Newspaper Page Text
Forsyth CountvNews
Vol. 94, No. 201
Commissioners give w impact fees
By Todd Truelove
Staff Writer
The Forsyth County Board of
Commissioners Monday approved in a
3-0 vote fees on the construction of
new houses and businesses that will
generate revenue for capital projects
needed as a result of the increase in
population.
Impact fees will begin Jan. 1, 2004.
The exact amount that will be charged
on a new home or business will depend
on its size.
New houses will be charged 52
cents per square foot.
New businesses will be charged
Medicaid
fraud nets
woman
prison, fine
By Steven H. Pollak
Staff Writer
A 36-year-old Cumming woman
was sentenced Monday on federal
charges stemming from a scheme to
defraud the State of Georgia Medicaid
program and a private healthcare
lending company.
Heather Beck received a sentence
of four years, nine months in federal
prison after pleading guilty to health
care fraud, wire fraud and tax fraud
charges. She also was ordered to pay
$1.44 million in restitution, perform
100 hours of community service and
serve three years under supervised
release when she gets out of prison.
According to a release from the
United States Attorney's Office for the
Northern District of Georgia, Beck
owned a durable medical equipment
company, Advanced Rehab Inc., from
1993 to 2001.
The company, located in
Alpharetta when Beck owned it, has
since changed its name to Reliant
Care and moved to Norcross.
With the company in Chapter 11
bankruptcy, Beck sold Advanced
Rehab to another company in 2001.
Beck’s company specialized in
selling custom wheelchairs and relat
ed medical equipment. Many of her
customers, including several handi
capped children and their families,
had insurance coverage through
Georgia’s Medicaid program, private
insurance or, in some cases, both.
Federal authorities said that begin
ning as early as 1997 and continuing
through 2001, Beck submitted false
claim information to the Medicaid
program in order to receive double
payments for equipment provided to
Medicaid recipients.
Under the rules of the state pro
gram. Medicaid can be billed as a sec
ondary insurance carrier for amounts
not paid by private insurance.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said
Beck submitted Medicaid claims that
“grossly underestimated the amount
of private insurance payments” previ
ously collected by Advanced Rehab.
As a result, federal authorities say
Advanced Rehab collected approxi
mately $306,000 in “double” pay
ments.
During the same period of time,
Beck applied for Advanced Rehab to
receive a line of credit from a private
lending company, Healthcare
Business Credit Corp.
The financial agreement allowed
Advanced Rehab to borrow against its
receivables, an arrangement that even
tually authorized a credit line of up to
See FRAUD, Page 2A
Missed paper policy:
For a replacement paper, call
8 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday, and 9 a.m. -1
p.m. on Sunday - (770) 887-3126.
Copyright 0 2003 Forsyth County News
111 <JI
J Your "Hometown Paper" Since 1908 J
WEDNESDAY December 17
based on whether the business is classi
fied as retail, industry or office. Retail
businesses will pay 22 cents per square
foot, industries will pay 9 cents per
square foot and offices will pay 5 cents
per square foot.
An advisory committee was
formed almost two years ago to deter
mine the viability of using impact fees
to help fund county libraries, parks and
recreation facilities and public safety
facilities,including fire stations and
components of the sheriff’s office.
Commissioners on Monday
approved using impact fees for all of
those needs except the functions of the
sheriff’s office.
IT’S CHRISTMAS TIME FOR SURE
■ w
. H
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■' J
ft
*****
1
Photo/David McGregor
Kids of all ages were waiting Saturday for the appearance of The Big Man in the
Cumming Christmas Parade, and saving the best for last, Santa Claus made his
appearance at the end of the parade. More from the parade, see Page SA.
Mann convictions: One upheld, one voided
By Steven H. Pollak
Staff Writer
The Georgia Court of Appeals
last week upheld one conviction
but voided another in the case of
a Forsyth County business owner
serving two life terms for kidnap
ping and injuring his wife.
Weyman Lewis Mann, 56,
had been indicted twice in
Gwinnett County on charges of
kidnapping stemming from inci
dents in 1996 and 1998. Both
offenses involved the same vic
tim, Mann’s wife Marilyn Smith.
