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THURSDAY. MARCH 2. 2023 PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS PAGE 5A
To the Editor:
Late last year I discussed
with our State Representative
Rick Jasperse about introduc
ing a bill in the 2023 Legisla
tive session proclaiming July
as American History month.
There are other months
that have special designation
and with the attacks on our
schools and even the founda
tion of America we must find
ways to remember who we
are as a nation. Regardless of
race, sex or religion we are
all Americans (legal that is).
I sent a letter to our Rep
resentative (Jasperse) re
questing a meeting at his
office at the state house or
here in Jasper to find ways I
can help in making July as
American History Month. So
far crickets. If others believe
proclaiming the month of
July as American History
Month please help by con
tacting our Representative
Rick Jasperse at his office or
if you run into him in Jasper
please pass along your sup
port.
Jack Foster
To the Editor:
Senators Raphael
Wamock and Jon Ossoff
should support more govern
ment money for cultivated-
meat research, so we can
reduce the astronomical suf
fering of animals in our food
system. For those who are
unfamiliar with the term, cul
tivated meat is grown from
livestock cells, without
slaughter.
The amount of violence
we inflict on our fellow crea
tures endure is almost impos
sible to overstate. Each year,
we kill more than a trillion
aquatic and land animals. To
put that in perspective, only
about 117 billion humans
have ever lived, according to
the Population Reference Bu
reau.
Though the Food and
Drug Administration recently
approved the first cultivated-
meat product, and it should
come to the American market
soon, more federal funding
for cellular-agriculture re
search is needed for this rev
olutionary protein to achieve
price parity with slaughtered
meat. Compassionate legisla
tors should support this.
Jon Hochschartner
To the Editor:
I read with great dismay
that the Pickens County
Board of Commissioners is
continuing to throw money in
the obsolete Roper Park com
plex. Due to land and other
items coming to pressure, we
need to identify land and pro
cure a replacement park in
the next six to 12 months,
working out arrangement
with the school system in a
eventual sharing of Roper
Park, but make eventual
moves to create a facility that
can be used for the following:
Multiple football/soccer
fields
Multiple baseball/softball
fields
An outdoor agriculture fa
cility
An indoor swimming pool
for year round use.
Multiple Tennis/Pickleball
courts.
Yes, it's an expensive en
deavour, but one much
needed as recreation should
be a nine month to 99 year
old mindset. Our current fa
cility can't handle those. But
that's where we need to go
into a basic maintenance
mode with Roper Park until
this new park comes online.
Nothing in these requests
haven't been done in other
communities, some very
comparable in population
than Pickens.
Recreation is imperative
not just for getting exercise,
but also as part of the eco
nomic development toolkit to
lure good paying jobs and
families here to build our tax
base.
Greg Moore
To The Editor:
A study committee led by
Senator Mike Dugan, R-Car-
rollton, worked through last
summer, speaking to educa
tors and prioritizing four
areas where Georgia children
need more school funding:
school counselors and psy
chologists; technology, and a
way to give extra money to
districts who have students
living in poverty with higher
needs.
Our governor has pro
posed and budgeted $11.9
billion for schools including
another $1.2 billion for:
more school security, pay in
creases for teachers and
three-fourths of that $1.2 bil
lion will cover increased
health insurance costs.
Absent are Dugan’s re
quested counselors and
money for poverty stricken
students.
Once again, in Senate Bill
233, legislators hope to pass
a $6,000 income tax credit
for parents who choose to
send their children to private
schools. That’s our public
taxes directly offsetting
someone’s consumer deci
sion.
Average private school tu
ition in Georgia is $11,570.
Why do taxpayers need to
pay half of that for those al
ready wealthy enough to con
sider private school and who
does this bill benefit?
Georgia’s average public
school spending is $11,200
per student (12 years =
$134,000) funded through
45% local property taxes,
46% state sales and income
taxes, and 9 % federal funds.
A Pickens home that
could sell for $300,000,
would have been taxed about
$1601 this year (14.3 mills
on $112,000 taxable value)
towards a Dragon’s eventual
graduation tab.
