Newspaper Page Text
Vol. 140
No. 23
20 Pages
2 Sections
Wednesday
rpj WEDNESI
I V\p JULY 27,2016
Commerce News
www.CommerceNewsTODAY.com
50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875
Jackson BOE votes 3-2 to close
Benton Elementary School next year
Benton Elementary School will close at the end of the
2016-17 school year.
The Jackson County Board of Education voted 3-2 July
21 to dissolve the school.
Superintendent April Howard spoke before the vote,
recognizing the decision is sensitive, but needed.
“We genuinely recognize the critical nature and sensitivity
of this decision,” said Howard. “However, based on all of the
other variables at play and the need for our district to reach
some minimum capacities at our schools for programming,
as well as prioritization of the limited funds we have for
improvements, it’s our recommendation for the closure of
Benton at the conclusion of the 2017 school year.”
The decision was made in a split vote with Michael Cron-
ic, Celinda Wilson and Steve Bryant voting in favor. Before
he could call for opposed, BOE member Lynn Wheeler
interjected.
“And opposed,” said Wheeler.
“I’m going there,” replied Cronic. “All opposed?”
Wheeler and Tim Brooks voted in opposition.
The facility will be used for Foothills Charter High
School in the evenings and as a “flexible learning space”
for Jackson County School System students.
“I would just like some clarification,” said Wheeler at the
end of the meeting. “Even though this has been approved
to close Benton and repurpose it, after the three hearings,
there is still an opportunity for this to be rescinded.”
Howard confirmed that following the hearings, if the
BOE thinks it is the wrong recommendation, the decision
could be rescinded.
Attendance Zone Changes
Benton students will be rezoned between South Jack-
son and East Jackson elementary schools. The BOE also
approved a comprehensive attendance rezoning of its
schools for the 2017-18 school year, in response to both
the closing of Benton and eliminating other zoning issues.
“We hope to have minimal impact,” said Howard. “Cer
tainly we recognize that Benton students going to South
Jackson and East Jackson are impacted significantly and
then there will be some adjustments throughout the county.
But we will have to shift all the way around to be able to
push a little bit more to alleviate some of the growth that
we are seeing in the Braselton and Hoschton community.”
The current plan is to:
• move more students to Maysville Elementary, North
Jackson Elementary and East Jackson Elementary.
• move Benton students to South Jackson Elementary
and East Jackson Elementary
• move some Gum Springs Elementary to North Jack-
son.
• move some South Jackson to Gum Springs.
Public hearings will be held in October and November.
Exact enrollment numbers and rezoning lines will be avail
able during those hearings.
Local bank
acquisition
is called off
The proposed acquisition
of the Commerce branch of
First Covenant Bank by Pinna
cle Bank has been called off.
Last Dec. 30, the two finan
cial institutions announced
that Pinnacle, based in Elber-
ton, would acquire the 1731
North Elm Street property of
First Covenant Bank.
The acquisition was sub
ject to regulatory approval.
“We actually, agreed not
to proceed,” said Pinnacle
assistant marketing officer
Anna G. Jones in an email
response to an email inqui
ry. She provided no other
details.
The transaction would
have left Pinnacle with
approximately $869 million in
assets, $545 million in loans,
and $757 million in deposits,
based on financials reported
as of March 31, 2016.
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INDEX
Church News 4B
Classified Ads 5-6B
Crime News 6-8A
Obituaries 3B
Opinion 4A
School 11A
Sports 1-2B & 8B
Social News...9-1OA
MAILING LABEL BELOW
Owner Terry Minish says Jay’s Department Store will close at the end of
business on Saturday after 83 years as one of Commerce’s leading retail
businesses.
Jay's Department Store
will close on Saturday
Jay’s Department Store will close after
business hours on Saturday owner Terry
Minish announces.
The closing is no surprise; Minish has
been liquidating the contents of the store
for months, not just merchandise, but also
antiques and collectibles accumulated during
the store’s 83year run as one of Commerce’s
most successful businesses.
“I will close at the end of the month, but
I’ve got some antiques left, so I’ll still be
around trying to move them,” Minish said.
The sale, which Minish said went “pretty
good,” got rid of most of the inventory.
Harry Jay opened the store on April 1,
1933. Minish joined the store in 1973 while
in high school. He bought one of the two
buildings that comprise the store in 1992 and
bought the business in 1996. It’s the only
place he’s ever worked.
Liquidating the contents of the building —
particularly the 5,OOOsquare feet of upstairs
storage space — has yielded some unexpect
ed findings. Among them were three scrap
books containing newspaper articles from
the 1940s and 50s, and a wanted poster for
Bonnie and Clyde that “looks like somebody
took it off a wall and stuck it in a scrapbook.”
