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Cold nights, with
• ; warming days.
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THIS ISSUE
Copyright e 1999 Forsyth County Nrws
NFHS Raider Marching
Band performs at
Outback Bowl.
Page IB
Key hoops battles in
Region 7-AA for
Forsyth teams.
PageiC
: SFHS Marketing Ed
students work with
local businesses.
Page 5A
INDEX
;Abby_ Li— -Ji
Births.,
Business L_—BA
Deaths —2A
Forsyth Life —IB
Horoscope——-—7B
Opinion 1 10A
Schools 4A
Sports 1C
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Forsyth Com vs
J Your "Hometown Paper" Sin, ATHENS GA 30602
Vol. 90, No. 6
'99 legislative session to convene on Monday
By Colby Jones and Jim Riley
News Staff
The 1999 Georgia legislative session
begins next week with growth, transporta
tion, health care and education topping the
agenda for Forsyth County’s state leaders.
Rep. Mike Evans said air quality prob
lems and urban sprawl are major concerns,
but that he has not made up his mind as far
as a proposed metro region transportation
authority suggested by Gov.-elect Roy
Barnes. The agency would perform a role
similar to the Atlanta Regional
Commission, but it would have more teeth
EPD pointing to land application
as direction for sewerage options
By Jim Riley
Staff Writer
Forsyth County Commissioners
met with senior officials from the
Environmental Protection Division
(EPD) of the Georgia Department
of Natural Resources on Thursday
to discuss sewer discharge options.
According to County
Administrator Stevie Mills, who
was present at the meeting, the
board was told that land application
was where the county should direct
Rapid growth in student population
impacting plans for school facilities
By Laura Lavezzo
Lifestyle Editor
With the school system’s stu
dent population expanding at an
average rate of 1,213 new students
per year, it has become imperative
that the Forsyth County Board of
Education once again review its
current facilities and needs for the
near future.
Postal rates go
up on Sunday
New postage rates go into
effect -for the first time in four
years - on Sunday, Jan. 10, and
postal customers are urged to pur- ’
chase new stamps now to avoid a
last-minute rush. The one-cent
increase in First-Class rates -
from 32 cents to 33 cents - is the
smallest increase ever, and is the
second consecutive increase below
the rate of inflation, according to
the Postal Service.
While the cost of mailing a
one-ounce, First-Class letter
See POSTAL, Page 12A
Lanier lech: A year and counting growing enrollment;
Lanier Technical Institute’s Forsyth Campus is
marking its first year this month as the Georgia
General Assembly convenes for the 1999 session
and its task of making funding decisions for state
spending, including the distribution of educational
dollars.
Georgians are getting their money’s worth when
state dollars are invested in Adult and Technical
Education, and earmarking added funds for educa
tional institutions such as Lanier Tech is money
well spent was the message of a legislative forum
hosted last month at the Lanier Tech campus on
Majors Road.
The Georgia Department of Technical and Adult
Education currently receives .035 of an education
tax dollar, compared to .375 for the Department of
Education and .135 for the Board of Regents. The
remaining .455 is not designated to those depart
ments.
Reps. Mike Evans, James Mills, Carl Rogers
and Clint Smith, Rep.-elect Bobby Reese and Sens.
Casey Cagle and Billy Ray were invited to join the
legislative panel.
The forum also featured several of Lanier Tech’s
customers, including representatives of the busi
nesses and industries.
to implement its recommendations.
“I worry about adding an extra level of
bureaucracy,” he said. “But I am keeping an
open mind.”
Sen. Casey Cagle also said the regional
authority will be a controversial topic. “We
need to be very, very cautious as we deliber
ate on that particular issue,” Cagle said.
Evans said the 13 counties in metro
Atlanta, including Forsyth, that remain out
of compliance with the U.S. Clean Air Act
will not feel its effects until five or six years
in the future. Federal dollars for road build
ing currently are being withheld from the
its efforts. “We’re not giving up on
a river (Chattahoochee) discharge,
but it looks pretty bleak at this
point,” he said. “Any application to
put additional pollutants into the
Chattahoochee would be unlikely.”
Mills also said that Lake Lanier
was not even considered as an
option. “Discharge into the lake
wasn’t discussed as a viable alter
native,” he said.
