Newspaper Page Text
Wednesday, May 16,2018
dawsonnews.com I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I 3A
Dawsonville home destroyed by fire
Photo courtesy State Fire Marshal's Office
A Wednesday night fire burned down a two-story home on Goshen
Church Road in Dawsonville.
By Allie Dean
adean@dawsonnews.com
A fire destroyed a single-family
home on Goshen Church Road
Wednesday night.
According to Emergency Services
Director Danny Thompson, units
were dispatched to a reported struc
ture fire at 10:51 p.m. May 9.
The home, located at 283 Goshen
Church Road, was heavily involved
when the units arrived on scene, and
crews worked through the night and
into the next day extinguishing and
hitting hot spots, Thompson said.
No one was home at the time of
the fire and no one was injured.
Thompson said one firefighter
was treated for heat exhaustion on
scene and released.
The cause of the fire is still under
investigation by the Fire Marshal’s
Office.
On Sunday, emergency services
personnel responded to a separate
structure fire at 7 Pinebridge Drive
in Dawsonville.
Personnel arrived on scene to find
a 20 foot by 30 foot detached stor
age building with heavy flames
showing, according to Thompson.
The fire was extinguished quickly
and contained to the building,
though there was some damage to a
neighbor’s fence.
There were no injuries and the
cause is under investigation by the
Dawson County Fire Marshal’s
Office.
Area preacher celebrates 100th birthday
Requirements for
graduation updated
By Alexander Popp
DCN Regional Staff
“You know, I never
really thought I’d live as
long as I did,” said the Rev.
James Kelso with a laugh,
reflecting on more than 70
years of mission
work, preaching
and serving the
Presbyterian
Church.
This Monday,
Kelso, lifelong
preacher and long
time resident of
Dawson County,
turned 100 years old, and
to celebrate a long life, he
led a sermon at Deer
Creek Shores Presbyterian
Church in northeastern
Forsyth County on
Sunday.
Kelso said that when he
turned 90, someone asked
him jokingly if he was
planning on preaching on
his 100th birthday, and he
replied “sure, why not.”
“I didn’t really think I
was going to live that long
...and finally the time
arrived and it doesn’t
seem possible,” he said.
According to Kelso, he
was born in rural west
Kentucky in 1918, gradu
ated high school in 1938,
married his wife the next
year and finally
graduated from the
seminary in 1946.
“By this time,
we had two chil
dren. One was 6,
the other was 2
and my wife and I
talked about it a lot
and decided we
wanted to do missionary
work,” he said.
The next 20 odd years
for their family were spent
dedicated to mission work
in between Colombia and
the states.
Their family grew and
moved, gaining an adopt
ed daughter who had been
abandoned on the streets
of Colombia.
Finally, after years of
mission work, he said they
decided to settle down and
retire the missionary life
for something more regu
lar stateside.
Kelso said that he spent
time preaching in different
churches, spending several
years here and there before
moving on.
“Ten years was the lon
gest I ever spent in one
place,” he said.
When he and his wife
decided to fully retire,
three of his children con
vinced them to settle
down close by in Dawson
County.
“I always intended to
retire and live on the land
where I was born, but they
talked me out of it and I’m
glad they did,” he said
with a chuckle.
In 1987, he got involved
at Deer Creek Shores
Presbyterian Church,
never working there offi
cially, but helping out
when and where he could.
“I never served in an
official capacity because I
belonged to another
denomination. But that
didn’t matter,” Kelso said.
“I worked in the church,
served as an assistant to
the pastor, and director of
missions, and preached
when the pastor was gone.
So it’s been a good minis
try for me because it gave
me something to do in my
older years without the
full responsibility of the
ministry of a church.”
He had to retire from
service fully two years
ago, saying that he had
begun to grow feeble, and
lose his eyesight.
“I didn’t feel too good
getting up and down ...
and I got to the place
where I had to print my
bulletin out in big print
because I was losing my
eyesight,” Kelso said.
But even after retiring,
he said he still goes to
church every Sunday like
clockwork.
“The lord has blessed
me with a long life,” Kelso
said. “...If the lord wants
you to preach you better
do it.”
By Jessica Brown
jbrown@dawsonnews.com
The Dawson County
Board of Education recent
ly approved changes to the
high school graduation
requirements that will
affect the class of 2019 and
beyond.
As a result of the board’s
May 1 meeting, graduating
seniors must now have 28
units instead of 24 units to
graduate. Incoming ninth
graders will be required to
have the 28 units to meet
graduation requirements.
“The reason we started
looking at the graduation
requirements is because
we’re requiring our stu
dents to only earn like 75
percent of available credit,
so that’s not in line with
other districts that are on a
block schedule,” said
Nicole FeCave, executive
director of Teaching and
Teaming.
There are 13 districts
surrounding Dawson that
are on a true block sched
ule, but Dawson is only
one of five districts that
offer graduation with less
than 83 percent of avail
able class credit. Most dis
tricts require students to
earn 83 to 87 percent of
available credit.
“By doing this we
would be more in line with
the credits that they’re
offering to their students,”
FeCave said.
If students were to earn
credit for every class taken
each year, they would have
32 units by the end of their
senior year.
“With the opportunities
we have now in eighth
grade, (students) have
absolutely adequate time
to complete the graduation
requirements by the end of
their junior year,” said
Superintendent Damon
Gibbs.
The 260 eighth graders
in the county have earned
over 525 units of high
school credit this year.
Included with the addi
tion of the unit require
ments is a mandatory per
sonal finance course for
juniors.
The requirements were
vetted by the Governance
Council at Dawson
County High School and
the system governance
team, who thought
Dawson should be in line
with other district require
ments, according to Gibbs.
The new requirements
will be listed in the student
handbooks given to all stu
dents in the fall.
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