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VOLUME LXXXI —NUMBER 49
Supreme Court denies a rehearing
double billing or credits inevitable
By Kristin Jeffries
Staff Writer
After spending an estimated
$32,000 in tax dollars on litigation
fees, the Board of Tax Assessors has
had its fate settled by the State Su
preme Court
The Supreme Court justices Friday
denied a request by the tax assessors
to rehear the appeals case it lost in
May by an unanimous decision.
The justices upheld a Dec. 29,1989
decision by Superior Court Judge
Frank Mills to consider the 1989 tax
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Collecting pennies
Rhubarb Jones, of Atlanta’s Y-106 radio station, made an appearance
at the Cumming Wal-Mart Wednesday, signing autographs for local
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Wendell Cox
INSIDE
Abby 5B
Births 7B
Business News 5A
Church Briefs 6B
Classified 9B
Crossword 5B
Deaths 9A
Editorials 4A
Engagements 10A
Events 6A
Horoscope 5B
Sports 1B
Lake Lanier Levels
Date level
June 4 1071.64 feet
June 5 1071.62 feet
June 6 1071.60 feet
June 7 1071.58 feet
June 8 1071.57 feet
Big Creek BluefHMMMMleated, see sports IB
■ Forsvth County News
bills as temporary thus requiring a
rebilling or credit based on the coun
ty-wide reappraisal.
“I don’t know of any further step we
can take but just to comply with the
judge’s order and re-do the ‘B9 di
gest,” said Aubrey Greenway, one of
the three members of the Board of
Tax Assessors.
Although he had yet to speak to the
other members, Greenway said the
logical step would be to go ahead and
send out the 1989 assessment notices
and deal with the 1990 digest later.
Billy Evans and Bobby Thomas did
Concert homecoming for local guitarist Wendell Cox
By Brad Hundt
Staff Writer
This Sunday’s Travis Tritt concert
at Lanierland Music Park will be a
homecoming of sorts for Forsyth
County’s Wendell Cox - after all, he’ll
be playing guitar behind Tritt in the
show.
The guitarist will also be appearing
on the “Tonight” show next month,
backing Tritt.
“Everything is just advancing along
quicker than we thought,” the 25-year
old guitarist said of his tenure with
Tritt. The Marietta-based country star
Cumming woman killed
in a two-car accident
Marks county’s
ninth death
of the year
By Brad Hundt
Staff Writer
A Cumming woman was killed in a
two-car collision on Hwy. 369.
Doris Seay, 33, was pronounced
dead Wednesday evening at North
Fulton Regional Hospital after the
6:30 p.m. accident Seay’s sister, Cin
dy Seay, 27, was injured and was ad
mitted to North Fulton. She was in
satisfactory condition Friday.
A 16-year-old Cumming juvenile
was issued a citation for driving on
the wrong side ofthe road, said Tracy
Cape, a dispatcher for the Georgia
State Patrol. The juvenile was treat
ed and released from North Fulton.
The accident was Forsyth County’s
ninth fatality for the year. The last
autp fatality was April 28. The county
SUNDAY, JUNE 10, 1990-CUMMING, GA. 30130-24 PAGES 2 SECTIONS
not wish to comment until they had
more time to review the decision and
had a chance to meet
During the last two years the Board
of Equalization has filed two suits in
an effort to get the assessments in
property classifications across the
county equalized.
“We have never been opposed to a
mass appraisal for the county. That
has been our plans since we went into
office,” said Greenway.
Board members said, however,
they did not have time to complete an
accurate re-assessment within the
residents and collecting pennies for the Pennies for Leukemia Founda
tion.
has wracked up two top 10 hits on the
country and western charts since the
beginning of the year, including
“Help Me Hold On,” which went to
number one on the C&W charts of
“Radio and Records,” “Billboard,”
“The Gavin Report” and “Cashbox.”
Taking a day off at his Forsyth
County home last week, Cox admitted
to being tired after three weeks of
one-night stands. However, the op
portunity to make music is worth the
monotonous bus rides, sub-par res
taurant food and endless succession
of hotels, he said.
‘The thing about it is everything has
A 16-year-old Cumming
juvenile was issued a cita
tion for driving on the
wrong side of the road,
said Tracy Cape, a dis
patcher for the Georgia
State Patrol. The juvenile
was treated and released
from North Fulton.
had three fatalities in April, one in
March, three in February and one in
January.
Seay was a life-long resident of
Cumming and worked at the Peach
tree Doors Co. on Hwy. 9, a sister-in
law said. She had also been em
ployed at the Tyson’s plant in
Cumming for several years.
Mill’s order.
So the dispute was taken to court
costing taxpayers around $32,000.
During the first case on Dec. 29,
1988 and in the ensuing year,
$9,874.78 was paid to Beau Stubbs of
McVay & Stubbs for legal fees. So far
in 1990 $5,568 has been paid to him.
