Newspaper Page Text
THURSDAY. OCTOBER 12. 2023 PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS PAGE 9A
Continued From 1A
Voting
ber only residents inside the
city limits of Jasper and Nel
son can vote. Confusion
comes as postal addresses
with Jasper and Nelson ex
tend far beyond the city lim
its. Voters can search for My
Voters Page Georgia, which
will help determine if you are
inside the city limits if you
are unsure.
Talking Rock originally
was set for a city election as
well, but no seats were con
tested in the small town.
Voters who have not reg
istered to vote have the
missed the October 10th
deadline.
Look for a sample ballot
in next week’s Progress.
• See ad for general elec
tion information, including
Saturday dates, hours, and
contact information for the
local voters office on page
10A;
• Information on the
Jasper seats and a candidate
forum Monday on page 4A;
• For the Nelson candi
dates on page 3A.
Continued From 1A
First
Baptist
Norton Cemetery near
today’s intersection of Burnt
Mountain and Cove roads. It
is believed that the church
was first called the Norton
Creek Baptist Church of
Christ.
On September 22, 1904,
John W. Henley prepared and
presented to the church a new
“record of membership.” It
revealed that in October of
1848 Elizabeth Lindsey Wof
ford was received on profes
sion of hope and baptism.
The record indicated that she
was bom on October 25,
1834, making her 14 years
old when she joined the
church. This document is
proof that the church was
constituted and well estab
lished before 1848. However,
since we have no prior docu
mented record of the church’s
beginning, we have selected
the date of Miss Wofford’s
profession of faith as the date
to honor our birth.
To put the church’s found
ing year of 1848 in perspec
tive, one needs to be
conscious of the fact that
Pickens County wasn’t
founded until 1853, being
created from parts of Gilmer
and Cherokee counties.
Jasper was founded in 1853
but was not incorporated
until 1857. The removal of
the Cherokee people from the
land that would become
Pickens County happened as
part of the infamous Trail of
Tears in 1838. It is most fea
sible that the church was con
stituted at some time after
1838 and prior to Elizabeth
Wofford’s profession of hope
in October, 1848.
On February 9, 1856, Mr.
William Sosebee executed a
“deed of gift” to the Baptist
Church at Jasper of a parcel
of one acre of land lying on
the road known as the Fed
eral Road. This continues to
be part of the land now occu
pied by the church. With the
donation of property, the
members constructed a new
small one room church build
ing.
After the War Between the
States Reverend S. Landrum
wrote that there was a low
state of spirituality in the area
that encompassed Pickens
County. The Jasper Baptist
Church of Christ almost dis
banded. The church may very
well have disbanded but for a
meeting in the late 1860s
consisting of the church’s
young minister and six
church members. As they met
to discuss the future of the
church a man named Padgett
rode by and joined the meet
ing. He encouraged the group
to not disband and joined the
church. The group suddenly
became alive and determined
to stand firm to advance the
cause of Christ. The young
pastor’s name was Thad
Pickett, ancestor of today’s
Jasper attorney, Bill Pickett.
In 1879, the small one
room church building was re
placed by a larger one room
building. [Later, in 1911, a
bell tower was added to the
building.] It was in this build
ing that the church began
Sunday School in 1886. The
frame church structure was
replaced in 1931 when pastor
M.R. Gattis led the church in
the construction of a brick
structure which continues to
serve as the chapel today. The
cost for the new building was
$8,000 and it was dedicated
in July of that year. On the
day of dedication, the Ma
sonic Lodge placed the cor
ner stone. Two columns of
Pickens County marble adorn
the front entrance of the
building. Col. Sam Tate was
instrumental in incorporating
the marble into the church
design and spoke at the dedi
cation. For some reason, lost
to history, there was not a
tower in the new building for
the church bell and it was
stored in a mechanical room
until 2002 when it was ’’res
urrected” and incorporated
into the construction of a new
building.
The church records give
very little details of activities
relating to the Great Depres
sion of the 1930s and also
World Wars I and II. We do
know that the church was
there for the Jasper and Pick
ens communities during this
time. It is worth noting that in
1942 the church name was
changed from the Baptist
Church of Christ of Jasper to
the Baptist Church of Jasper.
No account of the history
of the First Baptist Church of
Jasper would be complete
without the mention of Rev.
Charles O. Walker. He was
called as pastor in 1960 and
served for 37 years, retiring
in 1997. His influence ex
tended far beyond the walls
of the church. He immersed
himself in the study of Pick
ens County history, espe
cially the history of the
Cherokee people who once
populated our county. He was
honored by the Cherokee
tribe with honorary member
ship.
