Newspaper Page Text
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FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Friday, January 18,2002
BUDGET from 1A
city’s existing workforce, but
the mayor cautioned that if
revenues do not keep up with
expenditures during the year,
positions could be cut and
some tasks contracted out to
private companies.
Gravitt characterized the
budget as “very lean,” noting
that the only sizable increases
in operating expenses are a 4
percent cost-of-living raise for
employees and capital expen
ditures for projects already
under way.
On the other hand, if the
revenue flow improves with
the economy in 2002, the city
could spend more, said City
Manager Gerald Blackburn.
“If the revenue begins to
escalate and looks good, by
midyear or by September, the
council may go back and do
an amendment to the budget
and speed up projects and put
other capital improvement
projects back in,” Blackburn
said.
“But at this point in time,
we pretty well pulled all that
hack.”
SPLOST revenues for
November 2001 were up by
about SII,OOO-$ 12,000 oyer
the same month a year earlier,
which is a 4-percent increase,
he said. SPLOST collections
during December will not be
known at the local level until
mid-February.
“We’ll have to track that
very close,” Blackburn said.
“In the meantime, we’re
going to be looking at several
different areas. If things don’t
EVAN from 1A
second- and third-degree cov
ering more than 45 percent of
his body. The burns destroyed
skin on his head, back, arms
and legs.
Then the miracles began.
While the toddler was in
the critical care unit, his aunt
went into an Eckerd Drugs in
Gainesville to have a prescrip
tion filled. It was not her nor
mal pharmacy. While inside
the store, she relayed the day’s
tragic events to the pharmacist.
A young girl working in the
store overheard and interrupt
ed the conversation. She told
the stranger about being
burned as a child and strongly
recommended the pediatric
burn specialists at Cincinnati
Shriners Hospital.
Looking for an answer,
Brian and Tricia Johnson con
tacted the Yaarab Shrine
Temple in Atlanta. They did
not yet know the bill for less
than one day in the hospital
already exceeded $17,000.
And he was yet to undergo
surgery. The Shriners Temple
decided to foot the bill for him
io be moved to Cincinnati.
Hours turned into days and
the days into weeks. Each
moment was emotionally
charged. Evan was in a bed
and he was attached to bundles
of tubes and machinery
three monitors attached to his
heart, one on his toe, feeding
tube, catheter and IV.
Doctors attempted four
times to attach synthetic skin
to his body that would give
time for his healthy skin to
heal.
The healthy skin was need
ed to graft onto the most
severely burned areas. None of
the attempts worked, forcing
doctors to use cadaver skin as
a temporary fix.
During the lengthy hospital
stay, family members learned
of other heart-wrenching sto
ries from across the country.
A North Carolina boy suf
fered burns to 80 percent of
his body, forcing doctors to
regenerate the little skin that
was left on his small frame in
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improve, we can make cuts.”
Potential cutbacks proba
bly would be at the fairground
and in recreation program
ming, Blackburn said.
“We’ll make every effort to
avoid doing that.”
City budgets since 1997
have jumped by an average of
more than $1.5 million each
year. The 1997 budget, for
example, was $10.2 million.
The budget last year was $16.7
million an increase of more
than 63 percent in just four
years.
The budget includes pro
jected operating expenditures,
capital expenditures and
expenditures for water and
sewer service.
Affecting this year’s budget
are the economic downturn on
the heels of significant capital
spending commitments for the
new city hall, the new arena,
the new recreation center
scheduled to open Feb. 4 and
the widening of Tribble Gap
Road.
The economic downturn is
particularly significant for
Cumming because the city
derives its revenues largely
from sales taxes, fees and per
mits. The city does not have a
city-assessed property tax.
“It’s just that we had a very
aggressive capital improve
ment year last year and, of
course, we’re still working on
some of those,” Blackburn
said. “We need to play all of
these out and make sure we’ve
got sufficient money to com
plete the job as it needs to be.”
a lab.
Each procedure also carries
a potential side effect. Foll
owing one surgery, for exam
ple, Evan Johnson’s CRP
level, measuring the inflam
mation and dead tissue, was
38. Normal ranges are bet
ween two and three.
On New Year’s Eve, he was
in a hospital bed with a horn in
his hand and a glittery crown
on his head. A tube was still in
his nose and he had a painful
look on his face.
“You sit and watch moni
tors and learn what the levels
should be. You pray,” said
Tricia Johnson of their time in
the hospital.
“We learned a lot more
than we wish we ever did,” her
husband added.
Then their son’s condition
began to improve. The new
skin was sticking.
Evan finally returned home
on Sunday in time to celebrate
the birthday of his 5-year-old
brother, Andrew. Many of their
neighbors in the High Gables
subdivision stayed home from
church to put banners and bal
loons outside welcoming the
toddler home. His parents
recalled the countless cards,
words of encouragement and
meals they received from
members at First Redeemer
Church and First Baptist
Church in Cumming.
They praised the work of
the veteran surgeons and car
ing nurses.
They praised the visits by
Santa and his elves that eased
the pain for the toddler and his
family.
The road to recovery is far
from over. He must wear pro
tective suits each day so his
skin does not constrict. He
must endure physical therapy
twice a day and he probably
will have to undergo many
more surgeries until age 18.
But his family is thankful
he is alive, laughing and walk
ing again.
“He is a little boy who has
had to go through more than
most men,” said his mother.
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ANDROS from 1A
woman screaming for help when they
responded to a 10:40 p.m. call near the
intersection of Mullinax Road and Hwy.
9.
“Help me! He’s trying to kill me,” a
sheriff’s report quotes the suspect’s
wife, Sarah Andros, as saying.
