Newspaper Page Text
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VOLUME LXXVI—NUMBER 12
Reforestation foes hope to gain unity
By Chuck Thompson
The Sunday Naws
Hoping to strengthen their cause
through unity, residents opposing a
reforestation program by the Army
Corps of Engineers on Lake Lanier
will seek Monday night to build mem
bership in the Lake Lanier Property
Owners Association.
The reforestation program involves
the planting of 10,000 pine seedlings
by the Corps on the public shoreline of
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Good morning, Forsyth
Good morning! Today is Sunday, Feb. 10,1985
and the weatherman says it will be getting
cloudy with a 40 percent chance of rain later
today. Highs in mid-40s, lows in the mid 30s.j
Complete weather can be found on Page 2-A. ■
‘Flightliners’
A United States Air Force theater van,
featuring aviation, will visit Forsyth County
High School on Wednesday, March 6, to give
a visual presentation of six American avi
ators.
Page Two
New business
Forsyth resident Linda Clemons has taken a
skill she learned from a previous employer
and now has open her own business. Custom
Comers has what it takes to get you framed.
Page 6A
Building permits up
Building permits issued by the Forsyth
County Planning Department in January
were up 22 percent compared to the same
month last year.
Page 7A
I MOLLY RING WALD
‘Surving’
The statistics concerning teen suicide are
shilling: Suicide is the second leading cause
of death among young people 15 to 24 in this
country. Each year, 5,000 people take their
own lives. The TV movie ‘Surviving,’ airing
tonight on ABC, will attempt to explore this
delicate subject.
TV Focus, Inside
Forsyth County News IHJ
Lake Lanier.
It has been opposed by lake resi
dents, who argue that the seedlings
will reduce their property values and,
in years to come, hinder their view of
the lake.
Residents have been seeking help
from the Forsyth County Board of
Commissioners, which has supported
their cause and gone as far as meet
ing with the Corps to work out a
solution to the problem.
Cumming Attorney John Shinall,
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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1985—CUMMING, GA. 30130—68 PAGES 4 SECTIONS
who attended that meeting, says the
Corps is “backing off a little” on the
number of trees planted.
Shinall has argued, however, that
the only reasonable action is termi
nation of the program and permission
for property owners to remove the
seedlings if they so desire.
He says Corps officials appear to be
basing the program on a forestry
management plan for the lake, devel
oped by Auburn University in the
mid-19705, and that Commissioner
Water rates
increased
25 percent
By Chuck Thompson
News Editor
Faced with a rate increase of 79.4
percent by its major water supplier,
the Forsyth County Water and Sewer
age Authority raised its water rate by
25 percent Tuesday.
The rate hike will help the authority
meet extra operating expenses cre
ated in Octobefynwhen the city of
Cumming raised the price it charges
the authority for water from 70 cents
to $1.25.
Speaking before the mthority Tues
day, Mayor Ford Gravitt said the city
was forced to raise water rates after
its water-sewer system ran into a
deficit.
Gravitt said utility costs for the
system increased significantly and
that a number of water lines had to be
replaced.
Rupert Sexton, a member of the
Cumming City Council, also noted
that the city’s bond payments in
creased by $50,000 from 1984 to 1985.
Rate increases for city water were
recommended to the council in Octo
ber by the city’s engineer, as well as
increases in cewage treatment rates.
The recommendations followed a
$50,000 operating deficit for Cum
ming’s water-sewer system in 1983
and a $71,000 deficit projection for
1984.
Illustrating the increased cost nec
essary to operate the city water
sewer system, Gravitt pointed to the
system’s budget for 1985, which is up
from last year by $136,000.
In addition to eliminating the defi
cit in water-sewer operations, extra
revenue from the city’s rate increase
will go toward major improvements
in Cumming’s sewage treatment fa
cility.
Those improvements, estimated at
$1.5 million to $2.9 million, are aimed
at helping the city get out from under
restrictions placed on the facility by
the state Environmental Protection
Division (EPD).
Since February, 1984, sewer hook
ups by the citv have been limited by
See WATER, Page 8A
Maintenance of roads now under dispute
By Chuck Thompson
News Editor
Residents’ groups in two Forsyth County subdivisions
are seeking changes in their neighborhoods one,
before the board of commissioners; and the other, before
the superior court.
Since October, county road maintenance in Shady
Shores subdivision, off Pilgrim Mill Road, has been
discussed in three county commission meetings.
Donna Parrish, spokesperson for the Shady Shores
Homeowner’s Association, argues that roads in her
subdivision are county roads, and therefore should be
maintained by the county.
Ms. Parrish points to a statewide review of county
roads in April, 1973, done in preparation for a new law
taking effect July 1 of that year.
Found in Chapter 95A-2 of the Georgia Code, the law
reads as follows: “Each county road system shall consist
of those public roads within that county, including county
roads extending into any municipality (city) within the
county, which are shown to be part of that county road,
system by the department records on July 1, 1973, and
any subsequent additions to such county road system
made by the county.”
Following the review, roads in Shady Shores were left
on a 1973 Department of Transportation map of Forsyth
County, which makes them county roads, Ms. Parrish
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James Harrington has requested a
copy of the plan.
At this point, he adds, one of the
most important needs is for lake
residents to seek help by writing U.S.
Sens. Mack Mattingly and Sam Nunn
and 9th District U.S. Rep. Ed Jen
kins.
In its regular meeting Monday
night, the board of commissioners
will again consider the reforestation
program.
