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Front - March 17 3/15/05 5:16 PM Page 1
Diamond Dragons Open Season With Two Wins
Pickens High Golf, Track and Tennis Teams Open Spring Season / Page 1C
MARCH 17, 2005 VOLUME 117 NUMBER 45 JASPER, GEORGIA 30143 USPS 431-820 THREE SECTIONS 58 PAGES PLUS SUPPLEMENTS
Former commissioner’s
complaints dismissed
by state election board
But concerns expressed over
voter purge process
Briefly. . .
Art & Antiques
In the Garden
(Don’tMiss It)
The Pickens County Master
Gardeners will be hosting the
third annual Art & Antiques in
the Garden Show this Saturday.
To get your new gardening sea
son underway, a record number
of vendors will offer a variety of
plants. And for those who want
to add some extra interest to
their gardens, an assortment of
crafts and garden art will also be
featured. Page 9B
New Wheels
For Animal Rescue
(You Can’t Miss It)
Pickens Animal Rescue
isn’t driving around town
unnoticed any longer. Thanks
to World Signs in Jasper, Ani
mal Rescue volunteers and
foster pets are now riding in a
piece of mobile art. Animal
Rescue also has new members
on their board of directors.
They have a number of events
planned for the coming year
and all residents interested in
assisting with the Animal
Rescue projects are invited to
get involved. Page 6A
Exploring
Genealogy
Are you interested in doing
family history but don’t know
where to begin? A new group
will be meeting at the Pickens
County Library to help with
genealogy research problems.
The first meeting of Genealo
gy Explorers is set for this
Saturday. Page 6B
Deaths
M.W. Luckey, Sr
Bess Gardner
Carl Chumley
Clara Barnes
Myrtle Pilcher
Millie Hogan
Rocky Delay, Sr
Gertrude Carringer
OBITUARIES ... .See Page 8A
Weather
By WILLIAM DILBECK
Tuesday
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42
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28
RAIN
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Wednesday
41
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Thursday
50
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Friday
55
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Saturday
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Sunday
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Monday
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Visit Us
On The Web
www.pickensprogress .com
The Progress is
printed in part on
recycled newsprint
and is recyclable
By Michael Moore
The Georgia election board last
Wednesday was satisfied with the
way the Pickens County elections
office “cleaned up” its voter regis
tration lists in 2003. But one mem
ber expressed concern that close to
ten percent of voters could legally
be purged from the rolls at one
time.
Other allegations filed with the
state board were found to be either
lacking evidence or outside the
board’s jurisdiction, according to
staff attorney Clifford Tatum. The
board voted unanimously to close
the case against Pickens County
supervisor of elections Kim Kelley.
A list of six complaints was filed
in November 2004 by former com
missioner Bill Newton, who lost his
bid for a second term last year by
By Michael Moore
Students and faculty were
praised with recognition at this
month’s regular Pickens County
board of education meeting Thurs
day, before the final contract for a
new baseball locker room was
approved.
The board first recognized Traci
Buckingham as the winner of the
2005 Big Dragon Heart award.
Each year the award is given to a
faculty member who “goes above
and beyond the call,” said Chair
man Mark Mitton.
Buckingham is a teacher of Eng
lish as a second language (ESL).
19 votes in a runoff.
Tatum said the state election
office sent an investigator to Pick
ens to look into the allegations.
The chief complaint had to do
with a list of about 1,400 Pickens
County voters who were purged by
Kelley at the instruction of the local
board of elections in January 2003.
At the meeting. State board
members questioned Kelley exten
sively about how she composed the
list of electors to be challenged and
then removed from the rolls.
Kelley said the purge was part
of an effort to reorganize the
“mess” that voter registration lists
were in when she joined the Pick
ens County office in 2001. She said
she compared the voter rolls to dif
ferent databases to determine bad
Continued on page 5A
She received this year’s award for
“quietly supporting all non-English
speaking students in our school
system,” Mitton said.
“She has spent hours of her own
time translating for Spanish-speak
ing parents, to guide them through
the red tape of living in an English-
speaking world,” said Mitton. “She
is a mentor to each and every one
of her students.”
Pickens High School (PHS)
principal Lloyd Shaddix recognized
this year’s four state qualifiers on
the PHS wrestling team. This
year’s qualifiers were:
Continued on page 5A
Jennifer Moorer / Photos
Health Department Manager Lois Bryant standing beside
the panda bear mural says the color paintings give children
something to look at and talk about. The inset shows one of the
painted ceiling tiles.
Big Canoe Chapel PaintFest
brightens Health Department
By Jennifer Moorer,
Public Information Officer,
N. GA Health District
Butterflies are elusive crea
tures, but thanks to volunteers of
the annual Big Canoe Chapel
PaintFest, several have been art
fully captured on the ceiling of the
Pickens County Health Depart
ment.
For fifteen years, Big Canoe
Chapel, in affiliation with the
Foundation for Hospital Art, has
sponsored the local PaintFest
through which participating vol
unteers produce artwork for local
clinical facilities. This year, vol
unteers painted beautiful butter
flies on the ceiling tiles of the
Continued on page 13A
$90.000 locker room approved
School board recognizes
teacher, students
Discussing the Pickens County case (l-r): State election board members Randy Evans, Jeff Israel
and Secretary of State Cathy Cox.
