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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
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