Newspaper Page Text
Forsyth Count''Mews
Vol. 94, No. 197
□ection board sends bond referendum back to county
Commissioners asked to reconsider splitting courthouse and jail votes into separate questions
By Steven H. Pollak
Staff Writer
The Forsyth County Board of Elections on Monday sent a
ballot request back to the Board of Commissioners, asking them
to reconsider the way voters will be asked to approve funding
for a new judicial center in the March 2 election.
An attorney who represents the county government, Angela
E. Davis, was expected to respond to the Board of Elections’
request for reconsideration on Tuesday.
The surprise move came as the election board was about to
discuss whether to approve the addition of the judicial center
referendum to the March 2 vote.
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By
Photo/Audra Perry
Capt. Brooks Swanson with wife Amanda and daughter Abigail at their Forsyth County home.
Home for the Holidays
Local soldier gets warm welcome after 11 months in Iraq
By Kim Ash
Staff Writer
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Forsyth County restdent Capt Brooks Swanson
SwLZ S . , e . yS - n r.n
.„?* ~ a? , oP Gallon, is a member of the
Army reserves and just arrived back in Cumming
Saturday from defending his country in He has
lived tn Forsyth County for about three years he smd.
.. S ™" .“"dhw wife. Amanda and daughter
Abigatl. live in the Haddon Hall subdivision m north
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“It’s great to be back,” he said. “It was awesome.
They threw us a big welcome back ceremony.”
City delivers SPLOST records,
returns county’s payment check
By Nicole Green
Staff Writer
Cumming Mayor H. Ford Gravitt Monday
night presented the Forsyth County Board of
Commissioners with five boxes topped with
a red, holiday bow —containing documentation
of five years of SPLOST spending as requested
by the county.
“I’m bringing your early Christmas ...” the
mayor told the surprised commissioners.
The mayor also returned a check for almost
$3,600 the city had requested as reimbursement
for its estimated cost of copying the paperwork.
“I hope you’ll spend it wisely,” Gravitt told
county commission Chairman Jack Conway,
who thanked him for the check on behalf of the
county.
In a gray suit and pulling a cart of boxes
instead of a bag of toys, the mayor only resem
bled Santa Claus as he inspired smiles in the
uncomfortably packed meeting room filled
with residents interested in a final vote on a
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Copyright 0 2003 Forsyth County Newt
j || I
•/ Your "Hometown Paper" Since 1908
WEDNESDAY December 10, 2003
county land use plan, among other commission
business Monday night.
“Within the last 3G minutes, the completion
of the request has been compiled by our staff,”
Gravitt said.
“They worked like Trojans,” the mayor later
added. “I have to commend them for that.”
The city barely missed the county’s Dec. 5
deadline for compliance with an Oct. 30
request made under the Georgia Open Records
Act. The county had asked the city to produce
the documentation spanning five years of spe
cial purpose local option sales tax [SPLOST]
spending.
In response to the county’s Open Records
Act request, the city requested a check for
$3,598.66 to pay for the labor and copy charges
incurred while filling the request. The mayor
returned this check to the commissioners on
Monday because the city provides public infor-
See RECORDS, Page 3A
INDEX
Abby 4A
Classifieds. 1 IB
Deaths.... 2A
Events 5A
Horoscope...... 4A
Legals 5B
Opinion 8A
Sports IB
Instead, the three members of the election board voted unan
imously to “send this ballot request back to the Board of
Commissioners for reconsideration.”
Brant Meadows, the Republican appointee to the Board of
Elections, suggested the idea in the form of a motion. He cited
“fiscal responsibility” as a major reason, saying the repeated
elections on the judicial center issue in recent years have been
expensive for the county.
Gary Smith, the chairman of the Board of Elections, noted
that adding the judicial center referendum to the March 2 ballot
will not cost the county any additional money because there will
already be a vote on presidential preferences on the same day.
However, if the judicial center proposal fails again, the coun-
The neighbors hung a large red, white and blue
banner on the fence entering the subdivision to wel
come the soldier home.
Sw wh „ was d ) dto , in , f
tWs y« "»“”«■< to ihe states Nov. 30 and stayed in
Oklahoma for about a week before coming home, he
said 6
Sw who was in m , e| . abo „, |4O j
his in , m ‘ de near Ta||i| ,
which lies on the soudtem end of Iraq.
