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VOLUME LXXXII —NUMBER 86
Tax assessor board holds closed session
Co. attorney
files to drop
amendment
By Kristin Jeffries
Staff Writer
The Board of Tax Assessors, minus
member Billy Evans, met in closed
session for almost 45 minutes to dis
cuss the new addition to the tax suit
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Staff photo Kristin Joffrle*
Horse play
A Halloween Fuh Show at the North Georgia Equestrian Center on Mathis Airport Road brought out
a host of costumed horses and riders from princesses and a Confederate soldier, to a carousel
horse. The Arabian beauty here is from Sweet Sunshine Farm in Alpharetta. The 320-acre North
Georgia Equestrian Center provides all types of riding and equine instruction for ages 1 and up
including Friday evening carrot and coffee rides. The farm is owned by Ray and Beth Boisvert.
Weather:
Nice
TheNationalWeatherServicecalls
somereallyniceweatherpartlysun
ny days and fair nights Wednesday
through Friday. Highs in the upper
70s. Lows in the upper 50s.
INSIDE
Abby 5A
Bark in the Park 10A
Church Briefs 8A
Classified 6B
Deaths 2A
Editorials 6A
Events 9A
Food & Nutrition 11A
Horoscope 5A
Grover Johnson 6A
Joyce Jordan 6A
Pet of the Week 5B
Sports 1B
l Hi
Check out Senior Life See Section C
Forsyth Conn s
Last Friday an amendment was
added to the 1988 suit by the county
Board of Equalization against the
three members of the prior county
Board of Tax Assessors. The amend
ment asked the court to appoint an
auditor to look into how appraisals
had been lowered for some people in
secret meetings of the board.
The case noted an alleged secret
meeting which was held last Febru
ary at which the appraisals of proper
ties jointly owned by Mayor H. Ford
Gravitt and Charles Roper were
lowered.
Of that three-member board only
Funding for gun
club suit in dispute
By Kristin Jeffries
Staff Writer
The Forsyth County Concerned Cit
izens, seemingly the brunt of many an
noying activities in the area, seems to
be caught in a political situation in its
five-year fight to have a local gun club
removed.
Millrock Clay Bird Club is located
off of Old Atlanta Road on 350 acres
owned by John Myers. At the site a
private club of less than 60 members
do trap and skeet shooting with shot
Halloween
Pranksters recall best tricks
By Kara Sproles
Staff Writer
October 31.
The date alone sends a chill up
some folks’ spines. It causes the fore
heads of worried parents to wrinkle.
Thoughts of orange and black come to
mind.
The eve in which ghosts and gob
lins, witches and werewolves are fore
most in thought is also a time for tricks
and tales of the unexplainable.
It seems all places have traditions
when Halloween rolls around, and
Forsyth County is no exception.
Though time may change the players,
the games stay the same.
Said Dean Barrett, a 1931 graduate
of Forsyth County High School: “We
used to play pranks. We’d switch peo
ple’s animals like cows. We’d take
the wheels off of wagons. Back then,
there were no cars to crank up and
make noises, so you could get away
easily.”
Barrett, now in his 70’s, also recalls
nights in which he and other teenage
friends were dared to prove their
bravery on Halloween by checking
out houses in Dawson County or old
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1991-CUMMING, GA 30130-46 PAGES 3 SECTIONS
Evans remains, Bobby Wallace hav
ing resigned and Aubrey Greenway
now deceased. Evans called in sick for
Monday evening’s meeting.
The board also now has been ex
panded to five members.
The new amendment filed by attor
ney Lynwood Jordan asked that the
new five-member board have an op
portunity to take action before a hear
ing date was set
At this time the board has no official
statement to make, said Chairman
Jerry Grogan.
guns, said Myers.
The land was zoned A-rec in July 26,
1982, thus allowing the club to operate
there.
“It is a bad zoning (category),’’ said
Commissioner James Harrington,
who is commissioner for the south
eastern part of the county. There is
very little restriction about what can
go on in an A-rec zoning.
It was not until 1985 the county
passed a gun club ordinance.
Please see GUN, Page 2A
graveyard sites rumored to be
haunted.
“I didn’t ever hear anything,” he
said. “There was no such thing. It was
all a hoax. The rest of the boys would
get scared and run off and leave me.”
He added that “serenading” was
also a popular tradition. Neighbors in
disguise would gather at a house
which hosted a band set up in a parlor
or hallway. Identity, he said, was an
upmost secret
“People kept something on their
head like a paper bag and you
couldn’t tell who they were,” he said.
Shirley Hansard, whose family
marks six generations in Forsyth,
graduated from FCHS in 1963, thirty
two years after Barrett She too re
members the serenades.
“It was a scary thing,” she recalled.
“They would dress up and paint their
faces so you couldn’t recognize them.
They would come in and you would try
and guess who they were. It wasn’t
anything like it is now.”
Both Hansard, 46, and Barrett said
serenading was usually done twice a
year. Christmas was also a time for
$ Please see TRICKS, Page 4A
Also on Monday the counsel to the
board filed with the superior court to
have the amendment to the suit
stricken.
The court ruled in the case that an
order previously made to the asses
sors to complete a county-wide reas
sessment to apply to 1989 taxes held
even though 1989 bills had already
been mailed. This commanded the
county to make the 1989 bill tempo
rary and have another billing based
on the new county digest once it was
completed. The court retained juris
diction - or did not close the case
Commissioners
split on mine zone
By Kristin Jeffries
Staff Writer
Commissioners voted 3-1 Monday
night not to re-enact an old zoning
amendment which two commission
ers believe could throw Forsyth
County into a law suit with a local
quarry.
