Newspaper Page Text
SEE PAGE IB
First Win For
Tigers, First
Loss For Eagles
SEE PAGE 10A
First Candidate
Announces For
9th District Seat
Vol. 136
No. 31
20 Pages
2 Sections
50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875
Red Cross
Blood Drive
Set Tuesday
The American Red
Cross will hold a blood
drive Tuesday, Sept. 13,
from noon
to 6:00 p.m.
in the fam
ily fellowship
center of the
First Baptist
Church of Commerce.
The church is located at
1345 South Broad Street,
Commerce.
The Red Cross provides
blood services to local
hospitals, including North-
ridge Medical Center and
the Athens, Gainesville and
Atlanta area hospitals.
Participants will receive
a coupon for a free Chick
f il-A sandwich at the Banks
Crossing restaurant.
Most people 17 or older
who are in good health are
eligible to give blood, Red
Cross officials say.
The organization notes
that the supply of blood is
getting low due to a com
bination of the Labor Day
holiday and Hurricane
Irene affecting scheduled
blood drives.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8
Partly cloudy: Low, 57; high,
80; 10% chance rain
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9
0
Sunny: Low, 58; high, 83; 0%
chance rain
SATURDAY, SEPTEMER 10
Mostly sunny: Low, 59; high,
84; 0% chance rain
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11
Partly cloudy: Low, 61; high,
82; 20% chance rain
Precipitation this month
4.19 inches
Precipitation This Year
29.14 inches
INDEX
Church News 4B
Classified Ads 6-7B
Calendar 3 A
Crime News 6-7A
News Roundup 2A
Obituaries 5B
Opinions 4-5A
School News 8B
Sports 1-3B
Social News 8A
Remembering Sept. 11, 2001
Commerce firemen Bryan Allen, Adam Stephenson and Kevin Dean
drove to New York to pick up a piece of a steel girder from the World
Trade Center. They are making a memorial of Sept. 11, 2001.
Commerce Fire Dept.
Making 9/11 Memorial
The Commerce Fire Department
doesn’t want local residents to forget
the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and the
loss of life in terrorist acts at the World
Trade Center, the Pentagon and Flight
93 in Pennsylvania.
To that end, the department has creat
ed its own 9/11 memorial, built around
a 250-pound piece of steel girder from
the World Trade Center.
“A couple of years ago, we received
an e-mail from the Port Authority of
New York and New Jersey asking if we
would like to receive an artifact from
the World Trade Center,” explained
assistant chief Kevin Dean. 'We’ve
been working on this for two years.”
After getting proper documenta
tion — including a waiver of liability
and a commitment to put the piece
on public display — in June, the port
authority notified the fire department
that a piece of the WTC was reserved
and that Commerce Fire Department
needed to make arrangements to get it
back to Commerce.
The cost of shipping proved to be
cost-prohibitive, so firemen contacted
local businesses and industry to con
tribute toward going to New York to
retrieve the artifact.
According to Dean, Seymour’s
Wrecker Service loaned them the
use of a four-door, dual wheel pickup
truck, and Baker & Taylor, Roper Pump
Company, Southeast Toyota and Huber
Engineered Woods all contributed
money for lodging and gas.
So, on Tuesday, Aug. 23, Dean
and firemen Bryan Allen and Adam
Stephenson drove 840 miles to New
Jersey, arriving at 10:30 p.m. They were
on Interstate 77 in Virginia when the
earthquake occurred, but said they did
See “Memorial” on 3A
Northridge To Hold 9/11
Memorial Service On Friday
Northridge Medical Center employ
ees will gather on the front lawn of
the hospital at 9 a.m. on Friday to
commemorate the 10-year anniver
sary of the terrorist attacks of Sept.
11, 2001.
The public is invited and special
invitations have been sent to local
public safety officials.
“The hurt and devastation that
occurred on this day are still preva
lent in our society,” commented orga
nizer Carlie Jo Smith. “Northridge
wanted to have a time for our
employees, public safety officials
and the general public to honor those
who were lost and to give special
thanks to our public safety officials.
“Individuals are welcomed to share
a word or two about 'where they
were’ when they heard the news. We
will also have a moment of silence, a
short prayer and recognition of spe
cial attendees.”
The staff at Northridge Medical
Center will be dressed in red, white
and blue as one way of exhibiting
collaborative patriotism.
The event is free and open to the
public. Guests are invited to join the
medical center staff after the event
for coffee in the hospital cafeteria.
Commerce Elections
Stephenson
Makes It A
3-Way Race
For Mayor
There will be a three-
way race for mayor in
Commerce on Nov. 8.
Former Commerce
mayor, Jackson County
commissioner and state
representative Tommy
Stephenson tossed his hat
into the ring at the last
minute Friday afternoon.
Stephenson, 56, served
three two-year terms as
mayor from 1980-1986,
was a Jackson County
commissioner from 1986
to 1988 and served as a
state representative from
1992-1996.
He lives on Barber
Street.
With qualifying ending
at 4:30 last Friday, here’s
the slate of candidates:
For mayor: Clark Hill,
Tommy Stephenson,
Donald Wilson
For city council, Ward 3,
Mark Fitzpatrick, incum
bent; Paul Vickery
For city council, Ward 4:
Chris Bulls, Steve Perry
For city council, Ward 5:
Johnny Eubanks, incum-
Tommy Stephenson
qualified to run for
mayor of Commerce
late Friday afternoon.
bent
For board of educa
tion, District 3: Bill Davis,
incumbent
For board of education,
District 4: Rodney Gary,
incumbent
For board of education,
District 5: Paul Sergent,
See “Elections” on 3A
Water Restrictions
To Be Considered
Further restrictions on
the outdoor use of water
will likely arrive soon.
The owners of the Bear
Creek Reservoir will meet
today (Wednesday) to
decide whether to impose
water use restrictions in the
face of what is now called
an “extreme” drought. The
reservoir supplies much of
Jackson County’s drinking
water.
The authority’s
Operations Committee
was scheduled to meet at
2:30 p.m., presumably to
come to a consensus on
a recommendation of the
full authority, which was to
meet at 3:30.
That meeting was called
before the effects of
Tropical Storm Lee — the
storm that was widely pro
jected to bring significant
rainfall Sunday through
Tuesday — were known.
However, as of Tuesday
morning actual rainfall
amounts recorded in
Jackson County, which is
the drainage basin for the
Middle Oconee River that
supplies the reservoir, were
an inch or less, rather than
the three to five inches
projected by the National
Weather Service.
The Bear Creek treat
ment plant received a mea
ger .35 inches of rain as
of Tuesday morning, and
the reservoir level was
6.7 feet below full pool.
Commerce got about six-
tenths of an inch of rain
on average, according to
See “Water Use” on 3A
Storm Provides Very Little Drought Relief
By Mark Beardsley
The tropical storm pro
jected to drop three to five
inches of rain on Northeast
Georgia did not appear to
have put a serious dent in
the local drought condi
tions.
Cattle growers and other
farmers in the area, which
remains in what state clima
tologist David Stooksbury
calls “extreme drought,”
were praying for relief for
their bone-dry pastures and
crops as Lee approached
the Gulf Coast last week.
With many areas getting
less than a half-inch of rain
during August on top of a
very dry July, soil moisture
was reaching a critical point
and stream flows around
the state — including the
Oconee River — were at
record low levels.
Most likely, they still
are. Tropical Storm Lee
delivered rainfall amounts
ranging from .35 inches
in Jackson County to 1.89
inches on the east side of
Madison County, but gener
ally nowhere near enough
to provide significant relief.
“Soil moisture levels in
extreme drought coun-
See “Drought” on 9A