Newspaper Page Text
w~\ Read, jj\
Then \ /\
VOLUME LXXXI —NUMBER 45
HyKOEys*^^^oH
ww^mi
u x' - J
Staff photo - Phyllis Cassidy
Still searching
In order to keep the murder investigation of his son and daughter-in law, Tony
and Kathy Reid alive, E.H. Reid changes the photos on the reward posters,
which he has had on his truck since shortly after the Dec. 18 murder.
The 1990 tax digest is ready
By Kristin Jeffries
Staff Writer
Although 1989 tax bills are still in
legal limbo, the Board of Tax Asses
sors are readying the 1990 tax digest
for submital to the state.
The board is hopeful the year-long
county-wide reappraisal project will
be done this week.
“The 1990 amounts will be ready to
be mailed out when the re-appraisal
is completed,” said Billy Evans,
chairman of the Board of Tax Asses
sors. The Tax Assessors office is
shooting for June 15 as a mail-out
date for 1990 property assessments.
After mailing, 30 days will be set
aside for hearing appeals of the new
assessments.
“We are expecting an enormous
amount of appeals,” said Evans.
Bill Ferriss of the W. P. Ferriss
Company which is conducting the re
appraisal, is encouraging people to
call and request a hearing to correct
any mistakes in the new property
values.
By the time adjusted assessments
based on the hearings are mailed and
another hearing period is weathered,
the 1990 digest should be ready to sub
mit to the state for approval around
August 15.
|||£>' ; '* ’pk §§ *M^ '»T* I*-111| t=;« 'V , : , ' jUf ., *yJfV‘- v /ffffey 'Cj Vj&a#
_. Staff photo Kristin Jsffries
The water-logged Georgia Star may soon find usefulness as a homeless shelter.
INSIDE
Abby 4B
Church Briefs 6A
Classified 2C
Deaths 5 A
Editorials 4A
Events..' 6 A
Horoscope 4B
Letters ~..48
Sports 1B
Lake Lanier Levels
Date level
May 21 1071.82 feet
May 22 1071.78 feet
May 23 1071.74 feet
May 24 1071.67 feet
Ma£ 25 r—J«Mlfeet
Forsyth County real estate tab, section D
Forsyth County News BH
F r 6l Tr o9J
“This is not something
we did. It is not something
the re-assessors did. It
was something we were or
dered to do by the state.
We have to place land
prices at fair market val
ue,” he said.
. The approved digest is then sub
mitted to the county commissioners
and the school board to set the mill
age rate.
“There is where the amount of tax
es we as taxpayers will pay is set,”
Evans explained.
The 1990 tax bills should go out in
October or early November, said Ev
ans.
Meanwhile the board is preparing
to appeal the Georgia Supreme
Court’s May 14 decision to uphold a
ruling making 1989 tax bills tempo
rary and calling for a re-billing of
1989 based on the re-evaluation.
“If we get a final decision on the
1989 bills by then we will mail them
Scientific Games, Inc.
breaks ground in county
By Brad Hundt
Staff Writer
Scientific Games, Inc. broke
ground on its new instant ticket print
ing plant in Bluegrass Business Park
Wednesday, with Georgia Secretary
of State Max Cleland among those
clutching shovels.
Construction on the roughly 134,000
square foot building is expected to be
completed by December 1990.
A subsidiary of Bally Manufactur
ing Corporation, Scientific Games is
the supplier of instant lottery tickets
to 28 states and 25 foreign countries.
The facility is initially expected to
employ 300 people.
The plant will sit on around 15 acres
of land in the park, near the Forsyth-
Fulton border.
Cleland noted the irony that a man
ufacturer of lottery tickets was put
ting tlgpir world headquarters in Geor
-eia - & state that has no lottery.
SUNDAY, MAY 27, 1990-CUMMING, GA. 30130-28 PAGES 4 SECTIONS
Area physicians consider
returning to Lakeside
By Kristin Jeffries
SUM Wrttsr
The year-long dispute between For
syth County physicians and Lakeside
Community Hospital may be ending
as some physicians consider rejoining
its staff.
Lakeside and Forsyth County phy
sicians joined together to release a
statement Friday concerning the dis
missal of a lawsuit between former
chief of staff Dr. Bob Derrick and the
hospital. Also, new administrator An
thony DeGina has begun meeting with
the physicians individually.
“I am trying to see if we can’t start
out together,” said Evans. Otherwise
the adjusted 1989 bills will be mailed
after the 1990 bills.
