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6A I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com
Wednesday, October 17,2018
FROM 1A
BOC
project that is expected to be com
pleted in late 2018 to early 2019,
according to Thurmond.
The new turn lanes will help the
county prepare for future residen
tial and commercial growth,
which was also a big focus of
Thurmond’s presentation.
Thurmond said Dawson
County has seen 177 new busi
nesses come to the area in the first
nine months of 2018 and has seen
a tremendous increase in residen
tial building permits, more than
doubling from 2017.
New developments along Red
Rider Road, Lumpkin
Campground Road, Dawson
Forest Road and Sosebee Road
will bring 683 new single family
developments. Ongoing projects
also include 300 apartments
behind Publix and 60 townhomes
at Riley Place.
“I don’t want to overrun the
county with apartments, no one
does I believe,” Thurmond said.
“But... we’ve got to have a mix
of affordable housing as well as
the more different homes that we
have in this community as well.”
Two senior developments are
also in the works on Lumpkin
Campground Road with the con
struction of Dawson Ridge, a
community of 190 senior homes,
and Magnolia Assisted Senior
Living.
“You have to have a mix of dif
ferent availability for citizens,”
Thurmond said. “Not everybody
can live or afford to purchase a
$250,000 to $300,000 home. You
got to have a place for people to
live if they want to live in this
community and work in this com
munity.”
Commercial growth continues
to rise, with an Olive Garden
planned where Huck’s Apple
Barn was located on Dawson
Forest and the five parcels sur
rounding the property up for
grabs.
“We’re very proud of the busi
nesses that we have,” Thurmond
said. “We’re very proud of what
we have on the 400 corridor, but
as you all know we’re a retail
based community. We want to
diversify that a little bit and try to
find some businesses that have
higher paying jobs.”
Earlier this year the board of
commission approved to reinstate
impact fees, which are one-time
fees charged to new development
to help offset the cost of services.
Thurmond said the fees are some
thing the board continues to look
at on a continuous basis.
“We will as a board continue to
look and see what kind of impact
the impact fees has on our com
munity. One thing we don’t want
to do is we do not to lose the busi
nesses, especially in that area
where we’re trying to diversify,”
Thurmond said. “It’s very impor
tant that we diversify our econo
my in this county and in this com
munity. We will take a constant
look at that to make sure that
we’re not causing an issue with
that.”
Something the county is also
considering is the Transportation
Special Purpose Local Option
Sales Tax, or TSPLOST, as the
board prepares a final list of
potential transportation projects
that should be up for discussion
sometime this month.
There will be a referendum in
March as to whether TSPLOST
will be implemented.
Thurmond also discussed his
proposed 2019 general fund bud
get, which is approximately
$700,000 more than the previous
year. After going line item by line
item with the finance department,
almost $1 million in funds could
be reallocated to make the budget
more efficient, Thurmond said.
“One of the things that I want
ed to make sure of as we looked
at the 2019 budget was that that
budget was efficient,” he said. “It
also meets the needs of our elect
ed officials and our departments.
It’ll increase productivity. It gives
our elected officials and staff per
sonnel and equipment to better
perform the services they provide
for you.”
Thurmond encouraged the
attendees of the luncheon to
come to the remainder of the
public hearings on the proposed
budget, the third and final of
which is at 6 p.m. Oct. 18 at the
Dawson County Government
Center.
“It’s your money. I like to hear
from you so I know what you’re
thinking,” said Thurmond. “I do
want to hear from you if you have
thoughts or concerns in reference
to that.”
FROM 1A
Subdivision
and annex,” Irvin said.
Irvin said the proposed
number of lots is the best
case scenario, maximum
amount of lots that could be
developed.
“There is potential that
some lots will be lost,” Irvin
said. “This would be the
number of lots they would
like to have but obviously
when you get engineering
involved and start looking
at where we’re going to put
the roads...all those vari
ables are really not taken
into account at this level.”
Three of the planning
commission members
expressed concern about
putting more traffic into the
already congested area on
Perimeter Road. A traffic
study is not required due to
the proposed density.
