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DawsonCountyNews
WEDNESDAY I FEBRUARY 9, 2022 DaWSOflNeWS ^COITI DAWSONVILLE, GEORGIA $1.00
Couny to receive $1,3M in grant money
Development Authority of Dawson County named as a recipient of Broadband Infrastructure Grant
By Erica Jones
ejones@dawsonnews.com
On Feb. 1, Governor Brian
Kemp announced almost $408
million in preliminary awards
that will help to provide com
munities, households and busi
nesses in 70 Georgia counties
access to faster and more reli
able broadband. Among the list
of grant recipients is the
Development Authority of
Dawson County, which will
receive $1,332,621 of the grant
funding.
According to a release by the
governor’s office, the 49
American Rescue Plan Act
(ARPA) projects that Kemp
announced Tuesday represent
an investment of over $738 mil
lion in Georgia once matching
funds are contributed.
“I am very proud that
Georgia is once again leading
the nation in developing collab
orative, innovative, and fiscally
conservative ways to leverage
government funding to posi
tively impact and serve as many
Georgians as possible,” Kemp
said in the release. “I want to
thank all of the members on the
Broadband Infrastructure
Committee as well as the grants
team at the Office of Planning
and Budget, and the broadband
and special projects team at the
Georgia Technology Authority
for working together to score
applications and recommend
projects that reflect the greatest
needs and interests of hard
working Georgians.”
In June of 2021, Kemp
announced members of the
Georgia Jobs and Infrastructure
Committees, which were
responsible for receiving and
reviewing applications and
making recommendations to
Kemp regarding the federal
coronavirus relief funds allocat
ed to the state through the
American Rescue Plan. Among
these committees was the
Broadband Infrastructure
Committee, which was respon
sible for making recommenda
tions to provide unserved or
underserved locations with fast
er and more reliable broadband
access.
State government entities,
units of local government,
industries and nonprofits were
eligible to apply for the grant.
Tuesday’s announcement repre
sented the initial phase of the
rollout as the state continues to
collect information and work
with grantees to serve the most
Georgians in the highest-need
areas.
As project awards are final
ized, there is potential opportu
nity to repurpose or leverage
other federal funding to address
areas that may not have been
addressed with this first phase
of awards, the release said.
“The volume of applications
from all corners of the state
proved what we thought we
know: citizens need better
broadband options for work,
school, and play,” Senator
Blake Tillery said in the
release. “These awards are a
giant step toward resolving the
technological divide between
our urban and rural communi
ties.”
To identify the need of the
projects, the state used the
Georgia Broadband Availability
Map. Based on data from the
See Grant 12A
Stones of faith
Photos courtesy of James Davis
Left to right: Ashley Groves, Kellie Davis, James Davis and Katie Davis.
Local family paints rocks to spread joy in community
By Erica Jones
ejones@dawsonnews.com
Dawsonville man James Davis,
along with his wife Kellie and daugh
ters, 19-year-old Katie Davis and
20-year-old Ashley Groves, follows up
church services each week with a fam
ily Sunday supper and time spent
together.
While looking for family activities
to do one week, Ashley came up with
the idea of painting rocks together.
Since then, the simple idea has grown
into a ministry the family has used to
witness in the community and bring
them closer to one another.
According to Groves, she first
thought of the idea of painting rocks as
a family activity, but it quickly turned
into a craft with a purpose.
“I said ‘let’s just paint some rocks’
and then I said ‘what better thing
would it be than to write scripture and
put it places so that way it can pick
people up or help get them through the
day’,” Groves said. “So I went out and
bought some paint and we all started
doing it together, and we usually do it
every Sunday and take them out differ
ent places and share it on our
Facebook group.”
The family paints the rocks with col
orful designs and drawings, and then
they add scripture verses or references
to them.
“We love to just sit down and some
time we’ll create a rock and find a
scripture to go with whatever the
theme of the rock is,” Groves said.
“We’ve done a lot of different things;
we’ve come up with these cute little
pictures and stuff like that and we all
just enjoy doing it together.”
After they finish painting the rocks,
the family then puts them in different
places in the community, from parks to
businesses and everything in between.
While they live in Dawsonville, they
have distributed the painted rocks to
locations all throughout neighboring
counties in hopes of providing a little
pick-me-up to the people who find the
rocks.
“I usually carry a bunch of them in
my truck, so like today while I was out
and about I just put some out while I
was running through town,” James
Davis said. “We do pretty much all of
northeast Georgia, so like Forsyth, we
had some up in Blairsville at Meeks
Park and some of the parks up in the
mountains like Toccoa Falls and stuff
we’ll put some out there, just wherever
See Stones14A
Woody named
publisher for
Metro Market
Media group
By staff reports
Stephanie Woody has been named
group publisher for The Times, Forsyth
County News and
Dawson County News, all
owned by Metro Market
Media based in
Gainesville. The
announcement was made
this week by Charles H.
Morris Jr, owner of
MMM.
In her new position
Woody will be responsi
ble for oversight of newspapers, websites,
magazines, newsletters, digital marketing
and special events for the local media
See Woody 12A
Animals are recovering
after December rescue
by Julia Fechter
jfechter@dawsonnews.com
Multiple organizations have stepped up
to help care for 133 animals that were
rescued from a Dawsonville home in
December. The investigation into the ani
mal cruelty case is ongoing.
A rabbit-specific rescue nonprofit has
taken in the rabbits, according to a source
there who requested anonymity given the
ongoing investigation.
After multiple of those rabbits gave
birth, 26 became 43 with the addition of
17 newborns.
The adult rabbits are dealing with
health issues including pregnancies,
upper respiratory infections, syphilis,
See Animals 12A
Woody
0
9 0 9 9 4
Inside
Volume 8, Number 6
© 2021, Dawson County News
Dawsonville, Georgia
Church Events
2B
Classifieds
7B
Dear Abby
5B
Deaths
2A
Legals
8B
Opinion
7A
Sports
1B
5A Dawsonville
Girl Scouts
visit state
capitol
4A Variance option
could entice
more businesses
to Dawson
highway
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