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Forsyth CountvNews
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Vol. 93, No. 012
School redistricting plans in limbo
Proposal of sixth
middle school in
S. Forsyth delays
district decision
By John Tooley
Staff Writer
The redistricting of Forsyth County’s mid
dle schools took a major turn Thursday
evening when the Board of Education
announced the anticipated opening of a new
middle school on the southeastern end of the
county in 2004.
The development adds a significant wrin
kle to the process of drawing new attendance
zone lines for this fall. The four-month exer
cise that was to culminate Thursday with the
final approval of new attendance zones had
been based on the existence of five county
middle schools in 2003 school year.
The fifth middle school is being built on
‘Water wars ’ take center stage
EPA director
supports plan
to address
water issues
By Colby Jones
Staff Writer
The state’s top environmental
official on Friday endorsed U.S. Rep.
John Linder’s (R-l Ith) newly intro
duced legislation to create a study
commission to find ways to battle
water shortages from Atlanta to Los
Angeles.
Following more than three
decades of laws being passed to
improve water quality, attention must
be directed to other water issues, said
Georgia Environmental Protection
Division Director Harold Reheis dur-
ing a round-table
discussion at the
Cumming-Forsyth
County Chamber
of Commerce.
Reheis said the
commission would
benefit Forsyth
County and the
entire state.
Linder intro
duced the bill last
’TWi
(
Reheis
month in the U.S. House of Rep
resentatives. It was co-sponsored by
U.S. Reps. Nathan Deal, R-9th, and
Ken Calvert, R-Calif. ,
The bill calls for the commission
to pool expertise and other resources
to increase the amount of drinking
water needed 50 years from now. The
new commission would develop and
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111
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Wallace Tatum Road in the northwestern end
of the county. With most of the student popu
lation increase being experienced in south
Forsyth, the school system had been planning
to transfer some students who reside in the
South Middle School district to other districts
for the upcoming year.
However, now that a sixth middle school
will be built in the southeastern end of the
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Photos/Jonathan Phillips
Georgia Environmental Protection Division Director Harold Reheis spoke Friday during a round-table
discussion at the Cumming-Forsyth County Chamber of Commerce.
implement a 21st Century Water
Policy.
Linder stressed the commission’s
job would be to make resources
available to local governments
regarding water retention, not to set
tle disputes and allocate the resource
among them.
“The last thing we want is the
federal government taking over those
local responsibilities,” Linder said.
The panel members, who in
cluded water officials at the state
and federal levels, agreed that solu
tions to local and regional water
problems currently get bogged
INDEX
Abbv SC
Births 4B
Classifieds 4C
Deaths .2A
Forsyth Lifelß
Horoscope 3C
Opinion 10A
Sports 1C
SUNDAY January 20, 2002
down in red tape.
As evidence of the bureaucracy,
Reheis pointed to his experience
serving on a national committee that
studied ways to combat the effects of
drought. He said
he learned that 100
federal programs
under nine differ
ent departments
compete with one
another when it
comes to solving
drought-related
problems.
“We found out
those programs
don’t talk to each
other even in the
same department,”
he said.
Under Linder’s
bill, President
Bush would
appoint 17 mem
bers to the com
mission represent
ing government
water management
agencies, environmental groups and
the private sector.
Local governments could then
access information from the commis
sion when looking for new ways to
Business
Check the
closing prices of
local-interest stocks.
PageEA
county adjacent to Settles Bridge Elementary
School, many of the students facing transfers
may stay put this fall.
The school board voted to postpone a
redistricting decision until all of the ramifica
tions of the sixth middle school can be dis
cussed.
See DISTRICTS, Page 3A
Linder
r *
Parker
Sports
South hosts
Central in
basketball rematch.
PagelC
Now that a sixth
middle school will
be built in the
southeastern end
of the county
adjacent to
Settles Bridge
Elementary
School, many of
the students fac
ing transfers may
stay put this fall.
Photo/Jonathan
Phillips
meet water demands.
Linder said the goal of the com
mission would not be to solve a local
problem, such as raising the water
level of Lake Lanier, but to search
for technological advances and cre
ative ideas that local governments
can use to solve their own problems.
If the commission is successful,
advances in enhancing reservoirs and
capturing water through other means
would mean that Lanier’s water level
would not have to fluctuate each
year, Linder said.
He compared the scope of the
water commission to a 1930 s plan to
implement a national highway sys
tem.
“In the next 100 years, wars will
be fought over water,” Michael
Parker, assistant secretary of civil
works with the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, said of the commission’s
importance.
Parker said the commission could
learn from a restoration project in the
Florida Everglades that began 17
years ago.
Nothing was accomplished in the
beginning years of the project
because of bickering between envi
ronmental, industry and government
See WATER, Page 2A
Partly Cloudy
LAKE LANIER LEVELS
Date Level
Jan. 15 1058.88 ft
>• Jan. 16 1058.84 ft
/ Jan. 17 J 058.84 ft
Jan. 18 1058.83 ft
Full 1071.00 ft
High in the mid-50s.
Low in the mid-30s.
School system
loses two leaders
to resignations
By John Tooley
Staff Writer
Forsyth County schools lost
two of its leaders Thursday as
board member Don Hendricks and
South Forsyth Middle School
Principal Mary Chandler both sub
mitted resignations to the Board of
Education.
While Hendricks’ resignation is
effective immediately, Chandler
will stay on at South through the
end of the school year.
At the board’s Jan. 18 meeting, Chairman Dr. Ben
Benson read a letter from Hendricks, who represent-
See RESIGN, Page 3A
Reese
resigns
to run for
Ray’s seat
By Bill Johnson
Staff Writer
State Rep. Bobby Reese, R-85th,
on Thursday submitted his resigna
tion from the Georgia House of
Representatives to
Gov. Roy Barnes
and immediately ‘IM
announced that he I ,B
is a candidate for ■£
state senate in the K J
48th District. ■
That seat
became vacant last 7
week when Ga.
Sen. Billy Ray, R- R
Lawrenceville, nee&e
resigned to accept a superior court
judgeship in Gwinnett County.
Reese and three other candidates
J.D. Elliott and David Shafer,
both of Duluth, and Nathan R.
Warnock of Buford will face off
in a nonpartisan special election on
Tuesday, Feb. 12.
See REESE, Page 2A
Forecaster says
area’s economic
future is bright
By Phillip Hermann
News Editor
The economic future is bright for
northeast Georgia, but the double
edged sword represented by the ben
efits of growth and its problems
will continue to plague area resi
dents and governments for the next
decade.
That was the message delivered
Thursday night by noted economic
forecaster Frank Norton Jr., president
of The Norton Agency. He presented
his annual projections to a large
crowd that packed the agency’s
newest office development in Hall
County, Rubicon on Lake Lanier.
Norton has been involved in the
real estate industry for more than 20
years and The Norton Agency insur-
See ECONOMY, Page 4A
~ f Y
Hendricks