Dawson County Partners with Northeast Georgia Medical Center to Improve Cardiac Arrest Survival
News August 12, 2016
Suspect Tried to Drown State Trooper Before Being Shot and Killed
News June 27, 2016
GAINESVILLE — Georgia State Patrol’s Operation Thunder was suspended over the weekend following a violent confrontation that ended when a suspect was shot to death and three troopers injured in Gainesville.
Rodrigo Guardiola, 36, of Gainesville was shot and killed after he fled a road check on Highway 53 designed to take impaired drivers off the highways. After a brief chase, Guardiola and his passenger Epitacio Gudino-Almazan, 31, also from the Gainesville area, exited a Ford Explorer and fled on foot.
A press release from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation states, “As one of the pursuing troopers caught up to Guardiola at a run-off creek, a struggle ensued at which point Guardiola was fighting the trooper and attempting to submerge him underwater.The trooper that was submerged and beaten fired his Taser at Guardiola with no effective impact, at which point the trooper fired his pistol striking and killing Guardiola,” according to the release.
Gudino-Almazan was captured nearby about 45 minutes later and taken to the Hall County Jail.
GBI spokesman Scott Dutton said it was not known why Guardiola and Gudino-Almazan ran and that neither was wanted by authorities.
The troopers were taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville for treatment of injuries that were not life-threatening, and they have since been released.
Dawson Forest Road to Get Major Facelift
News June 3, 2016
DAWSONVILLE, Ga. — A major highway in Dawson County is about to get a long-awaited and badly -needed makeover.
County Commissioners voted Thursday to move forward with a full-depth reclamation of Dawson Forest Road, awarding the contract to Blount Construction, the low bidder for $2,367,486.50. The work will be done in three segments. Segment 1 will begin at the Dawson Forest Wildlife Management Area property line and continue to State Route 9. Segment 2 runs from SR 9 the roundabout and Segment 3 will be from Power Center Drive to SR 53.
The road was constructed in the 1950’s. Several schools and one fire station are on the road. But county officials say it has a base failure of about 42 percent and poses a safety hazard.
A county-wide culvert assessment revealed that a 48-inch reinforced concrete pipe and a 60-inch coated corrugated metal pipe, both about 10-feet in length, also required major rehabilitation which led commissioners to approve the Dawson Forest Road pipe rehabilitation project. They awarded that contract to the low bidder, IPR Southeast, LLC, in the amount of $143,000. The project is to be coordinated with the road resurfacing project.
The work is scheduled to take place during daylight hours starting in July and be completed by the end of 2016.
In other business, commissioners approved:
A request by the Dawson County Civitan Club to allocate a space at Veterans Memorial Park for the club to donate and install new inclusive playground equipment to make the park more inclusive and easier for citizens with disabilities to access;
A Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) between Lanier Technical College and Dawson County that provides that Dawson County Emergency Services will become a clinical site for Lanier Technical College’s EMT and Paramedic Students. The agreement gives the county an opportunity to evaluate students in training and to possibly identify future employees;
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Northeast Georgia Medical Center regarding data sharing for the purpose of attempting to improve outcomes for patents who suffer sudden cardiac arrest;
A MoU drafted by the City of Dawsonville that would provide employees of Dawson County Emergency Services continuity in how and when fire hydrants are inspected to comply with the current recommendations of the Insurance Services Office (ISO) and he recommended approval.
White County Man Killed in ATV Crash
News March 9, 2016
CLEVELAND, Ga. — A White County man was killed Tuesday evening when his all-terrain vehicle careened off May White Road and ran into a ditch.
Sgt. Anthony Coleman of the Georgia State Patrol said the accident happened about 6:30 p.m. as Brian Keith Seymore, 23, was driving alone on a four-wheeler in the southern part of White County. Coleman said Seymore was not wearing a helmet and was transported by ambulance to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville where he died of his injuries.