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DawsonCountyNews
WEDNESDAY I APRIL 8, 2020
Dawson News ► com dawsonville, GEORGIA $1.00
Local businesses’ future uncertain
How Dawson County restaurants are handling the COVID-19 outbreak
By Erica Schmidt
eschmidt@dawsonnews.com
When the outbreak of COVID-
19 began in earnest, business
slowed to a trickle almost over
night.
According to Dawson County
business owners, small local res
taurants and businesses small
local restaurants and businesses
— staples of the community —
are in real trouble right now due
to the limitation and restrictions
caused by the outbreak.
If support doesn’t come fast,
many face staff layoffs, reduc
tions of service and worse.
“Our foot traffic has taken a
nosedive,” Doug Cole, owner of
Because Coffee said last week,
when asked how his business is
faring. “And we’re geared to sell
coffee beans, so our wholesale is
affected because cafes and res
taurants haven’t been selling as
much coffee.”
Similarly, owners of Aunt
Dyann’s in downtown
Dawsonville say their business
has seen a huge drop in business
since the outbreak.
“All we’re doing at this point is
offering delivery,” Aunt Dyann’s
Co-Owner Todd Buckner said.
“We’d like to be able to stay
open for emergency responders
because fire and police men
come in here and get takeout.”
For other restaurants like Big
D’s BBQ, owners have already
had to make some difficult deci
sions, laying off employees due
to the steep decline in business.
“Last week was the most diffi
cult week I’ve had in my profes
sional career, having to lay off
75% for our Dawson staff and
80% of our Cumming staff, and
those are people who’ve been
with us forever and are working
paycheck to paycheck,” Big D’s
Owner Darin Muenchow said.
“We’ve had to shrink our open
ing hours and had to close the
downtown location except for
Friday, Saturday, Sunday and we
may end up having to close that
one altogether until all this is
over.”
For many of the local small
businesses, it’s been all about the
creativity of trying to keep cus
tomers coming in even in the
middle of everything.
“We’ve increased Because
Coffee’s marketing via Facebook
and email,” Cole said. “And
we’ve also started offering live
coffee brew and coffee bean
roasting classes on our Facebook
and Instagram pages to keep peo
ple engaged on social media.”
Because Coffee has also start
ed offering curbside pickup and
local delivery for orders.
“You can call or text for
drinks and we’ll bring them out
to you for curbside pickup,”
Cole said. “And we’re also
offering local expedited deliv
ery as well.”
Aunt Dyann’s is also offering
See Business 13A
Filling a need in the community
Dawson teacher works with orthodontist to 3D print masks
Photos courtesy of Dusty Skorich
Above: Dawson County High School teacher Dusty Skorich poses with pieces of a
3D printed n94 face mask and face shield that he's collaborating on with group of
engineers. Below: One of Skorich's masks in the process of 3D printing.
By Erica Schmidt
eschmidt@dawsonnews.com
In the midst of the recent
outbreak of COVID-19 cases,
a Dawson County teacher has
been working to help design
and 3D print face masks and
face shields.
Dusty Skorich is an engi
neering teacher at Dawson
County High School. When
he saw an article about Mark
Causey, a Forsyth County
dentist who designed a pat
tern to make n95 masks on
his 3D printer, Skorich knew
it was something he wanted
to help with.
“I downloaded his pattern
and we started talking and
collaborating on this project,”
Skorich said.
The men have submitted
their printed masks to
Infection Control for North
Georgia to test whether the
pieces are certifiable as n95
masks. To do this, Infection
Control will look at CDC
standards and either certify
the masks or deny them until
changes can be made to meet
CDC standards. According to
Skorich, the hope is for them
to be approved quickly so
they can start producing as
many of the masks as possi
ble.
“The idea is to collect as
many 3D printers as we can
and mass produce,” Skorich
said. “We’ll collect the print
ers from schools to use, and
we’ll circulate the design to
people who have 3D printers
in their homes so they can
help print them too.”
The design can take any
where from four to seven
hours to print, depending on
the printer, but bulk printing
masks can decrease the print
ing time, according to
Skorich. During this printing
time, the person operating the
printer is fully free to work on
other things.
“3D printers can run 24/7
as long as someone is moni
toring them,” Skorich said.
“You can do this at home
while working on other stuff.”
Skorich began 3D printing
around seven years ago and
has worked with 3D printers
in the classroom on both a
university and high school
level. Teaching and learning
how 3D printing works, has
proved to be useful in many
ways, he said.
“It’s such a big part of
classrooms,” Skorich said.
‘“Career tech’ is skills like
3D printing, which as the cur
rent scenario shows, is useful
in real life.”
Several of Skorich’s stu
dents at Dawson County
High School have expressed
interest in helping with the
printing process once they get
the green light to begin mass
production of the masks.
In addition to beginning
mass production of the
masks, Skorich says that his
next project he is currently
working on is designing and
printing face shields, another
piece of equipment that are in
critical need.
See Masks 16A
Kemp issues
shelter order
until April 13
By Megan Reed and Nick Watson
DCN Regional Staff
mreed@gainesvilletimes.com
nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com
Gov. Brian Kemp’s statewide shelter-
in-place executive order will take effect 6
p.m. Friday, April 3, and will end at 11:59
p.m. Monday, April 13.
Under the order, people will only be
allowed to leave home for essential activi
ties or travel. Outdoor activities are also
allowed, as long as people who do not
live together stay six feet apart.
Essential activities include getting
food, household supplies or medication,
as well as seeking medical, behavioral
health or emergency services.
Travel is limited to those essential
activities, critical infrastructure and “min
imum basic operations.” Those minimum
See Shelter 16A
Dawson deputy
tests positive
for coronavirus
By Alexander Popp
apopp@dawsonnews.com
The Dawson County Sheriff’s Office
announced on Sunday that a local deputy
has been diagnosed with COVID-19, the
disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
According to a Facebook post made by
the Dawson County Sheriff’s Office, the
affected deputy, who is not a patrol officer,
was originally diagnosed with a sinus
infection and placed on restricted duty to
minimize contact with others, before test
ing positive for the virus.
“They are home (quarantined) recovering
See Deputy 13A
0
9 0 9 9 4
Inside
Volume 4, Number 88
© 2019, Dawson County News
Dawsonville, Georgia
Classifieds
5B
Dear Abby
4B
Deaths
2A
Legals
5B
Opinion
5A
Sports
1B
More closures
for Dawson
Parks and Rec
2A Dawsonville
OKs measure
allowing to-go
alcohol sales
We will make it through this,
and the strength of hope
will shine brightly.
NORTHSIDE
HOSPITAL
■i
