About Pickens County progress. (Jasper, Ga.) 1899-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 12, 2019)
$1 Thursday, September 12, 2019 Volume 132 Number 21 Jasper, Georgia Local News Published Weekly Reinhardt nursing program moves to heart of Jasper PHS students to get nursing scholarships By Angela Reinhardt Staff writer areinhardt@pickensprogress.com A proposed partnership between Reinhardt Univer sity, the Pickens County School System, and the De velopment Authority of Pickens County could relo cate the entire Reinhardt nursing program to two buildings in downtown Jasper by next year. As part of the agreement, some Pickens High School students would receive scholarships to the college’s nursing program. Local leaders believe the arrange ment will also bolster Jasper’s downtown area by bringing students who will patronize restaurants and businesses on and around Main Street. If all parties agree to the arrangement, Reinhardt’s entire nursing program, which was launched in 2018, will relocate from Chatta hoochee Technical College to two buildings on D.B. Carroll Street owned by the school system - the building where the school board once QPublic / Photo The highlighted buildings will be the new location of Reinhardt’s Cauble School of Nursing and Health Sciences pending final Pickens school board approval. Reinhardt’s president announced the move at the Pickens Chamber breakfast Tuesday morning. held their meetings, also known locally as the ‘old li brary,’ and the top floor of the adjacent building that re cently housed Mountain Ed ucation Charter High School before they moved to a building on West Church Street. According to Reinhardt University President Dr. Kina Mallard, current plans are for the old library build ing to be outfitted for use as simulation labs, with regular classes and faculty offices to be housed in the adjacent building. Dr. Mallard said if all parties agree to the arrangement, between 60 and 70 nursing students would start classes at those two buildings beginning the fall semester of 2020. She anticipates the program will reach 100 students in four years. Reinhardt’s nursing pro gram is a four-year bac calaureate program in which graduates receive a Bachelor of Science in Nursing de gree. Reinhardt will gradu ate their first students from that program this December. Reinhardt’s lease would be for a five-year period, much longer than the one- year lease the entity held See Nursing on 2A Digest increases; County proposes rollback millage rate By Angela Reinhardt Staff writer areinhardt@pickensprogress.com Members of the Pickens County Board of Commis sioners have proposed a millage rate of 7.779 for 2019, which will levy $11.29 million in taxes. Last year’s millage rate was 7.846. At the commis sioners’ work session, Pick ens Finance Officer Faye Harvey explained that 7.779 mills is the “rollback” rate, which the county is able to use this year because of the $40.3 million net increase to the 2019 county tax digest. The new rate, if approved by commissioners at their regular meeting later this month, will result in slightly more tax collections - 1.98 percent or $218,672 - but Harvey said it is not consid ered a tax increase. The county is not required to hold public hearings if they use the rollback rate. The digest’s increase came by and large from the $44.9 million increase in real and personal property. The tax di gest history shows that real and per sonal property has increased the last five consecutive years, with larger in creases each year. The real and per sonal property values increased: $39.5 million in 2018; $37 million in 2017; $18.2 million in 2016; and $10.1 mil lion in 2015. The county’s net digest has shifted from a net decrease of $7.8 million in 2015 to a net increase of $26 million in 2018 and $40.3 million this year. Changes to the way motor vehicles are taxed have significantly impacted the net digest - motor vehicle tax collec tions decreased from $75.2 million in 2014 to $24.4 million in 2018. “The county continues to grow,” said Pickens Chief Tax Assessor Roy Dobbs. “When you look at all the cars on the street and all the other activity we’re seeing, there is a lot going on in Pickens County.” Dobbs said See Rollback on 2A Tiny homes, campers again fill planning discussion By Dan Pool Editor dpool@pickensprogress.com What to do about tiny homes, peo ple living in RVs and other non-con- forming residences took center stage again with the county’s planning com mission Monday. During a meeting to look at up dates to county regulations, an explo ration of ideas regarding homes that may not be safe, or definitely violate codes veered into an array of issues such as what is government’s role in seeing that people live in safe homes versus private property rights. Central to most of the discussion between members of the appointed commis sion and paid county and regional planning staff was simply what is a practical way to address the number of “non-compliant” homes without cre ating social issues or setting prece dents. While no action was taken, plan ning commission member Lee Thrasher said they were making progress just by identifying all these issues, noting they “had gotten down into the weeds” with them. Planning Director Rodney Buck ingham cited a typical situation as someone getting temporary power at a site to build a house, but then they move in a See Planning on 2A A rhumba of timber rattlers killed by Pickens man By Dan Pool, Editor A Pickens man preparing a hunting club in Upson County for the upcoming season killed around 50 tim ber rattlesnakes found in a lumber pile on August 31. Tommy Lathem said he had been hunting that prop erty near the Flint River for 25 years and had killed a few rattlesnakes during that time, including a big one about three weeks ago, but Lathem had never seen anything like this. He killed three adults in the lumber with a shotgun and more than 40 babies using a shovel. “Every time we moved a board, there would be more of them,” he said. The babies were scattered throughout the wood with the three adults all at the bottom of the pile that was on a pallet. It was assumed all three adults were females and the smaller ones were their brood. Of the adults, one had 12 rattles, one 10 and one four. According to some basic internet research, a group of snakes is referred to as a (a m The more lumber he picked from the pile, the more snakes he found, said Pickens resident Tommy Lathem. .-V: V “rhumba” and you can inter changeably use den, pit or nest to describe their loca tion. However, several online sites note that snakes are mostly solitary, except for winter when they will come together for warmth. Also interesting is nation- alforests.org’s article about mapping rattlesnake dens stated, “Rattlesnakes bear live babies. We all learned in elementary school that, with a few exceptions, only mam mals give birth to live ba bies. Snakes are supposed to lay eggs. Rattlesnakes, how ever, are the exception to the ride: their extremely soft eggshells break before birth, and their shell-less babies emerge fully developed.” What makes the number of baby snakes in this pile even more unusual is the St. Louis Zoo’s website notes that the average number of babies bom to timber rattlers is eight. “The female gives birth to live young in late summer or early fall. A litter may have anywhere from five to 14 snakelings, with eight being the average. Newborns are about 10 to 13 inches long, and are some what lighter in color than adults.” Lathem said there were some other people in the camp, with one helping him move the lumber using shov els so they didn’t have to get too close and one more watching for snakes trying to crawl away from the pile, leaving Lathem to take care of the snakes when they found them. He said it took more than 30 minutes to go through the pile and as they were nearing the bottom, the three larger snakes began rattling. “It makes you be more careful down there,” Lathem said. Lathem was also inter viewed by Georgia Outdoor News for a story slated for their magazine at GON.com Inside: Pig roast for all veterans and their families this Saturday Page 3A On Golden Pond opens this week Page 11A Dog-gone good news Page 4A Obituaries - 7A • Doris Beck • William Bramlett • Gordon Cunningham • Richard Duckett • Tony Hermel • Alec Lee • Troy Sperin Index Obituaries 7A Editorial 4A Letters to the editor . ,5A Church 4-5B Kids 6B People 3B Classifieds 10-11B Legals 7-9B Follow Us Online YouQH§ Contact Us 94 North Main Street Jasper, Ga. 30143 706-253-2457 www.pickensprogress.com Open for business during these hours: Mon-Thurs, 9-5, and Fri, 9-4:30
