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Progress
readers make
New Year’s
Resolutions
— 3B
Thursday, December 31, 2020 Volume 133 Number 37 Jasper, Georgia 22 pages in two sections Published Weekly
The Rob Jones exit interview
The Progress front page on December 27, 2012 when Rob Jones officially became
the first chair of a multi man commission for Pickens County. He is shown with then-
Probate Judge Rodney Gibson, and commissioners Becky Denney and Jerry Barnes.
Final sole commis
sioner/first commis
sion chair for
Pickens County
reflects on 16 years
in the top post
By Dan Pool
Editor
dpool@pickensprogress.com
To start the interview, it
was pointed out that under
his tenure the county either
built or remodeled the ad
ministration building, the
courthouse, the community
center at Roper Park, the re
cycling center, the Public
Works department and all
the fire stations.
So, every county building
except the jail was built
while you were in office?
“That’s interesting I had
n’t thought about it, but I
yeah, I guess I did and I ac
tually finished the jail. [For
mer Commissioner Billy
Newton] started it, but I was
in office when it was fin
ished and took care of work
ing out the payments for it.”
He later recalls that he
didn’t build the Cove Road
recycling station, but every
thing else was completed
during the 16 years since
Rob Jones knocked offNew-
ton by 19 votes in an August
2004 runoff vote. Jones has
since served two terms as
sole commissioner then be
came the first chair of the
three person commission
serving two terms in that po
sition.
Proudest accomplishment?
Moving the county to a
system of paid fire stations
and expanding the emer
gency services. It is satisfy
ing when you spend tax
dollars where the public sees
results with lower insurance
payments and saved lives.
We had reached a point
where we couldn’t get vol
unteers who could show up
when we needed them and a
lot of our regular volunteers
had gotten older and they
couldn’t be expected to get
up at 3 a.m. and fight fires. A
lot of the younger people
were working out of the
county so they couldn’t get
to fires here.
Was it better as a sole com
missioner or part of the
commission?
The commission board
took a lot of pressure off me
as the sole commissioner. It
slowed down some things
but it was better to diversify
it to three, and it took a load
off my shoulders. You stay
up a lot and lose a lot of
sleep as you know every de
cision you make affects
someone.
See Rob on 2B
Community
Thrift Store
closed through
January 5
Due to COVID concerns, the Com
munity Thrift Store, on Samaritan Drive,
will be closed until January 5.
Gordon Norman of the Thrift Store
wrote in an e-mail, “The gates will only
be open for donations when store person
nel are on site. Anything left outside the
gates will be considered illegal dumping
on the county property.”
nodumping
HD Kilim sscoc
I? MONTHS Jill Cfi S3TM
Si CODE 5 16-7-53
The thrift store is
CLOSED
until further notice
due to the coronavirus
PLEASE NO DONATIONS
Inside:
160 kids served
by Shop with a
Sheriff Page 7A
Entertainment
New Year’s
celebration
downtown
cancelled PageHA
Editiorial
Looking
backward and
forward
Page 4A
A few incidents, but crime low this holiday
By Angela Reinhardt
Staff Writer
areinhardt@pickensprogress.com
Law officials said the
week of Christmas into the
weekend was fairly quiet,
with no increase in criminal
activity or vehicle accidents
during that time period.
Georgia State Patrol Post
#28 Commander Tim
Nichols reported no spike in
crashes, even with the winter
weather that came into the
A vandal damaged this
yard art display at a shop
ping area in downtown Tate.
Bell’s Pharmacy FB / Photo
area Christmas Eve.
Jasper’s Asst. Police
Chief Matt Dawkins also re
ported very low activity over
the long holiday weekend.
“It was pretty unevent
ful,” Dawkins said. “I think
a lot of that had to do with it
being cold and nobody really
getting out. We just had
some normal traffic acci
dents, but traffic was very
light Christmas Eve and day.
There weren’t a lot of people
out.”
Dawkins, who spoke with
the Progress Tuesday morn
ing, said with the long holi
day weekend people who
have traveled out of town
will oftentime come back
Sunday and find and report
criminal activity - but that
didn’t happen this year. Even
entering auto crimes that
typically increase during the
holiday were low.
“We were really happy
we didn’t have a lot going
on,” he said.
Other than a few inci
dents, Pickens Sheriff Don
nie Craig said things were
more-or-less calm in the
county as well.
“Everything was pretty
quiet,” Craig said, noting
there were a couple of stor
age units broken into - one in
Jasper and one north of town
- but that those incidents oc
curred before Christmas. Of
ficials have leads in those
See Crime on 11A
2020 in review: Top stories from the Progress
January 9 - Big changes
in city hall as new mayor
takes seat - Steve Lawrence
led his first council meeting
as Jasper’s mayor on January
6, 2020. Not only was the
city’s top elected official a
new face after 27 years, but
council hired a new attorney
and replaced their CFO.
January 16- Community
Thrift Store marks 20 years
- The Community Thrift
Store marked 20 years of
selling old couches, clothes,
used books and household
goods on January 25, 2020,
having returned $6 million
of the $9 million they have
taken in during that time to
the non-profits of this area.
The store originally opened
in a rented space on Sanders
Street on January 25, 2000
before relocating to Samari
tan Drive in April 2004 -
completing the building with
$400,000 in revenue gener
ated solely from the sales.
Founder and driving force
Don Russell said that the
store saw between 150-350
customers a day. Russell
passed away on October 29,
2020.
January 23 - Tate Fire
Dept, operating out of new
station page. Tate Fire De
partment began operations in
Fire Station No. 2 on Janu
ary 15, 2020. For well over
two decades, the Tate Fire
Department operated from a
facility at the four-way stop
in Tate. The new station is at
the comer of Canton Road
(often called Old Hwy. 5)
and Worley Crossroads less
than a half mile south of the
former location.
MyKenzie Weaver passes
2,000 total points - The PHS
Nettes basketball player,
who graduated in spring
2020, passed 2,000 points at
a game against LaFayette in
January, something that has
been done just one other
time in school history.
Landrum named Citizen
of the Year - Phil Landrum
III was honored as the
Chamber of Commerce’s
Citizen of the Year at the
group’s annual Winter Ball.
See Top Stories on 9A
The Pickens VA Clinic opened for business in 2020.
Entertainment
Top photos of
2020 Page 10A
In Remembrance
A memoriam to
those we lost in
2020
Page 8A
Obituaries - 6A
• Connie Teague
• Rex Mahan
• Sandra Evans
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