About Pickens County progress. (Jasper, Ga.) 1899-current | View Entire Issue (June 23, 2022)
Thursday, June 23,2022 | Volume 135 Number 10 | Jasper, Georgia | 20 pages, 2 sections | Published Weekly | $1.00 Lions’ July 4th parade rolls at 1 p.m. Will the crowd be “sane, sober and orderly in every respect” as reported at 1939 inaugural event Independence Day celebration? By Angela Reinhardt Staff Writer areinhardt@pickensprogress.com Planning is in full swing for the Jasper Lion’s Club’s Fourth of July celebration, with festivities on July 4 kick-off with the popular parade down Main Street. The parade start time has been moved to 1 p.m. to streamline the day’s events. This is the second year the parade will roll out in the afternoon in stead of in the morning. “We’re doing it at 1 again this year because the rides for the fair don’t start until somewhere around 2:30 or 3, so we don’t want there to be a big lag time for people,” said Jasper Lion’s mem ber and event organizer Leslie Miller. “We’re get ting a lot of parade applications so we think it’s going to go very well.” After the parade, festivities shift to Lee New ton Park. Fair rides will be in the parking lot area, with live entertainment throughout the day and a headlining act in the evening. More details about the entertainment schedule will be in next week’s JA&KK U0WS CLUE INDEPENDENCE HAY SPECTACULAR \ / edition. Bingo will be held at the Pickens Cham ber of Commerce building from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Fireworks will be at 10:05 p.m., directly after the raffle drawing at 10 p.m. This year’s raffle is for two gas gift cards, one for $1,000 and one for $500. “Everything is going to be held in one day this year,” Miller said. “Last year we split our events up because the Fourth was on a Sunday, but it’s all one day this year.” Peachtree Rides will have amusement rides, games and food at Lee Newton Park leading up to the Jasper Lion’s sponsored event. Rides will be from Wednesday, June 29 through Monday, July 4. Talk about consistency - Lion s Fourth going strong since 1939 The Jasper Lions Club has sponsored the Fourth of July Celebration for 84 years, since 1939, with only a few years the civics group was unable to hold the event for reasons out of their control. “There were maybe a couple of years during WWII that they weren’t able to have it, and 2020 of course [because of COVID],” Miller of the Jasper Lions said, “but basically it’s the 84th an nual.” Over the last eight-and-a-half decades Fourth festivities have changed as the cultural landscape changed. The See July 4th on 11A Second incident at Pickens airport in less than a month By Angela Reinhardt Staff Writer areinhardt@pickensprogress.com On Saturday, June 18 a twin-engine plane was forced to land on its belly at the Pickens County Airport after an equipment malfunction. According to Pickens Fire & Rescue, the Cessna 414 was coming in for final approach when the landing gear on the left side of the aircraft collapsed. Emergency crews were dispatched at ap proximately 6 p.m. that evening. Upon ar rival a small fuel leak from the left main tank was discovered, then contained by draining the fuel into buckets. AT&T Towing assisted emergency crews by providing air bags to lift the plane so the landing gear could be locked into po sition to be moved from the site. “The teamwork between the two agen cies worked well and the plane was re moved with no further damage,” according to a statement from Pickens Fire & Rescue, which thanked See Plane on 11A Photo/Pickens Fire & Rescue A malfunction forced the pilot of this aircraft to land without its landing gear. Old videos bring county’s past alive By Greg Moore Treasurer Pickens Historical Society As part of my family resided in Whitestone during the 1940s, I have been trying to find pictures and videos that represent Pickens County in that era. Also with my work with the Pickens Historical Soci ety, which manages the Old Jail on Main Street, and with Bethany-Salem Fire Depart ment, I keep an eye out for public safety history as well. While this is ongoing and frankly a difficult task, I have found a handful of in teresting videos on YouTube that are accessible to every one. Probably the most dra matic are the fires at the Edge Building (Main Street location of the Pickens Progress) and the Archer Hotel (where Walgreens now sits on E. Church Street). Another interesting video is the program of the Burnt Mountain Hill Climb in 1952 that was put