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“One day our descendants will think it incredible that we paid so much attention to things like
the amount of melanin in our skin or the shape of our eyes or our gender instead of
the unique identities of each of us as complex human beings.” — Franklin Thomas
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Common Sense
The Progress
Editorial
February 10,2022
From the Staff
County right to put brakes on Grandview
water plant - just let the water flow
“Grandview Lake a Dream Come
True.” That’s the title of a blurb in Pick
ens County Georgia Heritage 1853-1958
that summarizes how Grandview Lake
was conceived in the early 1940s by
W.H. (Bill) Jones, then constructed in
1946. The wooded property was sold in
lots to raise money for construction of
the $20,000 dam. “Stock was sold and
many residents of Jasper and Pickens
County were the first shareholders.”
Despite construction of lakeside
homes (and a large hotel that has since
been demolished), Grandview Lake has
remained more-or-less untouched, tucked
quietly under Shaiptop Mountain. Access
is reserved for shareholders (some with
property, some without). It wasn’t until
recently that the lake, which is privately
owned by Grandview Lake Company,
made waves. The need for a costly dam
repair in 2016 spurred an agreement with
Pickens County government that would
allow them to withdraw up to 333,000
gallons from the lake a day. Revenue
from selling that raw water would fund
dam repairs for the lake’s stockholders.
At that time, the county budgeted
around $2 million to build a water treat
ment plant so they could sell treated
water to new customers. The largest of
these customers, by far, would be the city
of Jasper, which has already run water
lines in that area. After years of setbacks,
the treatment facility finally went out for
bids last year - but the bid opening was
nowhere near “a dream come true.” Bids
came in three times the budget, which
Commission Chair Kris Stancil said
would force the county to sell the treated
water at an exorbitant rate of over $5 per
1,000/gallons. Government loans for
water infrastructure are generally re
quired to break even with the revenue
generated, a severe limitation in this case
was the limit of 333,000 a day. That is a
lot of water but not so much to justify the
higher cost.
Also not a dream come true is the dire
concern from stockholders regarding
plans they say they have only recently
been made aware of. These plans include
the water intake as a t-shaped floating
dock that extends 40 feet into the lake,
with two electric motors. Stockholders
are concerned the dock will be unsightly
and noisy, and destroy the ambiance of
the “gem in the mountains.”
When we take into account the night-
marishly high bid, in conjunction with
the potential of seriously harming one of
the county’s most scenic views, we agree
it’s best to put on the brakes and explore
alternative solutions — with one of the
better solutions possibly being the sim
plest of all.
We’re reminded of a story about for
mer Jasper Mayor John Weaver and a
meeting he had many years ago with a
councilmember at the dam. The two were
discussing the lake - which Jasper city
hall had long drooled over as a water
source. Council member Paul Qualls
suggested they put in a syphon to with
draw water. The mayor said instead, why
not just let the water flow on downstream
to the city’s intake on Long Swamp
Creek, a short distance away as the crow
flies.
Interestingly, within the last two years,
Jasper agreed to purchase 333,000 gal
lons of raw water a day from the county
until they could purchase treated water -
but it’s doubtful they will want to pay the
$5-plus per 1,000 gallon amount. The
raw water they buy isn’t naturally flow
ing over the spillway, but it’s coming
from a metered opening directly below it
then flowing down Champion Creek into
Long Swamp Creek. From there, the city
pumps it to their facility, treats it, and
then it’s pumped into their lines.
The ongoing Grandview Lake issues
are like boats in cartoons when one leak
becomes two, then becomes three. In
stead of putting our finger over the leaks
to plug them (which never worked out in
cartoons), a more logical solution might
be to just let it flow downstream to
Jasper’s existing intake until a cost-effec
tive fix for water treatment can be found.
Tell us your thoughts with a letter to the editor. E-mail to news@pickensprogress.com
See letter submission guidelines on the Letters to the Editor page or call us 706-253-2457.
