About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (July 13, 2022)
Wednesday, July 13,2022 dawsonnews.com I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I 3A COVID-19 vaccines authorized for children as young as 6 months old By Staff Reports COVID-19 vaccines are now authorized for everyone six months of age or older, according to a press release by the Department of Public Health. According to the release, children will get a smaller dose of the vaccine than teenagers and adults, and the dose will be based on their age on the day of vacci nation. “Parents should dis cuss with their pediatri cian or family doctor about vaccinating their child with the COVID- 19 vaccine,” District 2 Public Health Medical Director Zachary Taylor said in the release. Currently, the Pfizer- BioNTech vaccine is available at all District 2 health departments for children six months or older. The Moderna vac cine will be arriving soon, the release said, and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is not authorized for children. “The CDC recom mends COVID-19 pri mary series vaccines for everyone who is six months and older, and COVID-19 boosters for everyone five years and older, if eligible,” the release said. “You are protected best from COVID-19 when you stay up to date with the recommended vaccines.” Vaccine recommenda tions vary depending on age, type of vaccine received, and timing of the last dose, the release said. “Children five to 11 years old should get two doses of the Pfizer- BioNTech vaccine three to eight weeks apart, and should receive their booster dose five months after their primary series has been completed,” the release said. “Children six months to four years old should receive three doses total. Once a child is vaccinated with their first dose, they should receive their second dose three to eight weeks later; however, the inter val between the second dose and the third dose is eight weeks.” District 2 public health departments, including the location in Dawson County, offer walk-in appointments for COVID-19 vaccines. To find a health department location near you, go to phdistrict2.org. To learn more about the COVID- 19 vaccine for adults and children, go to cdc.gov/ coronavirus. DCN file photo FROM 1A DCSS “We don’t want to just focus on one thing, we want to make sure our kids are safe on every aspect,” Wooten said. “I know that active shooter situations are kind of the main topic right now, but there’s other hazards that we’re pre pared for too that are just as likely.” For visitors to even set foot inside one of the district’s schools, there are several steps they must go through first. All of the schools are secured with locked doors, and anyone entering the school must be buzzed in by the front desk. Once a visitor enters the front office, he or she must be checked in before being allowed into the school hall ways, and the system notifies front desk personnel if a visi tor is a sex offender. The high school has a welcome center in the parking lot, allowing a staff member to ask drivers coming in why they’re visit ing the campus. Each school has tinted win dows on the outside of the building, so the front desk personnel don’t feel pressured to buzz in anyone that they shouldn’t be letting into the school. School staff wear ID badges, and all seven of the schools in the district have their own Student Resource Officer (SRO). According to Wooten, the school system has made sev eral upgrades to its safety equipment in the past few years and plans to add even more in the near future. This has included a recent upgrade to the camera system, and a new measure this school year will be the installation of emergency buttons in each classroom. “We’re having emergency buttons inside every class room and the teachers will have the ability to wear a wireless microphone that also has a safety button on it that alerts,” Wooten said. “Those alerts go to principals, to the resource officers and to the school safety coordinator, so anytime that they feel there’s something that they need to let us know about they can just hit their emergency call button and they have the wearable mic.” The P.A. systems in the schools are also part of the package with the emergency buttons and wearable micro phones, Wooten said, allowing a school the ability to go into lockdown at the touch of a button if needed. “If a teacher sends some thing like that and we’re able to validate that it’s threatening we can go ahead and hit a but ton at the kiosk that would send our school into a lock- down and the RA. would step- by-step tell you what to do in a lockdown,” Wooten said. “The faster we can lock down, the safer our students and staff are in the event of an emergency.” Communication is para mount when it comes to ensuring the safety of the children and teachers in case of an emergency, Wooten said. “We’re making sure our communication is as fast as we can — we can let every body know as quick as we can so they know we’re in a situa tion we feel is unsafe,” Wooten said. “Communication is key to let everybody know what’s going on.” Another facet of this com munication is another upcom ing project that the school system will add this upcoming school year: portable radio upgrade and base radios for each school office. “We have a channel on that where all of our principals, SROs and some of the district personnel all have the ability to go to that channel and talk about anything safety-relat ed,” Wooten said. “And we’ll have a base radio in every front office of every school so if we see something, say a tor nado on the ground in our county or a neighboring coun ty, we can talk to every school at once.” The school buses are also equipped with radios, he added, allowing the district to communicate with every bus driver. The district also moni tors field trips, so even when the students are out of the county the system can watch out for weather and other threats in the area where the students are. The school also utilizes Gaggle, a software that