David Byrd is very passionate about his Columbia County home. He should be, considering his family’s history in the area.

His father’s side of the family has been traced back to the 1700s, and his mother’s side has a long history, as well. “We have been here pretty much since the founding of the county,” Byrd says.

A successful businessman—he is the president of Southern Beverage Packers in Appling—Byrd loves giving back to the community. His family is involved with many charities, both locally and on a broader scale.

“We were raised to give back,” Byrd says. “Family comes first, of course, but you have to look out for the community. Without the community, where would we be? The community has given us so much and so many opportunities, it is only right to give back to it.”

“It is especially fulfilling in what we do for the community and those in need. We recently reached out to Lumberton, N.C., to help them (after Hurricane Matthew). Locally, we make donations to several charities. We are proud to always be giving back to the community with our time, money and products.”

No doubt his desire to give back comes at least in part from his mother, Mary Byrd, whose brother was well-known Augusta photographer Robert “Fitz” Simms. Mary S. Byrd should be a familiar name to students and graduates of Augusta University, where there is an art gallery named after her.

“There’s never a dull moment with Mama,” Byrd says. “She is involved all over the place—the garden club, Golden Harvest Food bank, all kinds of missions with the church and much more. We once gave her an old production plant—about 100,000 square feet—that she donated to Golden Harvest.”

Even Southern Beverage Packers on Nature’s Way in Appling—which pumps, bottles and distributes Springtime Water and other products—is based on an artesian well in Columbia County. The artesian well that the water comes from is on land that belongs to the Byrd family, and the production and bottling plant is nearby.

“We always knew that a source of water was there,” Byrd says. “We wanted to know more, so we hired a hydrogeologist from the University of West Georgia. He identified it and mapped it out as far as the depth and the area to access. Then we hired someone who specialized in drilling artesian wells to come drill it for us. Ironically, the way the precise location of the water was found with a divining rod made of an old coat hanger.”

Byrd is actually the second generation of his family in the bottling business. His maternal grandfather worked for Coca-Cola United in Augusta from the 1930s until 1966, and his father worked for Pepsi-Cola Bottling in Augusta until 1966. After leaving Pepsi, his father purchased 7-Up Bottling Corp. on Deans Bridge Road and later became Southern Beverage Packers, which was bottling private-label sodas for grocery stores, such as Big K for Kroger.

In the early ’70s, Southern Beverage was expanding under his father’s leadership, so he found some partners to help. In about a decade, the elder Byrd purchased his partners’ stock to run the company himself.

David Byrd, a graduate of Evans High School, had earned a degree in agriculture economics from the University of Georgia and was working at a local bank when his father took over the whole company and asked him to come onboard. David joined the family business, and more growth soon followed.

Water Is a Booming Business

“In a small bottling company, you are always looking for new products,” Byrd says. “In the late ’80s, we decided to try bottled water. After all, we are blessed with great source right here in Columbia County.”

At that time, bottled water was only done in Europe—and in glass bottles. The Byrds decided to use plastic bottles, a common practice today.

Byrd’s love of his community extends to his customers. He doesn’t see them simply as people who buy a product. It is always his goal to form relationships with them.

“To do that,” Byrd says, “you have to have a lot of integrity as a business person and be true to your word. All businesses have issues to solve; you just have to admit the problem, resolve it and get it behind you. You have to prove you have integrity to earn customers’ trust.”

The second part of building relationships is having a great product. Byrd is confident in Southern Beverage’s line of artesian-well bottled waters: “Our product is second to none.”

Earning the trust of customers and building relationships also involves giving the consumer a good value.

“We like to think we run a tight ship,” Byrd says, “and the savings we gain, we pass on to the consumer. Several stores in the area carry our half-liter artesian water for 59 cents. Where else can you get a half-liter of anything for under a dollar? We aim to give the consumer a great product at a great price.”

Today, Southern Beverage Packers offers a variety of products. The Springtime Artesian Water, Springtime Vitamin Enriched Flavored Water, Springtime Ice, Enhanced Electrolyte Water, Crystalline Sodas and Crystalline Fruit Drinks all use water pumped directly from the artesian well in Appling.

