Newspaper Page Text
Vol. 140
No. 21
20 Pages
2 Sections
Wednesday
rpj WEDNESI
I V\p JULY 13,2016
Commerce News
www.CommerceNewsTODAY.com
50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875
Police await
confirmation
of identity
of body
The Commerce Police
Department continues to
await confirmation from
the Georgia Bureau of
Investigation that a partially
decomposed body found
Thursday morning, July 7,
is that of a local man who’s
been missing almost two
weeks.
Depart
ment detec
tives found
the body of
a male in
the woods
off Ila Road,
about 500
yards from
an abandoned rock quar
ry. That is near the location
where Max McLinn, 54,
was last seen.
McLinn was last seen on
Monday June 27, but some
one reported receiving a
text from him two days
later. Police chief Brandon
Sellers said some kids also
reported seeing a person
who matched McLinn’s
description in the area on
June 29.
Sellers said that the evi
dence strongly suggests
that the body is McLinn’s
but the GBI will have to
confirm the identity. An
autopsy was to have been
performed Monday.
“It is a little early to say it
is him,” Sellers said, shortly
after the body was discov
ered.
The case originated
with Jackson County. Com
merce officers joined the
search and later Jackson
County turned the investi
gation over to Commerce
police since the victim and
his family lived on Spring
Street.
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i A
Max
McLinn
INDEX
Church News 3B
Classified Ads 5-6B
Crime News 6-8A
Obituaries 4B
Opinion 4A
School 9-1OA
Sports 1-2B & 8B
Social News...9-1 OA
MAILING LABEL BELOW
City school board OKs budget
$13.8 million spending plan dips into reserves, but no tax hike expected
The Commerce Board of Educa
tion adopted its $13.8 million budget
for the 2016-17 school year Monday
night and voted to authorize the
negotiation with Pinnacle Bank on
details of a 15-year loan to finance its
building renovation/energy conser
vation project.
The board conducted those
actions short-handed; members Bill
Davis and Nathan Anderson were
absent.
Both items have been works in
progress. The board approved its
tentative budget a month ago. The
budget calls for $3.05 million in prop
erty taxes for maintenance and oper
ations —an increase of $35,000—but
there is no expectation of a property
tax increase. The tax rate will be set
once the school system gets the tax
digest from Jackson County.
The budget will require the system
to dip into its reserves to the tune
of $85,000, but it also funds a full
180-day instructional calendar for
students for the first time in years,
and a 190-day calendar for staff.
Facilities Project
The board also approved a reso
lution that permits superintendent
Joy Tolbert, board chairman Rod
ney Gary and the system’s attor
ney to negotiate financing for a
15-year, $5.57 million loan to cover
costs associated with the project
ABM Building Solutions will begin
in August. That project involves a
number of energy conservation
moves expected to reduce energy
consumption to the point that the
system can fund from energy savings
new roofs and HVAC systems at its
two oldest buildings — the primary
and elementary schools.
During the course of the lease,
ABM will guarantee $5.49 million
in energy savings that will be used
to fund the work and to pay ABM.
To make up the difference between
the savings and the costs of the
work, the school board will pay out
$100,000 a year through 2027, at
which time its annual cash contribu
tion will increase to $188,000 for the
final five years of the program.
“Our goal is to get everything
closed out by the end of the month
so we can order everything and
get constructions started by mid-Au
gust,” advised Jason Anderson of
ABM.
Anderson noted that ABM just
helped finalize a lease for the Mad
ison County School System, which
uses the same attorney that the
See “Budget” on Page 3A
Up in smoke
Wreck, fire destroy logging truck
A logging truck left the Jefferson Road near its intersection with
Roosevelt Boulevard early Friday afternoon, overturned and burned.
According to the Georgia State Patrol, Randy Dewayne Smith, 51, of
Lawrenceville was traveling north into Commerce in the Mack truck owned
by Braswell Contracting, Jefferson, pulling a 48-foot trailer loaded with
logs and ran off the road on the right side, where it overturned and caught
on fire. The GSP incident report said Smith reported that a vehicle in front
of him slowed suddenly to turn left into Roosevelt Boulevard, causing
Smith to swerve right and leave the roadway. The fire destroyed the truck,
knocked out Windstream phone and Internet service in the area, caused
the road to be blocked for a short period and damaged landscaping in the
yard at 8772 Jefferson Road. Smith was not injured.
Commerce government
Council expected to amend
its FY2017 budget Monday
The Commerce City Council will likely
amend its less-than-a-month-old budget for
Fiscal Year 2017 when it meets Monday at 6
p.m. in the Commerce Room of the Com
merce Civic Center.
There are several reasons for the amend
ment/s), interim city manager James
Wascher reports.
The amendments represent both good
news and bad.
