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DEDICATED TO THE PROGRESS
OF GUMMING AND FORSYTH COUNTY
CUMMING, GEORGIA
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Two mobile homes were moved onto the courthouse square in Cumming this
week to serve as temporary offices until a new courthouse can be built to replace
the one burned earlier this month. The trailers, purchased from Da-Je Inc. for
about SII,OOO, will house the tax office and Superior court clerk’s office. A third
Tax Assessment Mailing Due
EDITOR’S NOTE: County Tax
Assessor Claude “Bucky” Dobbs
provided The News with this account of
progress on tax assessments.
The 1973 assessment notices hopefully
will be in the mail before this week ends.
The assessors report that they are
about ready to validate the 1973 returns
with the new values. The new values
result from a county-wide equalization
program conducted this year.
Every property owner should receive
a notice if they have filed a mailing
address with the Tax Commissioner or
the Assessors. A few changes of ad
dresses were destroyed in the Cour
thouse fire. Those notices without ad
dresses and undeliverable notices will be
posted in the county building.
The delay in getting these notices out
earlier was caused by circumstances
beyond anyone’s control. First, the
county switched its computer services
from a commercial firm to that of
Georgia Mountains Planning and
Development Commission (GMPDC)
earlier in the year. Second, the county
chose to use its own assessor-appraiser
personnel to conduct a county-wide
equalization program for 1973 which got
the green light in the late spring.
It was the consensus of opinion of
County authorities that an equalization
program could not be delayed another
year. An outside appraisal firm would
have charged about six dollars per
parcel to do this job and the county now
has near 15,000 parcels of property.
The switch to GMPDC for computer
services and use of local people for the
equalization job were done in the interest
of saving the county money. Another
delay came due to the mandatory
schools for assessor-appraiser personnel
being unexpectedly held in August this
Basketball
Bulldogs
Win Twice
ByDONNA BROWN
The Forsyth County Bulldogs and
Lady Bulldogs defeated North Gwinnett
in their opening game of the season Nov.
22. Jennifer Mauldin was the high scorer
in the girls game with 18 points and
Byron Orr for the boys with 15 points.
Throughout the girls game the com
petition fluxuated at close intervals and
in the final minutes the girls nailed their
victory at 32-29.
In the boys game the excitement kept
the crowds on edge the entirety of the
game but it flared in the last few
seconds. The score was 53-50 when
alternate foul shots were made. With
only 9 seconds registered on the
scoreboard a shot was made for North
Gwinnett. Now with a close 53-52
everyone was holding their breath and
standing in tense anticipation as the ball
slowly rolled around the basketball rim
and fell to the side. The victors were a
proud group and rightly so.
The next two home games are against
Pickens on Tuesday and Franklin Co. on
Friday.
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LXVI
Forsyth County’s Mobile Courthouse
year instead of October as was usual in
the past. The GMPDC apparently did not
fully realize the impact which the county
Fire Dept. Benefit Saturday
Continuous entertainment from 5 p.m.
to at least 10 p.m. and maybe later is
planned for Saturday in a country music
and gospel show for the Forsyth County
Volunteer Fire Department.
The show, hosted by television per
sonality “Hugh Baby” Jarrett, will be at
the gymnasium of the old Cumming
Upper Elementary School.
Scheduled to appear on the program
are: The Red Peppers combo from
Forsyth County High School; The
Lanierland Staff Band featuring Carol
Goforth and Rafael Picklesimer; The
Dixieland Cloggers, the Dixie Dandies
and the Cherokee Sweethearts; The
Little Dancing Wonders; Wanda
Freeman and singer-songwriter Butch
Evans.
Also scheduled to appear are Wanda
Freeman; Brenda Ash; The Gospelettes
Quartet; The Bennett Sisters; The
Gospel Echoes from Alpharetta, The
Pruitt Family; and the Rhythm
Masters.
The musicians, singers and dancers
are all donating their time for the benefit
of the volunteer firemen who plan to use
the money for an additional piece of fire
equipment.
The Volunteer Department’s Ladies
Auxilliary, which is arranging the show,
promises to have plenty of homemade
cakes on sale and hot dogs, coffee, soft
Continued On Page 3
Cree To Spur
Chamber Drive
Forsyth Chamber of Commerce
founder Ken Cree has temporarily taken
the position of executive secretary of the
chamber, it was announced by Chamber
of Commerce president Donald Thomp
son.
