The Commerce news. (Commerce, Ga.) 1???-current, January 06, 2016, Image 2
PAGE 2A 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 I was looking through a magazine and saw an ad where a patient had a procedure done at Athens Regional. It caught my eye, and I took the ad to my heart doctors in South Carolina to see if I could have the procedure. They said I would be a prime candidate for it, and the next thing you know, I was down here in Athens. It was just amazing to see the results of the people here at Athens Regional. They were willing to take us all over the hospital and show us what would be done. My family even got to stay at the Guest Houses, and it was amazing that we had this offered to us. I’m 72 years old and I’m ready to keep going! To make an appointment with Athens Regional Cardiology, please call 706.475.1700. See Bill’s story and share your own at AthensHealth.org/YourStory Bill McLeese Cardiovascular Patient We put people first. Athens Regional Please Recycle This Newspaper HEALTH SYSTEM