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About The Commerce news. (Commerce, Ga.) 1???-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 20, 2016)
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016 THE COMMERCE NEWS • THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS PAGE 5A 25 percent of local adults lack diplomas BY ALEX PACE Banks County has several options for adults seeking to continue their education. The Banks County Chamber CVB received an update on its adult education and literacy programs during its Jan. 14 meeting. Almost 9,000 Banks County res idents over 24-years-old have less than a high school diploma. This makes up 25 percent of the county, compared to the state average of 18 percent. Brenda Thomas, executive direc tor at Lanier Technical College, said there is a large population of people unemployed. Thomas said that in Georgia, 50 percent of people with out a high school diploma don’t have a job. “We’re going to have to educate native Georgians,” said Thomas. Thomas said she thinks a new branch of LTC, to open in north Hall County in fall 2018, could help devel op the county’s workforce. Some of the programs to be offered include commercial truck driving, crime scene investigation, culinary arts, cyber crime, film technology hotel and restaurant tourism and game Reads a story Karen Nelson, with the Banks County Literacy Council, reads to attendees at the Banks County Chamber CVB meeting. development. But one of the obstacles to employment in these areas, accord ing to Thomas, is the lack of a high school diploma or GED. The county’s Adult Learning Center offers GED training classes, basic adult literacy and transition assistance for locals. Lisa Prescott, the lead GED instmctor in the coun ty, said there’s a “huge need” for this adult education in the coun ty. Despite being recognized for its GED pass rate and level comple tions, Prescott said enrollment is down at the center. The center is open Mondays through Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and also serves as a testing center for the GED. Off-site classes are held Mondays and Wednesdays from 6-9 p.m. at Maysville Baptist Church. Karen Nelson, with the Banks County Literacy Council, spoke about other programs to reduce illit eracy in the county. The nonprofit council previously donated books to local students but the program was suspended this year from lack of funding. The group completes several lit eracy programs in the county and offers scholarships for the GED test. Nelson said the council relies on grants, donations and fundraisers for its programs. For more information on the council, visit bankscountyreads.org. Homer tables proposal for increased water rates BY MARK BEARDSLEY Members of the Homer City Council just couldn’t pull the trigger last week on raising water rates. After a lengthy discussion on Jan. 12 on a proposal to increase residential and commercial rates by 10 per cent, the council opted to table the increase pending exploration of the effect a rate hike would have on the Banks County School Sys tem. At Tuesday’s meeting, member David Dunson pro posed a 10-percent increase — the first rate hike in seven years — for the city’s 400 residential and 60-70 com mercial customers. A rate hike is on the table as the city prepares to replace its aging water meters and do work on a water tank. The city’s base rate for residential custom ers is $13 for the first 3,000 gallons and $4 for each additional 1,000 gallons. One concern raised by Dunson is that water bills are currently suppressed because the old meters have slowed down, so that once they are installed, cus tomers would be hit with both accurate (higher) readings and higher rates. “We may have to recon sider (the rate hike) when the new meters are in,” he said. “There will be some culture shock.” Officials said the pro posed new rates would still leave Homer with rates lower than most other area water providers — and with more gallons built into the base rate. Well Woes Likewise, the city is still trying to figure out how to go about getting a new well or wells to provide addition al water. Clifford Hill and Dunson expressed frustration that they had insufficient infor mation to offer residents when approaching them about having test wells bored on their property.” “How much equipment, how much land, how much damage is it going to do to the property?” Dunson said. Hill said he spoke to one of the property owners of potential well sites. “He was interested in looking at his options,” Hill said. BOC split on county garage BY ANGELA GARY The Banks County Board of Commission ers voted 3-2 last week to not move forward with constructing a garage to handle maintenance and repairs of county vehicles. The BOC had earli er voted 3-2 to look into funding a county garage but decided at its Jan. 12 meeting to stop the effort. Commissioners David Duckett, Danny Maxwell and Charles Turk voted at the meeting last week not to move forward