Newspaper Page Text
Thursday, December 8, 2022 | Volume 135 Number 34 | Jasper, Georgia | 22 pages, 2 sections | Published Weekly | $1.00
Former superintendent, wife plead guilty
to financial theft crimes, sentencing in Feb.
By Angela Reinhardt
Staff Writer
areinhardt@pickensprogress.com
Carlton Wilson, former Pickens County super
intendent of schools, and his wife Cindy Wilson
pled guilty in court Wednesday, Nov. 30 to numer
ous charges related to financial crimes. The
charges stem from their involvement with Ap
palachian Gun Range where they were co-owners,
in addition to theft from the Boy Scouts of Amer
ica and from the Pickens County government.
Mr. Wilson plead guilty to 10 charges, includ
ing racketeering and several counts of financial
theft and theft by deception. Mrs. Wilson pled
guilty to one count of racketeering and one count
of theft by taking. According to court officials, a
negotiated plea agreement was reached between
defendants and the Office of the Attorney Gen
eral,
Deputy Attorney General John Fowler prose
cuted the case. It was investigated by the Pickens
Carlton and Cindy Wilson pled guilty last
week to financial crimes. Mr. Wilson had pre
viously served as superintendent of Pickens
schools.
County Sheriff’s Office.
“Carlton and Cindy Wilson stole thousands of
dollars from hardworking Georgians, and now
they are facing the consequences of their illegal
actions,” said Attorney General Chris Carr. “This
is a complex case that spans several years and in
volves multiple acts of theft, including the unlaw
ful collection of taxpayer funds. This conviction
is a major victory for all those who fell victim to
the couple’s fraudulent and deceptive tactics, and
we are proud to have worked with our local part
ners to put a stop to their criminal schemes.”
Pickens County Sheriff Donnie Craig said his
office worked diligently to end the “racketeering
enterprise.”
“Our detectives and prosecutors with the At
torney General's Office worked hundreds of hours
analyzing financial records and interviewing
dozens of witnesses in an effort to bring this case
to a close and provide restitution to our victims of
this racketeering enterprise,” said Craig. “I would
like to thank Attorney General Chris Carr and his
staff for their continued partnership with the Pick
ens Sheriffs Office and See Wilsons on 8A
New
logo in
the
works
for
Jasper
By Angela Reinhardt
Staff Writer
areinhardt@pickensprogress.com
Jasper City Council met
last week to review several
potential logo designs for the
city, and to give input to de
signers about what direction
to pursue.
A team with Nine Labs
design firm presented eight
early-stage logo sketches to
council, which ranged from
an abstract hill and tree de
sign, to others that integrated
topography maps of Jasper,
to an abstract mountain
range brush stroke, and oth
ers.
By the end of the meeting
council agreed to move in
the direction of a logo that in
some way integrates a styl
ized mountain range and the
name Jasper. They discussed
font styles and what makes a
successful logo as well.
The meeting was led by J
Cornelius, owner of Nine
Labs and also of First Moun
tain Tasting Room on Main
Street in Jasper. Cornelius is
a member of Jasper’s Down
town Development Author
ity as well, but contracted
with the city though Nine
Labs before he was ap
pointed to the board.
Prior to initial design
sketches being produced,
input was solicited from the
public through a survey re
garding the characteristics of
Jasper and what people
would like to see in terms of
branding. A Nine Labs team
member presented a word
cloud of adjectives people
used to describe Jasper,
which was a starting off
point to develop the initial
logo sketches. Kind, gener
ous, adventurous, accepting,
progressive, authentic, open-
minded, and playful were a
few of those.
According to Jasper As
sistant City Manager Kim
Goldener, the branding proj
ect was presented to council
at the April 28 work session
with an estimated $25,000
cost, which was approved.
“We have not been billed
fully for this project but un
derstand that there will be
overages as the number of
community stakeholders and
number of meetings was in
creased from the original
proposal,” she said.
The scope of work in
cluded in that cost is, “gath
ering community input via
See Branding on 8A
Night of Lights packs town
parade photos/Robin Dunn
This year saw a number of impressive floats rolling down Main Street for the Night of Lights parade. See more
photos on pages 5-6A and full gallery at PickensProgress.com.
Throughout the afternoon events, it looked like the
crowd might be sparse for the Sunday evening Christmas
parade in town. But like a holiday miracle, by the time the
first floats were making their way down Main Street, it was
shoulder-to-shoulder.
It’s hard to get a solid estimate of the size of the crowd
along the route after dark but one person on a float said it
was “solid three people deep” the whole way through
downtown — easily making this one of the best attended
Christmas parades since the Jasper Merchants began put
ting on the Night of Lights.
This year also saw a high number of floats and many
required a lot of work and creativity. The Grinch theme
proved very popular with local float designers this year.
Santa and Mrs. Claus saw a line of youngsters waiting
for photos. This marked the first time Nathan Hurst and his
wife Brandy had ever helped that jolly ol’ elf and Nathan
went all out, dying his naturally dark hair and beard into an
appropriate color.
Late in the afternoon, Santa reported that animals
seemed to dominate local wish lists. “Dogs and horses, lots
of kids wanting animals,” he said.
The Jasper Merchants Association went all out Sunday with a
full day of events downtown ending with a packed town for the
yearly parade.
photo/Dan Pool
Santa reported that kids in Jasper had pets -
dogs and horses - on their wish lists this year.
Jasper Council adds Flock cameras
to crime fighting arsenal
By Angela Reinhardt
Staff Writer
areinhardt@pickensprogress.com
Jasper City Council voted
to add two Flock cameras to
their crime fighting tool belt,
which will bring them into a
network of 1,500 areas in the
U.S. that utilize the system.
The approval of the Flock
cameras comes after the
county recently installed 11
of the devices around the
main travel corridors enter
ing Pickens County. The
camera systems are able to
collect license plate and ve
hicle information from pass
ing motorists, which is used
to check for things such as
outstanding warrants, known
sex offenders, expired tags,
stolen tags and cars, and
other outstanding violations.
At the Monday, Dec. 5
council meeting, Jasper Po
lice Chief Matt Dawkins re
ported that the system was
instrumental in the recovery
of stolen items.
“Just recently we had a
burglary, about $15,000
worth of air conditioner
units, and the Flock system
from the Pickens County
Sheriff’s Office helped us...
” he said. “We were able to
See Council on 8A
Council recognized several city of Jasper firefighters
during a promotional pinning ceremony. Lt. Christo
pher Buckner was pinned by his wife and Assistant
Chief Von Headrick; Sgt. Jordan Burton was pinned by
Assistant Chief Von Headrick and Chief John Sheerer;
Sgt. David Wadsworth was pinned by his mother and
girlfriend; Sgt. Kevin Duncan was unable to attend.
Christmas
ceremony
Veterans
wreath
ceremony
Dec. 16
Page 12B
Tree care extreme
Gibson hopes to
save pine
growing in
a pole
Page 10A
Community giving
Toy Run held in
memory of
Tommy Shaw
Page 6B
Obituaries - 7A
Anthony Browning
Christi Buchanan
Daniel Thomason
David Cagle
Florine Lackey
Horace Williams
John Angel
June Rambler
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