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THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS • THE COMMERCE NEWS
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6, 2016
The Commerce Printing building (also the former
location of The Commerce News) has been pur
chased and the new owner plans to restore it to its
original appearance.
Commerce Printing
building sells,
restoration planned
A Pendergrass woman has purchased the Commerce Printing
building at 1642 South Broad Street and plans to restore it to its
original appearance.
Rena Cantrell bought the building from former Mayor Charles
“Buzzie” Hardy. She plans to create three upstairs apartments
and lease the downstairs space for retail.
“Commerce Printing is going to stay,” Cantrell said. “I’m
planning to renovate the three offices there and update
them,” she said, though she indicates she will listen if anyone
shows up who would lease under some other use of space.
“Eventually, I would like to have a gallery and a little museum
about Commerce. I think that would be a fun thing the commu
nity could use,” she added.
The 9,900-square-foot building has served as a Ford dealer
ship (with cars taken to the second floor by elevator for service
work), a hardware store, warehouse, newspaper office and
printing company.
One of the first orders of business, Cantrell said, will be the
removal of the vinyl siding that gives the front a dated look and
covers up its brick exterior.
“That may not be the very first thing, but it will be one of the
first,” she promised.
Cantrell said she hopes to move to Commerce and possibly
to live in one of the second-floor apartments.
“I have enjoyed meeting all of the people in Commerce,”
Cantrell offered. “There is a very positive atmosphere.
Commerce is going places now, and I am looking forward to
being a part of it.”
Currently, she is narrowing her search for an architect. Once
she selects an architect and he or she produces drawings, work
will start immediately.
“I am going to try to keep the look as much as possible,” she
said. “The building was beautiful and it can be beautiful again.”
Cantrell said she is looking for photographs that show the
building prior to the installation of the vinyl faqade.
“If anyone has an old photograph of it, I would like to have a
copy,” she said.
Civic center appears to be
trimming operations deficit
By Mark Beardsley
If the current trend for the
rest of the city’s fiscal year
holds, the Commerce Civic
Center will have cut its oper
ating deficit by two-thirds or
more in just two years.
Justin Strickland, who
manages the civic cen
ter, cultural center and
Commerce Business
Information Center, gave a
brief financial report to a
combined meeting of the
Downtown Development
Authority and the civic cen
ter authority last week. The
report covered operations
— not capital or utility costs.
Strickland said “every
thing is good if we can cover
our costs and the city pays
our utilities. We are kind
of floating around right at
even.”
“Which is incredible,”
added John Whitten, who
chairs the civic center
authority.
Part of the reason is
increased usage. The three
buildings Strickland manag
es had 307 rentals during
2015, 16 percent more than
in 2014.
“What is the reason for
that?” asked DDA chairman
Mark McCannon.
Civic center authority
member Neal Smith pointed
out that the economy is bet
ter. McCannon brought up
another possibility.
“Part of it is they are get
ting good service and they
are happy with the facility,
because it looks good,” he
said. “They want to come
back.”
Strickland and Whitten
reported that the authori
ty is making incremental
improvements to the build
ing.
“Little by little, every
month, I’m trying to do
something,” Strickland said.
The city’s General Fund
pays the utility bills for the
55,000-square-foot building.
For the current fiscal year,
utilities are expected to cost
almost $22,000.
As of the end of
December, the civic center
had an operational deficit of
$6,765. Two years ago, the
annual deficit was $87,000.
“I think last (fiscal) year
we lost about $30,000,”
Strickland said. “Hopefully
it’s better this year; hopefully
we can cut it in half again.”
The business center had
75 rentals during 2015. It is
the city’s least costly space.
The Harmony Grove Room
at the civic center, the largest
space, was rented 57 times,
followed by 52 times for its
second-largest room, the
Commerce Room. Numbers
for the other rooms were
Cold Sassy Room, 30; Peach
Room, 33; Executive room,
22; and cultural center, 38.
In response to a query
from McCannon about
where renters come from,
Strickland said that a lot of
people from Gainesville and
Athens use the civic center,
which also hosts a number
of governmental and law
enforcement training ses
sions.
Strickland said he relies
on online marketing to
promote the city’s meeting
space.
DDA member (and
city councilman) Johnny
Eubanks noted that The
Classic Center in Athens
requires those who book
space to use The Classic
Center’s caterer and sug
gested that Commerce Civic
Center marketing should
note that customers can use
the caterer of their choice.
“I think that would draw
a lot from Clarke County,”
Eubanks said.
According to Strickland,
most of the civic center
usage is forweddings, recep
tions and kids’ events. He
also said that the Commerce
Business Information Center
on Pine Street is “rented
almost every Saturday,” 90
percent of the time for chil
dren’s birthday parties.
