Love and friendship filled the air when celebrating St. Valentine’s Day at two elegant dinners held at The Clubhouse at Lake Sconti.
Hugging and kissing were verboten as guests practiced social distancing but still could mingle and enjoy the welcome company of friends and neighbors.
The clubhouse culinary staff presented an exquisite dinner, fit for Cupid himself. Guests enjoyed choices from roasted duck eggrolls to a chocolate salted caramel soufflé.
As expected, red was the color of the night with bouquets of scarlet tulips gracing the tables. The sounds of Sock Monkey brought folks to their feet as clubhouse rafters rocked once again.
Plans are being made for frequent special dining events to get social vibes moving, even in the middle of a pandemic. We’re all social creatures who love good times, and our clubhouse staff aims to bring them back.
Duffers, our little bistro behind the golf cart barn, was spiffed up with a whole new look in January when hammers, saws and screwdrivers did their thing to create a cozy place for Big Canoers to grab a bite of breakfast, lunch or take home a sack of sandwiches and salads for dinner.
In case you didn’t know, Duffers serves breakfast all day, with sandwiches and salads waiting for the noon whistle to blow. Soup simmering on the stove is always hot and ready to warm folks on these last nippy winter days.
To accent the bistro’s new look, club-house chefs are presenting a new menu for Duffers that will be tasty and quick for folks on the go. The menu board will announce the new items around mid-March. Don’t fret, old favorites can still be yours.
Despite its name, Duffers isn’t strictly a golfers’ hangout. It’s one of the best-kept foodie secrets in Big Canoe, and now you know.
Duffers is open from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. with extended hours beginning in May.
If you haven’t yet met the friendly Duffers’ staff, swing on by and get acquainted. Grab a burger or Philly steak sandwich while there and maybe take
home a sack for dinner.
Place orders at the counter or call 706-268-3273, and your bag will be ready when you get there.
With some 2,500 inquiries handled since its launch last summer, Ask the POA has become an ideal resource for property owners to quickly address every Big Canoe issue imaginable. As a result, we introduced a new segment at the Feb. 11 POA board work session to recap and address the system’s most-asked questions from the previous month.
And with such a repository of great questions and carefully considered responses from the POA staff, we’ve compiled and shared the most frequently raised subjects that have come through Ask the POA in the last month. A full list is below, broken down into the trending topics and essential points that were raised.
Please keep in mind that we also use the Ask the POA tool for property owners to submit questions for upcoming board sessions held every second Thursday of the month; and to address topics in online gatherings, such as the Virtual Town Hall on the Lake Petit Dam at 10 a.m. Sat., Feb. 27. The session will be available in real-time online at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy-DCupUv3QARMxoLw5fVavw/live
If you have any questions on the Town Hall or any Big Canoe question, write to askthepoa@bigcanoepoa.org or click the Ask the POA button on bigcanoepoa.org.
Clubhouse Dining
We received many questions about scheduling and why hours are reduced in the winter. The good news is that we go to extended hours on Tuesday, March 2. The new schedule is Tuesday and Sunday, 11 a. m.-4 p.m. (last seating 3:30 p.m.) with bar service 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; and Wednesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. (last seating 8 p.m.); and closed Monday.
Reservations are strongly recommended as they not only ensure that your party has a table, but they also help the Clubhouse better plan their labor needs which in turn helps maintain labor costs. When seating permits, they will attempt to accommodate walk-ins.
Weather events – and we’ve had more than our share this winter – have forced schedule changes if not closures. Our priority is the safety of property owners and POA staff, so any changes to the Clubhouse’s operations are made with everyone’s well-being in mind. We don’t want folks risking their lives for a burger by driving down the mountain in nasty weather.
Postal Facility
The Postal Facility is not a U.S. post office, but a satellite office, which in our case means services and hours are limited.
