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Christmas tasty with great holiday recipes —ID
Forsyth County News
'.XVIII —NUMBER 99
ii:s rges
against
Williams
dismissed
By Lindsey Kelly
Staff writer
The unlawful assembly charges
against the Rev. Hosea Williams and
four other defendants were nullified
by a State Court judge Monday on the
grounds that the accusations against
the five were not specific enough.
State Court Judge Clyde J. Gober
Jr. stated in an order issued Monday
that the form the state solicitor had
used in issuing the charges did not
give the defendants sufficient notice
as to exactly how they had violated
the state statute against obstructing a
highway.
The other defendants affected by
Gober’s order were Williams’ daugh
ter Elizabeth Williams Omilami, his
son Torrey Kenydita Smith, William
Henry Hollis Jr. and Eric Dale
Terrell.
The five were among eight arrested
on Feb. 9 for protesting a broadcast of
the Oprah Winfrey show held in For
syth County for the show’s exclusion
of guests from outside the county. Wil
liams and his followers contended
their exclusion was racially
motivated.
Of the three other defendants, For
est Sawyer Jr. and Larry Platt pled
guilty Friday to a lessor charge of pe
destrian in the roadway. The two men
received suspended sentences on the
condition that they not participate in
demonstrations in the county for one
year.
The Rev. C.T. Vivian pled guilty in
Superior Court last month to a misde
meanor charge of obstructing an offi
cer, receiving a year’s probation, a
$250 fine and 100 hours of community
service. Vivian had originally been
charged with felony obstruction oi an
officer.
Gober’s quashing of the remaining
five cases does leave the solicitor the
discretion of reissuing the charges,
but State Solicitor Terry Stringer said
Please see WILLIAMS, page 2A
Chamber pares
applications
to three names
By Lindsey Kelly
Staff writer
The search for another executive director of the Cum
ming/Forsyth County Chamber of Commerce appears to
be nearing an end.
Chamber president Roger Crow said Friday that the
search has been narrowed to' ee candidates, all “with
good credentials.” Crow said he expects the field will be
narrowed possibly by the end of this week to the point
“where we can make somebody an offer.”
At this same time last year, the chamber was searching
for a replacement for Mac Berston, who resigned from
the director’s job in December 1986.
Berston’s replacement, Mark Jennette, resigned in
September over differences in opinion between himself
and other chamber officials as to how the organization’s
finances should be handled. Jennette held the post for
approximately six months.
Crow said the chamber had received a “number” of
resumes for the job, and said he did not feel the controver
sy surrounding Jennette’s leaving had an adverse effect
on the search.
Of the three finalists, Crow said “some are local and
some are from out-of-town.”
In addition to possibly having a new director soon, new
officers for the chamber will be announced at the organi
zation’s meeting later this month. President-elect Dana
Miles is expected to take over for Crow. Miles is an attor
ney with the local firm of Lipscomb, Johnson, Miles and
Ashway.
The other positions to be filled vice president for
economic development, vice president for community de
velopment, vice president for membership, and secre
tary-treasurer will be chosen by a nominations com
mittee. The candidates for the offices are chosen from
among members of the board of directors.
New board members beginning terms in 1988 are: Lou
ise Lauthain of Phillips and Brooks manufacturing com
pany, Ricky Noles of Ricky Noles State Farm Insurance,
and George Bagley Jr. of Lanier Golf Club and Coal
Mountain Egg Farm.
Steffan Thomas of Stefco Inc., and Phil Maffett of At
lanta Millworks Ltd. will begin second terms in 1988. Both
were appointed this year to fill the unexpired terms of
members who resigned.
Members rotating off the board are: Stevie Mills of the
county planning and zoning department, Ann Gibson with
Martin-Marietta, and Dana Miles.
The chamber’s annual banquet will be Jan. 29 at the
Atlanta Athletic Club on Peachtree Parkway. The guest
speaker will be Ninth District Congressman Ed Jenkins.
Tickets for the banquet will go on sale soon, Crow said.
