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DawsonCountyNews
WEDNESDAY I JANUARY 4-5, 2023 DaWSOflNeWS ^COITI DAWSONVILLE, GEORGIA $1.00
Growth, elections, schools top 2022 list
By Julia Hansen
and Erica Jones
Dawson County News staff
With 2022 officially in
the rearview window, we’re
reflecting on some of the
biggest things that hap
pened in Dawson County
in the past year. Here are
some of the top highlights
that happened in 2022.
Dawson County
business community
continues to grow
The business community
continued to grow and
thrive in Dawson County in
2022, with new restaurants
and businesses of every
type opening or expanding
throughout the year.
In food and drink news,
the year kicked off with the
grand opening of fast-casu
al restaurant chain Chicken
Salad Chick in February,
followed closely by the
opening of specialty cookie
shop Crumbl Cookies in
March. The Human Bean
coffee shop officially
opened in August, and
Jersey Mike’s Subs opened
in December.
Several existing restau
rants also celebrated wins
in 2022. Local Italian deli
and restaurant Ruby’s
Recipes officially opened at
its new location in down
town Dawsonville in
September and community
staple Chick-fil-A celebrat
ed its 20th anniversary of
opening in the community
in the same month.
The Dawson County
Chamber of Commerce
held ribbon cuttings for
dozens of new businesses
in the community in 2022,
and the community cele
brated the opening of new
medical, insurance, enter
tainment and manufactur
ing companies in the coun
ty.
The chamber was hon
ored as a GACCE Georgia
Certified Chamber for
2022, an
honor
given to
only eight
of the over
150 cham-
bers of
commerce
in the
state. The chamber also
celebrated the promotion of
Jessica Grigsby to the posi
tion of membership direc
tor and the hiring of Anna
Graefen as its new director
of marketing and events.
Several businesses in the
county celebrated exciting
anniversaries in 2022.
See Recap 14A
Graefen
Photo courtesy of Lance Jeffreys
Crumbl Cookies co-owners Lance Jeffreys and
James Griffin opened their third location this
March in Dawson.
‘Dawson Feed the Hungry’
Photo courtesy of Scotty Seay
This year on Christmas Day, volunteers served and delivered over 1,500 meals during the eighth annual
"Dawson Feed the Hungry" event.
Over 1,500 meals served on Christmas during eighth annual event
By Erica Jones
ejones@dawsonnews.com
Despite a few unexpected
hurdles due to the cold
weather, over 1,500 people
were able to enjoy a hot
meal on Christmas Day
thanks to the volunteers and
donors with the eighth
annual “Dawson Feed the
Hungry” event.
The event takes place
each year on Christmas
Day, and event organizer
Scotty Seay said that when
he and his mother arrived at
the Dawsonville Pool Room
at 2 a.m. on Christmas this
year they were met with an
unexpected challenge when
they learned that the week
end’s cold snap had frozen
the restaurant’s water pipes.
“My mother started
laughing because I had to
use bottled water to put in
the big pots to start cooking
mashed potatoes; I told her
the show must go on even if
the pipes are frozen so we
have to improvise here,”
Seay said. “By 11, some of
the men who came in to
volunteer got out there and
they got the water unfrozen
to the Pool Room.”
Due to the trouble at the
restaurant, Seay said that he
was unable to cook the
chicken for the hot meals
when he needed to. Because
of this, his friend who is the
restaurant manager at
Rooster’s restaurant in
Cumming took the chicken
to cook there and brought it
back.
“We were struggling there
at 2 a.m. with no water, but
God always comes through
— you think you’re down
and out and have to move
on to Plan B but we didn’t
miss a beat,” Seay said.
“I’m so thankful for
Rooster’s, the Pool Room,
Gordon Pirkle and his fami
ly and all the businesses that
helped out this year.”
Once the pipes were
repaired and the food was
ready to eat, Seay and his
army of volunteers hailing
from all over North Georgia
spent the rest of Christmas
Day serving the hot meals
to those who came to the
restaurant and delivering
them to the homes of those
who had called ahead of
time asking for one. When
all of their hard work was
completed, the total number
of those fed during the
event was over 1,500.
“This is the largest num
ber of volunteers that I’ve
See Feed 14A
150K gourds,
other picks to
cap off2022
By Julia Hansen,
Erica Jones and
Rio White
Dawson County News staff
As we look back on 2022 in Dawson
County, we had each of our reporters and
editor pick a couple of their favorite stories
that they wrote this year. Whether exciting,
tragic or impactful, we love telling the sto
ries of the people and organizations in
Dawson County and can’t wait to continue
doing so in the new year. Here are some of
our personal favorites from 2022.
See Favorites 15A
Find us online
Are you using the digital access includ
ed with your subscription? Go to daw-
sonnews.com to read all our favorite
stories of the year.
Man charged with
50-plus counts of
child sex exploitation
By Julia Hansen
jhansen@dawsonnews.com
A White County man remains behind
bars in Dawson County after being charged
with more than 50 counts of sexual exploi
tation of children, accord
ing to warrants DCN
obtained Dec. 23.
Matthew Scott Roberts,
40, of Cleveland, was
arrested by the Dawson
County Sheriff’s Office on
Oct. 20, 2022.
Roberts was initially
charged with one count
each of child molestation and sexual
exploitation of children in the larger case,
according to DCSO’s weekly arrest report.
See Roberts 12A
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9 0 9 9 4
Inside
Volume 9, Number 1
© 2023, Dawson County News
Dawsonville, Georgia
Events
2B
Classifieds
7B
Dear Abby
5B
Deaths
2A
Legals
7B
Opinion
7A
Sports
1B
3A UGA Extension
Service to offer
Master Gardener
course.
8A Committee
named to find
next UNG
president.
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754 HWY. 53 WEST, DAWSONVILLE, GA
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