Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 6A
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS-SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1992
Opinion
Overcoming tragedy
Fire.
It is an element that has both
attracted and horrified man
since time began. It has a hypnot
ic pull. Even the warmth of a cozy
fireplace on a cool night or the
pleasure of a campfire outdoors
soon brings one to the point of
staring into the flames of blue,
gold, green and red as they flash,
sputter and entrance us into
dreams.
We turn to it for the elemental
needs of making life easier.
That’s when fire is harnessed.
Last weekend residents south
of Cumming recoiled in horror as
they heard siren after siren
speed toward a tower of destruc
tion when fire destroyed the
building that housed one of our
local industries.
You notice what was just said:
“When fire destroyed the
building that housed one of our
local industries.”
Beware of misleading 800 call
James H. Adams, district manag
er of the Social Security office ad
vises Forsyth County residents to
be aware of an 800 number that is
listed in the Cumming telephone
directory.
The 800 number is 1-800-737-
3387 and it is listed as the “Social
Security Information and News Ser
vice”. This number directs the caller
to call 1-900-896-7774 to get vari
ous Social Security and Medicare
information.
This 900 number call will cost
$1.99 per minute and has a five min
! What do you think?
Do you think schools should have awards programs to
| recognize excellence in cheerleading?
I Your phone number: -
I Forsyth County News
j PO. Box 210
I Cumming, Ga. 30130
i
On your payroll
CITY COUNCIL
Mayor, H. Ford Gravitt, 212 Kelly Mill Road, Cumming
Mayor Pro-Tem, Lewis Ledbetter, 205 Mountain Brook Drive
Gabriel Dukas, 1560 Magnolia Place
Quincy Holton, 312 Samaritan Drive
Ralph Perry, 1420 Pilgrim Road
Rupert Sexton, 705 Pine Lake Drive
STATE REPRESENTATIVES
Rep. Bill Barnett, District 10
P.O. Box 755, Cumming, Ga. 30330
Telephone: 887-6582.
Sen. Nathan Deal, District 49
P.O. Box 2522, Gainesville, Ga. 30503. Telephone: 1-404-522-9978.
Sen. Sallie Newbill, District 49
7205 Riverside Dr. Atlanta, Ga. 30334. Telephone: 1-404-394-5676.
Gov. Zell Miller
203 State Capital, Atlanta, Ga. 30334. Telephone: 1404-656-1776.
Forsyth County News
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A New York Times Company
(Established 1908)
Forsyth County News
121 Dahlonega Street
Cumming, Georgia 30130
Phone: 887-3126, Cumming Office
523-7303, Atlanta Office
Published Sundays and Wednesdays by Forsyth County News Company, 121
Dahlonega St. second Class Postage paid at Cumming, Ga. and additional
offices. Subscription rate for Forsyth and Dawson counties, $13.00 per year;
other Georgia counties and out of state subscriptions are $20.00 per year.
Advertising rates and deadlines available upon request. Postmaster: Send
address change to Forsyth County News/P.O. Box 210, Cumming, Ga. 30130.
'* * 1
‘Housed’ is the key word here.
The casing may be gone but the
heart remains.
Evidence of this was seen this
week by those who passed the
Cumming City Park building
where employees of the Forsyth
American Manufacturing Corp.
gathered to hear company own
ers discuss with them immediate
plans for setting up the operation
in temporary facilities and what
order of business would be taken
by officials during the interim in
behalf of the workforce.
The original work place may
be lost but the job remains to be
done and the workers are all
available. Employers are taking
steps to overcome a tragic loss.
They are also working to keep
their employees on the payroll.
It’s commendable action in a
time when jobs are in high
demand.
ute minimum. If someone calls this
number it will cost them $9.95 per
call. This 800 number is a private
organization out of Orlando, Fla.
and has no affiliation or endorse
ment of the Social Security Adminis
tration or the Health Care Financing
Agency.
If you need Social Security infor
mation-you can call 1-800-772-
1213-and it will not cost you any
thing for the call. Services provided
by Social Security are free without
any fee for calls or service.
