About Pickens County progress. (Jasper, Ga.) 1899-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 12, 2023)
An Independent Newspaper for Independent People. Thursday, October 12, 2023 | Volume 136 Number 26 | Jasper, Georgia | 24 pages, 2 sections | Published Weekly | $1.00 School leaders question roundabout at Dragon Drive High school track project also on the table at called board meeting By Angela Reinhardt Staff Writer areinhardt@pickensprogress.com Georgia Department of Trans portation’s proposed roundabout at the entrance to Pickens High School does not appear to have full support from school leaders, some of whom are questioning if it is the best solu tion for the intersection. Pickens Schools Maintenance & Operations Director Chris Wallace gave an update about the project after a recent meeting with GDOT where two potentially problematic issues arose. At the school board’s called meeting Friday, Oct. 6, Wal lace said GDOT wants the system to remove the high school’s digital sign See Dragon Drive on 9A Not only will the Pickens High sign have to be moved as part of the roundabout project, school officials question the needfor a traffic circle at the entrance to Dragon Drive. :*fiow»L photo/ Angela Reinhardt Students Interviews with Pickens High School’s Homecoming Court Page 2-3B First Baptist celebrates 175 years A drawing by former First Baptist pastor Charles O. Walker shows what the early church may have looked like after a bell tower was added in 1911. (As written by Rev. Charles O. Walker and edited by Bill Stone) On October 22, 2023, the First Baptist Church of Jasper will cele brate its 175th anniversary in the service of God to Jasper and Pickens County. The event will be observed with a special service including lunch on the grounds after the 11 a.m. serv ice. The service will include memo rable music marking historical moments in the life of the church. A section of the church will be devoted to displays of photography depicting events and activities that have taken place at the church over the years. No records survive to provide the actual date that the church was con stituted. The original meeting house was a log structure located near the See First Baptist on 9A Early Voting starts Monday for city races in Jasper, Nelson Jasper candidate forum Monday 7p.m. in County Admin Building Staff Reports Voters in the city limits of Jasper and Nelson can begin going to the polls Monday, October 16th, at the Pickens Recreation Center in Roper Park on Camp Road. Early voting will ran most weekdays between now and November 3rd from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. On Election Day, November 7th voters will go to their regular polling places. The only races on the ballots are city council seats and mayor in Jasper and city council seats in Nelson. Elections supervisor Stacey God frey said they are getting a few calls from people out in the county asking what will be on the countywide ballot, but this is only municipal races. It is important for voters to remem- See Voting on 9A VOTE Fall rolls in with Marble Festival This year’s Marble Festival drew between 8,ooo to 10,000 visitors last weekend, according to organizers. They credited beautiful weather and an expanded kids’ area, plus more ven dors of both arts and crafts and food throughout Lee Newton Park. Chamber President Am- berle Godfrey said, “It was an amazing weekend. All the vendors were happy. We heard many positive com ments from festival visitors and our numbers were up.” The festival, hosted by the Chamber of Commerce, also featured the newly-unveiled Marble Museum which saw 980 people check out the ex hibits. See ad next week thanking all sponsors. See more photos from the county’s big festival on Page 12B. photo/Max Caylor Bike trail work begins at Doris Wigington Park By Angela Reinhardt Staff Writer areinhardt@pickensprogress.com It’s been nearly a decade since Doris Wigington Park opened to the public, and trail work has just begun that Jasper leaders hope will breathe new life into the park that has gone mostly unused. Trail work got underway just a few weeks ago on Monday, Sept. 25. Professional trail builders will con struct 1.5 miles of new mountain bike trails throughout the park, in addition to a 650-foot climbing trail and two downhill courses, one 625- foot and another 400-foot. The climbing trail and downhill courses will be located near the Lumber Company Road entrance, also the location of a skills develop ment area and pump track, the latter of which has already been installed. Doris Wigington will be an all- skills-level ‘■‘family-friendly” bike photos/Angela Reinhardt Walt Bready of Trails B-Ready clears new mountain bike trails at Doris Wigington Park. As of Tuesday afternoon Oct. 10, Bready had cleared around 1,500feet. The new trail will have two loops with a con nector between them. Walt Bready explains the ins and outs of trail design, including drainage and how bikes respond to the trails. park when finished. “Depending on weather, [trail builders] Tailored Trails anticipates completion during the month of De cember 2023, or very early January 2024,” said Jasper’s Assistant City Manager Kim Goldener. All three entrances will have trailhead kiosks with maps, informa tion about the park, and connector trails into the park. The original plan for Doris Wig ington was for it to have a “back to nature” feel, according to former mayor John Weaver, but the park never gained popularity with the public. The entrances on Gennett Drive and Lumber Company Road have been unwelcoming and over grown for much of its history, and rarely has cars in the parking lot. Residents have complained that the trails were poorly designed, too steep in areas with gravel that is too large, all of which make it unusable for some segments of the popula tion. The park also has a vacant, “creepy” feeling that keeps people away and is believed to attract illicit activities. At various points over the last 10 years some small efforts have been made to improve perception of the park. Doris Wigington received an Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary desig nation in 2019, Keep Pickens Beau tiful donated a pavilion, and Atlantic Coast Conservancy donated en trance gates and Chimney Swift See Trail Work on 9A Government Commissioners announce second year with no borrowing ahead of property tax collections Page 7A An evening with Mark Twain coming to the Tater Patch Theater Page 12A Obituaries 8A • Peggy Dorsey • Grace Hammontree • Alice Kappers • Scott Stewart • Patrick Thuman $1.00 per copy 4879 08163" 0
