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March 25 3/23/04 5:09 PM Page 1
Top Pickens County Concerns: Youth Issues, Drugs, Teen Pregnancy
Family Connection Presents Findings Of Survey On Community Concerns / Page 13B
MARCH 25, 2004 VOLUME 116 NUMBER 46 JASPER, GEORGIA 30143 USPS 431-820 THREE SECTIONS 48 PAGES PLUS SUPPLEMENTS
Briefly. . .
A Sure Sign
of Spring
While the temperatures are
warming from the cold snap
earlier this week, Pickens
County Master Gardeners say
there’s one sure sign that
spring has arrived: the annual
Art & Antiques in the Garden
Show which will be held this
Saturday in Jasper. Informative
programs are scheduled
throughout the day and ven
dors including nurseries,
florists, artists, craftsmen,
antique shops and others will
be on hand with all sorts of
goodies. The Master Gardeners
promise that this year’s show
will offer something for every
one, from those who love dig
ging in the dirt to those who
just want to look at pretty
flowers. Page 12A
Ready To Start
Hammering Again
The Pickens County Habitat
for Humanity group has just
finished
driving the
last nail in
the third
home they
built here,
but they don’t plan to let their
hammers stay idle long. They
announce this week plans to
begin the selection process for
their next home. Potential
homeowners need to fill out an
application and attend an ori
entation meeting if they are
interested in being a partner
with Habitat on the construc
tion of a new home. Page 7B
State Board Member
Holding Meeting
In Jasper
State Board of Education
member Jim Franklin will hold
a public hearing in Jasper next
Monday. Local residents who
would like to comment on
public education in Georgia
will have an opportunity to
express their views to the 10th
district representative on the
state board. Page 6A
Deaths
“Chig” Gartrell
Brian Wall
Lenora Stancil
Gene Silver
Barbara Gardner
OBITUARIES ... .See Page 14A
Weather
By WILLIAM D1LBECK
Tuesday
HI
67
LOW
39
RAIN
.00
Wednesday
67
39
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Thursday
64
46
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Friday
73
53
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Saturday
73
47
.43
Sunday
51
29
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Monday
48
26
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515 accident claims life
of 72 year old man
Wife’s condition improving
By Christie Pool
A Dawson County man was
killed and his wife severely injured
last Wednesday when he turned in
front of a truck on Hwy. 515 at the
hospital intersection.
Lonoria Millsaps, 72, of Daw-
sonville was traveling in the north
bound lane of Hwy. 515 when he
attempted to make a left hand turn
into the hospital, according to city
of Jasper Police Chief Harold
Cantrell.
Millsaps’ 1995 Buick Century
was struck in the side by a 2000
Dodge Dakota pickup traveling
south along the highway. Both
drivers had a green light, Cantrell
said, but Millsaps underestimated
the pickup’s speed and believed he
could get across in front of it.
“The car was t-boned in the
side,” Cantrell said.
No charges were filed in the
case.
The accident occurred Wednes
day morning around 7:19 a.m. and
Cantrell said help arrived four
minutes later. Mr. Millsaps was
conscious briefly at the scene but
was pronounced dead shortly after
arriving at the hospital. His wife,
Stella, was air lifted to North Ful
ton County Hospital where she was
treated for serious injuries. Cantrell
received an update on her condition
Monday morning and said she is
drastically improving and eating
solid foods now.
The driver of the pickup, Lamar
Brown, was treated and released
from Mountainside.
Just two weeks earlier, Cantrell
reported to the city council at its
monthly meeting that there had
been only one minor accident at the
site since the red light was
installed.
“Prior to this accident there was
only one minor incident since the
light was put up a little over a
month ago,” Cantrell said.
To make people more aware of
the light and to reduce speeds
around the site, Cantrell and his
officers parked a patrol car near the
intersection.
“We occasionally put an officer
in it,” Cantrell said. “The vehicle
does in fact run and is in fact capa
ble of catching somebody. I might
also add that even later on the
morning of the accident we had a
state trooper standing in front of
the patrol car there at the hospital
running laser and he got two people
exceeding the speed limit. They
were traveling above 70 miles an
hour.”
While there taking the photos
accompanying this story, the
Progress photographer witnessed a
near crash with a dump truck run
ning the stop light, almost hitting a
car.
The speed limit along that
stretch of highway is 55 mph.
“We do plan to continually work
that area for excessive speeds,” he
said.
Cantrell stressed that speed was
not a contributing factor in the
deadly accident last week.
“People are getting accustomed
to the light now but people are
always in a hurry, for some reason,
to get to work or get home,”
Cantrell said.
Damon Howell / Photo
The Hwy. 515 intersection where the fatal accident occurred last
week.
Spokesman for department savs arrest may be near
Sheriff Department
investigating second rape
in past three weeks
The Pickens County Sheriff’s
Department responded Saturday to
the second incident of rape in less
than three weeks.
Deputies responded to a domes
tic violence call from Dunn’s North
on Highway 515 in Talking Rock at
around 9 p.m. Pickens EMS was
already at the scene and the female
victim, from Adairsville, had been
loaded into the back of the ambu
lance, according to the sheriff’s
office incident report.
A witness at the scene said the
woman had told him that the perpe
trator “had gotten into her car in the
Resaca area and had her drive to a
location in Pickens County in the
area of Dunn’s North,” the incident
report said.
