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COPYRIGHT-THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 2012 • VOLUME 124 NUMBER 39 • JASPER, GEORGIA • 500
Connelly
enters race
for District 1
Commission
Post
Page 4A
Chastain
enters race
for District 1
Commission
Post
Page 5A
The Dixie
Swim Club
arrives here
February
Page 16A
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Courthouse project to close streets
Part of Depot Street to be closed during courthouse
construction; Jasper Mayor and council to consider
Court Street closure, traffic flow, parking
By Angela Reinhardt
Staff writer
areinhardt@pickensprogress.com
Courthouse Facts:
•When the courthouse is com
pleted, it will be 50,000 sq. ft.
larger than the original court
house, which was 16,000 sq. ft.
total.
•Approx. 13 parking spaces will
be lost in the downtown area due
to construction and reworking of
the streetscape, but it is estimated
between 120 to 130 spaces will
be added in the new parking area
behind the Piggly Wiggly.
•According to Commissioner
Robert Jones, a portion of the
property the county purchased
beside Pioneer Road may be
used for a judicial center in the
future.
•Demolition of the rear leg of the
courthouse will begin this week.
Following a presentation from
Pickens County Commissioner
Robert Jones, the Jasper City
Council approved closure of a
portion of Depot Street that will
be used as a staging area during
renovations on the courthouse.
Jones, speaking at the regular
Jasper Council meeting held Jan.
18, offered a general overview
on progress of the SPLOST-
funded courthouse project, de
tailed the county’s proposed
traffic flow changes around the
courthouse and requested the
council close Court Street and a
portion of Depot Street, the roads
that run parallel to one another
on either side of the courthouse.
If the council approves all of
the county’s proposals at its next
council meeting, traffic flow
around the courthouse will
change, parking off of Court
Street may disappear, and land
scaping, curbing and guttering in
the area will be altered.
Road closures
Citing both public safety is
sues and logistics, the county re
quested the portion of Depot
Street that falls between Wall
Street and North East streets be
closed, as well as all of Court
Street from Main Street to the
road in front of the railroad depot
(Wheeler Street).
“I’ve got to try to protect the
public,” Jones said. “We’ve got
to tear that [back] section [of the
courthouse] down, and we’ve got
to haul that off, so we need this
area closed probably in the later
part of March and first of April.”
Following a question from
city employee Lonnie Waters,
who cited concerns about public
safety during Main Street events,
Jones said that while the current
caution tape around the court
house has been approved by
OSHA, the county will look into
installing a plastic safety fence
around that construction area.
Jones told council members
that renovations on the court
house include improvements to
the building’s foundation, which
he said will necessitate the
pulling up of a portion of Court
Street.
See Courthouse on Page 13A
Coyotes no threat to humans, but pets in peril
By Jeff Warren
Staff writer
jwarren@pickensprogress.com
"They have come from the
west," said wildlife biologist Robert
Keller. "They're making their way
back in here."
"Coyotes have been tracking
from west to east the last 50 years,"
said Georgia Department of Natural
Resources Wildlife Management
Ranger Mitch Yeargin. "They're
now in every county in Georgia."
It comes as something of a sur
prise to learn coyotes were once na
tive to Georgia. But that coyote, the
eastern coyote, beat a hasty exit as
Georgia became settled and popu
lated. "The coyotes were com
pletely run out," Keller said of the
former variety that resided here. It
is Canis latrans (western cousin to
those long-gone Georgia coyotes)
packing into the state today, he said.
“It's sort of like, 'You build it,
and they will come,'” he said.
“They're moving into an unoccu
pied niche.”
There was an opening in Geor
gia for a mid-sized predator, Keller
explained. Georgia supplies a ready
stock of right-sized coyote prey.
“Deer and small game—and the
habitat, too,” Keller said. “A coyote
does real well in people's backyards
and little patches of woods. This is
really perfect for them.
“The deer densities were never
like they are now. Having the deer
densities and the small game densi
ties come up has really brought
them back in.”
Yeargin said principal prey of
coyotes are rabbits and mice. As
this small-animal population in
creases, coyote numbers also in
crease, he said. An abundant food
supply translates into more coyote
pups bom, he said. Then, with
higher coyote numbers, competi
tion for food usually becomes a
problem, and the coyote population
will decrease, he explained.
"Their population booms while
there's an abundant food supply,"
Yeargin said. "Then your food
source starts to dwindle. Then they
start to dwindle. It's a bell-shaped
curve," he said, "and it goes on and
on." It could take two years or just
six months to complete the full
boom-to-bust cycle, he said.
What might complicate the ran
of that cycle here is the present
overabundance of deer. Farms are at
risk as coyote prey, Yeargin said.
And evidence increases that coy
otes hunting in packs may now be
feeding on mature deer.
"That may be what we're see
ing," Keller said.
"They're social animals and hunt
in groups," Yeargin echoed. He
added the Georgia DNR is about to
cooperate with some University of
Georgia graduate students on a
years-long study to quantify the
taking of deer by coyotes.
"They're trying to see how detri
mental coyotes are to the deer pop
ulation," Yeargin said. The
two-to-three-year study is to be
conducted in middle Georgia, he
said.
With coyotes now in every
Georgia county including our own,
how come we don't see them any
more than we do? That is because
they are not only here, they are
fairly smart as well—wiley enough
to live near humans and remain al
most always out of sight.
