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PAGE 12A PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS THURSDAY. JANUARY 7. 2016 Between the Bookends By Emma Ingle, Pickens Co. Librarian Forest Glen Apartments 504 Indian Forest Rd. Jasper, GA 30143 ^ Prestige Medical Group CDL Drivers & Diesel Mechanics JOB FAIR $$ SIGN-ON BONUS $$ Equal Opportunity Employer/AA • Minority/Female/Disabled/Veteran All applicants will be required to provide a recent copy of their MVR. www.advanceddisposal.com 706-692-5355 TDD 1-800-255-0056 2 Bedroom Apartments $300 Deposit Please call for details Office Hours Mon - Fri 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM FOREST GLEN IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY PROVIDER Georgia gas prices fall to start year ‘‘PREPARING WORLD CHANGERS” Onsite Directors: Dr. Ben Langley 770-893-8337 Pastor Lamar Long 770-655-4196 2016 Course Offering: January Intensive: Old Testament Survey Spring 2016: New Testament Survey First Course: January 2016 Two Week Course Date: January 18th to 30th Dr. D.L. Moody - President Arlington Baptist College Cost: $120 per Course Registration: One-page Form to be completed during the first class period www.artingtonbaptistcollege.edu Arlington Baptist College Festival of Trees Winner Winner of the 2015 Festival of Trees, with the most votes for favorite tree goes to the Friends of the Pickens Library (Little Golden Memories). Congratula tions! We will order a book of their choice to be placed in the li brary for everyone to check out. 2nd runner up is, Keep Pickens Beautiful (Recycling). Other par ticipants included: American Le gion Post 149; Biscuit Maker; Boys & Girls Clubs of Pickens County; Good Samaritan; Jasper Elementary; Jasper Lions Club; Jasper Middle School (Library Dragons); Marble Valley Friends; Master Gardeners; Mountain City Girls Scouts; Op timists Club of Jasper; Pickens County 4-H; Pickens County Li brary Board of Trustees; Pickens County Retired Educators Asso ciation; Pickens FERST Founda tion for Childhood Literacy; Pickens County Transportation Dept.; Smith Real Estate, Angela Smith; Relay for Life of Pickens County; Sonshine Manor; TAB- Pickens Library Teen Advisory Board; Wildwood Christian Academy; and the Yamers. Story Time The youngest folks are invited to join Miss Brooke for Lapsit story time on a New Day, Thurs day, January 7th at 10:30 p.m. Lapsit story time is designed for children ages 1-3 and includes Friends of the Pickens Library winning tree. Parachute Play. Family Story Time is also on Thursday, Janu ary 7th at 3:30 p.m. Family story time includes a craft project to take home. All ages are invited. PLEASE NOTE NEW DAY, THURSDAYS! Teen Advisory Board Meeting All teens are invited to attend the meeting of TAB on Monday, January 11th at 4:30 pm. If you are interested in be coming a member of the Teen Advisory Board, you can pick up an application at the library. For more information, please contact the Pickens County Li brary at 706-692-5411. Library Yarners Come join the weekly cro chet/knitting/yarn-enthusiast meetings, Tuesday, January 12th at 10 a.m. and/or 5 p.m. The Li brary Yamers is led by a former library staff-member (you may attend either or both meetings). All fiber-artists are welcome (re gardless of skill level)! For more information please contact Pick ens County Library at 706-692- 5411. eBook Help Do you have a new eReader or tablet? Learn how to down load free eBooks and audio books. Schedule a 30 minute personal help session, for Wednesday, January 13th, start ing at 2 p.m. Before attending please make sure that your li brary card is up-to-date and that you have a library PIN number. Registration is required. For more information please contact Pickens County Library at 706-692-5411 From GasBuddy.com Average retail gasoline prices in Georgia have fallen 1.1 cents per gallon in the past week, aver aging $1.89/g yesterday, accord ing to GasBuddy's daily survey of 5,883 gas outlets in Georgia. This compares with the national average that has fallen 0.5 cents per gallon in the last week to $1.99/g, according to gasoline price website GasBuddy.com. Areas nearby Georgia and their current gas price climate: Augusta- $1.85/g, down 2.8 cents per gallon from last week's $1.88/g. Macon- $1,85/g, down 1.2 cents per gallon from last week's $1.86/g. Atlanta- $1.90/g, down 1.5 cents per gallon from last week's $ 1.92/g. Including the change in gas prices in Georgia during the past week, prices yesterday were 29.5 cents per gallon lower than the same day one year ago and are 8.1 cents per gallon lower than a month ago. The national average has decreased 5.0 cents per gal lon during the last month and stands 19.9 cents per gallon lower than this day one year ago. "Talk about starting the New Year off right," said Patrick De- Haan, GasBuddy senior petro leum analyst. "The national average at $ 1.99 is a great way to begin 2016, and over twenty cents lower than where we started 2015. The good news is that we could see even more price drops before the seasonal lift that will likely begin as we push towards Spring. For any Americans that made resolutions to try and spend less at the pump this year, I think they will be in good shape to achieve that. The fundamentals of oil remain weak which will contribute to low oil prices for some time, while gaso line demand will likely move lower now with the holidays be hind us, putting downward pres sure on gasoline prices," DeHaan said. GasBuddy will be unveiling its 2016 Fuel Outlook in the weeks ahead, which will shed light on what the fuel