“It seems like in the nonalcoholic beverages world different types of waters are getting customers’ attention,” Byrd says, “and we are working to meet those needs.”

To that end, in mid-October Southern Beverage released a line of alkaline water. “This is water with a high pH; it is considered very healthy, as is an alkaline diet. There are a few alkaline waters on West Coast, and we are launching ours to meet the demand here.”

Southern Beverage Packers does more than just bottle and sell its line of products in the local area. “We bottle water and deliver it to 12 states in the South,” Byrd says. “We also market products that are not bottled here.”

The other products require an expertise that Byrd’s company provides. Southern Beverage comes up with the label designs, has the labels made and sends them to a firm that bottles the water. Southern Beverage then markets and distributes the product.

Many people also are moving away from sugar-added beverages to water. “The World Health Organization just last week issued statement that a majority of cases of obesity and Type II Diabetes in the United States are from added sugars. A lot of people are learning the health benefits of water,” he says.

For Byrd, Southern Beverage Packers is a family affair. His wife, Angie, is in charge of local sales. She also handles outreach to charities and the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce. “Angie just developed our website and maintains all of our social media,” Byrd says. “She stays very busy.”

He sees his employees as family, too. Part of his success, Byrd says, is that he makes a commitment to his employees to provide them with a good job. In fact, the family owned company has several employees who have been there for 30 to 40 years or more.

Byrd takes great pride in living and working in Columbia County.

“We are proud to be located in the CSRA. It is such a dynamic and growing area. Angie and I have lived most of our lives here and are proud to be business partners. It is a great place to live and work.”

Southern Beverage Packers Inc.
President: David Byrd
Where: 6341 Nature’s Way, Appling
Call: (800) 326-2469
Email: dbyrd@southernbev.com
Online: www.southernbev.com and www.facebook.com/southernbeveragespringtimewater

This article appears in the October 2016 issue of Augusta Magazine.

Why Beds?

It all starts with a good night’s sleep. That’s the foundation for a good start and a healthy life. But what if you don’t have a bed? What if you sleep on a pallet on the floor with only a coat for a pillow? “We know our kids go to bed hungry,” says Pat Williams, one of the founders of ReStart Augusta who now serves as the volunteer CEO. “But where do they come from the night before.”

Enter ReStart Augusta, a non-profit started in January 2014 to provide beds for people who don’t have one. The first bed was delivered in May 2014, and as early September, ReStart had provided nearly 950 beds. It’s expected that they will deliver the 1,000th bed in October. The organization’s roots are in Columbia County, as the program was operated out of Wesley United Methodist Church prior to the approval as an independent non-profit.

It’s usually the one of the most expensive items someone needs immediately, and it’s the most requested item, she says.

“We can’t do everything. We thought we could make the most difference with this,” says Larry Dinkins, chairman of the ReStart Augusta Board of Directors and one of the organization’s most active volunteers. “If you’ve got a bed to sleep on you’re helped as soon as you get it. It’s an immediate pay-back.”

Many of those whom ReStart serves are veterans coming out of the Veterans Administration Hospital.

“They’re restarting their lives, but re-starting without a bed,” Williams says.

Gary Whited, another board of directors member and active volunteer, makes many of the bed deliveries for ReStart and sees first-hand the need. “Last February we delivered to a vet in South Augusta. When we got there he was sitting in a lawn chair in the yard. That was the only furniture he had,” Whited says.

The house had no heat, so the night before the veteran slept on the hard floor with only his coat for a pillow. While the ReStart volunteers were there, the gas company arrived to turn on the gas, so that night the man had a comfortable bed, clean bedding, a soft pillow and a warm house to sleep in.

More Than Beds

The ReStart volunteers have developed a unique system for providing the bedding. Twin and queen mattresses and box springs are purchased. Volunteers construct wooden frames that can be assembled on-site, and disassembled if the recipient moves later.

Some mattresses are donated, but only if they are good quality. “We don’t take anything we wouldn’t sleep in,” Dinkins says.

Clients also get bedding that’s been purchased new or gently used.

Referrals come from other social service agencies that determine needs and ReStart refers clients to other agencies as well.

“If you need a bed, you’re probably going to need more than that,” Dinkins says.

