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DawsonCountyNews
WEDNESDAY I JULY 27, 2022 DaWSOflNeWS >COnri DAWSONVULE, GEORGIA $1.00
Hiker's death appears accidental
By Julia Fechter
jfechter@dawsonnews.com
All signs appear to point to a hiker’s
July 17 death at Bearden Falls as being
an accident, according to Dawson
County Sheriff Jeff Johnson.
Michael Joseph Gorman, 39, of San
Antonio, Texas, died after incurring
fatal injuries from a fall at the remote
hiking spot.
Zach Hannah, a friend of Gorman’s,
posted to Facebook about his friend’s
“tragic accident at Bearden Falls.”
“If you don’t have the proper gear
and aren’t trained PLEASE don’t climb
waterfalls. Make sure you are prepared
for emergencies,” Hannah said.
Bearden Falls sits along a creek of
the same name inside of the
Chattahoochee National Forest and is
one of multiple falls in Dawson County.
Officials with Dawson County Fire
& EMS, DCSO and multiple other
agencies responded Sunday to a hiker
who had fallen from Bearden Falls at
12:43 p.m., according to a press release.
Another person was hiking with
Gorman at the time of the incident,
Johnson told DCN.
Rescue personnel from Dawson and
Forsyth counties arrived at the scene
around 2:22 p.m, at which time the
incident changed into a recovery.
Gorman’s body was subsequently
turned over to the Dawson County
Coroner, who assisted with the identi
fication process. After the July 17 inci
dent, DCSO opened an investigation.
Gorman previously worked as a
nuclear engineer for Dynamic
Concepts and Siemens before starting
his most recent job as a partner con
sulting solutions engineer at Zscaler,
according to his obituary from Allen
Funeral Home.
Services were held for Gorman at
that funeral home in Morristown,
Tennessee on Saturday.
He leaves behind parents, a brother
and sister-in-law, extended family “as
well as many other dear friends and
coworkers.”
“He especially loved to travel and
had been to many of God’s Creations
throughout the world,” his obituary
said.
Michael
Joseph
Gorman
enjoyed
traveling to
hiking spots
all around
the world,
such as
Machu
Picchu in
Peru. Photo
submitted to
DCN.
Photo submitted
to DCN
Plugging into the future
Photo courtesy of Indigo Energy
North Georgia company Indigo Energy recently installed a brand-new electric vehicle charging station in
Dawsonville's Main Street Park.
New EV charging station installed at Main Street Park
Dawson fire
chief leaving
for new job
By Julia Fechter
jfechter@dawsonnews.com
Dawson County is now looking for its next
fire and emergency services
director.
Fire Chief and
Emergency Management
Director Danny Thompson
has resigned, with his offi
cial last day being Aug. 23,
according to a letter which
DCN obtained through an
open records request. He
will stay until that time to
help with preparing for next year’s Fire &
EMS budget.
See Chief 16A
Thompson
Vote again tabled
on mixed-use
village rezoning
By Julia Fechter
jfechter@dawsonnews.com
By Erica Jones
ejones@dawsonnews.com
Main Street Park in
Dawsonville now has yet
another addition: a new
electric vehicle charging
station installed by
Gainesville-based company
Indigo Energy.
Colson Rivers, account
manager for Indigo Energy,
said that the company
installed the charging sta
tion in collaboration with
the City of Dawsonville
and at no cost to the city.
“I’ve been working a lot
with the city manager Bob
Bolz with this project; I
talked with the city council
about it and got it all okay
ed with them,” Rivers said.
“This was actually done at
no cost to the city or the
community of
Dawsonville; this was sim
ply the city allowing us to
put it there at our cost so it
was great for the city that
they didn’t have to pay to
bring this to the communi
ty, and we’re excited to
have the opportunity for
our business as well.”
According to Rivers, the
charging station is a
“Blink” brand station and
is a very high-powered sta
tion, with the highest pos
sible power input that a
Fevel 2 charging station
can offer.
“That was important to
us was for that to be kind
of a future-proof installa
tion that we’re not going to
need to come back in a few
years as technology devel
ops to increase the amount
of power that’s available
there,” Rivers said.
This particular station, he
said, can charge vehicles
with converters rated for up
to 19 kilowatts. To charge a
vehicle, the station puts out
alternating current and the
vehicles’ batteries store it
as direct current, so the
power and charging speed
is essentially limited by
each car’s converter.
“A very common number
is that converter is rated for
11 kilowatts, but we’re see
ing newer vehicles that
have a 19 kilowatt charger,
and some older models like
a Nissan Feaf have a 7 or a
6 kilowatt converter,”
Rivers said. “It’s only been
in the ground a few weeks
now, but we’ve already
See Charger 13A
Before tabling a rezoning application for
Fox Creek Properties’ proposed mixed-use
village, the Dawson County Board of
Commissioners made it clear on July 21
that their central concern was residential
development outpacing commercial and
industrial aspects of the project.
District 2 Commissioner Chris Gaines
recognized the developer’s willingness to
work with the county on the proposed proj
ect’s “moving parts” and to “bend over
backwards to make concessions,” “but
we’ve got to get it right for their benefit as
well as ours”.
“If you ask me to go concurrent with
commercial [development], I’ll tell you to
See Rezoning 17A
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9 0 9 9 4
Inside
Volume 8, Number 26
© 2021, Dawson County News
Dawsonville, Georgia
Events
2B
Classifieds
7B
Dear Abby
5B
Deaths
2A
Legals
7B
Opinion
9A
Sports
1B
Dawson to
hold‘A
Family Fair
on July 29
8A University of
* North Georgia
economic
impact tops
$755 million
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