The assessments will be identical
except anything built or improved af
ter 1988 will not be taxed in die 1989
rebilling.
The re-billing will almost certainly
require an increase in everyone’s
1989 taxes even with an adjustment in
the millage rate, said Evans. “Re
bates are not likely.
“This is not something we did. It is
not something the re-assessors did. It
was something we were ordered to do
by the state. We have to place land
prices at fair market value,” he said.
The Board of Tax Assessors was
originally ordered by the Board of
Equalization to provide greater equi
ty among the different, property cate
gories by means of a re-assessment
in 1986.
The process was completed in 1988,
but when property tax bills were sent
out many property owners appealed
to the tax assessors and eventually
filed a suit against the tax board.
The board rescinded the new as
sessments and resigned.
The BOE filed suit when the new
tax assessors used the 1987 digest
Please see TAX, page 2A
“We’re pleased, delight
ed and overwhelmed that
they’ve decided to come
here to Forsyth,’’ said Bill
Sawyer, executive vice
president of the Cumming-
Forsyth Chamber of
Commerce.
“There’s no question that here in
Georgia we need the money for educa
tion,” Cleland said. “We realize that
no management team is going to stay
here unless they can put their kids in a
first class school.”
? Please see GAME, page 2A
on the road to them coming back,”
DeGina said.
More than 20 members of the For
syth County Physicians Association
did not re-apply for privileges with
Lakeside when the entire staff was
put on temporary status Dec. 15. The
physicians did not want to sign a loy
alty oath to the hospital and were con
cerned with the lawsuit and com
plained of poor patient care. The
loyalty oath was dropped in
February.
Signaling a possible change in mood
after five months some doctors are
toying with the possibility of again
working at Lakeside.
~ . Staff photo Kristin Jeffries
Nursery time
You know spring is in full swing when you begin to see little tired of swimming and decided to take a rest on the shore,
goslings wandering around Lake Lanier. These babies
K I -mm .MSk i j 'ABB 4?*'--
H " ,4b J* .VV n
■Jfl 1 I 1 m
Members of the county commission
break ground on the new Scientific
Games complex Wednesday. .Pictured,
from leftf are: Daniel Bower, the fout&er
“I am considering it (returning)
and have not yet made a decision. I
really have no comment at this time
except it is under consideration,” said
Dr. Robert Dunn, who met with De-
Gina Thursday.
Dr. Melissa McGinnis and Dr. Ru
pert Bramblett also said a move back
to the hospital was under
consideration.
Others are still hesitant.
“I’ve basically followed suit with
everyone else,” said Dr. Mark Dun
bar. He is going to wait until others
feel it is safe at the hospital.
“Even if they get the trust of the
physicians it will take a long time for
Georgia Star
may be shelter
By Kristin Jeffries
Staff Writer
There it sits, sunk up to its second
deck in the blue waters of Lake La
nier, useless now except as fuel for
one man’s dream.
Every Saturday Joe Merck goes to
the Army Corps of Engineer’s boat
basin near Buford Dam to work on
getting the Georgia Star out of the
water.
The infamous “homemade boat,”
the subject of much litigation and
hard work on the part of the Corps to
get it off the lake, is destined for a
different fate than the one for which it
of Scientific Games, Inc.; Norm LaMarre,
president of Scientific Games, Inc.; and
commissioners Barry Hillgartner, Charles
Welch and Michael McGaughey.
the patients,” said Dunbar, who esti
mated nine out of 10 of his patients
specifically ask not to be admitted to
Lakeside.
Dr. Marcus Mashbum, who is semi
retired, said he does not need the use
of a hospital, but would not choose to
go back to Lakeside while it is owned
by National Healthcare Inc. if he did
need (me.
Many other physicians could not be
contacted or declined to comment.
Discussion between the physicians
and hospital administration follows
on the heels of two major develop-
Please see MEDICS, page 2A
was built.
Merck’s company, Joe and Doug’s
Truck Company, made the axles for
the dolly used to put the Georgia Star
into the water 17 years ago.
“It was going to be used for gam
bling, dancing and pouring liquor. I
thought it could be used for something
better than that,” said Merck. “It was
always in my mind.”
Merck, the owner of the Community
Baptist Mission in Hall County, wants
to put the boat on a lakeside lot, for it
is too large to move on the roads, and
turn it into a shelter for the homeless.
Please see BOAT, page 2A
Staff photo Brad Hundt
25 CENTS