Newspaper Page Text
Vol. 140
No. 43
24 Pages
2 Sections
rpl WED
[jg DECEMB
Commerce News
Wednesday
DECEMBER 14,2016
www.CommerceNewsTODAY.com
50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875
Southeast Toyota planning
250-acre, 6-building expansion
Company seeks rezoning of property across Hwy. 334 from Ingles
To retire
Longtime Commerce
News editor Mark
Beardsley will retire on
Dec. 31 after 43 years.
Beardsley
retiring;
newspapers
to combine
The longtime editor of
The Commerce News, Mark
Beardsley, is retiring at the
end of this month.
With that move, The Com
merce News will be merged
with The Jackson Herald
beginning with the January 4,
2017 edition.
“Mark has been not just an
editor, but the very core of
The Commerce News,” said
Mike Buffington, co-publisher
of Mainstreet Newspapers,
Inc. which publishes both
The News and The Herald.
“When Mark said he want
ed to retire, we decided The
News just wouldn’t be the
same without his leadership
and presence. Merging news
coverage and advertising
from the Commerce area in
with The Herald was the only
logical move.”
News beats that Beards
ley has been reporting will
be picked up by Commerce
native Alex Pace and reporter
Ron Bridgeman.
See “Papers” on Page 3A
Contact Us
•News: news@mainstreet-
news.com, call 706-621-7238
Online
Follow us on
Facebook by
liking The
Commerce
News
www.CommerceNewsTODAY.com
INDEX
Church News 6B
Classified Ads... 9-1 OB
Crime News 6-8A
Obituaries 7-8B
Opinion 4A
School 5B & 12B
Sports 1-4B
Social News...9-11A
MAILING LABEL BELOW
Southeast Toyota Distributors plans
a major expansion to its Commerce
facilities.
Greenland Opportunities LLC is
requesting a map amendment and
four rezonings for over 250 acres on
U.S. 441 and Hwy. 334. The requests
will go before the Jackson County
Planning Commission Thursday eve
ning, Dec. 15.
Southeast Toyota Distributors
plans to use the property for its
vehicle processing operation. The
expansion is proposed near the
company’s current facility on Hwy.
334, which was built in 1988.
The expansion includes the con
struction of six buildings totaling
330,000 square feet and six rail spurs
that will be able to accommodate 90
rail cars.
According to the company’s appli
cation to the commission, planned
facilities include:
• a two-story administrative building
with offices, medical center and credit
union.
•a one-story accessory instal
lation building with production
space, cafeteria, meeting space and
recreation facility.
• a one-story predelivery inspection
building with drivethrough inspection
spaces, pits, offices and break rooms.
• a onestory auto body paint build
ing.
• a onestory Southeast Transporta
tion Systems facility with management
offices, break and locker rooms and
buck maintenance area.
•a onestory technical operabons
center.
From Motel To Yoga Studio?
Also on the Thursday agenda
is a request to convert a former
motel into a yoga studio and lodg
ing facility.
Om Deep Enterprises LLC is
requesbng rezoning of 12 acres at 2105
U.S. 441 (once the Dixieland Motel)
to allow a yoga studio with a training
and educabon center. The existing
facility would also be used for lodging,
but that requires a special use permit
under the requested rezoning.
Also at its meebng, the commission
will consider a rezoning request from
Brenda G. Bonds for four acres at 2914
Ila Road. Bonds wants to divide the
property for family.
Better late than never
Santa officially arrived in Commerce Thursday
night at the tree-lighting ceremony in Spencer
Park. Traditionally, Santa enters town during
the Christmas parade atop the Commerce Fire
Department’s antique pumper, but the 2016
parade was rained out, so Santa made the
same entrance Thursday. He was accompanied
by assistant fire chief Josh Spear and Spear’s
sons, Blake and Cole. For more photos, see
Page 3A.
