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Forsyth County News
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Vol. 94, No. 199
Holiday parade ready to roll
By Nicole Green
Staff Writer
Here comes Santa Claus, right down Tribble Gap Road...
Always the grand finale of the annual Cumming Holiday
Parade, Santa Claus will trade in his sleigh and eight reindeer
for a stage coach and horses at Saturday’s 10 a.m. parade.
The 45-minute parade this year will forego its usual wind
ing route around the Cumming Square. It will instead begin at
Forsyth Central High School, head down Tribble Gap Road
past the west end of the square, onto Castleberry Road and end
at the Cumming Fairgrounds.
The Flash of Crimson, Forsyth Central High School’s
award winning band, will lead the parade, band director John
Mashburn said.
Several local organizations will display floats in the parade.
Boy and Girl Scouts, veterans groups, the Fire Department
Honor Guard, the Forsyth County Humane Society and Keep
Forsyth County Beautiful are just a few of the scheduled
floats.
“People really get into decorating [the floats],” said Alison
Smith who helped coordinate the parade along with Parks and
Flu bug biting hard, often
CDC recommends
saving vaccine
for most at risk
By Harris Blackwood
Community Editor
The flu season has fully arrived
in Forsyth County with doctor’s
offices and hospital emergency
facilities reporting a steady stream
of patients complaining about body
aches, fever, chills and headaches.
For those who postponed seek
ing vaccination to ward off the
virus, the prospects for being
immunized are not good.
“We are seeing an increase in
the number of patients presenting
with flu symptoms,” said Russ
Davis of Northside Hospital. “We
are seeing a patient who is a little
sicker than in the past.”
Davis said the situation is the
same at both the Sandy Springs
and Cumming hospitals of the
Northside Group.
“It isn’t a deluge, but we are
definitely seeing an increase.”
Davis said the Cumming hospi
tal had a “very limited” supply of
vaccine that is being reserved for
those who are most at risk.
He encouraged persons to
check with their primary care
physician before coming to the
hospital for a flu shot.
The Atlanta-based Centers for
Disease Control is encouraging
physicians to save any remaining
vaccine for persons over 65, chil
dren 6 months to 23 months old
and anyone with chronic health
problems. The agency also is
working to redirect vaccine from
other areas of the country to loca
tions with the most severe short
ages.
Dr. Jeevana K. Krishna of
Cumming Family Medicine said
her office ran out of vaccine on
Tuesday and is awaiting word on a
possible shipment of vaccine. She
said the vaccine only offers limited
protection. '
“The strain they have in the
Magistrate says slap on wrist doesn’t justify warrant
By Steven H. Pollak
Staff Writer
Chief Magistrate Barbara A. Cole on Wednesday
declined to issue a warrant for the arrest of an
administrative supervisor in the Forsyth County Tax
Assessor’s Office who had been accused of slap
ping and manhandling one of her employees.
In an order dated Dec. 10, Cole said the county
employee who brought the complaint, Betty
Tinsley, “failed to meet her probable cause burden.”
The chief magistrate went on to write that
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Copyright 0 2003 Forsyth County News
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vaccine is not covering the actual
strain of the illness,” said Krishna.
The most prominent strain of
influenza circulating, A-Fujian-
H3N2, surfaced too late to be
included as one of the three strains
in the vaccine.
“The vaccine still gives them
some immunity, at least 50 per
cent,” she said. ,
The physician said her office
had a limited supply of vaccine for
patients under the Peach Care pro
gram, which provides coverage for
children in lower income families.
An alternative to an immuniza
tion, a nasal spray vaccine, is being
offered by Krishna and other
providers.
See FLU, Page 2A
Tinsley did not, “demonstrate that the act com
plained of was either insulting or provoking in
nature to the degree required by statute.”
Tinsley, an administrative technician in the Tax
Assessor’s Office, represented herself at the war
rant hearing conducted Tuesday in Magistrate
Court. She said she was “disappointed” after read
ing Cole’s order.
“It was an uphill battle,” she said. “I had my
work cut out for me being a lay person.”
She went on to say that she felt like she had a
large disadvantage in trying to prove her case
INDEX
Abby..„ .9B
Church events 8A
Classifieds 4B
Deaths .2A
Food 4A
Horoscope 9B
Opinion 11A
Sports IB
FRIDAY December 12,2003
Recreation director Greg Little. “They do all kind of interest
ing things.”
