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“It’s the things we play with and the people who help us play that make
a great difference in our lives. ” - Fred Rogers
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Common Sense
The Progress
Editorial
April 21,2022
From the Staff
Pickens deserves better parks
In 1979, the brothers CJ and EA
Roper, both doctors who served this
community for years, donated their pri
vate airport to the county and Roper Park
came to life. It was a great gift that
served this county for a couple of
decades as our park - probably about
two decades.
The problem is four decades and three
years later, we are still using the gifted
property as the only county park in this
growing, relatively-affluent area.
In 2006, county-paid consultants re
turned a report saying Roper Park was
too small and not properly shaped to han
dle our needs. Long and narrow runway
property is not conducive to recreation
facilities due to the distance from park
ing and restrooms to the far fields. The
paid experts advised the county to seek a
property of 100 acres on mostly flat
property and do it soon, before property
prices ran out of sight.
Too late. Prices have skyrocketed and
no new park property was ever acquired.
There are still no plans to add significant
acreage. Fleeting discussion has occa
sionally been broached of both a new
main park as well as smaller parks on
both east and west sides to help working
parents get kids to playgrounds without
a long commute. But nothing much has
come of these ideas.
A swimming pool was added early in
the life of the park and still functions, and
in 2011 the county spent $3 million on a
30,000-square-foot community center
with basketball/pickleball courts.
Currently, the county has budgeted
$3.6 million in sales tax (SPLOST) dol
lars for improvement projects at Roper
Park with new lights on several of the
ball fields being top priority at a price of
$900,000. General renovations, rest
rooms and overall upgrades will follow.
It is something, but no where near
enough.
Consider how low our community’s
expectations for recreation are when we
have a gym/community center built more
than a decade ago as our brightest beacon
in the parks. And now we are getting
mostly maintenance rather than true ex
pansion. The county set to work “reimag
ining” Roper Park a couple of years ago.
But the consultants came back earlier this
year with projects totaling $14 million
when apparently they had been given a
$3.6 million SPLOST budget. The rec.
department director said they had Cham
pagne dreams for a beer budget.
We disagree, in that dreams of stan
dard, decent, nothing-elaborate parks are
entirely reasonable. True the consultants
should have stuck to their clients’ budget,
but like the professional planners in the
early 2000s, they likely gave an accu
rate, if bitter, dose of reality. For a 41-
acre, outdated, ill-shaped park, that
hasn’t had any substantial work in a
decade, $3.6 million doesn’t go far, espe
cially when one-third gets taken right off
the start to light fields.
The topic of parks is one we come
back to in this space regularly. It stands
as an embarrassment to our county and
we are falling further and further behind.
Recall in 2006, our park was deemed too
small and we have the same park, albeit
with a community center, now. The
population certainly hasn’t stayed the
same and is now set for rapid growth
while the available property for any new
parks get bought up.
With two of the three commission
seats about to see new faces, it’s high
time people here demand more of county
government. The idea that it’s too expen
sive to do recreation right is a lame ex
cuse, and, we would point out, not tied to
any single administration. It’s an attitude
that goes back decades here. Nice park
facilities are not only for other counties.
This county has seen a surge in home
values, and growth, which means healthy
coffers over the at the Admin, building.
If they can pay for parks in counties all
across the state, we can afford them here.
It’s time for us to demand suitable
parks. This community deserves more
than maintenance on a single park that
was viewed as too small 15 years ago.
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.
Senior Moments
Use it or lose it
By Mary Migliaro
I have a confession to make.
I have created a complete home
gym so I can get in shape. The
problem is that I rarely use any
of the equipment. In fact, all
those pieces of equipment
mock me every time I walk by,
and the cobwebs are every
where.
Trust me, I have way too
much equipment. There is the
treadmill, the stationary bike,
free weights, a balance building
platform, and even an inversion
table (designed to reverse the
effect of gravity on the body).
It is such a well-appointed
home gym that friends used to
come over and work out. Did I
join them. No!
Now we all know that it is
important as we age to stay in
shape. The old adage, “use it or
lose it” applies here. With every
passing year, our bodies remind
us of that.
Age-related muscle loss,
called sarcopenia, is a natural
part of aging. After age 30, you
begin to lose as much as 3% to
5% per decade. Most men will
lose about 30% of their muscle
mass during their lifetimes. I’ve
lost about 20% already.
But it’s not just muscle
mass. In my case, every birth
day brings another new ailment
be it arthritis, bursitis, or a bad
knee or hip. I don’t need the
Weather Channel to tell me
when it’s going to rain; my
arthritis tells me! And while
I’m not ready for a stair lifter to
be installed, my knees remind
me that it probably won’t be
long.
Can you feel my pain? Or
do you have plenty of your
own? Well, what will we do
about it?
As I see it, we have two
choices. We can keep sitting
around telling ourselves that it
doesn't matter and continue to
shun any form of exercise, or
we can actually get up and do
something!
Experts say that simply
walking 10-15 minutes a day
can increase our mobility,
heartrate, and stamina. I’ve
learned you don’t need a tread
mill for that.
And increasing our muscle
mass can be a simple as using a
resistance band to stretch and
exercise the muscles in our
upper body.