moni tors the students’ emails through the school devices to alert the district if any threats of harm or self-harm are made by a student. “We have Gaggle that moni tors the students’ emails through our devices so if they say anything that’s a threat or self-harm then it alerts us so we can follow up on that immediately,” Wooten said. The schools in the district also take part in severe weath er, fire, active shooter and lockdown drills, and Wooten added that the schools and the district have all held tabletop discussions allowing person nel to work through every step of what they should do in case of an emergency. In the end, Wooten said, the most important thing is mak ing sure that measures are in place to not only react in case of an emergency, but also for each school to be well pre pared for any emergency ahead of time. “What we tell parents is that we do as much as we can on the preventative side as well as the reactive side; we’re not just focused on one side but we’re trying to make sure we’re preventative and pre pared if something does hap pen,” Wooten said. Photos by Jared C. Tilton Getty Images Elliott celebrates with a burnout after winning the Quaker State 400 present ed by Walmart on Sunday, July 10, at Atlanta Motor Speedway Elliott waves the checkered flag following his win. FROM 1A Elliott Room, talking to locals who were excited to see the local man do so well. After the race, Elliott spoke about what that meant to him. “Any time you can carry on a tradition that your father had from his hometown, and for the people to still [gather] for me, is really neat,” Elliott said. “I’m just proud to be from here, still live here and grate ful that the fans from this state have always kept me as part of the family.” The final 100 laps would see six further cautions, with the first one taking out several contenders just a few laps into the restart fol lowing Stage Two. With that crash scram bling much of the leaderboard, Elliott and Chastain would soon be joined up front by LaJoie, who had finished fifth in the spring race at AMS. The No. 7 car would make the most of his time up front as those three drivers dominated the race from laps 180 to 240. Elliott enjoyed the lon gest stretch up front dur ing this time, leading from lap 205 onward. But four more major incidents threatened to derail that momentum, with Chastain inevitably tangling with Denny Hamlin in the middle of those events. After Christopher Bell spun out at lap 237, Martin Truex Jr grabbed his second lead of the race and held on while the Chastain and Hamlin conflict ensued at lap 247. LaJoie would regain the lead after that restart but would soon be slowed down by a back- stretch incident. With one final restart at just three laps remain ing, a frantic finish was guaranteed. On the second lap, Elliott passed LaJoie and Chastain to retake the lead. With no other options, the No. 7 attempted to pass on the high line on the final lap but was blocked by Elliott, sending him into the wall and ending the race on a caution. All of that late drama made the hometown win that much sweeter. “These are moments you wish you could bot tle up and keep,” Elliott said. “To be here and have a day like we had was incredible. It’s cer tainly one I’m going to embrace and enjoy a lot.” Elliott led a total of 96 laps and won both stag es, securing seven play off points to go along with his 16th career Cup Series victory. He is also the first driver to win three races this season and extended his lead atop the points standings with 684 points. After the race, he passed William Byron for most total laps led this season with 645. Celebrating 192 Consecutive Years July 25-31, 2022 Host Pastor Dr. David Sanders Ministers Dr. Warren Lathem Rev. Jason Hamby The song Leader Barry Slaton. PUBLIC MEETING NOTICE The Amicalola Falls Scenic Byway Committee and sponsors (Dawson County Chamber of Com merce, Gilmer County Chamber of Commerce, Pickens County Chamber of Commerce, Gilmer County Development Authority, and Pickens County Development Authority) will host a series of public meetings to receive comments and questions pertaining to the designation of the Amicalola Falls Scenic Byway. The purpose of these meetings is to provide property owners along the pro posed route with information about the byway designation process, benefits of designation, and the long-term vision for the Amicalola Falls Scenic Byway as well as receive community feedback. Route Description In Ellijay begin on Flwy 52 at US 76 overpass to roundabout at Flwy 52 near Amicalola Falls State Park At Crossroads Grocery at intersection of Flwy 52 and Clear Creek Road, Clear Creek Road to Fendley Road to Orchard Lane to Yukon Road Yukon Road toward Talking Rock (becomes Jones Mountain Road in Pickens County) to Flwy 136 in Downtown Talking Rock at Talking Rock Creek In Talking Rock begin on Flwy 136 at the intersection at Jones Mountain Road to Flwy 183 In Dawsonville begin on Main Street/Flwy 53 at the Dawsonville Museum/Racing Flail of fame to Shoal Creek Road to Hwy 136 to Bailey Waters Road to Flwy 52 to Amicalola Falls State Park In Dawsonville begin on Main Street/Flwy 53 at the Dawsonville Museum/Racing Flail of Fame to Flwy 183 at the square to Flwy 52 to Amicalola Falls State Park In Pickens County begin on Burnt Mountain Road at intersection of Flwy 136 to Cove Road in Jasper Public Meetings will be held on: Wednesday, July 20, 2022 4:00pm - 5:00pm - Reece’s Cider Company, 9110 SR-52, Ellijay, GA Tuesday, July 26, 2022 4:00pm - 6:00pm - Fainting Goat Vineyards & Winery, 201 Vineyard Way, Jasper, GA Thursday, July 28, 2022 5:00pm - 6:00pm - Georgia Racing Flail of Fame, 415 Flwy. 53E, Dawsonville, GA All property owners along the route and anyone else interested in learning more about the project is encouraged to attend. Individuals unable to attend one of the three public meetings may forward comments or questions to Janet Cochran, Project Manager, Georgia’s Rural Center 404-276-9142 orjanet.cochran@abac.edu
