Pickens County progress. (Jasper, Ga.) 1899-current, April 15, 2004, Image 1

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Newspaper Page TextFront - April 15 4/13/04 5:25 PM Page 1 Jasper Farmers Market Opens 2004 Season Saturday Kick OffDay Will Feature All Kinds of Plants, Honey, Spring Greens, Local Crafts / Page 13A *—A ■ <•/' - Count i 50 0 APRE. 15, 2004 VOLUME 116 NUMBER 49 JASPER, GEORGIA 30143 USPS 431-830 THREE SECTIONS 53 PAGES PLUS SUPPLEMENTS Briefly. . . “In The Garden” With spring flowers in full bloom across Pickens County and local gardeners getting anxious to plant their summer annuals, a new column featur ing local gardeners begins in this week’s Progress. “In the Garden” visits with Georgette Cochran this week and will be spending time with other resi dents with green thumbs in coming issues, sharing their gardening success stories and advice on avoiding some com mon pitfalls. Page 16C “Change for Change ” With Child Abuse Preven tion Month being observed in Pickens County during April, local residents are reminded that there were 432 reports of child abuse and neglect here last year. For every dollar spent on child protective serv ices in Georgia, 99 cents goes to intervention and treatment after abuse has occurred and only one cent is spent on try ing to prevent the abuse from occurring in the first place. A local program, “Change for Change,” will raise funds for prevention measures through the Pickens Healthy Families program. Page 2A The Workplace: No Place for Drugs The North Georgia Employ er Committee, working with Family Connections, has begun a program aimed at the problem of drug use in the three-county area it serves. Drug abuse has been identified as a serious local problem affecting not only productivity at the workplace but family life at home too. The goal is to bring area service providers, educators and employers together for a program that will help employees, employ ers and parents get a handle on the drug use problem. Page 5B Weather By WILLIAM D1LBECK HI LOW RAIN Tuesday 72 38 .00 Wednesday 76 53 .00 Thursday 72 47 .00 Friday 73 47 .00 Saturday 69 46 .15 Sunday 65 53 .03 Monday 58 53 1.83 Deaths Shirley Davis Jimmy Goss Annie Yates Viney Hendrix Broughton Bannister OBITUARIES ... .See Page 14A Visit Us On The Web www.pickensprogress .com The Progress is printed in part on recycled newsprint and is recyclable Talking Rock Creek, housing prices, airport top discussion of county’s comprehensive plan By Christie Pool The county’s comprehensive plan, recently updated by the Regional Development Center (RDC), was presented to the plan ning commission at its monthly meeting Monday night. County Planning Director Norman Pope discussed several key components of the report that will impact the county and its citizens. The stated purpose of the com prehensive plan is to coordinate planning on inter-jurisdictional issues and provide a policy frame work for guiding both day-to-day and long range decision making for local government officials and administrators of Pickens County, Jasper, Nelson and Talking Rock. According to Pope, a plan is man dated for all counties and munici palities by the state government who requires that a 20-year plan be in place. The first plan here was done in 1993 then updated in 1998. The recent ly completed plan was updated for 2003. According to Pope, the RDC has been working on a capital improvement plan for the past 18 months that will be added later. This plan will provide area leaders with ideas on what type of facilities should be constructed locally. “That opens the possibility that the county can charge impact fees - if you have a capital improvement plan in place,” Pope said. “If your services are at a level they should be, then you can impose the fees.” In assessing the county’s natural resources, the plan recognizes there is “abundant scenic, forest, agricul ture, water and wildlife habitat areas which furnish unique oppor tunities for recreation, tourism and an excellent quality of life. The county is growing rapidly, and as a result these natural resources are being lost to development pressure and must be safeguarded. In recog nition of these threats, the county and cities have undertaken a num ber of initiatives to preserve these resources.” The report goes on to say that all governments have adopted the state’s mandatory minimum protec tion requirements for water supply watershed, ground water recharge areas, wetlands and steep sloped mountains. However, one area creek is on the federal govern ment’s Impaired Water List. “I was surprised that Talking Rock Creek was on that list,” Pope said. The creek, from Hwy. 136 