Newspaper Page Text
Relay teams lead
Tigers in opening
track meet of the
season, sports, ib
Inaugural prom held
for non-traditional
students, foster youth.
INSIDE, 4A
WEDNESDAY I MARCH 15,2023 DaWSOflNeWS >COm DAWSONVULE, GEORGIA $2.00
Corps pauses Lanier renaming plans
Announcement comes hours after documents saying Corps would rename lake, Buford Dam
By Jeff Gill
DCN regional staff
Will they or won’t they?
Within hours of releasing docu
ments saying the Army Corps of
Engineers would move forward
with recommending new names
for Lake Lanier and Buford Dam,
the Corps appeared to backtrack
on its plans.
“The U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers is pausing any actions
related to project renaming pend
ing further guidance from the
Department of the Army,” the
agency said in a statement sent to
The Times Lriday afternoon.
Correspondence earlier in the
day indicated another direction.
The Corps’ Mobile District
“will develop and submit a new
name for Lake Lanier/Buford
Dam for consideration by the
Department of the Army,”
District Commander Jeremy J.
Chapman said in a letter Lriday,
March 10, to Lake Lanier
Association executive director
Amy McGuire.
The actions are being taken in
accordance with the fiscal 2021
William M. (Mac) Thornberry
National Defense Authorization
Act, the letter says.
“Our goal is to be fully open
and transparent during the renam
ing process, and we will solicit
public and stakeholder feedback
on the recommended names,”
Chapman said.
The Corps has set up a website
to obtain public comments.
The agency has been “directed
to provide potential name chang
es to Lake Sidney Lanier and
Buford Dam,” said in a news
release Lriday, March 10.
A Corps “planning team is
working to develop possible
name recommendations and
establish timelines for this pro
cess,” the release states.
An information sheet released
by the Corps on Lriday shows a
list of renaming milestones, with
“directed renaming complete”
dated Jan.l, 2024.
That timeline now seems in
limbo, given the latest communi
cation from the Corps.
The Mobile District, which
includes Lake Lanier and Buford
Dam, “is committed to public and
stakeholder engagement.”
“Ultimately, Congress has the
final authority to select a new
name for the project since it
established the project’s name
(Lake Lanier) when it first autho
rized the project in 1946,” the
website states.
The issue stems from a
September report issued by The
Naming Commission, a congres-
sionally chartered group assigned
to reviewing federal names relat
ed to the Confederacy.
The Linal Report to Congress
says the lake and dam are “within
its remit for consideration, but not
within its purview to provide a
naming recommendation.”
Buford Dam is named for the
city, the namesake of Lt. Col.
Algernon Sidney Buford, who
served in the Virginia Militia dur
ing the Civil War, the report
states.
Lake Lanier is named after
poet Sidney Lanier, who served
in the Confederate States Army
as a private. The lake drew 12.3
See Lanier 13A
‘We’re excited to bring even more services’
JfcjBv elf
]
H
Hi I
1 I
H 1 B mu
1
Erica Jones Dawson County News
Officials break ground on Northeast Georgia Health System's upcoming Medical Plaza 2 on Wednesday March 8.
NGHS breaks ground on medical plaza in Dawson County
By Erica Jones
ejones@dawsonnews.com
On Wednesday March 8,
Northeast Georgia Health
System (NGHS) officially
broke ground on the system’s
newest medical plaza in
Dawson County.
The new plaza will be
called Medical Plaza 2 and
will be located at 22 Prestige
Lane next to the system’s
existing building off of
Highway 400, which will be
renamed from Medical Plaza
400 to Medical Plaza 1. The
new plaza is scheduled to be
ready to open in 2024.
According to Daniel Tuffy,
President and Chief
Administrative Officer of
Northeast Georgia Physicians
Group (NGPG), the new
plaza will greatly expand the
services that NGHS will be
able to offer to Dawson and
its surrounding counties.
“Medical Plaza 400 opened
in 2013; since then we can all
agree that this area has
changed and grown quite a
bit,” Tuffy said. “In this
decade that we’ve been here,
Northeast Georgia and
NGPG have expanded to
keep up with the growth of
the region, adding new spe
cialties and physicians so all
our residents can have care
closer to home. That’s why
we’re excited to bring even
more services and expanded
care home to this communi
ty.”
The existing medical plaza
will turn into mainly primary
care services with radiology,
and the new building will
have enough room to host
both the existing and new
specialists, Tuffy said.
Medical Plaza 1 will
include NGPG family medi
cine, pediatrics, internal med
icine and psychiatry, as well
as the HealthLink Lab, imag
ing and radiology. Medical
Plaza 2 will house NGPG
OBGYN, orthopedic surgery,
sports medicine, urgent care
and urology, along with cardi
ology services provided by
the Georgia Heart Institute.
Having all of these services
available between the two
buildings will make patient
care easier for both the physi
cians and the patients, Tuffy
said.
“Having this all together in
one campus is going to lead
to a more effective and effi
cient appointment process
and less travel for our patients
as well,” Tuffy said. “It will
also be especially convenient
for urgent care patients to
have specialty providers in
the same building for follow
up care.”
He also mentioned the
upcoming hospital, NGMC
Lumpkin, that is expected to
open next year in neighboring
Lumpkin County.
See NGHS14A
New buildings
at DCHS near
completion
By Erica Jones
ejones@dawsonnews.com
Dawson County High School’s two newest
additions, the multipurpose athletic building
and the Roger D. Slaton agriscience center,
are nearing completion and should be ready to
open before too much longer, Assistant
Superintendent of Operations Hershel Bennett
reported to the Dawson County Board of
Education during its March 7 meeting.
The two buildings will both be located at
the high school, with the agriscience center
next to the school’s College and Career
Academy building and the multipurpose ath
letic building located between the high
school, performing arts center, gym and press
box. Both are being paid for with the district’s
E-SPLOST funding, and both are nearing the
home stretch of the construction process,
Bennett said.
See School 14A
Details needed
for decision on
county’s EOC,
E911 center
By Julia Hansen
jhansen@dawsonnews.com
After a half hour of recent public discus
sion, a decision on the new location for
Dawson County’s new emergency operations
and E911 center was still too close to call.
The Board of Commissioners weighed a lit
any of cost and placement concerns about the
major capital project during their March 2
work session.
The EOC and E911 center is one of several
notable projects voters approved as part of a
Dawson County special purpose local option
See E91115A
0
90994 04002
Inside
Volume 9, Number 11
© 2023, Dawson County News
Dawsonville, Georgia
Events
2B
Classifieds
6B
Dear Abby
5B
Deaths
2A
Legals
6B
Opinion
7A
Sports
1B
3A Anchor Real
Estate Advisors
brings quality
services to
Dawson.
6A
School system
celebrates
Exceptional
Childrens
Week.
m
r.OSttgS
fOH
element
-jJj- invisolign
"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."
v r. f
4* -
Q)amoiwille
B. MANZUR, D.M.D.
754 HWY. 53 WEST, DAWSONVILLE, GA
706-265-2505