Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 2A
■ FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Thursday, January 29,2004
Deaths
James Marion Blackwell
Mr. James Marion Black
well, 76, of Forsyth County
died Sunday, Jan. 25, 2004.
Survivors include his wife,
Ruth Neighbors Blackwell of
Cumming; sons, James Black
well, Johnny Blackwell, Ricky
Blackwell, all of Cumming;
daughters and son-in-law,
Elaine and James Payne,
Patricia Blackwell, all of
Cumming; 11 grandchildren;
several great-grandchildren;
mother-in-law, Cora Neighbors
of Rochelle; brothers- and sis
ters-in-law, Betty and Jack
Lane, Pledger and Lavanda
Neighbors, J.W. and Ruby
Neighbors, Bonnie Davis, all of
Rochelle, Gene and Alice
Evans, Janie Nichols, Grady
Callahan, all of Cumming,
Suzie Blackwell of Alpharetta;
nieces, nephews and other rela
tives survive.
Graveside services were
Wednesday, Jan. 28, at the
Sawnee View Memorial Gar
dens with the Revs. Emory
Samples, Richard Picklesimer
and Albert Kyle officiating.
Ingram Funeral Home was
in charge of the arrangements.
Forsyth County News
January’ 29, 2004
Irene Cannizzo
Mrs. Irene Cannizzo, 82, of
Buford died Jan. 24, 2004. She
was a native of Bamesbro, Pa.
Survivors include her
daughters, Shirley Davey of
Cumming; brother, Warren
DesJardins of Fort Myers, Fla.
No services are planned.
L.W. McDonald and Son
Funeral Home and Crematory
in Cumming is in charge of the
arrangements.
Forsyth County’ News
. January 29, 2004
Mark Garrison Foster
Mr. Mark Garrison Foster,
45, of Dahlonega died Sunday,
Jan. 25, 2004. Born Aug. 30,
1958, in Charlotte, N.C., and a
former resident of Cumming,
Mark had lived in Lumpkin
County for the past six years.
He was an operating engineer
for Dennis Taylor and Co., a
member of Operating
Engineer’s Local No. 926, the
H&J Hunting Club, the
National Rifle Association and
Bass Angler's Club. Mr. Foster
was a baseball and football
coach with the Lumpkin
County Park and Recreation
and was Protestant in faith. He
was preceded in death by his
father, Raymond Henry Foster.
Survivors include his wife,
Marilee Foster of Dahlonega;
daughter, Ashley Foster of
Sandy Springs; sons, Cole
Raymond Foster, Keith Gar
rison Foster, both of Dahlone
ga; mother, Mrs. Blue Grosser
of Ventura, Calif.; brother,
Brock Foster of Jackson, Miss.;
a niece and a nephew.
Funeral services were
Wednesday, Jan. 28, at the
Dahlonega Presbyterian Church
with the Rev. Frank G. Col
laday officiating.
McKinney Funeral Home of
Dahlonega was in charge of the
arrangements.
, Forsyth County News
January 29, 2004
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LAND from 1A
to get this out,” she said.
“Am I happy? No,” Unterman said.
“I’m already putting in another bill
related to ... the distance where you
can put a power line related to school
grounds.”
“You can’t have everything in the
very beginning,” she said. “A little is
better than nothing.”
HOPE Chairman Mike Carter said
the bill obviously favors the power
industry.
“The power industry has written
what they wanted,” Carter said.
An example often used by propo
nents to show the need for legislation
is a case that involves Georgia Power’s
condemnation of 33 acres of property
owned by Conyers resident W.E.
Honey.
The land was condemned in the
mid-1980s. To date, no project has
been constructed on the land.
“To the extent that the [power
industry’s] right of eminent domain
says that a utility has to have an imme
diate need for property before it can be
condemned and that they did con
demn it they should have been
forthright enough to say they didn’t
need the property for what they
HARRIS from 1A
a Fulton County lawsuit in
which a Delta Airline pilot said
he entrusted the would-be
financial planner with his
retirement savings of
$700,000.
In the latest investor lawsuit
to be brought against Harris, a
third woman said she was
promised a 12 percent return
on her $70,000 investment but
she never saw her money
again.
According to the Forsyth
County suits, Harris used the
money to operate a “ponzi
scheme” and also appropriated
funds for his own use.
One other lawsuit stems
from a business relationship
formed in October 2001.
Harris and another man began
a company called Automotive
Consulting Group LLC which
did business under the name of
Lanier Marine Performance.
According to the lawsuit,
both men had a 50 percent
stake in the business and
Harris allegedly convinced his
partner that the company
should open an account with
American Express. They filled
out the application and asked
for credit cards in each of their
names.
Court documents say Harris
received the cards along with a
few “convenience checks”
from American Express but he
never told his business partner.
The lawsuit says Harris
then forged his business part
ner’s name on one of the con
venience checks made out for
SIO,OOO to the supposed
investment company, PIS
Funding.
He allegedly attempted to
forge several other conven
ience checks but American
Express did not honor them
because the company was
already over its limit on the
credit line.
Besides the check forgeries,
the lawsuit alleges Harris
signed his partner’s name in
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required it for,” Honey said in a tele
phone interview Tuesday.