Other Voices
Short term rentals not conducive for neighborhoods
By Cheryl A. Newton
[In response to the article,
From Airbnb to VRBO: New
short-term rental hotel tax
doubles county collections,
January 20]
Let’s discuss Airbnbs
[VRBOs and short term
rentals] as someone who
lives near several. What no
one wants to talk about is
how much they destroy
neighborhoods and disrupt
the lives of the people who
live next to them.
We moved to Pickens
County nine years ago to es
cape the congestion of Can
ton. We bought a home in the
mountains with acreage to
give us plenty of space.
Most of the homes at the
time were weekend homes
with just a few people living
year round. We all got along
and helped each other out
during the snowstorms and
other mountain living events
that popped up.
Now with more and more
Airbnbs replacing estab
lished neighbors you do not
know who anybody is. The
neighborhood is full of
strangers, who are just here
for a “good time.” The
renters like to leave every
light in the place on all night
every night, which results in
bright lights shining into
neighboring houses. In the
past you spoke to your neigh
bor about it and it would get
worked out.
Now nothing happens as
each weekend a new guest
occupies the house.
The owners of the short
term rentals promote touring
the local wineries and show
pictures of alcohol in the
Airbnb ads encouraging
drinking. Now you have
drunken strangers to deal
with. They feel they can walk
onto anyone’s property for
the mountain experience that
they are promised from
Airbnb owners, even though
No Trespassing signs are
posted.
We have had our signs
taken down by owners so
their guests don’t see them.
Strangers feel they can come
to my front door when issues
arise with the houses because
the owners do not live
nearby. In fact, they don’t
live there at all. It’s a busi
ness not a home.
Cars are parked on the
sides of the roads blocking
lanes, people screaming as
loud as they can off of decks,
increased 911 calls due to fire
alarms, drunkenness and
snow shoveling. Yes, 911 for
snow shoveling because the
owners lack basic winter
equipment and guests are
stranded.
When you talk to the own
ers about these issues, at first
they are apologetic. They
claim they carefully vet all
their guests and it won’t hap
pen again. But then it does.
It is also not unusual for
the owners to send threaten
ing letters to the HOA’s
claiming they have lawyers
ready and waiting to take the
community down for the
sake of profit.
Living in the mountains is
different. Something some
owners do not realize or care
about. The winter weather
events can get you stuck in
your house for days while
you wait for the snow and ice
to melt.
Heavier winds up here
blow trash and debris left by
guests all over the side of the
mountain. The houses are
close enough together that
parties outside can be heard
in the house next door where
people have to get up and go
to work or school the next
day.
Now with all of these is
sues going on the fabric of
the neighborhood is unravel
ing. Airbnb owners only care
for the comfort of their guests
and are not interested in the
wellbeing of full time resi
dents.
This can make HOA
meetings contentious and un
productive. There is no com
mon ground between the two
groups. Some members are
silent and don’t want to get
involved especially if they
don’t live next to one of the
rental properties.
The question that I have is
how is it that an Airbnb has
to apply for a business li
cense and pay a business tax,
but are located in neighbor
hoods zoned as RESIDEN
TIAL ONLY?
Seems to me that a busi
ness should not be allowed to
operate in a residential neigh
borhood. I think our county
commissioners should take a
closer look at this and the
negative effects these
Airbnbs are having on our
neighborhoods and not so
much at the additional busi
ness tax revenue they are
generating.
#lbe ^>cj)ool
Other Voices
Of Maus and Men
By Keith Petty
Art Spiegelman is an edi
tor, cartoonist, and comics
advocate who employs illus
tration as a means of political
and social commentary. For
13 years, he toiled to produce
his graphic novel Maus.
Mans, which depicts Jews as
mice and Nazis as cats, tells
the story of Spiegelman’s
parents’ horrific journey
through the Holocaust. The
book won a Pulitzer Prize in
1992. Today, its literary
artistry is creating interest
anew but not in a celebratory
fashion. Instead, it is being
attacked and censored for its
content.
