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Thursday, July 15, 2021 | Volume 134 Number 13 | Jasper, Georgia | 22 pages, 2 sections | Published Weekly | $1-00
Jasper sidewalks back on radar
Parks, bathroom project moves ahead
Damon Howell / Photo
Portions of the E. Church Street sidewalks are
little better than a rocky path. The city has delayed
work while the massive utility project is under
way.
By Angela Reinhardt
Staff Writer
areinhardt@pickensprogress.com
It’s been about a year since Jasper council put
their sidewalk project on hold, but they are re
visiting it in anticipation of putting out a list of
sidewalks for bids in September.
At their regular meeting July 5, City Manager
Brandon Douglas said the sidewalk initiative
was suspended in 2020 due to an extensive un
derground Georgia Power utilities project that
would require ongoing construction and disturb
right-of-ways. Pickens residents have likely no
ticed work in and around town for many months.
Georgia Power crews and subcontractors have
been digging up ground and installing under
ground lines along roadsides as part of their
statewide Reliability Project.
“We felt as though the notice we had been
given about the underground utilities project was
perhaps going to be a little disruptive, albeit in
the grand scheme of things I think it will prove
to be valuable to the community,” Douglas said,
noting that he felt like now was a good time to
revisit the SPLOST-funded sidewalk project and
the list of sidewalks that was compiled last year.
Development Director Lonnie Waters com
mented that some areas of the city have side
walks in desperate need of repair.
“It’s something that we really need to con
centrate on,” he said.
Council member Kirk Raffield thanked staff
and the city manager “for being wise enough to
look down the road... If we had not postponed
this, we would be digging up and breaking up
less than a year old sidewalk across our commu
nity. . .We are excited to move forward with this
project, it was just really important for us finan
cially and being fiscally responsible to not lay
sidewalks we would rip apart a year or less later.
This patience has really paid off for our commu
nity.”
Council has a tentative list of around three
miles of roads where they would like to either
install new sidewalks or repair sidewalks that are
in poor condition. That list, which is subject to
change before the final bid package is prepared,
includes the area of Burnt Mountain from the
railroad tracks to Landrum Circle, and from
Walgreens to Cove Road; Mary Street from Ste
gall Street to Highway 53; North Main Street
from Woodbridge Inn to Hood Road; South
Main Street from Mineral Springs Road to Fair-
field Apartments; West Church Street from Mark
Whitfield Drive to Maple Street; East Church
Street from Tractor Supply to SouthScape land
scaping, and from Walgreens to Old Tate Road;
repairs throughout Arbor Hills and Mark Whit
field Street. 3 ee jasper on 10A
Woodstock man commits suicide at gun range
By Angela Reinhardt
Staff writer
areinhardt@pickensprogress.com
A 72-year-old Woodstock man took
his own life at a local gun range last
week, Friday, July 9.
According to the police report, offi
cers were dispatched around 2:20 p.m.
that afternoon. The report states that of
ficers found the man deceased on the
range, with a Smith & Wesson .45 cal
iber handgun lying next to him.
An employee told the responding
officer the man rented the firearm to
use on the range, and that he had been
at his lane around 15 minutes when the
employee looked at the surveillance
camera and noticed him lying on the
ground. Employees then contacted 911.
Appalachian Gun, Pawn, Range &
Training co-owner Kim Fitts said the
man had been a customer at their busi
ness since they moved to their new lo
cation on Highway 515. The range
closed for the remainder of the day.
“We are grateful to everyone who
has sent messages and thoughts and
prayers for the family,” Fitts said. “Our
staff has also certainly been affected by
this, and we appreciate the support.”
The Progress does not cover sui
cides unless they are in a public space
or are investigated as potential foul
play cases. Out of respect for the family
we do not list names in a suicide case.
Police responded after a customer committed suicide at the High
way 515 gun range last week.
