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THURSDAY. FEBRUARY 23. 2023 PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS PAGE 7A
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Notice is hereby provided that the Pickens County
Government is seeking proposals and sealed
bids to purchase a Glass Crusher to provide the
capabilities to improve the Glass Recycling for
Pickens County Recycling.
The timetable for the proposal
process is as follows:
Action Date
Request for Proposals February 17, 2023
Issuance Date
Questions Deadline
Proposal Due Date
Tentative Approval and
Award
February 24, 2023
March 3, 2023
March 10, 2023
Requests for Proposals can be obtained
by contacting:
Kenny Woodard, Director Solid Waste/Recycling
Pickens County Board of Commissioners
1266 East Church Street
Jasper, GA 30143
770-893-8334
Chalking Rock will bring professional to
showcase art right on the streets
Talking Rocks yearly egg hunt planned for April 8
By Max Caylor
Contributing Writer
“We want to bring visitors to Talk
ing Rock to promote our businesses,”
said Mayor Pro Tem James Bryant, Jr.
at the city council meeting on February
13 th.
Along these lines the council is
planning a community Easter egg hunt
on April 8 in the park and adding a
town “Chalking Rock” event where
professional artists chalk the streets.
Councilperson Mary Bregantini will
take the lead for the egg hunt and chalk
event seeking sponsors and vendors for
the free community event.
Bregantini coordinates Talking
Rock’s largest fall event Heritage Days.
She can be contacted at mbregan-
tini@talkingrockga.com.
In other business Bryant thanked
Town Clerk Dawn Carver for the “de
tailed work” she was doing keeping a
paper trial of expenses and putting in
place correct financial practices.
“ A copy of monthly expenses is dis
played in City Hall so that the town’s
people may be informed about all fi
nancial matters,” added Bryant.
The council voted to raise the busi
ness license fee from $50 to $100, add
cameras to the park pavilion for secu
rity, post a leash law sign in the park
and discussed various street improve
ment plans with the DOT. Coun-
cilmember Tony Hauf will coordinate
the road work.
Also, at the busy meeting council
work addressed new lighting with
Georgia Power, a marquee town sign,
making city hall handicap accessible
and changed their meetings to every
other month to be more efficient with
time and legal expenses.
Plants of the Southeast
"Shortleaf pine," "Short-needle pine," Pinus echinata
Photo/ by John Nelson
The shortleaf is one of the roughly ten pine species that
can be found in the south.
By John Nelson
University of
South Carolina
We had a pine tree as a
subject not too long ago, and
here is another. There’s al
ways a new pine species
that’s worth learning about.
This on, commonly called
the shortleaf or short-needle
pine, is growing in a small
park not far from my house,
in the Shandon area of Co
lumbia. Here, it is a common
native species, and can be
seen just about all over town,
and for that matter, just about
anywhere else in South Car
olina (mostly though, in the
piedmont counties).
Now, you probably have
this very handsome tree
growing not far from where
you live, as it is widespread
in the southeast, extending
from eastern Texas, and
Arkansas and Missouri, to
the Florida panhandle, and
then north. It is frequently
found in the New Jersey pine
barrens, and may reach its
northern limit on Staten Is
land (so said the excellent
Harvard dendrologist
Charles S. Sprague in 1933,
in his famous “Manual of the
Trees of North America”.)
This pine doesn’t like wet
feet. You will find it on high-
ground sites, away from any
standing water. This species
is a rapid colonizer of old
fields throughout its range.
When such fields are colo
nized, additional pine species
as well as hardwoods will in
variably show up, too, result
ing eventually in what ecol
ogists sometimes call a
“mixed pine-hardwood”
stand.
It is a pine, rather obvi
ously. In the genus Pinus, so
there's not much mystery
there. But which one? There
are about ten different pines
that are native down here in
the South. The shortleaf is
potentially a large, stately
tree, to 100' tall (the national
champion is apparently in
Mississippi, and is 138’ tall),
and is valued as an excellent
source of lumber, plywood,
and pulp, although it is not
grown in extensive planta
tions as are its cousins,
loblolly and slash pine.
The needles are straight
(not twisted) and fairly short
(4" or so) when compared to
most of its relatives. Like all
pines, it will produce male
and female cones on the
same branch. The male cones
produce pollen. The female
cones are the source of the
winged seeds...and they are
sometimes called "seed"
cones.
The seed cones of this
pine are pretty small, again
compared to other pine
species, usually no more than
about 3 inches long. Each of
the woody scales on the seed
cone will bear two of the
coptering themselves to the
ground below. Each scale is
armed with a sharp point, so
the whole cone is quite
prickly. (In fact, the scientific
name of this species can be
translated as "prickly pine".)
A mystery presents itself
here: way up in the top of
this particular tree, you can
clearly see a portion of
growth which is especially
compact and dense, with un-
This is a "witch's broom," an
unusual and bristly growth
form that may be the result of
an injury to the tree, or pos
sibly an infestation of a par
asite. Witch's brooms occur
in many conifers, as well as
in various broad-leaved trees.
They are sometimes prized in
horticulture as curiosities.
(Photo by John Nelson.)
©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, visit www.herbar-
ium.org or email
johnbnelson@sc. rr. com.]
winged seeds, these heli- usually crowded needles.
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Senate committee mid-year
budget hints at slowdown
in tax revenue
By Dave Williams
Bureau Chief
Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA - Georgia
Senate budget writers ap
proved a $32.5 billion mid
year budget Tuesday that
signals leaner times likely lie
ahead in the coming fiscal
year.
The mid-year spending
plan, up 6.8% over the fiscal
2023 budget the General As
sembly adopted last spring,
includes Senate changes that
would move some construc
tion projects originally to be
financed with bonds in fiscal
2024 into the current fiscal
year and pay for them with
cash.
With many economists
expecting a recession to hit
Georgia and the nation later
this year, state tax collections
could fall or at least not grow
as much as they have in re
cent years.
"We feel we have more
flexibility in the '23 budget
than we will in '24," Senate
Appropriations Committee
Chairman Blake Tillery, R-
Vidalia, told committee
members Tuesday.
Tillery said the Senate's
version of the mid-year
budget meets or exceeds
Gov. Brian Kemp's spending
recommendations on 27 of
the governor's 30 top priori
ties. It includes $ 1 billion in
state income tax relief, a $1
billion property tax rebate,
and $1.1 billion to backfill
the loss of state sales tax rev
enue from gasoline and other
motor fuels that occurred
during a 10-month suspen
sion of the tax ordered by
Kemp to compensate for ris
ing pump prices.
The Senate committee
also supported the governor's
spending requests to give
every k-12 public school a
$50,000 school safety grant
and “learning loss” grants to
help offset the impacts of the
pandemic on student instruc
tion.
About $137 million
sought by Kemp would be
earmarked for the additional
staffing that will be neces
sary to accomplish “the great
unwinding” of Medicaid in
April, when the federal gov
ernment will relax pandemic-
era regulations that
prevented states from disen
rolling people from Medi
caid.
Senate budget writers
anted up more funds than the
House provided in its version
of the mid-year budget for a
variety of programs, includ
ing doubling a $5 million
House appropriation aimed
at the "hoteling" of children
in foster care.
The Senate committee
added $3.5 million to a $3
million House appropriation
to expand the state's nursing
program, recognizing the
current shortage of nurses in
Georgia, and doubled to $4
million state funding of do
mestic violence shelters.
The mid-year budget
heads next to the Senate floor
for a vote, probably later this
week.
This story is available
through a news partnership
with Capitol Beat News Serv
ice.