The workers at the facility are from the Jasper U.S. Post Office. The workers arrive as their delivery schedule dictates and leave when they have delivered all mail. The postal workers are there roughly from 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
To know if the workers are present in case you need to pick up a package, tune into the live video feed of the facility on the bigcanoepoa.org website by clicking the “My Big Canoe” tab in the upper left of the dashboard; then click “Postal Facility” at the bottom of the menu; then scroll down to the live feed.
Another issue raised is how crowded the Postal Facility is – over the holidays USPS delivered 700 packages a day. To address storage limitations heavily impacted by everyone’s reliance on Amazon, I met with the Jasper postmaster and we have discussed alternate storage areas. We are now embarking on a project to convert the lower level of Village Station into a package pickup facility.
Parking is another big issue raised, so I am happy to report that improving the slalom course that is the parking lot in 2021 will include adding guard rails, new curbing, repaving, and adapting the loading dock to allow mail trucks to parallel park, which will free up several spaces.
It’s also important to note that the Postal Facility is among the next major capital improvements that the POA has planned, and long-range planning is looking at building an entirely new post office in four or five years.
Trash and Recycling
The subject of improper dumping comes up often on Ask the POA. To that, we have a few reminders to 1) not leave full trash bags outside a locked gate and 2) let your contractors know that they are not allowed to leave debris at the facility
To address this, we are in the process of setting up cameras so the community can see what bins are available – and open – before driving into the area. This also will discourage many from ignoring the rules.
There also will soon be a transponder/card reader gate installed at the entrance so unauthorized people can’t dump their trash in our facility. The transponder update, combined with the camera, will help identify individuals who can be cited.
To address increased demand, we are planning to add a large compactor.
We also are going to move the yard debris dump area across Steve Tate Road to the borrow pit area off Hubbard Road in a few weeks. Its removal will give us the room to install a larger-capacity trash compactor.
Many of these changes are aimed to reduce the congestion in the trash facility area.
Roads
This is obviously a big one and we get many wide-ranging questions about this. Now that a lot of utility work is completed, long-overdue work with new asphalt and patching is set on McElroy Mountain Drive; Ridgeview Drive; parts of Quail Cove Drive; and Cherokee Trail for starters.
We will continue expanding the road striping and reflector program.
And we can’t say this enough about driving as it relates to winter weather. During and following a snow or ice storm, our priority is to get all 88 miles of our roads cleared of snow, starting with a single lane opened to provide access to emergency vehicles. And there is no safe way to drive on icy mountain roads. Not one. Stay off the roads.
If you can’t change your plans to leave home and you know that a storm is coming, factor in enough time for a safe return.
t was May 18, 2018. My wife Cyndi and I drove through the gates for the first time as property owners at Big Canoe. After the dust had settled – literally – from unpacking all our belongings and model trains, Cyndi started to get a bit homesick.
In our small town of Suwanee, Ga., Cyndi had been incredibly active as a volunteer with woman’s Bible study, the Gwinnett County Food Bank, and the Sugarloaf United Methodist Church leadership team among other organizations. She started looking for ways to plug into her new community, both inside and outside the gates. This proved hard and frustrating. There was no single source of information, and Big Canoe can be a bit intimidating when you first arrive.
Scott Auer, Big Canoe POA General Manager
A bit discouraged, we joined a Dinner Eight event through the Big Canoe Chapel. And there, we had the pleasure of meeting Sue Merrick. Another new resident to Big Canoe, and a huge volunteer from her previous life in Texas, Sue had experienced some of the same frustrations.
Sue’s impressive streak of volunteering started when she was a teenage candy-strip-er in Baton Rouge, La., where her father was a professor at Louisiana State University. She earned a degree in social work at LSU, applying her skills to a variety of capacities at nursing homes, Child Protective Services, and an institution for the developmentally disabled. She also kept her hands in volunteering as a PTA president, a youth group counselor, and on the board of her kids’ preschool.
Interested in similarly giving to the community when she arrived in 2018, Sue found that she had to search far too many sources to get her volunteer bearings. With no central clearinghouse of listed opportunities in the area, she did what any resourceful self-starter would do: she spearheaded efforts with Leadership Big Canoe (LBC) classmates to research and ultimately start their own.
