About Pickens County progress. (Jasper, Ga.) 1899-current | View Entire Issue (June 7, 2007)
PAGE 8A PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS THURSDAY. JUNE 7. 2007 National Nursing Home Week Celebrated at Wildwood The residents and staff participated in activities celebrating National Nursing Home Week. To kick off the week, we had Hat Day when some of the residents decorated own hats. Other events included: musical chairs, drop the potato in the jar, 50’s and 60’s day, twist contest, clay sculpturing, PJ day, balloon animals and balloon popping contest, a cookout, tal ent show, limbo contest, hula hoop contest. The week ended with Field Day complete with sack lunches, face painting, homemade ice cream, bubble blowing. Outdoor activities included egg toss, beanbag toss, softball pitch, frisbee toss, horseshoes and bowling. Awards were given out at the end of the day to the residents. The residents and staff really enjoyed themselves. Here are some photos from the week including hat day below — other photos are on display in a collage in the showcase at the nursing home. Historical preservationist speaks at Conservation Speakeasy By Michael Moore Frank White was featured as the guest speaker at the Mountain Conservation Trust of Georgia's conservation “speakeasy” for the month on May 24. White is the endangered properties program director for the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation (www.georgia- trust.org), whose offices are in Atlanta. The Georgia Trust works to “reclaim, restore, and revitalize” historically and architecturally significant structures throughout the state that would otherwise be lost to demolition or neglect. On Thursday, White dis cussed different ways the trust and its 4,000 members attempt to save endangered properties, and promote an appreciation and awareness of Georgia's his tory and culture. He listed and showed slides of examples of some historic properties the Georgia Trust has preserved through its “revolving fund.” “In Georgia, we are losing historic properties. With the revolving fund we work with property owners to find a buyer who will purchase the property and agree to rehabilitate it,” said White. He cited the program's suc cess in preserving, restoring, and developing the historic Bon Air Hotel in downtown Bainbridge, Georgia, as “the epitome of historic preservation - maintaining our connection to the past.” The three-story hotel, built in 1901, had been in a deteriorat ing state for several years when the trust first showed interest in its preservation in the late 1990s. White said it was an “eyesore.” Eventually the trust pur chased the hotel for $10,000, then immediately sold it to a developer who agreed to restore the building. The new owner put in two-story apartments on the upper levels, and retail space on the ground level, all of which are now occupied, said White. The city of Bainbridge applied for and won a government grant to build a balcony on the second level. Furthermore, other historic buildings in downtown Bainbridge became occupied shortly after the Bon Air was developed, White said. Aside from purchasing endangered properties, the Georgia Trust participates in other initiatives to promote his torical preservation. One of these is advocacy or pitching their cause to the state legislature in hopes of gaining legislation such as tax incen tives that encourage historic property preservation. The trust's “properties pro gram” allows historic property owners to donate their proper ties to the trust, who in turn agrees to restore the properties and keep them untouched in perpetuity. The Hay House in Macon is an example of a prop erty that was donated to the Georgia Trust, White said. Also, the trust has a “heritage education” program, in which they attempt to encourage schools to include the impor tance of historic preservation in their curriculum. The trust often becomes directly involved in the pur chase and restoration of historic sites through the Endangered Properties revolving fund, which was set up to seek alter natives to demolition or neglect of significant properties. A historic property has to meet certain criteria in order for the trust to get involved in its preservation. First, it must be classified as endangered, meaning it is cur rently vacant and in disrepair, and the owners are financially unable to maintain the property. An endangered property must also be available for sale, and easily marketable once it is in the trust’s hands, in order for it to be eligible for the revolving fund. Furthermore, the acquisi tion and restoration of the prop erty should be supported by the local community. White listed multiple ways the trust acquires historic prop erties. One is through donations, in which the donor may deduct the property’s fair market value from their taxes. Some properties the trust purchases for “bargain sales,” in which the owner sells for less than fair market value. The most common means of the trust's property acquisition is through options to purchase, White said. These usually require a sizable monetary donation, or other extensive fundraising efforts. He showed “before” and “after” photos of numerous properties that that have been acquired with options to pur chase, and subsequently restored. One is the Cabaniss House, built in 1805 in Jones County. White said the house was in “terrible shape” before it was restored. As the owner was unable to spend the hundreds of thousands of dollars to restore the house, “the only way to improve it was to do it our selves,” White said. In Rockdale County, the owner of the historic Richard Crowder Harris House donated it to the trust, which in turn sold it to a local resident who moved in. The trust also got an option to purchase the Strange- Duncan-Pruitt House in Franklin County. That house was built in 1810. Even after acquiring an option, it took some time for the trust to sell it. Like many historic houses in Georgia, the Strange-Duncan- Pruitt House is built in the “plantation plain” style, which consists of four main rooms and a central hallway. Often the preservation of a historic downtown property contributes to the revitalization of the whole town. Such was the case in the restoration of the Louisville Fire Department, which was donated to the trust. The trust sold the fire depart ment, and the new owner remodeled it for two apartments upstairs, and an internet cafe and art gallery on the ground floor, according to White. When the Georgia Trust gains ownership of an histori cally significant property, they place restrictive covenants into the deeds. These include an “architectural preservation ease ment.” “That means if it is ever sold again, the new buyer has to abide by the agreement, which is that no changes can be made to the structure [after restora tion], That’s the leverage of how we're able to preserve the prop erty,” said White. Mountain Conservation Trust's (MCT) next conserva tion speakeasy will be Thursday, June 14, at 5 p.m. at Pendley Creek Stables. The guest speak er will be Wayne Jenkins, exec utive director of the Georgia Forestwatch. He will present “The Changing Chattahoochee Forest: 1830-2025.” MCT is a local private non profit organization whose mis sion is to protect the natural resources of north Georgia through land protection, collab orative partnerships and educa tion. More information can be found online at www.mctga.org. Frank White was the guest speaker at last week’s “Conservation Speakeasy” sponsored by the Mountain Conservation Trust of Georgia. . 0.1 ■ i:.; 8S. 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