price cli mate will be for motorists in the year ahead. For a complete listing of cur rent averages and other fiiel price data, visit http://media.gas- buddy.com. For fuel news and alerts, follow @GasBuddyNews on Twitter. GasBuddy is the premiere source for real-time local gas prices. Founded in 2000, Gas Buddy. com developed as an ini tiative to provide consumers access to local, current gas prices. Through the GasBuddy.com website and the free GasBuddy mobile app, users Realtor offers advice: Interest Uptick can find and share gas prices with fellow drivers, saving big money at the pump. Intense Bible Study Courses By Ron Barnes Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Home Services We now have an entire gener ation, born since the middle ‘80’s, that believes they are enti tled to mortgage rates just above free. Ironically, they were actu ally born when mortgage rates ran as high as 18%! During the Carter administration, if you had a 7% mortgage, you were not only lucky, you were considered to be a financial genius. That would now be considered high way robbery. They were stunned when the federal rates went up a quarter percent recently. They will likely wait around for rates to go back down. They also waited around for all the cheap houses to disappear before starting to look for a new home, because they figured they would probably get one for less money eventually by doing nothing. On the other hand, people wanting to sell their homes are wringing their hands over the same increase, assuming there will be no buyers because of the “skyrocketing” mortgage rates. In my past life I was a com mercial lender. My clients were typically pretty sophisticated about financial issues and mar kets. One thing I could depend on is that if borrowing rates were standing still, people never ran out of time to make a decision on buying something. However, if the rates started moving, busi ness usually improved, no matter if it was up or down. If rates went down, they might be tempted to go ahead and buy those new trucks instead of continuing to maintain the old fleet. If rates started to tick up, they got more serious about replacing those old front end loaders before the cost debt service got any worse. Most of them didn’t wait around unless they had no need at all. But most of them followed the money markets and knew their jobs. No one really knows for sure what will happen over the next year, including the people who will make the decisions, but we will likely see more increases. For those who don’t remember, they lowered rates, and now they can raise rates. That’s just part of the cycle. However, this is not all bad news for the time being. With modest increases, mortgages will continue to be very reasonable for those who stop waiting. An increase of .25 percent at current rate levels on a $170,000 thirty year mortgage would only amount to about a $25 per month increase. The bigger worry is when you wait around for a trend to re verse itself. Once it starts mov ing, it tends to keep moving in the same direction for a while. The last time the rate was in creased was ten years ago. Peo ple are bom and die and get married and start families in that time span. Are you willing to wait that long to buy or sell a home? For buyers, have a plan. You will need some form of down payment, usually at least three percent. Do you have a plan for gathering that money? Are you spending five dollars a day for a double foam-chocolate-fudge- mocha-latte on the way to work? That’s $1100 you could be put ting toward a down payment. If you’re spending ten bucks for lunch every day, that’s another $2200 you could be saving. That is about all you need for to get into an entry level home these days. As prices go up, and mort gage rates increase over the com ing months, that simple goal moves farther out of reach. Ron Barnes is a past president of the Pickens County Board of Realtors, currently an associate broker with BHHS Georgia Properties and can be reached at 678-520-6648 or www.RonBar- nesRealEstate.com, Equal Blous ing Opportunity. Statistics furnished by Trendgraphix and FAILS. Advanced Disposal, the largest privately-owned environmental services company in the U.S., is hiring for CDL Drivers and Diesel Mechanics in its Ball Ground, GA location. ** On-The-Spot Interviews + Refreshments ** Beginning January 2016 Bible Baptist Church Ellijay, Georgia North Georgia Extension Site Friday, January 8, 2016 *11 am - 5 pm & Saturday, January 9, 2016 • 8 am - Noon Advanced Disposal Services 8880 Old Federal Road Ball Ground, GA 30107 For further information, call 678-648-1131. Bring MVR & Driver’s License • Drivers must have CLEAN MVR for past 3 years and at least a Class B CDL • Mechanics must have own tools We offer medical, dental, vision and life insurance as well as a company matching program for those investing in a 401k plan. If unable to attend, please email resume to: Email: Hireaadvanceddisposal.com Dr.AnilYadav \ Dr. Monika Yadav \ Dr. Kumi Swart | Dr Nasir Asghar \ Amy Milton, NPC \ Lottie Davenport, NPC | Caroline Garrett, NPC Complete Health & Wellness Center PFihAAFl/ CAPE AJEBFFF LOBE MEDICAL CPA Our unique approach is designed to achieve optimum health. Prestige Medical Group is a progressive, evidence-based medical center that incorporates various modalities, such as traditional medicine, integrative protocols, holistic care and medical cosmetic procedures. COMPREHENSIVE MEDICAL CARE BOARD CERTIFIED IN AAFP, ABIM, ABOM AND ABIHM PrestigeMedicalGroup.org 684 Sixes Rd, Holly Springs, GA 30115 51 Gordon Road, Jasper, GA 30143