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Church gathers
building supplies for
Ky. tornado victims.
INSIDE, 5A
Due to a production error, the Dawson County News mailed
earlier this week had incorrect classified and public notice
advertising. Those pages have been corrected in this version
of the DCN, which has been mailed to all subscribers. We
apologize for the error and the necessity of the second mailing.
DawsonCountyNews
WEDNESDAY I JANUARY 5, 2022 DaWSOflNeWS >COnri DAWSONVULE, GEORGIA $1.00
Happy birthday Gordon Pirkle
Pillar of community celebrates 85 years in Dawson County
By Erica Jones
ejones@dawsonnews.com
Last week, Dawson
County legend Gordon
Pirkle celebrated his 85th
birthday, complete with
birthday wishes and love
from hundreds of people
in the community.
Pirkle is well-known in
the Dawson County com
munity as the owner of the
famous Dawsonville Pool
Room and for his years of
volunteer work at the
Georgia Racing Hall of
Fame and dozens of other
causes throughout the
county. All his life, he has
helped to shape Dawson
into what it is today and
touched countless lives in
the process.
Pirkle celebrated his
85th birthday on Monday
Dec. 27, and both the
Dawsonville Pool Room
and the Georgia Racing
Hall of Fame posted on
their Facebook pages to
wish him a happy birth
day. Within hours, both
posts had garnered thou
sands of likes and hun
dreds of comments from
community members and
fans wishing him a happy
birthday.
According to Pirkle,
seeing all the birthday
wishes from the people
he’s touched in his life was
a great birthday present for
him.
“I was really impressed;
I couldn’t believe it all,”
Pirkle said. “They even
put my name on their light
up sign at True Value
Hardware with ‘Happy
Birthday Gordon Pirkle’. I
felt good about it; I really
appreciate all the well-
wishes.”
Pirkle’s daughter,
Hayley Garrett, said that
she’s glad that he can see a
littie piece of how much of
an impact he’s had on so
many people.
“I told him ‘look at the
likes on there daddy’ —
every website, the Pool
Room, The Georgia
Racing Hall of Fame —
all of them are way over
thousands of people,”
Garrett said. “That just
makes you feel really
See Pirkle 12A
DCN file photo
Dawsonville legend Gordon Pirkle celebrated his
85th birthday on Monday Dec. 27.
2021: Year in Review
DCN file photos
Kajun Seafood owners Mai Ho and Kim Huynh hold a tray of some of their new restaurant's most popular dishes.
Highlights of what past 12 months brought to Dawson
By Erica Jones
ejones@dawsonnews.com
From new restaurants and businesses
to local government and education, a
lot happened in Dawson County in the
past year. As we head full-speed into
2022 and everything the new year will
bring with it, here’s a look back at
some of the headlines, both good and
bad, that sum up some of the highlights
of what happened in Dawson this year.
New restaurants brought
flavor options to the county
Kajun Seafood opened in downtown
Dawsonville at the very end of 2020
and began drawing crowds in 2021
with its wide selection of seafood
options and cajun food classics. The
family-run business offers unique and
bold flavors unlike anything Dawson
has had before, and response from the
community upon the restaurant’s
opening was overwhelmingly positive,
restaurant owners said.
Big Red’s Biscuits and Deli opened
in May with inventive new recipes and
twists on sub-shop classics. Local man
Greg Stotler opened the restaurant
after losing his job due to COVID-19,
a tragedy that he turned into success
by choosing to use the chance to fulfdl
his lifelong dream of opening his own
restaurant. The restaurant’s main focus
is on different types of sandwiches,
but also offers freshly made donuts
and cinnamon rolls and a rotating
selection of soups and salads.
Sweet Charlie's rolled ice cream.
Sweet Charlie’s dessert shop opened
at the end of June, bringing rolled ice
cream, cookies, milkshakes and more
to Dawson County. The rolled ice
cream is made fresh directly in front of
each customer, a visual show that adds
to the overall experience, according to
See Best of 14A
Jones named
DCN editor
By staff reports
Dawson County News Reporter Erica
Jones has been named as the new editor of
the Dawsonville-based
newspaper starting on Jan.
1.
Jones, a University of
North Georgia alumnus,
joined the Dawson County
News team in March of
2020 as a features and edu
cation reporter and has
since expanded her cover
age into city meetings, BOE meetings, city
and county events, nonprofits and any other
feature stories that may arise.
Jones has lived in the North Georgia area
her whole life. She married her husband
Will, who is the business manager for
See Jones12A
Jones
133 animals
rescued from
Dawson home
By Julia Fechter
jfechter@dawsonnews.com
A total of 133 animals were rescued from
a Dawson County home where four people
were arrested on Dec. 17,
according to Dawson
County Humane Society
Director Jason Hutcherson.
The menagerie included
over 90 ducks, chickens
and doves as well as a
cockatoo, rabbits and dogs.
Most of the animals except
for the dogs are being sent
to rescue organizations in surrounding coun
ties for housing.
Dawsonville resident James Melvin
Brown, 76, was arrested on Dec. 17 and
charged with animal cruelty and having a
See Animals 13A
Brown
0
9 0 9 9 4
Inside
Volume 8, Number 1
© 2021, Dawson County News
Dawsonville, Georgia
Events
2B
Classifieds
7B
Dear Abby
6B
Deaths
2A
Legals
8B
Opinion
7A
Sports
1B
3A Dawson
Library trip
yields vintage
recipes.
6A DPH: Don’t go
L to hospital ERs
for COVID-19
testing.
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