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FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS-SUNDAY, JUNE 10, IWO
Opinion
Taxing times are ahead
in more ways than one
Enough is enough already.
Now it is time, actually beyond
the time, to get on with it.
The Board of Tax Assessors
have fought a long hard battle at
taxpapyers' expense and it is
time for them to do what they
have been told and now told
again. To rebill or credit taxpay
ers on their 1989 tax bill accord
ing to the new re-assessments.
We agree this “double-billing"
will be a complicated procedure
that will take months to straight
en out. But before blaming the
Board of Equalization or the
courts, one must look at the rea
sons why we ended up in such a
state.
This dispute began four years
ago when the BOE ordered the
property taxes in the county be
equalized. Tax Assessors fol
lowed the order. However, when
the action angered several hun
dred taxpayers, the tax board re
ON YOUR PAYROLL
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Chairman Michael Bennett, 4301 Post Road, Cumming, GA 30130
Vice Chairman Barry Hillgartner, Still Road. Cumming, GA 30130
Secretary Michael McGaughey, Nicholson Road, Cumming, GA 30130
James Harrington, Norcross Road, Cumming, GA 30130
Charles Welch. 102 Laurel Lane. Cumming, GA 30130
STATE REPRESENTATIVES
Rep. Bill Barnett. District 10
P.O. Box 755, Cumming, Ga. 30130. Telephone: 887-6582.
Sen. Nathan Deal, District 49
P.O. Box. 2522, Gainesville, Ga. 30503. Telephone: 1404-522-9978
Sen. Sallie Newbill, District 49
7205 Riverside Drive, Atlanta. Ga. Telephone: 1404-394-5676
Gov. Joe Frank Harris
203 State Capitol. Atlanta, Ga. 30334, Telephone: 1404-656-1776
NATIONAL REPRESENTATIVES
U.S. Senator Sam Nunn
303 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510. Telephone: 1-
202-224-3521. Atlanta number: 3314811
U.S. Senator Wyche Fowler
320 Hart Senate Office Building. Washington. D.C. 20510. Telephone: 1-202-
224-3643. Atlanta number:33l-0647
U.S. Rep. Ed Jenkins, 9th District
2427 Rayburn Building. Washington, D.C. 20515. Telephone: 1-202-225-5211;
Gainesville number: 1404-536-2531.
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Forsyth County News
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scinded the new levels and re
signed. A second board was
appointed and seemed to do the
best thing politically adopted
the old tax levels. And from that
point on it has fought the BOE
through the courts shouting the
same slogan this is the best thing
for the taxpayers. More than
$30,000 of tax payers’ money have
been spent doing what is best for
the property owner.
The revaluation is something
even the Board of Tax Assessors
said needed to be done but they
wanted to do it at their own pace
it seemed. They spent other peo
ples’ money to try and do it at
their pace.
Was it really money well
spent? In a fight for something
that needed to be done in the first
place. Through all the arguing no
one ever said it couldn’t be done
or shouldn’t be done they only
said it would be very difficult to
do. Now after thousands of tax
payers dollars are spent the diffi
culties are really only beginning.
PUBLISHER-SCOTT M. BROWN
MANAGING EDITOR-SALLYLYN M. HILL
ADVERTISING DIRECTOR-HARRIET H. VINCENT
CIRCULATION DIRECTOR-GRAHAM B. KIMBROUGH
There may be 101 uses for hair spray
1 had a bug on my mirror the other day.
Now i have a fuzzy spot where the bug used
to be. No I didn't squish it I did the next best
thing - sprayed it with hairspray.
Hairspray was a wonderful invention. It
has almost 101 different uses.
First, like I already mentioned, it makes a
handy bug spray if you don’t have a can of
bug killer on hand. If it doesn’t kill the bug. it
at least sticks it to one spot until you can go
get a shoe and finish the job off.
It also can be used on hosiery. If your ny
lons run, spray the spot with hairspray. Stops
it at least temporarily until you can get some
fingernail polish.
It makes a pretty perfume if you don’t
mind smelling like your grandmother all
day.
