Woman accused of false 911 report leading to fatal Rossville shooting dies

LaFAYETTE — Dorothy Marie Gass, the woman accused of making false reports to 911 that led to a fatal New Year’s Day police shooting in Walker County, has died. She was 66.

Earlier this year, Gass was accused of making false allegations against her daughter-in-law, Amy Gass, while she and Steven Gass fought over custody of their children during a divorce.

Dorothy Gass allegedly told a 911 dispatcher that Amy Gass had threatened to kill her children in the early hours of New Years Day.

According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, there was no contact between the women at all that day.

There was a record of Steven Gass and Dorothy Gass speaking on the phone for several minutes before the 911 call.

When officers arrived at the scene where Amy Gass lived with her parents, her father Mark Parkinson was in the kitchen with a gun.

He had gotten up, according to his wife, Diana, after hearing the dogs bark in the night.

Deputy John Chandler claims to have seen Parkinson pointing the gun at him through the window.

Parkinson’s family insisted there is no way he could have seen the officers outside.

Chandler shot through the window of the Rossville home, killing Mark Parkinson. Walker County Messenger

Cedartown looking at $8.3 million budget for FY 2019

CEDARTOWN — Cedartown Commissioners will be deciding in December the final figures for the FY 2019 budget. City Manager Bill Fann presented the board with a preliminary list of what the administration is requesting for the coming year starting in January, and expected that numbers are likely to adjust slightly once more before they give a final seal of approval.

“It was a tight budget this year, and it will be a tight budget again for the coming year,” Fann told commissioners. He wasn’t kidding.

The preliminary budget numbers already shared with the city commission seeks to generate $8,320,250 in revenue for the general fund, with a tight list of expenditures tallied up to $8,314,116 on the year. It would still leave the city with a slight increase in their surplus, with figures likely to jump from an ending balance in 2018 at $3,365,091 to a 2019 ending balance of $3,371,225. Kevin Myrick, Polk County Standard Journal