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The Jefferson Caterpillar plant will be closed in June due to the economic downturn. Officials announced Tuesday morning that the facility, which makes fuel systems, will begin laying off some 89 employees starting in May. The local facility’s work will be moved to plants in Thomasville, GA and Pontiac, IL.
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The Jefferson police officer who reportedly had a relationship with a teenage girl at the school where he worked as a school resource officer has been fired. [Full Story »] 

A well-known Jefferson couple was killed in a Banks county wreck Friday on Hwy. 63 at Hwy. 51. Killed were Tony and Ann Ianuario, Jefferson. The wreck reportedly involved a tractor trailer and a SUV, but no official details were available Saturday about the cause of the wreck. [Full Story »] 

The Jackson County School System will use two planned student holidays as make-up days for the recent snow days.

The district will use a teacher planning day — Friday, March 13 — and the first day of Spring Break — Monday, April 6 — as the snow make-up days.

The school system canceled classes on March 2-3, following a winter storm that dumped at least five inches of snow in parts of Jackson County.

The City of Jefferson School System will make up its one snow day on March 13, which was previously a teacher planning day.

Power has been restored to most areas of Jackson County officials of Jackson EMC said Wednesday morning with only 354 customers in the area still without electricity. Most of that is in the South Jackson area, officials said.

In Madison County, some 4,386 JEMC customers remain without power Wednesday morning, down from 8,000 Tuesday afternoon. Madison County was hit hard by Sunday's snow storm and school was again canceled Wednesday.

According to JEMC, 30 work crews are in Madison County Wednesday. Some 70 broken power poles were rreported in the county with 17 remaining to be fixed. Mud has been a major problem in restoring power, officials said, as trucks get bogged down and have to be pulled out of the mire.

Most of the feeder lines have been restored in Madison County, JEMC officials said Wednesday morning and work in both Madison and Jackson is now focused on restoring power to individual homes.

A state of emergency has been declared in Jackson County due to a heavy snow storm that swept across the area Sunday. Schools and county offices are closed Monday as a result of the storm.

According to EMS director Steve Nichols, numerous roads are dangerous with ice and trees down.

"Several auto accidents are taking place at present," Nichols said Monday morning. "Most secondary roads are still non-passable."

Some 9,450 citizens are out of power with Jackson EMC and 25,000 people are out of power in the Athens and Jackson County area on Georgia Power.

According to Jackson EMC, at the height of the storm Sunday, some 24,000 were out of power and nearly 17,000 were out of power Monday morning. JEMC officials said the hardest hit areas for the power company were Jackson and Madison counties. Some 9,447 customers in Jackson were out of power Monday morning while 7,858 in Madison County were without power. Two substations in Madison County were without power due to a problem with a transmission line that brings power in from the statewide power grid, officials said.