All of the work is done by volunteers. There’s no paid staff. Funds are raised through donations, grants and the support of Wesley United Methodist Church in Evans, which provided the foundation for ReStart, Williams says.

The building on Crawford Avenue in the Harrisburg community is rented and the organization relies on many in-kind donations. But mostly it relies on its 250-plus volunteers who build, paint, deliver, write grant applications, man the phones, collect donations, handle the paperwork, schedule work and deliveries, and everything else it takes to make sure as many people as possible who need a bed, have one. Boy and Girl scout troops volunteer and several companies use ReStart when looking for community service projects.

Even this well-oiled machine can’t fill all the needs. The demand is greater than the supply, Williams says. But they keep plugging away, honing the process to supply all they can.

Recently a local hotel undergoing a renovation, offered to donate its king-sized beds to ReStart, Williams says. King-sized beds don’t work well since many of the homes they deliver to are smaller. However, the boxsprings are the same width as a twin beds. So, the enterprising volunteers came up with a frame design that allowed the additional six inches of the longer boxspring to slide under the headboard for a perfect fit.

Williams says the biggest need now is for people to deliver the beds, which are delivered on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. All that’s needed to deliver is a truck and a few tools. Williams says they will teach the rest.

Learn More

To learn more about ReStart Augusta, visit the website at restartaugusta.org. Information about the organization, how to volunteer, how to donate your time, materials or organize a drive is available there.

Location:
ReStart Augusta
428 Crawford Ave.
Augusta, GA

Mailing address:
P.O. Box 370
Augusta, GA 30901

contact:
706-432-9373 restartaugusta@gmail.com

This article appears in the October 2016 issue of Augusta Magazine.

Remember when summer vacations seemed to last forever?

They still do if you’re the entertainment director for a young whippersnapper or two. On one hand, they would be perfectly content to sleep till the vicinity of noon, eat a bag of Cheetos for breakfast and then spend the remainder of the day staring at their phones or playing video games.

On the other hand, a summer agenda like that might sabotage your chances for Parent of the Year honors and down the road someday when you’re nominated to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court, that could come back to haunt you.

Give the kids some credit: They probably didn’t get bored until the third or fourth day of summer vacation. But now the rest of the summer looms like a yawning (literally) chasm of unrelenting ennui. Your kids have probably used that exact phrase, in fact.

What’s the solution?

This article!

In a moment, the fun for children of all ages begins. But let’s pause first for an over-the-counter level dose of reality: Summer can’t be all about fun. There must be some deliberately unfun engagements on everyone’s social calendar, whether age 8 or 80.

And speaking of calendars, recurring events mean you won’t have to constantly reinvent the wheel. For example, let’s say you’ve penciled in taking the kids for a round of Putt-Putt each and every Thursday afternoon of summer vacation. Great idea! Putt-Putt is a splendid place to have some fun. But let’s make that fun the weekly reward for something unfun. Maybe every Thursday morning is reserved for doing some yard work or other household chore.  υ

Probably more than ever before, kids need to learn the value of having a work ethic. When they grow up to be ditch diggers or CEOs, they’ll appreciate learning the valuable maxim that work comes first, play second.

End of sermon.

So what are some of the zillions of summer fun options (we’re focusing mainly on June and July) in Columbia County alone? Trust us when we say, you will not need to cross state lines—or even leave the county—to incite fun.

You will not believe how many of the events originate from a single place: the public library. It’s amazing! And some of them even include actual books.

How’s this for starters: All three Columbia County libraries—Evans, Harlem and Grovetown (a.k.a. Euchee Creek)—offer archery classes! For kids! With real arrows! It’s a program offered for ages 8 and up in conjunction with 4-H and UGA. 

For kids ages 11 to 18 who aspire to being the next teen idol, the libraries also offer beginner guitar classes. You don’t even have to own a guitar. The library has half a dozen of its own to lend, so don’t fret. (They have to stay at the library, however.) They even have recording studio capabilities.

Another very nifty summer library program is called Maker Space. Basically, the library offers space—and tools—for makers. What kind of tools? CAD software, a 3D printer and a 3D scanner, coding and development software, and the kind of nuts and bolts tools that aren’t usually used on nuts and bolts, like soldering irons and specialized electronics tools. Sounds like these makers will be creating some high-tech gear. The main program is for techie teens, but there’s also a Young Makers program that teaches science, engineering and design for the 8 to 12 crowd.

