The
Vol. 139
No. 46
24 Pages
2 Sections
Commerce New
Wednesday
DECEMBER 23, 2015
www.CommerceNewsTODAY.com
50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875
Officials to
be sworn
in Dec. 28
A lot of swearing will take
place Monday night at 6 when
the Commerce City Coun
cil meets in the Commerce
Room of the Commerce Civic
Center.
Swearing in, that is.
The city council will hold
a called meeting to official
ly swear in Mayor Clark Hill
and council members Mark
Fitzpatrick (Ward 3), Bobby
Redmon (Ward 4) and John
ny Eubanks (Ward 5).
Hill, Fitzpatrick and
Eubanks won re-election on
Nov. 3, while Redmon ran
unopposed for the Ward 4
position currently held by
Steve Perry. All of their terms
are for four years.
Magistrate court (and
municipal court) judge Billy
Chandler will officiate.
Maysville
approves
2016 budget
BY ANGELA GARY
The Maysville City Coun
cil approved a $1.38 million
budget for 2016 in a called
meeting Thursday morning,
Dec. 17, that is up slightly over
the current budget of $1.31
million. The council held a
public hearing on the budget
Thursday night but no citi
zens attended.
The city council also
approved the millage rates of
0.69 for Jackson County and
0.51 for Banks County.
The budget includes
$642,730 for general govern
ment and $737,600 for water
and sewer.
The water and sewer bud
get includes a proposed fee
increase of approximately
$5 per month for water and
$2 for sewer. The city has
not increased the rates since
2009.
The council also approved
an additional expense for EMI
testing samples to be billed
separately in lieu of being
included in the monthly fee
of $3,050. This fee will be
approximately $410 a month.
INDEX
Church News .... 11A
Classified Ads 8-9B
Crime News 6-7A
Obituaries 9B
Opinion 4A
School 9-10A
Sports 5-6B
Social News 8A
Letters to Santa . 1-4B
MAILING LABEL BELOW
New dog ordinance effective Feb. 1
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
A new version of Commerce’s ani
mal control ordinance will take effect
Feb. 1, putting tighter controls on dogs
deemed dangerous or vicious.
The Commerce City Council did
not, as expected, approve the new
version at its Monday night meeting.
City attorney John Stell advised that
it is not yet in ordinance form. None
theless, the document will take effect
on Feb. 1, and Stell will have the
document ready for approval at the
council’s February meeting.
Mayor pro tern Keith Burchett, who
presided in the absence of Mayor
Clark Hill, explained that a situation on
Spring Street led to the change.
“There was a dog on the street that
had already bitten two people and
had tried to bite two more kids that
day” Burchett said.
The father of one of the kids went
to talk to the owner about the dog,
and when the dog charged him he
shot the dog.
“The reason it got that far,” said
Burchett, “is that our ordinances is old
and needed to be updated so Roger
(Gaither, the animal control officer)
had the tools to do his job and keep
people safe.”
Burchett said three kids have been
bitten by dogs over the past six to eight
months.
Police chief Brandon Sellers
assured the council that there is no list
of dogs deemed to be vicious.
“The dog has got to take some kind
of overt act for us to deem that it is a
vicious animal or a vicious dog,” he
said. “That is when the registration
process kicks in.”
Even then, Sellers said, there will be
a hearing so the owner of the animal
can contest the designation.
Other Business
In other business, the city council:
•approved a policy required by
state law dictating how city credit
cards are used
•approved the renewal of licenses
to 19 restaurants or stores selling or
serving alcoholic beverages
•approved a lease with the Boys
and Girls Club of Jackson County for
the new building under construction.
The lease is identical to the lease Jef
ferson has with the club and with the
former lease Commerce had for the
current clubhouse.
•voted at the recommendation
of city manager Pete Pyrzenski to
move the January council meeting
from Monday Jan. 18, which is Martin
Luther King Jr. Day to the following
evening, Jan. 19
•presented service awards to 10
city employees recognizing five-year
milestones. Each employee also
received $5 for each year served.
•recognized Ward 4 city council
man Steve Perry for his service.
• recognized Chas Hardy and
Bobby Redmon, each of whom is retir
ing from the Commerce Fire Depart
ment after 22 years of service
•heard finance director James
Wascher report on the city’s finan
cial condition as of Nov. 30. The
General Fund and Electric Fund
have combined revenue over expen
ditures of more than $750,000,
while the Water/Sewer Fund and
Gas Fund have combined deficits
of about $450,000. The Gas Fund
is expected to improve as cooler
weather arrives.
