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Sports: IB Lady Leopards return to win column School: 8R JFH- P M > A N'JiTK * A# Geography Bee winners named January 30,2008 rn n i r . \t ,anuary3 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.