He said it was ca|m where hjs db hi
company’s d “‘ y “ 10 Baghdad day
See HOME, Page 3A
Sports
Forsyth Central sweeps
Chamblee in 6-A AAA
basketball.
Page IB
County OKs sending
land-use plan to state
More revisions expected over next three months
By Todd Truelove
Staff Writer
The Forsyth County Board of
Commissioners Monday unanimous
ly approved sending a countywide
land-use plan to state agencies for
review but stipulated the plan
will continue to undergo modifica
tions for the next three months.
The plan includes a map that rec
ommends general zoning category
designations on land throughout the
county.
“We’re at the point where we
need to approve the land-use map,”
said board Chairman Jack Conway.
“There are still changes that have to
be made. There are still some mis
takes, and we know that.”
The land-use plan acts as only a
guide and does not change the zon
ing on any property.
County officials consult the plan
when determining whether to
approve rezoning requests submitted
by property owners.
Critics of the plan have confront
ed the board during recent public
hearings due to concerns the plan
does not accurately reflect how they
believe the county should grow.
Opponents also have expressed
fears that once the plan is adopted,
the board will not approve a rezoning
request if it conflicts with the map.
Conway has not shied away from
saying that compliance with the map
is the ultimate goal, but agrees that
because of inadequacies in the map
that goal has not been reached.
Commissioners have attempted to
address the public’s concerns, but
Conway said all of the modifications
have not been completed.
Those modifications included
designating major county roadways
as “transitional” to allow for greater
zoning variety including commercial
developments.
L- Lu ——— .J 0...., ■ .. ■- - -MW
Photo/Audra Perry
Fire evacuates Scientific Games
From left, Forsyth firefighters Tim Smallwood, Joe Fusco and John Wisegerber 111 return
to the fire engine after putting out flames inside Scientific Games off McFarland Road as
employees look on in the background. A press used to print lottery tickets caught fire
shortly after 3 p.m., said Battalion Chief Tommy Coleman. No one was injured and the
damage was limited to the press and some of the printing materials, Coleman said.
Opinion
Columnist Bill Shipp
shares his perspective
of Georgia politics.
PageSA
ty may need to pay for a special election at some point in the
future when county leaders inevitably revisit the issue, board
members said.
Similar bond votes for a new courthouse and jail failed in
2000 and 2001. In 2000, the courthouse and jail were defeated
as separate ballot questions; in 2001 they were combined into a
single question and again turned down by voters.
“There have been multiple attempts on an identical propos
al,” Meadows, said. “They’ve all failed. ... I just want [the Board
of Commissioners] to review and reconsider the ballot request.”
All three members of the Board of Elections, Meadows,
Rain
LAKE LANIER LEVELS
Bate Level
Dec. 5 1069.32 ft
H ITII Dec 6 1069.31 ft
////////// Dea 7 1069.28 ft
U Dea 8 1069.20 ft
Fu!i 1071.00 ft
High in the mid-s()s. ' . . .
Low in the low 30s.
HolidagGiftGuide
Holiday Gift Gukfo
Inside Today
See ELECTION, Page 3A
“We got the commercial corridors
in, but we didn’t get the transitionals
in ... that transition from the com
mercial down to the low densities,”
the chairman said.
The board chose to send the cur
rent plan to the Georgia Department
of Community Affairs and Georgia
Mountains Regional Development
Center because the plan must be
reviewed and approved by the state,
and adopted by the board, before the
end of February for the county gov
ernment to remain eligible to receive
certain state grants.
Conway made the motion to
approve the map and goals that were
developed by members of the com
munity while stating the land-use
plan would continue being modified.
“I’d like to make a motion that we
approve the map and the goals this
evening, and that we shoot for maybe
a three-month period that we keep
this open to make the changes that
we need, and after three months take
another look and resubmit it to
DCA,” Conway said.
The board unanimously supported
the motion, despite concerns from
District 4 Commissioners Marcie
Kreager and District 1 Commissioner
Charles Laughinghouse.
Kreager verified that members of
the public would continue to be
involved in land planning processes
and that additional public hearings
would be conducted before lending
Conway’s motion her support;
Laughinghouse said a lot of the
changes that were made to the plan
were “ramrodded” down his throat
by the plan’s opposition group. He
said changes the board directed staff
in the county’s planning department
to make in the goals that were devel
oped by a steering committee of 25
county residents were a surprise.
See MAP Page 3A