In 1962, under the leader
ship of Rev. Walker’s wife,
Betty Ann, and Ann Stancil a
kindergarten program was es
tablished at the church. The
program has evolved into the
First Baptist of Jasper Pre
school and currently serves
150 Pickens County children
and their families. The pro
gram has operated continu
ously for 61 years and is
believed to be the oldest pre
school in the county.
Minister of Music/Youth
David M. Stuart joined the
church staff in 1974. In the
summer of 1975, he organ
ized and led the first Youth
Mission Trip. This was the
beginning of 48 youth mis
sion trips performed by the
church youth team. The trips
have taken our youth and
adults across the United
States performing assistance
and aid to people and organi
zations in need of help. The
youth have learned early to
unselfishly be the hands and
feet of Jesus to the world.
There is no doubt that a
rich heritage has been passed
down to the congregation of
First Baptist of Jasper. We
constantly remind ourselves
that we stand on the shoul
ders of saints who have
served God in Jasper for so
many years. We are proud of
our past, but more impor
tantly we are poised for the
future as we continue to seek
opportunities to serve God in
Jasper and Pickens County
and beyond.
Transportation avail
able for veterans
The Fannin DAV Chap
ter 28 van transports veter
ans to the Atlanta VA
Medical Center for free.
The van’s first pickup is at
the Fannin County Veter
ans Conference Center in
Blue Ridge and stops in
Ellijay, Jasper, Canton and
Woodstock.
Please call John Bailey
at 706-851-5204 for trans
port and for more informa
tion. Volunteer van drivers
are needed.
Continued From 1A
Dragon
Drive
by the end of this year despite
the project not being set to let
until September 2024, and at
that meeting he found out
GDOT has altered the round
about design plans.
“I called a time out,” Wal
lace said. “[I said] this looks
quite different from what I
was made aware of and what
we were expecting down
here.”
The main difference is a
single northbound lane in
stead of two. Wallace be
lieves GDOT changed their
designs because of a ditch
along Dragon Drive, as well
as the rising cost of construc
tion.
“I think the cost associ
ated with dealing with that
water and that ditch has
caused them to redesign
some things and in doing so
it takes out that lane, which I
am concerned about,” he
said.
Wallace was told by
GDOT that they altered the
design based on a traffic pat
tern study, “But the traffic
pattern there is quite different
two hours a day than it is the
other 22 hours as we all
know,” he said. “My concern
is [that] they do traffic studies
and look at the whole day.”
After school board mem
ber Joe Wigington asked if
they have any say so in the
project, discussion shifted to
whether or not a roundabout
is needed there at all now.
Several board members com
mented on the addition of an
improved traffic signal they
say has reduced crashes after
it was installed last school
year.
The M&O director said
there have been no accidents
at the intersection during
school mornings and after
noons since the signal was
updated. School board mem
ber Amy Gibson recalled one
crash, but said it was a minor
rear-end crash for vehicles on
Dragon Drive, not directly
related to the intersection.
Wallace told the board he
did not know what say the
school system has regarding
the future of the roundabout,
but he feels they need to ex
press their concerns to
GDOT.
“The way this all started
was with the danger of the in
tersection and the number of
wrecks that have been an
issue there over time,” Wal
lace said. “We have since
remedied that concern down
there as best as we can with
out changing the configura
tion of the intersection...!
think that’s a good question
that we all want to find the
answer to...it’s a significant
amount of money to spend...
the state of Georgia has
deemed this necessary and I
don’t know if we’re not too
far along, but I think it’s
worth investigating, digging
a little deeper and finding
out.”
According to GDOT’s
project page, cost for the
roundabout is: Construction,
$2.59 million; Preliminary
Engineering, $574,368;
Right-Of-Way Acquisition,
$240,000; Utilities Costs,
$30,000.
The board is concerned
about removing the high
school’s digital sign on High
way 53 as well. Wallace is
not sure where it would be re
located to, citing several po
tential issues with property
ownership and easements.
Board members are also wor
ried about the loss of com
munication with the public
about school events and ab
sence of a school entrance
marker if it is down for a long
period of time.
Continued From 1A
Trail
Work
towers to attract Chimney
Swifts - but none of the ef
forts made a dent in the neg
ative public opinion.
What to do about Doris
Wigington has been on city
leaders’ radars for several
years, with the current coun
cil taking moves to hire pro
fessionals and add features
that will be unique to the
area.
Walt Bready with Trails
B-Ready prepared the overall
trail master plan. Bready
works for Tailored Trails on
many of their projects in
north Georgia and will do
trail work at Doris Wiging
ton.
Bready said the trails at
Doris Wigington will be of
an easy difficulty level,
which will compliment trails
at Talking Rock Nature Pre
serve that range from easy to
more difficult.
The pump track and the
skills development areas,
which will include a snake
ladder, rollers, and curved
wall, were all purchased
through American Ramp
Company and Progressive
Bike Ramps.
