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I F Th a e d „ A Recycle £ VOLUME LXXXII —NUMBER 84 County finalizes water By Kristin Jeffries Staff Writer Commissioners voted to accept the city’s letter finalizing a 30 cent per 1,000 gallon reduction in its water rate from Cumming. “Hooray,” Commissioner James Harrington said. The reduction is the result of ongoing heated discussion and is a compromise between city and county officials. The rate cut will make the county cost to the city $1.45 per 1,000 gallons. Essentially the reduction will re New library is to open in April ’92 By Kristin Jeffries Staff Writer Library workers have set a tentative date for the opening of the new For syth County Library on Hwy. 9 at the intersection of the Hwy. 306 Connector. The construction on the 25,345- square-foot building is 49 percent done, it was announced at Monday’s meeting of the Forsyth County Li brary Board. As it stands now, the library will open to the public in less than six months, around April 13, 1992. The old library will be closed for three weeks prior to the opening of the new facility while materials are moved from one to the other. Once the dates are sure, the board will send letters to the schools an nouncing the exact dates. The weeks before the move employ ees will be moving new books and oth er new materials into the building. The library’s collection will be in creased greatly. To the current collec tion of just more than 16,507 books, about 50,000 will be added between the adult and juvenile sections. The reference materials will increase three-fold. The library is purchasing 500 audio cassettes including books on tape. There will be 1,200 music cas settes purchased. Advertising for new staff members will begin December. The library will be adding the full-time equivalent of Please see LIBRARY, Page 2B Weather: Pleasant TodaythroughFridayitwillbemild withafewclouds.Highwillbeinthe upper7oswithovemightlowsinthe 50s. Enjoy! INSIDE Abby 7B Church Briefs 6B Classified 3D lan Cowie 8B Deaths 13A Editorials 6A Events 12A Food & Nutrition 39A Horoscope 7B Pet of the Week 7B Sports 1B hi uni National Businesswomen's Week ■ ruoijJ P U . AM M 1 J.MIV EKSIT Y OF GEORGIA rorsy th Count f i >^ws move the 30 cents being charged by the city for possible future payment of water storage charges in Lake Lanier. The actual payment and rate finaliza tion of the storage charges to the city have been put on hold until the tri state study of Lake Lanier realloca tion has been completed. The city also agreed to refund all of the 30 cent charge which it has es crowed plus interest to the county. This fee has been charged since last October and with a usage averaging 1 million gallons a day would now equal at least $109,500. * ICtT ff'" r Hlf & f. \ ¥ IFiAr WHNE news director resigns Mayor admits business tie By Kara Sproles Staff Writer Monday Brad Daugherty turned in his resignation as news director at WHNE-AM and Mayor Ford Gravitt said he did have business ties with station owner Amy Rieves McCollum. After allegations of pressure to fa vor the politics of the Cumming City Council and Mayor Ford Gravitt sur faced through a press conference held by two WHNE-AM radio employ ees last Thursday, the mayor ex plained his business ties with the sta tion owner. “We are part of an investment group here in town,” the mayor explained. The mayor said he had no current association with the radio station, but added that “he might buy it someday.” Cumming woman finds support in fighting cancer By Kristin Jeffries Staff Writer Always conscientious to get her children and husband in for their phy sicals, at 58 Eileen Harbrecht of For syth County had only had one mam mogram in her life. When she came down with shingles her second mammogram showed can cer in her right breast so clearly no biopsy was necessary. A mastectomy followed. The shingles, a form of chickenpox, is a disease that pops up in adults when there is something wrong with the immune system. This time it showed that Mrs. Harbrecht’s body was fighting cancer. “I always thought it could not hap pen to me because there was no can cer on either side of my family,” said Mrs. Harbrecht However, now she is very aware of the statistics and the growing num bers of women who have fought or are fighting breast cancer - about 1 out of every 10 women, according to Dr. Greg Robinson of Northeast Georgia Health Resources. The most support she received WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1991-CUMMING, GA 30130-36 PAGES 3 SECTIONS The city also has agreed to other requests made by the coutny includ ing holding the $1.45 rate until Oct. 1992. and advising the county 60 days in advance of a rate change. In other business: • The commission gave direction to the newly-formed Comprehensive Advisory Committee. The committtee has been formed to give the county’s comprehensive plan a review after it has been in effect for three years. The board asked the committee to look at how the rezonings in the last three years have compared to the fu- Allegations of being pressured to do biased reporting in favor of the mayor were brought by News Director Brad Daugherty and Public Service Direc tor Belinda Skelton in a press confer ence in the meeting room of the coun ty commissioners Thursday. The two said they wanted to make public their views that the station was being used “as a politically corrupt vessel.” The two alleged that the station’s owners, Amy Rieves McCollum and her hus band Van McCollum, had repeatedly called the mayor “a friend” and “a person they support.” Skelton alleged Thursday one own er spoke of real estate and zoning fa vors and conveyed the money gained from ties to the city would mean more income for the station. “She (Mrs. McCollum) indicated kind of an ‘I scratch your back you scratch mine’ kind of