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Lady Leopards return
to win column
School: 8R
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Geography Bee winners named
January 30,2008
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The Banks County News
504^ Homer, Banks County, Georgia 30547 • A Publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. • mainstreetnews.com • 22 Pages, 3 Sections Plus Supplements • Vol. 39 No. 25
— In the Community —
Former Banks
commissioner,
state rep. dies
Jack Irvin served
on BOC 20 years
BY CHRIS BRIDGES
Jack Irvin, who represented
Banks County citizens for decades,
first at the local level and later at
the state level, died Friday at the
age of 79.
Irvin served on the Banks County
Board of Commissioners for two
decades and was later elected to
serve in the Georgia State House of
Representatives for 12 years.
A native of Habersham County,
Irvin was also a member of numer
ous civic organizations and was a
50-year member of the Masons. He
enjoyed spending time hunting and
fishing, family members said.
Funeral services were held
Tuesday at McGahee-Griffin &
Stewart Funeral Home in Cornelia.
See complete obituary information
in today’s issue.
— Lula —
Lula officials to
explore district
realignments
BY CHRIS BRIDGES
City of Lula council members
took the initial steps Thursday
night in the process of possibly
realigning the city’s districts for
election purposes.
Mayor Milton Turner told coun
cil members he would like to start
looking into what “can and cannot
be done.”
“The time to do this is now
before the next census,” the mayor
said. “We need to see if it can even
be done.”
Turner explained to council
members, some who seemed a
little hesitant about the issue, that
this was simply the initial steps of
looking into the issue. The mayor
said the entire process would take
at least two years.
News - 2-3A
•BOE reappoints school
principals — page 2A
•Terms shortened for
development authority
— page 2A
• ‘Local school system
has strong leadership’
— page 4A
Other news
•Social News — pages 9-10A
•Public Safety — page 6A
•Legals — pages 4-6B
• Church — page 8A
• Obituaries — page 7A
DA to clear backlog of 952 cases
DistrictAttorney Rick
Bridgeman expects his
office to clear the back
log of uncharged crimi
nal cases by the end of
March. Bridgeman said
in a recent report that
his office filed accusa
tions or indictments in
952 cases from Oct.-
Dec. 2007 in an effort
to clear the backlog.
BRIDGEMAN
Bridgeman took office as DA in the
Piedmont Judicial Circuit in August, hav
ing been appointed to the position by Gov.
Sonny Perdue following the resignation of
Tim Madison. The Piedmont Circuit covers
Jackson, Barrow and Banks counties.
In his report covering the last quarter of
2007, Bridgeman outlined several policy
changes in the DA’s office, including:
• the pursuit of bond forfeitures when a
defendant fails to appear in court. During
the last quarter, $200,000 in appearance
bond hearings were scheduled. The money
from the bond forfeitures will go to the
county where the case is being prosecut
ed.
• accusations will be filed in felony cases
where legal rather than taking all cases to
the grand jury. Bridgeman estimated that
this move will cut the number of cases
heard by the grand jury by half.
• having more contact with victims and
arresting officers before plea negotiations
are begun.
• moves to have speedier indictments
to reduce pretrial detention costs for the
counties.
Bridgeman said he will be available one
Saturday each quarter to meet with the
public about his office. He will meet on
Feb. 16 from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at the
Jefferson House Restaurant in Jefferson and
from 10:30 to 12 noon at the Winder Police
Department training room in Winder. A
date and location for Banks County will be
announced later.
IN THE LANE
Banks County High School’s Brett Armour drives in the paint between two Commerce High School
defenders during Saturday’s contest. The Leopards defeated the visiting Tigers for a season sweep.
See details on page 1B. Photo by Randy Crump
— Election Updates —
Presidential primary
coming up Tuesday
Banks County voters will be going
to the polls Tuesday to make their
choice for president.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to
7 p.m. Tuesday. Advance voting will
continue through Friday.
For advance voting, there is no
reason required to vote—only
that the voter wants to vote early.
Advance voting will be held at the
voter registrar’s office in the court
house in Homer.
Voters will also be required to
select a Republican or Democrat
ballot in order to make a selection in
the presidential primary. Democrats
on the ballot include Joe Biden,
Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John
Edwards, Mike Gravel, Dennis
Kucinich, Barack Obama and Bill
Richardson. Republicans on the bal-
lot include Rudy Giuliani, Mike
Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, Alan
Keyes, John McCain, Ron Paul,
Mitt Romney, Tom Tancredo and
Fred Thompson.
Several of the candidates from
both parties have officially ended
their presidential bids but will
remain on the ballot next week.
Primary ballots are printed several
weeks in advance and cannot be
changed after a certain point even if
a candidate drops out of the race.
Homer precinct to change
Banks County Probate Judge Betty Thomas has announced that the voting
location for the Homer precinct has changed from the county courthouse to
the new city hall. The new city hall is located at 943 Historic Homer Highway
in Homer.
This is a permanent change and is effective with the presidential preference
primary on Feb. 5. This change will have no impact on the day to day activity
of the board of registrars, Thomas added. The absentee and advance voting
will continue to be held at the registrar’s office in the courthouse.
ID required for advance voting
Those participating in advance
voting this week for the upcoming
presidential preference primary are
reminded to bring photo ID, accord
ing to the secretary of state’s office.
Statewide, voters will be asked to
choose a Republican or Democratic
ballot when voting in the presidential
preference primary. Voters will be
required to show one of the following
six forms of photo ID when voting
in-person during advance voting or
Advance voting
ends Friday
on Election Day:
•A Georgia driver’s license, even
if expired
•Any valid state or federal gov
ernment issued photo ID, including
a free Voter ID Card issued by the
resident’s county registrar or Georgia
continued on page 2A
Lula residents to see increased water, sewer rates
No turnout at
public hearings
BY CHRIS BRIDGES
Citizens who reside in the
City of Lula will soon see an
increase on their water and
sewer bills.
The city council voted unani
mously last Thursday night to
implement the increase follow-
ing three recent public hear
ings on the matter. The water
rate will increase from $5.50
to $7 while the sewer rate will
go from $6.50 to $9.10 for the
basic rate.
Mayor Milton Turner said no
citizens turned out for the recent
public hearings as no one other
than a media representative of
The Banks County News was in
attendance besides Lula offi
cials.
“I was surprised we didn’t have
some citizen input,” Turner said.
“We might hear some now.”
In other business at Thursday’s
90-minute meeting, the council
made an offer of $3,000 to Chad
Warner for services performed
by a private contractor to relo
cate a water line into the public
right of way on his property.
Warner submitted a request
of $4,700 to which city man
ager Dennis Bergin said he
could understand. The council,
however, only offered Warner
$3,000 and then asked him if he
was satisfied with it.
Warner’s reply was, “No.”
The issue arose when Warner
extended his driveway and dis
covered the city line on his
property. The issue has been
ongoing for several months and
Warner admitted he should have
pursued the issue before now,
but work commitments prevent-
ed him from doing so.
•Bergin also told council
members the city has been in
compliance with the state man
dated water restrictions.
•A work session initial
ly scheduled for Feb. 14 was
changed to Feb. 11.
•The council recognized Betty
Irvin, Michael Eads, David
Bullock, Mary Price and Jarrett
Fry as Yard of the Month win
ners for January.