The “Adult Time-Out” might be just the ticket for you.

There’s tons more, like young adult craft nights and game nights, movie matinees and movie nights for children and families, reptile shows designed for kids, therapy dog events and performances by a magician and ventriloquist plus a North Georgia fiddler and storyteller.

If you’re thinking the library offers programs solely for young people, think again. In fact, think both literary and fiscal literacy. The library offers a slew of book clubs for adults. Some of them center around discussions of published books, others offer support for aspiring authors and the Great American Novel they’re working on—or hope to start. They don’t all meet at the library either. The Pub Fiction Book Club, for example, meets at Pizza Central in Evans to discuss literature with a side of pepperoni—and possibly a brewski or two.

When it comes to financial literacy, the libraries have you covered there as well, from the simple to the complex. Among the scheduled events and classes are “Understanding Life Insurance Options,” “Money Management” and “Long Term Care and Estate Planning.” Those might not be topics that really get your heart pumping, but they’re still important. Ditto for “Senior Studies 101 Lunch & Learn,” dishing out a different topic of interest to older adults each month.

Taking money management to a simpler level, another free class is “Keep Calm & Coupon On.” We all have to eat, right? Saving money doing it makes food taste better.

Libraries are repositories for veritable treasuries of information, which makes them the perfect place to offer instruction on genealogical research. If you’re researching your family tree—or would like to find out how—the library has a calendar event for you.

Then again, sometimes you want to just kick back and relax, maybe play a game of chess. They have a chess club. Or maybe do even less. The “Adult Time-Out” might be just the ticket for you. Just don’t tell your kids. They might put you in it. And there’s always the soothing and relaxing Doodle Hour. Adults, bring your coloring books and release your inner child, at least for one hour. Just remember: Try to stay inside the lines.

Finally, don’t forget: You can actually check out a book from the library too. (The direct source for more information on all these and still other events: gchrl.org. Click on “Events” on the right side of the blue bar to see a calendar, then click on Evans, Euchee Creek, Harlem, etc., for the events at your library of choice.)

But let’s say you want to get out in the great outdoors. You have a plethora of options there too. 

Columbia County is a hotbed of worthy recreation options to make even the hottest summer cool.

Let us not forget that we have a massive playground in our own backyard named Clarks Hill Lake that offers boating, sailing, water skiing, swimming, fishing, camping and sunset-watching, among other options.

Closer to home but still on the water, many a pleasant hour awaits canoeists and kayakers plying the waters of the Augusta Canal. And if water-adjacent is more your thing, walking, jogging and biking alongside the canal on the towpath is another great way to get some exercise and commune with nature at the same time. As an added bonus, you’re side-by-side with the mighty Savannah River and the Augusta Canal. No wonder it’s a National Heritage Area. And not owning a bike, canoe or kayak is no problem: They’re all available for rent at the canal headgates.

Staying on the wild side, have you heard about the new Columbia County golf course? Picture the aforementioned Putt-Putt after a decade of neglect and you’ve got the idea, or maybe the exact opposite of the Augusta National Golf Club. Constructed on 50 wooded acres next to Canterbury Stables off Wrightsboro Road in Grovetown, Canterbury Golf and Equine Trail is best described as “nature trail golf.” The nine hole Par 3 course is like a disc golf course, but for golfers. Keep in mind too, there is a sterling disc golf course at Wildwood Park on the shores of Clarks Hill Lake.

Naturally, there are dozens of National-esque traditional little-white-ball-type golf courses sprinkled around the countryside within the friendly confines of Columbia County, some private, others public. We would be remiss if we failed to mention Adventure Crossing, which sports a nifty miniature golf course, plus batting cages, go-carts, a video game arcade and a circus-style carousel. It’s a fun place.

It will host the annual Summer Beach Blast concert on June 3, the same weekend the Southeastern Outdoors Expo happens at the Columbia County Exhibition Center.