Sue and her team consulted with leaders of local organizations that enlisted volunteers. They evaluated the websites of groups that provided parallel resources, such as VolunteerMatch, All for Good, and Idealist. And they envisioned and ultimately tailored a site to fit the needs of Big Canoe.
In February 2021, the Volunteer Big Canoe website (https://volbc.org/) was launched, sharing with Big Canoe property owners the array of volunteer opportunities that are organized by category of interest. Outside of Big Canoe in Pickens and Daw-son counties, volunteering can range from helping coordinate flu shots with Jasper Pharmacy; building houses with Habitat for Humanity; or spending time with ailing patients in the Georgia Mountains Hospice in Jasper. Inside, opportunities include everything from food or coat drives; preparing meals and giving rides to the homebound through the Wellness Collaborative; and pitching in on the Big Canoe’s 50th-anniversary blowout in 2022.
While the site is up and running, its launch hit a major snag with the ongoing pandemic. The original plan was to formally unveil the project in September 2020, but the launch was delayed by changes in volunteer guidelines brought on by COVID-19 and in response to concerns of would-be volunteers.
The site is starting to get traffic, Sue says, and organizations are helping to spread the word.
While Volunteer Big Canoe is packed with options for those interested, Sue
said that she looks forward to additional post-pandemic opportunities that will open up with organizations easing social-distancing protocols.
“I know that the Community Thrift Store in Jasper needs volunteers and I am a counselor over CARES (food bank in Jasper), which is looking at opening up,” Sue says. “As we get more and more people vaccinated and more people are comfortable going out, we’re hoping this is a good time to at least start rolling it out.”
In the true spirit of Volunteer Big Canoe, numerous LBC colleagues, including Diane LaCharite, and local web designer Liz Scherer have donated their time to ensure Volunteer Big Canoe succeeds. However, Sue added that the organization can still use as many as three more volunteers to help promote the website and to sign up more organizations to get listed.
“Volunteer Big Canoe is something
I am proud of – and I’m relieved that it’s finally out,” Sue says. “I am happy there will be a resource that makes it easy for our community to do what we do best, and that’s helping other people.”
If you have interest in paying it forward in our community, check out the numerous opportunities listed on Volunteer Big Canoe or contact the organization directly through their website at https://volbc.org/
COVID-19 constraints may have kept folks from participating in many activities they once enjoyed, but hiking wasn’t one of them. There’s been a boom in folks getting out and wandering Big Canoe’s trails. That’s a good thing and, hopefully, hikers, strollers and wanderers will continue to commune with nature after the world settles down a bit.
Vic Shannon and Lin Crouse repaired a major root ball area that destroyed part of the Indian Rocks Trail.
A lot has been accomplished by the Trails Committee this past year. Liz Scher-er, our leader, has been busy updating the trail maps and posters and creating a new website. Trails were carefully checked to confirm actual distances. Liz works tireless-ly walking trails and communicating issues. It’s really a big team effort.
All painted blazes have been replaced with attractive metal ones that should last a long time. New signs have been built and painted.
Non-slip has been put down on many bridges for safety’s sake. Steps and railings have been replaced. New cribbings were installed and bog areas were addressed.
The Trails Committee welcomed eight new members and said goodbye to six who moved away. We are up to 42 members.
Where do you start to tell the fish tale of the Big Canoe Marina at Lake Petit? Like so many things in Big Canoe, it has evolved. The Marina today has 112 slips for privately owned boats, nine rental pontoon boats and 206 racks for property owners to store canoes and kayaks, primarily at the North Marina. There is a waitlist of approximately 100 property owners for boat slips and 30 for canoe/kayak racks. Big Canoers really like the water! If you’re interested in getting on the list, contact the Marina at 706-268-3303.
When Tom Cousins created Big Canoe in 1972, the dam was built to capture all 111 acres of Lake Petit. A lake was created that is 100 feet deep; a central part of that creation was Eagle Island, a place to picnic in the heart of the lake. Eagle Island is now off-limits due to nesting American bald eagles. It is also reportedly home to scads of snakes, so that’s something to consider before putting out the potato salad.
