Newspaper Page Text
THURSDAY. APRIL 1.2021 PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS PAGE 11A
Continued From 1A
Chris Pence of Impact Pickens picking up recall signa
ture sheets at the elections office.
Petition
tract of former Pickens Su
perintendent Dr. Rick
Townsend “without cause,”
and buy out that contract for
over $400,000. Among other
allegations, they argue these
board members violated the
Georgia Open Meetings Act
when they held a meeting
where it appears they took
action on Townsend’s termi
nation on January 15.
Impact Pickens triggered
official recall efforts for
Smith and Holland on March
19 when officers Steve
Lowe, president, and Chris
Pence, treasurer, turned in
162 “sponsor” signatures and
the recall application to the
Pickens Elections Office. The
elections office validated
those signatures over the next
few days, which moved the
process forward. Next steps
would be for the group to get
signatures from 30 percent of
active voters’ at the time the
candidate being recalled was
elected. If that happens, the
recall question could be put
on a future ballot for voters to
decide if they want to remove
those board members.
The group also wants to
recall Finley, but she is not
eligible until 180 days after
her term began, which was
this January.
When Pence went to the
elections office last Friday,
March 26 to get recall signa
ture sheets, elections supervi
sor Julianne Roberts
informed him they would
need 6,345 signatures for
each candidate.
“That’s going to be a lot of
work,” Roberts said.
On March 25th, board
members Smith and Holland,
in separate suits, filed peti
tions for a judicial review of
grounds of the recall applica
tions against: Steve Lowe
(petition chairman), and
Board of Voter Registration
and Elections of Pickens
County, Ga. Tara Cannon,
Will Bell, and Paul Lindsey.
Copies of the action and
summons were served on
March 29. Attorneys in both
cases are George Weaver and
George Weaver, Jr. of Jasper.
Lowe told the Progress,
“This [the court challenge] is
not completely unexpected. I
don’t feel bothered by it. If
they want their day in court,
we look forward to it.”
He had not had a chance
to consult with their group’s
attorney and also said that
from the filing it was un
known when it would be
heard in court.
Pence said he expected
the filing as well, and that it
“puts a pause on everything.
We can’t get more signatures
until this is resolved.”
He noted that defendants
have 30 days to respond to
the petition, and that Impact
Pickens’ attorney would re
view the documents before
they proceed. Pence believed
that signatures collected be
fore the petition was served
would still be valid. All sig
nature-gathering events they
had planned have been post
poned.
The March 25th court fil
ing states the judicial review
of the recall application will
“include determination of
whether probable cause ex
ists to believe that such al
leged facts or facts are true.
The burden shall be on the
petition chairperson to prove
that such probable cause ex
ists.”
Referring to the vote to
terminate Townsend, board
members argue that a “Dis
cretionary performance of a
lawful act or a prescribed
duty shall not constitute a
ground for a recall of an
elected public official.”
Responding to Impact
Pickens’ allegations that
board members failed to per
form their duties according to
the Pickens School Board
Code of Ethics “to ensure
prudent and accountable uses
of the resources of the school
system,” the petitioners state,
among other things, that
“$420,000 is less than 1% of
the Pickens County School
System’s yearly budget.
($420,000/$48,698,447.00 =
0.00862451).”
In addition, board mem
bers argue in the court filing
that they have a duty “to hold
the local school superintend
ent accountable in the per
formance of his or her
duties,” and to have regular
evaluations of school system
staff.” Smith and Holland
claim they demonstrated they
had “complied with this duty
as well,” with their “discre
tionary act of voting to [ter
minate] Dr. Rick Townsend
and subsequently voting to
hire Tony Young.”
Regarding allegations of
violations of the Georgia
Open Meetings Act, petition
ers cite Georgia law that
states permitted uses of exec
utive sessions, including “de
liberating upon the
appointment, employment,
compensation, hiring, disci
plinary action or dismissal, or
periodic evaluation or rating
of a public officer or em
ployee or interviewing appli
cants for the position of the
executive head of an
agency.” They claim their ac
tion was permitted and that
Townsend’s actual termina
tion was in February after an
open-to-the-public vote.
