During the Oct. 4 meeting of the Dawsonville City Council, no member of the council made a motion to approve or deny the proposal of offering COVID-19 vaccine incentives to city employees, killing the proposal. 

The proposal, which council members discussed at the last council meeting, was brought again to the council at Monday’s meeting. If the program were to be approved, city employees who have been fully vaccinated would receive $250 each. 

Previously, council members had voiced questions of whether the city could be held liable should any city employees suffer adverse effects due to the vaccine or should the vaccine get recalled later on, but City Attorney Kevin Tallant said at Monday’s meeting that from a legal standpoint the city should be safe from liability in this case. 

“My opinion is that the city would very likely not have any exposure to liability for a few reasons,” Tallant said. “One, this could very likely be a worker’s compensation issue and if it’s a worker’s comp issue of course your worker’s comp carrier would take care of that.” 

Tallant said that, even if it wasn’t considered a worker’s comp issue, the city would have to be shown to be negligent in offering encouragement to take the vaccine, but that given the CDC and FDA approval for the vaccine the city being proved negligent shouldn’t be an issue. 

He also said that OSHA has recently suspended requirements to report any adverse impacts, so even if an employee did have an adverse reaction to the vaccine it would not have to be reported as such. Council members had no further questions.

Council members voted to approve a request by the Dawsonville History Museum for two new additional board members, approved the council’s 2022 meeting schedule.

According to Dawsonville Mayor Mike Eason, the Dawsonville History Museum currently has a board consisting of nine people and is requesting that the council approve the addition of two new board members. 

“We have to have a minimum of three people, not more than 21, and the board also includes as two of its members the city clerk and the mayor, so we have nine members appointed with seven of the public,” Eason said.

Eason added once the city council approves the museum to find the two new members, they would come before the council to be approved to fill the spots. 

“These members, once they’re approved by the Dawsonville History Museum board, come to us to be vetted and to be approved in one of our meetings,” Eason said. 

Council members unanimously approved the museum’s request for new board members. 

Also during the meeting, council members ratified a resolution for Georgia Cities Week, which is celebrated from Oct. 3 to 9. 

“The purpose of the Georgia Cities Week is to celebrate our city and the services our city provides,” Eason said. “It’s organized to heighten the public’s awareness of the city government’s role in the quality of life in their communities.” 

In celebration, the city will have a snow cone truck near the playground at Main Street Park on Friday Oct. 8 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., giving free snow cones from the city to those in the park. 

“The city’s Main Street Park is one of our newest additions, and one of the things it does the most is show our community what we’re all about, and it’s been a great place for our kids and our citizens to gather, walk, exercise and do all sorts of things outside,” Eason said. “We wanna make sure everybody understands that the city’s good for our community, it’s a very positive thing, and we want everybody to be aware of it.”

City council members voted unanimously to ratify the resolution and declare Oct 3 through 9 as Georgia Cities Week.