"They’re elusive enough not to
be seen," Yeargin said. "But at night
they know where the food source
is."
"You've got 'em in Jasper,"
Keller said. A pack can be regularly
heard howling at night in the neigh
borhood around Refuge Chinch, he
said. Do such pack-hunting preda
tors pose a danger to humans?
"NO," Keller said. They tend to
avoid humans instead. "They are
very secretive animals."
Coyotes are not wolf-sized,
Yeargin explained. Forty pounds
would be large for a coyote, he said.
Most range from 15 to 20 pounds.
A pack would be eight to ten ani
mals, he said.
"I've been on [with DNR] 27
years, and I've never heard of any
one being attacked by a coyote,"
Year- See Coyotes on Page 13A
Canis latrans—the coyote of the west, now much at home all over Geor
gia, including right here in Pickens County.
State budget cuts could close doors
at Jasper’s Burnt Mountain Center
By Dan Pool
Editor
dpool@pickensprogress.com
If proposed cuts at the state level
are fully instituted, the Burnt Moun
tain Center in Jasper, which provides
work training to adults with develop
mental disabilities, would “dwindle
away over the next couple of years,”
according to statements from the
center director Tuesday.
Executive Director Debbie
Rooker said that up to $270,000 of
the center’s $900,000 yearly revenue
coming from the state Medicaid pro
gram could be cut under current state
budget proposals.
“The new budget will rip us
apart,” she said. “There is no way we
can provide services.”
Rooker said if the state’s new
funding model is enacted, the Burnt
Mountain Center would eventually
have to close the doors on its 39-
year-old program, located on Pioneer
Road. She estimated that would not
happen at once, but by two years out,
“we would dwindle away.”
The Burnt Mountain Center,
which has served the mentally hand
icapped of north Georgia since 1973,
is not alone on the chopping block.
A press release from the Service
Providers Association for Develop
mental Disabilities (SPADD), stated
“The Georgia Department of Com
munity Health via its Medicaid pro
gram and the Georgia Department of
Behavioral Health and Developmen
tal Disabilities have released a new
funding model and rates which will
leave individuals with developmental
disabilities and their families in peril,
risking a reduction of services and
the potential closure of programs
which support this group of people.”
SPADD, a lobbying group for op
erations like the Burnt Mountain
Center, projects that 11,000 adults
with disabilities will be affected
across the state.
“This new funding model and the
resulting proposed rates of reim
bursement, will severely impact
services for a fragile and vulnerable
population where current funding
levels are already grossly inade
quate,” said SPADD President Diane
Wilush. “Organizations providing
these services have not received a
rate increase since 2004; as a result,
it is a continuous challenge to deliver
the quality supports people with dis
abilities and their families need.”
Wilush went on to say in the press
release that it is difficult to imagine
how these groups could continue to
operate with further cuts.
Rooker said she had already told
the staff at the Burnt Mountain Cen
ter to brace for some cuts this year,
but she didn’t expect the new for
mula for funding to lower Medicaid
payments nearly to the extent that it
does. “I wish they would stop and
look at what it would do the clients
and their families in the long run,”
she said.
The See Cuts on Page 14A
McIntyre
named Citizen
of the
Submitted by
Pickens Chamber
of Commerce
The Pickens
County Chamber
of Commerce
named Amelia
McIntyre the 2012
Pickens County
Citizen of the Year
on Saturday, Jan.
21, at the Tate
House during its
annual Winter Ball
event. McIntyre
will be filling the
shoes of Stan Bar
nett who was cho
sen for the same
honor in 2011. Mr.
Barnett carried out
his duty with honor
making multiple
public appearances throughout the year as the Cit
izen of the Year and attending several speaking en
gagements in his honor.
McIntyre, who was in attendance at the Winter
Ball event, expressed her appreciation to a packed
house of curious spectators. Amelia McIntyre, 61,
has served many local organizations, as well as our
public school system, over her 32 years as a resi
dent of Pickens County. McIntyre first came to
take the job as Art coordinator of the county in
1974, and she started the “Art Fair” which a few
years later evolved into the existing Georgia Mar
ble Festival. She also enlisted Tom Quinton, and
they formed the Sharptop Art Association to help
with local arts and the art festival. McIntyre also
taught and did other various work, such as directing
programs, coordinating parent and community in
volvement, and generating grant funds for the Pick
ens County Public School System from 1979-2008.
During that time frame, she was honored at the
Governor’s Conference on Education and named
Pickens County Teacher of the Year. She was also
a Georgia Semi-Finalist for Teacher of the Year and
a STAR Teacher nominee multiple times.
Mrs. McIntyre also volunteers with the local Ro
tary Club and has been named Rotarian of the Year
and is the incoming president for 2012. She has
also volunteered for many other local organizations
such as Prevent Child Abuse, Pickens County
Reading Council, Community Thrift Store, Joy
House, Teen Mentoring Volunteer, Launch Pads for
Literacy, Community Action, Pickens Ferst Foun
dation and many other organizations. She is cur
rently the director See McIntyre on Page 14A
Year
KnowPickens.com / Photo
Amelia McIntyre, a long
time advocate of the arts, ac
cepts the Citizen of the Year
Award during the Chamber’s
Winter Ball Saturday.
Obituaries - Page 10A
Jimmy Richards William Headrick
Joan Arp Willie Mae Brown
L.A. McDaniel
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