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19th Annual Talking Rock Heritage Days Festival this weekend
See ad inside lor lines aid activities
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COPYRIGHT-THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2013 • VOLUME 126 NUMBER 25 • JASPER, GEORGIA • 750
VOTE
Early voting
underway for
Talking Rock
and Nelson
Page 15A
4-H Hog
Team ends
season with
great success
Page 4A
Bears keep
coming
Page 14A
If you
would like
to subscribe
call 706-253-2457
or fill out a form at
pickensproaress.com
Disappointment over depot delays
“The DOT should
be embarrassed,”
says commission
chair Rob Jones
By Angela Reinhardt
Staff writer
areinhardt@pickensprogressonline.com
After being told repeatedly the Tate
Depot renovation project would go out
for bids in December of this year, it ap
pears that the county may have again hit
a wall with the Georgia Department of
Transportation (GDOT).
Just one day after Pickens County
Planning & Development Director Joey
Low announced publicly that the DOT
had approved the depot’s engineering
plans -thought to be the final step before
the bids - Low said the DOT is now
changing their tune.
“This is not official and we are sup
posed to be getting a letter,” Low said in
a telephone interview, “but it appears
that the DOT may have promised money
to counties and cities that they don’t
have. We have jumped through every
hoop and from what it looks like we
have run out of hoops. I guess they fig
ured that out and had to fess up. This is
what people are saying, but I want to see
it in black and white.”
Low is specifically talking about re
imbursement money filtered through
GDOT’s Transportation Enhancement
Grant project program. The Tate Depot
proj ect has been awarded $ 1.2 million in
reimbursement grant money; one
$400,000 grant in 2005, one $400,000
grant in 2007, and another $400,000
grant originally slated for courthouse
parking.
Plans for the historic depot include
relocating the building across Highway
53 and renovating it. The depot would
act as a welcome center for Pickens
County.
GDOT’s Office of Program Delivery
originally managed the TE program.
After shakeups in GDOT leadership
stalled the project around 2009, GDOT
eventually regrouped and contracted
with engineering firm Moreland and Al-
tobelli out of Norcross, Ga. to manage
the grants.
Low said the contract between
GDOT and Moreland and Altobelli ex
pired at one point, but that a new con
tract was eventually hammered out. Key
players at Moreland then changed and
the county felt like they were “starting
over with a new set of faces.”
For two years the county and the
DOT went back and forth with “misun
derstandings” about land disturbing per
mits, Low has said.
After the See Depot, Page 19A
County officials have said while no formal announcement has been made by
GDOT, news doesn’t look good in regards to Tate Depot project funding this year.
Long Table on Main gives elegant evening to Prevent Child Abuse
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"This was pulled together in three months and it was just unbelievable," Prevent Child Abuse Pickens' Executive Director Margy Lohman
said of the Saturday, Oct. 12th Long Table on Main fundraiser event for the local non profit. Lohman said all 150 tickets were sold and "I
heard some amazing comments from people who were there," she said. "People were saying it was the classiest event they've ever seen in
Jasper. ” Attendees were treated to music from the Atlanta Swing Orchestra while they dined and danced. Prevent Child Abuse Pickens is
pulling together final numbers from the event and will have a full follow-up in next week's edition.
County seeks
zoning correction
Concerns
expressed over
where precedent
could lead
By Dan Pool
Editor
dpool@pickensprogressonline.com
Members of the planning
commission agreed Monday to
take the lead in applying to
have the zoning changed for an
obviously commercial prop
erty that has been classified
residential since land use was
instituted here in 2005.
However, several com
ments were made concerning
the precedent this might set for
other properties with incorrect
zonings.
Based on the explanation
by Pickens County Planning &
Development Director Joey
Low, a property on Ap
palachian Court, near Highway
515 north of Jasper, was
clearly an industrial operation
with a commercial building
when land use intensity dis
tricts were enacted in May
2005.
At that time, property own
ers could designate the zoning
category they wanted. If they
didn’t designate anything, the
property would be zoned what
was judged most accurate by
county personnel.
In this case, the 6,000-
square-foot steel industrial
building was zoned rural resi-
See Zoning, Page 19A
Budget
workshops
next week
The Pickens County gov
ernment is holding a series of
budget workshops next week
beginning Monday, Oct. 21.
Workshops will be held with
the county finance officer
and elected officials, judicial
departments and department
heads.
The meetings are open to
the public but no public com
ments or questions will be
entertained. For a full list of
the workshops by department
visit www.pickenscoun-
tyga.gov. The schedule is lo
cated under the "Finances"
tab, then under "County
Budget" and "Budget 2014."
Carter’s Lake campground closed
due to government shutdown
Closed signs on gates at the entrance of Carter’s Lake camp
grounds give unwanted news to vacationers - the sites are shut down
until a resolution can be reached in the U.S. Congress.
Have you seen Hill City’s dancing beer bandit?
A still shot from video swweillance of a west end gas station.
The store owner says he does not know who the dancing shoplifter
is, but that he has not seen the suspect back in the store since the
incident. See full video at www.pickensprogressonline.com.
Boat ramp, cabins
operational
By Angela Reinhardt
Staff writer
areinhardt@pickensprogressonline.com
Campers at the Carter’s Lake
campground awoke to an unex
pected surprise on Tuesday,
Oct. 1 when they were told they
had to pack up and leave by
noon that Thursday.
That’s because Carter’s Lake
is in the Mobile district of the
U.S. Army Coips of Engineers
- a federally managed network
of lakes and surrounding recre
ational areas that was impacted
by the government shutdown.
“This is extremely unfortu
nate,” said Carter’s Lake Re
source Manager Oliver Craig.
“We were hoping we weren’t
going to have to do this.”
See Lake, Page 19A
By Angela Reinhardt
Staff writer
areinhardt@pickensprogressonline.com
A surveillance video from the
BP on Highway 53 West in Hill
City captures a man stealing
beer from the store midday
Thursday, Oct. 3 - and appar
ently having a good time while
doing it.
The video - which can been
found at www.pickensprogres-
sonline.com - shows a white
male wearing white shorts and a
blue t-shirt appearing to stalk the
beer case and doing dance
moves while pocketing three 16
oz. cans of Budweiser.
It is unclear at this time if the
dancing was meant to distract
from the shoplifting. According
to one of the gas station’s clerks
no music was playing in the
store at the time of the incident.
If you have any information
as to the whereabouts of the sus
pect please contact the sheriff’s
office at 706-253-8900.
Obituaries - Page 7A
Addielee Silver
Faye Simmons
John Foust, Sr.
Brandon Hardin
Helena Rogers
Luvelle Mullis
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