Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 6B PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS THURSDAY. OCTOBER 28. 2021
Broadband, considered, vital infrastructure
Commissioners add broadband
to long-term comprehensive
plan in hopes of future grant
This map from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs shows which areas in Pickens County are considered
served and unserved in terms of access to adequate broadband.
By Angela Reinhardt
Staff Writer
areinhardt@pickensprogress.com
Ethan Calhoun, assistant
planning director for the
Northwest Georgia Regional
Commission, likened the
state’s push to get broadband
in underserved areas to the
Rural Electrification Act of
1936. Through that act, the
federal government provided
funding to expand electricity
to rural communities.
Calhoun led a public hear
ing at the Pickens Adminis
tration Building on Thursday,
Oct. 21 that was the first in a
series of steps that will help
Pickens County secure grant
money to bring broadband to
unserved areas. Calhoun
called broadband “critical in
frastructure.”
“This grant money helps
get that infrastructure out in
those low density areas faster
in this critical times,” he said,
“...this broadband technol
ogy is seen as critical infra
structure for all those things
from medical service to in
dustry to education.”
During the comments sec
tion Green Suttles, Pickens
County economic develop
ment director, called broad
band/fiber one of two critical
pieces of infrastructure in
modem day communities,
and said the grant program is
“the path to get us to the
fiber.”
“I started in this business
20 years ago and it was
power, water, gas, and
sewer,” Suttles said. “That
changed. Phones became a
big deal, now phones have
faded away because now it’s
broadband. If you think about
it...you can be completely
successful in this county with
electricity and broadband.
You don’t need water or
sewer because you can get it
on your site. You don’t need
gas because you can get
propane.”
The Georgia Department
of Community Affairs
(DCA) reports that 17 per
cent of Pickens County is
“unserved,” which is defined
as a download speed of 25
Mbps and 3 Mbps upload
speed, among other criteria.
(Data shows 3,464 unserved
locations, and 16,407 served
locations). A map of Pickens
County shows that the central
corridors have adequate
broadband access, but outly
ing areas in far extremities of
the county lack access. In
comparison, DCA reports
that 27 percent of Gilmer
County is unserved; Dawson
is 14 percent unserved; Gor
don is 16 percent; and Chero
kee is 2 percent unserved.
The only private Pickens
County citizen in attendance
said she has tried for years
with no luck to get internet
service, and needs solutions.
Calhoun explained that areas
like hers lack access because
the low density population
doesn’t give a profitable re
turn on investment for private
companies that provide
broadband.
Following a question
about whether or not the
grant initiative would im
prove competition and possi
bly pricing among local
providers, Calhoun explained
that the grant program is a
public-private partnership in
which competition is not the
primary goal.
“The private provider is
going to be the one that
makes most logistical sense
to serve that area, so it’s not
necessarily bringing in more
competition,” he said. “The
idea here to get the infra
structure to those under
served areas in the most
cost-effective and expedient
way possible. It doesn’t nec
essarily bring providers in
from outside. It’s going to
most likely work with
providers that are already
there.”
The topic of broadband
access has been an ongoing
state and national issue, and
arose several years ago with
the Georgia legislature and
their Rural Development
Council.
“This is something that in
rural communities especially
was a major, major issue
across the state,” Calhoun
said, who noted that the leg
islature charged the DCA and
other organizations to come
up with a plan of action to ad
dress the critical need.
Part of that plan of action
was to create a grant program
with stipulations a commu
nity must follow to be eligi
ble. Calhoun explained that
plan include three steps - that
broadband be included in a
county’s Comprehensive
Plan, the adoption of a broad
band ordinance, and ulti
mately applying for and
becoming a certified Broad
band Ready Community.
“Once those steps are
done a community will be el
igible to apply for that grant
money as it becomes avail
able,” he said.
Currently the broadband
element is not required for a
county’s comprehensive
plan, but “moving forward it
will no longer be an elective
element for the comprehen
sive element. It will be re
quired by the state. This is
just getting ahead of the ball
in order to be eligible for that
grant money should it be
come available before the
next comprehensive plan.”
The county has met with
some broadband providers in
the community that are “ea
gerly excited for any infusion
of grant money to start ex
panding what they are able to
do,” Pickens Commission
Chair Kris Stancil said. “We
do have a couple of providers
that have not expressed a lot
of eager excitement to ex
pand, so this hopefully will
give the ones that are willing
to go into those underserved
areas to get in there. That’s
our hope.”
Jason Smith, chief operat
ing officer at ETC, spoke on
the company’s behalf. He
said they entered the commu
nity as a phone provider in
1999 with a few internet cus
tomers, and, “Since then
we’ve grown and we’ve got
more than 10,000” customers
in Pickens County, he said.
“.. .We would encourage you
guys to really think solidly
about this and go forward
with it.”
Following the public hear
ing commissioners voted to
add a broadband element to
their long term Comprehen
sive Plan, which was adopted
in 2018. The next update is
not until 2023. If the county
did not adopt the broadband
element they would not be el
igible for that grant money
until the update.