Planning commission hears plans
for Amicalola Scenic Byway
John Edwards, vice-chair of the Scenic Byway Committee, at the
Burnt Mountain overlook which will be on the route.
By Christie Pool
Touting improvements in nature
appreciation and historical educa
tion, tourism and recreation, repre
sentatives working on a project to
bring a scenic byway through the
county spoke to members of the
Pickens County Planning Commis
sion Monday night.
John Edwards and Don Wells
co-chair the byway project, spon
sored by the chambers of commerce
in Pickens and Dawson counties.
Edwards and Wells told commis
sion members the byway will start
in downtown Jasper and go up
Burnt Mountain Road to Hwy. 136.
It will follow 136 westward to Talk
ing Rock and extend to the county
line.
The byway will also go east
along Hwy. 136 into Dawson Coun
ty. At the junction with State Hwy.
183, the scenic route splits into two
prongs. One runs southeast down
Hwy 183 to terminate at Daw-
sonville. The second fork follows
183 northward to connect with
State Route 52 and continue past
Amicalola Falls State Park. Beyond
the park, the byway returns to Hwy.
136 via Bailey Waters Road. The
scenic byway continues along 136
to the Etowah River Road where it
jogs southwest on to Hwy 53 to ter
minate finally at Georgia 400.
According to Edwards the DOT
has ruled the road does have
“intrinsic qualities that should be
protected and enhanced.” The proj
ect seeks to “identify, preserve, pro
mote and protect treasured corri
dors throughout the state.”
“The purpose is to preserve the
treasures of the corridor - things
that are important to the people and
Continued on page 4A
Marble Hill man dies in wreck
A Marble Hill man died from
injuries he sustained in a single car
accident during early morning
hours Tuesday.
Benny Wofford, 53, of Marble
Hill died after he was thrown from
the pickup truck he was driving
along Hwy. 53. According to Major
Allen Wigington with the Pickens
County Sheriff’s Department, Wof
ford was driving on 53 near
Foothills Community Church when
the truck went off the road and
overturned. Wofford was the sole
occupant.
The call to 911 came in around
1 a.m., Wigington said, and author
ities were dispatched to the scene.
Wofford was transported to
Piedmont Mountainside Hospital
where he was later pronounced
dead, according to sheriff reports.
Wigington said Wofford was
apparently not wearing a seat belt.
Local group leads effort
to mark Old Federal Road
By Jeff Warren
The Old Federal Road across
Pickens County could soon come
out of hiding. Efforts of the Georgia
Trail of Tears Association have
paved the way for a marked trail
route and highway driving tour.
Doug Mabry heads the local
Trail of Tears Association's research
committee. Mabry has compiled
extensive information about the
Federal Road, its route and history,
by meticulous digging at the state
archives. Mabry shared his findings
last Saturday morning at the Jasper
Family Steakhouse during a regular
meeting of the Georgia Trail of
Tears Association.
"The Federal Road into Indian
lands was a high priority of Presi
dent Thomas Jefferson," Mabry
said. "More than just a transporta
tion route, it was a catalyst for
change, planned change."
Mabry said, just after 1800, the
road tracked northwest from the
river port of Augusta on the Savan
nah River. At the Chattahoochee
River, the road crossed into lands of
the Cherokee Nation. Continuing
through Harnageville (Tate) and
Pickens County, the road ran north
to the area around Knoxville, Ten
nessee.
Damon Howell/Photo
Maybe the first in a long line of
markers. Neither forgotten nor
quite gone, sections of the Old Fed
eral Road soon will be marked by
Georgia DOT in a preservation
project. The old route, a military
thoroughfare, postal road and trade
route also served as the first leg of
the Cherokee exodus.
Mabry said the Treaty of Tellico,
signed by the Cherokee in 1805,
permitted a new extension of the
road from Spring Place in Murray
County. This new fork struck north
west from Spring Place to Ross's
Landing (Chattanooga) and onward
to Nashville, Tennessee.
For the Cherokee, Mabry said,
the Federal Road runs "like a com
mon thread through a Greek
tragedy". Just 33 years after
approval of the Federal Road exten
sion, the Cherokee traipsed out
along the same highway on their
journey to Oklahoma.
The home of Cherokee leader
James Vann, near the route of the
old Federal Road in Murray County,
is preserved today as a state historic
site. Mabry said Vann, a half-blood
Cherokee, cooperated with Federal
authorities in the building of the
road. A period letter by a federal
official, regarding Vann, said the
Cherokee leader was influencing
other Cherokees to favor road con
struction while keeping his close
cooperation with the federals a
secret.
For his help, the government let
Vann award contracts for taverns
and ferries along the route. Vann
ran a ferry and tavern himself and
prospered from the trade. Ironically,
a murderer later shot Vann outside a
tavern.
Mabry said opening the Federal
Road into Tennessee established a
major trade route from that frontier
section to Augusta on the Savannah
Continued on page 13A