Whitten noted that Baker
& Taylor signed a new five-
year lease for use of the civic
center basement.
LOST revenue slightly under budget
With only one more dis
tribution remaining, Jackson
County’s 2015 receipts for the
local option sales tax (LOST)
remain $44,798 under budget
for 2015, according to infor
mation released from coun
ty finance director Trey D.
Wood.
“We have received our
December, 2015 LOST dis
tribution from the Georgia
Department of Revenue in the
amount of $458,409 for sales
made primarily in November,
2015,” Wood wrote in an
email to county officials. “This
marks the eleventh month’s
collections to be included in
the FY 2015 budget.
“Our budgeted FY 2015
goal for local option sales tax
receipts is $5,550,000. The
eleven months of LOST rev
enue for FY 2015 is down
$105,840 over the same peri
od last year. Overall, collec
tions are still slightly under
budget by 0.66 percent or
$33,798 through the period.”
SPLOST 17%
Over Budget
In addition, the county
received the December dis
tribution of $760,562 from the
special purpose local option
sales tax, also for sales made
primarily in November.
Jackson County is 53
months in to a six-year
SPLOST 5 collection, which
will end on June 30, 2017.
Revenues are trending 17 per
cent over budget.
The difference in the
amounts of the two one-per
cent local sales tax (LOST and
SPLOST) checks is because
with LOST, Jackson County
and each of its nine munici
palities get individual checks,
whereas with SPLOST, DOR
remits the entire amount to
the county which apportions
it out to the municipalities on
a population-based formula.
In addition to LOST and
SPLOST, the three school
systems in Jackson County
share in the proceeds of an
education local option sales
tax according to an enroll
ment-based formula.
LOST is a perpetual tax.
SPLOST is a six-year tax and
ELOST ends after five years,
at which time new rounds of
the taxes can be approved by
voters. Officials have already
announced plans to hold ref-
erendums March 1 to renew
both taxes.
Plenty of elections
this year in Jackson
It’s an election year and several local races will be on
the May 24 ballot. Qualifying will be held Monday, March 7,
through Friday, March 11, for county races to be on the ballot.
County seats on the ballot will include sheriff, probate judge,
state court judge, clerk of superior court, tax commissioner,
surveyor, coroner, magistrate judge, solicitor, district attorney,
chairman of the board of commissioners, District 1 commis
sioner, District 2 Commissioner, Post 1 board of education,
Post 2 BOE and a soil and water conservation district seat.
Several unpaid fire board seats will be on the 2016 ballot.
They include:
•Arcade - Posts 1 and 2
• East Jackson - Posts 2 and 4
• Harrisburg - Posts 6, 7, 8 and 9
• West Jackson - Posts 3, 4 and 5
• Plainview - Posts 2 and 3
• Maysville - Post 3
• Jackson Trail - Posts 1, 2 and 3
• Nicholson - Posts 4 and 5
• North Jackson - Posts 7, 8, 9,10 and 11
• South Jackson - Posts 3,4 and 5
Primaries
The state and local primary elections will be on Tuesday,
May 24, with any needed mnoff set for Tuesday, July 26.
The registration deadline for the primary election is Tuesday,
April 26, and advance voting begins on Monday, May 2.
General Election
The general election will be held Tuesday, Nov. 8, with any
runoff election for local and state offices being held Tuesday,
Dec. 6, and any mnoff election for federal offices on Tuesday,
Jan. 10,2017.
The registration deadline for the general election is Tuesday,
Oct. 11, and advance voting begins Monday, Oct. 17.
Presidential Primary, Sales Tax Votes
The presidential preference primary and special election
for the special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) and
education local option sales tax ELOST) renewals will be held
on Tuesday, March 1.
The registration deadline is Monday, Feb. 1, and advance
voting begins Monday, Feb. 8.
%
ARNELL % DES10<S Ask abouf
EMORIALS 3 gift™,!,
An MED Enterprises Co. purchase.
Serving this community since 1962.
Office located at 220 Hwy. 441 S.
in Commerce, GA. 706-335-4066
Hours: Monday - Friday 9 a.m.-12 p.m. and 1 p.m.-5 p.m
Saturday By appointment only • Closed Sunday
**We accept M/C, Visa and offer a lay-a-way plan.
Pendergrass moving into new city hall/library building
Pendergrass is moving
into its new city hall/library
facility. The Pendergrass City
Council received an update
on the move at its Dec. 29
meeting.
City administrator Rob
Russell said the city is relo
cating the government offic
es and library into the new
facility over the next few
weeks.
One of the next phases
will be Internet and phone
hook-up at the site. Russell
anticipates the building to be
occupied by mid-January.
“We’ve done it one load
at a time and we’re getting
there,” said Russell.
66
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