About Pickens County progress. (Jasper, Ga.) 1899-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 21, 2023)
Continued From 1A Continued From 1A THURSDAY. DECEMBER 21.2023 PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS PAGE 11A School Board maintenance and operations chief, noting the project has been ongoing for eight years, asked, "What's a couple of more years to collect data?" Once construction begins, the project will take 18 months to complete. Lowe then summed up the feelings of many when he said, "It looks like we have no choice in the matter." Following the meeting, Board Chair Tommy Gartrell told the Progress, "I lament the board having to spend so much time on this one issue when there are other impor tant matters that we need to address." Other Business Unlike the earlier work session which dealt solely with the roundabout issue, there were other items ad dressed at this meeting in cluding the school lunch program and especially the high number of students who are falling behind in paying for their meals. According to School Nutritionist Beth Thompson, debt accumula tion has increased dramati cally this year. Noting that Pickens County's costs to produce lunches have risen greatly this year over past years, Thompson said that she is making every effort to con tact parents about their chil dren's outstanding debt via phone calls and emails. Board member Lowe ex pressed concerns that Thompson's efforts to collect was taking time from her other responsibilities, to which Thompson replied that it was "time consuming." In regard to the students falling behind with their pay ments, Finley said that in ad dition to academics, we should also be "teaching re sponsibility." Although it is a common practice in many school systems to offer "al ternative meals" to students behind in their payments, after receiving a number of complaints earlier this year, Pickens dropped that policy, and now all students regard less of their debt status, are given the same meals. She added that the school with the highest rate of delin quency was Pickens Junior High School. A school official told the Progress outside the meeting that the issue is not lower in come kids who are served by the free and reduced lunch program, but parents who for whatever other reasons are simply not paying. Future school calendars were also discussed, with Su perintendent Thomas saying he prefered "to begin a two- year adoption plan," so not only was the 2024-2025 cal endar addressed, but also the 2025-2026 plan. Thomas said next year's academic calen dar would be "similar to what we're doing this year," but there would be "changes to come" the following year. Adoption of the new cal endars was approved at the school board meeting held two days later. See story on Page 8B. ’V nerh<4 ■ * iffa nWni * • Jjj fgL 5 ■ •JP*j — '' fj3, ~ \ f 1 rJMl T-ta T* M Jasper Fitness owner, employees, and members of the Silver Sneakers and Sassy Seniors just before delivering Christ mas gifts last week to residents of Pruitt Health; they also made stops at Grandview Health Care Center and Wildwood Health. Fit Gifts didn’t have memberships to donate. I was blown away with how this community came together. I wasn’t sure I’d have enough to start, but in the end we had more than enough. I just thank everyone so much.” The day before the gifts were delivered to each resi dent - personally and one-by- one to their rooms - around 45 members of the gym gath ered for a Christmas pot luck and assembled each of the 151 bags. Items included things like warm socks, blankets, wet wipes, lotion, tissues, small goodie bags, and slippers. In addition to Pruitt Health, bags also went to residents at Grandview Health Care Cen ter and Wildwood Health. ‘‘Seniors go sometimes without anyone visiting them, and we just wanted to let them know someone cares,” Jenkins said. “Our number one priority is safety,” says GDOT of high school roundabout Continued From 1A By Angela Reinhardt Staff Writer areinhardt@pickensprogress.com Responding to pushback about the roundabout pro posed for Pickens High School, Georgia Department of Transportation officials say their “number one prior ity is safety.” GDOT’s Dis trict 6 Communications Director contacted the Progress after a recent board of education work session where the project was criti cized by several members of the BOE, and also by the public beforehand. “We just want people to know that our priority is safety at this intersection where there are so many stu dent drivers, and where there have been serious crashes in the past,” said Joe Schulman of GDOT. “Roundabouts are so much safer than a signal or stop sign. We want kids to be safe.” Traffic studies that look back at the intersection for 11 years show 19 angle crashes and four head-on collisions, both of which can cause se vere crashes, especially at high speeds, as well as 56 rear-end collisions and a few single-vehicle crashes. “Roundabouts bring those serious crashes like the T- bone down to nearly zero,” Schulman said. “Traffic on a roundabout doesn’t go over 30-35 typically and crashes are far less severe.” Schulman addressed spe cific concerns and criticisms from the Pickens BOE and members of the public, and added that the project is now slated to let in FY 2025, a re cent change from the July 2024 date. Safety at that intersection became a big concern earlier this year after several back- to-back crashes, and the BOE pushed for a stop-gap solu tion. In January there were three accidents that involved students attempting to make a left-hand turn onto Dragon Drive from Hwy. 53 east- bound. Some of the students had to be transported for in juries. This spring, GDOT in stalled a “protected left-turn signal” that requires a green arrow to turn left. Many members of the school board and school offi cials have said there have been no crashes at the inter section since the signal was installed, and that it has pro vided an effective and fis- cally-responsible solution. Complaints from the BOE and members of the public have included the cost of a roundabout/waste of tax payer