Grand jury indicts Wigington on 57 counts; Wife arrested, indicted on two counts of Theft by Taking

The proposed 2021-2022 Pickens School Calendar. 

The Pickens Board of Education is asking parents to weigh in on the proposed 2021-2022 school calendar. 

The calendar is similar to the 2020-2021 calendar, with the addition of digital learning days in conjunction with two teacher workdays and a slight shift to the Winter Break. 

The school year is scheduled tentatively to begin August 2 with staggered start times that were used this year, and which Pickens School Superintendent Dr. Rick Townsend said were popular among parents, students, and teachers/administrators. The last day of school is scheduled for May 27. 

The Pickens Progress has partnered with the Pickens 4-H program and Lollidrops Sweet Shoppe for a weekly kids coloring contest. Every week kids can color the image on our Kids Page, get their parents to take a photo and send it to us for a chance to win a single scoop cone or cup from Lollidrops on Main Street in Jasper. A winner will be selected each week. They will recieve a coupon for the free ice cream and have their coloring page publish in the next edition. Email entries to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

       A visitor to the Pickens County Administration Building checks her temperature before entering. All visitors to this and two other county buildings will now use these stand-up temperature checking machines. 

“Verification succeeded. Please check temperature.” 

No doubt it feels very Total Recall - or some other dystopian sci-fi flick - but that’s what visitors to the Pickens Administration Building, the Pickens Courthouse, and the Pickens Recreation Center will hear when they have mandatory temperature checks at the new temperature-screening kiosks at those facilities. 

Stancil makes plans as chair-elect; Shouse skeptical of vote totals. 

Precinct results from the 2020 General Election. 

     Pickens Elections Supervisor Julianne Roberts said Monday they are prepared for a statewide recount but believes Pickens vote totals wouldn’t change much, certainly not enough to affect anything.

The elections office has the paper ballots and cards from machines stored and backed up, so they can comply with whatever will be required from all Georgia counties. 

“It’s too close, you can pretty well bank on us having a recount,” she said.

Roberts, who has worked in elections for years, said there is always a chance that the machines used for scanning the paper absentee let two slide through together or something else odd happened. “They are machines so things can happen,” she said. But she noted this would be one or two votes at most.

      See this week's print or online edtions for full story, including more election news from the elections supervisor, comments from Stancil and Shouse, and detailed numbers from the Pickens Commission Chair race.