Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4A PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS THURSDAY. FEBRUARY 19. 2015
Cox to speak at 2015 STAR Banquet
Submitted by Reeder Burch
The 2015 STAR Banquet is
set for Thursday evening, March
5, at Chattahoochee Technical
College. Cathy Cox, president of
Young Harris College and for
mer Georgia Secretary of State,
will be the guest speaker. The
Optimist Club of Jasper is the
local sponsor of the STAR Pro
gram. Andrew Haygood has been
named the 2015 STAR Student
of Pickens High School and he
selected Mr. Michael Oubre as
his STAR Teacher.
Cathy Cox became the 21st
president of Young Harris Col
lege in June 2007. She served
two terms as Secretary of State
of Georgia from 1999 until 2007,
after being the first woman
elected to hold the office, and
two terms in the Georgia House
of Representatives. She was bom
and raised in Bainbridge, Ga.
Following the completion of
her second term as Secretary of
State, Ms. Cox received an ap
pointment as the Carl E. Sanders
Political Leadership Scholar on
the faculty of the University of
Georgia School of Law where
she taught courses in Election
Law and Law & Politics.
Ms. Cox earned an Associate
degree in Agriculture at Abraham
Baldwin Agricultural College
and continued her studies at the
University of Georgia, receiving
a Bachelor’s degree in Journal
ism. She began her career as a
newspaper reporter with The
Gainesville Times and The Post-
Searchlight in Bainbridge before
entering Mercer University Law
School, where she graduated
with a Juris Doctorate degree and
was editor of the Law Review>.
For 10 years, Ms. Cox practiced
law in Atlanta and Bainbridge,
and in 2007 was awarded an
Honorary Doctor of Laws degree
from Mercer.
As Secretary of State, Ms.
Cox led Georgia to become the
Cathy Cox, the former secretary of state, will address local
students and teachers at the Star Banquet.
first state in the nation to deploy
a modern, uniform electronic
voting system after she docu
mented the state’s voting inaccu
racies in the 2000 presidential
election. For her efforts, Govern
ing magazine named her one of
its 2000 Public Officials of the
Year, the first Secretary of State
in the nation to receive this
recognition. Academic studies
have shown that she moved
Georgia from the second worst
voting accuracy rate in the nation
to the second best (CalTech/MIT
studies of 2000-04).
Ms. Cox has received numer
ous honors for her public service
over the years. The Georgia
Commission on Women named
her the 2000 Woman of the Year,
and Georgia Trend magazine has
chosen her as one of the 100
Most Influential Georgians nine
times. The State Bar of Georgia’s
General Practice and Trial Sec
tion awarded her its prestigious
Traditions of Excellence Award
in 2011, and UGA’s Grady Col
lege of Journalism named her a
Grady Fellow in 2013.
As President of Young Harris
College, Ms. Cox has led the his
toric liberal arts college through
a period of phenomenal growth,
transitioning it from a two-year
to a four-year institution, devel
oping 20 new baccalaureate de
gree programs, undertaking a
$100 million campus-wide
building program and doubling
the size of the faculty and student
body, all while staying true to its
United Methodist heritage.
Ms. Cox is a member of
Sharp Memorial United
Methodist Chinch and serves on
the boards of United Commimity
Banks, Inc., the third-largest
bank holding company in Geor
gia, the Ty Cobb Foundation, the
Chick-fil-A Foundation Advi
sory Board and the Georgia
Cities Foundation. She and her
husband Mark Dehler, also an at
torney, reside on the campus of
Young Harris College in Young
Harris with their yellow
Labrador Retriever Elbe Mae.
The banquet will be held at 7
p.m. at Chattahoochee College,
100 Campus Drive, Jasper. The
Woodbridge Inn has catered this
event since the Optimist Club
started this unique program and
will again this year. Anyone in
terested in attending the banquet
should e-mail the Optimist Club
at pickensstar@etcmail. com.
The cost to attend the banquet is
$22 per person and reservations
are required.
The 2015 Star Student/
Teacher & STAR finalists are:
Andrew Haygood - STAR
Student with Michael Oubre -
STAR Teacher
STAR Finalists
Jesse Brooks - Christi Hob-
good
Johnson Collins - Joe Wright
Ryan Evans - Lynn Cantrell
Savannah Friedman - Gail
Culbreth
Abygayle Gibson - Lisa
Payne
Kari Henke - Robbie
Cheatham
Olivia Parker - Nikki Towery
Brad Rutledge - Sue Gibbons
Kyle Watters - Bobby Timms
^Consigning Ydomen^jfi
“JA Unique Consignment Shop”
During the month of ^
™ February W
Winter Clearance Sale!
Everything
« 50% off!
Including Jewelry
*
SOME EXCLUSIONS APPLY
706-253-6905
29-B Cove Road, Jasper • (Next to Citgo)
Feral swine cause economic damage
University of Georgia re
searchers have begun surveying
landowners in parts of Georgia to
assess how much economic dam
age feral swine are causing
throughout the state.