In the only difference be
tween the two petitions, Hol
land responded to allegations
from Impact Pickens that
after just two months in of
fice as a school board mem
ber, he did not have time “to
know and understand a $48+
million dollar budget” and
failed to fulfill his fiduciary
duties. The petitions states
this is a personal conclusion
and/or opinion,” not grounds
for recall and does not pro
vide adequate factual basis
for recall application.
Holland and Smith ask for
the recall applications to be
dismissed and seek to “cast
all costs and expenses of this
action against the chairperson
of the recall application.”
Continued From 1A
Photo/Dan Pool
Flood waters surround the water intake building on Long Swamp Creek. The city says
the building, which dates to the 1950s, is still sound but they are working to stabilize the
surrounding area and the lines leading from the area.
Continued From 1A
Photo / Talking Rock Pottery FB
Silt-filled parking lot in front of Talking Rock Pottery.
Storm
prob
lem being the dam and roads
around Twin Mountain
Lakes. [There was also re
ports of flooded homes and a
business in Talking, see re
lated story].
The issues in the Jasper
city limits are a washed away
section of Gennett Drive
forcing its closure and seri
ous erosion at the water in
take area damaging water
supply lines. Both of these
are substantial enough for the
city to consider them as proj
ects requiring engineers, state
funding, and a lot of future
manpower. No cost estimate
or completion date were
available this week. But it
was noted that the city water
system is functioning with no
expected outages tied to the
damage, said city manager
Brandon Douglas.
“In the light of the rest of
state, even with our two
Pickens Young Life will
hold a sporting clay shoot on
Friday, April 16, 2021 at Gar
land Mountain Sporting
Clays, 2618 Garland Moun
tain Trail, Waleska.
Registration fees are $600
for a 4 member team; $150
for an individual registration
(individual registrants will be
assigned to a team).
Amenities included: One
round of sporting clay: 100
targets over 12 different sta
tions. Ammunition included.
major issues, which are
major enough to keep us oc
cupied for a while, and think
ing we will get some state
assistance to offset the finan
cial impact, I think we were
fortunate,” said City Man
ager Douglas.
On Gennett Drive, this
marked the second time the
road was completely swept
away in storm waters at the
same location. The first was
in August of 2013. Douglas
said before moving forward
with repairs, the city will get
engineers involved to see
what can be done to prevent
a third wash out there.
Douglas said they “had
the ball rolling” with engi
neer inspections, GDOT in
volvement and requests for
state funding. “I can say that
there is absolutely no way to
move any faster,” he said.
On the Cove Road water
intake, Douglas said the
pumphouse structure from
the 1950s was still sound, but
they would be working to re-
Breakfast biscuit with coffee,
BBQ lunch, entered to win
fabulous raffle prizes.
Please bring 12 or 20-
gauge shotgun, eye wear and
ear protection. Guns, eye-
wear and ear protection are
available for rent at Garland
Mountain Sporting Clays.
Register at:
tinyurl.com/PickensYL-
ClayShoot or contact Bonnie
Carlton at 678-451-2614;
bonnievcarlton@gmail.com
stabilize the area around it.
He said they are also going to
consult engineers on the lines
that connect the wells there to
the water treatment plant on
Ridgewood Drive.
When asked if there was a
potential for water outages
due to the washed away lines,
Douglas said they have some
bypass options but based on
what the weather has already
done, he would never say
never. “At this moment, there
is no alarm,” he said, believ
ing they have operations sta
bilized.
County finding smaller
problems everywhere
Commission Chair Kris
Stancil said that they are
working to remedy problems
around Twin Mountain Lakes
and the spillway there and
handling numerous road and
ditch issues countywide but
appear to have escaped any
massive damage.
