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Magazine inserted
into this week’s paper
Thursday, April 2, 2020
Volume 132 Number 50
Jasper, Georgia
Local News Published Weekly
County continues to hunker
down against COVID-19
Inside:
Ancient
sites of
Pickens ioa
By Dan Pool
Editor
dpool@pickensprogress.com
Local hospital and government
officials presented information dur
ing teleconferences on Monday in
dicating that this week has seen little
change in the numbers of coron-
aviras cases here, but expressed se
rious concerns about “a surge” in the
next two weeks.
Piedmont Mountainside CEO
Denise Ray told officials from
Jasper, Pickens County and Gilmer
County during a Monday teleconfer
ence that “we are not out of the
woods at all.” She added that they
need to stick to the shelter-in-place
and shut down orders.
Ray told those on the call that
projections show that a surge in the
cases might happen in the next two
weeks and the hospital had “been
looking to open beds that are not
even real beds” to handle a possible
influx of those sick with corona vims
symptoms.
Ray also expressed concern to
local officials about the number of
ventilators that would be available at
the local hospital, saying “this is
among the biggest concerns we
See Conference on 13A
Sheriff offers
update on
drug cases
Staff reports
Sheriff Donnie Craig pre
sented an overview of recent
drug activity and arrests on Mon
day, showing that meth is the
leading cause of illegal drag ac
tivity at this time.
Craig said the numbers show
that opioids figured into 18 of the
58 cases made by the joint
Cherokee Multi-Agency Nar
cotics Squad (CMANS) and
Pickens Sheriff’s joint drag oper
ations. Most of the rest were
meth related.
Craig said that previously the
sheriff’s office put out press re
leases on individual arrests but
now that they have merged with
the Cherokee-based operation,
they will limit information to a
quarterly or monthly basis with
See Cases on 13A
Mathews
granted
bond
Gaylon Mathews book-in
photo from February.
By Angela Reinhardt
Staff writer
areinhardt@pickensprogress.com
Gaylon Earl Mathews, 57,
who was arrested in February on
two counts of aggravated child
molestation and one count of
child molestation was granted
bond with special conditions in
Pickens court last week.
According to the bond order,
approved by Pickens Superior
Court Judge John Worcester and
filed on March 25, the bond
amount was set at $50,000. Per
special conditions of the bond
order, Mathews must stay at his
See Bond on 13A
Dan Pool / Photo
THE FUTURE OF MEETINGS? Sheriff officials host a video meeting with all city and county public
safety personnel and top elected positions three times a week on the coronavirus situation. Each person can
chime in and hear all other comments with this format that the city of Jasper has already begun using.
Maintenance on Long Swamp
Creek water source complete
David White, Atlantic Coast Conservancy / Photo
A drone shot of the Cove area shows the massive maintenance job performed by city crews with what the
city manager called a full mobilization last week.
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Staff reports
Last week, city crews performed
routine maintenance on the overflow
channel along Long Swamp Creek
where the city has their intake for the
water system.
City Manager Brandon Douglas
said the maintenance at the Cove, as
it is commonly called, was sorely
needed because of “the tremendous
volume of water from all this rain.”
He said they didn’t install anything
new, but the work may have looked
more “dramatic” as the maintenance
was long overdue.
If left uncleaned, silt and other
debris will clog the city’s intake
pumps and create real problems for
all the city water system equipment,
Douglas said. The overflow channel
needed to be cleared of debris, so
more water could be diverted around
the intake area during heavy rains, of
which there have been plenty over
the winter.
Before the work, if the water and
silt-levels rose too high in Long
Swamp Creek, the city shut-down
See Cove on 13A
Atlanta metro is nation’s fourth
fastest growing in the past to years
By Dave Williams
Bureau Chief
Capitol Beat News Service
Atlanta - Metro Atlanta was the
nation’s fourth fastest-growing met
ropolitan area in the last decade, ac
cording to new numbers from the
U.S. Census Bureau.
The population of Atlanta, includ
ing Sandy Springs and Alpharetta,
was just more than 6 million as of
last July 1, up from just less than 5.3
million on April 1, 2010.
That increase of 733,646 was be
hind only the Dallas, Houston and
Phoenix metropolitan regions. The
Dallas metro area - including Fort
Worth, Texas; and Arlington, Texas
- was the fastest-growing metropol
itan area in the country, adding 1.2
million residents during the last
decade bringing its population to
nearly 7.6 million.
The Atlanta region also is the na
tion’s ninth-most populous. Ahead of
metro Atlanta in the rankings as of
last July 1 were the New York
City/Newark, N.J., with more than
19.2 million residents as the nation’s
largest.
The Big Apple is followed in
order by Los Angeles, Chicago, Dal
las, Houston, Washington, D.C.,
Miami/Fort Lauderdale and
Philadelphia.
The Census Bureau also reported
that all of the 10 counties with the
largest numeric gains since 2010 are
in the South and West.
Despite the growth in some coun-
See Metro on 13A
Spring sports
in holding
pattern ib
Businesses:
Who is open,
who is closed?
ioB
COVID-19
information
Page 12A
Obituaries - 7A
• Coy Lowe
• Eddie Brackett
• Ethelene Dorton
• Grady Sue Ward
• Jimmy Adams
• John Trammell
• Kevin James
Index
Editorial 4A
Letters to the Editor . 5A
People 2B
Church 3B
Kids 5B
Legals 6-7B
Classifieds 8-9B
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