Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 2A
. FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Sunday, FXxufy 8,1098
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Photo/Tom Brooks
Grit notarizes his certificate so he can assume K-9 duty.
SMOKING from 1A
’515,000,000 for recreation, road improvements, and renova
lion and construction of city hall.
*’ County sales tax will not increase if the referendum
.passes since voters supported a previous Special Purpose
Local Option Sales Tax for numerous county and city pro
jects that are completed or under way.
.' Os the county’s sl7 million SPLOST funds, $lO million
was earmarked for a four-year road improvement plan in the
previous March 1996 referendum.
.. The city allocated $3 million for revitalization of the
downtown square.
In rezoning business the board will vote whether to
approve or deny numerous applicants’ projects including
two rezoning requests by Omni Developments Inc., for a
retail center on 14 acres and an industrial facility on 53
PAROLE from 1A
to be one of the strongest anti-crime
programs in the country.
Two bills proposed in the state leg
islature during the past two years have
also sought to establish a minimum
required time to serve.
House Bill 1240, introduced during
the 1996 session, asked for a mandato
ry 85 percent minimum.
Senate Bill 100, introduced last ses
sion, was a pure maximum sentence
law requiring convicted felons to serve
100 percent of their time.
The bill covered all felonies and
eliminated parole and any other form
of early release, such as work-release.
The only exception was a full par-
don if the offender was determined
to be innocent of the crimes.
This year, both parties are
embracing the policy.
“This is an issue that should be
beyond party politics,” said Brian
Rubenstein, communications
director for the Democratic Party
of Georgia.
What neither side is talking
about is the cost.
According to Board of Pardons
and Paroles statistics, convicted
felons are only serving 71 percent
of their time.
Eliminating parole would have
inmates incarcerated another three
years on a 10 year sentence.
And by 2007, the board is pre
dicting a record 64,452 inmates
will be in Georgia’s prison system,
almost double the number current-
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Chain Saws//
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< 70i7 $169.85
025 $279.85
029 $299.85
Lawn & Garden Inc.
(770) 887-0654
1365 Pilgrim Mill Rd. • Cumming, GA 30040
| Lordy,Lordy, I
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| Andrew & Jed I
ly incarcerated.
Ten-year cost forecasts range from
$2 billion to 6 billion.
More than 13,000 additional beds
would be needed, according to the par
dons board, along with several addi
tional prisons.
Rubenstein said the costs would not
necessarily be a new increase to tax
payers. Instead, he said he feels paying
for extra prisons would simply shift
cost to a different venue.
“There’s no way to be exactly sure
how many people will be arrested and
how much it will cost,” he said. “But
people are already paying for crime in
the form of high insurance cost. How
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i Forsyth County News
J Your "Hometown Paper" Since 1908 J
USPS 205-540.
302 Old Buford Road, Cumming, Georgia 30040
Phone:77o-887-3126 Fax:77o-889-6017
Internet Address: www.forsythnews.com
Publisher DENNIS STOCKTON
; Corporate Editor LEANNE T. BELL
Associate Editor JENNIFER ESKEW Office Manager MICHELLE HEARD
Advertising Director BARBARA SCOHIER Circulation Director WES DORSEY '
I Published Sunday, Wednesday and Friday by the Forsyth County News Company, •
' 302 Old Buford Road, Cumming, Ga. Second Class Postage paid at Cumming, Ga,
| and additional offices. Subscription rate for Forsyth county, S3O per year; other
Georgia and out of state subscriptions are S6O per year. Advertising rates and
I deadlines available upon request. Postmaster: Send address change to Forsyth
i County News/P.O. Box 210, Cumming, Ga. 30028.
A Swartz-Morris Media Inc. publication
Miss your paper? Call 887-3126
We deliver replacement papers within Forsyth County. If your newspaper is not
delivered by 6:30 a.m„ please call the circulation department at 887-3126. Service
calk will be taken from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday, replacement
papers will be delivered from 6p.m. to 7p.m. Sunday calls taken from 9 a.m. until 1
p.m. on Sunday, replacement papers will be delivered from Ip.m. to 2p.m. If your
call is received during the above listed times, a replacement copy will be delivered
I ' to your home. Calls received after the above times will be extended credit to their
account or delivered with next issue. Any changes in publication will be announced
i in preceding issues.
Advertising Deadlines
For Sunday’s paper retail and classified display ads are due by noon Thursday.
For Wednesday’s paper retail and classified display ads are due by 5 p.m. Friday.
For Friday’s paper retail and classified display ads are due by noon Tuesday.
Line Advertising Deadlines
(Help wanted, garage sales, rentals, etc.)
For Sunday’s paper classified line ads are due by noon Friday.
For Wednesday’s paper classified line ads are due by noon Monday.
For Friday’s paper classified line ads are due by noon Wednesday.
Legal advertising is due by Friday noon and nms only in Wednesday’s paper.
K-9S from 1A
While they won’t draw a paycheck, Jake
and Grit do have all the authority of any of
their co-workers.
Both canines are being used in the
searching of schools and vehicles for drugs.
Grit is also trained in tracking and will be
used in situations involving a missing per
son or escapee.
Grit is a 5-year-old German shepherd
owned by Cpl. Robert Lee. He is certified
in recognizing cocaine and marijuana.
