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l FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Thursday, March 4,2004
Deaths
Jeff Croft
Mr. Jeff Croft, 42, of
Cumming died Monday, March
1. 2004. He was preceded in
death by his brother. Bill Croft.
Survivors include his wife.
Chris Croft of Cumming; par
ents, Shery l and Harry Croft of
Cumming; children. Tabitha
Croft. Meagan Croft, both of
Canton. Mikayla Croft. Cortney
Boles, both of Cumming; grand
daughter. Haley Shay Croft of
Cumming; brother and sister-in
law. David H. and Theresa Croft
of Dawsonville; sisters and
brothers-in-law, Debra and Gary
Smith of Dawsonville. Susan
Croft and children. Brooke and
Blake, all of Dawsonville. Lynn
and Bart Hammond of
Cumming; grandmothers. Hah
Mae Chapel of Cumming. Mary
Lee and Leßoy Ellis of
Acworth; nieces, nephews and
other relatives also survive.
Funeral services will be
Thursday. March 4. at 4 p.m. at
the Ingram Funeral Home
Chapel with the Revs. David
Croft. Dan Henderson. David
Harris and Joseph Hamelly offi
ciating. Interment will follow in
the Sawnee View Memorial
Gardens.
Ingram Funeral Home is in
charge of the arrangements.
Forsvth County News
March 4. 2004
Vera Agnes Smith
Mrs. Vera Agnes Smith. 90.
of Cumming died March 1,
2(X)4. A native of Dalton. Mrs
Smith was the oldest of four sib
lings. After graduating from
high school, she moved to
Chattanooga, Tenn, and worked
at the Davenport Hosiery Mill.
She married Earl Smith in 1936.
The Smith's moved to Atlanta in
1952 and at the age of 70. she
retired from Union Oil after 30
years of service. A life-long
Methodist. Mrs. Smith also
attended Peachtree First Baptist
Church. She is preceded in death
by her husband.
Survivors include two
daughters and sons-in-law. Judy
and Bob Catron of Buford and
Linda and Barry Childs of
Cumming; a brother. J.P. Turner
of Dalton; two granddaughters
and their husbands; three great
grandchildren and many nieces
and nephews.
Funeral services will be
Friday. March 5. at 1:30 p in. at
McDonald and Son Funeral
Home with the Rev. Ron Preuss
officiating.
Interment will follow at
Melwood Cemetery in Stone
Mountain.
The following gentlemen
have been requested to serve as
pallbearers. Mr. R.T Catron. Mr.
E.B. Childs. Mr. Michael
Madigan. Mr. Billy Payne. Mr.
W. Glenn Cunningham and Mr.
K.F. Winn.
In lieu of flowers, contribu
tions may be made to the
Forsyth County Senior Center
for Meals on Wheels. 595
Dahlonega Hwy., Cumming,
GA 30040.
McDonald and Son Funeral
Home and Crematory is in
charge of the arrangements.
Forsyth County News
March 4. 2004
Barbara Dressel Stone
Mrs. Barbara Dressel Stone.
70. of Cumming died Monday,
March 1. 2004. A graduate of
William and Mary College, she
was a member of the Tri-Delt
Sorority. She was a member of
Midway United Methodist
Church and a member of the
Ambassador Sunday school
class. She was preceded in death
by her son, Howard Douglas
Dressel.
Survivors include her hus
band. William L. Stone of
Cumming; sons and daughter
in-law, Kenneth and Isabel
Dressel of Foster City, Calif.,
Douglas Dressel of Boca Raton.
Fla.; daughter and son-in-law.
Deborah and Jody Tanner of
Acworth; seven grandchildren;
and other relatives also survive.
Funeral services will be
Thursday. March 4, at 11 a.m. at
the Ingram Funeral Home
Chapel with the Revs. Charles
Robinson and Martha
Achenbacher officiating.
Interment will follow in the
Arlington Memorial Park.
Ingram Funeral Home is in
charge of the arrangements.
Forsyth County News
March 4, 2004
Adopt-a-Road aids ‘health’ of thoroughfares
By Nicole Green
Staff Writer
Gene and Dianne Hansard
probably have collected more
junk than anyone else in
Forsyth County.
Once a week for 10 years,
the Hansards have collected a
bag of trash on Crossroads
and Bennett roads. That is 52
garbage bags each year, and
more than 500 bags altogether.
"We're in the shortcut
between Crossroads and the
country music park
(Lanierland), so we get all the
trash,” Dianne Hansard said.
Debris from trucks on the
way to G&G Sanitation blows
into the roadway. Between
concert and dump truck traf
fic, the shoulder needs regular
Governor welcomes
American Home
Shield to Georgia
LAGRANGE Gov.
Sonny Perdue recently offi
cially welcomed American
Home Shield’s (AHS) new
employee call center to
LaGrange and the state of
Georgia, generate an addi
tional 400 jobs.
