Pickens County progress. (Jasper, Ga.) 1899-current, March 24, 2005, Image 1

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Pickens County progress., March 24, 2005, Image 1

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Newspaper Page TextFront - March 24 3/22/05 4:26 PM Page 1 Half The Man He Used To Be Find Update With Brent Ellis In His Year Long Weight-Loss Odyssey / Page 3B MARCH 24, 2005 VOLUME 117 NUMBER 46 JASPER, GEORGIA 30143 USPS 431-830 THREE SECTIONS 58 PAGES PLUS SUPPLEMENTS County looking at Sidebar potential and problems Jones says use or sell decision still up in the air Be cautious before signing a loan Don’t be a victim of predatory lending Briefly. . . Pickens Schools Shine In Reading Bowl Pickens High Reading Bowl team captain Christie Hightower accepts a first place trophy for the PHS team which won the competition last Saturday in Rome. All Pickens schools sent teams to the competition which included more than 600 students from across North Georgia. The PHS team and the team from Pickens Middle School both won first place in their divisions. The winning teams will now compete on April 30 in the next round of the statewide contest to promote reading. Page 8A Community Easter Egg Hunt This Saturday Jasper Lions will host the 4th Annual Community Easter Egg Hunt this Saturday at Lee Newton Park. Separate areas will be designated for different age groups. The eggs will con tain candy or coupons for prizes. The Lions offer this advice from past egg hunt experience: Don’t be late! While over 15,000 eggs will be hidden, a swarm of expert egg finders is expected to be on hand raring to go promptly at 10:00 a.m. Page 13B Gold Medal Picks Anyone looking for new landscape plants should check out the Georgia Gold Medal winners. Chosen by a panel of experts, these plants promise beauty and adaptability for Georgia gardeners. Page 9B By Dan Pool Commissioner Robert Jones said Friday the county is seeking a qual ified architect to offer opinions on the best use of the closed 8,000 square foot upscale restaurant owned by county taxpayers. The Sidebar Restaurant on Depot Street was bought for $450,000 by the previous county administration in a foreclosure sale with plans to cre ate more court space in the cav ernous building. It is referenced on some county doc uments as the “Justice Center.” However, no renovation or preparation has ever been per formed and the building’s condition is deteriorating with the long absence of use according to Jones. Jones said he did not “have a warm and fuzzy feeling” about the building and selling it may be the best option, but he will wait until a professional opinion has been stud ied. He said the county is looking for an architect who may be inter ested in the project at this time. “I want to see what an architect says about it,” Jones said. “I want to see how he thinks it could be laid out and have a look at the building’s condition. We’ll see what some pro fessionals say is the best use or should we sell the building.” Although it had been com pletely remodeled not long before going bankrupt and being bought by the county, Jones said there are several condi tions which are rapidly deteriorat ing and could be costly to repair. A leaky roof and incorrectly replaced windows with wide gaps allowing rain in are causing the building’s condition to worsen. Jones said the county could use additional office space, but he’s not convinced at this point the Sidebar is the answer. Jones also expressed concern over what type of “handicap acces sible” modification might be required. Whatever the final decision [use or sell], something needs to be done with it soon, Jones said. By Michael Moore When her family’s house burned down in 2003 and they didn’t have enough insurance to cover the total cost of rebuilding, Jasper resident Grace Troup needed to find some one to give her a loan, and fast. She was recommended a finance company who was willing to pro vide such a loan. For the next few months it appeared to Troup that she was working with a reputable company who had given her a sound loan. “We thought we were good to go,” said Troup. The next year, however, when Troup began to look for another company to refinance a second mortgage, she was notified that the previous lender had begun to fore close on her rebuilt home. She said the company repeatedly made assurances that her account was in good shape and she didn’t need to worry, even as it appeared they were trying to foreclose. Now Troup wishes she had asked a few simple questions and done a little research on the internet before she signed the paperwork, as she has since filed for bankruptcy to avoid being evicted from her own house. She is still embroiled in a legal battle over the ownership of the home, and still gets a foreclo sure notice every month. Troup, a landscape architect, had become a victim of a predatory lender, a lending agency which