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FCHS girls are champions of Route 400 tournament-IB
Forsyth County News
LXXVIII —NUMBER 97
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O’ Christmas tree ...
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Forsyth County.
The stores are busier, tree lots are being set up. and decorations
are going 'Ud ,j rhr*fyfear'the county has its own Christmas tree
in front of the courthouse. Dwayne Martin hangs the star Friday
afternoon in preparation for Saturday's “Lighting of the Christ
mas Tree.” Combined church choirs performed on the court
house steps as spectators braved rainy weather to sing in the
holidays. Saturday celebrations will continue until Christmas, with
varied entertainment beginning at 6 p.m. in front of the
courthouse.
-2 hearings scheduled
Forsyth gets
By Tom McLaughlin
Staff writer
Forsyth County residents are going to be giv
en an opportunity to raise a stink over the land
fill the Fulton County Commission wants to
bring to their southwestern border.
The landfill, approved by the commission in
January, would affect more Forsyth County
residents than Fulton residents, according to
state Rep. Bill Barnett and a leader of the group
opposing it.
“It will actually be on Fulton soil, but will
probably affect Forsyth County as much or
Bell South puts
eyes on the road
The wife’has just called with a grocery list so the
new car phone is at your ear, held with your chin,
and you’re taking notes when you spot an unfortu
nate soul on the side of the road having car prob
lems. Hang up on the wife; it’s time to play Good
Samaritan.
Bell South Mobility, the car phone company, has
recently begun a campaign to enlist the drivers in
metropolitan Atlanta who own cellular phones to
call police and inform them when they see drunk
drivers or roadside emergencies.
The president of Bell South Mobility, R.L. Tons
feldt, outlined the program in a letter to Forsyth
County Sheriff Wesley Walraven.
“As a cellular telephone user, you have a unique
opportunity to help keep the Atlanta Metro highways
safe by using your mobile phone to report accidents,
drunk drivers, fires, or any other emergencies,” the
letter said.
“And,” it continued, “it is an opportunity to help
solve a serious problem. The Georgia State Patrol
reported that over 14,000 traffic accidents were alco
hol-related in 1986. Further, they estimate that only
one out of every 2,000 drunk drivers is ever appre
hended. In that light, Bell South Mobility has worked
with public safety organizations and various local
civic groups to develop a program that asks all cellu
lar to be “Good Samaritans.”
In hiy.etter Tonsfeldt even goes so far as to list
ways to spot drunk drivers. It seems that a car with
Please see PHONES, page 2A
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1987-CUMMING, GA. 30130
chance to speak on Fulton landfill
more,” said Jessie Phillips, a North Fulton resi
dent and the vice president of Sanity Inc., a
group that has been fighting the landfill for two
years. “If the people over there don’t make a
stand they’re probably going to smell the
garbage.”
“There are more residents in Forsyth County
who will be closer to the landfill than Fulton
County,” Barnett said. “Our main problem
with it is that they want to put it right on our
border without giving us much say in it.”
The proposed landfill was approved by the
Fulton County Commission pending state ap
proval. It would be located on 476 acres of Ful-
CHRISTMAS COLORS There's enough red and
green to rival the efforts of any Christmas decorator, but
instead of plastic or silk, the trimmings inside Forsyth
County High School’s greenhouse are real. And they’ll
be gone before Christmas. Jimmy Samples (left), advis
er John Joyner, David Anderson and other members of
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ton County land behind the McFarland 9000 In
dustrial Complex in Forsyth and would run for
5,000 feet north and south along Highway 9 and
Francis Road.
Ironically, the Forsyth County Commission
approved a county landfill to be placed in the
northwest corner of this county, bordering
Cherokee.
“We’ve got a sort of double standard type
thing. I personally don’t think you should force
something like this on someone else.” Barnett
said. “There’s a lot of public resentment and
opposition to every one (landfill) you put in.”
Barnett said he had been working with fellow
the Future Farmers of America club at the school are
growing and selling poinsettias as a Christmas money
raising project. The holiday spirit struck customers ear
ly, as all 650 of the $5 plants were sold by
Thanksgiving.
More photos, page 3A
36 PAGES 4 SECTIONS
Stiff Photos Kathryn L. Babb
Rep. Luther Colbert, the chairman of the Natu
ral Resources Committee in the House, and a
North Fulton legislator, to introduce legislation
that would require any landfill to be set back
from an adjoining county line up to a half mile.
