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About The Commerce news. (Commerce, Ga.) 1???-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 22, 2012)
o o PAGE 12A - THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS, WEDNESDAY. FEBRUARY 22. 2012 members of J VCK\OlV /HK fl,, ‘ NfmiaNOr/aiMMunav* (Ctotu f M fiiy/jsKXXT; 00 I Presented by tbe mica* £Lljl Jackson E Foundation Jackson EMC Foundation board member Johnny Fowler (far right) presents a $10,000 Foundation grant check to (left to right) American Red Cross East Georgia chapter executive director Jeffrey Taylor and Red Cross board mem bers Cheryl Mihalko and Beau Seagraves that will be used to provide disaster relief to Jackson and Banks County families who lose their homes to fires or natural disasters. EMC Foundation Awards $17,500 In Pair Of Grants The Jackson EMC Foundation, a char ity funded by the electric cooperative’s members through their donations to the Operation Round Up program, has award ed grants totaling $17,500 to two agencies serving area residents. The East Georgia chapter of the American Red Cross received $10,000 to train disas ter response volunteers, purchase disaster education materials, and provide disaster relief, including food, shelter and clothing, to families in Jackson and Banks counties who have lost their home to a fire or natural disaster. The Northeast Georgia chapter of the American Heart Association received $7,500 to purchase CPR Anytime for Family and Friends kits that contain every thing needed to learn basic CPR skills, for distribution to community organizations in Gwinnett, Hall and Jackson all H counties. Since the Jackson EMC Foundation began in 2005, it has funded 606 grants to organizations and 223 grants to individu als, totaling more than $6.2 million. The money comes from the Operation Round Up program, which allows participating electric cooperatives members to have their monthly electric bills rounded up to the next dollar amount. Any individual or charitable organization in the ten counties served by Jackson EMC (Clarke, Banks, Barrow, Franklin, Gwinnett, Hall, Jackson, Lumpkin, Madison and Oglethorpe) may apply for a foundation grant by completing an application, avail able online at www.jacksonemc.com/ Guidelines-for-Funding.l06.0.html or at local Jackson EMC offices. Applicants do not need to be members of Jackson EMC. With 600 Members And $100,000, Chamber year Is Off To A Strong Start By Mark Beardsley With 601 members, $100,000 in its bank account and a string of recent industry loca tion announcements, the Jackson County Area Chamber of Commerce enters 2012 in a position of strength. It’s a position the cham ber would like to build upon during the rest of the year. The directors met last Friday just as news was breaking about the new Caterpillar location on the Clarke-Oconee county line (see separate story), yet another indication that the Georgia economy is start ing to recover. Not content with the recent spate of announce ments (Bed Bath & Beyond, Kubota and Toyota — an expansion of its Toyota Automotive Compressor Georgia plant and a new $350 million plant), the chamber staff is propos ing to acquire a database to help it keep up with and promote commercial and industrial sites in the county. President Shane Short explained that the soft ware, from CoStar Group, will enable the chamber to keep current information as sites become available — or unavailable. “I met with them about a week after the Food Lion had closed, and it was already in their sys tem,” Short noted. He added that the program will allow the cham ber staff to download information on local industrial parks — even to the level of specific buildings or parcels — and to add photos, cus tomize the information and then post it on its Alliance for Economic Development website. It can also run reports on specific streets or neigh borhoods, he indicated. “We think this is where we want to go,” Short said. “We have no means of tracking what kinds of properties are out there in Jackson County.” Short proposed using Alliance funds for the proj ect. The cost is $200 a month for two licenses — a discounted figure, Short indicated, from a company looking to expand into the area. “It will give us a lot of information we don’t have,” he added. Other Business Other notes of interest at the board of directors’ meeting include: • Linda Foster, vice presi dent of member services, reported that the chamber added five new members in January while dropping four, giving the chamber 601 paid members. “We’re hanging in there at 600,” she observed. • Foster also reminded her board of the joint busi ness after hours sponsored by the chamber and five other chambers of com merce planned for March 22 at the Georgia Club in Athens, the annual STAR and Teacher of the Year reception planned for next Monday, Feb. 27, at 5 p.m. at the Commerce campus of Lanier Technical College, and the March 7 member ship breakfast at 7:30 a.m. at Jackson EMC at which Doug Calloway with the Georgia Transportation Alliance will pitch the benefits of passing the T-SPLOST referendum in July. •Kathy Wilbanks, chair man of the Legislative Relations Committee, also spoke about the breakfast presentation by Calloway. She also announced that her committee is plan ning two political forums prior to the July primaries, one for the candidates for the Ninth Congressional District and the other for candidates for the board of commissioner seats and for sheriff. “We’re looking at a couple of dates and just trying to firm that up,” she said. Veterinary School Sets Open House April 6 Commissioners OK $200,000 In SPLOST Recreation Spending The University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine’s annual open house will be held Friday, April 6, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Exotic animal displays, horseback-riding demon strations, a parade of dog breeds and veterinary hos pital tours are some of the many activities that will be available. The event will demon strate the variety of career options available to veteri nary medicine graduates. Younger children may assist with teddy bear sur gery while veterinary stu dents repair their favorite stuffed playmates. Other tentatively scheduled activities include quail egg hatchings, ice cream mak ing, question and answer sessions with current vet erinary students and sci entific exhibits showcasing different types of animals. Tours of the UGA veteri nary teaching hospital, which serves both small and large animals, will be available all day. For more information, including a schedule that will be finalized closer to the event, see www.vet.uga. edu/ERC/ openhouse the new fire district to tax residents of the town who are not paying a fire tax. The proposed millage rate is 1.4 mills. • New Homes • Remodeling • Vinyl Siding • Masonry Work • Concrete Finishing (706) 789-2313 mm ZA 3HiQCp9l?l? Please join us for our CAMPAIGN KICK OFF! This Saturday February 25, 2012 At the Jefferson Club House 11:00 am until 2:00 pm By Angela Gary Tennis courts and a play ground at county parks are among the projects to be funded with Special Purpose Local Options Sales Tax revenue. The Jackson County Board of Commissioners agreed Monday to allocate $200,000 from SPLOST 5, approved by voters in 2010, for the projects. The project includes ten nis courts and signs at the East Jackson Recreation Park, tennis courts at the West Jackson Recreation Park, a playground at the Hurricane Shoals Park and water lines for the county equestrian center. Other Business In other business Monday, the BOC: •named Stan Mclain to serve on the county airport authority to fill the seat held by John Buchanan, who resigned. The term ends Dec. 31, 2012. •reappointed Mark Palmer to serve on the county board of adjust ment. •approved a change to the bylaws for the Keep Jackson County Beautiful Committee that will allow the group to be designat ed as a non-profit orga nization. Director Susan Trepagnier said at an ear lier meeting that this will allow the group to hold fund-raisers. • approved a request from Trepagnier to locate a “victim’s garden” at the county courthouse. This will be a coordinated effort between Keep Jackson County Beautiful, CASA, Jackson County Master Gardeners, Department of Juvenile Justice, Jackson County 4-H, Peace Place and the Tree House. • approved request to replace a network core switch that is responsi ble for routing all of the county data and com munication networks between data centers for all departments. The cost is $129,793. • approved an amend ment to the inclement weather policy that “pro vides a clear and concise direction on how employ ees are to be compensat ed if their normal working operations are impacted.” • approved an agree ment with Barrow County to provide backup 911 ser vice, if necessary. •created a new fire dis trict for areas of Jefferson that are not being taxed. Jefferson leaders earlier asked the BOC to create Bray Construction, Inc.
