About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 15, 2020)
Wednesday, January 15,2020 dawsonnews.com I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I 7A The boats are back in town: Atlanta Boat Show returns By Layne Saliba DCN Regional Staff The Atlanta Boat Show is back on the water and ready for another year. The 58th-annual event, scheduled for Jan. 16-19 at the Georgia World Congress Center and fea turing 10 Gainesville busi nesses, is back and bigger than last year given the Super Bowl isn’t in town this time. “There’s really some thing for everyone,” said Kevin Murphy, show man ager. “There are fishing boats, there are cruising boats, there are high per formance boats. So there is really something for every one.” Murphy said there will be about 700 boats on the floor at this year’s show and about 200 booths for you to stop by. “There’s lots of pon toons, which seem to be very popular on the lakes and lots of center-console fishing boats,” he said. Like last year, many of the same things will be available for you to check out: Boats and Brews, Career Day, Kids Zone, sailing seminars and plenty of presentations. But new this year is the Discover Boating Experience. “It’s a hub of a bunch of different things for new boaters,” Murphy said. If you’re new to boating or simply want to learn a littie more about all the dif ferent aspects of boating, there’s plenty at the Discover Boating Experience for you. Murphy said there will be a boat care station that will teach you how to keep your boat looking and run ning well, a conservation station where you’ll learn about National Marine Sanctuaries and a product innovation station to learn about all the new gear and technology in boating. “All the late-breaking technology that is broken up in our industry on the boat manufacturing, on the engine manufacturing and on the dealer level are all revealed and displayed there right under your nose,” said Ben Studer, manager at The Boat Shop in Gainesville. “You can not get a more front-row experience than this Atlanta Boat Show.” And if you want you want that front-row, real- life action, the bass tub — a 1,000-gallon fishing tank — is back. “Seminar speakers and professional fishermen will get up there and show you how to cast into the tank and you’ll see the fish actually take a bite,” Murphy said. If you’d like to try your hand at casting, grab a rod and reel from the fishing simulator. “The simulator has a large screen and you grab a fishing pole and it pulls against you like you’re fishing and shows you how to catch the big fish,” Murphy said. The Boat Shop, which has been in Gainesville for the past few years will be making another trip to the Atlanta Boat Show this year. Studer said it’s a good time for his shop and all the others at the show to gain some traction during the winter. “These shows stimulate out-of-season sales for our industry,” Studer said. “You see the dealer, boat manu facturer and engine manu facturers come together and discount items in order to stimulate sales. So there is a chance you can go to the Atlanta Boat Show and come to The Boat Shop’s booth and see a price on a unit that you will never see again that year.” Murphy said that’s a big reason many people travel to the show, but it also helps to see all the products in one place. “It’s always beneficial to go to the show and see all the brands next to each other,” Murphy said. “It gives you a good compari son, where if you go to the dealership, you’re going to see one or two brands. You come to the show and you’re going to see 20.” But if you stop by The Boat Shop’s booth, Studer said he’s looking to offer a personalized experience. Even though there will be many other dealers, you’ll get the same treatment at the show as you would in the shop. “The one thing that we kind of capitalize on with our outfit, so to speak, is what a small family owned operation we are,” Studer said. “Our family orienta tion delivers a front-end experience nobody else can duplicate.” Whether you’re going to the show to learn, look or buy, Studer said it’s a once- a-year show you don’t want to miss. “You have people go down there that don’t even buy boats,” Studer said. “They go down there with their families to see what our industry is doing ... You’re going to have fami lies come together and just take pictures in front of these units and enjoy their time together.” FROM 1A B0C “We wanted to make sure we gave out as much information as possible to our citizens,” Thurmond said. For Duren, she would also like to see more transparency between the board of commissioners and its citizens. If elected, she plans to take a proac tive approach in meeting with citizens to provide information and hear con cerns. “I’d like to do a town hall meeting once a month on a Saturday so that citizens can come, citizens that can’t make it to the Thursday meet ings,” Duren said. “I’d like to do that so that I can update the people on a monthly basis and then also they can ask ques tions and raise concerns so that I’m not just sitting back waiting for them to call me, a more proactive approach.” Duren plans to attend the newly formed Quality of Life meetings that take place at the Dawson County Library on the first Saturday of each month to continue hear ing the thoughts and con cerns of county residents. Updating Ordinances Both Republican candi dates also have said their campaigns have a focus on updating county ordinanc es and looking at the com prehensive plan to ensure the future of Dawson