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THURSDAY. JANUARY 29. 2015 PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS PAGE 5A
Economic Development Report
By Gerry Nechvatal
Community Economic
Development Director
Pickens County Chamber of
Commerce
For many, 2014 marked a real
turning point in the Great Reces
sion and, as usual, prior to mov
ing north the upturn began more
strongly in the populous counties
closer to Atlanta, but reach us it
did with most sectors showing
improvement. Here are some
highlights:
Industry made progress
• Oralco located its North
American headquarters here and
celebrated with a ribbon cutting
event attended by Gov. Deal as
well as company executives
from the Netherlands.
• Williams Brothers Concrete
relocated its headquarters and
completed the move into a build
ing on West Church Street.
• The old shoe plant was ren
ovated and converted into a com
petitive location renamed The
Jasper Enterprise Center which
offers flexible space and now
houses three companies.
• A soon-to-be-announced
new company established a car
bon fiber manufacturing plant
and has an innovative process
that could make the firm highly
competitive in the automotive
supplier field with high growth
and job creation potential.
• New light industrial build
ings have gone up in the long
dormant Sharp Mountain Busi
ness Park located on Highway
108 just west of 515.
• A jeopardized emerging
company and 30 jobs were sal
vaged from bankruptcy through
the tremendous efforts of several
individuals, two local banks and
the County Development Au
thority.
• QSR (Lexington) completed
an addition to the Pickens
County facility and continues to
be one of the largest employers
in the community.
Tourism and Entertainment
continued to make a positive
impact
• The annual Marble Festival
was well attended and had great
reviews for the quality of ven
dors in addition to the variety of
activities.
• The first Jasper New Year’s
event on Main Street took place
with minimal issues and attracted
a large crowd to downtown.
• The second annual Sheriff’s
JeepFest grew exponentially fill
ing restaurants and lodging in ad
dition to raising a significant
amount of money for the Georgia
Sheriffs Youth Homes organiza
tion.
• Visits by location scouts
working on feature films and tel
evision shows were steady
throughout the year with one of
the most notable productions tak
ing place at the Woodbridge Inn
where a full episode of a new
Travel Channel show was
filmed.
• The DOT funds for the relo
cation of the Tate Depot are fi
nally being released and site
work at the new location is cur
rently underway.
• A great deal of work was
performed in support of the Port
Royal Resort development that
included helping to secure a
property option to allow prelim
inary site studies, cueing up
grants to offset the cost of poten
tially extending water and sewer
service to the location and adja
cent properties, as well as com
pleting the Development of
Regional Impact forms as re
quired by the state.
Retail and Commercial gained
momentum
• Main Street saw activity
with Jasper Drug expanding its
offerings as well as business re
locations such as Coco’s Cot
tage, Lindsey and Pauley, and
new establishments like Lola’s
Grill, which unfortunately re
cently closed but the chances are
good the space will not be vacant
for long.
• Onyx announced plans for a
multi-use development on 515
that would include retail, resi
dential and aging in place facili
ties along with a public park.
• Work on the first strip center
by Wal-Mart began with Hibbett
Sports and Dollar Tree an
nounced as tenants.
• Construction has started on
a new Days Chevrolet location.
• The old Lawson Chevrolet
facility on East Church Street
was purchased and redone for
use by a heavy equipment sales
business.
• Buffalo Luke’s opened in
the front half of the old KFC
store with AT&T Wireless occu
pying the remainder of the build
ing.
Driven by the strengthening
local economy, job opportunities
increased as supported by the
Georgia Department of Labor
static showing a 37.7% decrease
in initial unemployment insur
ance claims in December of
2014 as compared to December
2013. The latest preliminary un
employment rates show Pickens
County at 5.4% which is signifi
cantly better than the 6.7% state
average.
With the known potential oppor
tunities and numerous initiatives
by the Chamber of Commerce
aimed at further enhancing busi
ness growth, 2015 promises to
continue the positive trend which
should be very good news for
Pickens County and City of
Jasper citizens.
Cub Scouts learn about woodworking
Cub Scout Pack 84 participated in a woodwork
ing safety workshop at Home Depot prior to their
pinewood derby season. Pack 84 is Pickens
County’s newest pack chartered at Harmony Ele
mentary School under the leadership of Eagle
Scout and Cub Master Rick Phillips.
At the Home Depot workshop, Dallas Hyde
showed the Cubs how to safely work with power
and hand tools to build their derby cars.
The Cubs look forward to an exciting racing
season that begins on January 31 with a local derby
hosted by Jasper Elementary’s Pack 836 under the
leadership of Mrs. Pauline Maturo. The Cubs will
compete at the district level at the Woodstock
Lowe’s on Saturday, February 7.
