Newspaper Page Text
FIRST CHEER TIGER HOME MEET
They've won multiple state titles, but until Saturday, the Commerce
High School Cheer Tigers never had a home meet: See Page IB
CHS HOMECOMING
Commerce High School will celebrate
homecoming during Friday nights football
game: See Page 11A
Vol. 136
No. 34
24 Pages
2 Sections
50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875
Jobless Rate
Creeps Up
To 10.4%
Jackson County’s unem
ployment rate crept up a
tenth of a percent between
July and August, accord
ing to figures released
last week by the Georgia
Department of Labor.
The DOL put the coun
ty’s jobless rate at 10.4
percent for August, com
pared to 10.3 percent in
July. Georgia’s jobless
rate for the same period
fell two-tenths of a per
cent to 10.2 percent, while
the rate for Northeast
Georgia was 9.8 percent
for August — unchanged
from July.
Other area counties and
their jobless rates include:
•Banks, 7.5, unchanged
• Barrow, 9.5 percent,
compared to 9.7 in July
•Hall, 8.6, down from
8.7
•Madison, 8.1, down
from 8.2
• Clarke, 8.1, down from
8.2
Meanwhile, Oconee
County continued to have
the lowest unemployment
See “Jobless” on 3A
mmm
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29
0
Sunny: Low, 58; high, 85;
0% chance rain
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30
Partly cloudy: Low, 49; high,
77; 10% chance rain
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1
0
Sunny: low, 47; high, 71;
0% chance rain
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2
0
Sunny: Low, 47; high, 73;
0% chance rain
Maysville Festival Is This Weekend
Maysville will use one of the
oldest festivals in Northeast
Georgia this weekend to try
to set a world record.
At the peak of the Autumn
Leaf Festival Friday through
Sunday, officials will again try
to garner 2,000 hugs in a sin
gle hour to establish Maysville
as the friendliest town in the
world in the “Guinness book
of World Records.’’
Katrina Loucks will be solic
iting hugs starting at 9 a.m. on
the roadside by the parade.
She will have one hour to
collect the 2,000 embraces,
all of which will be recorded
on video.
Otherwise, the festival will
highlight the usual events,
singing from the stage oppo
site the park, a parade on
Saturday, and booths selling
food, crafts and other mer
chandise. The lineup is as
follows:
Friday
• 5:00: cakewalk
• 7:00: The Dalton Gang
• 8:00: the Haunted
Hayride
Saturday
• 9:00: Let the hugs begin
• 10:00: Parade
• 11:00: Opening ceremo
nies
• 12:30: Commerce School
of Dance
•2:00: Regeneration per
forms
•3:00: Matt Joiner per
forms
• 4:00: Regeneration per
forms
• 5:00: Cake walk
•6:00: Smokie Jones per
forms
• 8:00: The Bourbon
Cowboys perform; cake
walk
Sunday
• 1:00: Glory Road per
forms
•2:00: The Mitchells per
form
•3:00: Freddie Smith per
forms
•4:00: Ray of Hope per
forms
EJCHS Homecoming Queen
Senior Carly Linda Brooks was crowned the
2011 Homecoming Queen at East Jackson
Comprehensive High School during the
Homecoming half-time festivities at the East
Jackson vs. Oglethorpe County football game last
Friday night. She is the daughter of Angela and
Randall Brooks.
City Council Sets 2011
Tax Rate At 3.06 Mills
Ra i l Up A Scant
i ,6/iooths Of A Mill
Over Last Year
By Mark Beardsley
The Commerce City
Council voted to raise the
property tax rate ever so
slightly Monday night, but
with so many residential
re-evaluations, most city
residents will probably
find their property tax bills
slightly lower than they
were last year.
By a unanimous vote, the
council set the 2011 rate
at 3.06 mills — 1.6 one-
hundredths of a mill higher
than last year.
City manager Clarence
Bryant estimated that a
resident with a $100,000
piece of property would
pay $2.80 more with the
2011 rate than under the
See “Tax Rate” on 3A
Rain Fills City Reservoir;
Bear Creek Still Dropping
Rainfall filled the Commerce reservoir
last week, but the level of the Bear Creek
Regional Reservoir continues to fall.
“The reservoir went back to 697.6,’’
observed Bryan Harbin, Commerce’s
director of water and sewer operations.
The number refers to the height of the
lake’s surface in feet above sea level.
Harbin said 697.6 is full for the city res
ervoir.
He noted that over a three-day period
(Wednesday through Friday) last week,
some 1.5 inches of rain fell at the reser
voir.
The 300-acre lake on the Grove River
benefits from rainfall anywhere in its
drainage basin, which stretches up to
Gillsville. There are also a number of
springs within the reservoir that help make
it a dependable source of water even in
times of drought. As a result, it was just
a few inches below full pool before the
rains came last Wednesday, Thursday and
Friday.
REGIONAL RESERVOIR STILL LOW
But the Bear Creek Reservoir, which
serves residents of Barrow, Jackson,
Oconee and Clarke counties, gained little
from the rain.
As of last Friday, the reservoir was 9.4
feet below full, but because of the rain
the Upper Oconee Basin Water Authority
was able to pump water from the Middle
Oconee River into the reservoir Saturday
and Sunday.
A spokesman at the water treatment
plant at the reservoir said a combination
of rainfall and two days of partial pumping
added three to four inches to the level of
the reservoir. An inch equates to from 10
to 11 million gallons.
By the end of Sunday the water level in
the river had fallen to the point there was
insufficient volume to allow pumping into
the reservoir. As of Monday afternoon,
the lake level was at 686.62, 9.38 feet
below full.
The water authority operates three
pumps that are each capable of moving
20 million gallons of water a day from the
Middle Oconee River into the reservoir.
Unfortunately, the river level did not rise
sufficiently at any time last week to allow
the authority to operate all three of the
pumps.
Because of the falling water level in the
500-acre impoundment, the authority insti
tuted restrictions on outdoor water usage
last week. The authority was scheduled to
meet today (Wednesday), at which time a
See “Reservoirs” on 3A
Tour Shows Renovation Work On Historic Courthouse
Precipitation this month
2.47 inches
Precipitation This Year
30.75 Inches
INDEX
Church News 8B
Classified Ads 9-1 IB
Calendar 3A
Crime News 6-7A
News Roundup 2A
Obituaries 4-5 B
Opinions 4-5A
School 1 1-1 2A
Sports 1-3B
Social News 10A
By Kerri Testement
It took just six months
to build the Italianate-style
courthouse that stands in
modern-day downtown
Jefferson.
But renovating the
132-year-old structure —
now known as the Jackson
County Historic Courthouse
— will take years longer to
complete.
Initially built in 1879, the
old courthouse remained in
use until 2004 — when a
new, much larger courthouse
was opened elsewhere in
Jefferson. In 2007, a seven-
person citizens committee
was appointed by the board
of commissioners to spear
head the restoration of the
historic courthouse.
On Saturday, that group
held a tour of the structure
to show the public its work
since renovations began
in 2008. So far, the exte
rior has been completed
and hazardous materials in
the courthouse have been
removed.
The Jackson County
Historic Courthouse
Restoration Committee
See “Courthouse” on 9A
The exterior of the historic courthouse has been renovated. The next phase
will tackle the interior. Photo by Kerri Testement