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THURSDAY. MARCH 18. 2021 PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS PAGE 3B
Ball Ground Garden Club installs new officers
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The Ball Ground Garden
Club held its monthly meet
ing on March 9th at Sharp
Mountain Baptist Church.
Outgoing president Jennie
Byers installed new officers.
They are: Sally Eubanks,
president; Danny Lowery,
vice president; Patti McNor-
ton, recording secretary;
Elaine Ness, corresponding
secretary and Theresa Dor-
fling, treasurer.
The Ball Ground Garden
Club (Anetsa-Ga-Da) began
in 1951 and 2021 is its 70th
year anniversary. Anetsa-Ga-
Da is “Ball Ground” in the
Cherokee language. As part
of the installation, Jennie
Byers spoke of each officer’s
predecessor from 70 years
ago. The theme of the instal
lation was “Let your Light
Shine.”
The objective of the club
is the advancement of gar
dening, the development of
home grounds and the fur
thering of city beautification;
the stimulation of interest in
cooperative gardening; the
aiding in the protection of
forests, wild flowers, birds,
etc. The club motto is “Do
the best you can with what
you have.”
The club meets the second
Tuesday of each month (ex
cept for June, July and Au
gust) and has interesting
programs on gardening, bees,
tools, plants, design and
more. During the summer
months, field trips are sched
uled. In April the club is host
ing a tea for the Garden Club
Council of Cherokee County.
On June 12th, the club is
hosting a Ball Ground Festi
val and Plant Sale from 10
a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be a
large supply and selection of
plants, gardening presenta
tions, guided tours of the
Botanical Garden, a bake sale
and raffles. There will also be
local vendors (food, drink
and shopping) and local non
profit groups. For more infor
mation visit
www.ballgroundgarden-
club/upcoming-events.
Consumer Alert
Beware of door-to-door pine straw scam
Press Release from Ga. At
torney General Office
ATLANTA, GA - Attor
ney General Chris Carr is
warning Georgians about a
scam involving door-to-door
sales of pine straw or mulch.
Consumers have complained
about disreputable landscap
ers coming to their door,
claiming to have left-over
pine straw or mulch from a
previous job and offering it to
the consumer at a heavily dis
counted rate.
After the consumer agrees
to the recommended number
of bales, the scammer lays
down fewer bales than
agreed upon and then tells the
consumer he will need to lay
down an additional number
of bales to cover the yard at a
cost of hundreds of dollars
more. If the consumer re
fuses, the scammer tries to
intimidate the consumer.
Sometimes consumers give
in to these scare tactics just to
get the scammer to leave.
“Our office encourages
consumers to be on the look
out for these types of door-to-
door solicitations this
Spring,” says Attorney Gen
eral Carr. “If it sounds too
good to be true, it is likely a
scam, and if you feel threat
ened or harassed, please call
local law enforcement imme
diately.”
The Attorney General’s
Consumer Protection Divi
sion offers the following tips
to help you avoid a door-to-
door landscaping scam:
Ask to see the solicitation
permit issued by the City, if
applicable.
Ask to see a business card
and make sure you get the
name of the business and the
employee.
Ask for the business’ web
site and check it out.
Check the Secretary of
State’s website to see if the
person has a business license.
Check Better Business
Bureau’s website (bbb.org) to
see if there are any com
plaints against the business.
Before someone starts the
work, ask to get the terms in
writing, including the scope
of the job, quantity of mate
rials and the final price.
To be safe, say no to door-
to-door solicitations and in
stead contact a reputable
company, perhaps one that a
friend or neighbor recom
mends.
If you are being harassed
by a door-to-door salesper
son, call 911.
Bill for legal homeless camps in Georgia pitched
By Beau Evans
Staff Writer
Capitol Beat News Service
A plan to create legal
homeless camps on public
and private properties in
Georgia by redirecting some
funds from existing local out
reach and shelter groups
drew debate in a General As
sembly committee on Mon
day.
Legislation sponsored by
Rep. Katie Dempsey, R-
Rome, would send state dol
lars currently earmarked for
building shelters and short
term housing to be used in
stead on so-called “structured
camping facilities” for a city
or county’s homeless popula
tion.
The camps would have to
provide water, electrical out
lets and bathrooms and could
only be used for up to six
months by a homeless per
son, effectively reserving the
facilities for Georgians who
are motivated to find work
and secure permanent hous
ing.
Dempsey’s bill, which
faces long odds of advancing
in the last days of the 2021
legislative session, was
hailed Monday by some ad
vocates as an innovative way
to address certain kinds of
homelessness and slammed
by others concerned about
money being stripped from
shelter-based programs.