west to the Gilmer/Pickens county line, is in violation of Federal fecal col- iform and fishing consumption guidelines and is only partially supporting water quality standards, according to the report. According to Pope, the county may be required to develop a water quality management program to address the pollution levels in the stream. Pope said one option may be to look at the agricultural use of the property and require farmers to fence animals out of the creek. “How many of those farmers do you think will say ‘OKAY. I’ll put up a fence’?,” said Commission Member Kathy Bruce. “They’re going to say, ‘It’s my property and I’ll do what I want’.” Pope said the federal govern ment is very serious about cleaning up these streams and the problem could be arising from wild animals such as bears. “The county will strive to get the creek removed from the list — possibly through monitoring means -- and if not then it will have to find a way to get the creek cleaned up,” Pope said. “Unfortunately it falls back on the local government to get it cleaned up.” According to the report, approx imately 30 to 40 percent of local roads are unpaved. Based on tradi tional funding sources, the report says, the county is able to grade and pave only around six to 10 miles of roads a year. New funding sources are needed, according to the RDC, to improve the highest priority roads. Due to continued population growth and expanded local economy, traffic volumes are rising and congestion is occurring, particularly in the Jasper urban area. The RDC rec ommends that a long range plan be undertaken to address all modes of transportation. The plan suggested that although the airport provides excel lent service, additional improve ments are deemed necessary to accommodate increased usage including expansion of the jet fuel pumping and storage facilities, adding to the terminal building, constructing additional taxi ways and new fencing. “There is a considerable effort underway to make sure we utilize this airport to bring economic development in,” Pope said. “With the addition of 15 acres to the air port we will be able to add space for hangars and the runway has been expanded from 3,600 to 5,000 feet long.” The plan’s assessment of the area’s water service needs noted that approximately 4,154 people are not currently served by existing distribution systems, although Pope said he felt that number was a little high as more people are being added to the county’s expanding system. By 2025, the RDC projects that an additional 32,000 people will live within the service areas. “Based upon current average consumption of 105 gallons per person per day and new population to be served, it is estimated that 1, 515,360 additional gallons per day will be needed by 2015. By the year 2025 demand will increase to 3,796,065 gallons per day,” the RDC predicts. Pope said the RDC’s use of 105 gallons per person per day was a low figure and area water use was likely closer to the state’s average of 180 gallons a day. Using that figure, he said, the water need Continued on page 4A Planning Director: “We need to strive to get to a point where we are self-reliant and not dependent on other cities for our water. ” Damon Howell / Photo Mountainside Medical Center is being sold by present owner SunLink to Piedmont Medical Center because it fits in better with Piedmont’s metropolitan operation. Expansion may be on the horizon with new owners Mountainside Medical to be sold to Piedmont By Dan Pool Top officials with Mountainside Medical Cen ter’s parent company announced Monday they had reached an agreement to sell the local hospital to Piedmont Medical Center, Inc. According to a press release from SunLink Health Systems, Inc. the hospital in Jasper will be sold for approximately $40 million with the deal to be completed this June. Representatives from both companies said growth in Pickens had caused Mountainside to grow beyond SunLink’s typically rural service areas. SunLink’s Chairman and Chief Executive Offi cer, Robert M. Thornton, Jr. said, “This transaction will allow us to focus more sharply on our core operating strategy of being a quality healthcare provider to exurban and rural communities. The Mountainside service area of Jasper and Pickens County is a fast-growing area in north Atlanta which is increasingly taking on characteristics dif ferent from our business strategy but complementa ry to Piedmont’s strength. We are confident that Piedmont, one of Atlanta’s premier medical centers, will continue to provide the Mountainside service area with outstanding medical resources.” Piedmont Medical Center is the parent company of Piedmont Hospital, a 