A new survey, “Feral Swine
on Private Lands in Georgia,”
has been mailed to 3,000
landowners across Georgia and
is being conducted by Michael
Mengak and students in UGA’s
Warnell School of Forestry and
Natural Resources.
Feral swine root, wallow,
trample, prey on livestock and
are generally very aggressive.
They also reproduce rapidly,
travel in large groups and thrive
in a variety of habitats. Control
ling their populations has been
an issue, and often landowners
turn to state and local agencies or
private businesses for help with
varying success.
Feral swine - also called feral
pigs, wild pigs, feral hogs, wild
hogs and wild boar - are esti
mated to cause in excess of $1.5
billion in damage nationwide,
Article
Archive
www.pickensprogress.com
said Mengak, a professor and
wildlife specialist. The survey is
jointly funded by UGA Exten
sion and the Warnell School.
“It is important to understand
the nature of feral swine prob
lems and the damage they cause
on a local scale,” he said. “This
information informs the Georgia
state legislature and natural re
source managers of the damage
and financial hardship feral
swine inflict on farmers and
other landowners in Georgia.”
Mengak and UGA Extension
last surveyed landowners about
feral swine in 2012. Results from
that survey were compiled to cal
culate the economic damages
caused by feral swine, typically
on farmland through rooting,
grubbing and destroying crops of
peanuts, com and cotton. The to
tals showed that feral swine
caused more than $81 million in
damage to crops and farmland in
41 Georgia counties in 2011, he
said.
The new eight-page survey
asks landowners questions about
issues they’ve noticed with feral
swine, how they attempt to con
trol swing on their properties and
whether they feel feral swine are
a nuisance or a benefit. The sur
vey was mailed to landowners
JASPER NAILS
Professionaf 9{git Care Service
• Acrylic • Spa Pedicure • Gel Nails • Silk Wrap
1 Solar Nails • Manicure • Diamond Nails • Waxing
Gift Certificates Available
706-253-5530 Appt. & Walk-Ins Welcome!
Monday - Saturday 10 AM - 7 PM
295 North Main St., Suite J Full Set $22.00
(Located by Mtn. Video) Fill In $16.00
Pickens County Head Start/Pre-K
Registration
for the 2015 - 2016
school year will begin March 2 nd .
To be eligible, children must be 3 or 4 years
of age on or before September 1, 2015
Call today
to schedule an appointment.
Office Hours
Monday thru Friday 7:00 AM - 3:30 PM
Call 770-735-3434 for more information
i?
who met two criteria - registered
farmers and rural landowners
outside of metro areas who own
at least five acres of land. Survey
recipients were randomly se
lected from a large Georgia data
base.
Questions include when they
first noticed damage, what kind
of damage feral swine caused,
what methods they used to con
trol the feral swine - including
lethal means - and how much
money they estimate they’ve lost
due to the feral swine. Re
searchers also want to know if
any landowners prefer to see
feral swine on their properties
and their opinions on whether
they think the swine carry dis
ease or are harmful to other
wildlife.
“From our previous survey,
farmers told us feral swine are
very destructive and not wel
come in the environment,” Men
gak said.
Landowners who receive the
survey are asked to fill in as
much as they can or wish to, then
mail it back within two weeks,
Mengak said. Survey responses
will remain anonymous, and re
cipients are provided with a free
postage-paid envelope for return
ing the survey.
It is thought that feral swine
were introduced to the U.S. by
the Spanish in the mid-1500s.
They were found in just 17 states
in 1982, but the U.S. Department
of Agriculture finds they have
now spread to 41 states, Guam,
Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Is
lands, American Samoa and the
Northern Mariana Islands.
The survey also asks about
control methods and landown
ers’ opinions on their effective
ness, including hunting. The
2015 survey asks if landowners
hunt feral swine on their property
or allow others to do so.
“Hunting may take a few ani
mals but it will never be a solu
tion to this problem,” he said.
Intensive trapping is the best
method of control at this time.
“Poison or toxicants are not legal
methods for controlling feral
swine,” he added.
Georgia’s Wildlife Resource
Division and Department of
Agriculture enforce feral swine
laws in Georgia.
The USDA’s Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Service’s
Wildlife Services has in the past
offered management solutions at
a local level, but it is considering
implementing a tougher manage
ment program that would span
the country. However, the agency
wants to see what landowners
think before finalizing the plan.
Their environmental impact
statement is under review.
“Decision makers and land
managers in Georgia will be bet
ter informed about the extent and
nature of the feral swine problem
once results from the current sur
vey are compiled and summa
rized,” Mengak said.
feudal
February 22 nd
2-5 p.m. at
Venue 2 Remember
Jasper, Georgia
Come meet the Vendors, Coast 2 Coast
Catering will have samples so you can
taste their exquisite food and view their
elegant table settings.
RSVP at
www.venue2remember.com
or call 706-697-7347
Wauside Anima
Hospita'
* %
706-692-2210
» a>
99 Cove Rd. » Jasper GA • www.waysideah.com . ^V.