Newspaper Page Text
4A
-FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS-SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1987
Forsyth County News
w w
(Established 1908)
Forsyth County News
121 Dahlonega Street
Cumming, Georgia 30130
Telephone BB7-3126
USPS 205-540
NORMAN BAGGS
EDITOR & PUBLISHER
Published Sundays and Wednesdays by Forsyth County News Company. Second
class postage paid at post office in Camming, Ga. Subscription rate for Forsyth
and adtacent counties. sls 60 per year, other Georgia counties and out of state
subscriptions are S2O 80 per year. Advertising rates and deadlines available upon
request. Postmaster: Sena address changes to Forsyth County News/P.O. Box
210. Cumming, Ga 30130.
■Opinion
Fulton’s landfill
Later this month Forsyth Coun
ty residents will have an opportu
nity to express their feelings about
a landfill proposed for the north
ern portion of Fulton County.
Hearings have been set for Dec.
10 and 17 to allow for additional
public input in this long-running
controversy.
The proposed landfill is nearer
to more Forsyth County homes
than those in Fulton County, and
there is an obvious need for input
from local residents before a deci
sion on where to place the Ludfill
is made.
Barring state intervention, how
ever, the final decision is going to
rest with Fulton County commis
sioners, and the logic of politics
dictates that they would prefer to
anger those outside their county
rather than those to whom they
are answerable at the polling
booth.
We do not have access to all of
the research done by Fulton Coun
ty officials, and cannot say wheth
er the landfill site being consid
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Let developers
pay for water
Editor:
I am strongly opposed to a sales tax increase to pay for
a water system for Cumming and Forsyth County. Just
say “no” to the local option sales tax vote on Tuesday,
Dec. 15, 1987.
Why should the people of our county pay any more sales
tax for a water program that only benefits a few name
ly the developers, speculators and real estate firms? Why
pay for water that we already have?
Let those who want to come to the county pay for the
water lines that will serve the executive parks, shopping
malls and subdivisions. Don’t be tricked into paying
someone else’s water bill think and vote no to the local
option-sales tax.
John Wayt
Cumming
Tax would lessen
quality of life
Editor:
The quality of life in Forsyth County will deteriorate
greatly if the referendum for the water system passes.
HARRIET HOUSTON
ADVERTISING DIRECTOR
ered is the best of all possible
options.
We can hope those responsible
for making the decision will be re
ceptive to the comments of resi
dents here in our county, and hope
that state officials responsible for
approving the site will give the
comments of local residents the
weight they deserve.
We do think there is some merit
in a measure proposed by Rep.
Bill Barnett that future landfills
must be established a certain dis
tance away from county lines, and
would like to hear discussion of
such legislation in the next session
of the General Assembly.
And before the debate rages
much farther, we must in all fair
ness remember that when it was
time for Forsyth County to open a
new landfill, the site selected was
nearer to Cherokee and Dawson
counties than to much of Forsyth
and the comments of residents
from those areas carried little
weight in the decision making pro
cess here.
One reason for this is because, eventually, we would all
be drinking chemically treated water which may be quite
costly. We will pay the 1 percent sales tax, plus the con
nection fee, plus the monthly fee. These fees are un
known, and subject to drastic increases without voter ap
proval. Also, at some future date, we may all be required
to hook up to the system. Nothing in the referendum pre
vents this.
Let’s take Gwinnett County as an example of what we
might have to look forward to. In Gwinnett, the average
homeowner pays about S4O per month for water. That is
enough money to have a new well bored every year, if you
add in another S2OO a year (or so) for the 1 percent tax.
This doesn’t even count the connection charge. That is
another S6OO or SI3OO, depending on location.
But an even more serious threat to our quality of life is
explosive population growth. Even without countywide
water, we can expect many newcomers. With county wa
ter, there is likely to be an uncontrollable flood of new
people and new construction. That happened in N. Fulton,
Cobb, Gwinnett, and Dekalb counties and there is no rea
son to expect Forsyth County to be any different.
Explosive growth simply is not possible without an ex
tensive water system such as the one we will be voting on.
Right now developers pay for bringing water to their con
struction sites and that is how it should be. The idea that
you and I should pay this cost for them so they can turn
our county into a carbon copy of Gwinnett or Cobb just
doesn’t appeal to me.
Developers are spending $20,000 or more to get this
referendum passed. Among other things, they have hired
a public relations firm to convince us that everything will
be all right. Let’s not be fooled. Vote no.