“There is no doubt this is
a little out-of-the-box,”
Dempsey told the state
House Public Safety and
Homeland Security Commit
tee. “It’s creative [and] it’s a
different way than we’ve
done it.”
Backers of Dempsey’s bill
point to a legal camp that
local officials set up in Dou
glas County three years ago
to curb the area’s rising
homeless population, called
Shinnah Haven.
Located on county-owned
property, the camp requires
residents to keep out of
fights, clean their appointed
spots and provide official
identification in return for a
stable place to pitch a tent,
access to social workers and
electricity from a solar panel,
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said Douglas County Judge
William “Beau” McClain.
“We need to start this in
the state of Georgia before
[unsheltered homelessness]
gets out of hand,” McClain
said. “It’s practical to not
bring these people to the
[emergency room and] to not
house them in jail. It’s a prac
tical solution to the prob
lem.”
On top of the camps,
Dempsey’s bill also proposes
requiring cities with home
less populations larger than
the state average to spend a
chunk of state and federal
grants to create outreach
teams made up of police, so
cial services workers and
mental health professionals
tasked with moving people
from illegal street camps to
sanctioned homelessness
services.
That provision, as well as
the proposal to redirect funds
for new shelters and short
term housing, sparked back
lash from local groups that
work to secure permanent
housing for Georgia’s home
less populations - particu
larly since they said
Dempsey had not consulted
them on the bill before Mon
day.
Legal homeless camps in
places like San Francisco that
are much larger than the one
in Douglas County have led
to sanitation problems and
made little headway in reduc
ing the number of people liv
ing in tents on the street or in
the woods, said Cathryn
Marchman, chief executive
officer for the group Partners
for HOME, who leads At
lanta’s homelessness efforts.
Marchman also ques
tioned whether homeless per
sons might be forced to live
in government-sanctioned
camps, potentially triggering
an illegal living situation
“like a homeless internment
camp.”
“If we’re talking about
being innovative and actually
ending this problem instead
of perpetuating it, we should
be talking about how we as a
state fund and create sustain
able revenue streams for per
manent housing solutions,”
she said. “And we also need
to look at the unintended con
sequences of what sanctioned
encampments have done and
created around the country.”
No votes were taken on
Dempsey’s bill Monday,
which fell one week after the
Crossover Day deadline for
legislation to pass out of one
chamber or the other to re
main in contention for final
passage.
Dempsey, who oversees
state mental-health funding
as chairwoman of the House
Appropriations’ Human Re
sources Subcommittee, said
her bill aims to “begin the
conversation” for bringing
new ideas to addressing
homelessness in Georgia.
“The bottom line is that
the effective reduction in
street homelessness will help
communities be safe,”
Dempsey said.
The Sheriff’s
Beat
From the Pickens
Sheriff’s Office
During this past week, the Pickens Sheriff’s Office responded
to or initiated 1,277 calls for service. These numbers are
taken from the report provided directly from the 911 Center
where all calls are logged as they
are performed. Below is a
breakdown of all dispatched calls by the call type for each in-
cident.
Accidents
10
Suicide Threats / Attempts
0
Domestics
17
Theft / Burglary Related
9
Forgery / Fraud
2
Traffic Stops
107
Citations Issued
25
Animal Investigations
12
Suspicious Persons/Activity
23
Alarm Calls
7
Stranded Motorists
6
Street Hazards
5
Vandalism
7
Abandoned Vehicles
1
Extra Patrol - neighborhoods, businesses, residences 859.
In addition to these, other calls include search warrants, civil
service, 911 hang-up calls, assaults, disorderly persons, miss
ing persons, assistance with medical calls, natural death in
vestigations, demented persons, funeral escorts, harassment,
trespassing, and many more.
Breakdown of Charges for those Arrested:
10 individuals were booked into the Adult Detention Center
on charges from the Pickens Sheriff’s Office. Out of these,
the following charges were taken by PSO deputies (note:
some individuals have multiple charges):
Court Violation
1
Theft by Receiving Stolen Property
3
Bond Violation
1
Failure to Register as Sex Offender
1
Probation Violation
1
Driving with Suspended License
2
Possession of Illegal Narcotics
1
Concealing License Plate
1
Violation of RICO Act
1
Theft by Taking
1
In addition to the above
activity from the Uniform
Patrol Division, Court
Service Deputies reported
the following statistics for
the past week:
Persons Scanned at
Front Door: 1,238
Weapons Found: 2
Courts Held: 13
Arrest Made in the
Courthouse: 5
Civil Papers Received : 56
Civil Papers Served: 38
In the Adult Detention
Center:
Total Jail population: 71
Total male inmates: 53
Total female inmates: 18
Sex Offenders:
There are currently 74 sex
offenders registered with
the Pickens Sheriff’s Office.
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