Newspaper Page Text
Vol. 140
No. 3
24 Pages
2 Sections
Wednesday
MARCH 9,2016
www.CommerceNewsTODAY.com
50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875
SPRING FORWARD
Daylight Saving Time starts Sunday at 2 a.m. Set all
clocks and timepieces forward by an hour Saturday
night.
BASEBALL TIGERS ARE 6-1
After five-straight road games, the Commerce High School baseball Tigers
returned home with a 6-1 record.
See Page 1B
Garbage,
recycling
schedules
to change
Come Monday, April 4,
Waste Pro residential garbage
and recycling pickup will all take
place weekly—on Mondays.
Interim Commerce city man
ager James Wascher briefed the
city council at its “work session”
Monday night on Waste Pro’s
new plan. Currently, Waste
Pro picks up garbage on three
different days each week and
takes in recyclable materials for
half of the city each Thursday
meaning residents get bi-weekly
service.
“The streamlined process
would have all garbage and
recycling to be picked up
by Waste Pro on Monday a
oneday pickup for all of Com
merce,” Wascher wrote in
the proposal included in the
council’s agenda packet. “The
increase in weekly recycle pick
up would add to the service
quality for the city.”
There will be no change in
the cost, Wascher noted, but
the single day of pickup for both
garbage and recyclables will
make it easier for residents to
remember when to place their
containers at the curb.
Under the new schedule,
Waste Pro will send two vehi
cles to each residence, one
to gather recyclables and the
other to pickup household gar
bage. The recyclables will con
tinue to be transported to the
AthensClarke recycling center,
while the household garbage
will continue to be taken to a
landfill.
The interim city manager
told the city council that he
would notify residents of the
pending change via statements
on utility bills, the city’s social
media and with newspaper ads.
INDEX
Church News 6B
Classified Ads 8-9B
Crime News 6-7A
Obituaries 7B
Opinion 4A
School 8-9A
Sports 1-4B
Social News. 10-11A
MAILING LABEL BELOW
Checking out the art
Attendees of the fifth annual Folk to Fine Arts Festival and Expo browse among the booths
displaying the work of more than 80 artists. It was the largest show in the event’s history.
Folk art and fine art
Artists meet and greet
Artists gathered Friday evening in the
Commerce Civic Center for a meet-and-greet
with Folk to Fine Arts Festival & Expo attend
ees, who could browse among the booths and
buy works of art.
Judged best in show
Commerce Civic Center manager Justin
Strickland, left, presents the best-in-show
award for the 2016 Folk to Fine Arts Festival &
Expo to Lurena Sheary-Williamson, of Tattered
Moon. The vendors selected the winner.
For more photos, see Pages 6B & 12B
Election
qualifying
under way
With qualifying underway
this week, no races had been
set for the May 24 election
as of press time on Tuesday.
Qualifying will continue until
noon on Friday.
Those who qualified as of
noon Tuesday include:
• Sheriff, incumbent Janis
Mangum (Republican)
•Clerk of courts, incum
bent Camie Thomas (R)
• Tax commissioner,
incumbent Candace Taylor
(R)
• Coroner, incumbent
Keith Whitfield (R)
• State Court solicitor,
incumbent Don Moore (R)
• Board of commissioners
chairman, incumbent Tom
Crow (R)
•BOC, District 1 commis
sioner, Jim Hix (R)
•County board of edu
cation, incumbent Lynne
Wheeler (R)
•Surveyor, Scott Wood
(R)
•Magistrate judge, Sherri
Thurmond Smith (non-par
tisan)
• State Court Judge,
incumbent Rob Alexander
(non-partisan)
•Probate judge, incum
bent Sherry Moore (non-par
tisan)
•Nicholson Fire Board,
Post 4, Marty Seagraves
(non-partisan)
•Nicholson Fire Board,
Post 5, Roger Brock
• Jackson Trail Fire Board,
Post 3, Joshua LeBlanc
How To Qualify
The Jackson County GOP
will qualify candidates run
ning as Republicans. Repub
lican candidates may qualify
at the following address: 56
Henry Street, Braselton (at
Lizzie’s Pantry next to Joe’s
Barber Shop).
For further information on
qualifying as a Republican,
contact Ron Johnson at 770-
3104515 or chairman@wind-
stream.net.
City asked to buy Gov. Hardman House
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Commerce’s Downtown Development Authority has asked
the city council to buy the former governor’s mansion located
on South Elm Street.
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
The Commerce City Council lis
tened to a pitch from its Downtown
Development Authority Monday
nigh seeking to convince the coun
cil to buy the Gov. Lamartine G.
Hardman House.
Hardman served as Georgia’s
governor 1927-1931. The mansion
is located on South Elm Street
between Spencer Park and the pub
lic safety complex.
And while Gina Hagan of the
DDA, Justin Strickland, manager of
the civic center, and Natalie Thom
as, interim executive director of the
DDA all made the case for historic
preservation and economic devel
opment, no one had a price tag for
the potential acquisition.
Hagan said the historical signifi
cance of the mansion and the need
to address problems in the central
business district are among the rea
sons to buy the building, which
she said could be one of the “very
few former governor’s homes that is
preserved.”
“It is surrounded by city-owned
property,” she added. “The location
alone gives the city an opportunity
to be part of the revitalization (of the
central business district). “
She advised that low-cost land
scaping improvements would be
noticed immediately by the public
and could improve the morale and
appearance of the downtown.
The 5,626-square-foot Mediter
ranean style mansion sits on 3.3
acres. It has five bedrooms, four full
and two half baths, two sun rooms
and a separate carriage house. It is
on the National Register of Historic
Places and was used as a residence
until the 1980s.
Hagan said the city’s “Blueprint”
strategy identified the property as
“a gem.”
Thomas spoke of the heritage of
the Hardmans, who she said “were
responsible for the town we live
in today,” having started Harmony
Grove Mills, built a sanatorium that
became the first hospital and were
instrumental in bringing both the
railroad and the phone system into
the city.
“Pretty much if you lived in Com
merce, the Hardmans touched a lot
of lives,” she said. “The history of
the town has everything to do with
the Hardmans.”
The idea is to use the property as
an event venue and/or visitor center
and museum. The group estimated
annual costs of operation at $20,000.
“There are only so many Satur
days in the year,” said Strickland,
speaking of opportunities to host
See “Hardman” on Page 2A