“The faster we can try to
work to get more service in
the area the better,” Stancil
said.
The Sheriff’s
Beat
From the Pickens
Sheriff’s Office
During this past week, the Pickens Sheriff’s Office responded
to or initiated 1,577 calls for service. These numbers are
taken from the report provided directly from the 911 Center
where all calls are logged as they are perfonned. Below is a
breakdown of all dispatched calls by the call type for each in-
cident.
Accidents
20
Suicide Threats / Attempts
0
Domestics
25
Theft / Burglary Related
10
Forgery / Fraud
6
Traffic Stops
154
Citations Issued
4
Animal Investigations
14
Suspicious Persons/Activity
25
Alarm Calls
14
Stranded Motorists
5
Street Hazards
5
Vandalism
1
Abandoned Vehicles
1
Extra Patrol - neighborhoods,
businesses, residences
1,081. In addition to these, other calls include search warrants,
civil service, 911 hang-up calls, assaults, disorderly persons,
missing persons, assistance with medical calls, natural death
investigations, demented persons, funeral escorts, harassment,
trespassing, and many more.
Breakdown of Charges for those Arrested:
13 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):
Child Molestation
i
Failure to Register as Sex Offender
i
Battery
i
Simple Battery
i
Stalking
i
Theft by Shoplifting
i
Driving with Invalid License
i
Vehicle Headlights Violation
i
Failure to Maintain Lane
i
Bond Violation
2
Criminal Trespass
2
Disorderly Conduct
2
Fugitive of Justice
2
DUI
1
DUI Child Endangerment
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: 919
Weapons Found: 6
Courts Held: 9
Arrests Made in
the Courthouse: 0
Civil Papers Received : 31
Civil Papers Served: 39
In the Adult Detention
Center:
Total Jail population: 75
Total male inmates: 58
Total female inmates: 17
Sex Offenders:
There are currently 69 sex
offenders registered with
the Pickens Sheriff’s Office.
Highland Rivers Health honored as
Behavioral Health Provider of Year
GRISHAM, POOLE
& CARLILE, PC
Criminal Defense I Family Law
"You can't go back and change the beginning,
but you can start where you are and change
the ending." ~ C.S. Lewis
21 COURT STREET
JASPER, GEORGIA
678.880.9360
Experienced. Established. Effective.
DALTON - Highland
Rivers Health has been
named Georgia’s Behavioral
Health Provider of the Year
by the Department of Behav
ioral Health and Develop
mental Disabilities
(DBHDD). The award was
presented during DBHDD’s
annual Behavioral Health
Symposium, which this year
took place virtually the first
week of October.
“This is a very special
award, and I think particu
larly meaningful this year be
cause it recognizes the
tremendous efforts we put
forth to maintain services and
support individuals in our
communities during the
worst of the pandemic,” said
Melanie Dallas, CEO of
Highland Rivers Health.
“While I was honored to be
the person who accepted the
award, it really belongs to
our more than 650 staff mem
bers - we persevered during
the past year because of the
compassion, care and dedica
tion of every single member
of our team, and I am ex
tremely grateful to them.”
According to DBHDD
award criteria, the Behavioral
Health Provider of the Year
Award is bestowed upon the
behavioral health provider
that has demonstrated out
standing performance, inno
vative practices, and
significant community im
pact. To be considered for the
award, a provider must
achieve passing scores on all
state program audits - High
land Rivers routinely re
ceives scores of 90% and
above - while also demon
strating exemplary perform
ance, excellence in service,
outstanding creativity and a
recovery orientation in all
services.
“The Behavioral Health
Provider of the year award is
always the most difficult
award to bestow upon an or
ganization as we receive
nominations from across the
state and have to really eval
uate and come to a consensus
about the award winner,” said
Monica Johnson, Director of
DBHDD Division of Behav
ioral Health. “I am proud of
the hard work of the High
land Rivers team across their
entire behavioral health serv
ice continuum. Under the
leadership of Melanie Dallas,
they find ways to say yes, are
innovative, and roll up their
sleeves to work with their
communities for the people
we serve. Congratulations to
the Highland Rivers Team for
this recognition,”
In 2018, Highland Rivers
Health was recognized as
DBHDD’s Region 1 Out
standing Provider of the Year,
and earlier this year received
renewed accreditation from
the Commission on the Ac
creditation of Rehabilitation
Facilities (CARF) Interna
tional. Over the past two
years, the agency has also re
ceived exemplary audit
scores from the state Admin
istrative Services Organiza
tion (ASO) for outpatient
core services, intellectual and
developmental disability pro
grams, and community-based
and transitional support pro
grams.
Clear, Pure Water. The way it should be.
Do you know what’s in your water?
We do. And we can make it
safe and clean for you. Vi
t
■
WATER
DIAGNOSIS
CALL 888-604-8043
Our quality and service
v » ■ /.. .
are 100% guaranteed.
•'St
Just ask our customers.
www.metrowaterfilter.com 888-604-8043
Refer a friend or family member and get $75 when they purchase a new system.