Newspaper Page Text
Forsyth County News
J Your "Hometown Paner" Since 1908 J
Vol. 94, No. 202
New chief
financial
officer’s first
day Jan. 5
By Todd Truelove
Staff Writer
Administrators of the Forsyth
County government have chosen Jeff
Quesenberry to head the county’s
financial department.
Quesenberry’s first day will be
Monday, Jan. 5.
The 49-year-old replaces Dick
Russell, who retired last August.
County staff changed the posi
tion’s title to chief financial officer
and increased responsibilities after
efforts to hire a new finance director
last summer failed.
His starting annual salary is
$96,200.
“My duty is to work with the
Board of Commissioners to develop
ways to ensure that we’re fiscally
responsible, that we find way to con
trol costs, and that we ensure the dol
lars that are given to us by the tax
payers are used in the appropriate
way,” Quesenberry said in a tele
phone interview Tuesday.
He currently works as the manag
er of financial services with the inter
national organization CARE one
of the largest relief organizations in
the world. ’
He said he decided to change jobs
in the early fall.
“I'd been with CARE nine years,”
Quesenberry said, “and I had basical
ly reached the highest position I
could hold domestically within the
U.S.”
As a result, Quesenberry said he
told officials within the organization
he would be looking for a job and
discovered the county’s search
through a corporate search agency.
“They knew that I was looking
See CFO, Page 2A
Post-Kelly Mill intersection to be improved; GDOT to meet here in 2004
By Kim Ash
Staff Writer
The Georgia Department of
Transportation plans to improve the
intersection at Post Road [Hwy. 371 ]
and Kelly Mill Road, a GDOT
spokesperson said Tuesday.
The project, along with 26 other
road projects in Georgia, will be
placed up for bid within the next
oupie of weeks, said GDOT
spokesman Bert Brantley. A notice
will be placed Friday for contractors
to see the projects up for bid, said
Brantley.
“We anticipate it will be in the
January [bid] letting,” said the
14th Johns Creek Toy Drive will
make season happier for some
fly Kim Ash
Staff Writer
Santa Claus and his elves will
provide toys and goodies to needy
families of Forsyth County this
Christmas with the help and outpour
ing of support from about 40 busi
nesses in the Johns Creek area.
Tuesday kicked off the 14th annu
al Johns Creek Toy Drive organized
by Johns Creek developer
Technology Park/Atlanta Inc.
The annual toy drive, which con
tinued Wednesday, helps needy fami
lies through the Hands Across
Forsyth program, which is operated
under the umbrella of The Place of
Forsyth County, a nonprofit social
service agency.
Toys will be distributed to fami-
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Copyright 0 2003 Forsyth County News
90994 04001
Your "Hometown Paper" Since 1908 J
THURSDAY December 18,2003
PUZZLED?!?
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Photo/David McGregor
Lauren Henry, 2, assembles a puzzle at the new Primrose School on the corner
of Steeplechase and Bethelview roads.
spokesman.
Work on the project could begin
within the next few months, possibly
in mid-February or March, he said.
Improving the intersection
includes updating traffic signals, pos
sibly adding more lanes, and provid
ing for overall better traffic flow, said
Brantley.
GDOT officials also announced
last week that Forsyth County has
been chosen, along with two other
counties in Georgia, to host a
Georgia Department of
Transportation Board meeting in
2004.
According to Brantley, a date or
place for the Forsyth County meeting
lies Saturday at The
Place on The Place
Circle off Antioch
Road and Dahlonega
• Photos
See Page
10A
Highway north of
Cumming, according to officials.
Every year, businesses in the
Johns Creek area are encouraged to
bring toys for needy families in
Forsyth County to be donated to
Hands Across Forsyth.
This year there are more than 500
families in Forsyth County that need
toys, said Kerry Rosewall, program
coordinator for Hands Across
Forsyth.
“This is a tremendous program.
