Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

Sports: IB Cross country going to state Community: 8A Farm Day held for students — www.BanksNewsTODAY.com — 504 • Homer, Banks County, GA 30547 • A Publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. • 20 Pages, 3 Sections Plus Supplements • Vol. 40 No. 12 Voters give BOC change green light BY ANGELA GARY Banks County voters over whelmingly supported in Tuesday’s election changing to a five-member board of com missioners. Some 69 percent of the voters, or 4,070 people, voted in favor of the change, while 1,869 voted against it. The change to local govern ment will result in the follow ing: •The current board of three commissioners will be expanded to five commissioners, all serv ing, as do the current commis sioners, four-year terms. •One commissioner will hold a full-time position as chairman. The other four will serve as part- time commissioners. •Banks County would be divided into four commission districts. Each of these districts must be represented by one of the four part-time commission ers, who must also reside in their respective district. •The chairman may reside in any district, representing the county as a whole. •All of the commissioners will be elected by a county-wide vote of all eligible voters. •The two new part-time commissioners will be elected in a special election held early next year, probably in March. Thereafter, these two new com missioners and the chairman will be elected every four years together in the same year and the other two will be elected every four years in the same two year off-cycle that is currently used. News -2-3A Maysville council mulls budget — page 3A •Courthouse annex open house set — page 2A •‘Recalling good times with faithful buddy’ — page 4A Other news • Social News — 8&10B • School News — 7B • Public Safety — 5-6A • Legals — 4-6B •Church — 9B •Obituaries — 7A Ausburn, Brown re-elected Harden defeats Jamieson for House seat TAX COMMISSIONER RE-ELECTED Margaret Ausburn (second from left) was re-elected in Tuesday’s election. She is shown watching as the results came in Tuesday night. Shown are: (L-R) Kassie Suggs, Mrs. Ausburn, Lori Slaton and Jane Dunson. Photo by Sharon Hogan BY ANGELA GARY Margaret Ausburn and Neal Brown were re-elected in Tuesday’s election, while Rep. Jeanette Jamieson was defeat ed. Banks County had a 73 per cent voter-turnout with 6,276 of the 8,585 registered voters cast ing a ballot. Some 28 percent of those voting cast their ballots during the early voting period. In the tax commissioner’s race, Ausburn, the Democrat incumbent, had 3,474 votes, or 57 percent, while Republican challenger Becky Taylor had 2,568 votes. In Post 1 on the Banks County Board of Education, Republican incumbent Neal Brown had 4,055 votes, or 68 percent, while Democrat chal lenger, David Kennedy, had 1,861 votes. As for the State House District 28 seat, Michael Harden had the most votes in Banks County, as well as winning district-wide. In Banks County Harden, a Republican, had 3,826 votes, while Jamieson, a Democrat, had 2,243 votes. District-wide, Harden had 10,239 votes, or 54 percent, and Jamieson had 8,443 votes. In the United States House District 10 race, Paul Broun won in Banks County, as well as winning district-wide. In Banks County, Broun, the incumbent Republican, had 4,455 votes, while Democrat Bobby Saxon had 1,503 votes. District-wide, Broun had 175,788 votes, or 60 percent, and Saxon had 113,565 votes. In the United States Senate seat, Saxby Chambliss, the incumbent Republican, had 4.264 votes in Banks County, while Democract challenger, Jim Martin, had 1,512 votes. Liberterian Allen Buckley had 297 votes in Banks County. State-wide, the results were not finalized at press time. It appeared as if Chambliss might be headed into a runoff. With 96 percent of the precincts in the district reporting, Chambliss had 1.7 million votes, or 49 percent, and Jim Martin had 1.6 million. Libertarian Allen Buckley had 131,862 votes. In the presidential race, John McCain was the winner in Banks County with 5,114 votes compared to Barack Obama with 1,026 votes. Bob Barr had 89 votes. Obama was declared the national winner in the presi dential race. BOC moves toward hiring economic director Approves contract for new position BY ANGELA GARY The Banks County Board of Commissioners paved the way for hiring an economic director last week, although a time frame for hiring someone has not been discussed publicly. The BOC and the Banks County Development Authority have both struggled over details in the contract for an economic development director. However, there has been no discussion on advertising for a person or when the position would be filled. The BOC is apparently get ting closer to moving forward with hiring someone as the contract for the new position was approved at a meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 28. BOC chairman Gene Hart and commissioner Joe Barefoot both voted in favor of the contract. Rickey Cain was not present. The Development Authority approved the contract at an earlier meeting. r * <£? Ji 42? A, 43 The job duties and other guidelines for the new position are included in the