AHS was founded in 1971
and is the nation's largest
home warranty provider.
Watch out for identity theft, 888 warns
In the past, when a thief
stole your wallet or purse, that
person was after hard currency.
Today, that thief is after your
identity not your money, and
a few of your documents —a
Social Security card, a driver's
license or a credit or debit card
can be worth thousands of
dollars in the wrong hands, the
Better Business Bureau warns.
• What does the identity
thief want?
• Where does the identity
thief find these'.’
• How are these used?
• How can you defend your
self’
What does the identity thief
want?
Simply put. the thief wants
to become you and the bet
ter you look on paper, the more
likely you are to be a target.
There are an almost infinite
number of ways for a thief to
steal your identity; we'll dis
cuss the most common ones
here. But everything starts with
the thief's ability to get access
to certain key pieces of infor
mation that belong to you.
Here's just a few things the
thief is looking for:
• Your Social Security card
• Your driver's license
• Your account numbers
(bank, credit card and others).
PIN(s) and passwords
Where does the identity
thief find these?
In the real world, the
answers to this question range
from the absolutely obvious to
the very unusual. Here are just
some of the sources a thief may
go to obtain your personal
information:
• Your wallet or purse. Take
just a moment right now to take
out your wallet or open your
purse. Imagine that you were
up to no good. What could you
do with the contents? While
you probably don't have an
excessive amount of cash, most
of us have a great deal of per
sonal information packed into
this relatively small space. How
many credit cards are you car
rying ? Do you have bank PINs
jotted down to jog your memo
ry? How about your health
insurance ID card? Voter regis
tration card? Driver's license,
registration and auto insurance
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• To participate in the
Adopt-A-Road program in
Forsyth County, contact
Jennifer Szabo at (770)
205-4573 or jasza
bo@forsythco.com.
de-cluttering.
Jennifer Szabo, resource
coordinator for the county
engineering department, said
the Hansards have the longest
running record of participation
in the county Adopt-A-Road
program.
There are 36 adopted roads
in Forsyth County that are
cleaned quarterly by local
civic organizations, business
es, subdivisions and families.
Less than 10 miles of state
highway in Forsyth is adopted
1993 from 1A
Kerry.
The Rev. Al Sharpton of New York came in third in the coun
ty and state with 6 percent of the total votes on the Democrat
ballot locally.
The race between Edwards and Kerry was close statewide;
286,427, or 47 percent, Georgia voters picked Kerry, and
253.124 voters, or 41 percent, chose Edwards.
Despite the rain and gloomy weather, turnout at Forsyth
County polls to vote in the primary was greater than Smith
expected.
Earlier in the day, he predicted als percent turnout. Results
indicate 20.5 percent, or 12,389. of Forsyth County’s total
60.425 voters participated in the election.
card'.’ Frequent flyer or frequent
guest cards? Car rental premi
um cards? Is your Social
Security number on one or
more of the documents?
• Your mailbox. In the
wrong hands, your incoming
mail can be a treasure trove of
information about you. A bill
from your credit card company,
a statement from your checking
account, an unsolicited offer of
a new, pre-approved credit card
(complete with application).
And your outgoing mail may
include personal checks you are
sending to pay bills (containing
your routing and checking
account numbers). If you don't
have a locked mailbox for
incoming and outgoing mail,
you are vulnerable.
• Your glove compartment.
Some people's auto glove com
partment contains their owner's
manual, and not much more.
For other people, it's a mobile
filing cabinet, containing things
like vehicle registrations, insur
ance cards, old bills, credit card
receipts. If you left your car
unlocked and someone got
inside, how much personal
information about you could
they discover?
• Your trash. Because people
find it hard to believe that any
one would want to pour
through garbage cans, they
throw away the damdest things
things like unsolicited credit
card applications, old bills,
expired credit cards, unused
checking account deposit slips
and countless other papers. So.
for the identity thief, a bit of
“dumpster diving" can provide
a rich harvest of personal infor
mation information that can
be used to become you.
• You. Sometimes, you can
be your own worst enemy.
Simply put. the easiest way for
The City off Cumming plans
to close Tolbert Street to
through traffic starting March 8,
2004. This closure will last
approximately sixty days while a
new culvert is constructed as
part of the Tolbert Street
Widening Project.
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through the Georgia
Department of Transportation
Adopt-A-Road program.
An Adopt-A-Road sign
marks each group’s territory.
Each volunteer receives free
latex gloves, trash bags and
orange safety vests. Diapers,
beer bottles and soda cans are
collected in the bags, which
are later picked up by the
county.
Volunteers bond while col
lecting some strange items
from the roadside. Most of it
is trash, but occasionally
Szabo said a money shows up
in the grass.