It’s such a weight off shoulders that
they are coming [to donate],” she
See TOY, Page 2A
INDEX
Abby 5B
Classifieds 3B
Events .4A
Government 8A
Horoscope...- 5B
Kids Page 5A
Opinion ,9A
Sports 6A
has not been decided yet; however,
officials could know more details
about the meeting early in 2004, he
said.
Mike Evans, 10th district GDOT
board member and representative of
Forsyth County for the board, said he
is hoping the meeting will be sched
uled in the fall, perhaps in September
or October.
Evans said he will be working
with city and county officials to set
all the details into place for the meet
ing. The meeting will be hdsted as a
joint effort between the county and
city governments, he said.
The GDOT board, which includes
one member from each of the state’s
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County considers
buffer revisions for
residential plans
Page 3 A
13 congressional districts, typically
meets the third Thursday of each
month. Nine monthly meetings are
held in downtown Atlanta in the
board’s facility across from the
Capitol, and three meetings are held
in other counties the board approves.
According to Brantley, holding
the meetings in other counties is
helpful to members because they can
see what transportation changes are
being made in the counties in
Georgia, or what issues need to be
addressed.
State Sen. Casey Cagle, R-
Chestnut Mountain, whose district
includes a portion of Forsyth County,
said in a prepared statement, “We’re
Lanier National
Speedway under new
ownership
Page6A
50 Cents
iY OF GEORGIA MAIN LIBR L--
30G0E. Fy
SPLOST feud
now affecting
water, sewer
By Nicole Green
Staff Writer
Water and sewer have become the new battle
grounds in an ongoing dispute between the city of
Cumming and Forsyth County governments.
The two governments have been at odds over an
allocation agreement for the Special Purpose Local
Option Sales Tax (SPLOST). Now city officials are
withholding action on the county’s request for more
water and looking into its use of sewer capacity until
the two sides can work out their differences.
At a regular meeting on Tuesday, the Cumming
City Council voted to table all discussions of county
water and sewer needs until the two local govern
ments resolve questions over the SPLOST
Intergovernmental Agreement and can meet to dis
cuss other intergovernmental agreements.
“We need to get all these agreements worked out
with the commission before we go making any more
agreements,” Mayor H. Ford Gravitt said.
In late October, the Forsyth County Commission
requested documentation for city spending on proj
ects funded by the Special Purpose Local Option
Sales tax, of which the city receives 15 percent, and
made an opens record request for five years worth of
city financial records related to SPLOST projects.
In addition, county attorneys were instructed to
file for a declaratory judgment to determine the valid
ity and enforceability of the SPLOST
Intergovernmental Agreement.
The city-county SPLOST Intergovernmental
Agreement was signed in December 2002 by Mayor
H. Ford Gravitt and former county commission chair
man John Kieffer.
Gravitt said that once the validity of the SPLOST
Agreement is evaluated, the city and county must sit
down and talk about the validity of water and sewer
agreements.
In March 1997, the county paid the city $3 million
to use 500,000 gallons per day of city sewer capacity,
See FEUD, Page 2A
very excited to be in the position to
be able to host a board meeting. This
will certainly give the board an
opportunity to hear some of the
needs and concerns of Forsyth
County.”
Evans said in a prepared state
ment that he “personally thanks the
Forsyth County Legislative
Delegation for lobbying the trans
portation officials and board mem
bers in making this happen.”
According to Brantley, the meet
ing, which will include GDOT board
members, GDOT staff, interested
legislators and members of the pub-
See GDOT, Page 2A
Partly Cloudy
High in the mid-80s.
Low in the high 60s.
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Oh, fudge!
Dwight Lewis,
left, jokes
around with
Steve Matthews
of Ginny’s
Fudge as Ginny
Matthews
works in the
background
during Friday’s
opening day of
the Christmas
in Cumming
Arts and Crafts
Festival at the
fairgrounds.
Photo/David
McGregor
LAKE LANIER LEVELS
Date Level
Dec. 13 1069.42 ft
Dec 14 1069.51 ft
Dec 15 1069.53 ft
Dec 16 1069.52 ft
Full 1071.00 ft