Newspaper Page Text
Special DCHS
graduation edition
INSIDE, 1C
'^cLciccrt^.
PRESENTING THE CLASS OF
2 0 18
WEDNESDAY I MAY 23, 2018
Dawson News ► com dawsonville, GEORGIA $1.00
Photos by Jessica Brown Dawson County News
Dawson native Vickie Croft has painted over 600 rocks in the past two years. She has already distribut
ed 300 to local parks and playgrounds for kids to find and enjoy.
Therapy through artwork
Dawson woman creates rock art despite painful disease
By Jessica Brown
jbrown@dawsonnews.com
Vickie Croft has been artistic her
entire life, but after being diagnosed
with Lyme disease, she was worried
she would never be able to fulfill her
passion to create art.
That is, until she discovered a
painted rock in Cumming.
While out with her sister nearly
three years ago, the pair found a per
fectly painted rock perched under a
lamppost and Croft knew then what
she wanted to do.
Croft went to a landscaping supply
store and bought a truck bed full of
rocks for $45 which has lasted her for
nearly three years.
So far, Croft has hidden 300 rocks
around Dawson County at Rock
Creek Park, Veterans Memorial Park,
the Dawson County Library, North
Georgia Premium Outlets and in the
front bushes of many big stores.
She still has over 300 rocks ready
to be dispersed throughout the year.
Croft began taking art classes at the
senior center after she retired from a
20-year nursing career at Northside
hospital, excited to find a new artistic
Vickie Croft paints an assortment of subjects on her rocks. From ani
mals to cars to inspirational phrases, Croft paints whatever inspires
her that day.
endeavor she never tried before.
“I had never painted in my life and
so I started painting and I just loved
it,” Croft said.
She found that painting took her
mind off her joint pain and that paint
ing was an easier hobby than her pas
sion for creating mosaics.
“First I did canvas, but what am I
going to do with them all? I have
every inch of every wall in this house
covered so then this rock thing -1 just
love it because it doesn’t take up any
room,” Croft said.
See Rocks 18A
Armstrong
re-elected;
Tanner rolls
By Allie Dean
adean@dawsonnews.com
Incumbent Dawson County Board of Education
member Karen Armstrong will keep her spot after
beating challenger Joe Stapp in Tuesday’s primary
election.
Armstrong took 69.9 percent of
the vote, with 1,869 votes to Stapp’s
806.
“I’m just very ecstatic and hon
ored that the citizens of Dawson
County voted to re-elect me,”
Armstrong said. “I plan to give 150
percent again for the next four
years. I’m humbled and appreciative
of their support.”
Armstrong holds the District 3 seat. This will be
her second term on the board.
“I’m happy for Karen, she obviously ran a good
campaign,” Stapp said.
Uncontested on the ballot for the county were
Sharon Fausett for District 1 Commissioner, Tim
See Election 110A
Armstrong
Dawson girl dies
in crash with bus
By Nick Watson
DCN Regional Staff
For a time, Summer Faith Anderson’s first concern
after school was taking care of her ailing grandmother.
“Every day she got off that bus, she
went over to see her (grandmother)
and make sure her (grandmother) was
OK. That was her main priority. She
was loving. She was caring,” her aunt
Connie Markevitch said.
Summer Faith Anderson, a seventh-
grader at Dawson County Middle
School, was killed in a Wednesday,
May 16, wreck with a Hall County
school bus on Thompson Bridge Road
north of Murrayville.
Her father, Lonnie Anderson, 33, will be charged
with failure to maintain lane and slick tires “upon the
improvement of his medical condition,” Georgia State
Patrol Assistant Post Commander Sgt. A.J. Allen wrote
in an email Thursday, May 17.
Lonnie Anderson may face a second-degree vehicu
lar homicide charge, according to authorities. The Hall
See Crash 18A
Anderson
Dawsonville eyes historic preservation funds after DNR certification
By Allie Dean
adean@dawsonnews.com
The city of Dawsonville can
now apply for grants to help pre
serve and protect its cultural heri
tage, thanks to an official desig
nation by the Georgia
Department of Natural Resources
Historic Preservation Division.
Effective May 4, the city of
Dawsonville is Georgia’s 96th
Certified Local Government, or
CLG.
CLG status is granted by the
National Parks Service and the
state Historic Preservation
Division and is a partnership to
preserve historic character and
cultural heritage in communities
across the U.S.
The certification allows the city
to obtain grants through the state
from the Federal Historic
Preservation Fund for projects
including surveys, rehabilitation
work, education programs, design
guidelines, structural assessments
and more.
The city council passed a local
preservation ordinance in
November of 2014 and the
Historic Preservation
Commission held its first meeting
in February of 2015. Since then
the five-member board has
worked tirelessly to obtain the
CLG status, and received word in
December of 2017 that their
application had been approved.
Since then, they have been
awaiting the official confirmation
from DNR, according to current
HPC member and former city
council member Angie Smith.
Smith has spearheaded the
movement for historic preserva
tion in the city, and said she is
See City 110A
0
9 0 9 9
Inside
Volume 3, Number 34
© 2018, Dawson County News
Dawsonville, Georgia
Church Events
3B
Classifieds
8B
Dear Abby
7B
Deaths
2A
Legals
8B
Opinion
9A
Sports
1B
4A Dawson
County Chief
Tax Appraiser
resigns
5A Dawsonville
L man charged
with child
molestation
Taking on cancer requires an elite clinical team. That's why Northside
Hospital Cancer Institute has the most board-certified medical
oncologists in Georgia. We diagnose and treat more new cancer cases
than any other hospital in the state—providing care at 48 cancer
centers. Backed by expertise and experience, we're built to beat cancer.
Learn more at builttobeatcancer.com
m
NORTHSIDE
HOSPITAL
CANCER INSTITUTE
‘■BUILT
to BEAT
CANCER
