news

Little Miss Piggy’s Pork Skins & Snacks offers a variety of flavor choices. 

By Heather Giambra

Wow, the height of summer seems like August first and the market was very busy. Every tent was seeing some action since there was such a great turnout of customers. Great weather, lots of veggies, crafters, bakers, and entertainment, too. 

Mike Bellotti and Marvin Von Almen of Buckskin Sheriff Band brought the songs with Mike’s sweet guitar and Marvin’s sublime harmonica. You are welcome to bring your chairs and set awhile to hear these guys do their thing.

        This map, presented to Jasper council at their August meeting, shows the area originally proposed where open containers would be allowed. In their first of two votes to allow for open containers in the city’s central business district, council expanded this area. See article for details about what areas were included in that expansion.  

        Jasper City Council moved towards legalizing open containers in a designated downtown area with approval of the first reading of an amendment to their alcohol ordinance.

The amendment will not be finalized until council approves a second reading at next month’s meeting. 

See full story in this week's print and online editions. 

When sports open back up, Pickens athletes, coaches will be ready

With last week’s delay of school openings in Pickens County, fall athletics across the county were paused for the time being. This was part of an effort by the county to ensure that all school and athletics facilities would be prepared for a safe start and completely sanitized for our students and athletes. This was a setback for all of the fall sports heading into their upcoming seasons, but an issue that numerous programs across the state have had to endure since athletic workouts resumed in June. Fall sports include football, softball, cross-country and volleyball and are played at the high school and junior high levels in Pickens County.

Pickens Board of Education Facebook / Photo

The above is from Harmony Elementary teacher Whitney Dickinson-Heath’s virtual Bitmoji classroom. The school board posted this on their Facebook page and wrote, “This is one of the many examples of a virtual classroom designed by our Pickens County teachers.”

Drawing a cartoon of a teacher usually gets a student in trouble, but this year teachers are “drawing” cartoons of themselves to use in virtual Bitmoji classrooms. 

These Bitmoji classrooms are part of the new “It’s Learning” digital platform that will be used in the Pickens school system this year. They are becoming popular with educators who are posting their virtual creations on social media. Teachers create avatars of themselves and decorate their virtual class with furniture, rugs, posters, and other features. Students are able to click on books, on the