Dividing public monies to
cover private decisions also
divides communities into
haves and have nots.
Again, I ask our elected
representatives to fund more
counselors. Not private
school tuition for the wealthy
few.
Ellen V. Harrison
Letters welcomed - No letter more than 450 words; Send to
news@pickensprogress.com or Pickens Progress 94 N. Main, Jasper, Ga.
30143; All letters must have a full name that will be published, and contact info.
(Email Address or Phone Number), which will not be published.
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In addition to the activity
from the Uniform Patrol Di
vision, Court Service
Deputies reported the fol
lowing statistics for the past
week:
Persons Scanned at
Front Door: 988
Weapons Found: 19
Courts Held: 8
Arrests Made in
the Courthouse: 2
Civil Papers Received: 64
Civil Papers Served: 61
In the Adult Detention
Center:
Total Jail population: 81
Total male inmates: 65
Total female inmates: 16
Sex Offenders:
There are currently 73 sex of
fenders registered with the
Pickens Sheriff’s Office.
PS<
REPORT
The Pickens Sheriff’s
Office responds to many
calls for service every day.
The following incidents
are a few deputies respond
to each day.
Car window shot
with a bb gun
A young man was walking
toward his home after 10
p.m. The young man said he
heard something whiz by his
head like maybe a bb or a
pellet from a bb gun. The
young man said he yelled out
an expletive name, and an
other young fellow stepped
out and they began arguing.
Later on the young man and
his mother noticed the back
glass had been shot out of
their car. It had been shot out
with a bb gun. The young
man told the deputy he
thought it was the other
young fellow that shot it out
because they argued. The
deputy spoke to the young
fellow and he told the deputy
he had argued with the young
man, but he did not even own
a bb gun. The young fellow
said he did not shoot out the
back glass of the car.
Child custody report
A woman called for a
deputy because she wanted to
document some issues she is
having with the child’s father.
The woman told the deputy
she is having a difficult time
complying with the custody
agreement because the
child’s father misses sched
uled times to be with the
child, and the woman said
when the father does show up
he is rude to her and the
child. She wanted a report for
when she goes back to court.
Leaving the scene of
an accident
Someone called to report
a single car accident. When
the deputy got to the scene of
the accident there was no
driver. The car had hit a tree
and all the airbags inside the
car had deployed. The deputy
ran a check on the tag and got
the information about the
driver, the information came
back the driver had a sus
pended license. Then the
deputy checked with dispatch
and the local emergency
rooms to see if anyone had
been admitted. There had not
been anyone admitted. The
deputy went to the home of
the registered owner of the
car. The registered owner told
the deputy she had been
home asleep all night. How
ever, the deputy could see
marks on the woman’s neck
area that would match up to a
seat belt, he could also see a
mark on her head. The
woman was arrested for leav
ing the scene of an accident
and driving with a suspended
license.
The Sheriff’s Beat
From the Pickens Sheriff’s Office
Woman reports her de
ceased husband had been
abused
A woman came to the
sheriff’s office to meet with a
deputy. She told the deputy
her husband who had suf
fered from Alzheimers dis
ease had recently passed
away in January. The woman
wanted to report that some
time in December she had
left the house to go to lunch,
when she got home she no
ticed bruises on her hus
band’s shoulders. She told
the deputy her husband had
told her he had been kid
napped and tortured by a
group called “The Cult.” The
woman said her husband had
been a successful business
man and this group kid
napped him and tortured him
for money. The woman said
her husband did not give into
the demands of the group and
they returned him home be
fore she got back from lunch
that day.
Two welders stolen
A man went out of town
for a couple of days, when he
got home he saw that the
locks were cut off of three
different gates and the lock to
his garage was also cut. The
man said he found an antenna
laying in his driveway that he
believes belongs to a Ford
truck. The man said he had
two welders stolen from his
garage. He waited a little bit
to report the items stolen be
cause he had to find all the
paperwork on the two
welders first.
Violation of a criminal
trespasss
Deputies were called to
the Food Mart because a
woman that had been previ
ously criminally trespassed
from the building was there
again. When deputies arrived
the woman was sitting out
side leaned up against the
building. The deputies re
minded her that she was not
supposed to be at that build
ing due being criminally tres
passed. The woman said she
wasn’t trespassed from any
where, the deputies arrested
her and took her to the jail.