PUBUSHER-CHRIS BOND
MANAGING EDITOR-JUDY H. GREEN
ADVERTISING-HARRIET H. VINCENT
CIRCULATION DIRECTOR-GRAHAM B. KIMBROUGH
1 KNEW
SOME PAY £ fm.\
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NOTICE ME!
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Choose your fling and make it count
WEDNESDAY morning I made it
down to Shoney’s in time to walk right in
late of course - on Karen Waters’ re
port on the Triathlon. The occasion was
the monthly meeting of the Sawnee
Community Center board and was historic
in that it was initiation for Catherine
Amos as new president conducting her
first regular meeting.
She announced a few committee ap
pointments with the promise of more to
come. Thusfar committees include
Membership, Sherry Sagemiller; Pro
grams/Events, Dennis Whittle; Manage
ment/Personel, Jim French, Rich Brown,
Phill Bettis; Finance Committee,
Frank Felker, Rich Brown; Rentals, office
staff; Government Relations, Gabe Du
kas, Donald Mgjor and Johnny Stone plus
the executive board.
Of course, a to-do was made over
Nancy Herold back on the scene after a
two month hiatus. She and husband,
Bud, made it back to town the day after the
annual Sawnee Community Center Inc.
membership meeting. And guess where
they’ve been? Visiting daughter Barba
ra Martignoni who lives in Egypt. Can you
imagine being in Egypt for two months?
Nancy and Bud are likely to find
themselves on the guest speaker circuit af
ter this wonderful trip. We’re all going
to want to hear the details and see the
slides even the family ones.
Letters
Turn-about is fair play for cheers
We have ended another sports season at
South Forsyth Middle School. It is now time
to pass out awards for those accomplished
basketball players. I support this complete
ly. We have four fine teams whose accom
plishments have been tremendous and who
deserve to be recognized.
There is another group at our school who I
believe deserve to be recognized as well for
their long hours, hard work and dedication.
That group is our cheerleaders.
These girls, which may come as a surprise
to some of you, are not a “bunch of dumb,
blond groupies” who follow the sports
teams. These girls work very hard during
their respective seasons - football and/or
basketball. Some of them have been work
ing almost nonstop since school began and
will finally get a break with the end of bas
ketball season.
These girls practice 3 or 4 times per week,
travel to all the games, take part in fun
draisers, participate in pep rallies and
many other school functions, and maintain
- most of them - honor roll status.
For those of you who think a cheerlead
er’s job is a piece of cake should try lifting
someone approximately your own weighl
over your head time and time again. Or may
be you should try supporting that person on
your shoulders, your thighs or in your
palms. Maybe you should trust a couple ol
your teammates or co-workers to raise you
above his/her head, toss you in the air and
catch you before you hit the floor.
These girls suffer torn ligaments,
sprained ankles, damaged backs and all the
other injuries any “jock” suffers; but how
much do you hear about that? When was the
last time you heard the comment, “The
squad will not be up to par today because
someone is on the injured list?” When was
the last writeup you saw in the newspaper
about these girls and what did it say?
I just want to go on record that these young
ladies are as intelligent, hardworking and
dedicated as any other group of students in
the school and that they should be recog
nized accordingly. They did not just wake up
one morning and decide to be cheerleaders.
They have had training in gymnastics, dance
and general fitness some of them have
trained for years. Most of them are athletes
as well.
I, for one, would like to say “Thanks for all
your hard work and dedication in support
ing your school teams, and thanks to Miss
Lear and all the parents who have produced
Judy
Green
Editor
Another reason to get excited is the
opening of the new SCCI facility set for
Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 29-March 1.
March 1 is open house for the public fea
turing some special talent and the gala
Saturday night will be strictly for members
and dignitaries who will get the first of
ficial look at the “dream come true” plus
their own sampling of what talent will
be offered through the new facility.
Marking the official opening is cer
tainly going to be a proud weekend for the
people of Cumming and Forsyth County
who have put so much into the effort
-o-o-o-
TRYING to get the telephone record
er to take messages from those of you who
want to respond to The Forsyth County
News questions by phone has us temporar
ily stumped. It’s back to the drawing
board and back to using the U.S. Mail to re
spond to What Do YOU Think? found
on the editorial page. Mechanics of the sys
tem we use just can’t cope with mes-
such a fine group of young ladies.”