“About 95 percent of what we’ve
done for the tax assessors is related
to that case,” said Stubbs.
Although the county has not yet
been billed, the assessors contracted
Please see TAX, page 2A
staff photo By Brad Hundt
taken off so quick,” Cox said. “It may
not seem worth it sometimes, but it
will be in the long run.”
Cox joined Tritt in February, 1988
after hearing through a friend that
Tritt needed a guitarist After being in
several local bands and doing some
work as a tree trimmer, Cox said he
“jumped” at the chance to back Tritt.
His primary work with Tritt has
been stage work, though Cox played
“some bits and pieces of things” on
Tritt’s debut album. The producer of
Tritt’s next LP promised him, howev
er, he’d be used more extensively on
the next album, Cox said.
Soaking rays * tan photo - By Br * d Hundt
Brenda McFall (left) and Dawn Shaw take some time last week to soak up some sun at Mary Alice Park.
Re -assessments await
the tax assessors’ OK
By Kristin Jeffries
Staff Writer
The Board of Tax Assessors
balked at approving mass apprais
al figures for the 1990 tax digest
without checking them in depth.
The assessors had questions
about a number of assessment fig
ures handed over to them Monday
by the W. P. Ferriss Company
which recently completed the
county-wide re-assessment
“I’m not comfortable in approv
Physicians still pondering return
Hospital to be reviewed
for the CON application
By Kristin Jeffries
Staff Writer
State officials will make an information
gathering visit to Lakeside Community Hos
pital Monday in preparation for a decision
on the hospital’s Certificate of Need
application.
State Health Planning director Dotty
Roach and other officials will survey the hos
pital and talk with administrator Anthony
DeGina and National Healthcare, Inc.
executives.
Lakeside has applied to build a 70-bed
hospital on Hutchinson Road in Cumming.
Lakeside Community Hospital on Samaritan
Drive was built in 1957.
“I think a new hospital is important We
have everything a hospital needs except a
physical plant,” said DeGina.
DeGina does not know where the hospital
stands now in the CON review process, but a
meeting to apprise the hospital of the appli
cation’s situation is scheduled in late June.
“The application is under review,” said
State Health Planning spokesman Michael
Clark
That means employees are reviewing and
verifying data, looking at the use of other
hospitals and studying the financial feasibil
ity of Lakeside’s proposal among many other
things, he explained.
State Health Planning is scheduled to re
lease a decision on the application July 18.
A period of appeals follows for the hospital
if it is denied a CON, or for those who want to
protest the approval of the application if it is
Work on Tritt’s sophomore effort
will begin this fall, Cox said.
Cox was handed his first guitar at
14, when he was a freshman at For
syth County High School. He played
for several years in First Aid, a band
that featured Jerry Farr, the son of
one-time Forsyth County Sheriff Bass
Farr. It was then that Cox said he de
cided to go a musical route.
“When you’re that young, you never
really know what you want to do.” Cox
said. “For awhile I was into fitness. I
thought I might want to be a body
builder. But when I sat down and
thought things over, the guitar was
ing it right now. That’s not saying
they are wrong,” said board mem
ber Aubrey Greenway.
“We should be able to present
the taxpayers with an explanation
at least There will be questions
and we need to know why land is
valued at this price,” said Bobby
Wallace, another board member.
They brought up one instance
where an area in The Polo Fields
neighborhood was priced at
Please see ASSESSORS. Page 2A
“I think a new hospital is
important. We have every
thing a hospital needs ex
cept a physical plant,” said
DeGina.
granted.
The approval could go unappealed and
the hospital could finalize the building plans
and begin construction right away, said
DeGina.
“We don’t think that is likely,” he added
DeGina is working to overcome the prob
lems the hospital has faced. Lakeside is cur
rently operating under a 6-month license af
ter signing a consent agreement with the
Department of Human Resources on the sec
ond day of a hearing to revoke the hospital’s
license.
DeGina is also talking to members of the
Forsyth Physicians Association and handing
out applications to work at the hospital.
More than 20 local physicians did not re
apply for privileges at the hospital when
they, and the rest of the staff, were placed on
temporary privileges Dec. 15,1989. They de
cided not to re-apply after the Dec. 31,1989
expiration date, because they would be re
quired to sign a loyalty oath to the hospital.
That oath was dropped from the contract
inFebruary.
DeGina had met with nine of the physi
cians by Friday, but none have returned an
application to work at the hospital.
more dominant in terms of interest ”
Cox grew up in a musical family, he
said. His parents. Everett and Janie
Cox played music in their off-hours
and he has an older brother who is a
bluegrass musician.
He and his wife Karen have a 19-
month old daughter Ashley.
Although he said he feels “more
comfortable in the shadows” behind
Tritt, Cox admits that one day he
might want to branch out as a solo act,
or produce records or direct videos
“Right now, country music is my
main interest.” Cox said. “There's so
many different fields and so much
variety.”
25 CENTS