with the project. BOC chair man Jimmy Hooper and Sammy Reece wanted to proceed with plans to locate a garage in the county. Turk had voted earlier to pursue the project but voted at the Jan. 12 meet ing not to move forward with the plans. OTHER BUSINESS In other business at the Jan. 12 meeting, the BOC: •heard a report from Andy Crawford of the dis trict attorney’s office on pre-trial diversion funds. • approved a request to raise the salary of two part- time public transportation drivers to $10 per hour. •agreed to an employ ee pay scale change to make the minimum salary for any county employee $29,120. This will affect 14 employees, whose salary will be raised as of Feb. 1. • appointed Steven Jew ell and Todd Hubbard to serve on the county plan ning commission. •agreed to apply for a $500,000 senior center improvement grant. •agreed to apply for a grant to purchase fire/EMS breathing apparatus. •approved a water dis tribution welding/cutting gas cylinder rental agree ment with Safety Plus. • approved the 2016 pro bate and magistrate court probation services agree ment. •approved a contract with S&D Solutions to provide generator mainte nance contract. • approved a local main tenance improvement grant project for Sims Bridge Road. • agreed to the purchase of a vehicle for the sheriff’s office with money from the drug surcharge fund. • appointed Charles Turk to serve as vice chair man. “You would think a geol ogist or an engineer would have done this several times,” offered city attorney David Jones, who added that owners would want some input. “As long as y’all approach landowners with that attitude, most of them will probably be coop erative.” The plan is to drill a num ber of six-inch test wells as deep as 600 feet. Other Business Also on Jan. 12, the coun cil: •voted to purchase two Ford pickup trucks from Jacky Jones Ford at costs of $39,350 and $37,425. The council had prices from only one vendor. •voted to spend $3,192 for water cutoff valve mark ers to replace old mark ers that are damaged or destroyed. The Environ mental Protection Division reportedly wants the valves marked. • agreed to look into the cost of installing an auto matic chlorine injection sys tem at the town’s current well (and its future well). •approved a bid from David Parker, Cornelia, to stripe center lines on six miles of Homer streets at a cost of $5,400. •heard Sarah Pritchard question the council about why it is taking so long to get final approval on a plat for the first phase of a planned residential development at Chimney Oaks Golf Course. She told the council that a builder is ready to build two model homes and that she is confident enough that the EPD will approve a “step septic system” for the development that the company will risk building houses before EPD mles. “We’re wondering why it’s been three months and we haven’t heard anything,” Pritchard complained. “We’re about to lose our builders. ...We can’t do any thing until it (the plat) is approved. ...We’ll do what ever we have to do on our end. We just need some movement. We need some action.” Mayor Doug Cheek said the plat will be on the council’s agenda at its Feb ruary meeting. Qualifying coming up in March It’s an election year and several local races will be on the May 24 ballot. Qualifying will be held from 9 a.m. on Monday, March 7, through noon on Friday, March 11, for county races to be on the bal lot. County seats on the ballot will include: board of commissioners chairman, county com missioners for districts 2 and 4, school board of education seats for districts 1, 2 and 4, sher iff, clerk of courts, tax commissioner, district attorney, coroner, sur veyor, probate judge, chief magistrate judge, State Senator for District 50 and House of Repre sentatives seat for Dis trict 28. The state and local primary elections will be on Tuesday, May 24, with any needed runoff set for Tuesday, July 26. Advance voting begins on Monday, May 2. 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 runoff election for federal offices on Tues day, Jan. 10, 2017. Advance voting begins Monday, Oct. 17. The presidential pref erence primary and spe cial election for the spe cial purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) and education local option sales tax ELOST) renew als will be held on Tues day, March 1. Advance voting begins Monday, Feb. 8. Keith Zimmerman, MD is now accepting new patients Dr. Zimmerman graduated from the Medical College of Georgia in 1984. In 1987, he completed his Family Medicine residency at The Medical Center in Columbus, Georgia. He is certified by the American Board of Family Medicine. Dr. Zimmerman joined Regional FirstCare in 2007 after having practiced Family Medicine near Athens for 19 years. He is excited about returning to Primary Care and is accepting new patients. The office is located at 1618 Mars Hill Road, Suite A, Watkinsville. Please call 706-769-2053 to schedule an appointment. Athens Regional HEALTH SYSTEM AthensHealth.org
