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Highs 90s.
Lows 70s.
THIS ISSUE
f Copyrigh*© 1997 Forayth County New.
Painting keeps woman
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INDEX
J Abby ——7 B
Community 13A
Forsyth Life...... IB
Government 8A
Horoscope— 7B
3 Opinion... 16A
5p0rt5........ 1C
? j Internet address:
' v mmtforsytbf»eMa.cwn
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Forsyth County News
J Your "Hometown Paper" Since 1908 J
Vol. 89 No. 7]
a
♦ 'i'dr
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An accident on Ga. 400 at Jot-em-
Down Road, top, left a 3-month-old
girl on life support. Right, Firefighter
Sam Henderson lends a comforting
hand as Steven Lanier, 3, is transport
ed to Baptist North where he was
treated and released.
Photos/Chris Pugh
Infant near death after crash
By Michael Kurtz
Staff Writer
An infant is on life support
after a two-car collision on Ga.
400 at Jot-Em-Down Road
Thursday night.
Brittany Walker, three
months, was declared brain dead
by Scottish Rite Children’s
Hospital medical staff about
noon Friday. Brittany was on
life support as of press time
Friday night, while the family
was considering donating her
organs, said Karleen Chalker,
spokesman for the Sheriff’s
State ponders plan to file claims against seniors ’ estates
By Phillip Hermann
Associate Editor
A state official is afraid that
the recent media blitz about the
possibility of the Georgia
Department of Medical Assistance
filing claims against individuals
who haven’t paid Medicaid bills
will result in some seniors shying
away from seeking assistance for
Sewage spills into area creeks
By Colby Jonee
Staff Writer
An unknown amount of sewage
spilled into area creeks after a large
rock and construction plug fouled
up sewer lines in two incidents, one
on May 26 and one on June 8.
In the first spill, sewage flowed
into a tributary on Caney Creek in
the Evonvale development off
McGinnis Ferry Road. Caney
Creek flows south, eventually merg
ing with Big Creek in Alpharetta.
After receiving a call from Fulton
County about the problem, Forsyth
crews discovered the rock stuck in a
manhole. The rock was too large to
wash down the pipe so someone
J? V®
office. She suffered severe head
injuries when the Eagle Talon in
which she was riding was broad
sided by a Ford Crown Victoria.
According to the Sheriff’s
office report, Brittany’s mother,
21-year-old Stephanie Walker,
was driving the Talon on south
bound Ga. 400.
It is still unclear what hap
pened when the car reached the
intersection.
“Either she was going to
make a U-turn or go across the
northbound lanes to Jot-Em-
Down Road,” Chalker said.
their long-term care.
“Obviously, when there is a sit
uation such as this, there is a great
need for facts. I’m just afraid that
in the confusion, there’s a real
possibility that people might not
get the services they need,” said
Becky Kurtz, the state’s Long-
Term Care Ombudsman in the
Aging Services Division of the
Department of Human Resources.
must have thrown it in there, said
county water and sewer director
Tim Perkins.
Sewage “backed up and found a
way out” through a faulty lateral
line, Perkins said. Although outside
the county’s maintenance area,
crews went ahead and repaired the
line. The line was completely
repaired and unblocked by midnight
May 27.
A citizen complaining of bad
odors alerted water authorities about
the second spill Monday. Workers
found the spill in the Deer Lake
development off Peachtree Parkway,
where a manhole was overflowing
See SEWAGE, Page 4A
SUNDAY JUNE 14 1998
The Talon was hit on the
passenger side by the Crown
Victoria driven by Ellison Rudd,
53 of Troup County.
The Talon was in the right
lane of northbound Ga. 400
when it was hit.
Brittany was strapped in a
child restraint seat in the front
passenger seat at the time of the
accident.
Chalker said the baby was
thrown onto her mother as a
result of the collision.
See CRASH, Page 2A
She was taking about recent
media reports that the Georgia
Department of Medical Assistance
is preparing to enforce existing
law that allows the department to
file claims against the estates of
deceased individuals who owe
money to Medicaid because of
payouts for their stay in a nursing
home.