The early days of Big Canoe were vastly different from today’s community. It was originally marketed as a “resort” with very few full-time residents. As the community of Big Canoe evolved, so did the Marina. The first version of the docks was installed in the 1970s and boasted just a small number of boats.
Moving docks from one end of the lake to the other is often challenging. (Photo courtesy of Big Canoe Marina staff)
The current boat docks were put in place in 2006 by launching them from the North Marina and towing them across the lake. The docks are held in place by cables attached to massive concrete blocks on the bottom of the lake. This was the start of incremental improvements to the Marina, improvements that continue each year.
In 2013, John Lipkowitz took over as Marina manager. John inherited a small group of pontoon boats that were in rough shape. Using his prior experience in operations and customer service, John started building a team and improving the equipment so property owners could better enjoy their time at the Marina and on the lake. The goal was to become a desirable destination for property owners and guests. To that end, the Big Canoe Marina has evolved to where it now has four main areas of focus.
Boat/watercraft rentals
After surveying the needs of the community and what could be provided at the Marina, John made a proposal to the POA that we “flip the fleet,” which resulted in the purchase of new pontoon boats.
The Marina took possession of seven Veranda pontoons in 2017 and an additional one in 2020. These boats can hold up to 13 people and are popular rentals. The smaller “mini” pontoon boat can hold five people.
The Marina experimented with various watercraft over the years. Stand-up paddleboards were purchased in 2014, Hobie kayaks were bought in 2016, and Hobie peddleboards in 2017.
The Hobie products are being retired in 2021 and replaced with four Perception Outlaw hybrid stand-up paddleboard/kayaks and five Native Slayer peddle kayaks. In 2021, the Marina will offer this selection of watercraft in addition to pontoon boats.
In the year 2020, pontoon boats and watercraft were rented 8,225 times!
Fishing
Lake Petit supports a healthy ecosystem for fish and the Marina staff does all it can to support the people who love to fish. Lake Petit is stocked with lake trout, 11,000 pounds in 2020 alone. Over 3,679 individual daily fishing permits were sold in 2020, which helps offset the cost of stocking the lake.
In 2019, the Marina experimented with stocking small 5- to 7-inch walleye to determine if they could survive this far south. Last summer, several fishermen caught walleye of 11-12 inches in length. Apparently, the experiment shows promise!
The Marina Shack stocks bait and tackle for sale, along with signature T-shirts.
Slip/rack rentals
The Marina manages the leases for the 112 boat slips and the 206 kayak/canoe racks. In 2019 and 2020, a number of kayak/canoe racks were moved from the Main Marina to the North Marina. Eventually, the old wooden racks were replaced with aluminum racks.
In 2018, a kayak dock was added to the North Marina. This dock makes it much easier to launch watercraft.
Fun on the water
The Marina staff works hard to create a fun atmosphere for patrons to enjoy the facility, the lake and the activities often hosted, such as shrimp boils and open-air concerts.
Kids Fish Camp teaches kids the secrets of fishing and discovering fun on the lake. Camp is held twice each summer and packs the kids in for a week of good times on the water.
Often groups gather lakeside at the Marina for casual meetings. Ladies of the Lake, Men’s Cigar Circle and Awesome Women of the Lake (AWOL) enjoy this peaceful setting for chatting and socializing.
There are plenty of tables, chairs and umbrellas that welcome folks to sit a spell and, perhaps, enjoy a picnic. The Marina Shack has a wraparound porch that overlooks the lake. It’s quite a popular place to be when sudden showers appear. Cold drinks are available to purchase. Need ice? There’s an ice machine on property offering bagged ice to go.
The many uses of Lake Petit are managed to meet the desires of boat owners, property owners and guests. Property owners living on the lake are respected with regulations in place to protect their privacy.
