About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (June 7, 2023)
Wednesday, June 7,2023 dawsonnews.com I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I 3A Erica Jones Forsyth County News Dawson County Sheriff Jeff Johnson serves as a "celebrity waiter" during Family Connection's fundraiser on June 2. FROM 1A Celebrity “This event was always meant to just bring the community together and highlight some of our celeb rities, which we consider people that are just already serving our community,” Dawson County Family Connection Coordinator Rebecca Bliss said. “Dawson County has a large amount of resources and a large amount of people that care about each other, and I think that’s evident today; we all support each other and they all want to support our community.” It’s been four years since Family Connection has been able to host the Celebrity Waiter fundraiser, and Bliss said that she and other nonprofit leadership couldn’t be more thrilled to finally get to bring the event back to the community. “We’re hoping that this is just a sign that the last four years and everything we’ve been through are behind us and we’re moving forward,” Bliss said. “It’s good to be able to sit down and actually see peo ple and make a true connection with people.” During the event, Family Connection was able to raise about $4700, a number that Bliss said will make a big difference for the organization. “It’s a great number; we can do a lot with that so we’re really happy with it,” Bliss said. She added her thanks to all of the sponsors of the event, as well as those who took the time out of their morning to come serve their community members. “I’m very happy with the turnout and the support that we’ve gotten,” Bliss said. “We appreciate Longhorn and Chick-fil-A’s support and all of our celebrity waiters, they truly do serve our community and we just appreciate them all so much.” FROM 1A Roads Four months ago, the Dawson County commissioners unanimously approved contractor Vertical Earth’s $1,547 million bid for the round about, paid for by money from the Georgia Department of Transportation and the county’s fund balance. The two-phase project will include the realignment of Thompson Creek Park Road and the construction of a roundabout. After the board’s June 1 meetings, Public Works Director Robert Drewry clarified that the Dawson Forest Road or roundabout side of the project will actually be construct ed first, before the Thompson Creek Park Road portion. Then, the two project sides will be linked, Drewry said. Leverette also updated the board on the bridge replacement project for the Ga. 183 bridge over Cochran Creek. Weather permitting, the Georgia Department of Transportation project is currently on schedule, and the bridge is set to reopen on Aug. 2, Leverette said. “A number of people have asked about that. It’s still somewhat of a fair inconvenience for some folks because of that bridge closure,” Leverette added. Paving and culvert projects On Thursday, the board unani mously voted to accept a $3.9 million bid from Blount Construction for road paving and full-depth reclama tion (LDR) projects along Kelly Bridge, Goodson and War Hill Park roads. The projects will be paid for using money from the county’s sixth and seventh Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax funds. During a presentation at the board’s June 1 work session, Public Works Director Robert Drewry explained what would be done for each of the paving and FDR projects. The first project he discussed was Kelly Bridge Road, from Cowart Road to the Forsyth County line. That project came with a $1.64 mil lion price tag. The second project will be Goodson Road from Dawson Forest Road to the Forsyth County line. That section of Goodson Road is “almost two miles” in length, said Drewry. Just under $1.47 million was allocated to fix it. As well, just over $819,000 was approved to repave War Hill Park Road from State Route 53 to Liberty Church Road. “Just for the sake of the public, how did we come up with these par ticular projects?”, District 2 Commissioner Chris Gaines said to Drewry. The public works director men tioned how these roadways had been on his department’s prior priority lists. “We definitely wanted to get the bids out as quickly as we could because we wanted to do them this year,” Drewry told the board. “If we’d waited too much longer, they probably wouldn’t [be able to] finish it this year.” The majority of these three proj ects, except for perhaps the road shoulders, are scheduled to be com pleted by the end of November, Drewry later added. The BOC also approved a $735,455 bid from Townley Construction for culvert projects along some of those same roadways Thursday. funding will come from SPLOST VII and finance three culvert replace ments along Kelly Bridge Road, two on Goodson Road and one along Indian Cove Road. All of these projects involve replacing deteriorating corrugated metal pipes with reinforced concrete pipes, Drewry said. Drewry explained that the Indian Cove Road project, which he previ ously called “more critical than any of the other projects,” would need to be bid out again. In part, that’s because the contrac tor submitted a bid for slip lining on Indian Cove Road rather than for replacing the culvert as well as an unsolicited bid for lining the other culvert projects, Drewry said. “We are looking at that culvert a little bit closer,” Drewry said. “It is a one-way in, one-way out [situation], and we knew that would be a chal lenge for the contractor, because you obviously have to allow people to go in and out, including emergency ser vices.” He added that his department may