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About The Commerce news. (Commerce, Ga.) 1???-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 20, 2016)
PAGE 2A THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS • THE COMMERCE NEWS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016 District 31 legislative update Legislature gearing up to fully fund K-12 education? Grants to fund safety equipment Pictured with the two grant checks and safety equipment are, left to right, Tracy Williams, Commerce HR director; Mayor Clark Hill, city clerk Sandra Haggard, planning director David Zellner and Steve Durden of the Georgia Municipal Association. Commerce wins two GMA grants for safety equipment The city of Commerce received a pair of small grants recently to promote employee safety. The Georgia Municipal Association gave the city a $5,996 “Safety Grant” and a $5,641 “Liability Grant” for the purchase of automated external defibril lators, amber strobe lights, road signs and stands, “flagman ahead” and ‘Con struction ahead” symbols and sets of chains to secure excavators to trailers, and traffic safety barrels with lights for employees working at night. “This program allows each city to stretch their budget dollars and provide a safer work environment for their employ ers,” said Steve Durden, deputy director of marketing for the GMA. Rhoads made partner at law firm BY MARK BEARDSLEY With the first week of the 2016 session of the Georgia General Assembly in the books, Rep. Tommy Benton (R-Jefferson) expressed opti mism about future funding for public schools. “I liked pretty much every thing Gov. Deal said in his State of the State talk,” said Benton, whose 31st District covers all but the lower pre cincts of Jackson County. “I understood they were going to increase the education spending. My understanding is they are looking to fully fund QBE (Quality Basic Education — the funding for mula used for K-12 schools) by next year.” That would be a first, as QBE has never been fully funded. “It makes a lot of sense,” Benton added. “It would be nice to have education fully funded to see if that affects the results coming out of the classrooms.” Benton is leery of changes being studied regarding edu cation funding, particularly in the area of merit pay based on “teacher performance” as measured by standardized tests. The governor has indicat ed that any major changes in K-12 funding will not take place this year. In the mean time, there are a couple of hot-button items to keep leg islators busy. According to Benton, a bill was introduced last week to “change Stone Mountain from a Confederate memori al to a Civil War memorial,” a move that rankles the former Georgia history teacher. “They could be going to have other carvings put Contact Rep. Tommy Benton District 31 Rep. Tom my Benton can be reached by phone at 706-367-5891 (home) or 404-463- 3793 (office)); or by e-mail at tommy. benton@house. ga.gov. For daily updates on legislative action and links to Geor gia representatives, U.S. Congressmen, Senators and other officials, visit Ben ton's Website at www. tom mybenton. com. on the mountain,” he com plained. “Who is going to pay for that?” He also complained that the National Park Service is changing such memorials to include commentary about slavery. “Slavery was not a cause of the war,” Benton said, say ing that what is being taught “is incorrect.” Benton said he is not con cerned about the bill becom ing law this year, but worries about what might happen if Democrats ever regain con trol of the legislature and the governor’s office. HB 731 The other hot-button bill — and one destined to go nowhere — is Hose Bill 731, which Benton says calls for the Georgia Bureau of Inves tigation to collect all of the assault-style weapons now owned by Georgia residents. “You can imagine how that filled my mailbox up,” he laughed. “It’s almost like someone wants to keep us busy defending (gun owner ship) instead of taking care of other business.” Medical Marijuana As of the beginning of the second week, Benton said he’s seen little in the way of legislation coming to the committees on which he serves, as everything is pret ty much on hold pending completion of the appropri ations bill. But one bill is getting a lot of attention — and support. Benton is among the 91 members of the Georgia House signing on in support of House Bill 722, introduced by Rep. Allen Peake (R-Ma- con) that would provide for the legal cultivation and processing of medical mar ijuana. With 180 members in the House, the bill seems des tined for passage, but Benton points out that the bill could mn up against Deal, who has previously expressed opposi tion to the measure. “He made a statement before the session started that it wasn’t going to hap pen,” Benton said. “Rep. Peak might have thrown it out there to see what kind of support he’s got. It may pass the house and then die in the Senate. They’re more sympa thetic to what the governor wants.” Upcoming The General Assembly was scheduled to be in ses sion Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week and the first four days of next week, plus Feb. 1. That’s as far as the calendar goes at this point. Smith, Gilliam, Williams & Miles, P.A., Gainesville, announces that effective Jan. 1, William D. “Bill” Rhoads became a partner in the law firm. The son of Mike and Ann Rhoads of Commerce, he joined Smith, Gilliam, Wil liams & Miles as an associ ate attorney in 2009. He spe cializes in the areas of wills, general estate planning, probate, business transac tions and tax controversies. Rhoads served as a direc tor of the Gainesville Jay- cees and is on the Rehabil itation Industries of North east Georgia board of direc tors. He is a member of Bill Rhoads the Leadership Hall County Class of 2015-2016 and was named by Georgia Trend magazine as one of the 2015 Legal Elite of the state of Georgia in the areas of taxes and estates — the only attor ney so recognized in that field in Northeast Georgia. A graduate of Commerce High School, Rhoads holds a bachelor of arts degree in economics from Emory University and a masters degree in international pol icy from the University of Georgia. He received his juris doctorate degree from UGA in 2009. Before joining Smith, Gilliam, Williams & Miles, Rhoads was a health econ omist at the Centers for Dis ease Control and Preven tion in Atlanta. He and his wife, Sarah, have two children, Elena