One of last year’s favorites was a large boat from a local
marina strung with holiday decorations by Big Brothers-Big
Sisters. The boat will float again this year in the parade, Smith
said.
Most people will not finish their floats until the last minute.
“They’re still putting finishing touches on them as they line
up,” Smith said.
Three steam engines will ride in the parade this year: Kip
Blackburn’s steam engine, Buddy Lang’s 20- horsepower
steam engine and Lang’s 50-horsepower engine which he will
drive himself.
The steam engines will join the parade midway at
Woodland Drive, Smith said, because they cannot negotiate the
hills on Tribble Gap Road.
For short periods of time between 10 and 11 a.m. Saturday,
highways 20 and 9, Elm and Church streets, Woodland and
Mountainview drives will be closed to traffic.
“We shouldn’t have the traffic problems we had last year,”
See PARADE, Page 2A
Holidays
Check out our
Christmas
Gift Guide.
Inside
Above, Dr. Jeevana
Krishna administers the
influenza vaccine to a
patient at Cumming
Family Medicine. The
vaccine is now in short
supply throughout the
nation. Right, a vial of
the vaccine is pictured
along with Flu Mist, a live
virus nasal inhaler. More
than 5,000 injected vac
cines have been given
by the Forsyth County
Health Department this
year.
Photos/Audra Perry
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because she was relying on coworkers who were
being asked to testify against a supervisor.
“People are afraid they’re going to lose their
jobs,” said Tinsley, who underwent open heart
surgery five months before the incident in her
supervisor’s pffice.
Cumming attorney Marc N. Cunat represented
the accused supervisor, Trassa Quarles, at
Tuesday’s hearing in Magistrate Court.
“Obviously my client’s pleased with the deci-
Religion
See what’s
happening in
local churches.
PageßA
Parade Info •
• Holiday parade, 10 X
a.m., Saturday. JmjJ
• Route: Tribble Gap BBBF /<
Road, west end of court
house square, *i
Castleberry Road
(at fairgrounds).
• Roads closed: | >
Tribble Gap, Castleberry ’» A? ■
roads between 10 and 11
a.m. Saturday; highways 20
and 9, Elm and Church streets, Woodland and
Mountainview drives each for short periods of time
during the parade.
Veterans Invited
The Cumming Forsyth County Veterans Alliances has
invited all area veterans to participate in the Cumming
holiday parade.
Veterans interested in participating in the parade
should meet at Forsyth Central High School no later than
9 a.m. on Saturday.
See SLAP, Page 2A
Sunny
High in the low-50s
Low in the mid-30s.
IQ
ORTS, 1B
omentum building.
County:
Election
Board
exceeded
authority
By Steven H. Pollak
Staff Writer
The Forsyth County Board of
Commissioners shot back at the Board
of Elections on Wednesday, telling
them state and local laws do not per
mit their questioning of the “substance
of a ballot.”
Two days earlier, the Board of
Elections had sent a ballot request
back to the Board of Commissioners,
asking them to reconsider the way vot
ers will be asked to decide on a new
judicial center complex in the March 2
election.
A Cumming attorney who repre
sents the county government, Angela
E. Davis, wrote a letter to the Board of
Elections after researching the legality
of the request for “reconsideration.”
She concluded that the Board of
Commissioners does not need to
reconsider the ballot question because
See BOND, Page 2A
Woman killed in
Ga. 400 wreck
From staff reports
A Forsyth motorist was killed
Thursday morning after the vehicle
she was driving struck a tractor-trail
er parked on the side of Ga. 400, just
north of Browns Bridge Road (Hwy.
369), authorities say.
Kathy Mae Hamby, 44, of Forest
Circle, was killed instantly in the
6:10 a.m. wreck, said Capt. Frank
Huggins of the Forsyth County
Sheriff’s Office.
Hugg’ins said the tractor-trailer,
driven by Homer Lee Swain Jr. of
Childersboro, Ala., was stopped on
the shoulder of northbound Ga. 400,
just north of the Hwy. 369 intersec
tion, to assist another motorist.
Hamby’s 1990 Olds Cutlass “for
unknown reasons” veered right off
the roadway and struck the 18-
wheeler from behind sending the
car under the back of the trailer. The
driver suffered massive head injuries
and was killed instantly, Huggins
said.
See WRECK, Page 2A
LAKE LANIER LEVELS
• Date Level
Dec 6 1069.31 ft
Dec 7 1069.28 ft
Dec 8 4 069.20 ft
Dec 9 1069.23 ft
t Full 1071.00-ft-*