Cree, who retired to Forsyth County 11
years ago, was one of the founders of the
local chamber of commerce and served
as its first president.
Cree, who emphasized that he is filling
the spot on a temporary basis, said “We
have a lot of good support for the
chamber but I’m thinking we should
make it what we intended it to be. We
need members who will give physical
support to committees and other
necessary roles.”
Starting from scratch a mere four
years ago, the chamber has grown to
about 250 members.
Cree retired in 1963 after 30 years with
Joy Manufacturiing Co. He served as
regional manager of the company’s
Western Precipitation division in
Atlanta prior to his retirement. In
working toward air pollution control for
the mining machinery company, Cree
was based at times in London and in the
middle east.
trailer, included in the price, will be added as soon as it can be determined if the
vault from the burned ordinary’s office can be preserved. The third trailer will
also house the voter registrar’s office.
would have upon their computer ser
vices especially taking it on in a year of
an equalization program and coupled
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RED PEPPERS WILL OPEN BENEFIT SHOW SATURDAY
LANIERLAND STAFF BAND WILL BE IN FIRE DEPT. SHOW
He said he hopes to reorganize the
chamber and put it more on a com
merical basis for the improvement
of the county. One of his plans involves a
realignment of the dues structure to
allow for more individual participation
and the hiring of a permanent manager.
The chamber has been without an active
director since Joe Nunn resigned at the
end of last year.
“We want people who’ll do something,
who’ll work toward the establishment of
committees to work with the county and
various officials for the betterment of
the county.
The chamber has not been active
enough for a county experiencing rapid
growth such as Frosyth,” he said.
Cree lives with his wife, Vivian, in
Bald Ridge Acres. He is an elder in the
Deer Creek Shores Presbyterian
Church.
All chamber members have been
mailed a questionnaire seeking in
formation on the direction members feel
the chamber should take. Cree is asking
members to fill out their question sheets
and return them to the chamber without
delay.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1973
with additional difficulties of cranking in
a system for the State Tax Relief
Continued On Page 3
Mitchell Gordon, saxophonist and
bassoonist with Forsyth County’s Flash
of Crimson Band, will appear in concert
with the Youth Symphony of
Metropolitan Atlanta at Symphony Hall
on December 5. Mitchell, the son of Mr.
and Mrs. Lawrence Gordon of Cumming,
was invited to join the organization
following an audition for the conductor,
Leonard Altieri, in September of this
year.
According to Altieri, membership in
the Youth Symphony is open to any
student age 13 through 19 from any
public or private school system in the
metropolitan area of Atlanta. Members
are selected from auditions, which are
advertised in May and August of each
year. The 75-piece orchestra rehearses
on Saturday mornings at Symphony Hall
in Atlanta, and Altieri says that some
students come from as far away as 60
miles to participate.
The Youth Symphony, the only
metropolitan orchestra totally for youth
in the state of Georgia, is a
professionally-oriented group which
prepares and trains its participants for
college and future musical experiences.
This orchestra provides an outlet for
Forsyth’s Mitchell Gordon
In Metro Youth Symphony
Lingerfelt
Trial Is On
The murder trial of James Lingerfelt
was underway Tuesday in Canton after a
jury was selected Monday in Cumming.
The special trial session was called to
retry Lingerfelt whose earlier conviction
was overturned in the twin murders of
Forsyth County Sheriff’s Department
Chief Deputy Bill Cantrell and Special
Deputy Larry Mulkey.
Lingerfelt was convicted of both
murders along with three other men
several months after the January 1972
murders. The Georgia Supreme Court
overturned the conviction on grounds
that the defense was not given an op
portunity to refute evidence submitted in
the trial.
The jury selection, which took all day
Monday, was conducted in the gym
nasium at the old upper elementary
Suspects Nabbed
In Pantry Robbery
Two local men were being held at the
Forsyth County Jail without bond
Tuesday charged with the Sunday af
ternoon armed robbery of the Golden
Pantry convenience store on Pilgrim
Mill Road in Cumming.