Afterwards, lake residents will
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Power companies stayed busy
restoring service during storm
By Dawn Holcomb
The Sunday News
To some, it was a winter wonderland
with weed-coated fields of ice, sparkling
like diamonds, and trees with laden limbs
bowing to passers-by.
To others, however, it was cold, dark
and wet.
A number of power outages, trees down
and transformers blown were reported
during Tuesday’s ice storm, but with
crews working around the clock from
Sawnee E.M.C. and Georgia Power Co., it
was just a matter of getting to the line in
trouble before customers welcomed light
and warmth back into their homes.
Sawnee E.M.C. estimated 2,580 calls
came through their office during the ap
proximately 24-hour vigil.
Larry Kohn of Sawnee E.M.C. said that
their busiest time began around 10:30 a.m.
Tuesday and continued through the night.
“We’ve cleared it all up now,” he said in a
telephone interview Wednesday afternoon.
Carl Curtis of Georgia Power said that
says.
A later map, dated July 17,1978, provides numbers for
roads in Shady Shores, like the numbers found on other
county roads.
The 1978 map is not an official DOT map. However, Ms.
Parrish says, that doesn’t change the fact that county
officials knew the roads existed and that they were listed
on the official 1973 map.
At present, two roads in Shady Shores Riviera Drive
and Catalina Drive do receive some county mainte
nance.
They were deeded to the county years ago from the old
Hammond subdivision, which preceded Shady Shores.
But, there are many other roads in the subdivision, and
their condition has become so bad that residents must
plow through inches of mud to reach their homes.
One of these roads, Phoenix Drive, is a postal route.
Another road, named “Newport,” was so muddy Thurs
day it appeared more like a jeep trail than a residential
road.
Ms. Parrish says seven residents are served by Phoe
nix Drive, while three residents are served by Newport.
The entire subdivision has more than 90 homes and
businesses.
Roads in the subdivision received some maintenance
until the mid-19705, when a court order halted county
maintenance of private roads, Ms. Parrish says.
According to county officials, this court order prevents
meet elsewhere in the c nuthouse,
where they will be introduced to Lake
Lanier Property Owners Association,
Inc., an active, non-profit group be
longing to the National Organization
for Lake Management.
Eileen White, a resident of Sinclair
Shores, says some lake residents are
not familiar with the association,
while others are former members
who have not renewed their mem
bership.
One advantage to the association
his crews began around 7 a.m. Tuesday
and worked until around 1:30 a.m.
Wednesday. He said that Georgia Power
crews from Rome came in to help out
Forsyth County and areas around Gaines
ville.
Both Kohn and Curtis agreed that this
was a peculiar ice storm. “It skipped
Dahlonega and Dawson County but hit
Cleveland and here,” said Curtis. “And I
think that Gainesville was hit the worst.”
He said that there were no power outage
calls north of Coal Mountain “and usually
the farther north you go, the worse it
gets,” he said.
Both men agreed, too, that most of the
trouble came from the ice-coated trees on
the power lines.
“We didn’t have any main lines down for
any length of time,” said Kohn. “We were
fortunate that this wasn’t a major ice
storm. Big lines down sometimes take
three or four days to get back up.”
However, it was scattered individual
services that took up most of both compa
nies’ time. “It just took time to find the
individual lines,” said Kohn.
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will be a unified effort by residents
seeking a solution to the reforestation
program.
This, however, will not be the only
goal. According to Ms. White, the
association also will provide positive
input to the Corps on aspects of lake
management.
Commenting on the reforestation
program, Ms. White says she doesn’t
feel “every bit of shoreline” has to be
forest land.
Curtis said that he called in a tree crew
and once the trees were cleared from the
power lines, the power would be back. But,
he said, the trees got so heavy after lunch
on Tuesday that “complete trees fell on
us.” Curtis said that he answered a call to
the Lanier Nursing Home where a tree was
“coming down. But before I got to it, down
she came,” he said, adding that the power
was off for a short time in that area.
Both companies had 24-hour phone serv
ice and as Kohn said, “crews stayed on the
job until it was cleared up.”
After talking with one of the crew mem
bers around 10 a.m. Wednesday, he said,
“Yeah, we’ve been going since about 8
o’clock yesterday (Tuesday). It has been a
mess.”
But both companies appreciated the
patience of those who had to do without
power for a time. Curtis said that everyone
that called into Georgia Power was mainly
inquiring about the situation and “were
very nice.” No one seemed to get irritated,
he said. “We did the best we could” and it
felt good to know that they had the backing
of the people.
them from maintaining roads in Shady Shores.
They say the roads were never deeded to the county
and therefore are private roads.
Ms. Parrish, however, says the roads do not appear on
the tax digest as belonging to anyone. In other words,
they are not shown as private property, she says.
After much dispute over county maintenance of the
roads, Shady Shores residents have been promised
simple maintenance by the commissioners, provided no
legal questions are involved. The matter is being re
searched by County Attorney Robert S. Stubbs, 11.
The decision of the commissioners, contingent on
Stubb’s legal opinion, provides for simple maintenance
to ensure the health and safety of motorists.
In Unit IV of Lanier Country Club Estates, off Buford
Dam Road, residents are waging a different type of war.
Ken Morris and William Kaspar have filed a Petition
for Contempt in Forsyth County Superior Court, seeking
a mandatory injunction that would require I.H. Preston
to remove a home he has constructed in the subdivision.
Morris and Kaspar filed the petition individually, and
as representatives of a class composed of members of
Lanier Country Club Estates.
The issue began after Preston moved three used,
alleged “motel” units into the subdivision.
His plan was to link the units together, finish them and
See DISPUTE, Page 8A
35 CENTS