You could use it to ward off an attacker. Of
course it would work only if you used aero
sol. I don’t think the pump or gel would have
much of an affect Besides, my pump always
gets clogged up anyway. Additionally a big
can might be a little bulky to carry around in
your purse. Unless of course you carry a
fWI LIKE TO ™
Your Community Health Corner- Asthma
By Steven L. Perlow, M.D.
Guest Columnist
Well, it looks like summer is just around
the corner. 1 sure like these occasional cool
dry days we’re having as spring comes to a
close. There’s nothing like a sunny, dry day
with an occasional cool breeze... Speaking of
breezes, today we're going to talk about air
way disease.
Our guest in today’s health corner is Larry
Kaplan, M.D. Dr. Kaplan is a specialist in
pulmonary medicine. A pulmonologist is
someone who diagnoses and treats diseases
of the lungs such as chronic bronchitis, em
physema and asthma. Today we are going to
talk about asthma. Larry, what is asthma?
“Asthma is an obstructive lung disease,
which is reversible. By that I mean some
times the airways in the lung become con
stricted and at times they are not. These air
ways have smooth muscles surrounding
them that can contract, go into spasm and
cause the airway size to decrease. In addi
tion, these airways can swell with fluid or
become plugged with mucous during this
process. This can involve any airway in the
lung. The main windpipe in our neck is
called the trachea and that leads into the
large bronchial tubes, which lead to smaller
airways called bronchioles.”
Is this a common disease? “Yes it is very
common disease. Anyone can get it. Some
people will have it in childhood and it can go
into remission and later appear in adult
hood. Others will develop it for the first time
as an adult The main symptom of the dis
ease is difficulty breathing with shortness of
breath. The hallmark finding is the musical
sound called wheeze. This is a sound that the
lungs make caused by the vibration of air as
it passes through the point of constriction.
We hear this during expiration, or when we
let air our during breathing. With more se
vere attacks people can wheeze with inhala
tion, when breathing in. The main problem
is letting air our of the chest rather than not
Memory functions on trivial pursuits
By David Grimes
New York Times Regional Newspapers
As I get older, I find that I have more and
more trouble remembering things.
Not all things, just the stuff that’s occurred
recently. For example, I cannot remember
the title of the movie I rented yesterday. I
can, however, still recite all the words to the
Pepsi Cola jingle I learned in the second
grade:
Pepsi Cola hits the spot
Five minutes later you hit the pot.
Push the button and pull the chain,
Away goes Pepsi down the drain.
Roto-Rooter.
Clearly, this is an essential memory, the
kind of memory that should take precedence
over such trivial things as doctor’s appoint
ments. the whereabouts of the car keys, chil
dren’s first names, etc.
I sometimes have difficulty remembering
IB
purse like my mother’s handbag She doesn’t
carry the kitchen sink around in it but that’s
only because she’s not strong enough to carry
the sink If you tease her about her purse she
claims she needs everything in it Boy I’d
hate to see her have to throw out one ofthose
two dozen wadded up Kleenex’s to make
room for anything else. But that’s a different
story.
I accidently used hairspray as a deodorant
one sleepy morning. It didn’t work real well.
Also I had a terrible time lifting up my arms
all day.
YOUR
COMMUNITY \ \
HEALTH \ T } _
CORNER J
being able to breathe in.” Does anything in
particular cause an asthmatic attack. “An
attack can be meditated by allergies to many
substances such as pollen, infections such as
bronchitis or influenza, stress and exercise
in cold air.”
How do we diagnose asthma? “It is usually
a diagnosis we make clinically with history
and physical exam. We also perform pulmo
nary function tests which are breathing tests
utilizing an instrument called a spirometer.
It measures lung capacity and the rate of
airflow out of the lungs. Because the disease
is reversible one may have poor airflow one
day and improved airflow on another. Proba
bly the main symptom physicians look for is
wheezing. Not all wheezing is due to asthma.
We also see wheezing with obstructed air
ways due to other things such as foreign bod
ies, tumors or heart failure. Most of the time,
however, wheezing is due to asthma. People
can also have asthma without wheezing. We
like to get a chest x-ray and pulmonary func
tion tests on most all of our patients we see
with respiratory difficulties.”
