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Miss Relay for Life pageant raises
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82 arrested in child exploitation sting
Arrests in multistate operation known as ‘Operation Southern Impact III’ include Dawson County man
By Joshua Demarest
jdemarest@dawsonnews.com
A Dawson County man was
one of 82 people arrested in a
multistate child exploitation
sting Friday. The joint opera
tion, named “Operation
Southern Impact III,” was a
coordinated effort involving
hundreds of law enforcement
agencies across eight states.
Chad Sitzwohl, 35, of
Dawsonville, was charged with
three counts of sexual exploita
tion of a child.
During the operation, 82 peo
ple were arrested, 31 in
Georgia, and 17 minors were
rescued or identified as being
victims of internet crimes
against children. The 82 people
arrested were between
20 and 70 years old, and
ranged in occupation
from daycare adminis
trator to youth group
leader, former high
school band director to
freelance photographer,
and from small business
owner to nonprofit employee.
The majority of the 31
Sitzwohl
Georgia arrests were
centered around the
possession and distribu
tion of child pornogra
phy.
While the Georgia
Bureau of Investigations
is constantly pursuing all
forms of child pornogra
phy, according to a GBI press
release, this particular operation
“targeted those seeking out and
distributing the most violent
sexual abuse material involving
infants and toddlers.”
The press release continued
to say that “the possession, dis
tribution and production of
these horrific images is not
uncommon.”
See Sting 15A
Career academy construction continues
Jessica Taylor Dawson County News
A construction crew installs lights in the main hallway of the second floor of the
facility.
New facility
set to open
in August
By Jessica Taylor
jtaylor@dawsonnews.com
The corner of Hwy. 53
and Perimeter Road looks
drastically different than it
did last May.
Just a little more than one
year after the Dawson
County College and Career
Academy was announced
by Dawson County
Schools, the facility’s con
struction is almost com
plete, with it opening to stu
dents for the 2019-20
school year.
“We’re on track and we
anticipate getting the build
ing (open) first of July,”
Superintendent Damon
Gibbs said.
The 35,000-square-foot,
two-story facility will house
the high school’s Career,
Technical and Agricultural
Education (CTAE) pro
grams as well as classrooms
set aside for dual enroll
ment opportunities.
“One of the things that
we did and one of the things
that we did even with the
Performing Arts Center,
teachers that were going to
be impacted by this facility
had an input in the design,
so the architect had a pre
liminary design and met
with every single teacher,”
Gibbs said. “We made sev
eral changes to this building
based on the feedback we
got.”
Inside the building is a
full size industrial kitchen
with stainless steel appli
ances, a multipurpose meet
ing room that will be used
in similar fashion as the
Professional Development
Center on Main Street, a
health sciences lab with a
built-in patient room, sinks
and hospital beds, and an
expansive video broadcast
ing studio accounting for
half of the second story
space.
Also included are labs for
construction and engineer
ing programs, early child
hood education, business
and marketing as well as
outdoor work areas.
A canopy will expand
from the high school’s main
building to the college and
career academy so that
See Academy 17A
City passes
ordinance
limiting
vaping
By Jessica Taylor
jtaylor@dawsonnews.com
The city of Dawsonville adopted a new
ordinance Monday night aimed at reducing
the usage of electronic cigarettes and
tobacco products inside city limits. It went
into effect immediately Tuesday morning
after a unanimous May 6 vote from the city
council.
The ordinance was introduced at the April
8 city council meeting per a request from
Dawson County Schools Superintendent
Damon Gibbs.
“The city, in response to the letter that I
sent to our community, wanted to partner
with us to make a difference in the lives of
our students,” Gibbs said. “I appreciate the
city wanting to keep the children of
Dawson County away from potentially
dangerous items.”
On March 20, Gibbs published a letter
urging the community to be aware of the
dangers of electronic cigarette usage
among students in response to a March 13
incident in which a 13-year-old was found
semi-conscious on the side of Hwy. 53 near
Dairy Queen after vaping an unknown sub
stance.
“We want to try to do something to help
control the problem before it gets totally
See Vaping 17A
Tag renewals to close
temporarily in May
By Joshua Demarest
jdemarest@dawsonnews.com
The Dawson County Tax Commissioner’s
Office and the Georgia Motor Vehicle
Division are partnering together to imple
ment a new system update for vehicle regis
tration called Georgia DRIVES.
The new system will be rolled out May
28, and tax commissioners’ offices state
wide are warning citizens that they will be
See Tag 15A
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Inside
Volume 4, Number 33
© 2019, Dawson County News
Dawsonville, Georgia
Church Events
3B
Classifieds
6B
Dear Abby
10A
Deaths
2A
Legals
7B
Opinion
11A
Sports
1B
3A Hard work
rewarded on
Senior
Scholarship
Night
5A Woman crashes
vehicle into
empty
storefront
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