County is shaped in a way that the citizens want. Duren wants to look more at the future land use plan and go “back to the drawing board on the future land use plan so that we can make it look like the citizens’ vision.” According to Duren, only 11 percent of citizens want a lot of development, specifically residential development. “Our future land use plan needs to reflect that,” Duren said. Thurmond also plans to continue to look at the county’s ordinances and make appropriate updates if he is reelected to a sec ond term. “Most of our ordinances were 1990-something models, early-2000s mod els. We just did the resi dential land use ordinances ... that hadn’t been updat ed since 1998,” Thurmond explained. “We want to continue to do the updates on our ordinances. We’ll do a SPLOST VII which the citizens will vote on in November of this year.” Part of looking at county ordinances and the com prehensive plan will be planning for the future growth that the county is expected to see. Growth and Development “The biggest thing is Thurmond managing growth. We wanted to manage growth to where we could keep the beauty and everything that we have here in Dawson County,” Thurmond said. Thurmond added that the county recently reapproved the comprehensive plan and received a lot of citizen feedback during that process. “We want the growth to go where they (the citizens) said they wanted it to go and that’s down in the 400 corridor so we want to make sure that we follow the wishes of the people in reference to managing growth and doing those things,” Thurmond said. “We know we’re going to grow. Everybody knows that we will grow, and so we want to make sure that we’re doing that in a way that is in line with what the citizens have said.” Duren, who is also campaigning on a plat form for responsible future planning and growth, wants to focus on putting the citizens first and addressing issues such as infrastructure and road conditions before creating more residential growth. “We need to take care of that before we chase more residents,” Duren said. Her main concern is managing the growth in Dawson County, and she feels other aspects of her campaign tie into growth management — such as her concerns with the expenses associated with residential development and the inability to add enough commercial growth to help offset the residential costs, along with the access to public safety as the population grows. “We’re understaffed as I understand now, and we’re continuing to add. We need to catch up, so to speak, before we con tinue to add residential,” Duren said. Expanding services through the county such as access to public safety entities is Thurmond’s concern as well. “First and foremost, I want to meet the service needs of our citizens, and that might be different for each and every citizen, but we’d have to look at it in a holistic approach,” Thurmond said. “What we don’t want is for peo ple to have to wait, espe cially on public safety, for a public service to come to them, and my goal too was to provide that good, quality service through out the entire county not just in segments of it.” Part of expanding ser vices includes the con struction of Fire Station 8 on Sweetwater Juno Road, the expansion of the Senior Center and the new public works facility as well as looking at a second salary study to look at ways to retain a good, quality staff, according to Thurmond. Personal Lives Duren moved to Dawson County in 2009 with her hus band Michael and their five-year-old son Luke. She was inspired to run for the chairman posi tion after being a vocal proponent to the Etowah Village development proposed to the board of commission ers in 2019. She attends Amicalola Baptist Church and runs the blog For the Love of Dawson where she provides maps and information on upcoming developments in Dawson County. “I just want to preserve the quali ty of life and I want to do what I can to protect that sense of communi ty that we have,” Duren said. “It’s just that feeling of community that is not easily replicat ed. We have that here in Dawson County and we need to protect that.” Thurmond is a Dawson County native who has worked in the county his Duren entire adult life. Prior to serving the past three years as chairman, Thurmond spent 35 years in public safety and served in a dual role in the parks and rec reation department for 17 years. He has 33 years of experience in man agement, budget ing and planning. “For the last 40 years, I’ve gotten up every morning with the goal of making Dawson County better for our citizens, whether I was in public safety or whether now as a chairman of the board of groove on. commissioners. I want things to be better. I want them to have the things that they need and do that in a financially responsi ble way,” Thurmond said. “I love Dawson County and I love the people of Dawson County. I’ve always worked hard for the county and if they bless me with the opportu nity to be their commis sioner again for four years I’ll continue to do that because I want what’s best for Dawson County. I always have. I always will.” The candidates will be on the Republican primary ballot on May 19. Whether it’s a night out with friends or an impromptu dance session in the kitchen, we’re here to help you feel the beat. Northeast Georgia Medical Center’s Gainesville, Braselton and Barrow campuses offer expert orthopedic care to cover all your needs. Northeast Georgia Medical Center ORTHOPEDIC SERVICES Findyourorthopedicexperttodayatnghs.com/move I 770-462-5285