School board member calls
for more spending on athletics
System 'at risk' of losing football coach over 'unfulfilled commitments'
BY ALEX PACE
Some Commerce residents are concerned about what
they claim are unfulfilled “commitments” to the high
school football program.
Commerce Board of Education member Kyle Moore
addressed the public at the board’s Thursday meeting
about the issue. He said commitments made last year to
the Commerce City School System football program have
fallen short.
But Moore declined to comment after the meeting on
what those commitments are. The situation is apparently
serious enough to create uncertainty on whether head
coach Mike Brown will stay.
“Because of that, we’re at risk of losing the leader of our
program in that sport,” said Moore.
Moore said much of the city’s identity revolves around
athletics.
“It’s no secret that Commerce, that the identity of our
school system as well as our community a lot of that is
built around our sports programs,” Moore said to a crowd
of nine.
He said he’s been contacted by locals with concerns
on the “direction, vision and amount of support” for the
district’s athletics and said it’s time for the board to take
those concerns seriously.
“Specifically, a year ago about this time we talked about
a number of things that we wanted to do for our football
program,” Moore said. “At the time, we weren’t able to.
However, we made some commitments and we’ve really
kind of fallen short on some of those commitments to
this point.”
He said the board needs to decide whether it wants to
stick with the status quo, or make the sacrifices it would
take to “take our programs back to the top.” He also
said the district has lost several athletes to other school
systems.
“Something has to be done,” he said.
This year, the Commerce High School football team
made it to the quarterfinals during the playoffs.
Moore noted that athletics and other extracurricular
activities go “hand-in-hand” with academic success.
“Every study indicates that the more involvement you
have in extracurriculars, the higher achievement you will
have in your classrooms,” he said. “So, we’ll meet the
success that we want in our classrooms by pouring more
effort, more support, more resources and more money
into all of our extracurriculars, specifically our athletics.”
Moore only vaguely addressed the “commitment” made
by the board. But during his public comment, David Pate
gave specifics: the field house and football fields.
“I think there are two separate issues,” said Pate.
“There’s certainly (as Kyle has spoken about) quality
improvement and moving forward in the future. But
there’s also maintenance of what we’ve got on our own
school grounds.”
Pate cited safety concerns for the athletes playing on
See “Athletics” on Page 3A
4 week-long
vacations set
in 2017-18
school year
Commerce City School
System students can expect
long breaks and an early start
for the next school year.
The Commerce Board of
Education approved the sys
tem’s 2016-17 calendar at its
Dec. 12 meeting.
The school year officially
begins on July 1, but students
will start school on July 28
to accommodate four week-
long breaks throughout the
year. Those are:
• Fall break — Oct. 9-13
• Thanksgiving — Nov.
20-24.
•Winter break—Feb. 19-23
• Spring break — April 2-6
The Christmas break will
be from Dec. 18 through Jan.
1. Other student holidays
include Labor Day (Sept.
4); a teacher workday (Jan.
2, 2018); MLK Day (Jan. 15,
2018); and a teacher workday
(March 16, 2018).
Commerce High School
graduation is set for May 25,
2018.
Over 60 percent of those
polled voted for the new cal
endar, which is largely differ
ent than the current calendar.
Other Business
In other business, the
board:
•learned that as of the
end of November, its fund
balance was at $1.6 million.
“That’s about $1 million up
from where we were last year,
so that’s good news,” superin
tendent Joy Tolbert said.
•learned that the system
received an $116,429 distribu
tion from the education local
option sales tax (ELOST),
increasing its ELOST balance
to $842,000
•accepted Tolbert’s rec-
See “BOE” on Page 3A
City planners
cancel their
Dec. meeting
The Commerce Planning
Commission has cancelled
its December meeting for
lack of agenda items.
The group, which makes
recommendations to the
Commerce City Council on
land use and zoning matters,
meets on the fourth Monday
of each month at 6 p.m. in
the Commerce Room of the
Commerce Civic Center.
Its next regular meeting will
be held Monday, Jan. 23, at
6 p.m.