He went on trial for the two
indictments in April 2001 and
INDEX
Abby 4B
Classifieds 118
Deaths 2A
Events— 6A
Horoscope 4B
Legals 5B
Opinion 8A
Sports..... IB
The decision was almost postponed
due to the absence of two commission
ers.
Chairman Jack Conway said
District 4 Commissioner Marcie
Kreager was unable to attend due to an
illness in her family and District 5
Commissioner Eddie Taylor was sick.
Conway suggested postponing
“controversial” decisions until Kreager
and Taylor could attend.
District 2 Commissioner A.J.
Pritchett pushed to vote on the impact,
fees without delay.
“I would like to go ahead and pro
ceed tonight [with the impact fee ordi
nance],” Pritchett said.
J- Z
Mann
tices found fault with the prose
cution of the 1996 kidnapping.
Mann had already pleaded
guilty to the 1996 incident but
received an illegal sentence of 10
years on probation.
Education
Winter Bus
Tour of county
schools held
Page 3 A
The mandatory mir mum
sentence for the offense of kid
napping changed just prior to
Mann’s guilty plea and he should
have received at least 10 years in
prison, said Lisa A. Jones, the
Gwinnett County assistant dis
trict attorney who handled the
appeal.
As a result, the Gwinnett
County authorities wanted to
bring Mann back to resentence
him for the 1996 kidnapping
shortly after the grand jury
returned an indictment for the
1998 incident.
See MANN, Page 2A
was found
guilty on both
charges.
On Thurs
day, the Court
of Appeals
upheld the
conviction
stemming
from the 1998
kidnapping
but the jus-
Opinion
Bill Shipp:
Plenty of scandal
for the IG
PagpiiA
According to Jim Callison, the
chairman of the advisory committee,
impact fees would have generated $3.5
million for county coffers in the first
nine months of this year if they had
been in place at the beginning of 2003.
Callison also told the board that
concerns from the business community
related to a need to base the fees on the
type of business have been addressed.
“It seems to me there’s very little
opposition in the community now,”
Callison said.
The lone concern expressed
Monday night came from the Rev. Jim
Sharp.
Sharp runs Abba House, a ministry
to help women and children overcome
addiction and mental health problems
including depression and eating disor
ders.
Sharp asked the board to consider
removing non-profit organizations
from the ordinance.
“It’s clear that most non-profits
have more of a positive impact on the
county,” he said in an interview after
the public hearing.
Pritchett, when making the motion
to approve the impact fee ordinance,
stipulated Sharp’s concern would be
addressed during a meeting in the near
See FEES, Page 2A
Second drug
misuse incident
discovered in
county schools
By Nicole Green
Staff Writer
In addition to the discovery of a controlled sub
stance at Vickery Creek Middle School Friday
afternoon, a second occurrence of drug misuse was
discovered Friday in Forsyth County Schools.
Around 9 a.m.
Friday, a Forsyth
Central High School
teacher alerted school
administrators of suspi
cious student behavior,
said school system
Public Information
Specialist Jennifer
Caracciolo.
After investigation,
administrators found
that a ninth-grade
female student brought
13 capsules of Coricidin D, an over-the-counter
cold medication commonly referred to as “Magic
Skittles,” to school for the purpose of misuse and
distribution. Two ninth-grade students took two
pills each, Caracciolo said.
Coricidin contains dextromethorphan (DXM), a
See DRUG, Page 2A
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19 9
ML ■jmaBEIK
Photo/Audra Perry
SMOKY SITUATION: Firefighters battle a
blaze through the smoke at a fire in
northeast Forsyth County on Monday.
Battalion Chief James Hildebrand said 17
firefighters helped put down the blaze on
Nichols Drive. The flames burned most of
a fenced-in porch and a bedroom. Smoke
damaged the rest of the single-story
home. No one was injured in the incident.
Cloudy
LAKE LANIER LEVELS
i Date Level
4 - < Dec 12 1069.40 ft
Dec 13 1069.42 ft
Dec. 14 1069.51 ft
. Dec. 15 1069.53 ft
Full 1071.00 ft
High in the upper 30s
Low in the upper 20s
SPORTS, 1B
Mixed results on hardwood
For more informa
tion on “club drugs,”
visit www.club
drugs.org or
www.drugabuse.gov
or contact
Prevention
Specialist Susie
Brookshire at (770)
887-2461, ext.
2340.