As most of the development in
Forsyth County has occurred in the
Chattahoochee basin, discharge into
“A growth of 1,213 per year -
that’s one Gwinnett County ele
mentary school, and they build
them pretty large over there,” said
Klaqs Damall, an official from the
state Department of Education. At
the Dec. 10 work session of the
county school board, Darnal! and
fellow representatives Dr. Jerry
Rochelle and Richard Beard of the
state DOE’s Facilities Services Unit
Photo/Tom Brooks
Sunday’s postage increase means you need new stamps.
Richard Hagler, plant manager of Hayes-
Lemmerz International Inc., of Gainesville, was one
of the panelist. He praised the “smorgasbord of
classes to chose from.”
Dr. Ken Breeden, Commissioner of the Georgia
Department of Technical and Adult Education,
talked about the issues relating to Technical and
Adult Education.
“All of you people who vote on the money, you
do good,” Breeden said, indicating the state spend
ing which has been forthcoming tb Lanier Tech had
“made a huge difference” in the facilities and pro
grams available to the communities being served.
Breeden said to keep pace with the changing
nature of technology and with the continuing
demand for classes from students and economic
development program customers, “little more oper
ating money" would be needed for the future.
The need for funding for new and existing pro
grams and continued support was stressed.
The Forsyth campus was lauded as “a great
location” and the Forsyth County Board of
Commissioners was thanked for obtaining land and
a sewer line for the institute. The only remaining
request - an access route to Ga. 400 for the Forsyth
campus at Exit 13A.
SUNDAY JANUARY 10, 1999
Monday's Commission
meeting preview
- Page 4A
the Etowah River will not be possi
ble due to prohibitions against
inter-basin transfer. However, Mills
did say that it could be a long-term
solution as that part of the county
develops.
See EPD, Page 4A
offered a few options on how the
district might adapt to continued
school growth. The officials pre
sented a series of worksheets and
reports on the capacity of Forsyth
County schools, including facts and
figures on population trends, the
history of facility improvements in
the county, spending schedules with
See SCHOOL, Page 4A
counties until the area can formulate a plan
that will bring ground-level ozone counts
into compliance.
“I don’t think they (federal officials)
understood the kind of impact it would have
on the states,” he said. “A lot of states are
just fighting it.”
Sen. Billy Ray said that it will take the
full weight of the governor’s office to get
anything done on the integrated issues of air
quality and transportation. “We are strug
gling to come up with a transportation plan
that will meet the guidelines,” he said.
Ray said that the regional transportation
Heavily armed suspect
arrested after standoff
By Colby Jones
Staff Writer
John Phillip Johnson Jr., armed
for war and claiming membership in
a liberation movement, held officers
at bay outside his Burnt Bridge
Road trailer for two hours late
Thursday afternoon.
Johnson, 34, was charged with
aggravated assault for threatening to
kill his father earlier in the day. He
remains in the Forsyth County jail
awaiting a bond hearing.
John Johnson Sr. drove to the
Lanier Tech Enrolment :
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■ Credit ■ Adult Literacy ■ Economic Development
Photo/Lori Stegall
Pep rally pyramid
Girl Scouts gathering at the Sawnee Community Center
for Jan. 7’s cookie campaign kickoff enjoyed team-building
activities and songs. Sales of cookies, including two new
varieties, are now under way. More on Page 18.
authority would be a hard sell to area gov
ernments and the Georgia Department of
Transportation.
“He (Gov.-elect Barnes) needs to work
with the DOT board and find something
they can live with,” Ray said.
According to Ray, Barnes wants to
change the DOT board from being selected
by the legislators to being governor
appointees. Ray said that the Legislature
would be very reluctant to allow that to hap
pen.
See SESSION, Page 12A
Sheriff’s Office shortly after 3 p.m.
in a bullet-riddled cargo van, telling
officers his son tried to shoot him
and posed a threat to their neigh
bors. Investigators found eight bul
let holes in the van and dispatched
the department’s Special Response
Team to the residence,
the northwest end of the county. ‘V
The team set up a perimeter
around the trailer and several
snipers hid in tall grass near
See GUNS, Page 9A
50 Cents