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94 Heart Pine Lane
5 bed / 4 bath
$422,500
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Section
June 11,2020
Rec. department community center closed
after employee tests positive for COVID-19
Cleaning by a company
with specialty services for
COVID has been completed
at the Roper Park community
center, after a county em
ployee tested positive for
COVID last week.
Outside features in the
park are open, but the com
munity center will remain
closed until test results on all
other employees are returned.
County PIO Tucker Green
said Tuesday that cleaning
and sanitizing was complete
but they were going to stay
closed a few more days out
of precaution and until they
see all the test results.
Pickens County govern
ment was notified June 5th
that an employee received a
positive diagnosis for
COVID-19. The employee
experienced symptoms after
work on the evening of June
4th. The employee did not
come to work on June 5, but
instead went to be tested for
COVID-19 and received a
positive diagnosis.
The employee who tested
positive works fulltime for
the Pickens County Recre
ation Department and was at
work last week. The individ
ual was following all re
quired health protocols.
Records show the employee
never exhibited any symp
toms while at work.
Pickens County govern
ment will remain transparent
with our stakeholders and we
will continue to take neces
sary precautions to maintain
the health and safety of our
citizens and our staff.
All summer camp partici
pants, and other patrons have
been notified. This will allow
anyone in potential contact to
follow proper health proce
dures.
Bald eagle nesting still strong, but
success rate dips in north Georgia
DNR survey suggests rains to blame for fewer eaglets in region
Bald eagle nesting re
mains strong in Georgia, but
the number of successful
nests and young fledged in
the northern part of the state
declined this year compared
to long-term averages, ac
cording to an annual Georgia
Department of Natural Re
sources survey. Substantial
rainfall from January through
March likely contributed to
lower nest productivity in
north Georgia, survey leader
Dr. Bob Sargent said.
Checking by helicopter in
January, March and early
April, Sargent counted 117
eagle nest territories in three
regions of the state: the six
coastal counties; a section of
east Georgia bounded
roughly by interstates 16 and
85 and the South Carolina
line; and the counties north of
Atlanta. This year’s survey
results also included seven
nests monitored in other
areas by volunteers or DNR
staff.
Considering that the rest
of south Georgia, surveyed in
alternate years, usually has
about 85 occupied nest terri
tories - or active nests - Sar
gent said the state likely had
200 or more eagle nests for
the sixth straight year.
The 2020 survey esti
mated 126 young fledged
from 82 successful nests
(those fledging at least one
nestling). The rate of 1.5
fledglings per nest matched
the long-term average. How
ever, the percentage of suc
cessful nests and the number
of young fledged per occu
pied nest territory were lower
than average, especially in
the northernmost counties -
from Hall to Rabun, west to
Dade, and south to Floyd and
Bartow counties.
“More than half of the lat-
June 7th:
On this day in 1993, the
Montreal Canadiens set the
NHL postseason record for
consecutive overtime wins
with 10. The Cardiac Canadi
ens posted two sudden death
victories against the Quebec
Nordiques in the Adams Di
vision Semifinals before log
ging three in a row over the
Buffalo Sabres in the division
finals. In the Prince of Wales
Conference Finals against the
New York Islanders, Mon
treal's trend continued with
two more overtime wins, in
cluding a double-overtime
thriller in Game two. Two
more came over the Los An
geles Kings in Games two
and three of the Stanley Cup
Finals. Then, there was the
record-setting victory in
Game four, where John
LeClair once again provided
the walk-off heroics. LeClair,
who was the savior of Game
three, scored at the 14:37
mark to send Montreal out a
4-3 winner.
June 8th:
On this day in 1984, the
Boston Celtics hosted the
Los Angeles Lakers in Game
five of the NBA Finals, a
contest that became known
as "The Heat Game". This
meeting took place at the his
toric Boston Garden, which
was constructed and built
without air conditioning.
With the indoor temperatures
hovering around 98 degrees,
fans were brought into the fa
cility to cool things down.
Even the 37-year-old Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar had an oxygen
tank provided to him on the
sideline. Despite the extra ac
cessories, the Lakers were
unable to catch their breath.
LA's "Showtime" offense
iced up in the heat while
Boston's offense did nothing
but get hot. As usual, Larry
Bird ignited the Celtics with
game-highs of 34 points and
17 rebounds while Dennis
Johnson lit it up with 22
points and six assists. Boston
big man, Robert Parish, even
finished with 13 points and
12 boards of his own. James
Worthy was the Lakers' most
effective weapon, going 10
of 17 from the field for a
team-high 22 points. Still, the
Los Angeles fast break cram-
bled in the sauna while
Boston sweated out a 121-
103 win.