Cub Scout Pack 84 would like to thank Principal
Lynda Wallace and Assistant Principal Destini
Shope from Harmony Elementary School for invit
ing the Cub Scouts into your family. All are wel
come to view the exciting races.
Local Life Coach Offers Advice
By Vicki Roberts, Certified Life Coach
m
Best advice ever;
Give what you can
By Vicki Roberts
Certified Life Coach
Someone recently asked me
what one piece of advice I would
give that would help the most
number of people. For me, that’s
easy.
Give. Give what you can. Be
it time, money or donations, de
cide your new New Year’s Reso
lution is to make our community
or world a better place. It will
make you feel happy and good
deeds turn into good feelings. It’s
an excellent way to be a good
role model for kids and you re
ally do make someones life bet
ter!
I wish that it had occurred to
me to write this in December so
people could make this their New
Year’s Resolution. But, just be
cause you didn’t start on January
1 doesn’t mean you can’t start
now. It will make you feel as
good or better than the dieting
and exercise you resolved to do.
(Don’t give up on the diet and
exercise....just add the giving res
olution.)
There are a million ways to
make a difference and you can
determine what best suits you.
There are places all over Pickens
County that need help. There are
a couple of places that I like to
help when I can. If you have In
ternet, you may want to look at a
couple of sites, http://www.pick-
enscares.org/ is for CARES, our
local food bank. You can donate
money and they happily take
food donations. You can drop off
food, diapers, shampoo; basically
anything you need, other people
need too. They are open to accept
donations on Monday from 8:30
until 3, Wednesday and Thursday
from 8:30 until 2:30 and Friday
from 8:30 to noon. They will tell
you on their site what items are
most needed at the time.
ACES (Appalachian Chil
dren’s Emergency Shelter) aces
pickens.org also needs supplies
in order to feed, house and clothe
8 kids. If you look at their site or
Facebook page they will keep
you up to date on items they
need. Both ACES and the
CARES are on Cares Drive.
There are nursing homes that
need volunteers. Georgia Moun
tain Hospice needs volunteers. If
you can't afford to spend money,
your time is very valuable too!
It’s a proven fact that people
that give or do things for charity,
feel better about themselves.
And to those of you that are
doing great with your resolu
tions, whatever they may be.
Think about adding this one. I
never saw a rule that we were
limited to just ONE Resolution!
Vicki Roberts is a certified
life coach. She can be contacted
at 678-982-5304 or lifecoachof
georgia@aol.com
METAL ROOFING
ROOFING
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in Dawsonville
SAVE • SAVE • SAVE
Painted Galvelume Metal Roofing
25 yr. paint / 20 yr. Galvelume Warranty
10 Colors In Stock
82 Etowah River Road • Dawsonville
706-265-3099*800-519-4616
DRIVER FLIPS CAR ON HWY. 53
Damon Howell / Photo
A young driver lost control of her car and rolled off an embankment, landing bottomside up, in the
Big Ridge area of Highway 53 West, Monday afternoon. Although she was shaken up by the accident,
she walked away uninjured. In the photo, a wrecker service crew prepares to turn the car over while
personal items are being removed from the vehicle.
Speed Burger
562 E. Church St. Jasper, GA
706-692-5136
Homemade
Vegetable-Beef Soup
3 Veg. Plate ... 4.62
4 Veg. Plate ... 6.00
Includes 2 sides
Fries ... Slaw... Green Beans ... Mac & Cheese
Mashed Potatoes/Gravy ... Cornbread or Roll
Open 10am-8:30pm ... Mon.-Fri.
, ■.- —• ■ - - ..
7.50 Plates
Shrimp or Fish ... 7.25
Hamburger Steak
Grilled Chicken... 8.00
Country; Fried Steak
1/4 Fry... 6.25
Chicken Tender • Chicken Filet
1/2 Fry of 2 Breast
BBQ... 8.25
Primary Care
The longest standing privately owned internal medicine facility in town.
We treat
• Diabetes
• Hypertension • Heart Disease
• Cholesterol Problems • Ulcers • Arthritis
• Thyroid Diseases
• Other common illnesses and conditions
We perform
• Wellness Exams • Sports Physicals
• Pre-Employment Physicals
• Minor Dermatological Procedures.
We accept
• BCBS • Medicare & Medicare Advantage
• Medicaid • Aetna • United Health
• Humana • Tricare
as well as most other health care plans.
Bryan Hooker, M.D.
Board certified
Internal Medicine 1996
Cathy Eaton, NP-C
Certified American Academy
of Nurse Practitioners
Nance Karr, NP-C
Certified American Academy
of Nurse Practitioners
706-253-3842
220 J.L. White Dr., Ste. 110 • Jasper, GA 30143