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THURSDAY. MARCH 3. 2022 PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS PAGE 9A Georgia Voter Registration and 2022 Election Information Submitted by Barbara Bal- ducci Pickens County Board of Elections and Registration Member Georgia state election year 2022 is upon us. No doubt it will be a busy and exciting election year for all Geor gians. This is the first of sev eral informational articles to advise eligible voters about voter registration and elec tion timelines. Important information about voter registration: If you are a newly eligible Georgia voter, you can re quest an application from the Georgia Secretary of State website or your local county Board of Elections and Reg istration. You can also regis ter to vote when applying for a Georgia driver’s license. If you have previously regis tered or are newly registered to vote, make sure that your residential address and mail ing address are correct in the Georgia Secretary of State voter registration system. You can verify your voter in formation by accessing https://www.sos.ga.gov/MVP Your residential address (911 address) must be used when registering to vote. If your mailing address is dif ferent than your residential address, it is important to make sure your mailing ad dress is correct. You can check your mailing address by requesting a precinct card be printed in https://www.sos.ga.gov/MVP The mailing address maintained in Secretary of State voter registration sys tem will be on the front. All questions pertaining to your voter registration infor mation can be answered as follows: For Pickens County resi dents; Pickens County Board of Elections and Registration, 83 Pioneer Blvd, Jasper, GA, 30143, phone number, 706- 253-8781, Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. 2022 Georgia Election and Voter Registration Calendar: March 7: Earliest day to apply for an absentee ballot for May primary election. Absentee ballot requirements and applications can be found at https://www.sos.ga.gov/MVP or contact your local county Board of Elections and Reg istration. April 5: Earliest day for a registrar to mail an absentee ballot for May primary. You can verify your absentee bal lot status at https://www.sos.ga.gov/MVP April 25: Voter registra tion deadline for May 24th primary election and June 21st state primary runoff (if necessary). Verify that your voter registration is current at https://www.sos.ga.gov/MVP or contact your local county Board of Elections and Reg istration. May 13: Last day to sub mit absentee ballot applica tion for May 24th primary. May 2-20: Advanced in- person voting (and absentee ballot drop boxes) for May 24th primary election. Satur day voting will be May 7th and May 14th. Voting for Pickens county residents will be held at the Pickens County Community Center, 1329 Camp Rd, Jasper, GA30143. Hours and dates for advanced in-person voting will be ad vertised at a later date. May 23: The last day for a person to register and be el igible to vote in the general primary election run-off (if necessary) where there is a federal candidate on the bal lot. May 24: Primary election. In-person voting 7 a.m.-7 p.m. at your assigned local precinct. Also last day for mailed absentee ballots to reach the county and count. Must be received by 7:00 p.m. Primary Election Runoff Information (if required): June 1-13: Advanced in- person voting begins for the June 21st primary. Hours and dates for advanced in-person voting will be advertised at a later date. June 10: Last day to sub mit an absentee ballot appli cation for June runoff. June 21: Primary election runoff, in-person voting 7 a.m. - 7 p.m. at your assigned local precinct. Also last day for mailed absentee ballots to reach county and count, must be received by 7 p.m. Master Gardener tips for success with heirloom and native plants Into to heirloom gardening symposium to be offered March 26 Dee Boggus Pickens Master Gardener As an experienced gar dener I am often treated by my family as a sort of rescue hospice for ailing plants. Sometimes my efforts bring plants back to life but (sadly) not always. I will be the first to admit that not all of my gardening attempts have been successful. In this arti cle I will identify and explain common gardening mistakes that prevent success in any landscape. Always start with a healthy specimen. When choosing a healthy plant, do not just pick the first pot in a row- take time to carefully check out your options. Look for bright, even leaf color and new growth. If the foliage is weak or wilted or the stem seems loose where it meets the soil, choose another. Your plant choice should be com pact rather than leggy as this indicates growth struggle. If roots are emerging from the drainage holes in the pot’s bottom, your plant may be root bound. You need to loosen the roots of a root bound plant when installing and this condition could in terfere with plant develop ment. If your plant pick is blooming, choose one with more closed buds than open flowers so that the plant has energy for growing rather than flowering. You should always check the plant tag to be sure perennials are zoned A fringe tree in bloom from the author’s yard. An exam ple of being sure you have the right plant in the right place. for your area. Another reason gardening endeavors do not succeed is a lack of planning. The old adage “chose the right plant for the right place” is always appropriate. To follow this maxim, you must get to know your garden. Visit the pro posed planting site often until you can answer the following questions: Does the sun hit the soil directly? How many hours of direct sun? (Six hours or more is required for plants that are tagged full sun.) Do you have clay soil or rocky? Boggy soil or dry? (Soil tests from your friendly county extension office would be handy here.) Is