money, possible confu sion for young drivers, increased traffic congestion, and others. Schulman agreed the new protected left-turn signal is an improvement over what was there before, but “we’ve really only had one semester of school since it was put in” and “a roundabout will be much safer and is the best so lution. Signals are only as safe as the people using them. Drivers mess up at sig nals and stop signs if they aren’t paying attention and that’s when serious accidents occur.” Schulman referenced Cass High School in Cartersville which had a roundabout in stalled at its entrance in 2019. “They love it,” he said. “We went through very much the same process we are going through here, with the initial criticism, but they love it now.” GDOT representatives spoke to Cass High School students about how to use a roundabout, and he has found students adapt quickly to the change. Schulman said GDOT would be happy to hold roundabout information sessions with students and parents in Pickens County as completion of the project nears. “Kids are smart and they easily adapt and learn,” he said. “A lot of the times the adults have more difficulty with change. We’ve dealt with this kind of criticism at every roundabout we’ve put in. People are just more used to traffic signals.” Another local concern has been traffic backing up on the Highway 53 stretch in front of Dragon Drive, but Schul man said traffic will flow bet ter with a roundabout during busy times. “With a signaled intersec tion the traffic stops com pletely and you can find yourself sitting there for what feels like forever,” he said. “Roundabouts have a more efficient flow and allows traf fic to move through quicker, even if it does slow down some when traffic is heavy it still moves.” School leaders had con cerns with design plan changes that removed one of the two original bypass lanes, but Schulman said it will not make an impact on safety there. “The bypass lane east- bound to the school was re moved back a while ago during the concept phase,” he said. “It was removed be cause the traffic numbers did n’t support a need for it.” It was noted in the called BOE meeting that removal of the lane cut costs by $1 mil lion and that it was also a contributing factor in their decision. The current design in cludes a bypass lane exiting the school turning right onto Hwy. 53. There has also been con cern about busses and tractor trailers being able to maneu ver the traffic circle, but Schulman said they are de signed to handle those larger vehicles. The cost for the project is estimated at $3.6 million, of which $2.8 million is for con struction. “We don’t make these decisions in a vacuum,” he said, citing open house sessions where public input was sought. “This proj ect is not like widening a road or building an overpass for growth, it’s strictly for safety.” Publix Congratulations to all.” The developer has re cently secured a land disturb ing permit and demolition permit for the parcel, which houses a large vacant build ing most recently inhabited by Day’s Chevrolet. The project has also re ceived the Environmental Protection Division’s ap- By Dave Williams Bureau Chief Capitol Beat News Service ATLANTA - Gov. Brian Kemp is taking aim at state employee retention and school safety. Kemp announced Mon day that the fiscal 2024 midyear budget will include $330 million for one-time pay supplements of $1,000 for each of about 112,000 state employees and 196,000 teachers and school support staff. The governor also plans to put more than $100 million toward providing every pub lic school $45,000 for per sonnel and infrastructure improvements to strengthen campus security. “Throughout the pan demic, a summer of unrest, and the unprecedented chal lenges of the last several years, our state employees have worked hard, taken on additional challenges, re mained committed to serving their fellow Georgians, and proval of the water distribu tion system design. Jasper’s Interim City Manager Kim Goldener said they anticipate the developer’s contractor will begin work soon now that these permits are in hand. According to the Pickens County Tax Assessor’s web site, the Gateway Crossings Shopping Center develop ment is on an 18.96-acre par cel. The developer purchased the property in February 2023 for $6 million. become more streamlined so we remain the best state for opportunity,” Kemp said. “This retention pay sup plement will arrive during the holiday season, and it’s part of my administration’s way of showing our appreciation for all that they do.” Unlike the pay supple ments, the school safety funds will be built into the state’s annual base budget as ongoing expenditures. Kemp previously authorized two school safety grants, with $30,000 going to each public school in 2019 and a second round of $50,000 grants an nounced earlier this year. “This additional invest- Publix was founded in 1930 in Winter Haven, Fla. They have stores in seven states in the southeast, with plans to expand into Ken tucky. Publix has 1,361 stores locations. Of those, 210 are in Georgia. There is also a distribution center in Dacula, a bakery plant in Atlanta, and a dairy plant in Dacula. Publix is the largest em ployee-owned company in the United States. ment in school safety will benefit every part of the state,” he said. Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who presides over the Georgia Senate, and House Speaker Jon Bums expressed support for both initiatives Monday. “The safety and wellbeing of our students across the state is always my top prior ity,” Jones said. “We want every child in our state to have the opportu nity to leam, grow, and ex plore in a safe and secure environment,” added Bums, R-Newington. “This proposal will help ensure that hap pens.” injcbgen PORTABLE OXYGEN FOR YOUR ON-THE-GO LIFESTYLE Call us toll-free at 1-833-353-3002 OPENING JANUARY 1ST STORAGE ISi! crossbowstoraqe.com s 706-400-6020 132 CROSSBOW LANE TALKING ROCK, GEORGIA 30175 CLIMATE & NON-CLIMATE AUTONOMOUS STORAGE FACILITY 5X10 TO 10X25 AVAILABLE Kemp announces funding for employee retention, school safety
