Newspaper Page Text
SHARKS HEADING TO DISTRICT
The Commerce Tiger Sharks will compete at District in Gainesville
Saturday. The top 3 finishers in each category will advance to the
State meet: Page 1B
STEEL RISING
Workers began erecting the steel girders
for the gym at the new Commerce High
School construction site: Page 7A
Vol. 134
No. 21
20 Pages
2 Sections
The
www.CommerceNewsTODAY.com
Wednesday
Commerce Slews
50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875
JULY 8, 2009
Red Cross
Blood Drive
Set For Tuesday
The American Red Cross
will hold a blood drive Tues
day, July 14, from
noon to 6:00
p.m. at the First
Baptist Church
of Commerce
Family Life Center, 1345 S.
Elm Street.
The American Red Cross
provides blood services to
all area hospitals.
Sales Tax
Revenues Fall
Sales tax revenues in
Jackson County are consid
erably lower this year.
Through the first four
months of 2009, Local
Option Sales Taxes were
down 13.5 percent, or about
$253,000.
If that trend continues, the
county could end the year
with nearly $1 million less
LOST revenues than bud
geted for 2009.
For April, Jackson County
sales tax collections were
down 17 percent from April
2008. The county netted
$387,300 in sales taxes in
April.
msm
THURSDAY, JULY 9
Scattered T-storms: Low, 69;
high, 91; 30% chance rain
FRIDAY, JULY 10
Isolated T-storms: Low, 69;
high, 92; 30% chance rain
SATURDAY, JULY 11
/o
Partly cloudy: Low, 71; high,
92; 10% chance rain
SUNDAY, JULY 12
Jr
f
Partly cloudy: Low, 73; high,
94; 10% chance rain
Precipitation this month
0.03 inches
Precipitation This Year
26.13 Inches
INDEX
Births
9A
Church News ...
3B
Classified Ads ..
....6-8B
Calendar
3A
Crime News ....
6A
News Roundup .
2 A
Obituaries
101 1A
Opinions
4A
School News ...
8B
Sports
.... 1-2B
Social News ....
9 A
Celebrating The Fourth
Eyes To The Skies
Members of Cabin Creek Baptist Church enjoy the fireworks at the
annual July 4 celebration in Nicholson Saturday night. The church gave
out free watermelon earlier in the evening. Staff Photos
July Tourth
Cookout
Greg Bennett,
right, of
Maysville watch
es as James
Hollenguest,
Pelham, AL,
puts the first
hotdogs on the
grill Saturday
at Hurricane
Shoals Park.
Ribs would
come later as
Hollenguest did
the cooking for
a group of about
30 who enjoyed
July Fourth at
the park.
A Cool Ride
Abril Camacho, 10, Damien Sanchez, 11, and Saul Sanchez, 8, enjoyed
floating in the cool waters of the North Oconee River Saturday, July 4,
at Hurricane Shoals Park. They’re all from Hoschton.
City Ends
Fiscal Year
In The Black
Unused SPLOST Revenue Saves
Commerce From Red Ink
By Mark Beardsley
Thanks to the fact that the
city used very little of its
special purpose local option
sales tax (SPLOST) money
during the just-completed
fiscal year, Commerce
ended the year $686,000 in
the black.
Things weren’t so good on
the operations side.
“All of the departments
operated well within their
budgets that were approved
last year," noted Steve
McKown, the city’s finance
director, at Monday night’s
city council meeting.
McKown praised the city
workers for their efforts
when the city enacted a
spending freeze late last
fall.
Nonetheless, considering
just operating funds, the
city ended up with a defi
cit of $203,313, spending
$775,000 in reserve funds
during the year. By con
trast, it took in $785,000
more in SPLOST revenue
than it spent. Those funds
are restricted for specific
uses.
The General Fund ended
the year almost $19,000
in the black, but McKown
said that was at the expense
of a transfer of Gas Fund
reserves.
The Water and Sewer Fund
ended the year $180,000 in
the hole and the Natural
Gas Fund was in the red by
$97,000. The Electric Fund
ended the year with $14,000
of revenue over expendi
tures.
“Everything went well con
sidering the year we’ve had,’’
McKown commented.
His remarks illustrated
comments made moments
earlier by city manager
Clarence Bryant who point
ed to the year-end report
from the water department,
which showed 1,928 “utility
locates’’ performed during
the fiscal year.
“Last year that number was
6,000,’’ Bryant said. “That
means nobody is digging
in the ground in the three-
county area we serve.’’
He also held up a bar
graph showing the activ
ity in providing new water
services. The graph for the
just-completed fiscal year
hovered near zero.
“Nothing is going on right
now,’’ Bryant complained.
“I have the financial num
bers to prove it,’’ added
McKown, as he prepared
to offer the financial sum
mary.
The monthly report from
the Department of Building
Inspection fell right in line.
The department issued three
permits — a swimming pool
and two small additions to
houses — during June, for
a total value of $43,500.
During the 2008-09 fiscal
year, the city issued permits
for construction valued at
$5.7 million.
Census Bureau
Says Nicholson Is
Fastest-Growing
But Mayor Not Convinced That
The Numbers Are Accurate
By Mark Beardsley
Estimates from the U.S.
Census Bureau indicate that
the population of Nicholson
grew by 8.87 percent from
July 1, 2007, to July 1, 2008.
If true, that makes
Nicholson easily the fast
est-growing community in
Jackson County, outpacing
Pendergrass, which ranked
second at 7.53 percent.
Commerce brought up the
rear at 2.01 percent growth
during the period.
Nicholson Mayor Ronnie
Maxwell expressed doubts
about the growth rate.
“We had a couple of
houses built and annexed a
couple of spots, but I don’t
know where the (additional)
people came from,’’ he said.
“I’ve been thinking about
that a lot. We made some
adjustments on our tax map
that brought some people
in who hadn’t been count
ed before. I think bringing
some people in — correcting
the tax maps — was prob
ably the reason.’’
The Census Bureau
released the estimates,
based on the number of
building permits and mobile
home permits issued dur
ing the 12-month period late
Please Turn to Page 3A