June 9th:
On this day in 1993, the
Montreal Canadiens captured
their 24th Stanley Cup in
franchise history. The Cana
diens won it all with ease just
two days after establishing
the all-time playoff record for
consecutive overtime victo
ries. Montreal sealed the deal
with three unanswered goals
en route to a 4-1 win over the
Los Angeles Kings in Game
five. Paul DiPietro scored
twice while John LeClair and
Lyle Odelein each registered
a pair of assists. Patrick Roy
also made 18 saves before
completing the '93 postsea
son with an overall record of
16-4, a 2.13 goals against av
erage and 0.929 save percent
age. Roy's playoff numbers
helped him win his second of
three Conn Smythe awards.
He even became the first
goaltender to win two Conn
Smythes since Bemie Parent
of the Philadelphia Flyers in
1975.
June 10th:
On this day in 2002, a
week and a half after setting
the NHL mark for shutouts in
a single postseason, Dominik
Hasek became the first goal-
tender in league history to
record at least one blanking
in each of the four playoff
rounds. Hasek posted a 4-0
shutout in Game five of the
Western Conference Quarter
finals against the Vancouver
Canucks. The Dominator fol
lowed that up with two more
zeroes in Games one and five
of the semifinals with the St.
Louis Blues. Detroit's back
was against the wall in the
conference finals against the
Continued on Page 5B
rate of songbird nests in some
localities to exceed 50 per
cent due to weather factors.
“The overall productivity
trend for bald eagles nests in
Georgia continues to look
healthy.”
DNR surveys bald eagle
nesting to monitor the status
of this state and federally
protected species, which is a
priority in Georgia’s State
Wildlife Action Plan, a guid
ing strategy to conserve na
tive animals, plants and
habitats.
Largely because of the ea
gles’ sustained recovery, in
2018 Sargent switched from
flying the entire state each
year to checking coastal
counties annually - they have
the most nests and potential
development impact issues -
and alternating between
checking nests in the Pied
mont and mountain ecore-
gions in even years, and the
rest of the Coastal Plain in
odd years.
The change maintains
standardized monitoring,
syncs with the raptor’s range
wide comeback and mirrors
slimmed-down eagle surveys
in some neighboring states. It
also frees money for other
conservation projects. What
the change doesn’t signal is
Continued on Page 5B
nests in north Georgia, noting
that the nests represent a
small percentage of the
state’s total.
“Populations of many
wildlife species exhibit fluc
tuations in reproductive suc
cess from year to year,
sometimes wildly so, and
these fluctuations are often
related to bad timing of un
usually cold or rainy spells.
By comparison, it is not a
rare occurrence for the failure
ter area’s 15 nests failed to
fledge young, and nest terri
tories in the eastern region of
the state fledged fewer young
than average, too,” said Sar
gent, a program manager
with DNR’s Wildlife Conser
vation Section.
According to National
Weather Service data, At
lanta, Augusta, Clayton, Dal
ton and some other north
Georgia communities re
ceived up to twice the rainfall
in January and February
compared to 30-year aver
ages. Totals remained above
average well into March.
This three-month period
coincides with the nesting
peak for bald eagles in north
Georgia. Excessive rain can
postpone nesting and cause
nest failures, with rising
water levels reducing eagles’
ability to catch fish, their fa
vored prey, according to Sar
gent. Abnormally wet
weather combined with typi
cal winter cold snaps often
results in chilled eggs and ea
glets, which can also increase
the rate of nest failures.
Yet Sargent said he is not
concerned about this season’s
poor success rate for eagle
Sports
Fanatic
By
Tommy
Gartrell
Columnist
Return
Update
Many sports leagues
are beginning to release
information about
prospective dates for
their return to action fol
lowing the Covid -19
shutdown.
NASCAR is already
back in action, albeit
without audiences in the
grandstands, and Indy
Car announced a July
4th return at Texas.
No definitive infor
mation on high school
or college football sea
sons have been released
but some workouts are
underway again for the
athletes. It appears that
we shall get some kind
of football season after
all.
The National Foot
ball League still seems
intent on holding the
professional football
season, but league offi
cials have not released
any specific dates for
team activities yet.
Major League Soccer
appears to be headed for
an early July return with
all teams playing at a
neutral location at first.
The NBA just an
nounced a July 31st re
turn for most of the
teams. However, At
lanta’s dismal season is
finished.
As for Major League
Baseball, the owners
and players remain at
odds over the financial
terms of a shortened
season. On Monday, the
owner proposed a 74
game season with par
tial salary prorations for
players. The players’
union seems unlikely to
approve this offer either.
These two sides offered
and counter-offered sev
eral times over the past
few weeks to no avail.
Without an agree
ment soon, MLB faces
the real threat of losing
a huge continent of fans
and creating years of re
sentment among lovers
of the game.
Begin marking your
calendars for the much
anticipated return of live
sports and while you’re
at it send MLB a sympa
thy card because base
ball’s pulse is fading.