On the positive side, Wascher said that
the city ended the last fiscal year on June 30
with “a little bit of surplus,” which will allow
the city to fund some capital projects out
of those funds rather than the new budget.
“We are in a good spot with our reserves,
and I’m looking to do something with that,”
he said. “Last time I ran the numbers, we
were 29 percent funded in reserves. The tar
get is 15 to 20 percent in reserves, so we will
use some of the excess reserves to pay for
some of the capital items instead of through
the budget.”
That also led Wascher to provide fund
ing for a second code enforcement officer,
a position several city council members
expressed support for during a budget dis
cussion at the council’s June “work session”
meeting.
The downside is that the city’s cost for
health insurance is going up 12 percent,
rather than the five percent projected in the
budget passed last month. The city gets its
health insurance through the Georgia Munic
ipal Association.
The difference is close to $100,000,
according to Wascher.
Other Business
Based on the agenda for its July 5 “work
session” (the work session was moved back
one day due to the July 4 holiday, making it
too late to be covered in the June 6 issue of
The Commerce News), Monday’s meeting
should be fairly short.
Items to be considered include:
• a 2.5-percent increase in the city’s con
tract with ESG to manage its water treatment
plant. This will be the first increase in 30
months. The contract will add tank main
tenance to ESG’s contract at an increase of
the base cost of $11,000 annually. The city
intends to terminate its contract with Utility
Services Partners for tank maintenance and
will set aside some of the $48,000 now being
paid to that company so it will have funds
when it’s time to repaint a water tank.
• approval of a purchasing policy that puts
the city’s current practices into writing. The
See “Council” on Page 3A
Code enforcement
Environmental
court due to
hear its first case
Commerce’s new Environ
mental Court apparently has
its first case.
Code enforcement official
Billy Vandiver last week cited
Brad Coker for violations to
the ordinance related to a
690 Homer Road site where
vehicles, boats and other
items are stored on a lot in
violation of the city codes.
Coker appeared unan
nounced before the Com
merce City Council as the
council adjourned its July
5 “work session” meeting,
saying he’d “not been given
a straight answer about any
thing I asked about bringing
my building up to code.”
Coker bought the former
Holcomb Tire property, pur
portedly to open a business
related to “after-market acces
sories and customized prod
ucts” related to “cars, trucks,
boats, Jet Skis, that sort of
thing.”
Interim city manager
James Wascher reminded
Coker of an April meeting
with Coker, Wascher and
Vandiver at which time they
told Coker he needed to have
everything out of the property
by the end of July. Coker had
told them, Wascher said, that
all of the items in question
would be cleared out follow
ing an auction in mid-June.
That did not turn out to be
the case.
The building is not up to
code and cannot be used as
a business until it is brought
up to code. The point of the
auction was to raise money
to renovate the building,
Coker said.
“Right now as it stands,
you are in violation,” Wascher
told Coker. “It is probably
going into our Environmental
Court process at this time.”
Mayor Clark Hill told Coker
that he’d received “constant
complaints” about the prop
erty.
“It looks horrible,” he
said. “...We were told that
mid-June it was all going
to be gone. You would be
hard-pressed to find a citi
zen who would say, ‘Please,
let that be located next to
my house’ or ‘Please let it
be located next to my busi
ness.’”
Coker said if he had to
remove all of the items, he
would have no choice but to
store them at his residence.
Wascher said Coker could
move the items into the build
ing, but Coker said he could
not get the boat inside the
facility.
“I can’t extend out the
time,” Wascher advised.
“We have been dealing with
this since April. The ball is
already starting for this to be
dealt with in Environmental
Court.”
The city created its Envi
ronmental Court earlier this
year. It will take place at 4
p.m. on the first Tuesday of
each month, as needed, with
Magistrate Judge Billy Chan
dler presiding. It will be held
in the Commerce Room of
the Commerce Civic Center
in conjunction with the Com
merce Municipal Court.
The judge would hear both
sides of the case and render
a verdict, which could range
anywhere from a finding that
the code is not being violated
to allowing an extended time
to bring the property up to
code, to a fine and/or order
allowing the city to remedy
the situation at the owner’s
expense.
The case would be heard
Aug. 2 at 6 p.m. — unless
Coker removes all of the
items on the property.
Nicholson sells surplus
equipment^ submits
comprehensive plan
There were no new items on Nicholson’s agenda at its
regular city council meeting on Monday. The city did, how
ever, clear up some unfinished business.
After failing to generate public interest in its surplus
equipment last month, the council awarded a trailer to the
higher of two bidders on Monday. The surplus equipment
was purchased for $1,357, which will be deposited into the
city’s general fund.
Mayor Jan Webster announced that Nicholson’s compre
hensive plan had been submitted to the Northeast Georgia
See “Nicholson” on Page 3A