Newspaper Page Text
Thursday, September 29, 2022 | Volume 135 Number 24 | Jasper, Georgia | 36 pages, 3 sections | Published Weekly | $1.00
County chair makes plain, no sewage line to Foothills
if high-density residential growth will follow
By Dan Pool
Editor
dpool@pickensprogress.com
County Commission Chair Kris
Stancil said the situation surround
ing the proposal to expand a private
sewage system from Big Canoe to
serve the Foothills shopping area is
much more “dynamic” than com
monly portrayed.
During an interview Monday, the
board of commissioner chair empha
sized any discussion of a sewage line
from Utilities, Inc. (the company
serving Big Canoe) being run to
Foothills commercial businesses
must include consideration that the
line could open a wave of high den
sity growth along Steve Tate High
way and across the Foothills/Yellow
Creek area. Residential growth, he
said, the commissioners firmly op
pose.
For the past year, a three-part ne
gotiation has been underway be
tween Pickens County, Utilities, Inc.
representatives, and Jeff Downing,
owner of the Foothills IGA over the
county allowing the private com
pany to run a line to serve the com
mercial area. The Progress
previously did a story with Downing
where he explained how he pur
chased the Foothills Shopping Cen
ter, which is served by a private
septic system nearing the end of its
lifespan.
The desire of Downing and Util
ities, Inc. is to have the company run
a sewage line to and then operate the
sewage system for the businesses
there. And to that the commission
chair said Monday they have no
problem.
Stancil said if it went directly to
Foothills and had restrictions pre
venting developers from tying on for
residential projects the county would
be open to it.
But Stancil said in their discus
sions with Utilities, Inc.’s legal rep
resentatives, based in California,
they have indicated they need more
than just the commercial businesses
there to make the line profitable.
There is a 13-acre parcel in the
Foothills area that has been dis
cussed as a townhome development
if sewage were available.
This is where Stancil says the sit
uation grows “dynamic.”
First, he points out that Utilities,
Inc. is part of a multi-billion dollar
company which is profit-minded,
not a government service provider.
The sewage line from Big Canoe to
Foothills was once estimated to cost
around $1 million but that was some
time ago and Stancil believes it may
be closer to $2 million now. Stancil
said the nature of any business is to
want to make that money back and
show a profit at some point.
Along these lines, he said the
county planning office has already
been approached by large develop
ment companies seeking informa
tion on surrounding property and
inquiring where the sewage process
See Sewage Line on 11A
Sustainable plants nipped
by change on Main Street
Keep Pickens
Beautiful
objects to removal
of their work
Keep Pickens Beautiful
has filled planter boxes
along Main Street with
herbs, vegetables, and other
edible and sustainable
plants. The non-profit will
now have to relocate the
plants after Jasper’s Down
town Development Author
ity opted to have a
professional landscaper in
stall seasonal plantings in
their place.
By Angela Reinhardt
Staff Writer
areinhardt@pickensprogress.com
The planter boxes that
line Main Street will have a
different look after Jasper’s
Downtown Development
Authority ended a project
partnership with Keep Pick
ens Beautiful.
Through their own part
nership with Edible Jasper, a
non-profit dedicated to edi
ble and sustainable landscap
ing, KPB planted a variety of
plants including herbs, veg
etables, and others in the
boxes beginning in spring of
this year. The plants were
propagated and donated by
KPB, which received a
$1,200 grant from the Pick
ens County Community
Thrift Store that was used to
buy soil, compost, and
mulch.
In April, the DDA con
tracted with a landscape
company to maintain the
boxes bi-weekly for $4,600,
which would include spring
and fall plantings and crape
myrtle trimming. They later
partnered with KPB for a
portion of the planter proj
ect. KPB president Vered
Kleinberger has said the
partnership made sense as
Edible Jasper’s plants would
not cost the city or taxpayers
and could provide educa
tional opportunities for the
community. The landscaper
incorporated their plants to
the boxes around the Edible
Jasper plants.
The planter box issue
came to a head after DDA
and city council member
Kirk Raffield emailed Klein
berger in late August to no
tify her of the city’s change
in plans. Raffield read the
email at the Monday, Sept.
26 DDA meeting, where a
handful of KPB members
and supporters were in atten
dance to speak out against
the decision.
“The partnership was
done on a trial basis as we
discussed multiple times, to
see how things would
progress,” Raffield’s email
read. “The partnership has
presented limitations to [the
landscaping company] on
what they can do with the
plantings in downtown. In
that spirit it has been deter
mined by the DDA that the
See DDA Meeting on 11A
Chicken pageant lays serious
nest egg for food pantry
CARES 25th anniversary saw the
chickens come home to roost with the
first ever beauty pageant for poultry,
raising over $3,700 for the food pantry.
Pictured is Madelyn Hicks with her
trophy-winning chicken Hashbrown.
The competition was between 20 dif
ferent competitors, including 19 chick
ens and a guinea.
Two runner-ups were also awarded
along with the title of “Miss Congenial
ity” to the most calm and pleasant of the
fowls.
See page 12Afor more photographs
Pickens schools mostly fare well on latest state scores
By Dan Pool
Editor
dpool@pickensprogress.com
With statewide education
scores, it is difficult to give a
simple answer to how a sys
tem did as they are divided
by subjects and grade levels
and recorded differently at
the high school and elemen
tary levels.
A breakdown of the 21
different assessment cate
gories is available by
Googling “Georgia Mile
stone results.”
There are numerous cate
gories that offer detailed in
formation on grade level and
class type, however, in gen
eral, it’s safe to say that Pick
ens students mostly did well
on the recently-released
Milestone and end-of-course
tests.
Discussing the latest re
sults with Janet Goodman,
chief academic officer, and
Destini Shope, director of as
sessment and community en-
2021-22 SCORES
ELA-
(Developing, Proficient & Distinguished)
System
65%
69%
63%
71%
70%
72%
RESA
70%
76%
81%
73%
74%
80%
State
63%
69%
75%
67%
70%
73%
A slide prepared by the Pickens school district showing how students did on the English
Language Arts section in grades 3rd - 8th. The percentages shown here are the students
in the top three of the four categories.
gagement, they both high- are generally outperforming score are the terms used,
lighted that there are exciting students in similar school Rather than pass or fail or a
things happening in local systems. letter grade, students are
classrooms with students Among the many chal- judged beginner (worst
here making up ground lost lenges of just giving simple scores) up to distinguished
in the pandemic overall, and answers about how students (the highest).
The big takeaway talking
with Shope and Goodman is
that at most grade levels
Pickens would be one of the
top scoring schools in the re
gion (RESA) and scored
ahead of state averages. Un
fortunately, complicating
simple answers further, the
massive Cherokee County
system is grouped into the
north Georgia district with
Pickens, Gilmer, Whitfield
and Murray, and historically
the large metro counties
score higher than rural coun
ties.
All that taken into ac
count, skimming over the
scores, Shope and Goodman
said at most grade levels
Pickens is in one of the top
slots.
They highlighted how the
6th grade students here did
particularly well. The data
showed Pickens County 6th
graders on par with students
in Cherokee County, and
See Milestones on 11A
See our Fall
& Festival
Guide in
this week’s
edition
Special Section
Doing Good
Volunteer to give
back at Serve
Pickens
October 22nd
Page 2A
Obituaries - 7 A
Emily Walker
Greg Chumley
Jacqueline White
Jimmy Weaver
Joan Garsell
Kenneth West
Marvin Francis
Portia Hensley
Sonny Underwood Jr
Steven Prather
Tommy Turner
Wanda Hunt
William Padgett
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