About Pickens County progress. (Jasper, Ga.) 1899-current | View Entire Issue (June 2, 2022)
Continued From 1A THURSDAY. JUNE 2. 2022 PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS PAGE 13A De Vault about De Vault, whom she called “creepy,” but also said she did not know of any inci dents at the school. The Progress contacted school founder Rebecca Hampton, who confirmed DeVault worked there for one month on Thursdays as a his tory teacher. Hampton met DeVault at McDonald’s in Jasper and they struck up a conversation about their en deavors. Hampton found out DeVault was in the ministry and also a missionary from Woodstock First Baptist Church, as well as a teacher who taught in the middle east. “As someone with a school my ears perked up,” she said. “He had all the qualifications and had a great personality and seemed like a wonderful person.” DeVault came on board and Hampton said “the boys absolutely loved him” as a teacher, but that after a few weeks a couple of the female students told her they were uncomfortable with him. Hampton said she immedi ately took him out of the classroom and moved him to the board of directors, which met twice a year. She said during his time as a teacher he was never alone with any student, and noted that the fa cility is small with more than one adult in a space at a time. “He was on the board but I think he only went to one meeting,” she said. “After we caught wind that something was coming down the road, and this was before he was arrested, we took him off that board immediately. He was never around kids alone as a teacher, and the board never was around kids. Thank God he wasn’t there any longer than he was. We haven’t had associations with him in three years or so.” An employee with Big Canoe Realty confirmed that he was terminated immedi ately when charges were brought against him. Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney Katie Grop- per of the Special Victims Unit, who prosecuted the case on behalf of the state, said, “Walt DeVault presents as charming and charismatic and was easily able to gain the trust of others. The fami lies in this case trusted him with their most precious gifts, their daughters. He used his position of trust to do sexually inappropriate things to a little girl in Chero kee County. When he lost his access to her, he sought out other little girls and began the process all over again.” The press release states that at the sentencing hear ing, the victim and her father provided victim impact state ments to the court. “I have experienced nightmares and post-traumatic stress,” the victim said in a prepared statement read during the hearing. “I cannot look at, smell, or hear certain things without getting scared and having anxiety. This has af fected my daily life and has not only affected me but also my entire family....I now view all older men as creepy, and I am scared of what they will do.” At trial, two other wit nesses came forward and de scribed similar incidents that occurred with children in an other jurisdiction outside of Cherokee County. There have been no inci dents known in Pickens County, and local law en forcement did not have any files on DeVault. DeVault was sentenced to 40 years with the first 15 years to be served in confine ment in the state penitentiary and the remainder to be served on probation. Upon his release from prison, De- Vault can have no contact with the victims or her family members, is banished from Cherokee County, and must adhere to sex offender special conditions. “The victim in this case said that when she disclosed this abuse, she felt like a weight was lifted because someone finally knew. It’s heartbreaking to think of the anxiety and pain this child has endured, all because of the sick behavior of a man she once adored,” said Dis trict Attorney Shannon Wal lace. “Through this sentence, this defendant will likely spend the remainder of his life in prison, ensuring that no other little girls will suffer as this victim has suffered.” This case was investigated by Cherokee Sheriff’s Office and prosecuted by Deputy Chief ADA Katie Gropper of the Special Victims Unit, Of fice of the District Attorney. Continued From 1A Ultralight to Fire Chief Tim Prather, it only took a few minutes to extricate the pilot. A helicop ter was requested and landed on the runway to transport the patient to a trauma center. The cause of the crash is unknown at this time. It is also unknown whether the aircraft was attempting to land or takeoff. “One of my guys who got up early this morning saw him take off and saw him fly ing around for about 30 min utes or so before the crash,” Chief Prather said. Continued From 1A Primary publican Hershel Walker held off five other candidates in the race for U. S. Senate. Walker garnered 4,796 votes, or 64 percent locally, and will face incumbent Democrat Raphael Wamock in Novem ber. Wamock, who was un challenged, polled 490 votes in Pickens. In the lieutenant governor's field of five can didates, Republican Burt Jones easily won with 59 per cent of the local vote. Against three other candi dates, incumbent Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger also won out with 53 percent of the local vote. Incumbent Repub lican Attorney General Chris Carr totaled 71 percent of the Pickens vote against John Gordon. With 100 percent of the Pickens precincts reporting, 8,229 out of 23,740 regis tered voters cast ballots in the primary for an overall turn out of 34.66 percent. Continued From 1A Bathroom and to start from the ground up was not an easy one for the committee because of the additional cost and time asso ciated with this work. Ulti mately, the committee determined that the existing building would need such ex tensive structural work to provide the functionality and the longevity needed for pub lic restrooms, that we weren’t far from building a new building anyways.” The new plans shown at the meeting included a four- stall bathroom building with all four opening directly to the outside. The building shown in a sketch presented at the meeting as stucco, but will be a brick fapade with wood accents to “blend in with other buildings down town,” said Goldener. The city council voted unanimously (Jim Looney, John Foust Jr., Sonny Proctor and Kirk Raffield - council member Anne Sneve was ab sent.) to approve an expendi ture of $49,000 for CPL to handle the planning and pa perwork involving bids and another roughly $10,000 for soil and other tests, includ ing assessing how to handle a tunnel that may have run from the small building back to the former Jasper Banking Company. In the followup e-mail Goldener explained, “the planning, design, and engi neering (architectural, struc tural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection engineering) of the new building, as well as the civil engineering and landscape design (is included in the price). This work will gener ate the construction docu ments required for obtaining permits and to go out for bid. This dollar amount is $49,050.” There are also the due dili gence items of geotechnical testing/soil boring, additional survey work, etc., which are estimated at $9,075. The funds can come from either SPLOST dollars or a grant for “transformational” downtown projects, the city hopes to receive. New Fire Truck The council voted to sign the paperwork to purchase a new fire truck for $643,000 payable upon delivery - a de livery that may not come for the next two years. City Manager Sonia Jammes told the council that upon hiring new fire chief John Sherrer III, they recog nized the need to add a new fire truck may be hampered by long delivery times across the nation. Jammes said they are looking at a possible 27 months delay. She said they can lock in a price now before expected increases. “The prices are not going down, they are only in creasing,” she told council. She said they believe they will increase four percent in June and the company ex pects to raise prices again in October, both of those hikes will be avoided with the signed contract. The council voted unani mously for this and will hold $30,000 each month in SPLOST funds between now and delivery to pay for the new fire truck. The truck they are buying will be identical to the city’s 2018 model which helps with training as the equipment on both trucks is the same. NOTHING HELPS DRIVE GEORGIA’S ECONOMY QUITE LIKE ACTUAL RIVERS THAT’S WHY WE’RE INVESTING $1M WITH THE TECHNICAL COLLEGE SYSTEM OF GEORGIA TO IMPROVE AND EXPAND ACCESS TO COMM ERCIAL DRIVER’S LICENSE TRAINING. ^^Technical College 1I8»- System of Georgia COMPANY