On January 10, the 10-
member McMinn County,
Tennessee School Board
voted to ban Maus from its
eighth-grade curriculum.
The board cited “unnecessary
use of nudity and profanity”
and “violence and suicide” as
the contributing factors for
the ban. Essentially, this cita
tion places Maus within the
realm of obscenity and
pornography.
While no responsible adult
is going to rebuff the fact that
we have a moral obligation to
protect children from
pornography, predation, and
exploitation, it should be
noted that categorization of
what is obscene is a catch-all
net for many adults. For
them, no differentiation be
tween Alexandras of Anti
och’s Venus de Milo and a
package-store rack of girlie
magazines exists; and the use
of a common expletive in the
presence of delicate ears and
soft minds is far more dam
aging to the psyche than in
stitutional racism and
orchestrated genocide. Such
blanket categorization,
therein, creates the opposi
tion to Mans, which when an
alyzed objectionally and in
correct context is indis
putably neither obscene nor
pornographic but simply his
torically accurate.
The McMinn County
Spot an
error?
Let our
editor hear
about it.
dpool@pickensprogress.com
706-253-2457
WEATHER
By William Dilbeck
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Board of Education’s con
tention that the nudity and
profanity found in Spiegal-
man’s work is unnecessary
implies that the author’s in
corporation of such elements
is gratuitous. Assuredly, it is
not, and within the scope of
the Holocaust and what hap
pened to children the age of
eighth-graders and younger,
it is beyond redaction in re
gard to its historical integrity;
and its erasure would belie
the barbarous nature of the
Holocaust as a whole. In fact,
in contrast to the innumerable
horrific acts committed
against Jews and others
deemed misfits or enemies
by the tenets of Nazism, Sp-
iegalman’s portrayal is a mild
yet comprehensive discourse
from the perspective of his
family’s experience.
Still, members of the
McMinn board, as well as
members of other boards of
education, appear unrelenting
in their decision and impervi
ous to the fact that a large
facet of the United States’s
student body experiences cir
cumstances and events on a
daily basis that are far more
damaging than a foray into
actuality of the Holocuast.
Likewise, these curricular au
thoritarians seem impervious
to the noble purpose of teach
ing fundamental truth with
out the societal whitewashing
of those who find such truth
distasteful or those who fear
students’ ability to think crit
ically and to individually
form their own opinions. Ad
ditionally, the ethical and
moral objective of creating
stewardship of our own ac
tions and preventing future
events such as the Holocaust
is precluded by the moral im
perative of shielding individ
uals from a bare breast or a
guttural “damn you.” This is
the foundation for the prolif
eration of ignorance and for
the continuing failure of
mankind as a species of de
struction.
Finally, from my own ex
perience as an educator, I
defer to a former student’s re
cent message in regard to his
discussion of Maus with a
friend. In his message, he ex
pressed shock that the
McMinn board and others are
choosing to pull the book
from shelves, and he thanked
me for his inclusion on a visit
to the United States Holo
caust Memorial Museum
when he was an eighth-
grader, citing that it is an ed
ucational experience that he
will never forget. I reference
this not for any acknowl
edgement for myself or my
position as an educator but to
exhibit the positivity that ex
posure to mankind’s most
atrocious eras and actions
may generate in allowing us
to become better people.
While I concede that par
ents should be the final voice
in deciding to what their chil
dren are exposed and that al
ternative assignments should
be provided any time a parent
has an individual issue with
curricular content, I also de
ride the abuse of power when
a governmental body decides
to censor material on pre
tense when said material of
fers educational and cultural
redemption that far out
weighs any potentially offen
sive segments. To do so is to
perpetuate a cycle of our
most undesirable nature as
human beings and to produce
a generation of young people
void of the ability to arrest
such perpetuation.
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