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Thursday, April 13, 2023 | Volume 135 Number 52 | Jasper, Georgia | 22 pages, 2 sections | Published Weekly | $1-00 At long last, county library reopens photo/Angela Reinhardt Library staff get things in place at their renovated and now re-opened facility off Burnt Mountain Road on Library Lane. Renovated building now includes 8,200 square feet of books, teen area, quiet reading space and more By Angela Reinhardt Staff Writer areinhardt@pickensprogress.com Mid-morning April 11, Pickens County Library employees were the only ones inside other than a few contract workers reshelving books. The expanded and remodeled facil ity had just reopened the day before after being closed nearly two years for renovations, and word hadn’t quite reached the general public. “We’re getting people trickling in,” said Pickens Library Branch Manager Katie Dobson. “People will start to hear about us. We’ve got a couple areas not quite open to the public yet, but we’re here.” The renovated building includes an expanded space of 8,200 square feet, which allows more space for books and technology, program and meeting areas, and more space for seating, study and quiet reading. The library is bright and open, with a modem and colorful teen area, an expanded youth area, a large tech nology area, and other new addi tions like a check-out kiosk and book sale space. "We are excited to be back oper ating in our renovated and expanded location where we can fully serve our community,” says Angela Cortellino, executive director of Se quoyah Regional Library System. “I want to thank our patrons and com munity for their patience. The wait was well worth this incredible space we now all have." Partial funding of $1.8 million for this project came from Pickens County’s SPLOST program. To fund the remaining portion, the Se quoyah Regional Library System applied and received from the state a $2 million Capital Outlay Grant, which is administered by the Geor gia Public Library Service. These grants are funded by the sale of g ee Library on 8A Resurrection of the Nelson - Simmons Tavern By Chris Feldt, Progress Contributor & Board member Pickens Historical Society In 1804, the Cherokee Indians had negotiated the terms of the creation of the Federal Road that ran be tween Tennessee to Augusta, Ga. In exchange for set tlers' passage through the Cherokee Territory, the Indians were allowed to operate taverns along their old Cherokee highway. In less than 30 years, in 1832, the Cherokee Ter ritory was mapped out at the request of the State of Georgia with the purpose of dividing the land into lots, giving away lots by a lottery system creating Cherokee County, which was later divided into sep arate counties, all under the control of the state of Georgia. There were three taverns located in the land that now comprises Pickens County. The Daniel's Tavern - (formerly located east of Long Swamp Creek on the north side of Hwy. 53) and Hamage’s, located where the Tate Mansion presently is. The third tavern was the Nelson-Simmons tavern located northwest of Jasper, just east of the Volkswa gen repair shop on Talking Rock Road. By 1832, the infamous Colonel Haney Nelson was operating a tavern about four miles southeast of the Carmel Mission site. He also was listed as a Post master of Talking Rock for about a year and a half, although he wasn't living in Talking Rock. In 1835-1836, Nelson was one of the last Indian Agents (a non-native agent tasked with assimilation) who was keeping Georgia Governor Wilson Lump kin appraised of the lands that had been evacuated by the Cherokee. See Tavern Resurrection on 7A Above, The tavern as seen in the 1970s with the open breezeway. Below, the current front of the rebuilt tavern with a door that converts the former dogtrot breezeway into an enclosed foyer. I ■ ■ ? —- - :r -> w m 0 - » *5 n ETu —i-. . .I 7,-A Affordable housing development at Pea Ridge gets nod of approval from planning commission screenshot from qPublic The highlighted 15-acre tract is recommended for rezoning to accommodate a mixed housing development with both traditional homes and manufactured housing. Fishing Rodeo a no go for this year By Angela Reinhardt Staff Writer areinhardt@pickensprogress.com The popular kids Fishing Rodeo hosted by the Pickens County Sportsman Club will not happen this April as usual, as the city of Jasper has work to perform at their water intake area on Long Swamp Creek. “We just weren’t able to get another location secured with the warm weather com ing and limited cool water streams in Pickens County,” said the club’s Community Outreach Coordinator An drew Weldon. “This is a Pickens County event, and we’d like to keep it here. The city has been a great host over the years and we hope that we can have something later in the year if their work is completed.” According to Jasper As sistant City Manager Kim See Fishing on 8A By Dan Pool Editor dpool@pickensprogress.com An affordable housing project on 15 acres at the corner of Pea Ridge and Highway 53 got a nod of ap proval for rezoning from agriculture to rural residen tial at the April Planning Commission meeting Mon day. Owner and developer Robert Wilkie said he has been working with home prices that are now consid ered affordable here, which is anything below $300,000. Wilkie said there is clearly a big need for housing at this price level. “Anything under $300,000 is hard to come by,” he said. “Believe it or not, affordable housing prices [are $300,000 or less]. As crazy as it sounds that is where we are now.” Wilkie told the commis sion his project will likely be mix of manufactured housing and traditional stick built homes. Responding to a couple of questions about “trailers,” Wilkie said man ufactured housing, when put on a solid foundation and landscaped well, look nice, offer the chance for someone to move into a new home and avoids the prob lem of high construction material prices as well as supply chain issues. He said the manufactured home models he uses at other sites are generally the middle of the road and would likely be sold for $250,000 to $260,000. There was some discus sion regarding the lot sizes on the 15 acres. Wilkie said he lets “topography deter mine lot size” but thought he might have some as small as one acre. Planning Director Wes Frye explained to the commission that with rural residential you can build on one acre lots but that de pends on if the health de partment will issue a septic permit for that particular lot. Frye said, “The understand ing is we will issue a build ing permit if they will issue See Pea Ridge on 8A Longtime street preacher calls for churches to take lead with homeless issue Page 9A Non-profits Fashion show to benefit Ruth House Page 3A Creative Coloring Page 8B Obituaries 6A • Bob Bates • Michael Bonner • J.L. Chamblee • Karen Cole • Judith Mulkey • Don Silvers • Jackie West Sr. • Cynthia Wilkie Contact Us 94 North Main Street Jasper, Ga. 30143 706-253-2457 pickensprogress.com $1.00 per copy o