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VOLUME LXXXI-N'
Lake wate :
tests fine
and clean
By Brad Hundt
Staff Writer
Testing on the waters of Lake La
nier over the last month has turned
up little for sunbathers or swimmers
to worry about, officials say.
This stands in sharp contrast to
last summer, however, when high fe
cal coliform levels in several lakes in
Georgia caused them to temporarily
shutdown. Lanier did not close, how
ever, in the flurry of concern last
July.
“While we do have fecal coliform
in the lake, the readings have been
very, very low,” said Pat Taylor, a
supervisory park ranger at Lake La
nier. “At Lanier there are some ar
eas where the levels are a little high
er than others, but it’s one of the
cleanest lakes in the system.”
The presence of high fecal coli
form levels often indicate other,
more harmful bacteria are present
in water. Last summer’s high fecal
coliform levels were attributed to a
dry spring, followed by an unusually
rainy June and July, which washed
accumulated waste on the ground
Please see LAKE, page 2A
County Commission allocated funds
to upgrade privately-owned roads
By Kristin Jeffries
Staff Wrttw
In order to accept more roads into
county maintenance, commissioners
will allow county money to be used to
bring private roads up to county
standards.
The board voted unanimously Mon
day to allow commissioners’ annual
discretionary road funds to be spent
in part bringing dirt roads up to coun
ty standards for acceptance.
“This may put a little more pressure
on individual commissioners in
choosing because we do have a limit
ed amount of money to do this with
each year,” said James Harrington,
who introduced the measure.
Low voter registration seen
as disinterest in state election
By Brad Hundt
Staff Writer
The Georgia governor’s race has stirred little interest
in Forsyth County, if voter registration numbers are any
indication.
Registration for the July 17 Democratic and Republi
can primaries has been “real slow,” said Melvin Stancil,
chief registrar for the Forsyth voter registration office. Of
the roughly 50,000 people living in Forsyth County, only
15,700 are registered voters.
Stancil did not have figures available as to what portion
of the Forsyth population was eligible to vote.
Registration closes June 18.
“There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of interest,”
Stancil said. Yet the Democratic race for governor has
attracted nationwide attention because of former Atlanta
Mayor Andrew Young’s bid to be the first black governor
of Georgia.
Young and Lt Gov. Zell Miller are currently locked in a
neck-and-neck race for the Democratic ticket Cobb
INSIDE
Abby 4B
Anniversary 5C
Birth 5C
Church Briefs 7A
Classified 6C
Dawson Co. News 10A
Editorials 4A
Engagements 5A
Events 9A
Food&Nutrition 1C
For the Record 3C
Friends&Neighbors 3A
Horoscope 4B
Joyce Jordan 4A
On Campus..... 6A
Sports 1B
Windings 5C
ny dancers strut their stuff, picture page 8A
)rsyth County News
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Staff photo - Kristin Jeffries
Body heat
The beach at Buford Dam was swimming with bodies even on a week day just after school let out. Moms with kids and
people taking a spring break from work or even just a long lunch break enjoyed frolicking in the waves of Lake Lanier.
The new procedure allows citizens
to request their district commissioner
to considered their road or roads. The
residents will provide the deeds for
60-foot right of ways to the county, a
cost estimate of the project will be
made, district funds will be verified
and the matter will come before the
entire board for a vote.
If the request is denied the deeds
will be returned. If it is granted the
road will receive triple surface treat
ment and apply to the county for
maintenance.
“I’m real glad we will have a proce
dure where we can address some of
the road problems we do have out in
the county,” said Commissioner Mi
chael Bennett
County legislator and businessman Johnny Isakson has
little serious opposition for the Republican nomination.
Only those who vote in the primary will be able to vote
in any run-off elections that may take place in September,
Stancil said. State law mandates that if no candidate
receives 50 percent of the vote, the two who get the most
votes vie in a run-off race.
The Forsyth County Library in Cumming is registering
local residents on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and
Saturdays before the June 18 deadline, Stancil said. The
voter registration office will also set up a booth at the Wal-
Mart just outside Cumming on June 16, two days before
registration closes.
Both ballots will feature candidates for statewide and
local offices. The Republican ballot will also have four
non-binding questions on statewide issues like the Quali
ty Basic Education Act and a lottery.
The low registration numbers Forsyth is experiencing
is typical in an election year without a presidential race.
Then, voters register “in droves,” Stancil said.
Cumming man sentenced to life
for killing his drug supplier
By Brad Hundt
Staff Writer
A Cumming man was sentenced to
life in prison last week for killing his
marijuana supplier in 1987.
Cobb County Superior Court Judge
Robert Flournoy found Jeffrey Cor
dell Owen, 38, guilty of killing Theo
dore Stamm in a non-jury trial.
Owen shot Stamm in the back of the
head execution-style at a friend’s
house in Kennesaw so that he could
steal 100 pounds of marijuana, prose
cutors said.
He was also sentenced to 10 years in
prison on drug possession charges.
Owen will serve both terms concur
rently. said Cobb prosecutor Vann
PeaKoerg.
