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Thursday, October 22, 2020 Volume 133 Number 27 Jasper, Georgia 24 pages in two sections
Jasper Police
officer
recovering
from tough
COVID battle
Jasper Police Officer Marc
Williams is off the ventilator and
in therapy as of early this week.
By Dan Pool
Editor
dpool(@,pickensprogress.com
As of earlier this week, Jasper
Police Officer Marc Williams had
been taken off a ventilator and was
working hard in physical therapy
as he battles serious COVID ef
fects in Piedmont Mountainside
Hospital.
Williams’ wife, Cindy, said the
30-year law enforcement veteran’s
condition took a big step forward
after being taken off the ventilator
that he had been on for eight days.
She updated his condition on her
Facebook feed Monday, stating,
‘■‘Continue prayers folks, they are
working. Marc continues to im
prove every day. He is working
hard in physical therapy so he can
get strong enough to come home.”
In a phone interview late last
week, Mrs. Williams said the
community support and prayers
for her and her husband have been
heartwarming.
*‘That is the beauty of a small
community,” she said. “That peo
ple here actually know you and
care about you. Especially when I
was sick and [Marc was isolated
in the hospital] I feel the prayers
and support made a tangible dif
ference. I felt myself covered by
love and prayers.”
She said the community has re
ally pulled together to show sup
port. “We have had an
unbelievable number of people
See Williams on 11A
Early voting
pace not
slowing
By Dan Pool
Editor
dpool(gpickensprogress.com
Several people have observed
that the line to vote early in Pick
ens County has remained consis
tently long. Occasionally it
reaches a little further beyond the
Pioneer Road voting office’s park
ing lot and rarely gets a little
shorter than the photo shown in
last week’s Progress.
Julianne Roberts, the supervi
sor of the county Elections and
Registration Office said Tuesday
that Pickens saw 1,315 ballots cast
early at their office in the first
week of early voting noting they
were closed for the Monday holi
day.
In total there are around 24,300
registered voters and Roberts fig
ures they will see a high percent
age of them show up between now
and November 3. She said the
county had been at 23,000 regis
tered voters for a long time but
See Voting on 11A
New recycling center
to open next week
On a tour of the new facility, Pickens Recycling Director Kenny Woodard, left, explains to Jeff and Pamela
Wood how bales of aluminum cans and other recyclables are sold. This revenue will help the center become
self-sustaining and pay for the new building.
Open House
Oct. 29th
By Angela Reinhardt
Staff Writer
areinhardt@pickensprogress.com
After several months of renova
tions and preparations at the
county’s new recycling center off
Highway 515, the facility will
open to the public on Friday, Oct.
30. People are invited to attend an
open house and tom the new build
ing the day before, Thursday, Oct.
29 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Anyone, not just Pickens
County residents, are able to use
the facility.
The current Camp Road recy
cling center will close permanently
at the end of business Thursday,
Oct. 29.
At the new center at 390 Ap
palachian Road, customers will be
required to separate their recy
clables (except for glass, which
will not need to be separated by
color). For the last several years,
the county has used “single
stream” recycling at their Camp
and Cove road facilities. Single-
stream did not require separation -
but the new recycling director
Kenny Woodard said that model
cost the county thousands of dol
lars - around $67,000 a year - be
cause they had to pay companies to
haul off the materials. Under the
new model, one bale of sorted
clear plastic will bring $780 at cur
rent rates. Instead of paying $1,500
a month to have glass hauled off as
the county has done in the past,
they can have a tractor trailer come
pick it up and make $5 a ton.
Woodard’s tom included many
other similar examples.
The director has identified most
common recyclables and those that
will make profit. The comity also
purchased a baler, “Big Blue,” so
materials can be compacted on
site. The facility’s size will allow
See Recycling on 11A
Large roundabout pro ject
underway on Highway 136
This intersection at the Highway 136 and the Highway 136 Connector in Blaine will be replaced with a
roundabout. A second roundabout is included in this Georgia Department of Transportation project on another
section of the route.
Both the City of
Jasper and the Pickens
County government
have designated trick-
or-treat times to be from
5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Hal
loween will be on Satur
day, October 31.
Due to COVID-19
guidelines, the City of
Jasper and the Jasper
Merchants will not
sponsor trick-or-treat on
Main Street.
Note to our Readers
Ed torial and
Letters to the
Ed tor pages
appear in the
“B” section
this week.
Charity
Lions Club offers
free food boxes
this Friday
Page 2A
Sports
Junior High
Nettes win
Mountain
Championship
Page 1B
Obituaries - 10A
By Angela Reinhardt
Staff Writer
areinhardt@(pickensprogress.com
Motorists driving along High
way 136 in the Blaine/Talking
Rock area have likely noticed lines
of orange barrels and piles of trees
from the Highway 136 Connector
to Ellijay Road. The barrels indi
cate work now underway on a
Georgia Department of Transporta
tion project that will, among other
things, add two roundabouts and
increase shoulder width along the
2.7-mile route.
The project has been on
GDOT’s radar for over 10 years. It
includes replacing the existing in
tersection at Highway 136 and the
Highway 136 Connector (where
Bart’s Bait & Tackle is located, and
also the western terminus of the
See Roundabout on 11A
• David Driskell Sr,
• Jimmy Dunn Jr.
• Kenneth Rice
• Marie Higgins
• Nettie Corley
• Shirley Kent
Contact Us
Good Samaritan nurse urges breast cancer awareness
By Elaina Averett
Nurse Practitioner
Good Sam Clinic
About 1 in 8 women in the
United States will develop invasive
breast cancer during the course of
her lifetime. It is important for
women to understand that having
an abnormal mammogram does
not mean they have breast cancer.
When a woman has then very first
mammogram they may "fail" or
have it show up as "abnormal," be
cause radiologists compare old
mammograms to new ones and if
it's a patient's veiy first one we
have nothing to compare it to.
Self-breast exams should be the
focus of men and women until
mammograms begin. The breast
exams for females need to be be
fore or after their cycles, because
hormones can cause short term
changes in the breasts, such as fi
brocystic changes, and they should
understand how to properly check
themselves. Self-breast exams do
not take the place of a mammo
gram and should be an addition to
a mammogram once per year.
See Prevention on 11A
94 North Main Street
Jasper, Ga. 30143
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