She was bleeding from the nose and
had scratches covering her body,
according to the sheriff’s report.
The officers also located the suspect
ARC from 1A
and State Sen. Rusty Paul, all
of whom plan to attend the
meeting along with planning
consultants from the Georgia
Department of Transportation,
Forsyth’s county commission
ers and representatives of the
Georgia Conservancy and
Sierra Club.
As a member of the state’s
transportation committee, Paul
was instrumental in creating a
legislative caucus to study
whether money earmarked for
the proposed four-lane high
way could be better spent else
where. The Sierra Club has
attacked the arc for its poten
tially negative impact on the
environment.
The governor and other arc
supporters argue that the pro
posed highway would help to
alleviate congestion on 1-285
and smaller two-lanes like
Hwy. 20. They say the arc
would further serve to accom
modate transportation needs in
counties north of Atlanta that
are growing at unprecedented
rates. Barnes has said he
would like to see construction
of the arc begin in either 2008
or 2009.
On the other side, task
force members believe the arc
would worsen traffic problems
by encouraging commuting
from more remote locations
and would degrade air quality
by becoming a magnet for
additional development, and
worsen the quality of life for
those living near it.
Preliminary proposals, for
example, show the arc cutting
through the upscale Polo
Fields Golf & Country Club in
Cumming. The neighborhood
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and a white truck at the scene. The truck
was in a ditch and its driver’s side door
was open.
Andros relayed the following chain
of events to deputies:
His wife became irate after accusing
him of doing drugs and then jumped out
of the moving truck. He said she was
driving at the time.
The sheriff’s report states the
woman’s injuries suggested she fell onto
contains about 900 homes,
with the cost of new homes at
$1 million or more.
The task force suspects
that industries, the big rigs
they depend on and the count
less dollars they pump into the
state economy are the real rea
sons driving the arc forward.
Anheuser-Busch, carpet
mills in Dalton and mega con
tractors such as C.W.
Matthews are in a position to
gain much more from the
highway than the communities
it affects, said task force
spokesman and Polo Fields
resident Cliff Hollyfield. The
task force has appointed a rep
resentative from each neigh
borhood to spearhead recruit
ing and publicity efforts.
Hollyfield said that with
only four to six exits from I
-75 to 1-85, the arc would
become a “truck toll-way.”
The real issue is how the
arc will benefit “Joe Citizen”
who daily commutes to work,
said Tony Gul la, representa
tive from the Tallantworth
neighborhood near the
Forsyth-Cherokee line.
Gulla puts the benefit at
nil.
He reasons that most com
muters travel south into
Atlanta each morning on Ga.
400 and have no need for a
superhighway traveling east
and west.
“There is nothing about
this arc that is positive for
existing home owners,” Gulla
said.
Other neighborhoods rep
resented in the task force
include River Mist, Briar
Meadows, Sweetbriar, Ryan’s
Owner/Operator Mike Ridzon of Chick-fil-A in
Lanier Crossing and employee Juli Erickson were
honored with the second annual Big Heart Award
from Grayson’s Gift. The recognition comes as the
result of Ridzon’s decision to host “Super Kids
Night Saturday” to children with mental and physi
cal disabilities and their families. Erickson is the
coordinator of the program. At the presentation cer
emony above were, from left, Nancy and Tim Perry
with their daughter, Caroline; Erickson and Ridzon.
Grayson’s Gift is a nonprofit group based in
Cumming that seeks to raise awareness of issues
affecting children with disabilities.
Bluff, Rosewood Lake, Grand
Cascades, Hampton’s Grant
and Ivey Manor.
Despite the task force’s
determination to fight the arc,
its specific battle plan remains
to be seen. Petitions are being
circulated. Politicians are
being contacted. A lawsuit has
been discussed.
Hollyfield said the task
force will draw on the finan
cial and educational resources
of its members. In the group’s
ranks are attorneys, doctors
and engineers.
Hollyfield earlier this week
pitched his case in a one-page
letter he fired off to popular
WSB Radio talk-show host
Forsyth County News
J Your "Hometown Paper" Since 1908 J
USPS 205-540
Veterans Memorial Blvd., Cumming, Georgia 30040
Phone:77o-887-3126 Fax:77o-889-6017
Internet Address: www.forsythnews.com
Publisher DENNIS STOCKTON
General Manager NORMAN BAGGS
|v( lUUI Pl Editor SUSAN NORMAN
vAlljiA*/ Advertising Director BARBARA SCOHIER
Xbcudjy Circulation Director PHIL JONES
MEMBER
Published Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday by the Forsyth County
News Company, Veterans Memorial Blvd., Cumming, Ga. Second Class
Postage paid at Cumming, Ga. and additional offices. Subscription rate for
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* .. 'l'
Big Heart
Award
honors
Chick-fil-A
in
Cumming
Photos/Jonathan Phillips
the ground from the passenger’s side of
the truck and did not hit the pavement
from the driver’s side.
She was transported to a local hospi
tal for treatment and he was taken to
jail.
Deputies reported smelling alcohol
on both Andros and his wife.
He is scheduled to appear in Forsyth
County Superior Court on Feb. 8 in con
nection with the case.
Neal Boortz.
“How can a highway that
was conceived 15 years ago to
travel through an area of some
13,000 people with a cost esti
mated at S6O million go for
ward now, with 90,000 people
and some of the nicest com
munities in metro Atlanta in
its path and its cost risen to
$4.2 billion?” the letter states.
“If I were a politician, I surely
wouldn’t want my name asso
ciated with this white ele
phant.”
Saturday’s meeting will
provide an opportunity for
Forsyth residents to ask other
questions. The meeting is
open to the public.