“Being on Perimeter
Road, and I know the city is
looking down the road at
putting in a bypass around
the city, I don’t know that
this portion is going to be
affected by that but we’re
going to be dumping a lot
of traffic onto this road with
more homes,” said Planning
Commission member Steve
Sanvi.
Irvin said the site plan
contains secondary access
off Allen Street, which is
not required but will help
ease the traffic issue. He
also said that Trampas
Hansard, the city public
works director, will be
looking into the additional
traffic burden.
“He is painfully aware of
those issues there and yes
we would certainly like to
alleviate as much traffic as
we can off of there but there
is still the rights of the prop
erty owner to develop his
land as he can,” Irvin said.
Turner said that the two
entrances he has proposed
should be enough to allevi
ate traffic concerns, and that
the 53-lot Stonewall subdi
vision only has one
entrance.
“We have in effect cut the
traffic exchanges by 50 per
cent by having the two
intersections and that gives
the homeowners in there
the freedom to make the
decision if they want to go
out Allen Street or if they
want to go Perimeter,” he
said. “I know there is times
of day when the high
school is doing their opera
tions when that’s an issue
so they’ve got that flexibili
ty. I think traffic has been
minimized as much as it
possibly can in a small
development like this.”
There are also no pro
posed amenities for the sub
division: Turner said that
what the city is already
offering in the form of the
future Main Street Park,
farmers market and dog
park as well as existing
shops downtown will serve
that purpose.
“This is truly a develop
ment that people will walk
to the grocery store, they’ll
walk to city hall, they’ll
walk to the library,” he said.
“We have made provisions
to promote that interaction.”
City Attorney Dana
Miles asked the commis
sion to add to their motion
that the developer would do
some improvements to
what is now city property to
create a joint detention
facility at the developer’s
expense, which would ben
efit both their property and
the city’s property.
Along with approving the
variance, the commission
voted unanimously to rec
ommend the council
approve the annexation and
zoning with conditions: that
the developer reach an
agreement with the city for
a joint detention facility and
improvements to be made
by the developer to the city
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dog park area; that the city
require two entrances to the
subdivision with one on
Allen Street and one on
Perimeter Road; and that
the developer provide inter
parcel pedestrian access to
the city property.
The city council will hold
a public hearing on the
annexation and rezoning on
Oct. 22 and on Nov. 5, after
which the council could
vote to approve the
requests.
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A LETTER OF APPRECIATION
Burts Crossing Homeowner, Fire Survivor
Our hearts are full of gratitude when we say thank you to
the Dawson County Police Department, Emergency Medical
Services, Dawson County and Forsyth County Fire Departments
who, not only work every day to protect the citizens of their
counties but who worked tirelessly that evening of July 4 th 2018,
on Burts Crossing Drive to put out and stabilize the blazing fire.
Also, thank you so much to the community, our friends, family,
neighbors, local business owners, and even strangers for all of
your kindness and sympathy during our most unfortunate and
difficult time.
We truly appreciate all of the support, kind words, clothes, gifts,
and basic needs that were offered to us in our greatest time of
need. Our children were taken care of and not once, did we feel
alone or isolated after the devastating loss of our home.
We know that we cannot begin to thank every single person
individually, for fear of leaving someone out. There were days
when it took all that we had in us just to get through to the next
morning, but please know that we will never forget everyone’s
kindness and generosity towards us.
We thank God that all three families made it out of their homes
safely. It was a devastating night and we all lost so much. We lost
everything we owned, with the exception of our vehicles and the
clothes that we were wearing and we are still trying to get over
the trauma of that horrible night. But, we can honestly say that
through the last few months, we gained much more than we had
lost. Our faith in humanity has been restored. We have been so
touched by all who have reached out to us. We have been blessed
beyond words.
So, as we rebuild our lives a little bit each day, we will try not to
focus on what we have lost, but what we have gained. We will
remember all of the wonderful people who have touched our
lives and we thank God for the very special community that we
live in. Thank you all so much for helping us as we heal.
Tie Mickael 'hJofai family