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Elliott finishes 6th in
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SPORTS, 1B
Meet the
candidate for
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INSIDE, 3A
DawsonCountyNews
WEDNESDAY I MARCH 23, 2022 DaWSOflNeWS ^COITI DAWSONVILLE, GEORGIA $1.00
County”
“Don’t ‘Fulton County’ my Dawson
Planning Commission tables vote on rezone for proposed mixed-use village
By Julia Fechter
jfechter@dawsonnews.com
Once again, Dawson County
residents made it clear: they do
not want a large, mixed-use
village at the northwest corner
of Ga. 400 and Lumpkin
Campground Road.
“Don’t ‘California’ my
Georgia. Don’t ‘Fulton
County’ my Dawson County,"’
said Board of Commissioners
District 3 candidate Deanna
Dickinson.
After hearing version three
of the developer’s presenta
tion, the county’s Planning
Commission still had enough
concerns about the proposal on
March 15 to table a vote on
whether to rezone 518 acres
for the project.
The vote to recommend the
rezone’s approval or denial
was tabled until the commis
sion’s meeting on April 19.
Before that meeting, there
will be a community forum
held for neighbors to discuss
their concerns with representa
tives of developer Fox Creek
Properties. A forum date, time
and place have not yet been
announced.
“I have a lot of folks in front
of me that say they’ve never
gotten a letter or never had a
chance to speak, and they’d
like to hear from you,”
Planning Commission
Chairman Jason Hamby said
while requesting such a meet
ing.
Project spokesperson Ken
Wood, president of Planners
and Engineers Collaborative,
agreed to Hamby’s request to
bring to a future forum materi
als outlining plans to mitigate
traffic in major intersections
that would be impacted by the
village.
“This tonight was our public
hearing, so when it comes
before us next month, there
will not be a public hearing
again,” Hamby said to the
crowd. “It’ll go [from a] pre
sentation and then [to a] vote.”
As is standard with rezoning
requests, the Board of
Commissioners will also hear
the application at a future
meeting. When the BOC first
hears the rezone application,
there will be a public hearing.
The date for that part of the
process depends on when the
Planning Commission votes to
recommend approval or denial.
Video of the public hearing
can be watched on the Dawson
County Government’s
Facebook or YouTube pages,
and a print out of the develop
er’s presentation can be found
in the Planning Commission’s
March 15 agenda packet, start
ing on page 93.
See Planning 15A
These eggs aren’t shabby
Erica Jones Dawson County News
Local crafting guru Barb Lewis has received over a thousand submissions for her egg decorating crafting chal
lenge, sent in by the followers from her popular crafting channelThe ShabbyTree.
Local woman behind popular crafting channel receives
over 1000 egg-inspired crafts sent from all over the world
By Erica Jones
ejones@dawsonnews.com
For the past several weeks, local
woman Barb Lewis has been receiving
egg-inspired crafts from all over the
world, sent in by her followers from her
popular crafting channel, The Shabby
Tree.
Lewis, who has more than a million
followers on her website and social
media, said that she put out the chal
lenge of making egg crafts to inspire
her followers to be creative and to come
up with their own unique ways to deco
rate eggs for the upcoming Easter holi
day.
According to Lewis, she challenged
her followers to take an “egg-sized
egg”, decorate it in any way they want
ed and send it in to her. She said that
each one she’s opened so far has been
incredibly creative and beautiful in its
own unique way.
“I open every egg and we show it
live, and then we hang it on the tree,”
Lewis said. “They’re just beautiful and
very creative; some of them will just
blow you away.”
So far, Lewis has received well over
1000 eggs submitted to her, and she
said that they don’t seem to be slowing
down yet.
“Every time we go to the post office
it takes us two SUVs to fill and bring
all the eggs back,” Lewis said. “We’ve
opened over a thousand so far but they
still keep coming.”
The eggs submitted to the contest
have been sent in by all ages and from
all over the world, Lewis said, with sub
missions sent in from as far away as
Canada and Australia.
Lewis has one tree set up at her ware
house, filled with eggs submitted by her
followers, but she said that she has
nowhere near enough room for every
submission. Because of this, she recent
ly set up another tree full of ornaments
at local restaurant Papa’s Place and is
hoping to set up more trees at local
assisted living homes and other places
around town.
“They took all this time to make it so
I really want the eggs to be seen; I
don’t want them just sitting in my
warehouse but I want people to see
them and enjoy them,” Lewis said. “I
told the followers the ornaments will
be given away, we don’t take the orna
ments back, and they were so excited
See Eggs14A
4th judge appointed
to Juvenile Court
By Nick Watson
DCN Regional Staff
Assistant Public Defender Matt Leipold
was named as the fourth judge on the
Juvenile Court bench for Hall and
Dawson counties on Tuesday, March 15.
The courts received American Rescue
Plan funding in December to add a fourth
judgeship, which they had otherwise
hoped to do by 2024.
Leipold was appointed by the Superior
Court judges and will handle some civil
Superior Court matters in the immediate
future.
Leipold started with the Northeastern
Judicial Circuit’s public defender’s office
— which covers Hall and Dawson coun
ties — in 2013.
“We’re very pleased to have Mr.
Leipold continue his public service in this
new capacity,” Chief Superior Court
Judge Kathlene Gosselin said in a state
ment. “He’s earned a reputation as a
devoted advocate and skillful practitioner,
with a sharp knowledge of the law.”
Leipold will be sworn in on March 28.
He was unavailable to comment further
Tuesday, March 15, when reached by The
Times.
Man charged after
allegedly disposing
drugs at Dawson
County subdivision
By Julia Fechter
jfechter@dawsonnews.com
One man supposedly found out the hard
way that disposing illicit substances dur
ing a traffic stop can get
a person in even more
trouble.
Ryan Lee Swink, 28,
Gainesville, was arrested
by the Dawson County
Sheriff’s Office on
March 9 just after 11
p.m.
He faces one felony
each for tampering with
Swink
See Swink 12A
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9 0 9 9 4
Inside
Volume 8, Number 12
© 2022, Dawson County News
Dawsonville, Georgia
Church Events
2B
Classifieds
6B
Dear Abby
5B
Deaths
2A
Legals
7B
Opinion
7A
Sports
1B
4A DCS holds
Kindergarten
Round-Up
event
State House
approves
needs-based
college aid
program
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