Newspaper Page Text
As Jasper marks sescjuicentennial, we had to ash
What else happened in 1857?
Page 12A
Racing in the
Junior Cahuna
Ten-year-old Tate
McCollum is headed for
Myrtle Beach to race in
the Junior Cahuna go-
karting competition. The
straight-A student won a
contest that put him in the
“hired-gun” seat of a fac
tory-sponsored kart. And
he’s taking the track
against a field of national
ly-classed junior racers.
Page 1C
New President for
Family Connection
Tom Hieber has taken
the reins at Pickens
Family Connection,
replacing
Amelia
McIntyre
who left the
post earlier
this year.
Hieber
brings varied
experience
from a
corporate and consulting
background to the local
program that works with
families and children.
Page 8B
Summer Fun Club
Summer vacation from
school can create chal
lenges for working par
ents and
their chil
dren, but
not for
young
sters who
attended
Summer
Fun Club
in Pickens
County.
This year
the Boys
and Girls
Clubs of
North Georgia hosted a
program that provided
students with supervised
activities, learning experi
ences, healthy snacks and
fun. Page 4A
Old Notions Wrong
On Tick Removal
You may have heard the
best way to get a tick off
is smother it with finger
nail polish or kerosene,
burn it with a match, or
twist it counterclockwise
to
unscrew
it. But all
are
wrong.
Experts
tell you
the proper
way get a
tick off
and how to avoid them in
the first place. Page 2B
Deaths
Elaine Grant
Timothy Walker
Johnny Tidwell
OBITUARIES . ..See Page 9A
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and is recyclable
THURSDAY, JULY 5, 2007 • VOLUME 120 NUMBER 9 • JASPER, GEORGIA • 500
As summer drought continues, wells fail
But city and county
unlikely to fund new lines
By Dan Pool
At the rear of Hickory Cove,
Roger Schultz has developed a
unique way to monitor the
effects of the drought on his
wells.
“A small pebble falls 25 feet
per second. I time them until I
hear the splash with a stop
watch to see how my water
level is holding up,” he said.
“I’m afraid every time I check it
that I’ll hear a thud instead of a
kaplunk.”
Schultz and his wife, plus
two sons and their families live
in three adjacent homes in the
subdivision, not far from Bent
Tree on Cove Road.
To get water they have
drilled six wells, but they still
require regular fill-ups of a cis
tern from a water truck for any
outdoor watering and non
drinking purposes.
Schultz said both during
informal chats with neighbors
and at subdivision gatherings,
the subject of water, or the lack
thereof, is a regular concern of
the thirty-five homeowners who
live in Hickory Cove.
It appears the back half of
the subdivision, which is higher
in elevation than the front half,
has seen little groundwater re
charge of wells this year with
diminished rainfall. Several
wells have either dried up or are
gradually failing.
Of six wells the Schultz fam
ily relies on for three homes,
three have reached a point
where they are mostly useless,
Roger Schultz said last week.
Among the neighbors
Schultz has talked with, a few
said their wells are also either
dry or so low as to be unusable.
Another home gets only 2 pints
per minute even after paying to
have the well hydrofracted.
Hydrofracting is a process
that introduces back pressure in
a drilled well to open more fis
sures in surrounding rock so an
increase of groundwater can
flow into the well.
Other people in the area
have lesser problems such as
Continued on page 11A
Charlie Padgett uses a
tanker truck to fill a cistern
for Roger Schultz. As the
drought lingers on, Hickory
Cove homeowners are seek
ing help with their water
problems.
Bent Tree builder wins civil suit
D.B. Edwards cleared on one criminal charge,
indicted on second charge
By Dan Pool
A Bent Tree builder who was the subject of
lawsuits and criminal charges relating to two
homes built in Pickens County, has won the first
lawsuit and was not indicted on the criminal
charges relating to that home.
In a final judgment on the first civil suit relat
ing to the financial aspects of construction of a
home, a jury found in favor of builder D.B.
Edwards over home owners Greg and Audrey
Vaughn.
In a convoluted case, Vaughn had sued
Edwards over the construction practices. Edwards
had counter-sued.
As part of the settlement, both parties agreed
on a confidentiality clause according to plaintiff
Vaughn and his attorney Morris Martin. Neither
Vaughn nor Martin had any comment.
The only record publicly available was a final
judgment signed by Judge Roger Bradley stating,
the matter went to trial by jury on May 7 and the
jury returned a verdict that on claims of plaintiffs
against defendants, plaintiffs recover nothing. On
the claims of the defendant against the plaintiffs,
defendant is awarded judgment of the sum of $50.
Edwards brought a copy of the final judgment
to this newspaper but offered few comments.
Although he did not mention the confidentiality
agreement, Edwards said it was in his best interest
to not comment since he is still facing a potential
second suit by another homeowner (which has
never been filed) and criminal charges.
“I think the verdict speaks for itself,” was his
only comment.
In the criminal charges of false swearing
brought against Edwards relating to the home he
built and sold to Vaughn, a Pickens grand jury did
find sufficient cause to send the case on to trial.
