About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 30, 2019)
Dawson County defeats Fannin 51 -7 SPORTS, IB DCES helps us determine the best pizza in Dawson INSIDE, 10A DawsonCountyNews WEDNESDAY I OCTOBER 30, 2019 DaWSOflNeWS ^COITI DAWSONVILLE, GEORGIA $1.00 City holds general election Tuesday County residents can vote on ESPLOST referendum Joshua Demarest jdemarest@dawsonnews.com On Tuesday, Nov. 5, the municipal general election for the City of Dawsonville will decide the race for Mayor and lock up the two city council posts up for election. Incumbent Mike Eason and chal lenger Durant Wright will face off for the position of Mayor. Eason, who was appointed acting Mayor in 2017 after former Mayor James Grogan was impeached, won the special election to fill the role the following March. Much of Eason’s campaign was built around continuing projects he had started during his time as Mayor — Main Street Park, the farmers’ mar ket, and revamping city ordinances. Wright, who recently moved to Dawsonville, has focused his cam paign around increasing business and infrastructure in the city. Wright is a political outsider with no public service experience, but believes his business experience and political science education give him the skills he needs to do the job. City Council posts 1 and 3 are both up for election, and both feature an incumbent running unopposed — Caleb Phillips represents Post 1 and John Walden represents Post 3. Despite most of the election being INSIDE Take a look at the sample ballot, please see page. | 9A geared towards the city, county voters who do not live within city limits are still encouraged to get out and vote on Tuesday. Voters from anywhere in the county can vote on the ESPLOST referen dum The referendum poses a one per cent special local option sales tax that would fund capital projects for the school district. 52nd Mountain Moonshine Festival brings thousands to Dawsonville Photos by Jessica Taylor Dawson County News A crowd listens to the national anthem during open ceremonies at the Mountain Moonshine Festival. Long Range Planning Committee discusses Etowah River put-ins By Jessica Taylor jtaylor@dawsonnews.com The Dawson County Long Range Planning Committee met last week at Fire Station 2 to discuss the potential for addition al access to the Etowah River for outdoor recreation. The committee met on Oct. 23 to brain storm areas in the county that might make for public access put-ins on the river. “It became very obvious in looking at that, that the public has very little opportunity to interact with the river. In fact, you could probably, if you didn’t live here or know, you could probably travel through Dawson County without realizing there’s a river there,” said Terri Tragesser, co-chair of the LRPC. The committee was charged by the Board of Commissioners to look at Hwy. 53 from the Forsyth County line to the city of Dawsonville. In that process, the committee broke the corridor into different personalities, See River 12A Rising legal fees spark debate Joshua Demarest jdemarest@dawsonnews.com Above: Children react to the smell and sound of the loud engines from classic cars participating in the annual parade at the Mountain Moonshine festival. Flight: Nealy Webster sings the 2019 theme song for the 52nd annual Mountain Moonshine Festival. INSIDE See more photos from the 52nd annual festival. I 8A At their Oct. 17 work session, the Board of Commissioners discussed the future of the county’s legal representation in the face of rapidly increasing legal fees. The county’s contract with law firm Jarrard & Davis expires Dec. 31. Dawson County Purchasing Manager Melissa Hawk presented three options for procur ing legal services for 2020. The first option presented was to hire an in-house lawyer to handle the county’s legal responsibilities. In 2017, the county hired Monroe Lynn Frey to act as the county’s in-house attor ney. By the end of 2018, Frey had retired, citing deteriorating health as the cause. He left a large caseload of backlog behind. The second option the commissioners heard was to put the county’s legal ser- See Fees16A 90994 04002 Inside Volume 4, Number 58 © 2019, Dawson County News Dawsonville, Georgia Church Events Classifieds Dear Abby Deaths Legals Opinion Sports 3B 8B 7B 2A 9B 11A 1B 4A Food trucks to return to Dawsonville 3A Find out what the Dawson Humane Society has planned CANCER CENTERS ACROSS GEORGIA By providing access to more cancer treatment centers, we're bringing expert care to more Georgians. That care is made possible by having the most board-certified medical oncologists of any community hospital network in the state—and it's helped establish us as top 2 in the nation among community cancer programs. Learn more at builttobeatcancer.com m NORTHSIDE HOSPITAL CANCER INSTITUTE