Clemmie Hawkins
Why should we
take garbage?
I definitely oppose having a new landfill
in Forsyth County. Why should we take on
garbage from other counties? It’s easy to
pawn it off on the other guy. Then we end up
with the problem of finding yet another
county and yet another until the entire state
has to find somewhere to dump it all. If we
don’t put a stop to it now, it will just get
worse.
Atlanta’s landfills will be filled up within
2 to 7 years, even with all the recycling that
is now being done, according to Atlanta’s
Sierra Club.
If mandatory recycling was done every
where, we wouldn’t have such a problem. If
recycling was more convenient, like curb
side pick up, we wouldn’t have such a terri
ble garbage problem. Many cities already
have mandatory recycling, which I feel it
will soon come to that everywhere.
We have destroyed enough of our earth,
which many people still seem not to care
about until a landfill is built in their back
yard, then it’s too late.
Michele Roberts
Here we go:
more taxes
Listen up taxpayer! Here we go again,
more taxes. Why should we vote more taxes?
For them to ask us to vote ourselves more
taxes is foolish. Most of the taxpayers are
already taxed beyond their limits. The
Board of Education has voted unanimously
for $19.6 million dollars, thus raising all
property taxes by .95 mills.
As reported in the Forsyth County News,
Sunday, Jan. 26, 1992, the county wants to
impose extra taxes on homeowners, whose
property ranges from 50,000 to 100,000. What
about the other property owners? We are
still paying .5 mills a year, and will be doing
so until nfcar the end of the century.
i
sages and modem at the same time. The
modem is to receive material from our
OpEd columnists. Just to keep you posted,
we’re working on the M&M challenge,
-o-o-o-
SOMETHING we all have in common
most of us is the television. This week
Copy Editor/columnist Penny White
takes on a new challenge a fun thing to
do the review of some of the season’s
television shows that have won our hearts
and some of those that’ve bombed... and
a few movies and a few other fun things.
You’re invited to share your thoughts
with her. Check today’s TV/Entertainment
section. It’s like Chris the radio an
nouncer in Sicily, Alaska, on my favorite
television show “Northern Exposure”
said the other night (after aspiring unsuc
cessfully to catapult a cow):
“It’s not what you fling but the fling
that’s important.”
Amen.
I feel like I’m on my greatest fling
right now. Sometimes it’s an anvil, some
times a puff of milkweed. Both are a
challenge to fling but it’s some kinda fling,
-o-o-o-
FINAL NOTE: Thursday night Pat
Sajak said he saw ELVIS at the 7-11. Sa
jak must read ’Round the Mountain.’
(Judy H. Green is managing editor of
The Forsyth County News.)
So taxpayer, wise up. The every day work
ing and fixed income taxpayers are paying
enough as it is. Let the ones who voted more
taxes pay them.
In these times, people are losing jobs,
homes, automobiles, some are even taking
their own lives. Why?
There are a lot of Senior Citizens in this
county, most, if not all, are on fixed income.
If you think it is easy, try it yourselves. No
one cares about the elderly. Where is the
extra money going to come from? (WHO
CARES?)
If we stand together, we can defeat the
bad judgment a few people are making for
the taxpayers. So let’s stick together and
vote no, no, no.
, Again our properly taxes are high enough,
' the appraisals are too high on our property
’ already, so think about this! I feel I am right
Forsyth County is a good place to live. Just a
. few people want to run it their way, consid
ering very few, where all should be cared
about
Etta McGehee
(Editors note: There are local exemptions
those 62 and older can take advantage of to
exempt part or all of their land from school
taxes if their income meets the specified
levels.)
Letter policy
Do you agree? Do you disagree? The For
syth County News welcomes letters on
current events and issues of the day. The
following is the letter policy of the Forsyth
County News:
Letters must be signed. For verification
purposes the street address and telephone
number should be included on the letter
but will be withheld from publication. The
Forsyth County News reserves the right to
edit letters according to length when
necessary.
Mail letters to:
Forsyth County News
P. O. Box 210
Cumming, Ga 30130
or hand deliver letters to the business of
fice, 121 Dahlonega St.
> Letters unsigned, and incorrectly identi
fied will be withheld.