on an At lanta sports car racing club and the local Jasper Lions Club. It unfortunately doesn’t contain any live ac tion, only scans of the pages, posted by Jim VanSant. It is an interesting trove of local businesses and names as well as information on the cars used. From what they handed out, I can only imag ine it was a quite a sight. Perhaps our Lions Club or some other group could res urrect this car race up the mountain? The WSB-TV December 1967 6 p.m. news broadcast has a snippet of local news during the hour-long pro gram. But in general it shows the news as it was be fore ESPN and even had two sportscasters including Milo Hamilton, the Braves play- by-play person before Ernie, Skip and Pete. Even the ads give a certain luster with ads from Rich's and banks from the past. I have to give cau tion as it may be sensitive to some individuals, but it is true history as it was in a tu- See Videos on 11A 4-H at the forefront of school board meeting Sex education curriculum approved By Larry Cavender Progress Contributor It has been a long-stand ing tradition for the board of education to recognize the achievements of Pickens County students and athletes at the beginning of their meetings, and the June 14th meeting was no exception as 4-H members were honored for outstanding performance at the recent District Project Achievement competition. Traci Buckingham, a for mer Pickens educator and a certified Georgia 4-H volun teer, introduced 4-H mem bers who had achieved prominence at the competi tion. Buckingham, noting that there are 42 counties in the district, many of which are larger and more popu lous than Pickens, detailed a phenomenal performance by the Pickens 4-Hers. Pickens had the highest percentage of first place winners, an in credible 88%, and will also send two members to the state level. Pickens, it was noted, also had the most di verse group that competed at district. During the business por tion of the meeting, in addi tion to the usual financial and operations reports to the superintendent, a number of other agenda items were ad dressed. One of the more interest ing business items was the adoption of the sex educa tion curriculum. The previ ous curriculum for the high school level has been dis continued, so the board adopted a new one. One as pect of the new curriculum is for a health care profes sional to speak to the stu dents and to answer their questions. However, parents will be required to complete an "opt-in" form giving per mission for their children to participate. Concerning sex educa tion for younger children, those in the K-4 level, the board decided to continue See School Board on 11A Good Vibes Series This summer the Progress is doing a series, Good Vibes. Our reporters seek people with interesting hobbies to find out why they love what they do. From golfing and painting to thrift store junkies, homebrewers, BBQers and readers, if you have a hobby you love, let us know about it. Email us at arti- cles@pickensprogress. com. By Christie Pool Staff Writer christie@pickensprogress.com When Maggie Shaw turned 50 she pledged to herself that she would begin liv ing life out of her comfort zone. To that end, she took up painting and now spends time each day working on one art project or an other. “It makes me feel like I’m a kid again,” Maggie said. “If you remember being a 5- year-old and having the oversized shirt on turned backwards and the smell of the tem pera paint and the newsprint in front of you and you were going to create a masterpiece? It gives me that feeling. It gives me that free dom of play and getting my inner thoughts out on paper or Amazon boxes or whatever the [material] may be, and a huge sense of relaxation and peace.” Maggie, a mother of five, new grand mother, wife, and former special education See Good Vibes on 11A “It makes me feel like a kid again, ” says Maggie Shaw of painting. She is shown here in her west Pickens studio. See more of Shaw’s works with this story at pickensprogress.com Election Results VOTE Results of Tuesday’s primary runoff online at pickensprogress.com Community Sport Scenes from the Optimist Flap Jack Run Page 6A Public Safety Brushfire in Sharp Mountain area contained but not easily. Page 3A Obituaries - 7 A • Brandy Price • Donnie Kirk • Lillian Grizzle • Richard Free • Ruby Townsend Contact Us 94 North Main Street Jasper, Ga. 30143 706-253-2457 pickensproaress.com Open for business during these hours: Mon-Thurs, 9-5, and Fri, 9-4:30 $1.00 per copy 4879 08163" o