Department spokesman Laura
New public service
commissioner
Gov. Zell Miller appointed local
business owner Lauren “Bubba”
McDonald Jr. as public service
commissioner, replacing Mac
Barber, who resigned to run for
Lieutenant Governor. McDonald is
a former state representative and
is a partner in LW. McDonald &
Son Funeral Home.
Photo/Tom Brooks
Commission approves
sheriffs office grants
By Michael Kurtz
Staff Writer
The Board of Commissioners
will consider more than a $1 million
in grant money thanks to some last
minute phone calls by Chairman
Bill Jenkins.
Three Sheriff’s office grants
were left off the Board of
Commissioners* June 8 agenda
because the requests came in after
the Thursday deadline, Jenkins said.
At the time, Jenkins said he
couldn’t approve the grants, which
require $271,634 in matching local
funds, without having time to exam
ine the necessity of the grants and
without approval from the majority
of the board.
Sheriff Denny Hendrix said two
of the grants had to be postmarked
by June 12 or the money would be
lost.
On Thursday, Jenkins said he
was able to get verbal approval to
sign the grant forms from
Commissioners Julian Bowen and
John Kieffer.
The chairman’s vote provided
Students hit high marks
with ITBS performance
By Laura Lavezzo
Staff Writer
Forsyth County Schools must be
doing something right. School chil
dren achieved an average 70th per
centile rating on this year’s lowa
Tests of Basic Skills, nearly 20
points greater than students at both
the state and national levels. This
accomplishment also marks the
attainment of a very bold objective
set earlier this year by the Central
Office.
“Our test scores are real good
this year,” said Linda Lang, elemen
tary schools director. “Our academ
ic goal for the system was 70 per
cent and in three out of the four
[elementary] grades we did that.”
The highest elementary scores
are found in the second through
fourth grades in the areas of lan
guage arts and math. System aver
ages for second and third grade
math are both as high as 74 percent.
In the second through fifth grades,
language arts scores are all over the
70th percentile.
“[Superintendent] Dr. Magill
and the Board of Education say
every child should be reading by the
Marshall said the state has not
actively used the federal law to
collect in the past. “This is a very
difficult situation. On one hand,
you’re dealing with being respon
sible to state taxpayers by attempt
ing to retrieve money that is owed,
but on the other hand, you’re deal
ing with people’s lives and those
of their families.”
Marshall said that a target
jnBHK
50 Cents
the majority needed.
Jenkins said the entire situation
was a matter of bad timing, and
thinks the grants are something the
commissioners should consider for
the community.
“I support grants and every time
we have the opportunity to get
them, we do,” Jenkins said.
The problem, he said, was the
timing of when the grants were
delivered by the Sheriff’s office and
the hectic schedule of the commis
sioners on meeting days.
“On Mondays we have a lot of
last minute things to do,” Jenkins
said. He added that because the
grants didn’t arrive at the county
offices until 2 p.m., he and the othbt;
board members didn’t have time to
review the grants for their merits. *«?
On Friday, he said some of th©
grants appear to have
which would be beneficial to the
county.
“The COPS More grant looks'
good,” he said. “We’ll get some
equipment and a computer system
See GRANTS, Page 2A
end of second grade,” said Lang.
They have attempted to reach this
goal, she said, by hiring the very
best teachers, by adding more use
ful materials to the classrooms and
by lowering the teacher to child
ratio.
“We have just bent over back
wards making sure teachers have a
wealth of resources,” she said. “We
are putting a lot of materials out
there for teachers that they wouldn’t
have had 10 years ago.”
Programs such as Accelerated
Reader have helped too, according
to Paula Gault, assistant to the
superintendent. Accelerated Reader
is just one of the many programs
which utilizes the advanced tech
nology now available to our
schools. Also, the addition of
instructional assistants has
enhanced classroom learning, she
said.
“We’ve raised our expectations
of both students and staff,” said
Gault.
All three middle schools also
show great improvement, particu
larly South Forsyth Middle School.
See SCORES, Page lOA
deadline of June 1 to begin the
Estate Recovery Program came
and went without implementation
starting. She added that until the
department receives an order in
writing from the federal Medical
Assistance Agency to begin the
collection process, the department
will not.
See ESTATES, Page 2A