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DCHS wrestling
notches win on
Senior Night.
SPORTS, IB
Chamber holds ribbon
cutting for The Place of
Dawson County.
INSIDE, 4A
DawsonCountyNews
WEDNESDAY I JANUARY 26, 2022 DaWSOflNeWS >COnri DAWSONVULE, GEORGIA $1.00
Nudist resort’s lawsuit goes to court
By Julia Fechter
jfechter@dawsonnews.com
For two full days on Jan. 20
and 21, attorneys pored over
documents in order to discern
whether local fire officials were
justified in issuing stop-work
orders for forthcoming struc
tures at Paradise Valley Resort
Club, located in eastern
Dawson County.
Representatives for the cloth
ing-optional or nudist resort
went to court after suing Fire
Marshal and Division Chief
Jeff Bailey, Fire Chief and
EMA Director Danny
Thompson and Lt. Chris Archer
of Fire Prevention. A decision
has not yet been made in the
case.
Paradise Valley asked for a
writ of mandamus to lift stop-
work orders on a greeting room
and welcome center additions,
wine bar, cabanas, indoor pool
and fitness center. Jeff
Wasserman owns the resort.
The plaintiff is also seeking
approximately $50,000 for
attorney fees and costs going
back to October 2018, said law
yer Joseph Homans.
Paul Frickey of Jarrard and
Davis, Dawson County govern
ment’s current law firm, repre
sented the three defendants.
The resort that became
Paradise Valley started as a
nudist campground in the late
1970’s. Now, it’s a gated prem
ises that’s expanded to be over
100 acres, filled with yearly RV
sites, condominiums for long
term leases, homes, apartments,
pools, bars and various areas
for group assemblies.
Wasserman started working
at the resort in 2006 before pur
chasing it three years later. On
Oct. 27, 2016, he went in front
of the Board of
Commissioners and requested
a master plan rezone update
for an indoor pool and fitness
center, a wine bar and more
land for RV and tent sites. Over
200 people showed up to that
meeting.
Senior Superior Court Judge
Richard Winegarden was
assigned to the case
Wednesday, after Judge Bonnie
Oliver was unable to hear it. As
a senior judge, Winegarden
hears cases across state superi
or courts in Georgia. He will
make the final decision in the
See Resort 19A
A little bit of help for your furry friends
KIBBLE2CARE.ORG
UNLOCKTHETRUE ^
PERFORMANCE OF YOUR £NG!NF £
SOLD HERE
F”-~— "v
L asniai j
Photo courtesy of Scout Samples Bagley
In 2020, Forsyth woman Scout Samples Bagley started Kibble 2 Care, a nonprofit organization focused on bring
ing free pet food and supplies to those in need.
BOE fires coach
for molestation,
battery charges
By Erica Jones
ejones@dawsonnews.com
During a special called meeting of the
Dawson County Board of Education on
Friday Jan. 21, board
members unanimously
voted to terminate
employment for James
Gregory Jeffers, the
Dawson County Junior
High School coach who
is facing child molesta
tion and sexual battery
charges.
Prior to the board’s
vote, Cory Kirby, an attorney with
Harbin, Hartley and Hawkins LLP, the
firm that represents the school system,
presented board members with the facts
of the case and the discussions that he has
had with the lawyer representing Jeffers.
The 49-year-old Dahlonega man was a
See Jeffers 17A
DCN names White
as new staff writer
Kibble 2 Care to bring free pet food to Dawson County
By Erica Jones
ejones@dawsonnnews.com
At the end of this month, Forsyth
County-based nonprofit organization
Kibble 2 Care will visit Dawson
County to hold a free pet food event
open to any Georgia pet owner in need
of a little extra help for their fur
babies.
According to Kibble 2 Care Founder
Scout Samples Bagley, she first set
about starting a pet food pantry during
the first wave of the COVID-19 pan
demic, when many people were having
trouble feeding their pets due to finan
cial hardships.
“I was actually laid off from my job
due to Covid and I’d had the idea in
my head for a little while but then I
had the time to get it started,” Bagley
said, “so I officially announced it in
April of 2020 and it kind of blew up
overnight because so many people
needed help.”
The goal of Kibble 2 Care, Bagley
said, is to provide pet food and sup
plies to Georgia residents who are
under financial stress, in order to help
them take care of their pets and not
have to surrender them at local shel
ters. She said that the idea first came to
her when she was working at the
Forsyth County Animal Shelter and
saw how many people were coming in
to surrender their pets.
“I used to work at the Forsyth
County Animal Shelter so I saw a lot
of it, but a lot of the reasons why peo
ple surrender their pets is because of
financial reasons and they can’t afford
them so we hope to help in that way,”
Bagley said. “I saw a lot of owner sur
renders and realized that there needed
to be something done; there are a lot of
pet food pantries in other areas but
there aren’t any around here so there
aren’t many resources.”
The nonprofit organization original
ly started out delivering pet food, but
as the need in the community grew it
evolved from a delivery service to a
monthly event to what it is today. Now,
Bagley said that they organize pop-up
pet food giveaway events, like the one
that will be held in Dawson, and travel
around to different counties giving
away pet food and supplies to anyone
who comes to get it.
The Dawson event, which will be on
Jan. 30, will be the first one Kibble 2
Care has held in the county. According
to Bagley, she had gotten several
requests to come to Dawson and has
received good feedback from those
interested in attending the event.
Community members in need of the
By staff reports
Dawson County News has hired Rio
White as a staff writer. His main topic for
coverage will be sports.
“My aim is to tell the
human side of sports cov
erage,” White said.
“While the statistics are
what people see at the
end of a game, it is the
background stories of
each athlete that often
reveal much more.’
White, who lived in
Cherokee County for 12 years before
recently moving to the Roswell area,
recently graduated from Kennesaw State
University with a bachelor’s degree in
Journalism.
While attending KSU, White was active
in student media, serving as a staff writer,
sports editor and managing editor of The
Sentinel student-run newspaper. He also
See White 13A
See Kibble 19A
White
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9 0 9 9 4
Inside
Volume 8, Number 4
© 2022, Dawson County News
Dawsonville, Georgia
Events
2B
Classifieds
5B
Dear Abby
8B
Deaths
2A
Legals
7B
Opinion
8A
Sports
1B
6A Sawnee EMC
to return more
than $7M
3A 4-H announces
winners of
Pumpkin
Growing
Contest
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