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Vol. 140 No. 19 24 Pages 2 Sections Wednesday rpj WEDNESt I V\p JUNE 29,2016 Commerce News www.CommerceNewsTODAY.com 50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875 Newspaper deadlines moved up Due to the Indepen dence Day holiday on Monday July 4, all dead lines for the July 6 issue of The Commerce News will be moved to Friday. All advertising copy, news copy photographs and announcements to be published in the July 6 issue must be submitted by Friday July 1, at noon in order to be printed in that issue. The offices of all Main- Street Newspapers publi cations (The Commerce News, The Jackson Her ald, The Banks County News, The Madison County Journal, The Braselton News and The Barrow Journal) will be closed on Monday, July 4, in observance of the holiday. The holiday will not affect the publication dates of the newspapers, nor the delivery dates, of the newspapers. Garbage pickup backed up Commerce officials have advised that Waste Pro will take Monday, July 4, off for Indepen dence Day. That means Com merce residents will have garbage and recycling pickup a day later than the normal schedule. Waste Pro will run the two routes on Tuesday, July 5, so residents are asked to put both recy cling and garbage bins at the curb before 6 a.m. on July 5 for pickup that day. Contact Us •News: news@mainstreet- news.com, call 706-621-7238 Online B Follow us on Facebook by liking The Commerce News Bombs bursting in air Commerce (Friday), Nicholson (Saturday) and Homer (Monday) will all hold fireworks displays as part of their Independence Day celebrations. Area to celebrate Independence Day with a bang Bombs will be bursting in air this weekend in Commerce,Nicholson and Homer. The Commerce Main Street program will celebrate Independence Day from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday in Spencer Park. The event will feature music by the Bour bon Cowboys, snow cones and inflatables, and downtown restaurants will be open. The event will be capped with a fireworks display launched from behind the J. Nolan Spear Jr. Public Safety Complex on South Elm Street and kicked off by “Pops Barker, the human trumpet.” It is an alcohol-free, tobacco-free event. Nicholson Nicholson’s celebration, hosted by the city government, will be Saturday, starting at 2 p.m. in the city park. Georgia Red Clay will provide music, and booths will offer food and other items for sale. Nicholson also promises “the best fire works show around” to bring the event to a close. Homer Anyone wanting to see fireworks on July 4 can go to Homer. The Homer Fire Depart ment and the city of Homer will present their annual fireworks display on Monday, July 4, at dark. The event will be held at Banks County High School. In case of rain, the event will be held on July 5. Bucking the trend Thanks to proximity to Athens MRp Commerce residents can still recycle their glass containers Still recycling glass Local garbage hauler Waste Pro takes its recyclables to the Athens-Clarke Materials Recycling Facility, which is bucking a nationwide trend by continuing to accept glass for recycling. Recycling companies across America are making news as they quit accepting glass containers, but one exception is the Athens Mate rials Reclamation Facility (MRF). Proximity to the Athens MRF means Commerce residents can be sure that the glass they put in their recy cling bins for weekly pickup does not end up in a landfill. The Athens MRF continues to accept and recycle glass at a time when recycling is in its own reces sion and some major companies’ MRFs around Georgia no longer take glass. Waste Pro Athens manager Jerry Harris pointed out to the Homer City Council last week that the RockTenn MRF in Doraville quit taking glass, meaning the jars and bottles that used to make up the most weight in a recycling bin are now going to landfills. Fortunately, the Athens division of Waste Pro, which serves Commerce (and Jefferson), utilizes the Athens MRF, which has an end user for its glass. “We segregate (recyclables) and ship glass to Strategic Materials in Atlanta,” explains Suki Janssen, who manages the Athens facility. Strategic uses it in the construction of culverts. “When you have applications under rock, you have to have a permeable substance water can flow through. Glass works perfectly” Janssen said. She points out that the Athens MRF receives no payment for glass it delivers to Strategic. “We’ve never, or very rarely, been paid for glass in our 20 years of oper ation,” Janssen said. It costs more to transport glass than we got paid in revenue.” Recycling Recession Janssen offered the opinion that “glass is getting a bad rap” as prices for recyclables plummeted over the past two years for what she called “a collection of reasons, most of them we have no control over.” “We can’t look at recycling in iso lation in Athens or Georgia or the United States. It’s an international business,” she added. And while Janssen said most of the materials from the Athens MRF stay in the U.S., except plastics that go to Can ada, “We have shipped to China before.” China is the elephant in the recy cling room. As its economy tanked, Chinese buyers of recyclables from the U.S. (mostly on the West Coast), have cut back or quit buying the materials. See “Recycle” on Page 3A BOC considers changes to six voting precincts Possible precinct change topic at BOC 'retreat' www.CommerceNewsTODAY.com INDEX Church News 6B Classified Ads 8-9B Crime News 6-8A Obituaries 7 B Opinion 4A School 1 1A&5B Sports 1-4B Social News...9-1OA MAILING LABEL BELOW BY ANGELA GARY The Jackson County Board of Commissioners is looking at changes to six voting precincts due to the number of voters. At an all-day “retreat” on June 22 the BOC met with election supervisor Lori Wurtz and chief registrar Douglas Beck to discuss the issues and possible changes. They took no action, but the issue will be studied further. The recommendations include: • split North Jefferson into two precincts. • split Randolph into two precincts. • combine Attica and Redstone into one pre cinct. Rename it South Jackson precinct. • combine Cunning ham and Talmo into one precinct. Rename it North Jackson precinct. “Due to over-popu- See “BOC” on 3A Jackson County jobless rate falls to 3.9 percent for May According to figures released last week by the Georgia Department of Labor, Jackson County’s unemployment rate fell by two-tenths of a percent between April and May. Its 3.9-percent jobless rate is fifth-lowest in Georgia. Statewide, the seasonally adjusted rate for Georgia fell to 5.3 percent, down from 5.5 percent in April. Other area counties fared similarly to Jackson. They include: • Banks, 4.4 percent, down from 4.7 • Barrow, 4.2 percent, down from 4.3 • Hall, 3.8 percent, down from 4.2 •Athens-Clarke, 4.7 percent, down from 4.9 • Madison, 4.2 percent, down from 4.4 Meanwhile, Oconee County continued to post the state’s lowest jobless rate at 3.6 percent, down from 3.7; and Early County, at 8.9 percent, had the state’s highest unemployment rate, although that was down from 10 percent in April. Water fun at Willoughby Park Members of the Commerce Fire Department hose down local chil dren last week during the Commerce Public Library’s annual Water Fun Day at Willoughby Park, a staple of its Summer Reading Program. The timing was perfect; temperatures hovered just below 100 degrees as the firemen turned on the water. Submitted photo