contract, but it does not state a specific salary. The salary issue has been a topic of debate of BOC and DA lead ers for several months. At one time, a $200,000 fig ure was mentioned as a budget for the department. This would not have been salary only. It would have included the entire budget for the department. This figure was not placed in the final contract. A salary and depart ment budget will apparently be negotiated when someone is hired. The contact is for five years and would begin on Dec. 31, 2008, which apparently means a person will be hired this year. The development authority and BOC would both be involved in the hiring of an economic director and the BOC would handle the supervision of the employee. OTHER BUSINESS In other business at the Oct. 28 meeting, the BOC: •agreed to pay Ansley Communications $41,2050 for cabling at the courthouse. This is part of the renovation of the facility. •agreed to pay Gunby Communications $10,650 for a redundant repeater for the 911 department. No bids were taken because this proj ect is building onto an existing radio infrastructure that Gunby Communications maintains for the county. •approved an update of the comprehensive plan. Several public hearings were held and the regional development cen ter and state community affairs department signed off on the update. This plan must be approved in order for the county to maintain its “qualified local government status.” •approved a solid waste plan and a records management plan. •took no action on filling Albert Ward’s seat on the plan ning commission. Hart made a motion that Melinda Cochran fill the position, but Barefoot did not second the motion. Barefoot then made a motion that Ward be reappointed, but Hart didn’t second that motion. The BOC will reconsider the matter when commissioner Cain is present to break the tie. •held a 30-minute closed ses sion to discuss land acquisition. Members of the development authority also attended this closed-door meeting. No action was taken when the meeting was opened to the public. Millage unchanged BY ANGELA GARY For the fourth year in a row, the Banks County Board of Commissioners has kept the millage rate at 8.304. At a meeting last week, the BOC unanimously approved the millage rate. “We’re real proud that we are able to do this for the county without raising the millage rate at all,” BOC chairman Gene Hart said. “There was a lot of cutting and gnashing of teeth as we went over the budget with the department heads. This is four years in a row that we have held it the same. I am real proud of this.” Commissioner Joe Barefoot added: “I want to say that we worked hard on this budget to keep it where it is. We are aware that there are unknown economic issues.” Banks CVB presents fourth chocolate fair Taste Test Veterans Day celebration set Banks County Middle School will honor veterans on November 11, with a program and a recep tion at 10 a.m. in the gym. “Also, we are planning a dis play to show the history and importance of Veterans Day and contributions of local service men and women,” organizers state. Lula to break ground on park The City of Lula Downtown Development Authority will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for Veterans Park at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 11, at the comer of Main Street and Athens Street. Leaders invite everyone to join the community for this event. This is the first phase in the rede velopment of the downtown Lula area. The Banks County Convention and Visitors Bureau invites everyone out to the fourth annual CVB Chocolate Fair on Nov. 10 from 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. in the Community Room at the Tanger Town Centre at Banks Crossing. The fair is a competition for amateur bakers in which par ticipants bring their chocolate creation entries and each entry is judged by a panel of judges and prizes are awarded to the participants with the winning entries. The categories for the judg ing are: Best Overall Chocolate Entry Winner, $100: Most Creative Chocolate Creation Winner, $100: and Chocoholics Choice Award Winner, $100. There will also be two new categories for the 2008 Chocolate Fair. They are: Best Sugar Free Chocolate Entry Winner, $100, and Best Parent/ Child (age 12 and under) Entry Winner, $100. Not only are the entries sam pled and judged by the panel of judges. Everyone attending the fair gets to sample all the entries and vote on their favor ite chocolate dish to determine the winner of the People’s Chocolate Choice Award Winner, $100. The entry fee is $25 for those aged 13 and older for up to two entries. And, the entry fee is $10 for Parent/Child (age 12 and under) teams for up to two entries. Tickets to attend the choco late fair are $5 in advance and $7 at the door with children 12 and under admitted free. Tickets and entry forms are available at the RE/MAX Select Commerce office located in the Commerce Crossing mall at Banks Crossing; at the First Georgia Bank in Homer; and in Cornelia at the main branch of Community Bank and Trust. For more information, contact the Banks County Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) at bankscvb@windstream.net or call 706-677-5265.