Newspaper Page Text
LET THE PLAYOFFS BEGIN
Commerce Tigers, East Jackson Eagles will host first-round playoff
action Friday night: Page IB
CALLING THE EPD
State agency asked to verify safety of
Leigh Street residents' city water after
complaints to council: Page 5A
Vol. 134
No. 39
20 Pages
2 Sections
50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875
Ward 5 To
Elect City
Councilman
On March 16
Commerce voters will
fill the Ward 5 vacancy
on the city council in a
special election Tuesday
March 16. The seat
became vacant with the
Oct. 31 death of 19-year
council veteran Richard
Massey.
City Clerk Shirley Willis
outlined the schedule at
Monday night’s city coun
cil meeting.
She will officially call
the election Feb. 12.
Qualifying will be Feb. 22
through noon Feb. 24.
Election Certified
Willis also officially cer
tified the Nov. 3 city elec
tion with the following
numbers:
Mayor pro tem: Keith
Burchett, 396; Sammy
Thomason, 349
Councilman, Ward 1:
Archie Chaney, 87
Councilman, Ward
2: Darren Owensby, 94;
Donald Wilson, 92
School Board District 1:
Arthur Lee Pattman, 60;
Please Turn to Page 3A
msm
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12
Partly cloudy: Low, 46; high,
59; 10% chance rain
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13
Partly cloudy: Low, 49; high,
68; 20% chance rain
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14
Partly cloudyy, 51; high, 72;
20% cnance rain
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15
f
Partly cloudy: Low, 50; high,
72; 20% chance rain
Precipitation this month
1.25 inches
Precipitation This Year
40.00 Inches
INDEX
Births
9A
Church News ....
3B
Classified Ads ....
...6-8B
Calendar
3A
Crime News
6A
News Roundup ..
2 A
Obituaries
...10A
Opinions
4A
School News ....
...12A
Sports
... 1-2B
Social News
9 A
Public Hearing On BJC Sale Is Tuesday
Attorney General's Office To Conduct Hearing At 5:30 At EJCHS
By Mark Beardsley
Should BJC Medical
Center be sold to Restoration
Healthcare of Tennessee for
$7.1 million?
The office of Georgia
attorney general Thurbert
Baker wants to hear the
opinions of Jackson and
Banks county residents
on that topic. It has sched
uled a public hearing for
Monday at 5:30 p.m. at East
Jackson Comprehensive
High School.
Within 30 days of the
hearing, Baker must decide
whether to allow the sale.
The purchase price is
based upon an appraisal.
By law, the agreement must
be approved by the attor
ney general.
“The main point of the
attorney general’s involve
ment seems to be to make
sure that the price is fair,’’
explained BJC CEO Jim
Yarborough.
Toward that end, the two
parties submitted more
than 2,500 pages of docu
ments to Baker’s office.
Yarborough and Steve
Clapp, CEO of Restoration
Healthcare, said Monday
that they’ve both received
follow-up inquiries from the
attorney general’s office
related to the transaction.
The nine-member BJC
Medical Center Authority
had a called closed-to-the-
public meeting with its legal
counsel Monday at noon to
go over “legal and transac
tion issues,’’ according to
Charles Blair, chairman. The
authority took no action.
The authority, which oper
ates the 167-bed nursing
home, 90-bed hospital, well
ness center and specialty
clinic, has been seeking a
buyer for more than a year
following a couple of years
during which the facility
lost $3.7 million and saw
Please Turn to Page 3A
Council Nixes
Rezoning For
Towing Service
Ward 1 Residents Turn Out To
Oppose Controversial Rezoning
CHS Homecoming Court
Commerce High School crowned its home
coming court Friday night at halftime of
the Commerce-Prince Avenue football game.
Above, left to right, are Haiden Nunn, Miss
Junior; Bree Haggard, Miss Homecoming;
Taylor Brock, Miss Freshman; and Andrea
Mathis, Miss Sophomore. Photo courtesy of
Carol Streetman To the right, homecoming
queen Bree Haggard is crowned.