Stamm, 35, was weighing a small
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13/ 1990-CUMMING/ GA. 30130-36 PAGES 4 SECTIONS
Commissioner Charles Welch was
the voice of caution.
“It is shifting the cost of this to the
county,” he said. “My concern is
where the money is going to come
from.”
“It will be very limited,” said Don
ald Major, county administrator.
COiiimi.-aioners have been assigned
SIOO,OOO each for road improvements
in their district in the past.
Barry Hillgartner, working on a
plan which could allow the county to
accept roads for maintenance at a
lower standard, said he looked to the
new procedure as an interim solution.
Harrington concurred.
Please see COMMISSION, page 2A
Owen was originally ar
rested on marijuana pos
session charges after the
April 15,1987 incident, and
arrested again after what
Pearlberg called circum
stantial evidence linked
him to the killing.
quantify of marijuana when he was
shot, Pearlberg said.
Owen was originally arrested on
marijuana possession charges after
the April 15,1987 incident, and arrest-
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staff photo - Brad Hundt
Sensual nonsense
It’s the smell of hay, the rustling of the trees, it’s the warmth that you feel on a hot summer day
it’s the blue of the sky, the green of the leaves, and you wish that you always could keep it that way
ed again after what Pearlberg called
circumstantial evidence linked him
to the killing.
“There was no smoking gun in this
case,” Pearlberg said. “The case was a
purely circumstantial one. We knew
that he had a relationship with the
deceased, he made multiple pur
chases from him, and we knew he had
a quantity of marijuana. We knew he
was going to meet with him that
morning.”
Police later found the stolen mari
juana in boxes in Owen’s house,
Pearlberg said.
Owen also bought a .22 caliber pis
tol just before the killing and had
asked a former employer how to get
the serial numbers off the gun.
“What legitimate purpose would
you have to scrape the serial numbers
off a gun?” Pearlberg said.
New Ag-II zoning
might not help
By Kristin Jeffries
Start Writer
Although commissioners are trying
to give a helping hand, the new agri
culture-II zoning may not help people
struggling with keeping the family
farm in the face of rising taxes.
County commissioners passed pro
tectional zoning recently, splitting
family-owned and true farm land
from agriculturally zoned land largely
held for speculation. They hoped not
only to protect farms from complain
ing neighbors, but to provide for fair
property assessments.
According to Hall County's example
this proposition may not work.
In 1986 Hall County adopted a farm
zone, similar to Forsyth County’s new
A-II zone, and rolled back assess
ments on farm property in some cases
by more than half, said Hall County
Chief Appraiser James Cantrell.
“We did it for a couple or three
years but we were dead wrong,” he
said.
Hall County is again assessing all
agricultural land together and farm
ers are appealing their raised values.
It will probably end in court but the
county has something to stand on. said
Sawnee Community Center
advocates still have goals
By Brad Hundt
Staff Writer
The long dreamed of Community
Center could break ground by the
end of the year.
That’s the word from Phill Bettis,
a local attorney and president of the
Sawnee Community Center, Inc.
The SCCI is taking bids to build a
scaled-down community center
north of Cumming, he announced.
“We’ve set a goal to hopefully
break ground this year,” Bettis said.
“We think it’s important to build
something at this point Maybe
something bigger can be built
later.”
The facility will have a kitchen,
stage and large auditorium and is
envisioned as a multiple-purpose
center for various county organiza
tions. The building will measure
25 CENTS
Cantrell.
That something is state law, which
requires land to be assessed at fair
mariiet value, said Cantrell.
“As long as the state of Georgia is on
the market value concept I don’t see
how we can do anything but use all ag
sales to set the values,” Cantrell said.
Another problem is that Hall has
had no farm zone sales on which to
base a fair market price.
Because of a case in Habersham
County, appraisers can look outside
the county for farm-to-farm sales on
which to base their appraisals, said
Commissioner Barry Hillgartner.
Forsyth’s Chairman of the Board of
Tax Assessors, Billy Evans, agrees
with Cantrell.
“Protectional zoning does not affect
the taxes,” said Evans.
By law the board is not able to pick
one property out in one section of the
county and one in another and com
pare them, Evans explained. Those
agricultural parcels in the south of
the county, whether A-I or A-II will
have to be assessed together.
Ag-II does not give preferential
treatment, but may lower property
Please see ZONE, page 2A
around 12,000 to 15.000 square feet
and cost $500,000. Bettis said.
“It’s something that’s needed,"
Bettis said. “There’s really nothing
like that in the county. Most of the
time you have to go across county
lines to have your meeting.”
Building the community center
will be a two-phase process, Bettis
said. The first phase will encom
pass the currently planned struc
ture. Phase two will handle any
expansion.
An effort to get a community cen
ter built in Forsyth County has been
going on for about 10 years. Around
1980, supporters of a center began
soliciting donations from area busi
nesses and organizing fund-raising
events. The group was able to raise
around $750,000 by the end of 1989.
Please see CENTER, page S?A