Newspaper Page Text
Forsvth Count vNews
Vol. 95, No. 16
Icy weather closes schools;
By Todd Truelove and
Steven H. Pollak
Staff Writers
The cold weather that hit north
Georgia Sunday evening spared
Forsyth County and most of metro
Atlanta from the hazards associated
with its icy touch.
Though county schools closed
and the Forsyth Couny Board of
Commissioners canceled their sched
uled meeting and public hearings,
officials on Monday afternoon said
Forsyth’s roads were clear and
reported no major power outages.
“We had a few ice patches on
some of the bridges,” said
Engineering Department Director
John Cunard, “but those were taken
care of.”
Spokespeople for Georgia Power
and Sawnee Electrical Membership
Corp, said there were no outages in
the county.
Lynn Wallace, a public represen
tative from Georgia Power, said most
of the power outages were located in
northeast Georgia.
“Cumming is not showing up in
our system at all as having outages,”
Wallace said. "We don’t have any
outages to speak of in the metro-
Atlanta region.”
Perhaps there were no electrical
outages, but the Monday morning
weather possibly caused a minor
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Photo/Audra Perry
Forsyth County firemen battle a blaze that destroyed a garbage truck on Ga. 400 in south Forsyth.
Truck fire briefly closes Ga. 400
By Steven H. Pollak
Staff Writer
For the second time in less than a week, authorities
had to shut down all lanes of traffic on Ga. 400 due to a
fire.
On Monday, a garbage truck caught on fire at about 2
p.m. while traveling north on Ga. 400 just south of the
McFarland Road exit in south Forsyth.
As Forsyth firefighters battled the blaze, deputies from
the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office worked with officers
from the Alpharetta Police Department to shut down Ga.
400 between McFarland Road and Windward Parkway in
north Fulton.
Capt. Frank Huggins, the public information officer
with the Sheriff’s Office, said both sides of Ga. 400
remained closed for just a few minutes Monday before
deputies were able to open one lane of southbound traffic.
All lanes of traffic were reopened on the highway at
about 5 p.m., Huggins added.
Deputy Fire Chief Dwight Clark said no one was
injured in the incident.
The cause of the fire appeared to be some sort of elec-
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commission meeting,
hearings rescheduled
Students lose Feb. 17 day off
By Nicole Green
Staff Writer
Forsyth County students and
teachers enjoyed an unexpected hol
iday on Monday due to the icy
weather.
Superintendent Paula Gault
decided at 5:20 a.m. to close
schools for teachers and students.
“We probably could have gone,
but I’d rather err on the side of cau
tion,” Gault said.
Year-round employees reported
two hours late.
At 11 p.m. Sunday, Gault
intended to continue Monday morn
ing as usual. However, Director of
Transportation Garry Puetz began
testing the condition of bus routes at
3 a.m. Monday. He reported that
glitch in Fire Department communi
cations.
Fire Chief Danny D. Bowman
said ice on the Sawnee Mountain
antenna site “might” have been the
culprit behind firefighters’ hand-held
radios not working properly.
Despite the problem, firefighters
were able to better send and receive
radio transmissions by using the
radio units on the fire trucks.
Bowman emphasized that the Fire
INDEX
Abby 118
Classifieds 8B
Deaths 2A,
Events 5 A
Horoscope 118
Legals 3B
Opinion 10A
Sports IB
WEDNESDAY January 28, 2004
trical problem in the cab area which spread to the rest of
the truck and left it almost “totally destroyed," Clark said.
Two fire engines and a tanker truck responded to the
scene to help put down the flames, Clark added.
It was the second time since Thursday that authorities
had to shut down both sides of Ga. 400.
As rush hour began in earnest on Thursday morning,
deputies were forced to shut down the highway between
McFarland Road and Hwy. 141 when fire broke out at a
fertilizer manufacturing company.
The first employee to arrive for work at the Regal
Chemical Co. building on Branch Drive just off
McFarland Road walked inside, smelled smoke and called
911, according to a company official.
The company manufactures and blends fertilizers at
the Branch Drive facility and company officials believe
the fire started at an oven which warms chemicals used in
the fertilizer blending process.
A column of black smoke rose from the 75,000- to
100,000-square foot building and arched over Ga. 400,
hindering driver visibility on the highway.
The roadway remained closed for almost an hour-and
a-half on Thursday.
Advice
bridges and overpasses were lay
ered with ice, making it unsafe for
travelers on the way to school.
After a weather forecast predi
cated hazardous roadways and more
bad weather for the entire day,
Gault decided to close schools.
“That’s when I said I’m afraid
we can’t do this... and right after
that they closed Ga. 400,” Gault
said.
In addition to the dangerous
driving conditions, Gault said she
was also concerned about slippery
steps leading into mobile class
rooms at several schools.
The inclement weather day will
be made up on Feb. 17, the Tuesday
after President’s Day weekend.
Students will keep the Feb. 13 and
Feb. 16 holidays.
Department was never without radio
capabilities.
“We have experienced absolutely
no loss of communications as a result
of this morning’s ice,” he said
Monday. “The system is functioning
normally.”
The National Weather Service
forecasted a 50-percent chance of
freezing rain for Monday night, and
See WEATHER, Page 2A
Dear Abby
dishes out
good advice.
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Photos/Audra Perry
The top of Sawnee Mountain saw the most ice accumulation in
Forsyth County during the overnight and early morning freezing
rain that fell over much of North Georgia. Tree branches bowed
beneath the weight of the half-inch ice.
Murder suspect’s wife
is stunned by his arrest
By Steven H. Pollak
Staff Writer
The wife of the man accused of
murdering a door-to-door salesman
says her husband seemed fine when
she left their north Forsyth home
Thursday morning.
Grace Chadwick, 63, and her
husband. 66-year-old Morris Cecil
Chadwick, both lifelong residents of
Forsyth County, started the day at
their Elmo Road home with a tele
phone call from Morris’ younger
brother, Cleveland, who was in
Germany.
Grace Chadwick said she
answered the phone and spoke with
Cleveland for close to a half-hour
while her husband washed and
brushed his teeth.
She handed the phone to Moms
and then got ready to leave the
house. A cousin took her out to run
some errands at about 8:40 a.m., but
before she stepped out the door, her
husband paused his phone conversa
tion in order to say, “You be care
ful.”
Grace Chadwick said she wished
her husband the same thing and then
left the house.
The next time she’d see her hus
band of 47 years, he would be inside
the Forsyth County Adult Detention
Center charged with murder.
The couple has experienced
much tragedy in their time together.
They met at a church service in
the Shakerag community near
Suwanee. Grace Chadwick became
pregnant with their first child in
1959 but the unborn baby girl died
in the womb after just six months.
Ten years later, the Chadwicks had
their first and only child, a boy
See WIFE, Page 2A
Opinion
Columnist Bill Shipp
points out how quickly
political tides can change.
RagelOA
Photo/Audra Perry
Officers prepare to place Morris
Cecil Chadwick in a patrol car at
his home last week.
Sunny
LAKE LANIER LEVELS
Date Level
Jan. 19 1067.91 ft
Jan. 20 1067.82 ft
Jan. 21 1067.82 ft
Jan. 26 1068.01 ft
Full 1071.00 ft
High in the mid-40s.
Low in the mid-20s.
SPORTS, 1B
\ir;> tournament next on the mat