and Lucas. County commissioners make board appointments BY ANGELA GARY The Jackson County Board of Commissioners made several board appointments Monday night, including the following: • Ron Wilson to the airport authority. • Matthew Benson and Joe Hicks to the industrial develop ment authority. • Roger Brock to serve on the recreation board. • Jeff Perry to serve on the planning commission. In other business at the meeting, the BOC: • set qualifying fees for the 2016 election.. •approved a request from Karen Williams to rezone 37 acres on Hwy. 129 from CRC and HRC to A-2. • tabled action on a text amendment to the unified develop ment code related to horse and riding stables. • approved a text amendment to the unified development code related to lot and building standards. The change is to correct inconsistencies in the UDC, planning director Gina Roy said. City business licenses due Commerce city clerk Sandra Haggard reminds local busi nesses that they have until Jan. 31 to renew their occupational/ business licenses before a penalty will be assessed. Haggard said she sent out 359 notices and, as of last week, estimated that 60 percent of those had been returned. The standard “administrative fee” associated with the licens es is $25, and the license fee begins at $ 100 for businesses with fewer than 10 employees. The application forms are on the city’s website at www. commercega.org. TOWN OF HOMER NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING Please take notice that the Town of Homer Planning Commission will hold a public hearing at Town Hall on Thursday, January 28, 2016, at 7:00 PM. to receive public com ments on the application of Banks County Golf. LLC for a proposed amendment to the Chimney Oaks Phase 1 project at 148 Ham mers Glen Drive, Homer, Georgia. The public hearing of the Town Council will be on Feb. 9, 2016, 6:00 PM. The Town Council will consider adoption of the above mentioned request at the regular meeting im mediately following the public hearing. Nicholson ponders need for water leak insurance The Nicholson Water Authority plans to hold a special meeting prior to its next work session on Feb. 9, where ServeLine will make a presentation regarding a water leak insurance plan. On Tuesday, Jan. 12, the authority deliberated on whether or not to adopt ServeLine’s customizable, non-public water leak insur ance policy that would pro tect Nicholson and its home- owners from leak expenses. The policy would cost customers an additional $1 to $1.60 per month on their service bills and would cover the cost of leaks from water meter to foundation (pipes inside a house would not be covered). If implemented, all cus tomers would be automati cally signed up for the pol icy and sent a notification allowing them to opt out of insurance coverage. If the authority adopts the poli cy the authority would be released from offering water leak allowances. “It seems like it would ben efit us as well as the cus tomers,” said chairman Mike Stowers. While most members of the water authority appeared in favor of implementing the insurance policy the board wanted ServeLine to make a presentation at its next meet ing in order to gain more information on the subject matter. Water Complaints Two Nicholson residents addressed grievances to the water authority last week concerning the quality of the water on their line. Chris and Melissa John son described their water as “brown tinged, with debris and later mold growing in Homer Family Chiropractor Dr. K. Anthony Merati, D.C..NRCME 706.677.1010 • www.homerchiropractor.com 1253 Historic Homer Hwy. • Located in Homer Shopping Center Tuesdays & Thursdays 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. • Saturdays 8 a.m. -1 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday @ Duluth Clinic 1L; $ 35 Adjustment Due to insurance regulations, Medicare/Medicaid and some other insurance, may be excluded from this offer. Any further treatment shall be agreed upon in writing and signed by both parties. the water within 24 hours.” “This is an ongoing prob lem that we’ve had for almost a year now,” said Chris John son. “It’s a problem with about four houses on our road.” Johnson said he’d com plained to the city multiple times but issue was never resolved. “Sometimes are worse than others, sometimes its just dirty sometimes its clean,” added Johnson. Johnson said that after sev eral complaints, city main tenance personnel repaired defective pipe on Nov. 23, but he claimed it broke again only two days later. Johnson claimed the leak is an ongo ing problem and is reflected in high-cost service bills for his family’s residence. The leak was repaired, but the water quality issue is ongo ing. “You can’t taste chlorine in the water. For a while it was just brown and looked bad,” said Melissa Johnson. “Now it tastes bad and is not healthy at all.” Stowers assured the John sons that the water authority was going to take steps to resolve the issue and reim bursed any funds lost due to leaks. “We’ve got a solution that we think will get it fixed in the next few days,” said Stowers. ASSISTANT CITY CLERK/ ADMINISTRATION The City of Lula has an exciting Level 2 posi tion seeking qualified applicants for Assistant City Clerk, providing Clerical support for city operations, utility billing, data entry and cus tomer service. Qualified applicant shall have knowledge of data entry procedures and com puter functions, techniques for establishing and maintaining files, general bookkeeping practice, knowledge of state and federal laws and reporting requirements as related to pay roll and personnel functions are helpful; skill in operating a data entry terminal with speed and accuracy, above average organization al skills; skill in basic mathematical calcula tions; maintaining accurate financial records; preparing reports; operating a calculator, and personal computer; skill in oral and writ ten communication. This is a full-time posi tion Monday through Friday and emergency hours. Compensation is based upon experi ence and budgetary limits. Applications are available at the Lula City Hall. Applications and resumes will be accepted until the posi tion is filled. The City of Lula is an Equal Op portunity Employer and a Drug Free Work place. Please submit cover letter, resume and salary history to: Dennis Bergin, P. O. Box 99, 6055 Main Street, Lula, Georgia 30554 or fax information to 770-869-1299. Please no phone calls.
