.CommerceNewsTODAY.com The AP Commerce News Wednesday APRIL 22, 2009 50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875 New Director Has Big Plans For Library By Mark Beardsley Even as the Commerce Library Board focuses on the upcoming expan sion of the library new director Miguel Vicente is moving to expand the library’s programs. At his first meeting of the board since suc ceeding Susan Harper as library director, Vicente praised the library’s staff and current programs — then laid out his plans to add to them. Among them: • increasing the num ber of volunteers who work at the library. There are currently eight. • creating a more reader-friendly area to encourage patrons to come to the library to read. • establishing a tuto rial/homework help pro gram for children from 3:00 to 5:00 every school day •starting English as a Second Language class es Please Turn to Page 3A msm THURSDAY, APRIL 23 Partly cloudy: Low, 53; high, 78; 10% chance rain FRIDAY, APRIL 24 Partly cloudy: Low, 56; high, 83; 10% chance rain SATURDAY, APRIL 25 Partly cloudy, 57; high, 82; 10% chance rain SUNDAY, APRIL 26 Partly cloudy: Low, 56; high, 81; 0% chance rain Precipitation this month 4.64 inches Precipitation This Year 18.88 Inches INDEX Church News 9A Classified Ads 8-10B Calendar 3A Crime News 6A News Roundup 2A Obituaries 6-7B Opinions 4A School News 1 1-1 2A Sports 1-2B Social News 10A Three Prospects Looking At Commerce Sites By Mark Beardsley Seven new industrial proj ects are looking at Jackson County this month, com panies that would provide from 30 to 800 jobs if they wind up locating here. Three of them are consid ering sites in Commerce. “Maybe we’ve finally hit bottom and things have turned around,’’ com mented Shane Short, president of the Jackson County Area Chamber of Commerce last Friday as he profiled projects that came up since the previ ous board of directors’ meeting. They include: •a manufacturing and distribution facility look ing for 1 million square feet in Commerce. It would employ 500 to 800 workers. •a food distribution company looking for 750,000 to 1 million square feet and offering 100 jobs, looking at Commerce. •a food distribution company seeking 500,000 square feet and offering 130 jobs. • a wood products manu facturer looking to invest $23 million in a building and $35 million in equip ment in the Commerce area. It would provide 57 jobs. Please Turn to Page 7A At The Prom Hannah Duckett, right, was elected queen of the Commerce High School Junior-Senior Prom last Friday night. She dances with her date, Luke Derochers, early in the evening. Cameron Billings was elected prom king. See Page 3B. Photo by Mark Beardsley Planners To Unveil Proposed Sign Ordinance Document Could Go To City Council For May 9 Action By Mark Beardsley The public will have the chance to look at a proposed new ordi nance to regulate signs in Commerce Monday night. The Commerce Planning Commission will unveil and discuss the city’s new sign ordi nance at 7 p.m. Monday in the Peach Room of the Commerce Civic Center. The planning commis sion will approve the document, whether in its draft form or after changes are made, send ing it to the Commerce City Council for action. If the planning commis sion gives it the thumbs- up Monday night, the city council would vote on the document at its May 11 meeting at the Commerce Civic Center. The document has been months in the drafting. “We are looking at doing away with tempo rary signs and making the total signage a little bit bigger,’’ notes David Zellner, the city’s plan ning director. Businesses will be offered a certain number of square feet of signage, Zellner explained, and can utilize it as they wish on one sign or among several. One change being pro posed is to incorporate all signs into that square footage count — even if the signs are posted on the windows of stores. “If you can read it from the right of way, it’s con sidered a sign,’’ Zellner said. As with the current ordinance, the restric tions will be more strict in the downtown area. One maj or change being proposed is to remove limits on LED signs with scrolling text. The cur rent ordinance limits the wording on the signs to time and temperature; under the new ordinance there will be no limits — but the signs will be part of, not in addition to, the square footage limit, Zellner said. As in the current ordi nance, billboards will be limited to U.S. 441 and Interstate 85 (billboards already in the city pre date the sign ordinance and will be retained). According to Zellner, the issue of portable signs has yet to be fully addressed in the draft Please Turn to Page 3A Garden Sites To Be Ready By May 1 Forrest Greene, coordinator of the Community Gardens of Commerce, works the soil in an area he selected for his garden bed. Photo by Mark Beardsley Free Vegetable Gardening Class Offered At CHS On Friday People interested in learning how to grow vegeta bles can attend a free class Friday night at Commerce High School. Environmental science teacher Joe Costyn will hold the hour-long class at 6:30 in Room E-ll. “I will focus on just the vegetables attendees say they like to eat the most,’’ Costyn says. “I will also try to stress low-maintenance gardening (techniques) like mulching and automatic battery-timer drip irrigation. I will also talk about a few new-gardeners’ mistakes.’’ For information, call Costyn at 706-353-6779 (home) By Mark Beardsley All Commerce needs now is people anxious to grow vegetables or flow ers. The city has land set aside for community gar dens; the site will be ready by May 1, and a coordi nator is organizing every thing. “It’s looking good,’’ said Forrest Greene, the Carson Street resident who talked the city council into creating the Community Gardens of Commerce. City manager Clarence Bryant had expressed con cern that the site — behind Mike’s Quick Stop on South Elm Street — had too many rocks and bricks, but Greene, a veteran gardener, believes otherwise. “Clarence expressed concern about rocks and or 706-335-5249 (CHS). bricks, but believe me, that’s no problem,’’ said Greene. “You work it, work some topsoil into Please Turn to Page 5A