The representatives also wanf to look at options
for resource recovery, a method of incinerating
garbage in such a way that it gives off steam, a
resource that could then be utilized.
Barnett said Fulton County had not put forth
enough effort in finding alternatives to the land
fill.
Please see LANDFILL, page 2A
Staff Photo Kathryn L. Babb
County’s
’B7 sales
keep pace
By Lindsey Kelly
Staff writer
Though some local merchants re
ported record sales over the tradition
al Christmas shopping kickoff week
end, economic forecasters predict
that a “cautious” mood among shop
pers this year will likely keep 1987
from being a bell-ringer for retailers.
Mike Montgomery, general manag
er of Parsons department store in
Cumming described the after-
Thanksgiving sales at his store as
“excellent,” though not any stronger
than last year.
“We couldn’t be more pleased,”
Montgomery said. “Sales were about
the same as last year, which we were
pleased with that. We expected them
to be about the same, or if anything a
little less because of people being wor
ried about the economy. We’re very
cautiously optimistic about the
economy.”
Kmart’s Cumming location chalked
up record sales over the weekend, ac
cording to operations assistant Jerry
Tuggle.
“We had a 10 percent increase in
sales over last year,” Tuggle said.
“Everyday after-Thanksgiving has
been a plus for us.”
A similar assessment was offered
for weekend business at Gainesville’s
newly renovated Lakeshore Mall. The
mall’s general manager Gary Larson
said he could describe sales with just
one word, “great.”
“It’s hard to tell at this point, but 1
would say it’s just upwards from
here,” Larson said.
At least in the Cumming stores, part
of the brisk after-Thanksgiving busi
ness could be attributed to promo
tions. Tuggle said his store ran sever
al sales, including offering a 70
percent discount on jewelry. Parsons
ran a 40 percent off coupon promotion
for any item in the store.
These retailers said they have not
seen any major runs on particular
items, thus far. Tuggle said the big
sellers right now seem to be smaller
“gift items” such as jewelry and
small appliances. Larson said “big
ticket’ items seem to be moving at
about the same pace as the less expen
sive gift choices.
But despite the early optimisim lo
cally, long-range forecasts suggest
Christmas 1987 may turn out to be just
a mediocre one for retailers.
“It’s neither a good nor bad Christ
mas,” said Donald Rataczak, direc
tor of the Economic Forecasting Cen
ter at Georgia State University.
Rataczak said over-all sales in and
around the metro Atlanta area seem
to indicate a certain amount of cau
tion on the part of the buyers due to
the current uncertainty about the
state of the economy.
“It’s a nail-biting Christmas for re
tailers. Consumer enthusiasm isn’t
there. Nothing is really jumping off
the shelves. They (retailers) have to
decide whether to wait and see if
there’s going to be a last minute surge
or go ahead and offer promotions to
get sales up. Of course anytime you do
a promotion, you’re losing part of
your profits.”
Liquor petition
response slowing
By Tom McLaughlin *
Staff writer
The momentum of the petition being circulated to
gain signatures to hold a countywide referendum on
the sale of alcoholic beverages has slowed to a trickle,
according to the president of the group responsible for
its origin.
“I think we’re in a slower mode than we were,” said
Douglas K. Smith, the president of Forward Forsyth
Inc., a group of businessmen who began circulating
the petition in October. “I have no finai count, but I
think we’re still about 1,000 signatures shy.
Smith attributes the slow down to not being able to
contact registered county voters due to inconsisten
cies in voter mailing list.
“Basically, why we’re slowed down is there are still
over 2,000 people who haven’t gotten them (the mail
ing with enclosed petition) yet,” he said.
Despite the problems. Smith remains optimistic that
Forward Forsyth will obtain the 4,669 signatures to
force the referendum.
“We’re not happy with the time it’s taking to do this,
but it’s working,” he said.
Smith said that the group’s strategy now was geared
toward finding the addresses of those whose mailings
were returned.
“We’re making a major effort to locate the ones we
haven’t been able to reach yet,” he said. “No one that
has received them has acted disinterested. Of the doz
en or so that I’ve reached, I’ve gotten most of them
back within a matter of a few days.”
Please see LIQUOR, page 2A
35 CENTS