About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 8, 2021)
Wednesday, December 8,2021 dawsonnews.com I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I 3A Man pleads guilty to assaulting officers in Jan. 6 breach Kelly Whitmire DCN Regional Staff An Alpharetta man who was part of the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol breach and was overheard dis cussing the plans at Northside Hospital Forsyth, has pleaded guilty on Wednesday to assault ing law enforcement officers. According to a news release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, Kevin Douglas Creek, 47 of Alpharetta, plead guilty on Wednesday, Dec. 1 to assault ing, resisting or impeding cer tain officers, “which disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress that was in the pro cess of ascertaining and count ing the electoral votes related to the presidential election.” He faces up to eight years in prison as well as three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine, and sentencing is scheduled for March 10. “On Jan. 6, at approximately 2:28 p.m., Creek made physical contact with an officer from the Metropolitan Police Department by striking the offi cer’s left hand, which was hold ing a baton,” the release said. “One minute later, he made physical contact with a U.S. Capitol Police Officer by plac ing his hand under the officer’s right shoulder and pushing. He also kicked the officer. The assaults took place in the West Terrace area of the Capitol.” Documents describe Creek as having an Alpharetta address, and information on his business with the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office and Fulton County property records indicate he lives in North Fulton. Creek was arrested on Wednesday, June 9. According to the criminal complaint, on Jan. 10, a com plainant reported to the FBI that Creek had been at Northside Hospital Forsyth on Jan. 9 or 10 and made com ments about his involvement in the breach, including “running up the stairs of the Capitol building and attempting to get inside, ... having trouble at the door he ran to because the police were gassing individuals at his door” and that “he was bruised from his activity at the Capitol.” Investigators were able to confirm Creek’s identity and his whereabouts in the days before and after the breach through his social media pages, comparing photos from the incident and the pages with his driver’s license photo, hotel, credit card and Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority records and other methods. During a voluntary interview with investigators, Creek and his attorney on Friday, May 21, he reportedly admitted he had traveled to the Capitol and that the photos were of him. “[Investigators] then played videos of both assaults on fed eral officers, and Creek admit ted the videos looked like him, but Creek said he ‘did not remember assaulting any offi cer,”’ the complaint said. “In addition, Creek described in great detail where he went that day and drew on a map where he was standing on the U.S. Capitol grounds. Creek’s draw ing matches where the body camera footage captured [Creek’s] assaults.” According to the complaint, when asked by investigators if he regretted his action, Creek responded “50/50.” The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia. The case is being investigat ed by the FBI’s Atlanta Field Office and the FBI’s Washington Field Office, which identified Creek in its seeking information photos. Per the release, more than 675 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including over 210 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The investi gation remains ongoing. This article was originally posted by the Forsyth County News, a sister publication to Dawson County News. Atlanta Gear Works expands engineering team with its first Georgia Tech graduate By Erica Jones ejones@dawsonnews.com Dawsonville-based gearbox repair and manu facture company Atlanta Gear Works (AGW) has recently expanded its engineering team by hir ing its first Georgia Tech graduate, Corinna Draghi. According to a press release by AGW, Draghi is not only the first Georgia Tech graduate the company has added to its team, but she is also the company’s first woman engineer and the first with a degree in aerospace engineering. After graduation, Draghi’s first full-time job was as a mechanical engineer, working with the inventor of the direct ly driven centrifugal shot- blast wheel, the release said. “Her responsibilities include 2D- and 3D-mechanical design and project manage ment of custom- designed heavy industrial shot blasting machines used for finishing structural rebar, propane tanks, heavy earth-mov ing equipment components and other steel and aluminum components requiring a specific finish,” the release said. The release added