Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 8B PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS THURSDAY. JANUARY 5. 2023
Civic group welcomes guests to find out more about lunch meetings
Plants of the Southeast
“Sycamore," Platanus occidentalis
Von J. Hinton Memorial cit
izenship awards and more.
A special thanks for sell
ing our pecans goes to Gar
ner Ace Hardware, United
Community Bank, Renasant
Bank, Community Bank of
Pickens County, R & R Out
doors and Trikes, Foothills
Ace Hardware, Parish
Lowrie State Farm and more.
During the holidays,
members of the Optimist
Club of Jasper rang the bells
at our local Kroger on Satur
day mornings for the Salva
tion Army. It was a
wonderful way to share the
holiday spirit and wish our
community a Merry Christ
mas.
Over $1,300 was raised
for Salvation Army.
The Optimist Club of
Jasper was recognized at the
REACH Georgia Signing
Ceremony on December 1st
as a contributor to this great
program. We are proud to
support many projects and
organizations in our commu
nity that support our youth
The annual Optimist
Essay Contest is being held
in January 2023.
The topic this year is
“Who is an Everyday Hero
that Brings Out the Opti
mism in You?” Local mon
etary awards will be granted
as well as an opportunity for
a $2,500 scholarship at the
GATEway District Level.
Contact Dave Slade at daves-
lade71@gmail.com for more
information and application.
Club members will be
covering the Pickens High
School Basketball conces
sion stand on January 17th.
New member Amberly Hames of the Boys and Girls
Club, inducted into the Optimist Club of Jasper.
Popcorn, hotdogs, pizza and
more. Stop by and meet our
positive and optimistic club
members.
Our big news for January
is that our club is now a
lunch club that meets at noon
at 61 Main on the first and
third Thursdays of the
month. Come visit and learn
about how being optimistic
can improve your life. Next
two meetings are January 5
and 19th. Be our guests.
February and March pro
vides an opportunity for stu
dents to participate in the
annual Oratorical Contest
held at the local club level
with opportunities to go fur
ther at the District level and
beyond. This year’s topic is
“Discovering the Optimism
within Me”.
Contact Dave Slade at
daveslade71@gmail.com for
details and application.
Our signature event is the
annual STAR Banquet which
this year will be held on
Thursday, March 16th at
Chattahoochee Tech recog
nizing students at Pickens
High School. More informa
tion regarding this event will
be in the Pickens Progress
over the next few months.
Come spring we will hold
our annual golf tournament
in May and the Flapjack 5K
in June.
We are excited to wel
come many new members to
our club. Want to learn
more? Check out our Face-
book page at Optimist Club
of Jasper, GA. Come to a
meeting. All guests and new
members are welcome. In
terested in joining? Contact
Donna Enis at
donnaenis@gmail.com.
By John Nelson
University of
South Carolina
Most people tend to over
look tree bark as rather unin
teresting, at best. It's too bad,
because bark is a fascinating
and often attractive plant "in
vention," and is actually
rather complex in its various
appearances and origin. Of
course, it is only developed
on woody plants. Clearly,
bark varies considerably
from species to species, and
some types of trees are easily
identified by the kind of bark
they have.
The bark of the sycamore
is certainly easily recognized.
It starts out quite smooth on
young twigs, but as the
branches grow, the bark be
gins to peel and crack, thus
exfoliating. Irregularly-
shaped, plate-like sections
falling away typically reveal
a beautiful mosaic of deeper
bark which is white, tan and
often green, forming promi
nent map-like patterns, much
like a jigsaw puzzle. You
might think, too, that such
bark resembles desert cam
ouflage.
Other than various native
conifers (such as white pine
and hemlock), this species is
probably the largest tree in
eastern North America.
Its leaves are relatively
large, as trees' leaves go,
sometimes over a foot wide,
and looking something like a
big maple leaf. The trees pro
duce hundreds of tiny flow
ers, all compacted into a
hard, rough ball, these dan
gling from the branches.
These balls tend to break
apart early in the year, disin
tegrating as the seeds are re
leased. (Now, this fruit type
might be confused with those
of the common sweetgum
tree, but note that sweetgum
“balls” are hard and some
what spiny, falling on the
ground intact.)
Particularly large individ
ual trees may be nearly 150'
tall, with a trunk diameter of
12', really making it a forest
giant. Old, well-formed trees
usually have an impressive,
rounded crown. The combi
nation of enormous size and
the unforgettable bark makes
the sycamore of the most
handsome trees in America.
It's a common species, too,
ranging from New England
into the upper Midwest, and
south to Texas, Mexico, and
By Sue Appleton
PR Chair
The Optimist Club of
Jasper closed out 2022 and
looks forward to 2023 to do
even more for our youth.
During the holidays, the club
worked with the Junior Opti
mist Club of Pickens Junior
High School and their spon
sor, Lori Holbert, to facilitate
their annual canned food
drive. Over 1,000 items
were collected and delivered
to CARES with the assis
tance of the Optimist Club of
Jasper members.
Our annual Pecan sales
were held during November
and were a success. Funds
are used to support the an
nual STAR Banquet and
scholarships as well as the
Optimist Parish Lowrie
ringing the bells for Salva
tion Army.
Handful of new
Georgia laws in effect
By Dave Williams
Bureau Chief
Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA - Most bills
the General Assembly
passes each year take effect
on July 1.
But a smattering of new
laws enacted during the
2022 legislative session
will kick in this Sunday,
Jan. 1, including a bill mak
ing it easier for food trucks
to do business and several
new or expanded tax cred
its.
