Newspaper Page Text
Thursday, October 27, 2022 | Volume 135 Number 28 | Jasper, Georgia | 26 pages, 2 sections | Published Weekly | $1.00
Suicide & overdose deaths up, says coroner
By Angela Reinhardt
Staff Writer
areinhardt@pickensprogress.com
Speaking to the Pickens County
Board of Commissioners during re
cent budget meetings, Pickens Coro
ner Mark Godfrey mentioned briefly
that the number of deaths this year
are on track to be the most in the
county’s history. Suicides and pre
scription overdose deaths are up sig
nificantly over last year as well, he
said.
The Progress followed up with
Godfrey, who spoke about death sta
tistics and other death trends in Pick
ens County since he took office six
years ago.
Note that Godfrey’s office
doesn’t handle every death in the
county. He handles all accidental
deaths, suicides, unattended deaths,
homicides, natural deaths and others,
but does not oversee deaths for pa
tients in hospice.
“Those patients are considered to
be in care of a doctor,” he said. “But
say someone passes away in an At
lanta hospital, we would still be con
tacted and those would be reflected
in our numbers.”
He mentioned a case in Lumpkin
County where the coroner, who was
paid per case, turned in hospice
cases as coroner cases. Some coro
ners are paid a salary, and others are
paid a fee per case.
“He went to prison,” he said.
“Anytime we hear hospice now it’s
like kryptonite. The only time we get
involved with hospice cases are if
there is some extenuating circum
stance, say with bad weather, and the
nurse can’t get there. I’ve only had
that happen twice in six years.”
Because of the separation of hos
pice deaths, Godfrey said getting a
comprehensive total of deaths in
Pickens would be difficult, “like
catching rain,” but he can confi
dently comment on deaths his own
office handles, which has increased
every year.
“When I took office we had
around 100 deaths total,” he said.
“Last year we had 144 and this year
we are already at 124, so it’s very
likely we will break that number.”
The number of deaths here spiked
in early 2020 during the pandemic,
with 24 deaths in one month, with
between eight to 10 deaths typical
for a month. There was also a spike
at the beginning of this year, with 28
deaths in one month.
The coroner attributes the in
creasing numbers of deaths to “a
general trend, with the number tick
ing up every year,” he said. “Our
population has held pretty steady, so
it’s not really that. We had the pan
demic, our population is getting
older, people are generally unhealth-
ier these days, and then we had an
increase in overdoses and suicides,
and with those you can’t be sure as
to why that is. There is no pattern.”
See Deaths on 13A
Homeless
shelter plans
to relocate
Serve Pickens sees over
200 volunteers help 18 non-profits
Lawsuit pending, HUD
grant applied for
By Angela Reinhardt
Staff Writer
areinhardt@pickensprogress.com
Leaders with the home
less shelter in the heart of
downtown Jasper have big
visions for the future, with
hopeful plans to purchase
property, build a new shelter
and transitional housing in
unincorporated Pickens
County.
Their biggest visions are
dependent on securing grant
funding from the U.S. De
partment of Housing and
Urban Development (HUD),
which they have recently ap
plied for — but even if
Refuge In Jesus’ leadership
can’t get that grant, they will
have to find a new home
after ongoing litigation with
the city of Jasper and their
landlord is resolved.
The Christ-centered
homeless shelter, which can
serve around 15 clients and is
located on S. East Street, was
at the center of a firestorm
earlier this year with the city
of Jasper, which argued they
were unlicensed, in violation
of the city’s zoning ordi
nance, and in violation of
building fire and safety
codes. Refuge In Jesus, LLC
countered that Jasper did not
have an ordinance that pro
hibits a homeless shelter, and
See Homeless on 13A
By Max Caylor
Progress Contributor
An energetic crowd of
200 volunteer workers hit
the ground running Saturday
assisting 18 non-profits with
various projects from paint
ing, replanting flower beds,
sorting clothes and a lot
more.
Serve Pickens took place
observing the National Day
of Service.
The community event
was organized and coordi
nated by the Holy Family
Episcopal Church.
“We wanted to do some
thing new and different to
bring our community to
gether with a common
goal,” said coordinator Terry
Franzen.
