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DawsonCountyNews
WEDNESDAY I MARCH 2, 2022 DaWSOflNeWS >COnri DAWSONVILLE, GEORGIA $1.00
Dawsonville to get $3M water grant
City plans to use funds to build new wastewater treatment plant
By Erica Jones
ejones@dawsonnews.com
The City of Dawsonville plans
to construct a new wastewater
treatment plant thanks to a recent
ly announced grant of $3 million
from the state.
“Additional capacity is needed
to meet projected demands,
which have accelerated due to
migration from metropolitan
areas during the period of the
pandemic,” the accompanying
document said.
The improvements are targeted
for the southwest area of the city,
within ZIP code 30534.
The grant award was
announced Feb. 22 by Gov. Brian
Kemp as part of over $422 mil
lion in preliminary awards to
reinforce water and sewer infra
structure across the state.
According to a press release by
Kemp’s office, the goal of the
awards is to make sure that com
munities in high-need areas have
reliable and safe drinking water
and wastewater systems.
“Because we remained focused
on protecting lives and liveli
hoods throughout the pandemic,
Georgia is now in a position to
make strategic, transformational
investments in our state’s water
and sewer infrastructure,” Kemp
said in the release. “I want to
thank the committee members for
dedicating their time and exper
tise to help us make these awards
as well as the grants team at the
Office of Planning and Budget. I
am proud to know that we have
worked hard to prioritize projects
which address pressing public
health and environmental issues,
support economic development,
and enhance our ability to be
good stewards of our water
resources for generations to
come.”
The water and sewer infra
structure awards will help to
improve drinking water treat
ment, extend drinking water ser
vice to high-need areas, improve
drinking water infrastructure,
improve wastewater treatment to
result in cleaner lakes and rivers,
improve biosolids management
to result in less waste in landfills,
improve sewer systems to result
in fewer hazardous spills and
secure Georgia’s water resources
for the future, the release said.
Local entities including the
City of Dawsonville applied for
the grants and were evaluated by
a group of committee members
before being selected to receive
the money.
For more information about
the water and sewer infrastruc
ture grants including a full list of
grant recipients, go to gov.geor-
gia.gov/press-releas-
e s/2022 -02 -22/gov-kemp -
announces-more-422m-awards-
reinforce-water-and-sewer.
‘Above and beyond’ for students
Delaney named Dawsons 2022 Philip Wright award recipient
Photo courtesy of Todd Langley
Angie Delaney has been named as Dawson County's 2022 Philip Wright
award recipient.
Man charged
with child porn
while on release
from county jail
by Julia Fechter
jfechter@dawsonnews.com
Sheriff warns
residents of
gift card scams
By Julia Fechter
jfechter@dawsonnews.com
By Erica Jones
ejones@dawsonnews.com
Angie Delaney has been named as
Dawson County’s 2022 Philip Wright
award recipient for her hard work and
commitment to serving students with
special needs across the district.
The Philip Wright award is an annual
award given to an educator who is mak
ing an impact on students with disabili
ties in the school system. The award is
named after Philip Wright, an educator
who created a legacy of service in the
area of special education. Every year,
each school district selects a recipient,
and all of the winners are presented
with their awards at a regional event.
The Philip Wright award recipient is
selected each year by administrators
and peers, and can be anyone who is
involved in helping to educate special
education students.
“It’s an award that honors an individ
ual who has a strong commitment to
improving the educational outcomes for
students with disabilities,” Director of
Exceptional Children Todd Langley
said. “It doesn’t have to be a special
education teacher, it can be any educa
tor that’s improving those outcomes for
students with disabilities, so it can be an
administrator, it can be a regular ed
teacher, administrative assistants, just
anybody who has an impact on special
education students.”
Delaney, who works as a program
specialist for the school system, was
selected by a combination of adminis
trators, central office staff, principals,
assistant principals and lead and special
education teachers. She was announced
as the award recipient during a recent
leadership team meeting, and she said
that she was not expecting to be the
winner.
“I’m on the leadership team in
Dawson County, and Dr. Langley had
told me that someone else on the lead
ership team had won the award,”
Delaney said, “so I was kind of stand
ing behind her expecting him to
announce it when he announced that
my husband and son were there and I
kind of figured it out.”
Delaney’s husband and son were able
to come to the meeting for the
announcement, and a photo of Delaney
with a plaque announcing that she had
won the award was posted on the
Dawson County School system’s
Facebook page. She said that, once the
post was live, she heard back from a lot
of people who were excited to hear the
announcement.
“They posted it to Facebook and
linked me, and what has been really
cool is people like my brother who is
serving overseas in Germany saw it and
wrote ‘that’s my sister’,” Delaney said.
“It’s been really nice that people who I
wouldn’t call to tell ‘I got this award’
can see it and know what I do.”
Delaney has been in the special edu
cation field for about 25 years, six of
which have been in Dawson County.
She got her master’s in education
degree prior to starting her first teaching
job in Gainesville, Florida.
“I kind of had the book knowledge
first — a lot of times people do it the
other way around and they kind of get
One man remains in cus
tody after being arrested last
week for allegedly commit
ting sexual crimes while he
was on conditional release
for earlier charges.
Dennis Laron Brown, 26,
Dawsonville, was arrested
by the Dawson County
Sheriff’s Office on Feb. 16,
2022, and charged with four felony counts of
sexual exploitation of children.
See Brown 12A
Amid a flurry of recent scams in Dawson
County and surrounding areas, residents are
urged to show caution when giving out per
sonal information.
Dawson County Sheriff Jeff Johnson
described scammers using victims’ personal
information to get anything from gift cards
to a Verizon account or even an out-of-state
car.
Among the most frequent schemes are gift
card scams. In recent months, the Dawson
County Sheriff’s Office has seen a substan
tial increase in gift card scams, Johnson said.
Scammers are contacting residents and
businesses via telephone and claiming to be
with a government entity. The caller pro
vides a story such as a report of fake money
coming from the business to an out-of-state
warrant that must be paid to avoid the call
See Scams 13A
See Wright 12A
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Inside
Volume 8, Number 9
© 2021, Dawson County News
Dawsonville, Georgia
Events
2B
Classifieds
6B
Dear Abby
4B
Deaths
2A
Legals
7B
Opinion
7A
Sports
1B
3A Ga. DPH cau
tions parents
of powdered
infant formu
la recall.
4A Local mans
streetcar
makes racing
premiere in Fla.
CANCER
is in Your Neighborhood cqlorectai
LEUKEMIA