Some 400 people are expected to attend.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1987 -CUMMING, GA. 30)30
lUfiin£_
Staff Photo Kathryn L. Babb
Rick Hemingway of Lanier Electronics exposes the circuitry of a VCR in for repair
Complex VCR can be expensive little toy
By Lindsey Kelly
Staff writer
See if this sounds familiar. You’ve gotten all
settled into your favorite chair. You’ve got the
tape in the VCR it’s that movie you’ve been
just dying to see and everything’s all set to
go. So you hit the remote control and get. . .
nothing, not even a peep.
Welcome to reality. In an age of television
and video addiction, video cassette recorders
have proved to be a wonderful inventfim. But
they are also delicate and complex pieces of
machinery, a fact which many VCR owners
seem to find out the hard way.
An even more sobering point is that repair
bills for this nifty little gadget can start, at
least in the local market, at around SSO, and
that’s just for labor.
■Jfefc
. - Jgj
Beautiful ballerina
Genny Green practices her moves in preparation this weekend’s
performance of The Nutcracker by the Lanier Civic Ballet Compa
ny. Genny plays the lead role of Clara' in the traditional Christmas
program. For more about The Nutcracker, as well as photos of local
dancers practicing the ballet, see page BA.
So if you’re thinking about giving a VCR as a
Christmas gift this year, either to yourself or
to someone else, you might want to arm your
self with some basic facts about this modem
technological wonder before making that sev
eral hundred dollar investment.
First of all, before you get excited about dis
covering that some models of VCRs now sell
for as little as S2OO, some local VCR repair
people advise that you remember the adage,
t “you get what you pay for.”
“A lot of people think you can pay S2OO and
get a good VCR, and it’s just not true,” said
Tony Rice, service manager for Pruitt’s Fur
niture, T.V. and Applicances.
Rick Hemingway, service manager for La
nier Electronics, offered a similar assessment
of lower priced models. “The S2OO one are
probably going to give you nothing but prob
Sun Photo Kathryn L. Babb
lems,” he said. “We see a lot of those in the
shops.”
Hemingway and Rice agreed that consum
ers should stick to name-brand models and be
willing to pay around S3OO, a figure which
seems to be about the median price on the
current market for machines with basic re
cord and play capability and programming
features. Of course, if you’re looking for some
extra features, such as 12-month program
ming capability, you can find those models
running somewhere between S7OO and SBOO.
The philosophy of purchasing a cheaper,
and theoretically less reliable, machine with
the idea of just getting it fixed if it breaks
could end up costing you more in the long run
considering the average price of repairs.
Please see VCRs, page 3A
GMAPDC celebrates
25th year of service
By Tom McLaughlin
Staff writer
The Georgia Mountains Area Planning and De
velopment Commission celebrates 25 years of ser
vice Dec. 10 with a look into the past and a eye
toward the future.
According to Executive Director Dr. Sam Day
ton, The GMAPDC was created in 1962, one of a
series of planning and development commissions
appearing in the state during the late 50’s and early
60’s. The commission had economic development
as its underlying interest.
“Georgia’s economy was terribly depressed in
the 1950’5,” Dayton said. “Consequently there was
an interest in 1959 and 1960 within the General As
sembly to create one group to serve all of the local
governments in the state by providing technical
assistance to counties to provide for economic
development.”
“This agency belongs to the local people,” he
said. “If you look at the way we created our gov
ernment in the 1700’s, you’ll see that it was set up
on federal, state and local levels. The state and
federal governments have an abundance of profes
sional personnel, while on the local level there are
only a few. All of the persons in this administration
are local people, the local cities and counties make
the appointments.”
The APDC’s are also unlike state and local gov
ernments because they have no authority to govern
through taxation or use of police authority.
“Our thing is not to govern, it is to assist in gov
erning,” Dayton said.
The first actual planning and development com
mission in the state was formed in Rome in 1960
the Coosa Valley Planning and Development Com
mission and others soon followed.
“By 1967, there were APDC’s statewide, and by
’65,80 percent were organized,” Dayton said. “The
model was taking place very quickly.”