Planning for Serve Pick
ens took over a year of meet
ings to implement. A
steering committee of 40
community members from
churches, civic clubs, non
profits and concerned citi
zens made the event a true
day of community service.
West End Commissioner
Josh Tippens thanked the
host of volunteers at the
kickoff breakfast for their
commitment saying, “it is
our kindness and generosity
that sets us apart in Pickens
County.”
The Serve Pickens event
was well received in the
See Serve on 13A
^ -I
m
w. f \ I
iJr
iMyV, ; . f
V'/.WyiB
\ pic, ,
A
yip*
14%
i
4-4
it v
f: J
f- \
photo/Max Caylor
More than 200 volunteers turned out for the first Serve Pickens last Saturday.
Volunteers all began at Chattahoochee Tech and then spread out to different job sites
across the county, performing volunteer service for non-profit groups.
Open Door Baptist Church goes up for auction
photo/Alex Goble
Open Door Baptist Church offHill City Road, pictured here the day before it went up for auction
along with several other properties. The church closed its doors last November due to post-Covid
drop in attendance and created a legacy plan with its remaining assets to fund three missions.
After drop in
attendance,
church sold
earlier this year
goes up
for auction
By Alex Goble
Staff Writer
agoble@pickensprogress.com
It’s unclear exactly when
Open Door Baptist was
formed, but according to
records held on nonprofit-
facts.com and causeiq.com
its foundation and first fil
ings were in 1964. Open
Door Baptist Church held its
final service in November
2021, 57 years later, and the
property went up for auction
this week on Tuesday, Oct.
25.
Its story is one familiar to
many churches around the
nation and the world, with
Pew Research Center report
ing that only 67% of regular
churchgoers have returned to
the pews since Covid reshuf
fled everyday life in 2020,
and these kinds of declining
trends have already partially
played out across much of
western Europe.
The building that housed
the church on Hill City Road
has stood and been in use
since 1994, itself a replace
ment for the former church
building, tornado strewn tin
from it still visible in the
woods just behind.
Jerry Stover, a longtime
member of Open Door Bap
tist with his wife Freida, said
Open Door Baptist shut
down for a time during the
early stages of Covid, as
many places did, and re
opened to only three return
ing families.
“The big start of the
falloff was Covid,” Stover
said, “and Woodstock
Church had just done the
building nearby.” Those are
the two main factors he sees
as pulling attendance down
and keeping it low.
Three active families are
just not enough to keep a
church open. “The church
had no debt,” Stover said.
“But it’s still hard to keep the
doors open. The insurance
was ridiculous and you need
to pay the pastor.”
Those that were left took
a look at the situation and
found they were losing be
tween $800 and $900 per
month. The A/C and heating
needed to be redone. They
had to make a decision, so a
meeting was held in August
2021 to decide.
In the end, they spoke
with The Georgia Baptist
Foundation about putting to
gether a legacy plan, a type
of plan for an estate that pro
tects and controls the distri
bution of assets, while
looking for someone who
might purchase the building
and property.
“We didn’t want to just
shut the doors and have it be
something for people to put
graffiti on,” Stover said. “We
wanted what was left to go to
missions we care about.”
The purchaser came in
the form of David Shouse,
who was found via word of
mouth across town, and he
made an offer the church ac
cepted. Open Door’s legacy
plan was then in full swing.
See Church on 13A
Halloween
Trick-or-Treat
Times
Main Street
businesses
5 -7 p.m.
Residential areas in
city and county
6 p.m. until 9 p.m.
Jasper
Jasper council
moves ahead with
$18 million
wastewater
treatment
expansion project
Page 8A
Renovations
at the Old Jail
complete
Page 10A
Obituaries - 11A
Bobbie Bruce
David Stewart
Ella Fountain
Jon White Sr.
Kimberly Stow
Lenton Voyles
Mary Smith
Nadie Fitzgerald
Ralph Woodall
Robin Eller
Stephen Greenwell
Sylvia DeSio
William Moss
Contact Us
94 North Main Street
Jasper, Ga. 30143
706-253-2457
pickensprogress.com
Open for business during
these hours: Mon-Thurs,
9-5, and Fri, 9-4:30
$1.00 per copy
o
