Newspaper Page Text
Thursday, April 1, 2021
Volume 133 Number 50
Jasper, Georgia
22 pages in two sections
Published Weekly
Our churches, by the numbers
By Angela Reinhardt
Staff Writer
areinhardt@pickensprogress.com
As we approach Good Friday
and Easter - arguably the most
hallowed of holidays in the Chris
tian tradition - churches are on
our mind. It’s a running joke that
there’s one on every comer here,
and that doesn’t seem far from
the truth on a drive around the
community. From downtown in
stitutions like First Baptist
Church of Jasper, to modem
buildings like Revolution
Church, to the defunct Miracle
Fellowship Church in Smoky
Hollow, a look at our religious
spaces here shows we’re in no
shortage - and that protestant
Christianity dominates.
We set out to get a snapshot of
our churches - how many, what
Tate United Methodist Church is one of kind, and how much property
the oldest in Pickens, built in 1887. The value and land they make up and
original building is used as the sanctuary, take up in Pickens County. But
finding out the exact number of
churches here - or anywhere for
that matter - is easier said than
done. Since churches can request
an exempt status for property
taxes we thought a good starting
point was the Pickens County Tax
Assessor’s Office. The Progress
received a list of 67 churches
from their records, and in our
own search of the tax assessor’s
qPublic website we uncovered a
few more churches under tax ex
empt status.
In addition to these, there are
churches that don’t own the
building or property they operate
out of, opting to rent space in
stead. These are difficult to round
up, but we found a handful of
those churches by searching for
entities that have a non-profit sta
tus with the Internal Revenue
Service and Guidestar.org, and
pulled a few from memory. We
sincerely apologize if we over-
See Churches on 9A
looked your church.
We’re not arguing this is the
end-all-be-all, comprehensive list
because it’s not - but we think it’s
getting there. Our research un
covered about 80 churches in
Pickens County. With an esti
mated population of 32,591 ac
cording to the U.S. Census
Bureau’s 2019 data, that’s one
church for every 407 people.
Mt. Zion Pastor Ben Mock,
also a member of the Pickens
Ministerial Association, re
searched church demographics
before he moved to town to
preach here. He provided us with
the list he compiled, which
showed around the same number
we found but included some
churches from outside the county
in close proximity, and which did
not include some on our list.
“When I was considering
moving here I saw there were 80
churches, and in a county of this
Citizens voice
objections for
96 apartments
under city’s updated
zoning process
John Sosebee tells
zoning committee “this
type of complex is just not
a good fit for Jasper. ”
By Max Caylor
Progress Contributor
Traffic, environmental
issues, school bus prob
lems, traffic, storm water,
safety, privacy, a public
park and general over
crowding were issues citi
zens raised in two public
zoning hearings last week
at Jasper City Hall con
cerning rezoning from R1
to R3 on a Georgianna
Street property. Approxi-
Joe Jones raised a
question about the den
sity of the apartments’
land use and asked why
we were talking about
zoning when all of the is
sues had not been com
pletely addressed.
mately 60 concerned citi
zens attended the Tuesday
and Thursday meetings to
voice their opinions.
Their comments were
addressing a three-story,
96-unit multi-family apart
ment complex that would
be located at 74-154 Geor
gianna Street. The owner
See Zoning on 10A
Petitions stall efforts
to recall school
board members
By Angela Reinhardt
Staff Writer
areinhardt@pickensprogress.com
Two petitions filed in
Pickens courts last week
have halted efforts of Im
pact Pickens, the group
that formed to recall
school board members
Steve Smith and Aaron
Holland.
Impact Pickens leaders
allege Smith and Holland,
as well as board chair Sue
Finely, exercised gross fis
cal irresponsibly and
malfeasance with their
vote to terminate the con-
See Petition on 11A
Heavy rains cause damage here
Photo/City of Jasper Facebook
City workers stand over the gaping chasm that opened on Gennett Drive. This marks
the second time storm waters have washed away this same section of road in the past
decade. Before proceeding with repair, the city intends to get new engineering options.
By Dan Pool
Editor
dpool@pickensprogress.com
The heavy thunderstorms on the night of
March 25th left widespread problems but this
area was spared anything catastrophic - es
pecially compared to other areas of Georgia,
according to government officials.
In contrasting outcomes from the 4.5
inches of rain that fell last Thursday and
early Friday, the city of Jasper saw damage
primarily limited to two spots of major con
cern while the county suffered widespread
limited damage, with their worst potential
See Storm on 11A
Talking Rock bears brunt of storm
Two residences, one store badly
damaged by flooding creek
By Dan Pool
Editor
dpool@pickensprogress.com
The heavy rains last Thursday did the
most damage in Talking Rock, when the
bridge leading into the downtown became
clogged with debris and sent flood waters
into at least two homes and a business.
According to longtime resident and town
clerk Cheryl Sams, one family saw their
home flooded and damaged to the point they
have had to move out and another individual
See TR storm on 11A
Burnt Mountain faces “pretty high” risk of wildfire
Homeowners should
assess threats at
home, community
By Dan Pool
Editor
dpool@pickensprogress.com
With pea-soup thick fog
across Burnt Mountain Sat
urday, attendees at the an
nual Firewise conference
held at Fire Station 10 on
Monument Road didn’t
have ember showers, black
ened trees or quickly spread
ing blazes on their lists of
See Firewise on 10A
Local officials discussed how small efforts at both the community and individual home level can make a tremendous
difference, (l-r) Clayton Preble (Wildcat Community president); Frank Riley (State Firewise Liaison); Pickens Fire
Chief Sloan Elrod; Pickens Commission Chair Kris Standi; Dawson Fire Chief Danny Thompson; Mike Davis Forest
(Fire Management Officer, US Forest Service) and Anthony English (Ranger/Specialist Georgia Forestry Commission).
Inside:
Columnist
O’Neill Williams
on taking dates
fishing
Page 4B
Gardening
Turn your brown
thumb green
Page 2A
Happy Easter
from the
Progress
Obituaries - 6A
• Carolyn Green
• Charles Chapman
• Eddie Champion Jr.
• Lamar Merriman
• Linda Waters
• Paul Looper
• Tyler Lacy
Contact Us
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Jasper, Ga. 30143
706-253-2457
www.pickensprogress.com
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