500-bed facility in Buck- head and also owns the 100-bed hospital in Fayette County. According to a press release, they are already the market leader for cardiac care in Pick ens and ranked fifth in orthopedics here. R. Timothy Stack, president and CEO of Pied mont Medical Center, said, “Mountainside Medical Center fits well with Piedmont’s plans to expand our healthcare services to north Georgia. This is a growing area of the state where our physicians already have a strong presence, particularly in car diac and gastrointestinal care.” Nina Montanaro with Piedmont Medical Center said it is too early to determine what changes might be in store for Mountainside, but they would likely be expanding to meet the needs of the growing community. Montanaro said they would begin with a com munity needs assessment and then see how that matched the current operation. Mountainside CEO John Graves said he believes Piedmont will bring more services to the local hos pital and could begin looking at expansion plans for the the 35-bed facility very quickly. “Healthcare is becoming more geographically pocketed,” he said. “Driving to Atlanta for care is going by the wayside. Physically, it will become impossible with the traffic. Piedmont will bring more tertiary and specialty services to the people here.” Increased cardiac care under Piedmont owner ship is one of the new services Graves said he expected. Graves said he met with all department heads and managers at the hospital to discuss the sale and everyone feels the change will be a positive for patients, employees and the community. “SunLink is a rural hospital chain,” he said. “With growth in the metro area, Pickens County is changing and more rapidly than people realize. We don’t fit into a rural hospital mode any longer.” Graves said the changes in patient volume and needs at Mountainside accelerated rapidly since moving into the new Highway 515 facility last year. “The business changed,” he said. “Outpatient volume went up 35-40 percent. ER volume increased. The smallest increase in any department was still more than 13 percent.” Continued on page 4A “What's worse than a speed trap is a death trap, ” says Mayor Jasper Police to begin using radar to control speeds on four-lane “mandatory” that the department be given the ability to slow people down. “With all the growth and the increased number of vehicles on the road, now is the time to start protecting our citizens,” said Cantrell. He noted that in March, his department issued 179 traffic citations, many of which were on the four-lane highway. In the same month last year, only 68 citations were written by the Jasper Police Department. Also, Cantrell said that through last week, the Geor gia State Patrol had given 112 speeding tickets this year on Highway 515 through Jasper. Most of those were for violations of drivers exceeding 75 miles per hour. On one Friday evening in March, he said two Jasper Police cars, working with two State Patrol cars, wrote Continued on page 4A Completion of Hwy. 515 sewer project will speed commercial growth By Michael Moore The Jasper city council Monday night gave the police department its approval to seek a permit to carry radar and laser devices to detect speeding vehicles and issue tickets. Jasper police chief Harold Cantrell, addressing the council, said the main point of safety concerns is on Highway 515. He said with the growing traffic and the high rate of speed that many vehicles approach, it is New intersection for Home Depot, Kroger expected to snarl traffic during construction Local city and state Depart ment of Transportation (DOT) officials warn that upcoming road construction at the site of the new Home Depot and Kroger shopping center will cre ate a “traffic nightmare,” possi bly lasting two months. The developer of the proper ty, Maxwell Properties, will begin installing a new intersec tion on Highway 53 at Camp Road within the next three weeks, according to vice presi dent Gary Wert. The Highway 53 entrance to the shopping center will be adja cent to Camp Road where Wendy’s is located. A traffic light will be installed, and the road will be widened leading to the new light from both directions to accom modate turning lanes. Also, con crete curbs will be installed on both sides, starting at Annie’s restaurant up to the driveway of the BP gas station. Sam Wheeler of the DOT urged drivers to take note of the upcoming work when planning to drive through the area. “It’s going to be really messy there for a few days,” said Wheeler.

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Pickens County progress. (Jasper, Ga.) 1899-current, April 15, 2004, Image 1