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About The Commerce news. (Commerce, Ga.) 1???-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 14, 2016)
PAGE 2A THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS • THE COMMERCE NEWS WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2016 City council honors Bill Anderson The Commerce City Council presented country music legend Bill Anderson with a framed resolution in honor of his love for and support of the city of Commerce, in particular his organization of the City Lights concerts that helped equip the Bill Anderson Center for the Performing Arts at Commerce High School. The presentation took place before Anderson’s book-signing event Sept. 7. Left to right are mayor pro tern Keith Burchett, Mayor Clark Hill, councilman Mark Fitzpatrick, Anderson, and councilmen Donald Wilson, Archie Chaney and Johnny Eubanks. Study recommends 1-percent Jackson water rate increase Commerce city council- men Archie Chaney, Don ald Wilson, Mark Fitzpat rick, Johnny Eubanks, city manager James Wascher and city clerk Sandra Hag gard visited the construc tion site of two new nucle ar units now being built at Plant Vogtle near Waynes boro. “Since Commerce is part of the MEAG Power communities that elected to be part of this new gen erating facility,” explained Wascher, “I wanted to be able to bring back to our town what I saw firsthand, and that was an incredible focus on safety and quality. These two new units will be the first new nuclear power plants built in the U.S. in over 30 years and they will incorporate a brand new technology — the Westing- house AP1000. Unlike units in the past, these have an incredible number of advances that enhances their operation including all digital instrumentation and control.” The visiting group spent half a day at the site. BY SCOTT THOMPSON Jackson County Water & Sewerage Authority residen tial and commercial custom ers could see their water rates rise one percent in 2017 if rec ommendations by a recent study are implemented. Bobby Sills of Nelsnick Enterprises presented the study results to the author ity last week. The findings and recommendations were based on of the authority’s last five years of financial data. The recommended one-percent increase in base water and unit charges for commercial and residential customers would only mean an increase of less than $1 per bill for each residential customer on average, author ity manager Eric Klerk said. Industrial rates would remain unchanged under the proposed rates, as would resi dential wastewater rates. The authority currently charges a $20.14 base water rate and $19.08 base sewer rate. Unit rates are divided into three tiers according to service level. Sills said the authority’s overall revenues are projected to be sufficient going forward, assuming the system contin ues to grow customers and has “modest” rate increas es. His model also projects a three-percent increase per year in water customers and two-percent increase per year in wastewater customers. Capital improvement proj ects to improve efficiency and the clearing of most of the authority’s $31 million in debt service over the next decade should also help keep rates down, Sills said. The study also proposed rate structure alternatives, including a lower base charge with the removal of the vol ume allotment component in the current schedule and separate volume unit rates for commercial, residential and industrial customers. Lower rates for seniors were also proposed. The board will discuss the findings in further detail before voting the matter. New Indstrial Customer? Also at its meeting on Thursday the board heard more about an Atlanta-based company’s proposal to build a speculative warehouse at the vacant Valentine Industri al Logistics Center site it owns in Pendergrass. Seefried Industrial Proper ties senior vice president and COO Greg Herren said the company plans to resubmit an application to the authority to provide water and sewer service to the 183-acre site. Seefried would extend its road and public access to the site, where Herren said a 1 million-square-foot ware house would be built. A sep arate 600,000800, OOOsquare- foot pad would also be avail able, he said. The company has not yet secured any tenant for the site, Herren said. “It would be much of like what’s being built in Braselton and that area today” Herren said. “(Jackson County) has been very successful in speculatively-built warehous es being leased to good cor porate America or corporate international tenants.” If 1.8 million square feet of warehouse space is built, that could mean as many as 900- 1,000 employees, depending on the tenant or tenants that would occupy the space, Her ren said. Authority engineer Joey Leslie estimated that would mean a sewer hookup fee of more than $400,000. Going nuclear The Commerce delegation touring the Plant Vogtle site included, left to right, city councilmen Johnny Eubanks, Archie Chaney and Mark Fitzpatrick, along with city clerk Sandra Haggard and city manager James Wascher. Commerce officials tour Vogtle construction site fu> 12 Sausage Biscuits . | 1 ^ 33 i l ( Commerce Location Only • Expires 9/30/16 J r„ — ~T ~ ~ ~i r — — — — — — Buy 1 Off iGet 1 Freetijeggli I 1 ^ , 1 [ Blizzards 11 Any Combd^ I f Commerce Location Only • Expires 9/30/16 ) i / | >- J 1 y, 1 ' i I r Commerce Location Only • Expires 9/30/16 \ V Can not be used with other deals. J LY~-=— — — — — 463 S. Elm St. • Downtown Commerce 706-335-9197 $5 Buck Lunch 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. Please Recycle This Newspaper * \ rom 1
