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PAGE 6A PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS THURSDAY. JANUARY 29. 2015
Gibson wins Jasper Elementary Geography Bee
Karolina Kearns, Gus Gibson, and Hanna Garland at the
Jasper Elementary; geography bee. Gibson was the winner.
For the 27th year, the National
Geographic Society is holding
the National Geographic Bee for
students in the 4th through 8th
grades. The contest is designed
to encourage teachers to include
geography in their lessons, spark
student interest in the subject and
increase public awareness about
geography. Jasper Elementary is
proud to be a participant in this
challenging, yet entertaining, test
of geographic knowledge.
Krista Collins, the school’s
Gifted coordinator, worked with
the 4th and 5th grade teachers to
prepare the students for this ex
citing event. Students were often
seen drilling each other to pre
pare for the Geography Bee.
Jasper Elementary School
held the Geography Bee on
Thursday, January 22. Ten 4th
and 5th grade students qualified
to participate in this final round
of competition: Hanna Garland,
Gus Gibson, Seth Gleason, Sabin
Jeffrey, Karolina Keams, Kaiden
Morris, Rebekah Nichols, Ty
Payne, Emily Perullo and
Michael Whitney. After several
stimulating rounds of questions,
they headed into the champi
onship round with the top two
students, Hanna and Gus. Gus
Gibson was the winner!
Gus will now have a chance
to earn a $50,000 college schol
arship by completing a written
test. Up to 100 of the top scorers
on that test in each state will
then be eligible to compete in
their state Bee on March 27.
The National Geographic Soci
ety will provide an all-expenses
paid trip to Washington, DC, for
state winners to participate in
the Bee national championships
rounds May 11-13. The 1st place
national champion will receive a
$50,000 college scholarship, a
lifetime membership in the Soci
ety including a subscription to
National Geographic magazine
and a trip to the Galapagos Is
lands.
Congratulations and good
luck to Gus and thank you to all
the participants!
Please call Jim Barkley at 770-893-4570 for an
appointment. Office hours are by appointment.
Visit BarkleyFinancialGroup.com to download a tax
organizer and to read about the latest tax law changes.
WARNING
If you are considering purchasing a home in the North Georgia
Mountains, DO NOT buy one in Pickens County.
The County does not provide discounts (unless impoverished),
or exemptions on property taxes for their senior homeowners. So, picket
Pickens County. Buy a home in a County that values its senior citizens.
Pickens Seniors for Change
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arkley
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We have a new office location.
35 North Main Street in Jasper
Jasper Fire stoked about new training simulator
By Angela Reinhardt
Staff writer
areinhardt@pickensprogress.com
City of Jasper Fire Chief
Steve Roper said the training
simulator recently donated to his
department will not only save
time, but will also double train
ing hours for local firefighters.
“Fire departments nationwide
deal with budget constraints that
limit their abilities in areas such
as training,” Roper said.
“Smaller departments like ours
tend to struggle more than larger
departments that obviously have
larger budgets. This donation by
Bluestream Professional Services
allows us and other small depart
ments in our area the ability to
get valuable life saving training
that was previously unavailable
with traveling to training facili
ties located hours away.”
Roper said his crews have
been training about once every
two months in places as far away
as Forsyth, but the new in-house
structure will increase that train
ing time to once a month.
The simulator measures
30x60 feet and recreates a two-
story residential dwelling with
crawl tunnels and obstacles.
There is also a vertical confined
space that simulates rescue situ
ations involving a storm drain or
manhole.
“This allows Jasper Fire to
train for rescue situations,”
Roper said, “but it also allows the
City’s Water & Sewer Depart
ments to train for work in these
types of environments.”
Jasper Fire Chief Steve Roper, center, with Bluestream Professional Services Wireless Training
Manager Mike Winkle and Tower Climbing Safety & Rescue Coordinator Rustin Fagan. Bluestream
Professional Services of Marietta donated the firefighter training equipment to Jasper Fire Depart
ment.
Night vision camera system
allows images of trainees to be
seen on monitors outside of the
structure. Smoke generators, a
tripod wench, harnesses and
other features are also on deck.
The simulator was being dis
assembled mid-day Monday for
transport to its new home at the
Jasper Fire Station on Burton
Street.
Roper said in addition to his
own crews having access to
training, surrounding county and
city departments are invited to
schedule training time.
Bluestream Professional
Services is out of Marietta, Ga.
and is an accredited training fa
cility that provides training for
wireless communications towers
and other high-angle applica
tions.
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
Notice is hereby given of a hearing to be held at 7:00
PM, Monday, February 2, 2015 at Nelson City Hall
before the City Council. The purpose of this hearing
is to discuss a request by Martha Dunn for a variance
to the zoning ordinance of the City of Nelson to allow
installation of an extension of a fence on the property
of the applicant. This address is 1712 Pickens St.,
Nelson, GA. The decision of the request will be made
during the council meeting.
Local schools donate to food pantry
L-R: Ralph Dobbins, CARES volunteer, Jennie Smith, JES counselor, students, Larry
Starr, CARES executive director, and Tommy Bostick, CARES volunteer.
The Christmas season always brings with it the
joy of giving. That joy was abundant with the do
nations CARES received from our local schools.
Students at Jasper Elementary School, Jasper Mid
dle School and the Junior Optimist Club gener
ously gave of themselves and loaded the CARES
truck up with items that we have been able to use
to continue to provide for our citizens in Pickens
County that need a little help.
Card of Thanks
The family of Marjie Anderson Fowler would like to thank everyone who
came by the funeral home, sent flowers, brought food or said a prayer for us
in the loss of our loved one.
God bless you!
Eddie & Julie Fowler & Family
Steve & Shellie Baird & Family
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