What I have learned is that
while some sarcopenias are a
natural consequence of aging,
others are preventable. Studies
show sarcopenia can be re
versed, and muscle loss de
creased. A healthy diet and
reasonable exercise can reverse
sarcopenia, which increases
lifespan and improves quality
of life.
If we choose to do nothing,
we may end up bed-bound and
unable to reverse our aging. I’m
not going there, and I hope you
don’t either. Let’s not lose it.
Let’s get busy!
[Mary Migliaro is a fre
quent contributor to the
Progress as both a columnist
and with a regular
parenting/family advice col
umn. She may be reached at
maiymigliaro@aol.com.]
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Published by Pickens County Progress, Inc.
94 North Main Street, Jasper, GA 30143
(706) 253-2457
www.pickensprogressonline.com
DAN POOL
Publisher/Editor
Published each Thursday at Jasper, Pickens County, Georgia.
Entered at the Post Office at Jasper, Georgia 30143
as Mail Matter of Second Class.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to
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#lbe School
Other Voices
Learn about Alcohol Use Disorder
during national Alcohol Awareness Month
By Melanie Dallas
CEO Highland Rivers
Behavioral Health
There is a lot that people
should understand about al
cohol use disorder (AUD),
but the most important is that
individuals with AUD can re
cover.
Like all behavioral health
conditions, including mental
illness and other substance
use disorders, AUD is a dis
ease - and like other dis
eases, our knowledge about
what may cause it and how it
can be successfully treated
continues to increase. As we
recognize April as National
Alcohol Awareness Month, it
is also important to under
stand some of the behaviors
that characterize alcohol use
disorder, and where people
can find help.
Most treatment profes
sionals now prefer the term
alcohol use disorder (AUD)
to describe drinking behav
iors that may be or may be
come problematic. AUD
does not describe a person.
According to the National
Institute on Alcohol Abuse
and Alcoholism (NIAAA),
AUD is a medical condition
characterized by an impaired
ability to stop or control alco
hol use despite adverse so
cial, occupational, or health
consequences.
In other words, at its most
basic, AUD can be under
stood as drinking behaviors
that cause negative conse
quences - regardless of how
often or how much is con
sumed.
Certainly, drinking behav
iors that cause problems for
one person may not have the
same consequences for an
other person. But the bottom
line is, the more alcohol any
individual consumes, the
more likely he or she is to ex
perience negative effects
from drinking, and to de
velop an AUD (which can
describe alcohol abuse, alco
hol dependence, and alcohol
addiction).
Toward that end, NIAAA
has developed a list of 11
symptoms of alcohol use dis
order. If you drink alcohol,
regardless of how you per
ceive your drinking, it is
worthwhile to review this list
and honestly assess your own
behaviors and feelings re
garding alcohol use.
In the past year, have you:
• Had times when you
ended up drinking more, or
longer, than you intended?
• More than once wanted
or tried to cut down or stop
drinking but couldn't?
• Spent a lot of time drink
ing, being sick from drink
ing, or getting over other
aftereffects?
• Wanted a drink so badly
you couldn't think of any
thing else?
• Found that drinking, or
being sick from drinking,
often interfered with your re
sponsibilities for your home,
family, job or school?
• Continued to drink even
though it was causing trouble
with your family or friends?
• Given up or cut back on
activities that were important
or interesting to you in order
to drink?
• More than once gotten
into situations while or after
drinking that increased your
chances of getting hurt?
• Continued to drink even
though it was making you
feel depressed or anxious, or
after having an alcohol-re
lated memory blackout?
• Had to drink much more
than you once did to get the
same effect?
• Found that when the ef
fects of alcohol were wearing
off, you had withdrawal
symptoms such as trouble
sleeping, shakiness, restless
ness, nausea, sweating, rac
ing heart, feeling low or a
seizure?
According to NIAAA,
doctors diagnose an AUD
when an individual has two
or more of the symptoms
above; the more symptoms
an individual has, the more
severe the AUD. According
to the 2019 National Survey
on Drug Use and Health,
nearly 15 million people ages
12 and older had AUD.
But NIAAA also notes
that no matter how severe the
problem may seem, evi
dence-based treatment with
behavioral therapies, mutual-
support groups, and/or med
ications can help people with
AUD achieve and maintain
recovery.
If you are concerned
about your alcohol consump
tion, or that of a friend or
family member, there are
many resources available in
your community that can
help. While Highland Rivers
can provide treatment and
support for AUD, most fam
ily doctors can recommend
treatment resources as well.
In addition, almost every
community has local 12-step
groups, often several. One of
the most important facts to
understand is that having an
AUD is not a moral failure.
AUD is a disease, it can be
treated, and individuals with
AUD can recover.
Melanie Dallas is a li
censed professional coun
selor and CEO of Highland
Rivers Behavioral Health,
which provides treatment and
recovery services for individ
uals with mental illness, sub
stance use disorders, and
intellectual and developmen
tal disabilities in a 13-county
region of northwest Georgia.
WEATHER
By William Dilbeck
HI LOW RAIN
April 12
77
56
.00
April 13
75
56
.32
April 14
68
43
.00
April 15
70
43
.70
April 16
63
51
.00
April 17
67
51
.28
April 18
60
38
.00
See a mistake?
Let our editor know,
dpool@pickensprogress.com
706-253-2457
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