preys on the financial misfortunes of consumers who need a quick way out of a tight spot. Usually such lenders attempt to hoodwink the customer into giving up more of their money or assets — or their house — before he or she knows what happened. “I know now that I was dealing with a network of companies that buy homes and trade them between themselves,” as Troup described it. “They tricked me into thinking I was being refinanced.” Jim Fowler, senior vice president of Crescent Bank in Jasper, described predatory lenders as those who “take advantage of people who have no clear way to repay a debt.” Continued on page 12A GOAL representative chosen for Appalachian Tech Appalachian Tech GOAL finalists (l to r) Michelle Jones Fowler, Dennis Ergle, Trevor Wells and Yolanda Barrett. Ergle will repre sent the technical college at the statewide GOAL competition in Atlanta this spring. A rotten door frame in the county’s un-used “Justice Cen ter,” formerly known as the Sidebar Grill. Commissioner Jones said a decision to use or sell needs to be made quickly. Deaths Benny Wofford Elizabeth Boling Mardelle Collis Stella Chastain Charles Young Elizabeth Wilson Marvin Young OBITUARIES ... .See Page 14A Weather By WILLIAM DILBECK Tuesday HI 56 LOW 40 RAIN .48 Wednesday 43 37 .12 Thursday 40 30 .02 Friday 54 31 .00 Saturday 55 39 .00 Sunday 63 44 .00 Monday 62 46 .00 Visit Us On The Web www.pickensprogress .com The Progress is printed in part on recycled newsprint and is recyclable By Jeff Warren Four top students from Appalachian Technical College spoke before a packed dining room at the Woodbridge Inn Monday night. Each student was a finalist, contending for selection as the school's GOAL designee. GOAL, the Georgia Occupa tional Award for Leadership, draws the cream of the crop from techni cal colleges across Georgia. Nomi nated locally by their class instruc tors, GOAL contestants compete first with campus peers. Each nom inee composes a speech that out lines the positive impact of techni cal education on their life. Speech es also highlight opportunities technical colleges offer to all Geor gians . The banquet Monday night showcased all four finalists and named Dennis Ergle as Appalachi an Tech’s 2005 GOAL representa tive. Ergle travels to Atlanta this spring to go head-to-head with rep resentatives from all other Georgia technical colleges. The winner in Atlanta takes the grand prize, a new automobile. The winner will need some dependable wheels. In return for the honor and the car, the state GOAL winner travels Georgia for a year perform ing student public relations for the Georgia Department of Technical and Adult Education. Continued on page 12A Cherokee cabin headed for new home By Jeff Warren With ropes, chains, pry bars, saws, a bobcat and lots of back labor, an old log cabin came to pieces last Friday near Harris Road, north of Hill City. A pickup team of Georgia Department of Natural Resources employees dis mantled the rare Cherokee struc ture, one of a few remaining east of the Mississippi. The Cherokee-built cabin, that dates from the 1830s, is to be reconstructed at the Vann House State Historic Site near Chats worth. According to local lore, it is not the first move for the little wooden house. The cabin once stood empty on a former Cherokee homestead after the gov ernment forced out native owners in the Cherokee Removal. When James Jars Harris acquired the old homestead in the mid-1800s, seven log houses stood on the property. At that time, Har ris acreage covered both sides of Harris Road for about a quarter mile west of Pleasant Hill Road. The land later passed to Harris' son. Skid. Skid Harris' widow, now deceased, once recounted the histo ry of the little log house to local historian. Reverend Charles O. Walker. By Widow Harris’ account, the little cabin originally stood in a different location on the Harris property. The Harris farm included two such houses. "Mr. Harris moved these two Indian houses to be storage hous es," Reverend Walker said. "They [the Harrises] probably used it [the house now being moved] as a smokehouse." The small, single-story cabin has no windows, only a short square door on the gabled end of the house. Walker believes the cabin was originally an ordinary Cherokee dwelling house. "Native Americans used square doors," Walker said. Walker said Cherokee owners only resorted to their small cabins in bad weather. "A lot of them — if it was warm weather — they slept outside," Walker said. "They didn't sleep inside a building. That's the size of a typical Cherokee house. They were ordinary houses of plain Cherokee people. These were not wealthy Cherokees." Walker said the cabin's original wood shingle roof was probably weighed on. "Logs and rocks held the roof on," Walker said. "Nails cost money." Continued on page 3A (l-r) Ron Shepherd, Jeff Stancil, Sarah Ballew and Derek Gray take down a log from the top of the wall.