Lady Tigers triumph
over North Hall.
SPORTS, B1
Meet the man
bringing Caribbean
flavor to Dawson.
INSIDE, 6A
DawsonCountyNews
WEDNESDAY I DECEMBER 18, 2019 DaWSOflNeWS ^COITI DAWSONVILLE, GEORGIA $1.00
ethics board Friday
French to go before
City council member faces 9 complaints
By Joshua Demarest
jdemarest@dawsonnews.com
Dawsonville City Councilmember,
Post 4, Mark French will go before the
city’s Ethics Board on Friday, Dec. 20.
He faces nine Ethics Ordinance com
plaints, all stemming from an incident in
which he directed City Manager Bob
Bolz to consult with the city’s legal
team to answer a legal question posed
by a private citizen, Steve Sanvi.
Sanvi is French’s employer, and the
official ethics complaints states that
French’s “failure to disclose his rela
tionship with Mr. Sanvi and his failure
to recuse himself is a violation of this
section of the Code of Ethics.”
The alleged ethics violations also
extend to French’s actions while in a
City Council meeting on Nov. 18. While
in the meeting, French voted against the
motion to insert his ethics complaint
into the agenda.
The full list of the nine sections of the
Ethics Ordinance that French is accused
of breaking are listed below:
1. Sec. 2-77 (1) No city official shall
use such position to secure special privi
leges or exemptions for himself or her
self or others, or to secure confidential
information for any purpose other than
official duties on behalf of the city.
2. Sec. 2-77 (2) No city official, in
any matter before the council or other
city body, relating to a person or entity
in which the official has a substantial
interest, shall fail to disclose for the
records such interest prior to any discus
sion or vote or fail to recuse himself or
herself from such discussion or vote as
applicable.
3. Sec. 2-77 (6) All public funds shall
be used for the general welfare of the
See French 17A
The greatest gift of the season
Jessica Taylor Dawson County News
David Waldrip, 8, poses with Ric Rack Food Bank Manager Candy Nonnemacher with the food he has collected
as part of his Christmas wish to help people in need.
From a Christmas wish to help, to 400 pounds of food for needy
By Jessica Taylor
jtaylor@dawsonnews.com
While other boys and girls were ask
ing Santa Claus for the latest toys, one
little boy surprised his family and
friends.
Perched on top of Santa’s lap, eight-
year-old David Waldrip told Jolly Of
Saint Nick “I would love to help peo
ple in need.”
David decided that during the month
of December he wanted to collect food
items to donate to the Ric Rack food
bank to help people in Dawson County
have food for Christmas.
“This was totally independent of
anything of us. He told Santa,” David’s
mother, Jennifer Watson, said.
“David’s a really special kid.”
After learning of David’s special
Christmas wish, Watson worked to
spread the word in the family’s neigh
borhood, Chestatee, as well as with
family and friends who wanted to help
fulfill David’s wish.
“We put in an announcement out to
our neighbors and we put a bin outside
beside our mailbox, and every day
we’d come and there’d be new dona
tions,” Watson said.
The second grader at Black’s Mill
Elementary School also received sup
port from his school’s administration
to collect items from his peers.
By Friday, Dec. 13, it was time to
load up the family minivan and donate
what David had collected so far to Ric
Rack, a local food bank that serves
between 250 and 260 families, nearly
600 individuals, every month.
The minivan weighed down with
food felt like they were pulling
“Santa’s sleigh,” David said.
Bag after bag and box after box,
David and Watson brought in what
seemed to be a never-ending supply of
donations ranging from canned vegeta
bles and meats to pastas to baby foods.
“I’m very proud of David,” Watson
said. “David has always had a very
kind heart and he’s exceptional. He
thinks about others more than himself
so when he told me that that was his
Christmas wish I was very proud of
him.”
It’s the first time David has collected
donations, but as he helped arrange
items on the table he said he wants to
do it again next year.
Candy Nonnemacher, manager of
the food bank, happily began weighing
the bags of food to see just how many
pounds of food David collected in just
a few short weeks.
“414 (pounds)! Wow!” David
exclaimed. “Man, this is a lot for a boy
that had this Christmas wish.”
“We’re always looking for dona
tions. Fately our shelves have been
running pretty low,” Nonnemacher
said. “It’s going to be a big help to the
people out there that need food.”
It was the largest donation
Nonnemacher can recall coming from
a single individual.
BOE approves
2020 projects,
school calendars
By Jessica Taylor
jtaylor@dawsonnews.com
The Dawson County Board of
Education recently approved ESPFOST
projects for 2020 as well as the school
calendars for the next two years.
The board unanimously approved
approximately $6 million of ESPFOST
funds to be used on facility and technolo
gy upgrades including wifi, computer and
technology upgrades, a new roof and
HVAC upgrade at Black’s Mill
Elementary School, stadium scoreboard
upgrades, and retrofitting 23 buses with
air conditioning. Also approved are sys
tem-wide upgrades of flooring, elementa
ry playgrounds and parking lot.
As of the Dec. 10 board meeting,
approximately $30.8 million of the allotted
See BOE 17A
Ex-real estate agent
pleads guilty to
defrauding clients
By Joshua Demarest
jdemarest@dawsonnews.com
Carol Michaelson, who was formerly a
licensed real estate agent working in the
Dawsonville area, has plead guilty to
“defrauding her clients by faking proper
ty sales, forging contracts and deeds, and
then pocketing her victims’ money,”
according to United States Attorney
Byung J. “BJay” Pak of the Northern
District of Georgia.
“This defendant stole her clients’ hard-
earned money by pretending to purchase
properties for them, while pocketing their
funds for her own personal use,” said
Pak. “She then tried to cover her tracks
with fake sales agreements and forged
deeds. Michaelson is a repeat offender,
having previously lost her real estate
license for defrauding clients.”
In 2012, Michaelson was arrested for
defrauding clients to the tune of $15,000.
In 2014, she plead guilty to the charges.
In 2015, while she was serving probation
for her the 2012 case, she was arrested
for another charge of fraud — this time
for bad checks written to a dry cleaner.
See Agent 18A
See Wish 14A
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9 0 9 9
Inside
Volume 4, Number 64
© 2019, Dawson County News
Dawsonville, Georgia
Church Events
3B
Classifieds
11B
Dear Abby
11A
Deaths
2A
Legals
12B
Opinion
9A
Sports
1B
5A Collins walks
out of
impeachment
hearing
7A Sawnee EMC
L foundation
donates
$42,688 to local
charities
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