W.L. Stieglizt
Cumming
Don we now our extra poundage
The Christmas season can be a dieter’s
nightmare. Parties. Food. Calories. It will
not end until January with a new year, and a
new vow to lose weight.
So how do you get through the holidays
without gaining 20 pounds? I’ve considered
taping my mouth shut, or becoming a social
recluse. Nah, I love a party too much for that.
The biggest problem is that no one brings
low-cal food to a holiday party. No one eats
low-cal food at a party. There is a reason for
this: celery tastes really bad without sour
cream dip. Besides, everyone else is pigging
out on all those tantalizing goodies and there
you are munching something that tastes sim
ilar to a paper plate.
This can be very frustrating if you have
worked since summer to shed a little extra
baggage. Do you blow it all over one fruit
cake and some pumpkin bread? No! (Here
comes my pep talk for the season). Do you
want to wear black the entire month of Janu
ary? Do you look at the stationary bike and
immediately feel a guilt sensation because
you haven’t been on it since last Christmas?
Believe me, I can sympathize. Here is my
non-professional advice for making it
through these next four weeks.
How to make it through the holidays
without becoming a blimp:
• Stay away from grandma’s house. Any
grandma’s house. My grandmother makes
Let the public schools do what they do best
A horde of educators, business leaders, and
elected officials are setting off fireworks
over what they call the impending crisis of
“at risk” youth. They point to poverty, mi
nority status, single-parent families and two
worker homes, cultural disadvantages, drug
abuse, and teen pregnancies as conditions
that are placing increasing numbers of
youngsters in danger of being left out, of
dropping out, or of losing the rewards of a
free society.
What to do? These spokesmen urge schools
to shoulder a long list of new responsibilities
providing youngsters with psychological
counseling, clean clothes, summer jobs, con
traceptives, and an array of social services.
No one denies that a lot of kids are growing
up in lousy circumstances that a caring soci
ety will do its best to alter. But to construe
these circumstances as principally the re
sponsibility of the school system is sorely to
distort their true causes; to overpromise in
terms of what schools (they being relatively
weak institutions that account for just 11 per
cent of the hours that the average high school
graduate has been alive) can do; to court in
terference with that which schools do best,
namely foster cognitive learning; and to di
vert attention from the one form of “at risk
ness” that the education system itself causes
and could fairly be charged with curing: the
risk of attending a lousy school.
Schools are not to blame for family break
ups or undemourishmennt. They are sub
stantially liable for the fact that 60 percent of
high school graduates cannot understand
fairly simple passages of literature; that
only 1 in 4 young adults can interpret a news
paper column or write a letter to explain a
Letters
Water is needed
for daily use
Editor:
We live in a small community on the edge of Forsyth
County where Browns Bridge crosses Lake Lanier into
Hall County. Perched on a “mountainous” peninsula, we
are surrounded by water that is lovely to look at but no use
for the basic needs of home life. Under is nothing but solid
granite and possible radon gas contamination.
Running water in our home is a rationed and precious
commodity which may be non-existent at any time due to
drought conditions. Our community well is presently
shared by five houses, possibly a sixth (new home build
ers who drilled over 750 feet at considerable expense and
found a mere trickle of water.) We are constantly plagued
by water shortages and problems, and are currently ex
periencing another crisis ominously indicating the possi
bility of the well drying up.
For this area the water situation is critical, as I am sure
it is for numerous families and businesses in Forsyth
County where city water is not available. Therefore, I
urge all Forsyth County residents to vote “yes” for the 1
percent sales tax - thus granting the privilege of city/
county water provided to the entire county.
The 1 percent sales tax is minimal compared to the
expense of drilling, well equipment, maintenance and
electricity, not to mention the inconvenience of living on a
well coupled with the radon gas scare. This “step for
ward” would also promote growth in the county.
Laura
McCullough
Managing Ediloi
the best pound cake in the world, and will
whip it up for any occasion. Guests drop in
unexpectedly, and there is a pound cake with
icing in her refrigerator. “Just a little some
thing I threw together. It’s probably not
worth eating.” Then she cuts these he-man
slices that no one has the will-power to turn
done. Grandmother is a diet buster.
• When you go to parties get a big plate
and fill it with food you don’t Uke. Get a big
hunk of the salmon loaf and liver spread,
those tuna sandwiches, and celery without
dip. This way you will at least look as though
you are having a good time. Drink tomato
juice plain.
Now, go sit by the thinnest person in the
room. This will make you realize that you are
one potato chip away from entering the
Weight Watchers Hall of Fame those with
permanent membership, but no weight loss.