However, Edwards was indicted on a felony
theft by conversion of payment for property
improvement. This charge stems from a home he
built in Bent Tree for Gina McLane.
The case alleges that Edwards took McLane’s
money to finish a basement but never did the
work. Edwards was served with his arrest warrant
in the Pickens courthouse following a scheduled
meeting with Commissioner Rob Jones.
Continued on page 11A
Safety Awareness Day is this Saturday
Pickens public safety personnel to help
youngsters be ready for an emergency
Damon Howell / Photo
Among those preparing for Safety Awareness Day are (l-r):
Dione Turner, Allen Wigington, Kathy Quinton and Jim
Adams with bikes that will be given away Saturday.
Acting on the belief that the
best way to survive an emer
gency is to be prepared before
the situation occurs, local
emergency personnel will pres
ent a program for Pickens
County youngsters this
Saturday.
Kathy Quinton, a staff assis
tant at the Pickens Sheriff
Department, said the motiva
tion to hold a Safety Awareness
Day is to give youngsters the
opportunity to see emergency
workers and equipment in a
non-stressful, non-life threat
ening situation.
She said there is a lot of
information, such as staying
low while leaving a burning
house, that will be presented
that day in different fun exer
cises, games and presentations.
In addition, prizes will be
given away including two
bicycles. All children attending
the event will automatically be
entered in the drawing Quinton
said. The bikes were donated
for the event by Larry Ray of
Lanierland Insurance Agency,
Inc.
Emergency workers includ
ing fire fighters, policemen,
sheriff deputies, EMT’s and
state troopers will give kids a
chance to find out more about
the faces and equipment
involved in real emergencies at
the event on July 7. The
information will be presented at
Roper Park from 10:00 a.m.
until 2:00 p.m.
There will also be informa-
Continued on page 11A
Grand jury
turns in indictments
for Spring session
By Michael Moore
The Pickens County Grand
Jury indicted sixty-six people
in the June meeting of the
Spring 2007 session.
Out of the three hundred
total charges brought against
the alleged offenders, one hun
dred eighty were felonies and
one hundred twenty were mis
demeanors.
By indicting the suspects,
the grand jury agrees there is
enough evidence for the
District Attorney to proceed
with prosecution on each case.
Everyone whose case
appeared before the grand jury
was indicted, or true-billed on
at least some of the charges
brought against them.
District Attorney Joe
Hendricks, who presented the
sixty-six cases to the grand
jury, said several “significant”
cases were indicted. He said
the high volume of new cases
and the magnitude of some of
the cases that will now be
processed through the superior
court, will bring an “intense”
prosecution schedule for the
foreseeable future.
In addition to the murder
indictment of Tammy Poole,
nineteen people were indicted
for violent crimes such as
aggravated assault, battery and
terroristic threats, and sexual
offenses. Seven of those sus
pects were billed for child
abuse and molestation charges.
Several alleged offenders
were charged with fraud
schemes.
Robert William Kitsell and
Harold J. Shaffer, the latter a
California resident, were
charged with residential mort
gage fraud and theft by con
version. Both Kitsell and
Shaffer are the subject of a
related civil lawsuit in Pickens
County, in which they are
accused of scamming a Bent
Tree couple who paid them to
build a house.
Also charged were four
men arrested in February for
running a two million dollar
scheme to rip off homeowners
who hired them to perform
home repairs throughout the
metro Atlanta area.
Edward Matthew Berger,
Dustin Allen Moore, Marvin
Dean Moore, and Brent Alan
Roberts were each charged
with eleven felony counts con
sisting of RICO act violations
(organized crime) and theft by
deception.
In another construction-
related case that has received
previous press coverage, D. B.
Edwards was charged with
theft by conversion. He was
not indicted on a second crim
inal charge sought by the DA.
Edwards was the defendant in
a lawsuit in Pickens County
earlier this year, which he won.
A related story on the lawsuit
appears in this week’s
Progress.
Eighteen people in all were
charged by the Grand Jury for
various forms of theft -by tak
ing, receiving and conversion
- and forgery. One of those
was charged with twenty-three
counts of forgery in the second
degree.
Drug offenses appeared in
seventeen of the cases indict
ed.
One of those is the case of
Lonnie Leroy Simonds, who
was on the front page of the
Progress in March. Simonds
was arrested February 23 for
possession of methampheta-
mine. The grand jury indicted
him for two felony counts of
possession of drugs.
Timothy Edward Barnes,
who led county deputies and
state troopers on high-speed
chases through Pickens
County, on two occasions, was
also indicted in June. He was
charged with a total of twenty-
five counts. Most of those are
misdemeanor traffic viola
tions, with three felony
charges.
In November 2006, Barnes
outran law enforcement vehi
cles in a lengthy chase. In
January the State Patrol
encountered Barnes in the
Marble Hill area and chased
him again. That time he was
caught and arrested.
The last time the grand jury
met was in March, when it
indicted seventy-seven people.
A new grand jury will be
selected for the Fall session,
which begins in September.