About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (May 16, 2018)
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. BEGIN YOUR NEW HEALTHCARE CAREER TODAY! 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