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Toptriqthlete in training for Cwmming's competition -IB
VOU * NUMBER 19
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IS a test
for GOP
Republicans looking
for conservative vote
By Lindsey Kelly
Staff writer
For Georgia as well as Forsyth County, Su
per Tuesday may prove to be the first true test
of Democratic loyalty across the state and at
home.
This time, unlike the 1976 and 1980 elections,
there is no “favorite son” candidate like Jim
my Carter. In 1984, Ronald Reagan was unop
posed for the Republican nomination, so Geor
gians concentrated on the Democratic
primary which drew 13 times the votes of the
Republican primary.
But this year, the Democratic Party has no
special advantages, so Tuesday could prove to
be the moment of truth, particularly since
Georgia is an open primary state, meaning
that voters are free to vote for any party they
choose. In closed primary states, only voters
registered to a particular party may vote in
the primary.
Judging from published accounts in the past
few weeks, the state GOP is optimistic about
what it perceives to be an opportunity on Tues
day. The Democrats, on the other hand, are
nervous.
Locally, the partisan sentiments are much
the same.
Bill Brown, chairman of the Forsyth County
Republican Party, predicts that locally, the
Republican candidates will capture the con
servative Democratic vote.
“The conservative voters here are more
aligned with the conservatives on the Republi
can ticket than on the Democratic side,”
Brown said.
County Commissioner James Harrington,
chairman of the Democratic Party, conceded
that his party will likely lose some of the con
servative vote, particularly to the Pat Robert
son camp. But Harrington said he felt Demo
crats would win support from older county
residents, which comprise a sizable segment
of the county’s population owing to the num
ber of retirees living on Lake Lanier.
“There is the perception generally that the
Democrats care more about Social Security
and looking after the older people than the Re
publicans do,” Harrington said.
The Democratic commissioner believes his
party will carry the county, “but not by a land
slide, probably.”
Across the state, near-record voter turn
outs are being predicted. Locally, opinions on
turnout are divided.
County voter registrar Melvin Stancil said
he believes the number of voters is going to be
low. He said he usually gauges turnout by the
number of absentee ballots cast before the
election. By the middle of last week he said
he’d gotten about 45; he usually has about 60 in
the last few days before a major election.
“But even my pollsters think there’s going
to be a large turnout, so I guess we’ll just have
to wait and see.’
Harrington thinks maybe about half of the
county’s estimated 13,000 voters will go to the
polls. That figure would be higher, he said, if
the candidates were “more exciting.”
“It’s not an exciting election. We don’t have
exciting elections on either side. Jesse Jack
son has the most charisma of any of the candi
dates on the Democratic side.”
Though Harrington thinks Jackson is more
charismatic, he doesn’t think he will get more
than “a few votes” in Forsyth County. The top
finishers on the Democratic ticket, Harring
ton predicted, will be Tennessee Sen. A 1 Gore,
U.S. Rep. Richard Gephart from Missouri,
and Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, in
Please see TUESDAY, page 3A
Up against
the wall
It was a shock for two
people last week one in
side the car and one in
side the house when this
car driven by Ricky Ra
mey missed a curve,
crashed through a steel
rail fence and hit the house
on Ga. 9 where Scott
Bennett was sleeping.
Story, page 2A
Forsyth CountvNews H
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SUNDAY, MARCH 6, 1988—CUMMING, GA. 30130—72 PAGES 3 SECTIONS
Staff Photos Kathryn L. Babb
Rachel Martin (red sweater), daughter Debra have a picnic in the sun with Lavane Garner
Hold your horses:
False start not unusual,
experts on weather warn
By Tom McLaughlin
Staff writer -■*>„:
How the weather does tease us at this time of year.
Once again the temperatures in late Feburary and
early March have warmed to the upper 60s and low 70s. To
most, this isn’t exactly suntanning weather. But don’t
try to tell that to the few brave souls who could be seen lay
ing out at such favorite spots as Buford Dam and Mary
Alice Park on Lake Lanier before the rains set in last
week.
However, weather experts warn that Mother Nature
can often be a spoilsport at this time of year.
“I think it’s a little early to say that warm weather is
here to stay,” said forecaster Max Blood. “There is still
the possibility of wintery type weather, especially at
night.”
Blood, who works for the National Weather Service in
Atlanta, said. “I never like to say we’re out of the woods
until the end of March. But I will say I think the coldest
days are behind us.”
Blood warned there may be some nights this month
when temperatures fall below freezing.
In 1986 and 1987, cold snaps were recorded in North
Georgia after periods of early warm weather, causing
some crop damage and a great deal of disappointment
to many with half started tans.
Unfortunately, figures about how much damage was
done to crops are as hard to come by as estimates of how
much the damage cost.
“Predicting a dollar loss due to weather for any par
ticular event would be making a lot of assumptions on
what would have been produced,” said Larry Snipes, a
state statistician for the Georgia Agricultural Statistics
Service.