Before the bill passed through the
Senate this year, Unterman spoke in
favor of the amended bill and said she
had encouraged Georgia Power to
negotiate with Honey for his land.
Honey said there was one negotia
tion, and that it had taken place
Tuesday.
“I was informed by the power com
pany that they in all probability had
some future plans for the property,”
Honey said of the discussion with a
representative for Georgia Power.
He continued, “Since they had
future plans for the property, [they
said] they would not be in a position
to make any restitution. That’s about
the extent of the negotiations.”
“If they just wanted to do the* right
and decent thing, they should return
it.”
Unterman said the bill, if approved,
would help prevent a similar recur
rence by giving the power industry the
right to give a property owner his land
back for the fair market value of the
land. The amount of time required to
expire before allowing such an offer
would depend on the voltage of the
Ponzi Scheme
According to the U.S.
Securities and Exchange
Commission, a Ponzi
scheme works on the
“rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul”
principle as “money from
new investors is used to
pay off earlier investors”
until the whole operation
collapses.
order to purchase a 1999
Clsoo Chevrolet pickup from
Lou Sobh Used Cars.
Around the same time that
he allegedly convinced the
investors to plunk down their
savings, Harris bought a
$285,000 speed boat from a
company in South End Counts,
Tenn., called Pier 57.
Detective Jeffrey D. Roe of
the Forsyth County Sheriff’s
Office said Harris paid
$150,000 as a down payment
and made a few subsequent
payments before financing the
remaining balance of $85,000.
Roe said Harris never made
another payment. Even so,
Harris brought the boat back to
the Tennessee business a year
later for some repairs. When he
returned to pick up the boat,
the business said Harris could
not take it until he paid for
both the repairs and the
amount he owed for the financ
ing.
He wrote two checks, one
for $48,000 to cover the repairs
and another for $94 to cover
the financing and principal on
his balance for the original
purchase.
With the boat in tow, Harris
returned to Georgia and subse
quently told the Tennessee
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transmission line; 15 years for
230,000 kilovolts or more, and 12
years for transmission lines less than
230,000 kilovolts.
“I do think that it’s ridiculous they
they would take [Honey’s] property
for that many years,” Unterman said.
“That’s absolutely not right.”
Carter said it’s a fallacy to think
the bill prevents what happened to
Honey from happening again because
there are no provisions for due
process.
“If Mr. W.E. Honey of Conyers had
experienced due process in 1984, his
33 acres of land would not have been
unnecessarily seized and unused for
two decades,” Carter said. “They kept
his land for two decades and they did
not allow him to challenge the need in
court.”
“If they were able to take land that
they didn’t need for two decades
they were not allowed due process
therefore the state has violated the
U.S. Constitution,” Carter said.
And because the bill simply gives
the power industry, if so desired, the
right to offer a property owner his land
back, Carter said it does not require
that to happen.
company that the boat sank
and therefore he was going to
stop payment on the checks.
The company has not heard
from him in almost three years,
Roe said.
The boat apparently never
sank. Roe said Harris sold off
the pieces, including the
engines, and eventually got
$35,000 for the shell of the
vessel.
But, the vessel needed
some repairs and when it was
taken into a Hall County shop
in June 2003, a boat mechanic
who had heard about the earli
er incident with Pier 57 called
the company to say he thought
he had their missing merchan
dise.
At that point, law enforce
ment officials began investigat
ing and found the serial num
bers had been tampered with,
Roe said.
Harris remained on the run
until the Forsyth County
Sheriff’s Office received a tip
that he was living in
Hillsborough, Fla., a town near
Tampa.
As of Tuesday afternoon,
he remained in custody at the
Forsyth County jail on a
$248,000 bond.
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Serious injuries
Capt. Frank Huggins of the Forsyth County Sheriff’s
Office said a Chevrolet Blazer driven by Suzzanne
Peppers, 31, of Forsyth County collided with a Hyundai
driven by Joshua David Stowers of Dawsonville at the
intersection of Heardsville and Hurts Bridge roads. Both
drivers were seriously injured. Stowers was flown to
North Fulton Regional Hospital by helicopter. Peppers
was taken to North Fulton by ambulance. No charges
have been filed pending the completion of the investiga
tion. Above, firefighter Jamie McPherson packs up after
the wreck.
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“Instead of fixing the problem,
they just codified it to do it as long as
they wanted,” Carter said.
He also criticized the bill because
it applies only for property in the path
of a transmission line that is more than
a mile in length and excludes proper
ties affected by substations and trans
mission lines less than a mile long.
Other concerns HOPE has with the
bill, Carter said, include it not apply
ing to property involved in negotiation
or condemnation procedures before
July 1, 2004, and that there is no
requirement for a certificate of need to
be issued by the Public Service
Commission.
“In the original legislation that was
trashed by the Senate, the PSC was
charged with the task of assessing the
need of a line and issuing a certificate
of public need,” Carter said. “With the
[Senate-aproved legislation], virtually
everything is at the sole discretion of
the power industry. They are the sole
determiner of a project’s need and via
bility.”
Unterman said the state currently
does not have the funds to provide for
the staff and administration necessary
to apply the PSC’s oversight.