consider options such as possibly slip lining “of some sort” or a completely new pipe. BOC chairman Billy Thurmond confirmed that the new culverts will be the same size as the current ones, with concrete headwalls. “Unfortunately, we have a whole lot of these corrugated metal ones throughout [the county], so over time, they’ll all have to be replaced,” Thurmond added. Public survey Dawson County is also gathering input for its long-range Comprehensive Plan through an ongoing survey. Leverette mentioned that feedback from the survey will help public officials“guide development and cap ital projects in the county.” Survey responses are kept confi dential, and questions range from transportation and parks to overall vision for the county, similar to the prompts in the city of Dawsonville’s own comprehensive plan survey. DCN will continue to follow these infrastructure initiatives. FROM 1A Roberts After the altercation, Duckworth was taken to a hospital, where he died two days later on July 27, 2021. Roberts was subsequently arrested. On Tuesday, Roberts pleaded guilty to two counts of involuntary manslaughter and one count each of simple assault and battery, all reduced versions of his previous charges, according to court documents. He also pleaded guilty in a 2019 case to two counts of aggravated assault, pos session of a firearm and carrying a fire arm without a license. Roberts was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 30 years of probation, according to his sentencing documents. The state will not prosecute Roberts for a 2022 case, in which he was accused of threatening another teenager, said Assistant District Attorney Robert Gardner. As part of the sentence’s special con ditions, Roberts will have to pay restitu tion to Kaleb’s parents and the district attorney office’s victims compensation fund. Upon completion of his custodial sen tence, Roberts will also have to com plete 100 hours of community service. Among other probation conditions, he is also banned from the Dawson County Applebee’s as well as Dawson and Lumpkin counties as a whole. All eyes were on Duckworth’s par ents, Amanda and Tommy, as Amanda spoke before the judge handed down Roberts’ sentence. Amanda Duckworth described her late son as a smart, goofy and hard working young man who was attending college full time for a welding degree and enjoyed spending his time outdoors fishing or working on his truck. “He was someone who was always willing to help those that needed it...his love for life was contagious. He was a kind soul that loved his family and friends and lived every day to the full est,” Amanda said. She tearfully expressed the “void” and “fear, anger and sadness” their family has felt since Kaleb’s death and their attempts to remember the past while mourning “all the memories we won’t get to make with him.” “We made a promise to him (Kaleb) that we’d always talk about him, and he will never be forgotten. We told him we’d always work to get him justice,” Amanda Duckworth said, later adding, “Maybe today, we’ll be able to leave here knowing that we kept our promise.” Background If Roberts had not decided to enter a plea, his trial would have started June 5. He has been in custody at the Dawson County jail since May 2022, when he was arrested for violating his bond con ditions by allegedly threatening and assaulting a friend of Duckworth’s. Prior to his arrest last May, Roberts had been granted another chance at bond in the 2019 and 2021 cases. During a July 2022 hearing, the court heard several hours of testimony, and the proceeding ended with bonds in EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY Etowah Water & Sewer Authority Dawsonville GA LEAD MAINTENANCE TECHNICIAN Description: Assist Maintenance Superintendent with all department operations. 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Roberts’ 2019 and 2021 cases being revoked and the bond being denied for the 2022 one. “This case as we have said many times ... is a tragedy,” John Luke Weaver, a lawyer for Roberts, said about the 2021 case. “My client was very passionate about saying his apology to the court, family and Dawson County.” Once he’s released from corrections custody, Roberts will never be able to again reside in Dawson County as part of his probation terms, Weaver said at the May 30 hearing. “We understand that nothing will ever make anything perfect,” Weaver added, “but this [plea] is my client’s effort to do everything he can to apologize for that.” Presiding Senior Judge David Emerson said it’s up to the Georgia Department of Corrections as to wheth er Roberts receives credit for any time served after his October 2019 arrest. The judge said the details of the Applebee’s incident would have made for a complicated trial. “With this case ... there would’ve been a difficulty with how to charge and how to explain the charges to the jury,” said Emerson, “so this is why the plea is appropriate, and I’m inclined to accept it.” Start earning today with BankOZK! <4.40%> 7-MONTH CD OR IRA CD** SPECIAL <5.20%> 13-MONTH CD OR IRA CD * SPECIAL Visit our Dawsonville location or open an account online at ozk.com** <> Bank OZK Greater awaits" ozk.com I Member FDIC *Annual Percentage Yield (APY) effective as of the publication date. Offer applies to new CDs only. $1,000 minimum deposit to open and is required to earn stated APY. Penalty for early withdrawal. IRA CD is subject to eligibility requirements. Offer not available to Public Funds, brokers, dealers and other financial institutions. Fees could reduce earnings. Offer subject to change without notice. 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