Snipes said any figures on crop damage would have to
be based on a typical year for Georgia weather.
“It’s hard to determine a normal year in Georgia any
more,” he said. “They’re all different.”
Snipes said the state’s yield of principal products was
up 5 percent per acre planted in 1987 from 1986. But he said
there was also a lower percentage of crops such as com
and soybeans planted.
It ’s not spring yet
<?/
Jacob Richardson tests himself at the park
Snipes added that a warm week in March was not a
rarity, and agreed with Blood that spring was not here yet.
“I’d like to point out that it is still just the first of
March,” he said. “And history will show that a lot of cold
weather came in after the first of March. I wouldn’t go
swimming yet.”
James Miller, associate director of Agriculture and
Please see WEATHER, page 2A
Staff Photo Kathay Pruitt
Office memo
keeps county
workers quiet
By Kathey Pruitt
Staff writer
A memo issued to Forsyth
County department heads last
week by administrator Ralph
Roberts restricts county em
ployees from making statements
to the news media.
Commission Chairman
Charles Welch said the memo
randum was authorized by the
county commission, but the oth
er members said they were un
aware of the directive. Roberts
said he issued the memo on his
own initiative.
The memo, dated Feb. 23,
reads in full:
“Employees are prohibited
from making any statements to
the news media pertaining to
county business except upon pri
or approval of the county admin
istrator. Any violations of this
memorandum will be considered
to be insubordination and will be
treated as such.”
Some commissioners said they
did not approve of the policy and
that they would not enforce such
a “blanket statement.”
“When I got it in my mailbox fat the courthouse) was
the first time I’d seen it. I never had been in a group where
it was mentioned until the other night when I asked ques
tions about it,” said Commissioner Michael Bennett. “I
don’t agree with it. I didn’t agree with it when I saw it.”
Other commisioners echoed Bennett, stating that the
provisions of the memo were too restrictive.
“It doesn’t sound good to me at all,” said Commissioner
David Gilbert. “I like more openness from the govern
ment to the press than that.”
Welch said disciplinary action would depend on the
merits of each case, but other commissioners said insub
ordination is considered a serious and usually job threat
ening charge.
Please see MEMO, page 3A
Pool’s Mill park
will go as planned
By Lindsey Kelly
Staff writer
A brief long-distance phone call to Chicago was appar
ently all it took to re-establish that county residents will
get to have their park around the old Pool’s Mill Bridge
after all.
County Commission chairman Charles Welch said Fri
day that the county’s original agreement with the owners
of the property around the bridge to donate some park
land will be carried out as planned.
Welch said he and Chicago oilman Scott Hartney, one of
the principal owners of the brige property, conferred by
phone Friday and both apparently reconfirmed the com
mitment of each side to getting a park created around the
historic site, one of 15 remaining covered bridges in the
state.
That committment appeared shakey last week when it
was discovered that the Pool's Mill property had been put
up for sale without any provisions being made for park
land.
Hartney’s group and the county commission had tenta
tively agreed in 1986 that an unspecified amount of land
around the bridge would be donated to the county in con
sideration for the county returning to Hartney and his
partners the right-of-way to the old Pool’s Mill Road that
ran over the bridge until it was closed last summer.
In an additional consideration, the property owners
Please see PARK, page 3A
Cherokee votes to rehold
Vulcan quarry hearings
By Kathey Pruitt
Staff writer
The request for a quarry in Chero
kee County near the Forsyth County
line returned to square one Thursday
night when Cherokee officials voted to
rehold public hearings on the project
proposed by Vulcan Materials.
“We feel it would be in everyone’s
best interest to recall the case; in oth
er words, start from scratch and have
the full public hearing at the next
monthly meeting,” said Hugh Roland
of the Cherokee zoning appeals board.
The decision to begin the permitting
process anew came because oppo
nents of the 292-acre quarry said they
were not properly notified of the first
public hearing, held on Feb. 8. Four
teen quarry opponents attended the
hearing, and a final decision on the
quarry permit was expected Thurs
day night.
But appeals board members an
♦
‘Employees are
prohibited from
making any
statements to
the news me
dia pertaining
to county busi
ness except
upon prior ap
proval of the
county
administrator.’
Ralph Roberts
nounced to a courtroom full of resi
dents concerned about the granite
quarry that a decision about the spe
cial exception mining permit would
be postponed until after a second pub
lic hearing on April 7.
“We’re going to be notifying every
one who abuts the (Vulcan) property
and we’ll be readvertising it in the
Cherokee paper,” Roland told quarry'
opponents who said they had not re
ceived letters from the zoning depart
ment about the hearing.
About nine property owners were
unintentionally overlooked in the noti
fication process, planning adminis
trator Gene Nuss said Friday. The ap
plication filed by Vulcan identified
property involved in the quarry re
quest by land lot numbers, then ex
plained with pages of attached survey
descriptions of the property which
portions of the land lots were in-
Please see QUARRY, page 3A
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