Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2016
THE COMMERCE NEWS • THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS
PAGE 3A
Golden Radish presentation
Public health commissioner Brenda Fitzgerald, state school superintendent
Richard Woods, Commerce City Schools nutrition director Rich Friedman,
cafeteria manager Sandi Richey, commissioner of agriculture Gary Black and
Georgia Organics executive director Alice Rolls celebrate Commerce schools’
receipt of the Golden Radish Award.
Commerce schools receive
state's 'Golden Radish' award
Georgia’s Departments of Agriculture, Public
Health, Education and Georgia Organics came
together under the Gold Dome for the annual
Golden Radish Awards to celebrate gains made
in the farm-to-school movement. The Com
merce School System was one of 53 school
districts—nearly onethird of all public school
districts in Georgia —recognized through the
Golden Radish Awards.
Commerce City Schools was recognized at
the Bronze level for their accomplishments
during the 2015-2016 school year, which include:
• Locally grown food was served 36 days,
including collard greens, sweet potatoes, and
lettuce from Pressley Farms, kale and mixed
greens from The Veggie Patch, and peaches
from Jaemor Farms.
•Commerce High School students set up
a taste test tent for five consecutive days in the
cafeteria. Students were invited to taste a variety
of locallygrown produce and products during
lunch.
•Thirty-four farm-to-school standards-based
lessons were taught throughout the year. The
School Nutrition Department collaborated with
high school Agriculture and Consumer Sci
ence students to teach nutrition and agriculture
lessons to elementary and primary school stu
dents.
The Golden Radish Award recognizes school
districts for all aspects of farm-toschool, from
local food procurement to hosting taste tests
to gardening with students, and is awarded
at Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Honorary Levels.
Districts were evaluated on their work in ten
different activities of farm to school.
“It is incredible to see the growth of farm-to-
school programs in the last few years,” stated
Alice Rolls, Georgia Organics executive direc
tor. “Every day children across our state are
getting the opportunity to grow and taste Geor
gia food in school. I’m excited to see Georgia’s
schools invest in Georgia fanners and in our
children at the same time.”
FedEx Braselton move
iincoiiifirmed says chamber
BY ALEX PACE
Talk of FedEx coming to Braselton is just a
rumor, at least for now, said Jim Shaw, president
and CEO of the Jackson County Area Chamber
of Commerce. Shaw said he hasn’t spoken with
the company or Duke Realty about the project.
“I really don’t know anything about that,” he
told the chamber board of directors on Friday.
A business-related website, BisNow, reported
earlier this month that FedEx had secured a site
in Braselton across from the Carter’s distribution
center.
“FedEx has just secured a site within Duke
Realty’s Park 85 industrial park in North Georgia
along 1-85 for what sources say will be a 1M SF
distribution facility for the parcel service,” accord
ing to the article.
But Shaw stressed he hasn’t received confir
mation on the project.
“That rumor has been out there,” said Shaw.
“But that’s all that that is, as far as I know at the
moment.”
If FedEx does plan to develop a site at the
property it will be in close proximity to several dis
tribution centers along 1-85 in Braselton including
Carter’s, Haverty’s, Whole Foods and the recently
secured Amazon.
Jackson County has seen growth in recent
years of its distribution center economy.
“We got as low in this county as about 500,000
square feet of available space,” said Shaw.
Currently there’s approximately 4 million
square feet of speculative space in some form of
construction. There’s also some available space
in existing facilities, including the former Tiger-
Direct.
Shaw said there’s still room to grow, both with
empty buildings and open sites.
“And we’ve got people looking at both,” he
said.
Retail Recruiting
While Jackson County has seen recent growth
in distribution centers, it has been less successful
in recruiting retail. Chamber members hope to
remedy this by “selling Jackson County on the
retail side” and possibly recruiting retailers to the
area.
The Chamber plans to attend the International
Council of Shopping Centers event after its next
monthly breakfast.
“Basically our focus would be developers of
retail,” said Shaw.
Shaw said that includes both large and small
retailers.
Annexation ... Cont from Page 1A
Chairman Joe Leffew
agreed. He pointed out that
R-l will require houses of
2,200 square feet or larger,
sided with brick, stone or
HardiPlank. He pointed out
that all of the lots exceed the
square footage requirement
of both the R-l and the R-1E
housing zones in the city’s
zoning ordinance.
“They are going to be nice
houses as long as the builder
builds them properly,” Leffew
said.
Zoning Map Update
In other business, the
planning commission voted
unanimously to recommend
that the city council approve
an update to the city’s zon
ing map. The proposed
map changes nothing; it just
records the recent annex
ations or zoning changes
made since the map was last
drawn.
The council will also act
on that recommendation on
Nov. 21.
Downtown Opportunities
Davis, who is pursuing a
master’s degree in public
administration at the Univer
sity of Georgia, briefed the
planning commission on the
opportunities that may be
available for developing the
city’s downtown through the
Georgia Downtown Renais
sance Partnership with the
Georgia Cities Foundation,
the Carl Vinson Institute of
Government at the Univer
sity of Georgia, the Georgia
Municipal Association and
The Fanning Institute, and
the Archway Partnership
Project through the Universi
ty of Georgia.
She offered to work with
Downtown Development
Authority executive director
Natalie Thomas to determine
the feasibility of working with
either group.
“There is a quality of
Americana that Commerce
has that I feel can be built
upon,” Davis said.
Windstream ... Cont. from Page 1A
net speeds throughout North
Georgia, and will continue
to make improvements that
allow us to do so.”
According to Windsteam,
the North Georgia resi
dents in these communities
upgraded to 100Mbps will be
able to:
•download a 1 gigabyte
(GB) high definition (HD)
video in as little as one min
ute and 25 seconds.