Obviously, Columbia County is a hotbed of worthy recreational and educational options to make even the hottest summer cool. And we’re not even done yet. Here are 10 more ideas for summer fun: porch swings, squirt guns, water balloons, running through the sprinkler, lemonade stands, playing horseshoes in the back yard, catching lightning bugs, bonfires and s’mores, riding your bike through the neighborhood and making homemade ice cream.

Daniel Pearson is a Columbia County-based writer and publisher and a long-time contributor to AugustaMagazine.      

ANDREW STRICKLAND has a tough job. He is the director of Columbia County’s planning services division, a post he’s held for nearly two years now.

What is his job description? In short, “It’s looking 10 to 20 years down the road.” And there is no crystal ball in his office. I checked.

Like we said, it’s a tough job. What makes it even worse?

“I’m an impatient guy,” Strickland admits.

Take the Euchee Creek Greenway project as a prime example. It could drive an impatient person to distraction. Although the original idea dates back to 2002, a quick check of the nearest calendar reveals we are currently in the year 2016 and the project is still in its infancy. That can’t sit well with a guy who is short on patience and it doesn’t.

“This project really has taken a lot longer than it should have,” says Strickland. “Over the years, oversight for it has been passed from one department to another,” and as a result it has sometimes been an A-list project and sometimes has languished for years on the back burner.

That is about to change. By this time next year the bidding process on a healthy stretch of greenway will be complete. “We’ll be awarding construction contracts in May of 2017 for a one-mile addition from Grovetown to Canterbury Farms subdivision.” Specifically, the Grovetown trailhead will be located where Euchee Creek crosses beneath Wrightsboro Road, just down the hill from the entrance to the Creek Bend neighborhood. When the bridge over the creek was widened a year or two ago, the location of the old bridge left behind a prime location for parking and other necessary trailhead facilities.

FROM WRIGHTSBORO ROAD, the greenway will follow the creek to join the first phase of the greenway that is already open for walkers, joggers and cyclists. That stretch of trail, about three-quarters of a mile long, winds along the creek behind Canterbury Farms.

“Some people may not know there is already a completed part of the trail,” Strickland says, “and some people may think it’s a neighborhood amenity for residents of Canterbury Farms.” But it’s open to one and all.

The expectation—or the hope, at least—is that getting the second phase underway will accelerate the entire project. “We have $2.5 million in SPLOST funds, so we’re ready to go.”

Still, it’s easy to see the challenges presented by this project and why, just like Rome, it can’t be built overnight. For starters, consider the greenway’s intended final footprint: 10 feet wide and 18.5 miles long. The six phases of construction will eventually extend the trail from Grovetown all the way to the Savannah River near the Furys Ferry Road crossing. All the needed land has to be acquired the old-fashioned way—a parcel here, a parcel there—because Columbia County doesn’t have something that many other communities do: abandoned rail lines. Those ribbons of real estate are tailor-made for trails and have provided a ready-made corridor for many a city. Exhibit number one locally: North Augusta’s Greeneway.

It’s a lot more complicated when blazing a trail through uncharted wilderness, as the Euchee Creek Greenway does. Although the project’s very name might suggest simply following the creek, it’s not quite that simple. True, land along a creek is generally never going to be developed. It should be prime land for inexpensive acquisition or even outright donation by developers and private landowners. On the other hand, says Strickland, that means building trails through wetlands, bogs and swampy areas. Aside from the myriad environmental studies and impact statements and permits required from who knows how many agencies, there is the more immediate aspect of permanence. One would hate to have to rebuild a trail after every heavy rain.υ

BUT AN IMPORTANT ASPECT of greenway construction is balancing accessibility and visibility (which includes safety) with the opportunity to get off the beaten path and commune with nature.

Look at a map of the current and upcoming phases of the greenway (which you can do by going to www.columbiacountyga.gov. Hold your mouse over the government tab, then look for the Planning Services Division in the left column. Click there and you’ll see a link for “Greenspace.” The Virtual Tour has some nifty tools waiting for you) and you’ll be able to see Euchee Creek snaking through the woods from Canterbury Farms, underneath I-20, and then curving around behind the Ashbrooke and Ivy Falls neighborhoods heading for the general vicinity of Patriots Park, Bartram Trail and Columbia Road.