Yeas and Nays — Planning commission approves
storage buildings; denies rezoning for developer
By Dan Pool
Editor
dpool@pickensprogress.com
It would be a challenge for any
one to guess how the planning com
mission will react to proposed
rezonings and Monday’s meeting
was true to form with the seven-
member appointed board green
lighting a new storage building
location over residential opposition,
while denying a residential rezoning
for a large developer in west Pickens.
Up first at Monday’s meeting was
RLF Talking Rock, which has seen
another of their projects denied a re
zoning recommendation recently. In
this case, it was a technical but
mostly straightforward request from
the company.
The developer has a 246-acre
property on Big Ridge Road. At issue
Monday was an adjacent piece also
owned by RLF that was zoned sub
urban residential (SR), which they
wanted to combine with some of
their agricultural-zoned property to
create a 3 3-acre lot and an 8 8-acre lot
which they would sell as “family
farm style lots.”
Under Pickens land use codes,
they had to rezone the agricultural to
suburban residential to make the split
- but based on questions and com
ments from the planning commission
that opens the door to a true SR sub
division on the 88 acre parcel.
Charles Matthews, representing
the developer, and planning commis
sion members all acknowledged that
See Planning on 10A
Kimberly Holfels and K & B Mini Warehouse owner Tony Nguyen
discuss plans for additional storage units and RVparking along Bent
Tree Drive with the planning commission. While they got a favorable
nod, several Bent Tree residents expressed opposition.
Netflix series filming creates stir, prompts
possible new ordinance in Jasper
New signs have made some people think this building that’s been empty
for years is now open, with officials saying a few passersby have pulled in
to grab a bite. New signs have been installed here and at the motel across
the street for filming of Netflix’s Pieces of Her, based on a book by the
same name.
By Angela Reinhardt
Staff Writer
areinhardt@piekensprogress.com
No, the new signs don’t mean the
East Church Street building is now
open to the public. The facade ren
ovations are strictly for a Netflix se
ries being filmed there and at the
Budget Inn across the road for por
tions of three days through July 15.
Since filming of Pieces of Her
was announced, officials say they
have been inundated with calls
about the project, including people
concerned about road closure and
detours, and how it would impact
businesses.
The filming also came up in dis
cussion at the July council meeting,
with city attorney David Syfan ad
vising that council consider adopt
ing an ordinance that would allow
them to handle requests for filming
consistently. Syfan said as Georgia
has become a hub for movie-mak
ing, other cities have adopted such
ordinances to handle production
companies and issues like road clo
sures.
“I could see this could be some
thing that could come up again and
again,” Syfan said, noting the aes
thetic appeal of Pickens and
Jasper’s rural, mountainous com
munity.
Following a question from coun
cil member Jim Looney, Syfan said
it would be nice to have consistent
filming policies in the city of Jasper
and in Pickens County as a whole.
That section of Highway 53
Business/Church Street will be
closed intermittently between Old
Tate Road and Bell Avenue, with
traffic to be detoured down Old Tate
Street. The road will be closed on
Tuesday, July 13 from 7 p.m. to 4
a.m. Then again on July 14 from
9:30 a.m. to 4 a.m. the following
morning.
The production company
worked with GDOT, and local gov
ernments and law officials to coor
dinate the closure.
Inside this Edition:
Chase ends in
crash in
Hunter’s Ridge
Page 11A
Roads
Gennett Drive will
be out for several
more months
Page 3A
History
Turning Back the
Pages: Harold
Cantrell
appointed Police
Chief in 1996
Page 6A
Interview
Shooting the
Breeze with
gardener Craig
McKenzie Page2A
Obituaries - 9A
• Dennis Rice
• Diane Kleinschmidt
• Donald Allen
• Gabrielle Sipos
• Gilbert James
• Hazel Norman
• Howard Pettigrew
• Irene Nixie
• James Dapp
• James Mock
• Jerry Parris
• Jim Trowell
• Jonnie Salas
• Robert Gregory
• Sandra Ludwig
Contact Us
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Jasper, Ga. 30143
706-253-2457
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