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WEDNESDAY I MAY 26, 2021
Dawson News ► com dawsonville, GEORGIA $1.00
Officials 'confident' of annexation denial
Letter: City urged to reject development near Dawsonville Perimeter Road intersection
By Alexander Popp
editor@dawsonnews.com
In a public letter on
Thursday, Dawson County offi
cials said that they are confi
dent the city of Dawsonville
will deny a 70-acre annexation
which has been proposed near
the intersection of Perimeter
Road and Allen Street.
The annexation, which was
heard by the Dawsonville
Planning Commission in
November 2020, proposes to
rezone the property in order to
develop a 124 lot residential
subdivision along Perimeter
Road, with possible entrances
along Perimeter and Turner
Drive.
At Dawsonville Planning
Commission public hearings
held in September and
November, commission mem
bers heard from several resi
dents of Turner Drive, who
cited concerns about increased
traffic the development would
cause.
“We have multiple subdivi
sions being built,” a resident
who lives off of Turner Drive
said. “All of this creates prob
lems already that we’ve dealt
with for years and it’s just
gonna continually get worse.
We don’t want our road
annexed in, and we don’t want
to be a part of this subdivi
sion.”
Planning Commission mem
bers later voted to deny the
annexation and sent it to the
Dawsonville City Council for
their consideration.
According to Dawsonville
Mayor Mike Eason, a public
hearing on the request will be
held in June.
“We’ll be posting signs for a
public hearing soon that will
be at the end of June, and then
we’ll vote on it in July,” Eason
said. “We don’t know what the
council will do at this point;
we need to have the public
hearing and see what the
Turners say and what the pub
lic says.”
At a special called meeting
of the Dawson County Board
of Commissioners held on
May 11, commissioners unani
mously voted to withdraw
from arbitration proceedings
over the annexation.
“The sole reason that the
County voted to withdraw
from the arbitration proceed
ings is because annexation is
certain to occur under that pro
cess,” Dawson County Public
Affairs Officer Laura Fulcher
said in the letter.
According to Fulcher, the
arbitration panel appointed by
the Georgia Department of
Community Affairs is not
legally authorized to stop the
annexation, regardless of the
county’s objections.
“The Annexation and its
intended rezoning would place
a substantial financial burden
on the County and all taxpay
ers. The project would result in
increased infrastructure
demands without the benefit of
any developmental impact fees
to offset the costs of those
demands, including adding
additional traffic at the already
See Annex 14A
Playing in the dirt again
Photos by Jacob Smith Dawson County News
Above, Participants in the Southern Bounty Series Mud Racing Event on Saturday, May 22, hosted by Iron
Mountain Park. Below, A parked AV hoists the American Flag at the Southern Bounty Series Mud Racing
Event on Saturday, May 22.
Iron Mountain Park kicks off Summer with weekend mud racing
By Jacob Smith
jsmith@dawsonnews.com
Summer started off
strong over the weekend,
with the Southern Bounty
Series Mud Bog Race
held at Iron Mountain
Park in North Georgia.
Along with 70 AV rac
ers competing in timed tri
als throughout the week
end, Iron Mountain Resort
Spokeswoman Kalie
Smith said that hundreds
of campers stayed at the
resort during the weekend
to experience drive-in
movies, racing, and con
cert from Craig Campbell.
“The event went really
well,” Smith said. “One of
the best we’ve had so far.
It’s very different from
what we usually do and
what our normal customer
sees. It’s a brand new type
of off-roading to bring to
the community.”
The winners of the
bounty series race won
$8,000, but it was more
than just the race for the
patrons, Smith said.
Beyond the planned
events, dirt bikes and AV’s
were driven all over Iron
Mountain’s 4,300 acres.
See Monster 14A
SPLOST IGA
OK’d by BOC,
City Council
By Erica Schmidt
eschmidt@dawsonnews.com
and Alexander Popp
apopp@dawsonnews.com
Officials from Dawson County and the
city of Dawsonville have approved an
intergovernmental agreement on the
Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax
(SPLOST) VII, ending a civil lawsuit that
threatened to challenge the legality of the
tax.
In separate meetings held last week, the
Dawson County Board of Commissioners
and Dawsonville City Council gave their
approval to the proposed IGA, which
grants the city and county a 12%-88% split
of SPLOST VII collections.
In addition to defining the split of
SPLOST VII collections, the IGA also pro
vides funding for the repaving of two city
roads, funding for two proposed city patrol
See SPLOST 14A
Man dies in
construction
site accident
By Alexander Popp
apopp@dawsonnews.com
Authorities say that man was killed on
Wednesday, May 19, in a Dawson County.
According to Dawson County Fire
Chief Danny Thompson, the man was
fatally injured at about 12:30 p.m. on
Wednesday at a residential construction
site on Pineneedle Drive in south Dawson
County.
The man was taken by ambulance to
Northeast Georgia Medical Center, where
he was pronounced dead.
See Fatality 14A
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Inside
Volume 7, Number 21
© 2021, Dawson County News
Dawsonville, Georgia
Church Events
2B
Classifieds
8B
Dear Abby
7B
Deaths
2A
Legals
9B
Opinion
9A
Sports
1B
Man arrested
for wrong-way
driving incident
in Dawson.
6A Dawson teacher
wins Exemplary
ESOL Teacher
award.
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