The amendment to the MINE zone
allowing quarries to place asphalt
plants or other refining processes on
site with the quarries was left out of
the ordinance earlier this year when
the entire book of zoning ordinances
was re-enacted. Although some com
missioners say it was done inadver
tently, Commissioners Charles Welch
School board
will help with
library funds
By Kara Sproles
Staff Writer
The next time panic sets in when
you suddenly realize that book you
checked out from the Forsyth County
Library is overdue, tell yourself it's
actually a good deed.
Although you may have inconven
ienced someone on stand-by for the
literature and have to pay a fee, you
have also helped contribute to the
funding of the new public library,
something advocates claim it desper
ately needs.
Jo Ann Pinder, director of the Lake
Lanier Regional Library, which in
cludes Gwinnett, Forsyth and Dawson
County in its’ jurisdiction, explained
the financial needs of the new county
library to the Board of Education
Monday night
“I’ve always felt the school board
has a role because we support your
curriculum,” she said. “We provide
more availability because of our
hours.”
We’ll help if we can, was the answer
eventually given by school board.
The school board voted three to two
Please see LIBRARY, Page 2A
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Photo by Porfirlo Solorzano
Teresa Glover poses with Dracula which she made as part of a spooky scene
at the 907 Buford Rd. residence where she and her husband, Mike, have been
decorating tor 20 years. They say people think bill is high but for all
their fun the? estimate the bill is only about S2O more than usual.
to make sure this was completed.
According to the motion filed by at
torney Beau Stubbs on behalf of the
old assessors, "The Plaintiffs’ amend
ment is not permitted by the Civil
Practice Act and attempts to raise
new issues contrary to this Court's
specific statements as to its reasoning
for retaining jurisdiction in this case
originally...”
The plaintiffs will appear before
the court on Dec. 19 at 9 a m. to pre
sent their argument why the motion to
strike the amendment should not be
granted.
and James Harrington are of the opin
ion it was done on purpose.
Now the Martin Marietta mining
operation in the southern part of the
county is planning to put in an asphalt
plant which it thought it had the
right to do under its current zoning.
Commissioners Michael
McGaughey. Michael Bennett and
Barry Hillgartner said they felt with
out the amendment the quarries
would still have opportunity to put in
the plants by applying for separate
zoning.
Commissioners seemed to agree
the plants need to be on-site to keep
from transporting rock over the road
ways, however, they differ on the
method of approval.
“The mines should be subject to the
zoning process, also,” said
McGaughey.
“If we enact this we are sidestep
ping the zoning process,” said
Bennett.
Harrington abstained from voting
because he said the looming lawsuit
would cause the county unnecessary
funds.
“Whether we vote for this or not the
courts will put it there,” he said.
Welch argued allowing the use of an
asphalt plant in the MINE zone was
no different than listing service sta
tions and grocery stores as acceptable
uses in commercial business district
zoning.
• In other business the commission
ers discussed proposed North For
syth water tank. Some system is neces
sary in the northern part of the county
to provide customers with plentiful
water at a decent pressure. Now 12 to
15 families on Jot-em-Down Road are
practically out of water each day after
6 p.m. even though they are tied to
county water, said McGaughey.
Although the county is scheduled to
put in a water tank in the area, it has
budgeted about $566,000. The solu
tion suggested by county’s contracted
engineer, Rindt-McDuff, suggested a
$973,000 solution to serve both cur
rent and expected water customers in
the northern part of the county.
Because of the cost and low number
of customers, commissioners batted
Please see MINE. Page 2A
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United Way
inches past
50% point
By Kristin Jeffries
Staff Writer
The United Way of Forsyth County
is now standing at just below 51 per
cent of its $175,000 goal for its first
fund-raising campaign.
So far $88,999 has been raised
through payroll deductions and cor
porate gifts. The United Way volun
teers are asking every employee in
Forsyth County to participate through
payroll deductions.
Many companies have already had
their United Way drives. In the manu
facturing section there have been
Hoover Precision Products, Russell
Corporation, Southern Bell, Forsyth
County News, Sawnee EMC, and The
Forum. Both Tyson Foods and Belts
Corp. are scheduled to begin their
campaigns today. In the next week
United Way volunteers will begin
campaigns at Amoco Performance
Products, Georgia Natural Gas, and
Pansey Ellen.
Others in the retail, professional,
and service industries are also work
ing to support United Way. The coun
ty’s public school system has had its
campaign as well as Lakeside Com
munity Hospital and the county
government.
Companies such as Seimens Energy
and Automation and Professional
Book Distributors which already have
active campaigns for the United Way
of Metro Atlanta have had many em
ployees switch their contributions to
the United Way of Forsyth County.
The local United Way keeps its
money within the community, using it
for agencies serving the population
Please see UNITED. Page 2A.
The witching hour nears
Booger Mt.
is right eerie
By Penny Jacqueline White
Copy editor/columnist
Don’t bother reading that new Ste
phen King novel. Don’t rent any of the
Friday the Thirteenth videos or waste
time visiting one of the fake haunted
mansions for Halloween. Keep your
money in your pocket
If you want a genuine scare, there
are plenty to be had and you don’t
have to go anyplace to find them. Just
pull yourself up a chair and we’ll tell
you all about them.
Comfortable? Good.
Let’s begin with what is called
“Booger Mountain Road.” Now it
seems that almost every place you go
there’s a Booger Mountain Road. It
has many other different names but
the principle is the same: a caron this
road is capable of going uphill back
wards, without the persuasion of a
foot on the gas pedal.
I’ve got some news for you. It goes
uphill forwards, too.
Please se/BOOGER MTN., Pag/ 4A
25 CENTS