A record amount of snow piled up early in the week, shutting down much of Dawson County, including the city of Dawsonville, county government and the school district.
Schools Superintendent Keith Porter made the call to cancel school for students, teachers and faculty as Sunday night’s snow rapidly turned to ice Monday and Tuesday.
Tuesday’s closure was the fifth inclement weather day this school year. The calendar only had four built in, so changes may be necessary to make up missed days.
“Right now, we’re not sure how many days we’ll have to miss this week,” Porter said. “There are opportunities to make up some of the days we miss though.”
Porter said forgiveness from the state on the number of allotted inclement weather days is a possibility. If not, the district would have to look at cutting into traditional holidays.
Porter said making the call to close schools is always difficult.
“Our county is so geographically diverse as far as elevation,” he said. “We also have lots of communities around the county where the frozen precipitation may stick around much longer than other parts.”
Porter said a group of officials serving in different capacities helps make the decision.
“I’m in contact with these people to find out where the trouble areas are,” he said. “It can be very difficult for anyone to project sometimes how conditions might change overnight.”
Dawsonville officials also made the decision to close “because the roads were so bad.”
Mayor Pro Tem Calvin Byrd said that the Jan. 10 city council meeting was also cancelled “for the safety of the citizens, staff and councilmen.”
In addition, an official with Dawson County government issued a news release Sunday night, stating that the county offices would be closed on Monday.
According to the National Weather Service in Peachtree City, a winter storm arrived Sunday night and Monday morning in Dawson County, dropping record amounts of frozen precipitation.
Icy conditions were expected to continue through at least today.
County residents reported between 4 to 8 inches of snow on the ground Monday morning, according to the weather service.