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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 At the Graduate School of Business 1 I NiOVsI, I KKO\M' \OU /\LL WANT I TO MAKE f'IONEY... BUT \ I TODAY WTO TO DISCUSS l|| 1 K\A<ING...THINQS. | AvCTuAU THINGS. Jlifi —S ! oon-t want —-AllHf J AortAttY JX UlU' LISTEN...LET i JutTrtE r i.'A *T\ MOMFYi) .A-V-cAS BUSINESS icnoot. WE. liilltl\\ T^ V ' MQN^yf^i (' 1 ~ . COUL ° son^n\oneY ' i ',_.Mj_ 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.