Did you know prior to 2012 there was no swimming allowed in Lake Petit? Folks love to jump off a pontoon and swim with the fishes so, by the end of 2014, an officially approved swim area was established. A map showing this designated area can be found in the Marina Shack.
John Lipowitz will be the first to tell you the success of the Big Canoe Marina is directly related to the dedication and talent of his part-time team. These are the oldest and wisest dockhands in North Georgia! We welcome you to enjoy the many things Lake Petit and the Marina have to offer. It’s a place made for good times and maybe a delicious trout dinner if you’re lucky.
Leadership Big Canoe was treated to several speakers who gave information about all there is to do in Big Canoe, including all there is to know about trash.
Teri Sawyer is the POA Membership and Community Events Manager. She has the awesome responsibility of meeting newcomers, providing information about the community and informing them of amenities and activities available in the area. In the past, this information was given to large groups of newcomers a few times a year. However, Teri takes a more personal approach. Each new family is greeted in a private meeting where they are given an orientation.
Teri reviews the amenities, clubs and organizations; community rules and regulations are also explained. She also introduces the six big events in Big Canoe each year. While COVID-19 put a damper on things, it’s hoped the six events—Easter Egg Hunt, Fourth of July, Concert on the Green, Oktoberfest, Trunk or Treat and Visits from Santa—can happen this year.
Everyone new to Big Canoe likes information about volunteer opportunities. Sue Merrick recognized there was no one place a resident could go to find where helping hands were needed. A website was developed to identify available volunteer positions.
If you’re looking for a chance to serve others, visit www.volbc.org and find volunteer opportunities in Big Canoe as well as the surrounding area. Contact information for each volunteer position is posted.
Shiraz Alikhan spoke about the Well-ness Collaborative. This organization is a 501(c)3 corporation formed in 2013. It was recognized there was a need for an organization to help Big Canoe residents live the best and healthiest life they could. That help includes providing meals to shut-ins, rides to medical services and educating residents about living a healthy, happy life through adopting healthy habits.
Gretchen Huddock finished the February presentation with a talk about recycling and our trash facility. “Talkin’ Trash” was a great hit.
If you recall the soothsayer’s warning from Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” you know the fortuneteller was alerting Caesar to the assassination plot being hatched by Rome’s senators, including Caesar’s trusted friend Brutus.
Shakespeare created great theatrical drama with the soothsayer’s dire prediction, and history confirms Caesar was attacked and murdered around the Ides of March in 44 B.C. In addition to their worries about Caesar’s growing authority over the empire, maybe his enemies were also angry; two years earlier Julius had changed the Roman calendar, moving the big New Year’s celebration from March 1 to Jan. 1. The new month was appropriately named January, in honor of the two-faced Roman god Janus, who could simultaneously look backward to the old year and gaze ahead into the new one.
March wasn’t the only month with ides. Every month in the Roman calendar had one, marking the first full moon of each month, usually occurring around the middle, between the 13th and 15th. Even in modern America, some embrace conspiracy theories that link dreaded events to the curse of ides. Is it just coincidence the Internal Revenue Service requires all tax returns by April 15? The IRS could have used Shakespeare in its PR department: “Beware the Ides of April” has a memorable ring to it.
Something else important happens around Big Canoe in March and early spring. Bears are out and about, looking for food after months of not eating during their long winter’s drowsiness. They are beginning to roam around now, hungry and searching for food at a time when their natural food sources are still scarce. These are real live big black bears, not Winnie the Pooh or the happy Berenstain kind that create fun adventures for kids.
Maybe a quick quiz will confirm what you know about these close bear neighbors of ours:
Does a bear poop in the woods?
Does a bear climb trees?
Does a bear think a tall squared-off log supporting your back deck looks like a tree?
Does a hungry bear love birdseed and its high-calorie content?
Do you like to revisit your favorite restaurant for a good meal?
Does a bear return to places where it has found a convenient and scrumptious meal?
Do you detect a problem here?