Suspicious person
A concerned citizen re
ported a suspicious man in a
blue truck in the area of Rab
bit Town. The citizen said the
man was on the side of the
road and he had been flying a
drone, possibly looking for
black walnut trees. The citi
zen felt uneasy and wanted to
make sure the suspicious per
son had been reported.
Accident led to an arrest
A deputy was on patrol
when he saw a car in a ditch.
The deputy stopped to speak
to the driver and offer help.
The driver told the deputy he
had a tow truck and a friend
coming to help him. The
deputy walked around the car
to get the tag number and
saw the driver pour some
thing out of a white cup onto
the ground. The deputy asked
the driver what he poured out
and the driver said, “Alcohol.
Want to smell my breath for
it?” Then the driver blew in
the deputies face. The deputy
could see the man’s eyes
were glassy. The deputy told
the man to get out of the car.
The man refused, another of
ficer came to help the deputy.
They attempted to pull the
man from the car, but he was
hanging onto the steering
wheel. Then the driver’s
friend pulled up and came to
the car and was yelling at the
deputy and the officer. The
deputy told the friend several
times to go back to his car, he
finally stepped away. The
deputy and the officer tased
the driver in the car in an at
tempt to get him out of the
car. The driver tried to grab
the taser and lost his grip on
the steering wheel and the
deputy and officer were able
to get him on the ground.
The driver continued to try to
fight and not be put in hand
cuffs. Once again his friend
came up to them and was
yelling at the deputy and the
officer. Another deputy on
scene put the friend in hand
cuffs and put him in the back
of a patrol car. Finally, the
deputy and the officer were
able to get the driver in hand
cuffs and place him under ar
rest.
During this past week, the Pickens Sheriff’s Of
fice responded to or initiated 3,401 calls for service.
These numbers are taken from the report provided
directly from the 911 Center where all calls are
logged as they are performed. Below is a breakdown
of all dispatched calls by the call type for each inci
dent.
Accidents 28
Suicide Threats / Attempts 3
Domestics 18
Theft / Burglary Related 22
Forgery / Fraud 9
Traffic Stops 376
Citations Issued 10
Animal Investigations 21
Suspicious Persons/Activities 47
Alarm Calls 26
Stranded Motorists 14
Street Hazards 10
Vandalism 5
Abandoned Vehicles 3
Extra Patrol - neighborhoods, businesses, resi
dences 2,383. In addition to these, other calls in
clude search warrants, civil service, 911 hang-up
calls, assaults, disorderly persons, missing persons,
assistance with medical calls, natural death investi
gations, demented persons, funeral escorts, harass
ment, trespassing, and many more.
25 Individuals were booked into the Adult Deten
tion Center on charges from the Pickens Sheriff’s
Office. Out of these, the following charges were
taken by PSO deputies (note: some individuals have
multiple charges):
Give false name/info to police - 1
Driving with License suspended/revoked - 5
Driving without a valid license - 2
Fleeing/attempting to elude - 2
Bond Violation - 5
Suspended/canceled/revoked Registration -1
Violation of limited driving permit - 1
Simple Assault -1
Drug Court Violation - 1
Help Court Violation - 1
Obstruction of LEO - 2
Poss. of schedule II controlled substance - 1
Drug-related object 1st and 2nd offense - 1
Poss. of weapon during crime/attempt crime - 2
Poss. of a Scheduled IV controlled substance - 2
Battery - Family Violence (1st offense) - 1
Probation Violation (Felony) - 3
DUI-1
Driving on the wrong side of the roadway - 2
Criminal Trespass -1
Failure to appear for MISD - 1
Simple assault - family violence - 1
False Imprisonment (felony) - 1
GRISHAM, POOLE
& CARLILE, PC
Criminal Defense I Family Law
"You can't go back and change the beginning,
but you can start where you are and change
the ending." ~ C.S. Lewis
21 COURT STREET
JASPER, GEORGIA
678.880.9360
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