The food truck legisla
tion does away with a cur
rent requirement in Georgia
law that food truck opera
tors obtain a permit and in
spection in every county
where they do business.
“Almost all food trucks
operate in multiple coun
ties,” said Tony Harrison,
board president of the Food
Truck Association of Geor
gia. “That means multiple
permits and fees. It’s just
insane.”
Under House Bill 1443,
which members of the
General Assembly passed
unanimously last March,
food truck operators need
only notify county health
departments when they
open for business in their
communities.
“We do not have to go
through all the paperwork
and fees,” Harrison said.
“We’ve already seen an in
crease in food trucks pop
ping up before the law has
even taken effect.”
While the tax credit bills
technically became effec
tive last summer, they don’t
really become reality until
New Year’s Day, the begin
ning of the tax year.
Three of the measures
create new income tax
credits.
House Bill 424 will pro
vide a tax credit to Georgia
taxpayers who contribute
to nonprofit organizations
that help foster children
about to age out of the fos
ter care system. More than
700 young men and women
age out of the system each
year.
Senate Bill 361, which
was championed by Lt.
Gov. Geoff Duncan, will
provide a dollar-for-dollar
income tax credit on contri
butions to public safety ini
tiatives in the taxpayer’s
community. Law enforce
ment agencies will be able
to use the money for police
officer salary supplements,
to purchase or maintain de
partment equipment and/or
to establish or maintain a
co-responder program.
Senate Bill 87, the Jack
Hill Veterans’ Act, honors
the late state Sen. Jack Hill
of Reidsville, who died in
2020. It provides income
tax credits in exchange for
contributions to scholar
ships for service-disabled
veterans through the Tech
nical College System of
Georgia Foundation.
The General Assembly
also expanded Georgia’s
rural hospital tax credit
through House Bill 1041,
which increases the annual
statewide cap on the credit
from $60 million to $75
million. Rural hospital ad
ministrators and the pro
gram’s legislative
supporters originally
sought to raise the cap to
$100 million but were
forced to settle for the
lower figure.
Fiscal conservatives in
the General Assembly have
launched efforts in recent
years to bring closer
scrutiny to Georgia’s tax
credits to ensure they’re
worth the hit to state tax
revenues.
But tax credits that in-
centivize taxpayers to con
tribute toward popular
causes that need financial
help have tended to survive
unscathed, said Kyle Wing
field, president and CEO of
the Georgia Public Policy
Foundation.
“There don’t seem to be
a whole lot of problems
with them,” Wingfield said.
Another bill that will
take effect on Sunday, Sen
ate Bill 332, also known as
the Inform Consumers Act,
is aimed at preventing
criminals from selling
goods stolen from retail
stores on any online mar
keting platform. It estab
lishes financial and contact
information requirements
for high-volume sellers to
online marketplaces and re
quires such platforms to es
tablish an option for
consumers to report suspi
cious activity.
"Here in Georgia, we
will do everything possible
to curb crime and make life
difficult for those who
break the law,” Gov. Brian
Kemp said last May as he
signed the bill. "We're deal
ing another blow to the or
ganized gangs that steal
from Georgia shops and
stores by making it much
harder for them to profit
from their heists.”
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photo/Linda Lee
Bark is fascinating, particularly that of the sycamore
which forms wonderful patterns, almost like a camouflage
when exfoliating.
northern Florida. It is espe
cially common on reason
ably damp soils, especially
within floodplain forests, but
it is quite adaptable, and also
does well on high-ground
sites. Because of its beauty
and usefulness for shade,
sycamores are very popular
in parks and along streets,
and is commonly planted. On
the other hand, this is one of
those trees that is sometimes
referred to as "messy," what
with the falling bark, leaves
and disintegrating fruits.
At this point, allow me to
say one or two things (per
haps a little bit tongue in
cheek) about birds... al
though I usually leave the or
nithology up to someone
who knows what they are
talking about. Frequently
when our tree this week is
encountered in a forest,
you'll see on the bark a series
of holes, pecked or drilled by
a sapsucker, probably the
"Yellow-bellied" variety,
Sphyrapicus varius. Now
these sapsuckers don't have
much sense, mindlessly
pecking away and leaving an
indiscriminate number of
holes, in a line. But there is
also a second species,
Sphyrapicus mathematicus,
known as the "Southern
counting-bird." This species
is much smarter than the sap-
sucker, and always pecks out
14 holes. Go ahead, count
them... ©JohnNelson2022
[John Nelson is the re
tired curator of the A. C.
Moore Herbarium at the
University of South Carolina.
As a public service, the
Herbarium offers free plant
identifications. For more in
formation herbarium.org.]
Break out youj^
dancing shd
No charge — all for the love of dance
Class starts January 13 7 p.m. 8:30 p.m.
At Rec. Center in Roper Park
Beginner Country two step and East Coast Swing
• Couples • Fathers/daughters • Mothers/sons
A great non-smoking, nonthinking way to have fun!
Interested couples contact instructor w
Frank Withey 770-605-7658 orfrankwithey3@gmail.c(Htt>
n
THE OLD
MULEHOUSE
GEORGIA DRINKS
The Old Mulehouse offers a
modern upscale twist to the
neighborhood tavern with a
creative chef-driven menu, a
full cocktail bar, our signature
mules, and features beer and
wine from Georgia.
(706) 253-3440
OLDMULEHOUSE.COM
2 North Main Street
Jasper, Ga 30143
Open at I I a.m.Wed-Sun
Closed Mon&Tues
Optimists preparing for a great 2023