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"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream." C.S. Lewis
Happy New Year’s from the Progress staff
• Opinions
• Community
Views
• Good Old
Common Sense
The Progress
Editorial
December 31,2020
From the Staff
Looking backwards and forwards
Janus, the Roman god for which January
is named, is called the two-faced god, but not
in the false sense. Janus was known for look
ing both forwards and backwards which is
what we try to do every year at this time.
Looking back at 2020
The past year was dominated by a pan
demic, so judging the progress or lack
thereof in Pickens County must come with a
footnote that applies to the whole world -
regular plans saw little attention. A year ago,
we had several issues we were championing:
We encouraged the county to put to
good use their $3.7 million in forthcoming
SPLOST funds dedicated to the parks.
Perhaps the pandemic has forced some re
thinking on how people might play/get out
side without organized programs. While
t-ball, soccer and other sports are the core of
county programs, it would seem an oppor
tune time to promote and provide space/fa
cilities that encourage individual or family
recreation.
It’s laughable to recall the urgency we
pushed local governments to create clear
and feasible plans for public venues in
January of 2020. During 2019 we had seen
a steady stream of petitioners seeking rezon-
ings or variances to allow all manner of gath
ering spaces, especially for wedding
businesses. This sparked fears of rock con
certs in farming areas, wrecks caused by
guests who had over-consumed trying to
navigate our dirt roads, and too much noise
late into the night. With the total shut-down
of large gatherings, the urgency is not there.
But we’d still encourage our county planning
commission and economic developer to cre
ate a simple one-sheet set of regulations on
event venues and festivals. It’ll be needed
again one day.
Back in January 2020, we’d tossed out
the idea that it was time for the Marble
Festival to be replaced with either Marble
Festival 2.0 or a new festival altogether.
This year we broke the tradition of a yearly
festival honoring our white stone, so while
all festivals are regrouping, we will double
down on our suggestion. Now is the perfect
time for the Chamber of Commerce to roll
out a drastically new/improved or com
pletely changed format for our yearly festi
val. As a reminder, we have personally en
joyed and supported the Marble Festival for
the past three decades. Our desire for change
comes from the fact that it has undeniably
been left in the calcium carbonate dust when
compared with festivals devoted to apples,
sorghum, bears in squares, moonshine or any
other theme.
Looking Ahead for 2021
The perfect symbol heading into 2021
is the small triangle of land at the north
end of downtown Jasper. The area, offi
cially called Peace Park, once housed a jum
ble of rocks intended as an artistic display.
They are gone. The area is bare earth and is
open - just begging for creative planning. It’s
too small to be a business or house much, but
it could be a nice entrance into downtown.
It’s adjacent to the Old Jail, wooden bridge
and the very nice but unappreciated
Oglethorpe monument.
The area is ripe with possibility for some
thing tied to our history and heritage. It’s
near the city’s new parking lot and the
planned public restrooms. The space must be
ideal for something small and attractive, but
what? That’s where the public needs to
chime in.
Get involved and not just with that one
property. To every Progress reader and res
ident of Pickens County, we’d encourage you
in 2021 to take part in the community.
Clearly 30,000 heads are better than a
handful of the same people who fill boards
and volunteer for non-profits. You can’t com
plain on Facebook and expect anyone to lis
ten when you never turn out. Whether it’s a
non-profit, a government hearing or calling
city council members, let’s see the public in
volved.
There is a constant complaint that govern
ment doesn’t listen. We’d disagree on the
local level. It’s not that they don’t listen, it’s
that rarely is anyone from the public speak
ing and even more rare for someone to raise
their hand and ask if they can help.
You may not be able to change the world,
but you’d be surprised what just one ener
getic volunteer can do locally.
Tell us your thoughts with a letter to the editor. E-mail to news@pickensprogress.com
See letter submission guidelines on the Letters to the Editor page or call us 706-253-2457.
TBgjKfe' jl
r f.— _
Ponderings of a Simple Man
Py Caleb Smith
—
That’s A
Wrap
2020 has been.. .well let’s
just say I now know why the
ancient Chinese saying ‘May
you live in interesting times’
was meant as a curse and not
a blessing.
I still remember those in
nocent, halcyon days when
Australia burning and poten
tial war with Iran was
thought to be the biggest
story of the year.
Oh to be so young and
naive once again.
Some of you may remem
ber my final article of the
year 2019. Titled ‘2020 Vi
sion’ I tried my hand at
prophecy. Suffice to say, I’m
not going to give up the
fame, fortune, and prestige of
being a small town humor
writer to start up a psychic
hotline.
Since I failed so spectacu
larly at fortune telling, this
year I’m going to focus in
stead on a slightly less rep
utable skillset; self
improvement. It’s that time
again where we set our sights
to the coming year and, while
we can’t predict or even in
fluence what the coming 12
months will bring, we can at
least focus on ourselves.
Just ask my wife, I’m very
good at focusing on myself.
So I’ve decided to set
about making a series of res
olutions for 2021. Since I’m
me, however, and can’t do
anything the easy way, I’ve
decided to forego the usual
‘lose weight’ and ‘eat
healthy’ resolutions, and go
for broke. I don’t have a long
list. In fact, there’s just a sin
gle entry on my New Year’s
resolutions.
In the coming year, I re
solve to: Finish a project, on
time and under budget.
Sure, to some that may
seem like a reasonable goal.