Jake is a 2-year-old black Labrador
retriever owned by communication officer
Doug Darlow. He was given to Darlow by
former Deputy Casey Tatum.
Jake is certified in recognising cocaine,
marijuana and methamphetamine.
Tie canines will start duty immediately.
acres on Old Atlanta Road near Brannon Road.
Attorney Emory Lipscomb said the property owner is
going to continue to live on this land.
The planning commission recommended approval for
these rezoning requests with several conditions including: a
traffic light at the intersection of Brannon Road and Old
Atlanta Road, any road changes to be paid by the developer
and one entrance from Old Atlanta Road.
The board will also vote whether to approve a 61-acre
subdivision request by Settendown Joint Ventures Inc.,
which was recommended for approval by the planning com
mission.
The meeting will be held Monday at 5 p.m on the sec
ond floor of the administration building in the commission
ers’ conference room followed by a 7 p.m. public forum.
can you tell someone their child was
murdered because it cost too much to
keep them in jail?”
Local court officials have adopted a
wait-and-see attitude about both side’s
platforms.
District Attorney Garry Moss has
said the effectiveness of eliminating
parole could not be determined until
prisoners had served their 20 years.
Superior Court Judge Stan Gault
pointed to cost and effectiveness as
two of the main issues with the pro
grams.
Any policies adopted by the legisla
ture this session would take effect in
1999.
SCHOOLS iron, A
the opportunity to acquire
modern telecommunications
equipment and information
services.
Thanks to this legislation,
schools, libraries and health
care providers in the country
will be able to access $2.25
billion per year for the devel
opment of advanced telecom
munications infrastructure.
Each school district will
receive a discount ranging
from 20 to 90 percent,
depending on the number of
children who are eligible for
the federal free or reduced
price school lunch program.
“Every classroom in the
county has a phone in it -
we’ll save on the standard
phone bill,” said Mitchell.
“And we’re working on a
cooperative effort with
Prestige Cable to get every
classroom connected with
DIRECTOR from 1A
Robertson gave his notice Tuesday and
will begin his new position in Dawson in
March.
Employees in the planning department
expressed surprise and dismay upon hearing
the news.
“We’re going to miss him. He’s been a very
good director and boss,” said Dawn Hamby,
administrative director for the department.
Other employees echoed these sentiments.
“Larry will be missed in the county and the
department. He has been an excellent direc
tor,” said planner Teressa Cox. “His fairness to
his employees is true also to the citizens of this
AMBULANCE from 1A
Advanced Ambulance’s
service contract was extended
for 100 days in December by
a 3-1 vote.
Commissioner Andy
Anderson, who voted against
the motion, said he didn’t
think the county should
extend the current provider’s
contract when qualified lower
bids were submitted.
During the December bid
round, the following figures
were submitted to the county.
Atlanta South was the
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fiberoptic cable. That high
speed Internet access in the
schools is unique to our
school district.”
Mitchell reports since
Prestige Cable is the Internet
Service Provider (ISP) for the
schools, the rental of fiberop
tic cable, purchases of new
switches and network hubs
and installation costs are also
eligible for the discount.
Guidelines state that every
thing the ISP sells may be dis
counted. Also, Mitchell said,
a fiber-based system is
already less expensive than
the lines BellSouth provides.
“It’s really exciting to have
that level of connectivity
among our schools,” Mitchell
said. “We have the best con
nectivity system - this is as
good as it gets in the state.”
Mitchell also plans to
apply for a discount against
county. •■_.<
“I was surprised and unhappy about it.-I
wish him the best,” said planner Jeff Chance.
“It’s a definite loss for the planning depart
ment.
Forsyth County is one of the fastest grow
ing in the state.
As of November 1997, the planning depiart
ment issued 2,759 single-family residential
building permits, inspected 43,243 structures
and processed 126 zoning applications. ..
During the same time period, the depart
ment permitted 66 new residential subdivi
sions or new phases for existing subdivisions.
lower bidder at $348,000,
Med Tech EMS was next at
$350,000, and Rural/Metro
Corp.’s bid was $358,800.
Advanced had an average
response time of 6.56 minutes
for 1996 calls, according to
the company’s statistics.
Med Tech EMS is the par
ent company of Forsyth EMS
Inc., which operates seven
ambulances in the county.
Their response time for 911
operations in Fulton County
is 4.9 minutes, according to
the cost for extra cabling
needed for the North Forsyth
Middle School laptop pro
gram. The overdue laptops
were scheduled for distribu
tion in January, but are cur
rently still being manufac.
tured by Net Schools. .
Although other school sys
tems in Georgia are receiving
much higher discounts,
Mitchell said he’s happy with
4(0 percent.
“We have an advantage
over other counties, too,
because even if you qualify
for a high discount, like ,80
percent, you have to have the
money in your budget to pay
the other 20 percent,” he said.
“We have the dollars and we
have already invested in a cer
tain amount of telecommuni
cations infrastructure. Ware
now saving on the wiring and
cabling of our new facilities.”
company literature. 1 ,
Atlanta South, which Is
the current provider l for
Cherokee County, reduced-ttte
response time in Cherokee,
which encompasses 414
square miles compared to 223
in Forsyth, to less than eight
minutes. ‘
Rural/Metro is an interna
tional company that services
over 350 communities
throughout North and Soutfo
America, according to comJ
pany literature. -*♦