■ ^
Lit up for
Christmas
The home
of William
Thomas on
Lakeview
Drive
across from
Commerce
High School
is lit up with
a variety of
lights and fig
urines.
Photo by
Wesleigh
Sagon
Commerce finances
City auditor: Operating revenues
outpace expenditures, reserves up
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
From an auditor’s view
point, the 201415 fiscal year
that ended June 30, was good
for the city of Commerce.
Making the annual presen
tation Monday night to the
Commerce City Council,
Beth Grimes of Bates Carter
& Co. had nothing but good
news to report.
She gave the city a “clean
opinion,” which she pointed
out is “the highest level of
assurance you can get on a
financial audit.”
She pointed out a few oper
ational highlights, including:
• For the first time in years,
General Fund revenues sur
passed its total expenditures,
producing a net income of
$99,000. “That is what I con
sider pretty close to break
even, with a positive,” Grimes
commented.
• The General Fund’s
expenditures were up by
$625,000, due to capital
expenditures that were up
$559,000 because of grants
and special projects.
•The city’s General Fund
fund balance amounted to
35.62 percent of its cost for
operations, well over the
industry benchmark of 1S25
percent.
•The General Fund had
a cash balance of over $2
million.
•The city took in
$884,000 in special pur
pose local option sales tax
(SPLOST) revenue and
spent $753,000, $232,000
spent on roads, $296,000
spent on water and sewer
projects and $224,000 used
on other projects.
•The Water/Sewer Fund
has $1 million in reserves
and $13.1 million in long-term
debt.
• The electric system had
operating income of $411,000,
$363,000 of which was trans
ferred to the General Fund
of $363,000. It has long-term
debt of just $56,000 and $1
million in reserves.
•The gas system gener
ated $843,000 in operating
income, $331,000 of which
it transferred to the General
Fund, and $325,000 in debt
service. Its longterm debt is
$2.3 million.
City planners
cancel their
Dec. meeting
There will be no Decem
ber meeting of the Com
merce Planning Commis
sion.
Planning director David
Zellner announced that
the meeting, set for Mon
day Dec. 28, at 6 p.m. at
the Commerce Planning
Commission, was can
celed because there was
no business to consider.
The planning commis
sion makes recommen
dations to the Commerce
City Council on matters
of zoning and land use. It
meets the fourth Monday
of each month at 6 p.m.
in the Peach Room of the
Commerce Civic Center.
CMC Consulting building burns
CMC Consulting’s South Elm Street office was heavily damaged, if not
destroyed, by a fire Saturday night, but the company was back to making
service calls by Monday morning.
“I continue to be amazed,” said owner Chris Bulls, “about how much sup
port we had. “I was just stunned truly by the number of people who offered us
space for free. It’s what I like about living in a small town. Nobody was hurt;
it was just stuff. That’s a blessing.”
CMC is operating out of space offered by the City of Commerce in the
basement of City Hall.
“We are already back in business, thanks to the generosity of the city
and Pete Pyrzenski and the elected officials,” Bulls said Monday afternoon.
“They’re leasing us space. We’re on their fiber network. They came in and
helped us. Mark Fitzpatrick (Ward 3 councilman and a Windstream service
technician) came in and switched our phones over. We’re a small company
and we’re fairly flexible. We’re taking calls at our business number.”
The company, for the time being, cannot serve walk-in clients, but its tech
nicians are making service calls. Bulls said the company will have to rebuild
a couple of networks due to equipment damage.
According to Bulls, the state fire marshal said that the blaze was caused by
cleaning chemicals, whether a mixture of two chemicals or because fumes
came into contact with nearby batteries.
“My business didn’t burn down,” Bulls said. “My building burned down.”
The rear of the building, which is located in front of the Lanier Technical
College, was gutted. The rest of the building and its contents were heavily
damaged by heat, smoke and water.
Bulls said she was at Six Flags over Georgia Saturday night when the build-
An accidental fire Saturday night heavily damaged the CMC
Consulting building on South Elm Street. The fire started on
the back (pictured).
ing burned. She learned about it from a number of callers. Commerce fire
chief Kevin Dean said the call came in “right at 6 p.m.,” and the first fireman
on the scene found flames on the back side of the building. The Nicholson
and Jackson County Correctional Institute fire departments also responded.
Bulls has owned the building for 14 years. CMC consulting operated out of
it for five years, leased it to a now-defunct bank for five years and has been in
it for the past four years. She said she expects to rebuild at the same location.