Stancil said late Monday
that they were still assessing
conditions on many roads
and “it seems like every time
we drive down a road we find
something not reported yet.”
He said for the most part
they have been fixing smaller
issues as they go and most of
what is being required is sim
ply “manpower and gravel.”
He said Old Burnt Mountain
Road had most of the gravel
on it washed away and Big
Ridge Road also had problem
areas.
The initial assessment is
that there is nothing that the
county couldn’t handle with
their own crews. Unfortu
nately the county will need to
devote all their crews to this
and that will slow other
work, such as preparation for
paving projects, Stancil said.
TR storm
living in a camper is home
less after the camper was
moved by the rising waters.
The resident of the camper
had to be rescued by Pickens
County Fire and Rescue.
Both homes were on
Creek Crossing East. Sams
said the town had contacted
both Red Cross and Salva
tion Army for help with the
family and individual. She
said donations or help can be
made through city hall by
calling 706-253-5515 and
leaving a message.
She said both the family
and individual had evacuated
earlier in the evening but
then it appeared flood waters
had receded so they returned
when a final band of storms
pushed the creeks too high.
Also damaged badly was
Talking Rock Pottery, which
occupies the former Post Of
fice in the town, a building
that has been flooded at least
two other times in the past
decade.
Talking Rock Pottery
owner Heather Poole said
they had two feet of water in
side the building and water
up to the doorknob outside.
She said they are still work
ing to clean all the silt and
debris from the building. At
this point, Poole said she isn’t
sure if they will re-open in
that location, but “pottery is
in my blood” so they will
definitely re-open some
where.
Like the residents in the
damaged homes, Poole said
they had taken the cats that
live in the studio home early
in the evening, then checked
the studio again later and it
appeared that the waters were
coming down so they went to
bed feeling confident.
The popular Talking Rock
Town Park also was damaged
and left littered with debris.
Sams said citizens have been
great about volunteering for
the cleanup. “There was
damage to a lot of the park’s
stuff,” she said. “We don’t
know where some of the pic
nic tables ended up.”
Sams, who grew up in
Talking Rock, speculates that
the floods in the modem era
are caused by the stormwater
runoff coming from Highway
515. Sams said there weren’t
floods like this in the town
when she was growing up
and they never saw this kind
of damage. In her theory, the
runoff from the four-lane hits
Mill Creek and flows into
Talking Rock Creek east of
town which is where the
floodwater and debris come
from.
Poole said she has two
questions regarding the
floods. One is whether Talk
ing Rock has a flood mitiga
tion plan and could they
work with FEMA to develop
one? Secondly, she said the
problem at the studio is di
rectly tied to the bridge over
Highway 136 coming into
town which gets clogged
with debris. Could that
bridge be replaced with
something of a different de
sign, she asks?
It’s Vidalia onion time
The Jasper Lions Club announces the opening of their annual Vidalia onion sale. The
price is the same as it has been for many years - $ 10 for one 10 pound bag or three 10 pound
bags for $25. The onions will be arriving in early May fresh from Bland Farms. Orders will
be taken from now until April 30th, and you may order in one of three ways:
From any member of the Lions Club; By calling 706-253-LION (5466) (please leave your
full name and a phone number at which you can be reached when the onions arrive; By email
ing georgialions@mac.com
Food Ministry
Cool Springs Baptist Church, partnering with There’s Hope For The Hungry, offers non-
perishable food to those in need on Thursday, April 8th, from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. No ID re
quired. Services will be provided inside, with Covid-19 precautions taken. Cool Springs
Baptist Church is located at 4671 Hwy. 53 East, Tate, Georgia. Call (770) 735-2799 for more
information.
Talking Rock Council meeting
The April meeting of the Talking Rock Town Council will be held Thursday, April 8th.
Pickens County Young
Life Sporting Clay
Shoot April 16