Newspaper Page Text
Dawsonville to host
movie night event,
Food Truck Friday.
INSIDE, 5A
DCN to host ‘Fall Media
Day’ for Dawson High
sports. SPORTS, 1B
DawsonCountyNews
WEDNESDAY I july 7,2021 Dawson News ► com dawsonville, GEORGIA $1.00
Woman arrested after police chase
Suspect allegedly fled DUI charges with baby was captured after vehicle crash
By Alexander Popp
apopp@dawsonnews.com
Police shot at a
Dawsonville woman’s car
last week as she allegedly
fled an arrest on DUI
charges at a fire station
where she had stopped
for directions in
Habersham County.
The suspect, later iden
tified as Ashly Sophia
Tolbert, 38, of
Dawsonville, had stopped
the evening of Tuesday,
June 29, at the Cornelia
Fire Department, where
firefighters realized she
matched the description
of a DUI driver police
were seeking, according to a
Tolbert
press release by the Georgia
Bureau of Investigation.
“Cornelia Police officers
responded to the fire department,
and one officer conducted field
sobriety tests on Tolbert. The offi
cer told Tolbert she was under
arrest for DUI. Tolbert drove
away in her car,” the release
states. She was also traveling
with an infant in her vehicle, the
GBI said.
As Tolbert fled the scene, an
officer with the Cornelia Police
Department fired a shot at her
vehicle’s tire, but when the car
didn’t stop police pursued it until
it struck another vehicle and was
stopped.
No injuries were reported from
the shooting or the wreck, the
release said.
Tolbert has been booked into
the Habersham County Detention
Center and has been charged with
reckless driving, hit and run,
DUI, DUI child endangerment
and aggravated assault.
The GBI’s assistance has been
requested to investigate the shoot
ing, the release said, and the
Georgia State Patrol will investi
gate the wreck.
‘Summer Soar’
Photos by Ben Hendren Dawson County News
A Dawson County student plays basketball with a school resource officer at Riverview Elementary School dur
ing the "Summer Soar" summer school program in June 2021.
Board discusses
electric vehicle
charging stations
By Erica Schmidt
eschmidt@dawsonnews.com
During the July 1 meeting of the Dawson
County Board of Commissioners, board
members discussed the possibility of install
ing electric vehicle charging stations in the
county and approved an application from
K.A.R.E. for Kids to use county-owned
parking during this year’s Mountain
Moonshine Festival.
Dawson County Commission Chairman
Billy Thurmond said that he, along with
representatives from the city and the school
system, recently got the chance to learn
more about electric vehicles and the benefits
associated with them.
“I sat through a Zoom meeting that had to
do with electric vehicles the other day,”
Thurmond said. “They talked about the dif
ferent electric vehicles and the different sav
ings that were associated with some of
those; and I think it’s worth the board and
the departments taking a look at that to see
exactly what’s out there, what the cost of it
is and what the savings could be.”
See Board 12A
City Council OKs
$5M ’21-22 budget
School leaders call Dawson County summer school huge success
Dawson County students learn in the classroom dur
ing the "Summer Soar" summer school program in
June 2021.
By Erica Schmidt
eschmidt@dawsonnews.com
This June, the Dawson
County School System held
a three-week summer
school, “Summer Soar” for
over 150 local elementary
school students, modeled
after summer camp with
activities and themes to
make learning fun while fill
ing student learning gaps
created by the COVID-19
pandemic.
The summer program took
place at Riverview
Elementary School and
included students and teach
ers from all four of the coun-
ty’s elementary schools.
According to Summer Soar
Coordinator Tasha Hamil,
this is the first year that all
the county’s elementary
schools have come together
for one summer program.
“This is the first time that
we’ve ever done anything
like this altogether; the
schools traditionally have
something for their kids over
the summer but not like this
so it’s been a big learning
curve, but at the same time
it’s been very successful,”
Hamil said. “All the teachers
and all the students coming
together has been most ben
eficial for us.”
Fourth-grade teacher Beth
Peck said that having stu
dents and teachers from all
the schools working toward
a common goal created a
spirit of unity and camarade
rie between the separate
schools.
“It’s given us an opportu
nity for all of the elementary
schools to come together
and form relationships with
See Summer 14A
By Erica Schmidt
eschmidt@dawsonnews.com
At the June 21 meeting of the
Dawsonville City Council, council mem
bers officially approved the city’s proposed
2021-22 budget of $5,390,489.
Included in the total budget is
$2,201,132 in general funding, which cov
ers council and mayor salaries, salaries and
benefits for city administration, planning
and zoning and road department personnel,
and city hall and city park maintenance.
The remainder of the budget includes
$1,886,825 in enterprise funding, which
covers water and sewer personnel salaries
and benefits as well as fees and supplies
for those departments, $556,000 in
SPLOST VII funding, $485,000 in capital
outlay funding, $208,200 in garbage
department funding, $29,400 in Downtown
Development Authority (DDA) funding,
$18,430 in cemetery funding and $5,502 in
hotel-motel tax.
See Budget 12A
0
9 0 9 9 4
Inside
Volume 7, Number 25
© 2021, Dawson County News
Dawsonville, Georgia
Church Events
2B
Classifieds
7B
Dear Abby
6B
Deaths
2A
Legals
8B
Opinion
7A
Sports
1B
Learn how you
can help the
Dawson County
Humane
Society.
6A How local man
got into selling
antiques and
on ‘American
Pickers’
> EXCELLENCE AT HEART
IS BACK IN GAINESVILLE
After over a year, a team of Georgia's top cardiologists are
returning to care for you—right here in your neighborhood.
Trust your heart to the experts of the Northside System.
Visit us at northsidecvi.com/gainesville or call 404.962.6000
to schedule an appointment today.
>EXCELLENCE Northside Hospital
1240 Jesse Jewell Parkway, Bldg. B, Unit 500, Gainesville, GA 30501
Allison Dupont
MD, FSCAI, FACC
Interventional Cardiology
Mark Leimbach
MD, FSCAI, FACC
Interventional Cardiology
Jeffrey Marshall
MD, MSCAI, FACC
Chief, Northside Flospital
Cardiovascular Institute
Pradyumna Tummala
MD, FSCAI, FACC
Interventional Cardiology