that, in Draghi’s previous job, she also wrote reference and maintenance manu als, cost analyses and multi-million dollar quotes. “I learned a lot about hardware and grades of steel and spent a lot of time in steel mills,” Draghi said in the release. “All of that is applicable to what we do at Atlanta Gear Works.” Draghi’s mechanical engineering training start ed when she was young, according to the release, as she grew up in a house with a shop her father operated in the basement, manu facturing label ing and filling machines for chemical companies that use bottles and conveyors. “He built everything from memory,” Draghi said in the release. “Ironically, what I didn’t know as a child was that he was also doing gear box repair.” Draghi joined the com pany during the pandemic, and since then she has gotten her OSHA certifi cation and was a speaker on the Women in Manufacturing panel at the AGMA 2021 Motion and Power Technology Expo in Saint Louis in September. “I was impressed with her mix of hands-on expe rience, mechanical design and CAD capabilities,” AGW Vice President of Engineering Chris Dale said in the release. “Rarely do we find an engineer who has both gear and gearbox experi ence. Since we know we will have two train them, we look for someone who is willing to learn and will fit in with our family of engineers.” AGW designs, engi neers, builds, rebuilds and repairs heavy industrial gearboxes for some of America’s leading manu facturers, the release said. “It also repairs other process-critical rotating equipment and continues to grow its field service division to provide exten sive field machining and repair,” the release said. For more information about Atlanta Gear Works, go to https://atlan- tagear.com. EARLY DEADLINES FOR CHRISTMAS/ NEW YEAR’S DAY Because of the upcoming holidays, Dawson County News will alter its advertising and legals deadline as follows: Retail Display Ads Publication Date Deadline Weekday Edition 12/29 Wednesday, 12/22,3:00pm Weekday Edition 1/05 Wednesday, 12/29,3:00pm Classified Line Ads and Legals Publication Date Deadline Weekday Edition 12/29 Wednesday, 12/22, Noon Weekday Edition 1/05 Wednesday, 12/29, Noon Obituaries Publication Date Deadline Weekday Edition 12/29 Monday, 12/27, Noon Weekday Edition 1/05 Monday, 1/03, Noon DawsonCountyNews DawsonNews > com Will be CLOSED Friday, December 24 & 31 in observance of the holidays. DAWSON COUNTY, GEORGIA SCHEDULE OF PROJECTS CONSTRUCTED WITH SPECIAL PURPOSE LOCAL OPTION SALES TAX Year Ended December 31, 2020 ORIGINAL CURRENT EXPENDITURES PROJECT ESTIMATED COSTS ESTIMATED COSTS PRIOR YEARS CURRENT YEAR SPLOST #4 - Commenced January 1, 2005 Jail Construction $ 11,500,000 S 19,433,679 $ 19,433,679 $ Rock Creek Recreation Center 2,500,000 2,372,559 2,372,559 - Emergency Services Projects 3,000,000 4,244,834 4,244,834 - Administrative Facility Building & Land 2,000,000 1,915,196 1,915,196 - Roads and Bridges 5.500.000 7.374.161 7,333,726 40,435 Total SPLOST #4 Projects s 24,500,000 $ 35,340,429 $ 35,299,994 $ 40,435 SPLOST #5 - Commenced July 1, 2009 LEVEL 1 COUNTY PROJECTS Courthouse and Administration Building $ 50,000,000 $ 36,474,488 $ 36,474,488 s - Sheriffs Office 12,500,000 12,500,000 - - LEVEL 2 COUNTY PROJECTS Roads, Streets, and Bridges 1 0,000,000 51,398 51,398 - Recreational Facilities 5.000,000 400,000 400,000 - Sewer Facilities 2,500,000 - - - Library Facilities 3,000,000 - - - Public Safety Facilities 3,900,000 - - - Public Safety Equipment 500,000 1,977 1,977 - Subtotal All County Projects 87,400,000 49,427,863 36,927,863 MUNICIPAL PROJECTS CITY OF DAWSONVILLE Cl) 4,160,000 422,719 422,719 - Subtotal All City Projects 4,160,000 422,719 422,719 Total SPLOST #5 Projects s 91,560,000 $ 49.850,582 $ 37,350,582 s SPLOST ttd - Commenced July 1, 201S LEVEL 2 COUNTY PROJECTS Roads, Streets, and Bridges $ 21,200,000 $ 21,200,000 $ 8,291,425 $ 3,927,923 Public Works Facilities & Equipineut 2,500,000 4,062,993 3,876,903 186,090 Recycling Facility 100,000 100,000 Fire Station/Community Center 1,750,000 1,750,000 325,568 1,156,446 Recreational Facilities 4,067,000 4,067,000 3,250,846 250,366 Public Safety Vehicles & Equipment - Sheriff 3,883,000 3,883,000 2,228,417 381,328 Public Safety Vehicles & Equipment - Fire/Emergency Services 2,500,000 3,234,720 1,963,070 1,271,650 Infoimationai Technology Equipment 350,000 1,769,789 579,999 1,189,790 Subtotal Ail County Projects 36,350,000 40,067,502 20,516,228 8,363,594 MUNICIPAL PROJECTS CITY OF DAWSONVILLE (1) 9,650.000 9.650,000 6,018,234 1,477,410 Subtotal All City Projects 9.650.000 9.650.000 4,084,628 1,477,410 Total SPLOST tt6 Projects $ 46.000.000 s 49.717,502 $ 24.600.856 s 9.841.004 (1) The County remits the tax collected to the City who is responsible for reporting on the expenditures in accordance with OCGA 48-8-121.