• download a high-quality
full length album in as little
as four seconds.
•download 100 high res
olution photos in as little as
16 seconds.
•play games online
with less lag.
• enjoy “almost seam
less” video chatting.
In addition to the 100
Mbps speed upgrades,
Windstream is also expand
ing fiber-to-the-home in
select areas.
For more information,
visit windstream.com.
Commerce schools to be
re-accredited for 5 years
The Commerce City
School System has earned
five more years of accredita
tion following a three-day visit
recently from AdvanceEd, a
national school accreditation
organization formerly known
as SACS.
The five-member team did
offer some suggestions for
improvement, but during an
exit report presentation last
Wednesday to the school
board, the committee was
largely positive about the
school system, from the
politeness of the students to
its financial stewardship.
“Overall, I am pleased with
the outcome of the visit,”
commented superintendent
Joy Tolbert, who said admin
istrators will begin discus
sions this week about how to
implement the committee’s
recommendations.
The group arrived on Sun
day Oct. 16 The first day,
it interviewed staff, parents,
students and others. They
spent the second day in the
schools, including making
observations of at least 20
minutes in 58 different class
es. They spent Wednesday
morning, Oct. 19, writing up
their reports and made a pre
sentation to a called meeting
of the Commerce Board of
Education that afternoon.
Findings
The highlights of the pan
el’s findings include:
•’’The climate is nurtur
ing and invited,” said chair
man Mark Mathern, a retired
educator from Casper, WY.
He told the board that he
and his committee found the
students to be “well-behaved
and well-mannered.”
•They also found them
“engaged in learning,” and
noted that technology is
being well-used in instruc
tion.
• The committee was
pleased that the system
“carved out planning time”
at all four schools.
•The system and school
leadership “promotes a pos
itive learning development,”
updates its improvement
plans annually, has a sup
portive board of education
and a very strong level of
“stakeholder support and
participation.”
•The committee noted
“excellent fiscal responsi
bility” the safe and attrac
tive environment, the lack
of classroom interruptions,
and the use of technology in
instmction.
Recommendations for
improvement include:
• improving the align
ment of curriculum from
grades kindergarten
through 12, alignment of
the instructional process
so that it’s similar in all
buildings, better use of data
— “how does Friday’s test
inform what we do on Mon
day?” Mathern said.
• monitoring of how staff
development is put to use in
the classroom.
•the incorporation into
lessons of “opportunities to
learn about their own cul
ture, background and differ
ences.”
•making sure students
understand how their work
is assessed.
• more collaboration
among students. “We saw
lots of well-behaved, compli
ant, active students, but we
didn’t see as much where
students were working with
one another to solve a prob
lem,” Mathern said.
• a “step up” in using tech
nology to “conduct research,
solve problems and create
original works for learning.”
•the development of a
system-wide curriculum
assessment.
• development, imple
mentation and monitoring of
a “K-12 delivery process” in
all classroom “that incorpo
rates research-based practic
es so when students come
into the room, they know the
process is going to occur, no
matter what the content is,”
Mathern said.
•the use of teacher evalu
ation data to improve instmc
tion and learning.
•the linking of annual
improvement plans to a dis
trict 3-5-year long-range plan
• consider hiring more
counselors.
• consider devoting more
funds to transportation,
building maintenance and
personnel needs.
“Use this information as a
formative tool,” Mather said.
“All we’re saying is what a
great opportunity to get even
better.... Put some addition
al effort into the teaching
and learning and into the
resource utilization, and your
achievement will continue to
improve.”
The report notes that
the city school system “is
performing within accept
able ranges,” Mathern said,
adding that the committee
will recommend that the
system “earn the distinction
of accreditation by Advan
ceEd.”
“We think if you are
deliberate and strategic, we
believe every child every
day will be prepared for the
success that they will need
as they think about it and
encounter it in their future,”
Mathern concluded.
A similar committee will
visit the system in two years
to see how it has progressed
with the recommendations
made in 2016.
Elections
Freeport clarification on
ballot for Jackson voters
Jackson County voters
have a local referendum to
consider in this year’s bal
loting.
A vote to clarify how
Freeport tax exemptions
are granted to local ware
house fulfillment centers,
such as Amazon and Bed,
Bath and Beyond, which
have locations in Jackson
County, will also be on the
ballot.
The won’t change any
existing local Freeport ex
emptions in the county, but
it will clarify the legality of
future exemptions.
Freeport exemptions are
tax abatements on invento
ry in local warehouses that
are in transit to other areas.
The abatement has existed
in Jackson County since the
1970s and has been used as
a tool to lure businesses to
the county. But its use has
primarily been for manu
facturing goods, or large
lots blocks of merchandise
shipped out in large quanti
ties.
The advent of fulfillment
centers, where businesses
such as Amazon ship sin
gle items out, has raised
the question of whether or
not traditional Freeport ex
emptions are legal. A Henry
County tax assessor said last
year that they don’t apply to
single items, a move that an
gered local fulfillment cen
ters in that county and raised
the issue statewide.
In response, the Georgia
Legislature passed a bill
earlier this year to clarify the
matter by allowing citizens
in each county to vote on of
ficially extending Freeport
to fulfillment centers.
The issue is important in
Jackson County, which has
developed a growing ware
house and fulfillment niche
along the 1-85 corridor. Two
fulfillment centers are al
ready located in the county,
and Amazon will soon lo
cate in Braselton.
Jackson County has not
interpreted the current law
as Henry County has, so
it won’t change anything
already being done, coun
ty leaders said. But it will
clarify the issue for the fu
ture and give the BOC the
power to set the Freeport
abatement rate, which can
be from 20-100 percent.
-|j
Banana Split
$2.49
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Can not be used with other deals.
463 S. Elm St. • Downtown Commerce
706-335-9197