About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 11, 2023)
Smith named Teacher of the Year for Dawson Middle. INSIDE, 3A CrossFit groups raise funds for local chiropractor. SPORTS, IB DawsonCountyNews WEDNESDAY I JANUARY 11,2023 DaWSOflNeWS >COnri DAWSONVULE, GEORGIA $1.00 Ga. House 7 special election heads to runoff By Julia Hansen jhansen@dawsonnews.com After a five-way special elec tion on Jan. 3, two Republicans will compete later this month for the Georgia House District 7 seat formerly held by the late Rep. David Ralston. Sheree Ralston, his widow, received a projected 45.02%, or 3,582 of 7,956 votes, according to updated results from the Georgia Secretary of State’s office. Opponent and fellow Fannin County Development Authority Chastain Ralston member Johnny Chastain received 39.28% or a projected 3,125 votes. A special election runoff will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 31, since neither of the leading can didates won more than 50 per cent of the vote. District 7 covers northwestern Dawson and all of Fannin and Gilmer counties. On Wednesday, the Dawson County Board of Elections and Registration posted a voting schedule for the runoff. Advance voting for western precinct voters only will take place from Monday, Jan. 23 until Friday, Jan. 27 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Board of Elections office. The office is located at 96 Academy Avenue in Dawsonville. Election Day voting will take place Jan. 31 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Fire Station 6, located at 2142 Hubbard Road. Voter turnout The other candidates garnered the following vote percentages: • Justin Heitman: 7.42% • Brian K. Pritchard: 6.16% • Richie Stone: 2.12% Overall, the voter participation rate for all three counties togeth er was 17.52%. “To the voters of the 7th District: Thank you for your faith in me. Tomorrow, the clock starts over, and we are hitting the ground running,” Sheree Ralston said in a Tuesday night Facebook post. “The special election runoff is January 31, and we are going to bring our conservative message and mountain values to every voter in the district.” In a post on his campaign’s Facebook page, Chastain said he was “humbled to say the least.” “Nearly 8,000 voted, and we came in a close second to some one who we were told deserved the seat. Less than 400 votes separated us tonight. Now we are in a 28 day sprint, and I need all hands on deck.” Baking up business credentials DCHS alumna makes a name for herself through bakery services By Erica Jones ejones@dawsonnews.com When she was about 12 years old, Bernadine Baptiste began watching Food Network shows with her older sister and became fascinated with the process of mixing together ingredi ents to make a delicious dish. She started experi menting with different reci pes and fell in love with baking, decorating and making beautiful edible cre ations. Now, the 18-year-old Dawson County High School alumna has expand ed this passion into her own small business and has been working hard to bring her cakes, cupcakes and other baked goods to the commu nity. Baptiste said that the first several years of baking and decorating cakes and other desserts consisted of pour ing herself into learning the craft and really honing her skills. “I was definitely not good at first,” Baptiste said, “so it took a lot of practice, a lot of effort and a lot of me begging my mom to just buy some extra sugar or chocolate from the store so I could practice.” In 2020 when the pan demic hit, Baptiste and her family were living in New York and she began looking for ways to pass the time while staying at home and being separated from so much of the outside world. It was then that her older brother suggested the idea of taking her baking to the next level and starting her See Bakery 14A Photo courtesy of Bernadine Baptiste 18-year-old DCHS alum Bernadine Baptiste owns and operates a small baking business, Made By Bernadine, through which she makes custom edible creations for customers in her community. McCormick ready to get started in DC By Kelly Whitmire kwh itm i r e@f o rsythnews.com After years of being split between Georgia’s 7th and 9th Congressional Districts, a new representa tive for Dawson County is ready to get to work in Washington, D.C. Rep. Rich McCormick, a surgeon and Navy and Marine Corps veteran, was chosen by voters in November and has already voted in the election rounds for the next speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. He was formally sworn in Saturday morning. McCormick and his team have prepared for his term with several weeks of meetings on legislation, leadership, ethics and more and “getting some of the phenomenal tal ent, people who have real experience in See McCormick 14A McCormick One pleads guilty in vehicle fraud scheme By Julia Hansen jhansen@dawsonnews.com A California woman has entered a nego tiated plea of guilty for her role in an alleged scheme with three others to fraudu lently buy vehicles, according to docu ments filed Dec. 19 in Dawson County Superior Court. Jazmine Ranae Wheeler pleaded guilty to one count of identity fraud, a felony, after she was arrested in September. Dawson County Sheriff’s Office war rants and an indictment accused her of writing a $35,096 check for a Mercedes with the elderly victims’ banking details. Wheeler was sentenced to 10 years, with the first 276 days in confinement and the remainder to be served on probation. As part of her probation, she is prohibited from contacting the victims or the other three defendants. In June, grand jurors in Dawson County See Scheme 12A 0 9 0 9 9 4 Inside Volume 9, Number 2 © 2023, Dawson County News Dawsonville, Georgia Church Events 2A Classifieds 7B Dear Abby 5B Deaths 2A Legals 7B Opinion 7A Sports 1B 2A Local church offering weekly meals to those in need. 6A Christmas trees can be recycled in month of January. We Are a Digital Impression Practice. Proud Owners of an iTero Element " Scanner. element "We all try and go above and beyond and give that five start treatment, so it's rewarding to know that what we do matters." •>[£• invisalign ip CT torn LQJL jim Q)amonville (^Distinctive ^Dentistry B. MANZUR, D.M.D. 754 HWY. 53 WEST, DAWSONVILLE, GA 706-265-2505
