Funding for the digitization of this title was provided by Georgia HomePLACE, a project of the Georgia Public Library Service.
About The Commerce news. (Commerce, Ga.) 1???-current | View Entire Issue (May 11, 2016)
Vol. 140 No. 12 28 Pages 2 Sections Wednesday MAY 11,2016 www.CommerceNewsTODAY.com 50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875 291 cast ballots in 1st week of early voting Early in-person voting for the May 24 general primary and nonpartisan elections continues in Jefferson this week and next. Some 291 Jackson County voters took advantage of the first week of early voting last week. Polling takes place at 441 Gordon Street — the Gordon Street Center — in Jefferson to which the Jackson County Board of Elections and Reg istration office has moved. Early voting continues there through May 20. Hours will be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every Monday through Friday and 94 on Saturday, May 14. There will also be a week of early voting May 16-20 at the Commerce Recreation Department office on Car- son Street and the Braselton Police and Municipal Court Building. Hours there will be 8 am to 5 p.m. There are only five contest ed local races. Absentee ballots will be available through Friday, May 20. City BOE to meet an hour earlier Effective next month, the Commerce Board of Educa tion will begin its meetings an hour earlier. The board voted Monday night to advance the timing of its meetings from 7 p.m. to 6 p.m. Regular meetings are held on the second Monday night of each month, with “work sessions” the Thursday evening before the regular meetings. Regular meetings are sched uled for June 13, July 11, Aug. 8, Sept. 12, Oct. 10, Nov. 14 and Dec. 12. Work sessions will be held on Aug. 4, Sept. 8, Oct. 6, Nov. See “Earlier” on Page 3A INDEX Church News 5B Classified Ads 6-7B Crime News 6-8A Obituaries 1 1 B Opinion 4A School 9-11A Sports 1-5B Social News. 15-16A MAILING LABEL BELOW Commerce Schools to fund HVAC, roofs via energy savings 'Guaranteed' savings to facilitate major building improvements The Commerce Board of Education made it clear last Thursday night that it plans to enter a 15-year, $7.5 million contract that will allow it to fund major upgrades in lighting, HVAC systems and replace roofs on its two oldest schools. In fact, the BOE had planned to pass a res olution to that effect Monday night, but wound up tabling the matter a month until its new bond issue is completed. Superintendent Joy Tolbert said that the underwriter and bond attorney for the system’s in-process bond refinancing indicated that taking on more debt might jeopardize that issue. “They don’t want to do anything that will obli gate the system to additional debt” until those bonds are closed. Closing is expected in late May or the first week in June. The system expects to save $830,000 by refunding the $12 million in 2009 bonds, which financed the construction of the new Commerce High School. The new bonds will carry an inter est rate of less than half of the current issue. If those bonds close on schedule, the board will sign a resolution with ABM Building Solu tions at its June meeting. The contract with ABM guarantees energy savings of almost $5.5 million over the course of the lease, leaving the board to come up with $1.94 million. The lease anticipates that from 2018 through 2027 the board will spend $100,000 a year, with that amount going to $188,000 a year for the final five years. That increase begins at the same time the system’s 2009 bonds are retired. The project involves a one-year construction period during which ABM will retrofit lighting throughout the schools, install HVAC controls and Dyson had dryers in all of the schools, install water-conserving sinks, toilets and urinals in the elementary and primary schools, install new water fountains in the primary elementary and See “Energy” on Page 3A Enjoying the ride McKenna Bryant, 4, of Commerce, beams as she rides a pony Saturday afternoon at the 38th annual Nicholson Daisy Festival. The festival featured more than 60 booths, offering food, crafts and other merchandise, along with musical entertainment and other attractions. For more photos, see Page 16AA. Housing a 'major obstacle' chamber told While Jackson County has an abundance of build ings and property available for industrial development, the head of one of the region’s top real estate companies says the county faces a major obstacle in filling those buildings: housing. “Housing is this county’s Achilles heel,” declared Frank Norton Jr., president and CEO of The Norton Agency, in a presentation May 4 to the Jackson County Area Chamber of Commerce. Norton, a self-described “data junkie” who collects and assimilates informa tion on land, housing and development trends in 58 counties in North Georgia, warned that Jackson Coun ty lacks affordable houses for the people needed to work in those distribution centers and other indus tries. Norton presented a PowerPoint slide show covering housing and other data. It demonstrated that the Northeast Georgia corridor contains the bulk of new jobs and available industrial space in Georgia, which he put at 12.2 mil lion square feet between the Gwinnett County line and South Carolina. “So where are they (workers) going to live?” Norton asked. “Because there’s a shortage (of hous ing) in other counties too. We have a living problem. We can only get them to commute so far. Nobody has the housing stock.” Jackson County, Norton says, has 5,300 vacant developed lots and land zoned for another 7,580 lots. “That’s 43,000 people that could live in Jackson County on lots already zoned or in existence,” he calculated. That’s the good news. The bad news is that hous ing prices are putting new homes out of the reach of what Norton calls “aver age people with average credit” who need “average houses.” “We have a housing problem we have to fix,” he said. According to Norton, construction costs in the area are up 40 percent since 2006, some of that related to the costs of labor and material, but much of it due to regulations. “If we don’t solve that problem, we will have no houses under $150,000,” he warned. Norton suggested that officials “need to rethink housing” to bring down costs that will attract work ers to provide labor for See “Housing” on 3A Council to gets first look at budget Mon. The Commerce City Council will get its first look at the proposed Fiscal Year 2017 budget Monday night at 6:00 in the Commerce Room of the Commerce Civic Center. City manager James Wascher will present the highlights of the spending plan for council review, but the council is not likely to take any official action at this point. The fiscal year begins July 1. Action items on the agenda include: • approval of the list of 11 streets to be resurfaced this year. • approval of a water sales contract with the Jackson County Water & Sewerage Authority. • appointment of two members to the new Commerce Hospital Authority. • approval of the Commerce Board of Education’s bond refinancing plan. •a one-time amendment to the city’s retirement plan as part of the city’s severance agreement with former city manager Pete Pyrzenski. Following the council meeting, the Commerce Hospital Authority will hold its first meeting to elect officers. A needle for a good cause Tess, owned by Nancy James is restrained by Maria Hulzar after reacting to a needle stick during the rabies clinic Wednesday, May 4, at Commerce Veterinary Hospital. April Carithers injects the vaccine, which will protect Tess against rabies for a year.