I can practically hear some of
you screaming at the paper
‘That’s not a ‘going for
broke’ resolution, that’s just
something that any reason
able person should strive for
all the time!’
(USPS 431-820)
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94 North Main Street, Jasper, GA 30143
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DAN POOL
Publisher/Editor
Published each Thursday at Jasper, Pickens County, Georgia. Entered
at the Post Office at Jasper, Georgia. 30143 as Mail Matter of Second
Class. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE PICKENS
COUNTY PROGRESS, 94 N. Main St., Jasper, GA 30143.
One Year’s Subscription: $39.59 in Pickens County and in Gilmer,
Cherokee, Dawson and Gordon counties; $50.29 in all other Georgia
counties; $59.92 out of state.
To these people I say;
what about my articles lead
you to believe I am a reason
able person? Indeed, if I was
n’t being so ambitious, I
would simply say ‘In the
coming year, I just want to
finish a project.’ That’s a
pretty lofty goal for me right
there. The ‘under budget’ and
‘on time’ is just me reaching
for the stars.
When I told my wife my
goal for the coming year she
was, as usual, very support
ive. However, she also (as
usual) had some concerns.
“Why don’t you throw in
‘while also avoiding getting
hurt, electrocuting yourself,
or setting your wife’s rose
bushes on fire’?”
I gently explained to her
that resolutions were sup
posed to be goals to be
achieved and not magic
wishes that could grant the
impossible. She acknowl
edged that she had been un
reasonable in asking me not
to bum down our home and
graciously apologized.
While I appreciated the
sentiment, I could have done
without the eye roll when she
said it.
Happy New Year everyone.
[Caleb Smith is a long
time, award-winning, colum
nist for the Progress. Look
for his books at the Progress
office or on Amazon.]
If you spot a
mistake,
contact our
editor.
dpool@
pickensprogress. com
ikljool
OTHER VOICES
Food waste rarely studied or addressed
Labels like ‘use by, ’ ‘best by’ add confusion
By Josh Paine
CAES News
As we enter a new year, it
may be a great time to look
over your family’s grocery
habits and see if there is food
waste that can be eliminated.
Smaller households tend
to waste more food, accord
ing to a study on household
food waste and inefficiencies
by faculty in UGA’s College
of Agricultural and Environ
mental Sciences’ Department
of Agricultural and Applied
Economics. Larger house
holds have a greater potential
for diversity of tastes, leading
to greater opportunities for
consumption of prepared
foods.
Waste is defined as the
amount of unconsumed food,
whereas inefficiency is the
measure of unused food.
The people who tend to be
most efficient with food pro
duction are usually older,
have more education or shop
more often for food. House
holds where more than one
person is responsible for
meal preparation have
greater food inefficiencies,
likely due to coordination
problems.
Another factor — dis
tance to the grocery store —
showed that people who
travel farther distances waste
less food. “They might tend
to plan more,” he said.
Waste and inefficiency
could be due to other issues
such as scale efficiency —
how good you are at ramping
up operations, a type of inef
ficiency.
“If you think about your
time, some people who are
better at cooking might take
less time,” said the study’s
lead author, Travis A. Smith,
an associate professor in
UGA’s Department of Agri
cultural and Applied Eco
nomics.
A growing problem
According to the U.S. De
partment of Agriculture,
roughly one-third of food
waste is at the retail and
household levels in the U.S.
Higher-priced items tend to
get wasted less, but because
food is relatively cheap, it’s
more of an afterthought, ac
cording to Smith.
Americans spent an aver
age of 9.5% of their income
on food in 2019 according to
the USD A. Those who
earned more spent a higher
total amount on food, but less
percentage of their paycheck
compared to those with lower
wages.
Although copious re
search has been done on con
sumer food preferences,
there is limited comprehen
sive data on household food
shopping and consumption.
The authors used data from
the U.S. Department of Agri
culture Nationwide Food
Consumption Survey done in
1977-1978, a study that was
later discontinued due to its
burden and cost. They hope
their findings may help spur
further data collection and ul
timately motivate industry or
policy changes.
Consumer
uncertainty
One uncertainty for con
sumers and potential policy
option is the use of food la
bels. “There’s a lot of confu
sion about ‘use by,’ ‘best by’
and ‘sell by’ dates,” ex
plained Smith. The ambigu
ity surrounding these
commonly used phrases is
because they revolve around
food quality, rather than food
safety. Only infant formula
currently requires a date for
food safety.
The USDA’s Food Safety
and Inspection Service devel
oped the FoodKeeper App to
help consumers better under
stand storage to maximize
the freshness and quality of
food.
One industry shift grow
ing in popularity is offering
various package sizes for
consumers to plan a more fi
nite amount of product, but
there is still room for im
provement, Smith said.
“If you want to eat kale,
you have to buy a huge bag
and the rest might get thrown
away [due to spoilage].
That’s something that could
be addressed at the industry
level,” he said.
Read the full study pub
lished by Smith and co-au
thor professor Craig Landry
in the American Journal of
Agri cul tura l Economics
along with a follow-up com
mentary about progress and
challenges in food waste re
search.
[Josh Paine is a market
ing specialist with the Uni
versity of Georgia College of
Agricultural and Environ
mental Sciences.]
Correction - In an article
last week, Mark Warren, the
subject of With uncertain
times, more people seeking
skills to live off the land was
incorrectly identified as hav
ing once worked for DNR (a
state agency). He, in fact,
worked for The Georgia Con
servancy, before starting his
own Medicine Bow program.
WEATHER
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