Commentary: Chester E. Finn
U.S. Dept, of Education
billing error; that 1 in 3 high school juniors
does not know Christopher Columbus discov
ered America before 1750; and that 2 out of 3
of them don’t know that the Civil War was
fought between 1850 and 1900.
Are we to believe that turning schools into
societal multiservice centers will better en
able them to impart the basic skills and
knowledge necessary for youngsters’ further
learning and future success?
On the contrary, research shows that effec
tive schools limit their scopes and missions
and strive like mad within their domain of
competence and responsibility. They focus
on clear, explicit goals, and the goals are es
sentially the same for all students: high aca
demic achievement.
Turning schools into multiservice centers
will confuse their priorities and blur their
mission. And then they will fail to attain any
goal. Schools cannot directly fight poverty or
' .old families together (though completing a
first-rate education is a superb long-term
poverty preventive, and if that education
pays attention to character as well, it may
have a strong, positive impact on the well
being of the family unit in American society).
They lack the clout and the know-how to
uproot social pathologies. These are tasks for
many other public and private agencies and
institutions, for churches, the YMCA, Big
Brothers and Big Sister, local businesses
Of course, the thinnest person is also the one
who is eating all of the food. This will prompt
you to mash the salmon loaf in their face,
meaning fewer calories you have to worry
about.
• Do a lot of Christmas shopping. You
will have to park the car in another state and
walk a long way, burning up lots of calories.
Bumping into other shoppers and fighting
your way through long lines is better than
aerobics. And, weaving in and out of traffic
will make you so frustrated that you will for
get about food. At the very least, you cannot
eat and drive without having a wreck. Spend
all of your money so there is none to buy gro
ceries during December.
• Decorate the entire house. String
Christmas lights all over the yard, around
every tree, and around the roof. This project
will take two weeks to complete and then two
more weeks to take the decorations down.
There will be no time to attend parties or do
holiday baking.
• Stay away from recipes and magazines
with the perfect desserts on the cover. If you
have never made a gingerbread house be
fore, chances are your first will not look like
the one in Better Homes and Gardens. So why
bother?
If all of this advice fails, and it probably
will, do what most folks do. Blow off the diet
until January and bring in the new year fat,
but jolly.
rl
Lyn Fladger
Gainesville
Machines now
judge people
Editor:
In response to James A. Weatherby’s letter to the editor
of Sunday. 11/29/87, we write to say that we agree whole
heartedly with Mr. Weatherby.
Brick by single brick, “The Wall” is subtly, insidiously,
imperceptively, and certainly rising up around each of
us. The mortar between each brick is our ignorance and
lethargy.
My husband was confronted with the same asinine situ
ation at our local Big Star as was Mr. Weatherby. Having
been loyal and faithful customers of Big Star stores in
various location for a combined total of 24 years, we too
feel insulted and unappreciated. I was a customer of Colo
nial Stores before Big Star every came to be. The quickest
and surest way to lose business is to drive it away.
Our bank, too, has never failed to honor our checks. But
evidently there is doubt in high places. An individual’s
honesty and integrity of an entire lifetime is totally disre
garded by a machine.
How soon will “they” tell us our currency is no good?
How close are we to becoming the Good Old United States
of Russia?
Is “Red Dawn” upon us, even as we spout freedom?
Mr. and Mrs. Dale R. Sandt
Gainesville
community organizations that can mobilize
volunteers and tutors, counselors and social
workers, and furnish decent meals and a safe
bed.
Academic achievement is the one great
goal for which schools are responsible and to
which they should be held accountable.
School efforts should be aimed not at coordi
nating social services, but at monitoring aca
demic progress at every turn, identifying
cognitive difficulties as early as possible, and
providing remediation enrichment after
school and during the summer.
Since 1980, 39 states and the District of Co
lumia have increased high school graduation
requirements. As of 1986, half the states had
enacted minimum competency testing for
high school graduation. Schools and school
districts should hold firm to these high stan
dards, which, contrary to the concern of
some educators, are not increasing dropout
rates or leading to anything resembling a
teacher shortage and which the over
whelming majority of the public rightly sees
as essential to improved educational quality.
School quality has an inestimable effect on
students. And schools can be improved by
application of good research, sound policy,
and proven practice.
Educators should leave other social ser
vices to community groups. Good schools of
fer youngsters a ticket to upward social mo
bility and to a brighter future. For the
youngsters commonly referred to as being
“at risk,” nothing we can give them is more
important.
Chester E. Finn Jr. is assistant secretary
for research and improvement in the United
States Department of Education.