The witness also said he noticed
red marks around the woman’s
neck and wrist while he was talking
to her.
No one was arrested at the
scene, and the incident is still being
investigated. A sheriff’s department
spokesman said an arrest will likely
be made soon.
In the first case earlier this
month, an arrest was made shortly
after the incident occurred. The
cases are not believed to be con
nected.
Calling all cooks & gardeners
Get out your favorite family
recipes and share them with our
readers! The Pickens Progress
will soon begin a new series spot
lighting both area cooks and their
favorite recipes and local gardens
and gardeners.
Find your grandmother’s sweet
potato souffle recipe or tell us the
best way to cook some southern
favorites like fried chicken or
potato salad. We will print the
recipe and feature the cook. If you
have a recipe you’d like to share
but don’t want to be spotlighted
yourself, you can always submit
the recipe for publication alone.
Continued on page 16A
Damon Howell / Photo
The county government has a contract to purchase this 8,000-plus square foot building across
from the courthouse.
County has contract to purchase
closed downtown restaurant / music club
By Dan Pool
Pickens County has a contract to purchase the
8,100 square-foot building near the courthouse which
formerly housed the Uptown Music Cafe, from the
Bank of North Georgia who took ownership follow
ing a March 2 foreclosure.
The county plans on expanding their office / court
house space to the Depot Street building.
The blues club held its last night Saturday. The
building was foreclosed on and went up for auction
in March. No bids were entered on the building and it
was returned to the Bank of North Georgia for the
unpaid amount. The legal advertisement of the “sale
under power” said the promissory note dated July 26,
2000 was for $425,250 made payable from Raisor
properties to the Bank of North Georgia.
The SideBar first opened in July 2000 by Charlie
Raisor, who continued to own the building through
the foreclosure. The restaurant building was original
ly a closed dry-cleaning building and a Royal Crown
Cola building.
Raisor drastically altered the appearance of the
entire block to build the upscale restaurant including
adding a second floor to the dry cleaners and demol
ishing the Royal Crown building to build the bar.
Raisor said Tuesday that the SideBar was just
becoming profitable when the 9/11 attacks occurred,
dragging down all entertainment businesses. He said
the fine-dining restaurant never fully recovered.
“We had been making money all summer, but
when the towers fell, we never made another dime,”
he said. “I thought we had turned the corner with our
concept at that time.”
Raisor said he continued to operate the SideBar
for another year with growing losses. He closed the
SideBar in July of 2002.
A renovated and smaller blues club re-opened in
Continued on page 16A
School Board and Council members
hold private meeting
Both sides acknowledge conflict, but offer few details
By Michael Moore
Last Wednesday the Pickens County Board of Edu
cation met behind closed doors with two members of
the Jasper City Council, and the topic of the meeting
remains a mystery due to lack of comments from both
sides.
Although those who attended the meeting did not
disclose specific details of what was discussed, city of
Jasper officials indicate that an infrastructure deal
between the two bodies was the main point of con
tention.
The private meeting was called by the school board,
and two Jasper city council members — Jackie Gise
and Barry Cheshire — also attended after being invited
by the board.
School superintendent Lee Shiver, who attended the
meeting, said the board called the meeting to discuss
“pending litigation.”
An affidavit signed by board chairman Tony Young
states that the board met in private to discuss “pending
or potential litigation, settlement, claims, administra
tive proceedings, or other judicial actions brought or to
be brought by or against the school district or an officer
or employee or in which the officer or employee may
be directly involved.”
The Open Meetings Act of Georgia allows govern
ment boards and councils to meet in private for only a
limited number of reasons, one of which is to discuss
pending litigation with their attorney.
Gise said that during the meeting Young mentioned
the board was seeking legal advice on a matter that she
did not identify. She did not disclose any details of the
discussion to the Progress.
She added that, in her opinion, the school board was
justified in closing the meeting, but also noted that she
isn’t entirely familiar with the circumstances that allow
closed meetings.
“I can only remember a couple of times when we
have had to close a city council meeting,” said Gise.
Continued on page 16A
Update from Brent Ellis
who plans to lose 270 pounds this year
Fairmount man finds
weight loss through
gastric surgery a rough road
By Dan Pool
[On January 1, the Progress
began reporting a before and after
story about Brent Ellis, a 32-year-
old Fairmount man planning to
lose 270 pounds this year following
gastric bypass surgery. We pick up
his story this week, three months
after the surgery.]
In a colossal understatement
from a man who weighs 479
pounds, Brent Ellis said the three
months since his gastric bypass
surgery “have been a rough road.”
Following complications which
developed during the January 9
surgery at the Atlanta Medical
Center, the Pickens County Deputy
has almost died twice, been hospi
talized 25 days — many in inten
sive care, had one follow up sur
gery, ran fevers over 105 degrees,
had to undergo physical therapy to
regain the use of one of his arms,
was only able to return to work last
week and suffered a large, but
inexplicable, burn on the back of
his neck.
The man who once weighed 580
pounds, however, is now down to
below 479 pounds and shedding
additional pounds by the day. Ellis
had lost 55 pounds prior to surgery
to get ready for it, the rest coming
as a result of the procedure.
Continued on page 16A
Brent Ellis has lost the first
101 pounds on his way to
reaching his weight loss goal.
Damon Howell / Photo