By the time we get to the  construction phase we’re about to see—the tip of the iceberg—things will really begin to move fast.

“The question there,” says Strickland, “is whether to continue along the creek, or to use the existing sidewalk along William Few Parkway across from Grovetown High School—although it’s only five feet wide, half the width needed for a trail, or to use both routes.”

When all is said and done, decisions like that are why someone like Strickland is on the county’s payroll. A native of Gainesville, Ga., he holds a master’s degree in city and regional planning from Clemson and was part of an advocacy group called Eat Smart Move More in Greenwood, S.C., which helped lay the groundwork for that county’s first bike and pedestrian trail system—built on a former railroad bed, of course.

Strickland is here as the result of coming down from Greenwood a couple years ago to attend a wedding in Augusta with a reception at the Savannah Rapids Pavilion. He was impressed by the idyllic surroundings and when he saw a planning position advertised here a few months later, he jumped at the chance to apply. The rest, as they say, is basically urban planning.

For all the people as impatient as he is, Strickland offers a couple of encouraging notes. “Every road widening project we have on the books—and there are quite a few—will automatically include sidewalks and bike lanes.” It may not be greenspace, but it will certainly afford better access to greenspace. For example, when Stevens Creek Road is widened in a couple years, its bike lanes and sidewalks will tie in to the long Evans to Locks trail that already extends from the Blue Ridge area to the Savannah Rapids Pavilion and the Augusta Canal headwaters. That popular walking, jogging and biking path, incidentally, is poised to be extended to Evans Town Park from its current end near Blue Ridge. “We’re just waiting to hear from CSX, since the sidewalk we’ll build needs to cross their tracks.”

Speaking of green growth, 15 years ago Columbia County signed on to Georgia’s Greenspace Program, dedicated to permanently protecting 20 percent of the county’s land and water from development. The current portfolio stands at seven percent, so continued expansion of protected areas is a priority.

Another encouraging point to keep in mind: urban planning of the kind that gives birth to new highways and parks and greenways is kind of like an iceberg. All the planning and funding and engineering and design and permitting and land acquisition and community meetings and public comment periods and surveying are like the enormous underwater portion of an iceberg. By the time we get to the construction phase we’re about to see—the tip of the iceberg— things will really begin to move fast. 

Well, fast as government work goes, anyway. 

Daniel Pearson is a Columbia County-based writer and publisher and a long-time contributor to AugustaMagazine. 

While he’s never staged an event with a turnout that small, Columbia County’s number one impresario aims for crowds a lot closer to three than 30,000. Bigger is not necessarily better for someone who has perfected the art of the intimate concert experience. 

“My goal every year is to break even,” says Deas, who has been bringing quality acts to the Jabez S. Hardin Performing Arts Center inside the main branch of the Columbia County Library for the past several years. Breaking even can be a bit of a challenge in a venue with fewer than 300 seats. But unless you enjoy attending concerts that require a pair of binoculars to get a decent view of the performers, 300 seats is a good thing.

As country legend Colin Raye said from the Evans stage this past November, “If I lived here, I would be at this beautiful theater every time there was a show.” 

The intimate setting and quality acoustics of the library’s cozy amphitheater are like having a command performance just for you and a couple hundred of your fellow live music lovers. The worst seat in the house would be prime real estate in the rock world arena.

The trade-off, if you can call it that, is the thrill of discovery. The Jabez Hardin stage might not have a name-brand performer on it, but you have to remember there was a time when The Beatles played to nearly empty coffeehouses and when the biggest crowd Carrie Underwood had ever performed before was a few dozen people. 

It isn’t that Mike Deas is just getting his feet wet in the concert business, starting small and working toward the day when he will fill 30,000 seats. It all goes back to that “bigger is not necessarily better” business model. But it hasn’t always been that way.

The Big Show Days

Once upon a time Deas served on the board of directors for a much larger concert venue: the Imperial Theatre. 

“When I lived in Atlanta, I would frequently drive home to visit family on the weekends. One day I drove down Broad Street and saw the Miller was boarded up and for sale,” recalls Deas. “I contacted the broker and asked for a tour. I saw a dilapidated theater and wondered how the powers that be in Augusta could let such a beautiful venue with its rich history get into this condition.”