Cleanup volunteers also
help the county Roads and
Bridges Department maintain
the roads. If a shoulder needs
repair, no one would know
a thief to steal your identity is
to ask you for it. Posing as your
bank, or your insurance compa
ny. or your doctor’s office, the
thief calls you on the telephone,
gives you a plausible story and
asks you for key pieces of per
sonal information. This practice
is called "pretexting", and you
can learn more about the prac
tice from the Federal Trade
Commission.
How are these used?
The short answer is, “if
you can dream it. the identity
thief can and probably has
done it. Here’s just a short
list of some of the things that
identity thieves have done
with the information and
documents they’ve acquired:
• Use your credit card(s)
to go on a buying spree, pur
chasing major items like
computers and other elec
tronic devices that can be
easily sold.
• Open new credit card
accounts, using your name,
date of birth and Social
Security number.
• Change the mailing
address on your existing
credit card account.
• Buy cars and take out
the auto loans in your name.
• Establish telephone or
wireless phone service in
your name.
• Counterfeit checks or
debit cards, and drain your
bank account.
• Open a bank account in
your name and write bad
checks on that account.
• File for bankruptcy
under your name to avoid
paying debts they've
incurred, or to avoid eviction.
• Apply for a job under
your name.
• Give your name to the
police during an arrest. When
better than the people who see
the road up close while pick
ing up garbage.
"They do a great job
because they let us know the
health of the road,” Szabo
said.
Also, if a group sees that
an area is particularly littered,
Szabo can put up a “Do Not
Litter” sign or have the area
patrolled more often.
“You can clean up litter all
day long, but eventually you
have to go to the source,”
Szabo said.
Compared with surround
ing metro Atlanta counties,
Forsyth’s roads are relatively
clean, Szabo said.
Relatively clean does not
mean litter free, however.
Forsyth County has its hot
BOND from 1A
groups involved in the process so that the community as a whole
can support the upgrades.
“You’ve got to bring in all groups,” Smith said. “You’ve got
to include all people in the county.”
In addition. Smith said the vote needs to be taken during an
election when more people vote and that by not doing so “you’re
essentially usurping the spirit of democracy."
If it had been approved, the $65 million as proposed would
have been paid through a 20-year span totaling around SIOO
million including interest at the end of that period.
In addition, the county would have needed to purchase land
in downtown Cumming and furnished the facilities; those costs
would likely not have been provided with the bonds.
they are released and if
they don’t show up for their
court date an arrest warrant
could be issued in your name.
How can you defend
yourself? You need some
basic self-defense strategies
to combat identity theft. Let's
take a look at some:
• Your wallet or purse.
Let's begin here with the
obvious. Don't carry your
Social Security card in your
wallet or purse (unless you
are visiting the Social
Security office— in that
case, remember to put it
away when you get home).
Next, look for other docu
ments which contain your
Social Security number. For
example, some states use that
number as your driver's
license number. If that's the
case, ask your state motor
vehicle department if they
can assign you some other
number on your license. Do
the same thing whenever
your Social Security number
is used as an account number.
If your Social Security num
ber is on other documents,
and you don't need them
every day. consider leaving
them at home.
• Credit/debit cards.
Forsyth CountvNews
•/ Your "Hometown Paper" Since 1908 J
I SPS 205 540
Veterans Memorial Blvd.. Cumming. Georgia 30040
Phone: 770-887-3126 Fax: 770-889-6017
Internet Address: www.forsvthnews.com
e Publisher DENNIS STOCKTON
General Manager NORMAN BAGGS
Editor TOM SPIGOLON
Advertising Director MARTI BARNES
Circulation Director PHIL JONES
MKMBKI
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spots for littering, one being
the Ga. 400 interchange with
Hwy. 141.
Litter is like a serious dis
ease, Szabo said. Few people
consider the effects of cancer
until it strikes a friend or rela
tive.
Similarly, the “disease” of
litter and its effects on the
environment become visible
when a resident takes a closer
look at his or her own road.
“If people do a cleanup
and they see how the roads
are, then they will see it’s
important,” Szabo said.
The entire month of April
is set aside for the Great
American Cleanup. But Szabo
says winter is the best time to
do a “spring cleaning” before
foliage hides the trash.
• Don't carry one single
card more than you really
need every day. Many of us
carry every credit/debit card
we have, yet few of these
cards get daily use. If you
don't have them on your per
son. they are a lot less likely
to disappear.
• If you aren't using one
or more credit cards, cancel
them in writing with the
issuing financial institution
then cut the card(s) into
small strips before disposing.
• Do not write your per
sonal identification number
(PIN) on the back of your
credit card and don't write it
on a little sheet of paper you
carry in your wallet or purse.
You might as well give a
thief the keys to your car .
Pay for a‘special’list of federal
& postal jobs? DOMT DO (T!
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It's free at www.usaiobs.opni.gov
If you see a job guarantee', contact the FTC.
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1-877-FTC-HELP