“[American Ramp Com
pany] installed the pump
track for us, but because their
production time ended up
taking less time than antici
pated, Tailored Trails was not
onsite yet to lay out the skills
area or do any necessary
grading. We are storing the
skills area equipment in our
public works facility and Tai
lored Trails will install.”
Goldener said after these
enhancements are complete,
the city has its sights set on
more improvements in the
future.
“We would definitely like
to improve the driveway en
trances to the park with a fu
ture phase,” she said. “There
is also some room within the
park to add a small trail loop,
so we are looking at that for
the future as well. We think
this is going to be a great
asset for the community.”
The city of Jasper had
$250,000 in SPLOST fund
ing set aside for this project.
The pump track, skills equip
ment, shipping and installa
tion was $100,661, which
included a $6,955 discount
because the city purchased
them through a state contract
purchasing cooperative. The
contract with Tailored Trails
is for $147,549.
In 2012, the city of Jasper
received a $100,000 grant
from Georgia Department of
Natural Resources State
Parks and Historic Sites
Recreational Trail Grant that
went towards the park proj
ect. The city was required to
provide $52,000 in matching
funds, which was satisfied
with in-kind labor. City
crews developed the trails
and it opened in 2014.
The park was named after
former council member
Doris Wigington.
See the latest trail map
with this story online.
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But Wallace said, “I don’t
know that without this sign
discussion if it would have
ever come across to us” that
roundabout design plans
were altered. “We had not
been notified of any changes,
so I’m glad the meeting hap
pened.”
GDOT held an online sur
vey in 2022 that showed that
of the 164 respondents 70
were in support of the round
about, 87 were opposed, 1
was uncommitted, and 6 ex
pressed conditional support.
High school track project
The school board also dis
cussed options to upgrade the
high school track, which is
currently only six lanes and
not large enough to host tour
naments.
Pickens School Superin
tendent Dr. Travis Thomas
went through a list of three
options that have been on the
table - adding two lanes to
the track at the high school;
building an entirely new
track and field at the junior
high, or building a new track
and field at Harmony Ele
mentary School.
Thomas said the Harmony
option has not been well-re
ceived, and Wallace and
some board members com
mented the location is too
isolated and poses other is
sues like space limitations.
Pros and cons of the re
maining two sites were dis
cussed, with pros of
upgrading at the high school
being that high school sports
would stay on the campus
and not require bussing stu
dents to another school, but
construction will take four to
six months and render the
field unusable during that
time. Board member Steve
Lowe is concerned if some
thing goes wrong with the
project it could take longer
and create significant prob
lems for the school if they do
not have a field.
For a similar price -
around the $3 million mark -
an entirely new track area to
include a football field could
be constructed at Pickens
Junior High School. Wallace
believes this would give the
school more “bang for our
buck.”
The prices are similar for
the two projects because sig
nificant work would have to
be done on the PHS field, in
cluding drainage.
No decisions were made
about the track, but Wallace
estimated it would be into
2025 before anything could
be completed.
LOCAL
MATTERS
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do to the state.
You pay more in local taxes than you
do to the IRS.
So why would anyone just pay attention
to national politics?
Subscribe to your local
newspaper.Local matters.
Pickens County Board of Education
Called Board Meeting
October 12, 2023 at 5:00 p.m.
100 D.B. Carroll Street, Jasper, Ga. 30143
I. Call to Order
II. Approval of Agenda
III. Executive Session
IV. Approval of Executive Session Minutes
V. Adjourn
Pickens County Board of Education
Regular Board Meeting
October 12, 2023 at 6:00 p.m.
100 D.B. Carroll Street, Jasper, Ga. 30143
I. Call to Order
II. Invocation
III. Pledge of Allegiance
IV. Approval of Agenda
V. Student Recognition
A. Abigail Barber selected to serve on the State
School Superintendent Richard Woods'
2023-2024 Student Advisory Council
VI. Superintendent's Report
A. Finance - Amy Smith, Chief Financial Officer
B. Operations and Construction - Chris Wallace,
Chief Operations Officer
C. School Update - HARMONY ELEMENTARY
SCHOOL - Kanyon Petti, Principal
D. Superintendent Comments - Dr. Travis Thomas,
Superintendent of Pickens County School
System
VII. Action Items
A. Approval of Personnel
B. Request for Formal Adoption of Strategic Plan
for Pickens County School District
VIII. Consent Agenda
A. Approval of Financial Reports
B. Approval of Out-of-State/Overnight Field Trip
for Pickens High School Band and Chorus
C. Approval of Minutes
D. Approval to Surplus School Buses
E. Approval of Tyler Technologies (Bus GPS/
Communication)
IX. Public Participation
X. Board Comments
XI. Adjourn