deal,” Skelton stated. Gravitt said Monday he and Mrs. McCollum are part of a real estate as sociation that deals with investments came from friends who had gone through the same thing. Once she be gan talking about it “people came out of the woodwork,” she said. Besides her friends her faith in God and the help of her then newly retired husband, John, helped her make it. “I became a cook,” he said with a smile. Mr. Harbrecht knew very little about breast cancer when it was dis covered in his wife. “I’m just glad she came through it,” he said. Mrs. Harbrecht’s story is a success story. Because she had a mastectomy she needed no chemotherapy or radi ation - something she said she feared almost more than the cancer. To date her cancer has not reappeared. In fact five weeks after the opera tion she was back on the golf course, where she and her husband spend much of their time. “After having cancer you are glad of every birthday of every day. You do it today - not tomorrow,” she said. From her experience she has earned the right to give informed ad vice to to other women. Please see COURAGE, Page 2A rate reduction ture land-use plan OKed in 1989. It also asked the committee to map the water lines and sewer lines on the land use maps. The committee should look at the trends of the last three years and see if there need to be a lot of changes made in the plans, said Commissioner Mi chael Bennett. • Commissioners voted to apply for a $400,000 Community Development Block Grant in 1992 to fund an expan sion of the Health Department facili ties. County Adminsitrator Donald Ma- Photo by - Proflrlo Solorzano in the city. The mayor said he and four others were involved with the corpo ration called The Cumming Group. According to the Secretary of State’s office, Cumming Group Asso ciations, Inc. was established June 27, 1986. The association currently lists its officers as John E. Aderhold, Presi dent; H. Ford Gravitt, Chief Financial Officer; and Coy R. Johnson, Secre tary, according to records. Listed as the group’s principal office is 112 North Main Street in Cumming, which is also the address of the Lipscomb, Johnson and Ashway law offices in Cumming. Attorney Emory Lipscomb is also listed as an initial Board of Director member and Incoporator, records from the Secretary of State’s office show. “All it is is a business corporation and she is one of the shareholders,” Lipscomb said. “I’m not sure if she is a shareholder or if the Rieves Corpora- Please see RADIO, Page 2A |j| <|l p • Center of attention The new Forsyth County Senior Center is going up as the new and vastly improved home of the many Forsyth County seniors who meet to quilt, eat, and have a good time. The building is located on Hwy. 9, just at the intersection of the Hwy. 306 Connector. Pictured is Charles Hunter of Hunter Construction who is in charge of the construction of the building. , jor told the board services rendered byt he Health Department have in creased by 75 percent from 1986 to 1991. Medicaid and child screeenings have increased by 145 percent during the same period. Given these numbers, Major said he could see no other need as pressing in the county which could be solved with this grant The new Forsyth County Senior Ceter is now being constructed using 1990 C.D.B.G. funds. Please see COUNTY, Page 2A Pumpkin pickers Tyler Bowcock and Laramie Bowcock children of Jim and Lacey Bowcock of Cumming are in the middle of some important business, that of picking out the Halloween pumpkin. The big day for costumes and fun is Wednes day, Oct. 31. Another major change is the time change which goes into ef fect the last Sunday in October. Re member the tip in autumn the clocks “fall back” or in otherwords, you turn clocks back one hour at bedtime. The official change is at 2 a.m. the last Sunday in October. Approval of tax digest for 1990 is anticipated By Kristin Jeffries Staff Writer Forsyth County officials were expecting to hear the "all’s clear” from the state early this week on the permanent 1990 tax digest At press time on Monday no word had been received. State officials who were in the county last week to check field work said the digest looked good, said Chief Appraiser James Payne. As soon as notification is received work will begin on issuing the permanent 1990 re-bill and refund announcements. “They will go out in a day unless there is some hold up with the computers,” said Tax Commissioner Bobby Gene Gilbert. Since the permanent bills are based on the appraisals of the county-wide re-evaluation some property owners will be get ting bills because their property value went up significantly. Others will be getting a refund or credit on future taxes because, according to the reappraisal, they have been carrying too much of the tax burden. However, this appraisal is far from free of controversy. It and Please see TAXES, Page 2A Building decision favors Lakeside By Kristin Jeffries . Staff Writer Lakeside Community Hospital offi cials attended a hearing last Friday which further upheld the state's deci sion in favor of Lakeside building a new facility in Forsyth County. How ever, many hurdles remain. Judge Phillip Ethridge in Fulton County Superior Court sent North side Hospital back to the State Health Planning Agency to continue its ap peal of the review board's decision to grant Lakeside a Certificate of Need for a 44-bed replacement facility on Hutchinson Road. Both Northside and North Fulton Please see DECISION, Page 10A Military contract for local industry By Kara Sproles Staff Writer The Forsyth County division of Cross Systems, Inc. has entered a $lO million defense contract with the U S. Army to construct night vision devices for pilots. “I think long term it will help us double the sales of Cross corporate Please see MILITARY, Page 2A Staff photo - Porflrto Solorzano 25 CENTS