Deas decided to do something about it. He created Friends of the Miller, a group of theater enthusiasts and friends who share his goal of seeing the Miller restored and operational. That led to a seat on the Imperial board and that experience, in turn, motivated Deas to create Augusta Amusements.

Strike that. To reincarnate Augusta Amusements.

Look very carefully at the Augusta Amusements website and you’ll notice the small letters, “Since 1931.” Deas no doubt looks young for his age, but he can’t be that well-preserved.

In its original 1931 incarnation, Augusta Amusements was the brainchild of Frank Miller—yes, he of Miller Theater fame—and four other more or less silent partners. The partnership owned and operated Augusta’s abundant supply of stages in the days of yore: the Rialto, at what is now Casella Eye Center at Eighth and Broad; the Modjeska across the street on the south side of Broad Street’s 800 block; then five years later the “New” Modjeska opened on the north side of Broad (its 100th anniversary will fall on Nov. 30, 2016); the Dreamland Theater stood at the corner of Ninth and Broad; and the Imperial opened its doors (originally as the Wells Theater) in February of 1918.

All of those theaters were managed by Augusta Amusements, version 1-point-0.

In fact, Augusta Amusements built the second-largest theater in all of Georgia, the Miller, which opened in February of 1940 to great success as a movie house. Alas, like everything else in downtowns all across the fruited plain, the Miller fell victim to the mall boom of the late ’60s and the resulting demise of city centers near and far.

By 1968, the venerable old partnership had dissolved and Augusta Amusements was no more—until Mike Deas came along, fresh from his experience with the Imperial. After lying dormant for more than 40 years, what was once the number one name in Augusta-area entertainment was back. 

The experience of management by committee versus being a sole proprietor had a strong appeal. “The first event I promoted as Augusta Amusements was Saturday night, August 8, 2009, when we screened Elvis’s classic movie Jailhouse Rock at the Imperial. While the credits were still rolling, the curtains opened and Jason Sikes and the Sassy Brass Band performed a concert that included many of Elvis’s hit songs.” When the show ended, departing audience members were in for one more blast from the past before they returned to the 20th century: Deas had arranged for classic car enthusiasts to fill the parking spaces up and down Broad Street in front of the Imperial with their gleaming vintage cars. 

From that maiden voyage the rest, as they say, is history, but it’s a history that is still being written, if a bit haltingly. “Every year I say, ‘I’ll do this for one more year.’” It’s not a business for the faint of heart. For one thing, it’s expensive: Up-front costs can easily top $10,000, even in a venue as modest as the Jabez Hardin Performing Arts Center. Only 290 seats are available to help cover those costs. Fortunately, Deas has a couple of part-time jobs to keep groceries on the table, and the county provides a lot of support. “I can’t say enough wonderful compliments to the folks in Columbia County from Sandy Boner to Ellen Hill to all the folks who keep the theater in a presentable manner so concertgoers have a wonderful entertainment experience.”

Columbia County residents aren’t the only ones who appreciate what a jewel they have. “We have a sizable number of regular concertgoers who travel hundreds of miles to Evans to see their favorite performers,” says Deas. “People have traveled from North and South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee and from as far away as Texas and Minnesota” to attend concerts.

But sometimes even the best-laid plans go awry. Like the time he got a text from pianist Michael Kaeshammer that started out, “We have a problem.” 

Uh oh. 

Kaeshammer was slated to be on stage in Evans at 7:30 that very evening and had missed his connecting flight. It was 2:30 p.m., five hours from show time. And he was texting from Toronto.

Through the miracle of jet propulsion and an 85 m.p.h trip down I-20 from Atlanta to Evans, the show actually started on time, but Deas added a few gray hairs to his collection.

Deas may be the founder of Friends of the Miller and the current steward of the organization that built the Art Moderne masterpiece 75 years ago, but he’s not too sure he’ll see it restored in his lifetime.

In the meantime we have a beautiful and intimate theater right in our backyard and a man dedicated to putting quality acts on its stage.

For that, Deas gets all As. That just leaves it to you and me to fill its seats.  

This article appears in the February-March 2016 issue of Augusta Magazine.