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DawsonCountyNews
WEDNESDAY I JANUARY 8, 2020 DaWSOflNeWS >COnri DAWSONVULE, GEORGIA $1.00
Citizens hold 'quality of life' meeting
Residents discuss development, industry
By Joshua Demarest
jdemarest@dawsonnews.com
Dawson County citizens called a pub
lic ‘quality of life’ meeting Saturday,
Jan. 4, at the Dawson County Library,
where constituents raised questions and
held civil discourse with each other and
two county commissioners who
attended.
“What we’ve got is a major communi
cation problem between the Board of
Commissioners and the citizens. Because
we’re primarily a commuter county,” said
Hugh Stowers, Jr., a lifelong resident of
Dawson County who organized the meet
ing. “That takes the communication away
from the major voting block of the com
munity because they can’t get to the
meetings after work.”
“The time they (the Board of
Commissioners) hold the meetings, it
starts at 4 o’clock until about 8 o’clock,
something like that, and those people are
trying to get home. If there’s a wreck,
they can’t get home before 9 or 10
o’clock,” Stowers added.
The purpose of the meeting was to let
those citizens who may not be able to
regularly attend commission meetings
voice their opinion to any government
officials who wanted to show up and
their fellow residents.
District 1 Commissioner Sharon
Fausett and commission chairman Billy
Thurmond attended the meeting.
“What I saw was how deeply these
people care about Dawson County,” said
Commissioner Fausett, who represents
District 1, a predominantly rural area of
western Dawson County. “And to them,
the quality of life equates with keeping
the rural nature of the county.”
A lot of the conversation at the meet
ing revolved around the amount of
development the county is seeing.
Residents raised concerns and asked
questions about the pace of growth, the
See Meeting 15A
Human Trafficking in Dawson
Jessica Taylor Dawson County News
Jennifer Robson, Director of Beautiful Feet, speaks to a community collaborative meeting about human traffick
ing and her organization's mission and resources.
What is it? How does it happen? Does it happen here?
By Joshua Demarest
jdemarest@dawsonnews.com
Picture this: A fourteen-year-old girl
is walking to catch up with her friends
at the outlet mall. It’s dark outside, but
the streetlights are on. The girl is on
her phone, and doesn’t see the white
van with the blacked-out windows pull
up until she is being grabbed and
shoved in.
That’s what we imagine when we
think about human trafficking in
America. But according to statistics,
snatch-and-grab attacks only represent
about one percent of all trafficking sit
uations.
“I think the great delusion is just
that,” said Dawson County Sheriff Jeff
Johnson at a Family Connection
Community Collaborative Meeting on
Jan. 7, where human trafficking was
the topic. “We often think of traffick
ing as grabbing people and throwing
them into vans and stuff, and don’t get
me wrong, the community is aware of
that. . . . It’s the back doors. It’s the
internet. It’s the social media. . . . And
it seems like we’re totally ignoring that
aspect of it. We’re more concerned
with the white van than we are all
these other things.”
Not that it doesn’t happen. In late
2019, there were two stories here in
Dawson County of girls being attacked
or stalked in or near the outlets.
But that only accounts for a tiny por
tion of the human trafficking that does
occur here in Dawson County and in
north Georgia as a region.
What is human trafficking?
The Georgia Attorney General’s
Office defines human trafficking as
crimes that “focus on the act of com
pelling or coercing a person's labor,
services, or commercial sex acts; or
using children under the age of 18 for
commercial sex acts. The coercion can
be subtle or overt, physical or psycho
logical, but it must be used to coerce a
victim into performing labor, services
or commercial sex acts.”
Human trafficking is big business in
Georgia. With the world’s busiest airport
located in Atlanta, all of Georgia has
become a consistent hub for trafficking.
In 2007, sex trafficking was estimated to
be a $290 million industry in Atlanta.
That was up 22% over the 2003 numbers
four years earlier. Now, 13 years later, if
growth has continued at the same rate,
human trafficking could be bringing in
nearly $500 million a year. And those
numbers don’t account for the
In Georgia alone, there were 375
cases of human trafficking reported in
2018. And as with all crime, the
reported number is just the tip of the
iceberg.
See Trafficking 15A
New federal,
county vape
ordinances
now in effect
By Joshua Demarest
jdemarest@dawsonnews.com
As of Jan. 1, the new county vape ordi
nance is now in effect. It is joined by a new
federal law that has increased the legal age
to purchase tobacco products and vaping
products that contain nicotine to 21.
According to the county ordinance, it is
now illegal to vape “within 300 feet of any
church building, or on any property owned
or leased to a church, other than in desig
nated areas, if any,” or “within 600 feet of
any school building, educational building,
school grounds, or college campus, or on
any property owned or leased to a public
See Vape 15A
Traffic stop yields
$5,000 of meth
By Joshua Demarest
jdemarest@dawsonnews.com
During a routine traffic stop, Dawson
County Sheriff’s Department Sergeant
Jason Hogan seized 56 grams of metham-
phetamine, worth nearly $5,000.
Hogan originally made the stop just
before 2 a.m. Monday morning, Jan. 6 on
Hwy. 53 when he noticed a car driving
with only one functional headlight.
During the encounter with the driver,
Frances Emily Cheek of Homer, Hogan
noticed what appeared to be a plastic bag
sticking out from the driver’s side mirror.
The bag contained 56 grams of meth-
amphetamine, nearly two ounces. Cheek
was charged with trafficking metham-
phetamines, possession of a controlled
substance with intent to distribute, pos
session of a controlled substance, posses
sion of marijuana, possession of drug
objects, head light requirements, and
license to be carried and exhibited on
demand.
Dawson County Sheriff Jeff Johnson
commented on the bust, “I am proud of
See Meth | A3
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Inside
Volume 4, Number 67
© 2019, Dawson County News
Dawsonville, Georgia
Church Events
3B
Classifieds
7B
Dear Abby
6B
Deaths
2A
Legals
8B
Opinion
7A
Sports
1B
3A LifeSouth
blood drive
comes to
Dawsonville
Public comment
ends on
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