the planting site windy? Does it have the hot spots that often occur on the south or west sides of walls or pavement? Check for dry spots under roof eaves or evergreen trees. If you can answer all of these concerns and carefully match plant with site, you will in crease planting success. Lastly, garden success often starts with heirloom and native plants. Oftentimes newer hybrid plants are diffi cult to grow but heirloom plants that have been in cul tivation for at least 50 years do not have the same issues. If you obtain your heirlooms from neighbors or family members then they will most likely be a winner in your landscape. Native plants are indigenous to an area and in clude plants that occur there naturally. They have devel oped in a particular location or existed for years in an area. As an added bonus, na- Report from the Capitol By State Representatiue Rick Jasperse During this seventh week of the 2022 legislative ses sion, we saw a lot of action in committees and voting on legislation to send to the Sen ate for their consideration. I always try to give you some insight on what is going on under the Gold Dome each week. As we approach what we call Crossover Day in the next few weeks, the pace in our committees has really picked up. On Wednesday I had the opportunity to go to 14 different meetings. I made it to 11; those others were for a meeting with a group visit ing the Capitol. I am honored to be a member of the leadership of our Rules Committee. We meet every day to hear mem bers request for their bills to be heard on the floor. The re sponsibility of the Rules Committee is to determine if that bill will be heard on the House Floor or should it be sent back to committee for further work or sometimes not be moved forward at all. This takes a lot of work on our part, as we have to know what each bill really does and the effect it may have on you, your family, or your pocket- book. One bill I know you may have been interested in con cerned our schools. These days, many school systems utilize virtual learning oppor tunities, and the number of students with school-issued laptops or tablet devices has dramatically increased so children can learn from home. To keep up with this evolving learning environ ment, the House passed House Bill 1217, or the Stu dent Technology Protection Act, to promote the safe and appropriate use of school-is sued technology, whether students are using these de vices in the classroom or while learning from home. The Student Technology Pro tection Act would require each local board of education and charter school governing body to adopt an acceptable- use policy this year that could better prevent and prohibit any school computer or net work from accessing obscene materials, child pornography, or material that is deemed harmful to minors. Each school system would also take necessary steps to implement and enforce its new acceptable-use policy, as well as update school tech nology to better block or fil ter access to these explicit materials online. If the State Board of Edu cation finds that a school has five and heirloom plants are more resistant to or recover more easily from animal browsing than newer vari eties. If you are interested in learning more about heir loom plants, the Pickens Master Gardeners group is offering a free educational event entitled “Introduction to Heirloom Gardening Sym posium.” The symposium will be a drop in event so that you will be able to pick which of the following topics you wish to pursue- bees, beneficial pollinators, soil re quirements, seed starting, planting modalities, heirloom plants, and 12 principles of garden design. The “Intro duction to Heirloom Garden ing Symposium” will be on Saturday, March 26 from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Pickens County Extension office (in the Chamber of Commerce building) at 502 Veterans Memorial Blvd. in Jasper. COVID safety protocol will be followed (masks encour aged but optional). Call 706- 253-8840 for more information. TRADITION TREE SERVICE Jasper, GA Generations of Tree Care • Free Estimates • Fully Insured • Tree Removal • Tree Pruning •Brush Chipping with our new chipper traditiontreeservice80@gmail.com m Georgia Arborist Association Member Josh Bail C: 678-848-1751 H: 706-253-0122 South Cherokee/Jasper Driver Improvement Clinic, Inc. #2102 1623 East Church Street • Jasper, Georgia 30143 do: not followed its acceptable- use policy, the board could withhold a portion of state funding allotted for that school. As technology continues to evolve quickly, this bill would ensure that Georgia’s public schools have these policies in place and are equipped with the resources they need to protect children from harmful online content. I do list other bills we took action on, on my Facebook page with links to the bills and vote on the bills, as I could take up the whole paper. . . I have received a number of calls about all sorts of issues this week, and I am glad you trust me to an swer them. It has always been one of my top priorities to help my constituents and to hear your feedback about the work we are doing in At lanta. I encourage you to reach out if you have any questions or concerns regard ing legislation that has been discussed or passed so far. You can reach my Capitol of fice at 404-656-7153, or you can email me directly at rick.jasperse@house.ga.gov. As always, thank you for al lowing me to serve as your State Representative and leg islative voice here at the Capitol. VJ\ort9 a96 NEW DRIVER EDUCATION (30/6 Joshua’s Law) DEFENSIVE DRIVING (6 Hour Course) DUI-RISK REDUCTION (20 Hour Course) Registration/Assessments Monday & Thursdays 11 am to 7pm All Classes meet Georgia State Requirements CLASSES FORMING NOW www.SouthCherokee.coin 706-692-1632 or 770-928-3679 MAKING MORTGAGES EASIER EVERY DAY. 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