Larry, what about treatment? “The main
drugs we use for asthma are inhaled com
pounds which are similar to a hormone in
our body called epinephrine, which has a
my phone number. I have, however, indeli
bly stamped in my memory the words to the
theme songs for “Green Acres,” “The Flint
stones,” and, of course, the classic “Gilli
gan’s Island.”
One of these days I’m going to bum down
the house because I can’t remember to turn
off the coffee maker. That’s OK, though, be
cause I retain these important memories:
Brylcreem, a little dab’l do ya
Use more only if you dare.
But watch out, the gals will all pursue ya
They’ll love to get their fingers in your
hair.
And:
You’ll wonder where the yellow went
When you brash your teeth with
Pepsodent
(And the parody, also memorized from sec
ond grade: You’ll wonder where your teeth
all went/if you brash your teeth with fresh
cement) j
I used hairspray on Freddie my feline
once. I was trying to make his fur shiny. They
should have a manufacturer’s warning
against that After he clawed at me, removing
half of my hair, he spent the next hour trying
to lick it all off. Of course for the rest of the
day he looked like the cross-eyed lion on that
old television show “Doktari.”
Then there’s the Spritz. You’re supposed
to use it on your hair but I think it would be
better used as a substitute for airplane glue.
I used that on the side of my hair once and
only once. It kept my hair in place for hours.
The problem was the place my hair was in
when I sprayed it was not the way I wanted it
to stay. You see when I use hairspray. I bend
over so my hair is dangling toward the floor
above my head. I spray the underneath try
ing to give it extra lift Well, that night I
looked like the bride of Frankenstein with
bad makeup. A little Dippity-Doo to make a
curl and I could have been an oversized Peb
bles Flintstone.
I bet I gave some people some great ideas
for Halloween that night
dilating effect on our airways. We use terbu
taline or albuteral. These compounds have
less side effects and are safer than if we
inhaled pure epinephrine. These drugs are
inhaled through metered dose inhalers We
also use a medicine called theophylline,
which can have side effects of nervousness,
difficulty sleeping or indigestion. This drug
can be taken orally. Probably the most effec
tive drugs for treatment of asthma have the
most side effects. I am referring to the corti
costeroids, which are antinflammatory hor
mones. They decrease the inflammation in
the airway as well as make the mucous much
thinner. We give in inhaler form as well as be
taken orally.”
How serious is the disease? “It can be very'
serious and life threatening. Wheezing or
airway obstruction that does not clear with
outpatient medicine can lead to hospitaliza
tion. These patients often have some compo
nent of respiratory failure and may be in
severe distress with great difficulty' breath
ing due to airway constriction. These pa
tients will require intravenous steriods and
aminophylline in the hospital, as well as mist
dilators.”
Larry what would you like to emphasize
today? “I want people to be aware that asth
ma qan be a very serious illness, but that it is
also a very treatable illness. Treatment is
improving and may of the treatments today
have much fewer side effects than they did
10 years ago. We see our treated patients
living happy, productive and comfortable
lives without any complications.”
Lawrence D. Kaplan, M.D. is pulmonolo
gist who practices in Cumming at 103 Mt.
View Dr. Dr. Kaplan is board certified in
pulmonary medicine and is a fellow of the
American College of Chest Physicians.
Steven L. Perlow, M.D. is urologist who
practices in Cumming at 109 Canton Rd. Dr.
Perlow is certified by the American Board of
Urology.
Your Community Health Corner, copy
right SLP, 1990
I could go on like this for days, but I think
you get the point The question is, why does
this occur? Some people say that as you get
older, your memory gradually fills up until
there’s no room for anything new. I don’t buy
this. My memory has plenty of room for new
material, so long as the new material is use
less, irrelevant chaff. It will join forces with
the volumes of worthless junk that’s already
locked in my brain, then the wad of clutter
will begin to swell and grow until it’s pushed
out what few useful memories I still retain.
The day will finally come (probably before
I turn 40) when all of my memory will consist
of soda pop jingles, sitcom theme songs, car
toon dialogue, Three Stooges routines and
the lyrics to “Sympathy for the Devil” by the
Rolling Stones.
If you see me wandering aimlessly down
the street, please point me in the direction of
my home. It’s the one with the smoke coming
out of it