About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (March 23, 2022)
Elliott finishes 6th in Atlanta. SPORTS, 1B Meet the candidate for BOC seats. 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 0 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 ^EXCELLENCE AT HEART IS BACK IN GAINESVILLE After over a year, a team of Georgia's top cardiologists are returning to care for you — right here in your neighborhood. Trust your heart to the experts of the Northside System. Visit us at northsidecvi.com/gainesvilie or call 404.962.6000 to schedule an appointment today. 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