Entries by Staff Writer

The Jackson County school board named John Green, a high school principal in Alabama, as the school system's new superintendent during a brief called meeting Thursday that preceded Jackson County Comprehensive High School graduation exercises.

He takes over for Shannon Adams, who retiring because of health reasons. Adams has been the system superintendent since 2006.

Chairperson Lynn Wheeler-Massey opened the meeting, which was held in a classroom at JCCHS, and made the motion to hire Green "pursuant to the contract as presented." Those on hand in the audience applauded after the unanimous vote. They also gave a round of applause to Adams.

"We have a new superintendent, and I think you folks are going to be extremely happy," Wheeler-Massey said. "He's very excited about coming to Jackson County."

Green is principal of a high school in Madison, Ala., that is under construction. He retired from Gwinnett County Public Schools in June 2011 as an area superintendent.

Meanwhile, Adams expressed his gratitude to those on hand.

"I wouldn't have made it without all y'all," Adams said. "I appreciate you so much, and thank you everything you've done for me."

Said Wheeler-Massey: "We appreciate you and what you've done for our school system."

Arcade officials have heard that city administrator Debbie Mockus is in critical but stable condition at a Charlotte area hospital due to injuries from a Saturday motorcycle accident in North Carolina.

Mockus’s husband, Alan, was killed along with another motorcyclist involved in the crash. The accident occurred during a Vietnam Veterans’ rally at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. which is located just outside Charlotte.

Local police are still investigating the crash.

Mockus is being treated in the intensive care unit at Carolinas Medical Center.

Arcade police chief Randy Williams said he’s spoken to mayor Doug Haynie, who has talked with family members of Mockus. Williams said he’s heard of no change in Mockus’s condition.

Mockus has worked for Arcade since 2008.

“Our prayers are going out to Debbie and her family, Alan’s family and the family of the other motorcyclist,” Williams said.

Local, state and federal law enforcement agencies raided four Jefferson businesses Wednesday on illegal gambling charges.

The stores were: BP Food Mart at 110 Sycamore Street; Fuel Mart at 492 Athens Street; Citgo at 418 Lee Street; and Tabo’s Grocery at 415 Lee Street.

Those arrested were: M. Amin, Rekhaeen M. Chaudhari, Bharatbha D. Chaudhari, Amyn Meghani and Azadul Islam. All were charged with commercial gambling and keeping a gambling place.

Jefferson police chief Joe Wirthman said the investigation is continuing and other arrests may be made.

Law enforcement officers seized 17 slot machines, computers, hard drives and cash from the businesses. Search warrants for the banks records on the businesses have also been made at three local banks.

The businesses reopened after officers completed the searches and the arrests were made.

Wirthman said the action was the result of an undercover operation in conjunction with several other agencies.

Agencies assisting with the investigation include the Internal Revenue Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Georgia Department of Revenue, Jefferson Police Department, Arcade Police Department, Gwinnett Police Department and Athens Police Department.

Kings Bridge Middle School made a significant improvement in the percentage of eighth graders passing a state-mandated writing test.

However, officials with the Jackson County School System say there’s still work to be done to get more kids meeting and exceeding state writing standards.

“We’re already in a very good place, but it’s exciting to see how we can take it to the next level,” said Amity Hardigree, the district’s literacy specialist, during the March 19 board of education meeting.

Georgia requires that third, fifth, eighth and 11th grade students take a writing assessment. For eighth graders, students have 100 minutes to write an essay from an assigned topic. The writing assessment is given in January and later scored by two raters. Local school systems recently received those results. [Full Story »] 

A Maysville home was destroyed in an early morning fire.

The Maysville, Commerce, Plainview and Jackson County Correctional Institute fire departments were called to a reported fire at 501 Deadwyler Road at 2:20 a.m. Tuesday.

The two-story single family residence was fully involved with fire. The residents were home at the time of the fire and no injuries were reported.

The home is listed as totally destroyed and the cause of the fire is under investigation by the Maysville Fire Department.

There will be no daisies on the new Nicholson water tank. That is the decision made by the Nicholson Water Authority at its March meeting.

The authority voted unanimously to paint a flag design on the tank with “Nicholson Water” under the flag and the word “Authority” going down the standpipe.

The authority had previously given the Nicholson City Council a chance to pay to have a city logo put on the new tower and the city council unanimously approved a design with daisies on it at a cost of $4,900. The authority didn’t approve this design.

The authority did not discuss the cost of the logo that was approved. However, at the March City Council meeting authority member Daniel Sailors said the cost to have the NWA name on the tank was included in the contract price the authority got for installing the tank. It is unclear if the flag design will cost the NWA extra or not.

NWA member Tully Westmoreland made a motion to use the flag instead of the daisies, but that motion died for lack of a second. After further discussion on the issue, Westmoreland made a second motion for the flag design, Sailors seconded the motion and all members agreed.

NWA member Walter Barnett made a motion to use standard type as the lettering style on the new water tank and to all members agreed.

The Jackson County Airport Authority agreed to a mutual parting of ways with its short-lived fixed base operator.

The JCAA voted Tuesday to release Spirit Aviation from its contract at a jointly agreed upon date with Spirit. This decision came only 24 hours after the JCAA met with the board of commissioners to discuss the direction of the airport.

The airport authority and the county will now look into the cost of providing their own service rather than have an FBO do it.

“As a whole, from what I understand, the sentiment was that, hey, we need to move forward with this on our own,” interim JCAA chairman Jonathan Milford said. [Full Story »]