If you answered “yes” to most of these questions, you likely realize this problem may lead to damage to your home, a real threat to the safety of your family, visitors and neighbors, as well as increased likelihood a bear will be killed to solve a problem caused by humans.
Thankfully, there are better answers to this issue. One of the best is our simple community regulation to put away outside bird feeders by March 1 each year. Feed our feathered friends during the winter months of December, January and February, then put away the birdseed. Your neighbors, the community and even the wildlife will appreciate your commitment to doing what’s best for all.
A Big Canoe rule, a rule we established for our own benefit, authorizes serious fines for residents or visitors who ignore or violate this common-sense birdseed policy. If a serious penalty impacts the pocketbook for a March violation, some folks will deserve to beware the Ides of March.
Most of our friends, neighbors and residents value Big Canoe’s guidelines for protecting wildlife. Encourage others to join you in making our commitments into reality.
Maybe Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar provided the simplest question you could ask others about their buy-in to Big Canoe’s special pledge to conservation. Big Canoe believes in protecting the lives of bears. “Et tu, Brute?” “And you, Brutus?”
f you’ve reached the age where your definition of Happy Hour is a good nap, you may want to read on. Recent data increasingly points to sleep as a significant factor in maintaining good health. Those who are tired (pun intended) of hearing diet and exercise are the primary keys to staying fit may welcome the idea that sleeping, even napping, is an important contributor to wellbeing as we age. Taking an afternoon nap doesn’t need to be a guilty pleasure anymore.
A study at the University of Roch-ester demonstrates exactly how beneficial sleep is, particularly the deep sleep experienced at night. When you sleep, your brain removes toxic proteins that are by-products of neural activity when you’re awake. Unfortunately, your brain can only adequately remove these toxins when you have enough high-quality, deep sleep. An insufficient amount of this slow-wave sleep reduces the ability to process information and problem-solve, kills your creativity and increases your emotional reactivity.
The best sleep is the rest we get at night, but the occasional nap also can be beneficial. Ideally, a nap should be no more than 20 to 30 minutes. That provides sufficient restorative sleep without entering the deep sleep stage, which can result in feeling groggy when you wake or finding it difficult to get sufficient sleep at night. Naps are best indulged in no more than two to three times a week. Any more can be an indication that more nighttime sleep is needed, or there may be an underlying health issue.
There are multiple benefits to taking the occasional short nap. It not only reduces fatigue and increases alertness, but it also improves mood (read: less crabby) and increases memory and reaction time (particularly beneficial while driving). It stimulates relaxation and can help with weight loss and decrease the risk of heart disease and stroke. Listen to your body. If you’re feeling drowsy and you can’t talk yourself into taking a walk (also a good way to address some of the issues above), a short nap can be a good alternative. Everyone is different, however. For some, a nap can interfere with nighttime sleep. If that’s the case, napping may not be for you.
Some suggest setting an alarm for 20 minutes, but many find if they just let their body be their guide they will wake naturally after a short snooze. It’s best to nap midway in your awake period, typically around 2 to 3 p.m. One sleep specialist suggests having a cup of coffee just before your nap. That way the caffeine will be taking effect at about the time you are finishing your rest.
It was once thought older people didn’t need as much sleep as younger ones, but experts now agree that’s not the case. Regardless of age, we typically need the recommended seven to eight hours of sleep to function at our best. If you’re not getting enough sleep at night, daytime naps can help. They not only can increase older individuals’ total sleep time without producing daytime drowsiness but also have the potential to provide measurable cognitive benefits. If you thought napping was largely for the preschool set, you can rest assured that is not the case.
There is one additional benefit related to sleep you may wish to explore. A study conducted by the National Institutes of Health found keeping yourself cool while you sleep (sleeping au natural encourages this) speeds the body’s metabolism. This is because your body creates more brown fat in order to keep you warm. Brown fat produces heat by burning calories (300 times more heat than any organ in the body), and this boosts your metabolism all day and can help you lose weight. Another good thing. Sleep well.
The Healthy Living Committee is a part of the Wellness Collaborative, a 501(c)3 organization.