He also gave a store ad from 1944 that he
donated to the city for display at City Hall.
“It’s amazing,” Minish said. “I’ve been
cleaning up the upstairs. It’s amazing what
I’ve found. There are a lot of antiques up
there.”
Word of the liquidation has gotten around
to antique dealers, who’ve come to Com
merce to look over what’s left.
“A lady last week bought all of my old
clothes upstairs,” Minish said. “I’ve got a lot
of clothing racks. I’ve got two antique cash
registers (vintage 1918 and 1927, one of which
is still in use) I’d like to sell. It’s just an ongo
ing thing. I own the building, so I’m not in a
big rush to get out.”
His plans for the future are a work in
progress.
“I will probably hang around the store
some,” he said. “My normal every day of
working is over. I won’t be around every day.
I will have some ‘me’ time for awhile, then
try to find something, if anyone will hire an
old man, he joked. “I just can’t stand the
thought of not doing anything. I’m a people
person. It’s hard to come to terms with not
being around people anymore.”
“It was a good run,” he continued. “I
enjoyed my years here. It was a lot of fun, to
tell you the truth. The headaches are there, but
it’s still a lot of fun. People don’t realize it’s a
hard, stressful job owning your own business.
The property is for sale with a list price of
$200,000 for both of the buildings. But the
sign out front does not go with the building.
“The neatest thing for sale is the sign, the
neon sign in front of the door,” Minish said.
“It was put up there when the store opened.”
The sign is not wired, but there is a pos
sibility that it might still light up to promote a
store that has been a center of the retail busi
ness in Commerce for over 80 years.
No charges in
domestic incident
involving police chief
The Jackson County Sher
iffs Office will not file any
charges following a domes
tic dispute Wednesday July
20, involving Commerce
police chief Brandon Sellers.
Jackson County depu
ties responded to a Prime
Drive, Commerce, location
after Sellers’ wife called 911.
According to the incident
report, Natalie Sellers said
she and Brandon Sellers got
into an argument and she
pushed Brandon Sellers sev
eral times.
Natalie Sellers said she
told her husband to leave the
residence, and he refused,
so she “pushed him while
repeatedly telling him to
leave the residence,” the
incident report written by
deputy Michael Goodyear
stated. Eventually Brandon
Sellers put his wife in a head-
lock and took her to the
floor, his wife told Goodyear.
The incident reportedly
occurred in the presence of
a juvenile. The original inci
dent report indicated that the
complainant — who inves
tigators characterize as the
aggressor — had no visible
injuries at the time the officer
arrived. Brandon Sellers had
left the residence prior to the
arrival of the officer.
“We do not anticipate
any charges,” Sheriff Janis
Mangum said on Monday
but added that the matter
remained under investiga
tion pending the completion
of interviews, which she said
she expected to take place
on Friday.
Meanwhile, Brandon and
Natalie Sellers were report
edly in Savannah where the
police chief was to attend the
2016 Summer Training Con
ference held by the Geor
gia Association of Chiefs of
Police.
City schools to
hold open house
next Wednesday
The Commerce City
School System will hold
open house at each of its
four schools from 5 to 7
p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 3.
The 2016-17 school starts
two days later on Friday,
Aug. 5.
Tax 'holiday' coming up
Georgia’s “tax-free holiday”
will take place Saturday and
Sunday. It’s a twoday reprieve
during which shoppers can
purchase clothing, computers
and school supplies without
paying state and local sales
taxes.
In Jackson County — and
most nearby counties — that
means shoppers buying those
items can get a seven-percent
price break, although many
merchants offer additional dis
counts to attract business. The
event is timed to help back-to-
school shoppers.
Two months later — Sept.
3bOct. 2, the state will hold
another tax-holiday exempt
ing purchases of energy-effi
cient or water-saving equip
ment.
The tax holidays exempt
the four-percent state sales
tax, the one-percent local
option sales tax (LOST),
the one-percent special pur
pose local option sales tax
(SPLOST) and the one-per
cent education local option
sales tax (ELOST).
Adding color downtown
Workers installed the first of a series
of “murals” last week on the back of
the Commerce Printing building. The
Downtown Development Authority com
missioned the painting of window covers
for the backs of buildings along South
Broad Street facing the city’s new Cherry
Street parking lot/event venue. The
murals were painted by Commerce High
School art student Sadie Robertson and
graphic artist Alexis Hill. Eventually, the
DDA hopes to have all of the boarded win
dows similarly treated.