Sheriff’s Deputy Gene Jeffers iden
tified the suspects as Emory Hamby, 41,
of Social Circle and Ralph Brookshire,
43, of Woodland Drive, both of Cumming.
Deputy Jeffers said a man wearing a
blonde wig, sunglasses and a scarf en
tered the store about 4:30 p.m. The
young clerk asked if he could help and
the bandit said “Yeah. Give me your
money,” Jeffers reported. The bandit
flashed a .22-cal. pistol.
Commission Will
Support Fee Rules
Forsyth County Commissioners
Monday heard arguments against two
controversial local ordinances but
agreed to let things stand as they are.
Attorney J3ne Plaginos appeared
before the commission on behalf of her
client, a house mover who said that the
county’s imposition of a S2OO permit fee
for house moving threatened to put him
out of business.
Commissioners, who passed the law to
cover escort costs and curb a claimed
influx of cheap housing, held to their
previous agreement to enforce the or
dinance despite Mrs. Plaginos’ con
tention that the law was un
constitutional.
She said the trailer decal law was
probably unconstitutional. The county
commission agree on continued en
forcement of both ordinances unless the
courts rule against the revenue
producing regulations.
The Commission, acting in response to
particular talents often neglected in
students of this age group.
The Youth Symphony is supported by
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MITCHELL GORDON
ISSUE 48
school. Superior Court Judge Marion T.
Pope Jr. said the gym is the only suitable
building in Forsyth County since the
courthouse burned.
Judge Pope said the acoustics in the
gym are bad and he decided to move the
trial, after jury selection, to the
Cherokee County Courthouse in Canton.
Lingerfelt was convicted of the
murders and sentenced to two life terms.
Also given two life sentences in the case
were Herbert Dean Smith and Marcus
Wayne Ratledge. Charles Bennett was
also convicted and sentenced to death
although the death penalty has not been
imposed in Georgia in nearly a decade.
Judge Pope said he expects the new
trial for Lingerfelt to be concluded by the
end of the week.
The bandit took about $450 and told the
clerk to go to the back of the store and
not use the phone.
Witnesses gave authorities a
description of the getaway car and
Deputy Murrell Day spotted a car
meeting that description on Ga. 20 west
of Cumming. Jeffers, dispatched by
radio, said he met up with Day just as
the two suspects pulled into Hamby’s
driveway.
The deputy said approximately $420
was recovered from the car and from the
ground alongside the car. Deputies, who
were assisted by Cumming police in the
case, also recovered a blonde wig,
sunglasses and a scarf.
a complaint that the building and zoning
ordinance was not being enforced,
passed a resolution ordering the
Building and Zoning office to use any
legal means including court action to see
that the building zoning regulations are
enforced.
The Commission set the tax millage
rate at 8-mills for the coming year.
Commissioner Lanier Bannister said
that rate, though lower than last year’s
8% mills, will bring the county the same
amount of money.
Jim Wilson of the state Health
Department conferred with com
missioners on the selection of a garbage
dump site. Wilson and commissions
agreed to look at a site on Kelly Mill
Road and several other sites before
filing application for state approval of
the dump.
In other business the commission set a
12 month waiting period for zoning
Continued On Page 3
donations, including those to the
Founders 500 Club. Altieri explains that
500 lithographed scrolls were printed and
those who purchased these at SIOO each
will be charter members supporting this
worthwhile musical endeavor for the
youth of the area. Other fund-raising
projects are planned by the finance
committee, according to Altieri, and
anyone wishing to help should send
donations to: Finance Committee, Youth
Symphony of Metro Atlanta, 1741 Helen
Drive, Atlanta 03036.
Mitchell, an llth-grader who will
represent the local area in the sym
phony, joined Forsyth County’s Sparkler
Band as a 6th-grader, playing
saxophone. Wanting to “branch out”, as
he puts it, Mitchell took up the clarinet
after a couple of years, encouraged by
his band director, Lon Turner.
“When I finally got into the Flash of
Crimson I really found out what music
was all about,” Mitchell says. He soon
became a member of the Red Peppers, a
select 12-;piece group within the Flash of.
Crimson. Still seeking to branch out,
Mitchell started a symphonic quintet
within the band, a “first” so far as
Continued On Page 3
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