Stephanie Ring Is Commerce
Schools' Teacher Of The Year
School board chairman Paul Sergent, right, con
gratulates Stephanie Ring for being selected sys
tem-wide teacher of the year. Photo by Ben Munro
Audit: City $1.1
Million In The Red
By Ben Munro
Complete with a ringing
endorsement from her prin
cipal, Commerce Middle
School teacher Stephanie
Ring took city school system
Teacher of the Year honors at
Monday night’s school board
meeting.
“In my 30 years (in educa
tion), she’s as good as I’ve
been around,’’ CMS principal
Chuck Bell said.
Ring first received the
middle school Teacher of the
Year award then moments
later accepted the system-
wide honor.
Ring is only in her fourth
year at CMS, but is already
producing results that merit
attention, according to Bell.
Her students from 2007-
2009 were among the high
est achievers in the state
on the science portion of
the Criterion Referenced
Competency Test (CRCT). In
fact, her sixth grade students
ranked no. 1 last year in the
state in science system-to-
system comparisons. (Bell
noted that the CMS staff
also produced
state rankings
of second in
sixth grade
reading, sev
enth in sixth
grade lan
guage arts and
ninth in sixth
grade math in these system-
to-system comparisons.)
“You can’t beat that,’’ Bell
said.
Those winning Teacher of
the Year honors at the school
Dean
level were Rhonda Adams
(Commerce Primary School),
Wanda Dean (Commerce
Elementary School) and Sara
Massey (Commerce High
School).
By Mark Beardsley
Scratch one garage and
towing service in Ward 1.
Faced with about 40
residents voicing fear of
everything from traffic to
rats and snakes to criminal
enterprises, the Commerce
City Council voted unani
mously to reject the
request of Danny Allen
for the rezoning.
Allen had asked that
the city rezone 4.12 acres
off Martin Luther King Jr.
Drive from R-2 (residen
tial) to C-2 (commercial) on
behalf of his daughter and
son-in-law who planned to
build the facility to lease to
a Banks County man.
The Commerce Planning
Commission, over the
objection of David Zellner,
By Mark Beardsley
Commerce finished the
2008-09 fiscal year spend
ing $1.1 million more than
it took in, but the city was
able to tap reserves to
cover the shortfall.
“The city, like other busi
nesses , has been affected by
the downturn in the econo
my,’’ noted Stephen Wilcox,
of Wilcox & Bivings, P.C.
“However, because the city
has enjoyed many years
of positive growth and has
been managed in a con
servative and responsible
way, the city has been able
to generate reserves that
have helped it during this
difficult economy.’’
During the fiscal year,
which ended June 30,
the city saw its net assets
decrease by $1.1 million
and its governmental fund
spend $5.6 million on rev
enue income of $5 mil
lion. The city’s utility funds
ended the year with net
director of planning, had
voted 3-0 to recommend
that the council approve
the request.
Allen, who said he
“didn’t come down here to
try to aggravate anybody,’’
said that the property had
lay dormant for 20 years.
He promised a business
that would be well-kept
and which would have no
stored junked vehicles.
But residents of the area
weren’t buying.
Three pastors of church
es on the street, the Rev.
W.R. Brown, the Rev.
Tommy Tillman and the
Rev. Kevin Wood, all spoke
against the proposal, as did
at least two residents of
Cont. on Page 3A
assets decreased by $1.06
million.
Meanwhile, chief
accounting officer James
Wascher reported that
through October, the city
is $199,931 in the black —
total cash in over cash out
— but that revenue from
operations is $96,610 in the
red.
The Water and Sewer
Fund is almost $9,800 in
the red, the Electric Fund
is $143,465 in the black and
the Gas Fund is $234,705
in the red this far into the
fiscal year.
“Now is the time of year
when that will be picking
up,’’ said Wascher, refer
ring to cooler weather
causing natural gas sales
to pick up. Property tax
revenue will also begin to
come in, erasing some of
the red ink in the General
Fund, which year to date
is almost $15,000 in the
black.
Adams