Georgia’s APDC’s were the first example of a
functional consolidation of service in state govern
ment, and when the nation saw its success other
states followed Georgia’s lead.
“There are now 3,000 counties nationwide that
are members of planning and development ser
vices,” Dayton said. “It was Georgia’s invention
and the nation saw it, the nation liked it and the
nation has followed it. My state leads the nation in
something truly progressive and I’m proud of
that.”
The goal of each of the planning and develop
ment commissions was and is to help the govern
ments they serve to acquire the funding needed to
build or install schools, water and sewer facilities,
streets and highways, airports, libraries and in
dustrial parks. Anything that would enhance de
44 PAGES, 4 SECTIONS
County
offers
water
incentive
Early tap-ons
get cost break
By Kathey Pruitt
Staff writer
If voters approve a 1 percent sales tax
increase to fund countywide water, the
first customers to tie onto the new lines will
pay about half the normal tap-on costs.
Forsyth County commissioners inter
rupted a public hearing on the water sys
tem Monday night to approve a $250 tap-on
fee for county water customers who access
new water lines as the pipes are being put
in the ground. Normal tap-on fees are $450
and $550, including deposit.
Commissioners said that if the sales tax
passes Dec. 15, the reduced fees would at
tract more customers in less time for the
200 miles of water lines. To take advantage
of the lower fee, customers must tie onto
the lines while equipment is at the installa
tion site and the ditch for the water line is
open.
The low fee incentive faced opposition
from some of the 30-plus crowd of county
residents who met at the courthouse to dis
cuss the pros and cons of a public water
system.
“You said that you’re going to use money
from tap-on fees to pay for smaller lines
going out into the neighborhoods,” said one
resident who declined to be identified. “But
if you cut the proceeds in half, you’re going
to be slicing the money you say you’re go
ing to use for future water lines.”
Commissioners defended the $250 fee,
saying hook up costs are cheapest as water
mains are being installed.
“The percentage of the $250 fee that goes
back into the system is much greater than
what you’d get out of $450 when you consid
er that after the line has been installed, you
have to send a crew back out, reopen the
ditch and then tie in the meter to get the
Please see WATER, page 2A
“It was Georgia’s invention and
the nation saw it, the nation liked it
and the nation has followed it. My
state leads the nation in something
tru'y progressive and I’m proud of
that.”
Dr. Sam Dayton
velopment and aid the economy, Dayton said.
Cumming Mayor Ford Gravitt said that the
GMAPDC had helped the city and the area to ob
tain needed funds for growth.
“Their contributions have greatly helped the
city of Cumming,” Gravitt said. “They have been
a tremendous help to all of the people in our area
who have received grants and loans.
Gravitt pointed out as particularly important
grants obtained by GMAPDC to expand the city’s
water and sewer system and a matching grant it
received in 1971 to help build the city park.
The GMAPDC gains funding for its service ar
eas, which include 51 total units of government, 13
counties and 38 cities, from federal, state and local
monies, as well as some private donations.
“Federal and state agencies use GMAPDC as
their operating arm,” Dayton said.
GMAPDC bylaws state that each county com
mission and each city which serves as a county
seat can appoint a member to the commission
board. Adding in three minority representatives,
the total board comes to 29 members.
Dayton said the board acts as his superior.
“I answer directly to the board, and act to carry
out their budget. I have sort of a city or county
manager’s job in a kind af super county,” he said.
The Georgia Mountains Planning and Develop
ment Commission has undergone many changes
since its origin in 1962, with probably the most sig
nificant coming in the governorship of Jimmy
Carter.
“As governor, Jimmy Carter reorganized state
government,” Dayton said. “He wanted reason
ably uniform substate quarters.”
Carter designated the 13 counties that now form
the GMAPDC and these same designations are
now used by government agencies such as the de
partment of labor and the department of natural
resources in their compilation of statistics.
“He established the way we compile statistics,
the way we refer to ourselves when we’re not talk-
Please see GMAPDC, page 2A
35 CENTS