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WEDNESDAY I JANUARY 22, 2020 DaWSOflNeWS >COnri DAWSONVULE, GEORGIA $1.00
City, county enter IGA on TSPLOST
By Jessica Taylor
jtaylor@dawsonnews.com
The Dawsonville city council
and the Dawson County board
of commissioners came togeth
er Monday, Dec. 10, 2019 in a
joint meeting to discuss the
terms and conditions of the
proposed TSPLOST referen
dum.
County and city officials met
at Dawsonville city hall on Jan.
14 to enter an intergovernmen
tal agreement on the
Transportation Special Purpose
Local Option Sales Tax
(TSPLOST), a one penny sales
tax that the local entities have
discussed for the past several
years.
“I think all of us understand
the importance of our infra
structure, especially our roads
and bridges and how important
they are, and they’re also one of
the most expensive things the
cities and counties have to deal
with and trying to maintain,”
Dawson County Commission
Chairman Billy Thurmond said.
“This would give both the city
and the county an opportunity
to have a specified revenue
source that would allow us to
be able to take care of those
issues.”
The city council and board of
commissioners unanimously
approved to enter an intergov
ernmental agreement regarding
TSPLOST which will be on the
May 19 primary ballot. District
4 Commissioner Julie Hughes
Nix was not present for the
meeting due to a family emer
gency.
The IGA outlines the terms
of the proposed TSPLOST
which, if approved by city and
county residents in May, would
seek to collect a cap of $45
million over a span of five
years. The county would collect
91% of the revenue, with the
city collecting nine percent.
The agreement calls for the
county to receive the funds
from the Georgia Department
of Revenue then pay over a cer
tain percentage to the city. Per
the IGA, the city will receive
some of its money upfront in
order to jumpstart some of its
projects while the county fin
ishes up its SPLOST projects.
“There are a lot of things that
the city’s got that need to be
repaired. It’s a good vehicle for
us to reach out to many of our
subdivisions... the city during
our downturn in the economy
adopted a lot of roads that are
probably substandard to what
we would have adopted now.
They’re in pretty bad shape and
we think this will be good,”
Dawsonville Mayor Mike
See TSPLOST17A
A floral half-century
Jessica Taylor Dawson County News
Gail Wright creates a floral arrangement with fresh cut red roses on Jan. 20 at Dawsonville Florist.
Dawsonville Florist celebrates 50 years in business
By Jessica Taylor
jtaylor@dawsonnews.com
What started as a hobby for two
young women has blossomed into a
flourishing floral business that has
been a staple in Dawsonville for half
of a century.
When Gail Wright was just 21 years
old in 1969, she wanted to embark on
a new hobby with her friend and
neighbor, Beverly Ball, who lived just
across the street.
“We kind of decided we wanted a
little bit of a hobby in 1969 so we
trained under a flower shop in
Dahlonega for two weeks and then she
kind of taught us the tools and how to
do things and where to buy things,”
Wright said.
The passion for designing floral
arrangements grew beyond just a
hobby as the duo decided to go into
business, opening up Dawsonville
Florist on Nov. 8, 1969.
“We started on her back porch at her
house and then about a year later I
guess we built this little building here
on my side of the road, so we’ve been
here ever since,” Wright said. “We just
both liked flowers and we thought it
might be a neat thing to do, and it just
kind of bloomed from there.”
While Ball retired from the floral
shop six years ago, Wright hasn’t
slowed down. Inside the little white
building on Hwy. 9, Wright and her
husband of 53 years, Wayne, work to
keep their loyal customers happy.
“I’ve always lived here so our cus
tomers are people that we grew up
with and they helped to start the busi
ness, really, and then have been cus
tomers all this time a lot of them,”
Wright said. “With funerals and wed
dings and birthdays we see people
through their happy times and through
their sad times.”
Gail designs fresh cut flowers, green
plants and silk flowers in the shop
while Wayne goes out to deliver
arrangements and helps around the
shop by cleaning buckets and helping
with Gail’s preparations.
“People walk in and they’ll say ‘I’d
just love to do this. This looks like it’s
just so much fun,’ but it’s hard work,
long hours. Sometimes you don’t get a
day off for several days so it’s not
quite what people think it is,” Wright
said. “Everything that comes in has to
be made so that takes time and that’s
why we put in a lot of long hours
because a funeral doesn’t wait on you.
There’s a time. A wedding doesn’t
See Florist 13A
BOC approves
2% raise per
salary study
By Jessica Taylor
jtaylor@dawsonnews.com
The Dawson County Board of
Commissioners approved a two percent
raise for all county employees during its
Jan. 16 voting session.
At the Dec. 19, 2019 voting session, the
board voted to table a new salary study
until its Jan. 16 meeting where the board
took a vote and unanimously approved
$836,000 to be spent on a 2% raise for
county employees, as well as an increase
in benefits.
The salary study’s goals, according to
the presentation, were to “perform a com
pensation/classification study for all
county positions, comparing compensa
tion to relevant labor markets/competitors
and ensure that positions performing sim
ilar work with essentially the same level
of complexity, responsibility and knowl
edge, are classified together.”
The salary study looked at 333 posi
tions in 139 job titles. It’s the second sal
ary study the county has conducted since
SeeBOC|8A
Popp named
editor of DCN
From staff reports
Alexander Popp has been named as edi
tor of the Dawson County News.
The announcement was made on Jan.
20 by Stephanie Woody,
publisher of the Dawson
County News.
“We are excited to have
someone of Alex’s cali
ber to lead Dawson
County News,” Woody
said. “Alex has proven
himself as a strong jour
nalist throughout his
career. We look forward
to him bringing those skills with him in
his new position as editor of the Dawson
See Editor 14A
Popp
0
9 0 9 9
Inside
Volume 4, Number 69
© 2019, Dawson County News
Dawsonville, Georgia
Church Events
3B
Classifieds
8B
Dear Abby
7B
Deaths
2A
Legals
9B
Opinion
9A
Sports
1B
4A Deputies
arrest 2
in Ga. 400
drug bust
7k Dawson County
Schools releases
2020 ESPLOST
project list
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