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Forsyth Coiint'' NU * ~ J Your "Hometown Paper" Since 1901 18 p dt.u'.‘ geqr[ ,, !fi main libr Vol. 95, No. 041 Local smoking prohibition study stalls By Todd Truelove i Staff Writer Depending on the outcome of state legislation banning smoking in businesses and other facilities used by the public, the Forsyth County government may put aside the notion of imposing a similar prohibition w ithin the county. The Board of Commissioners Monday postponed until May 10 appointing members to a committee | that would study the issue and make | a recommendation to the board whether the county needs to ban t smoking in establishments such as , restaurants and. if so, what type of regulations should be enforced. i To become law. the state legisla- ; tion to ban smoking in some estab- < lishments now waits on a vote from i Fifth-graders sign contract Students learn the health dangers of cigarette smoking By Nicole Green Staff Writer Fifth-grade students at Matt Elementary on Tuesday saw first hand how smoking affects the human body. Anna Pohl's class passed around a real smoker's lung, their noses screwed up with the disgusting smell of formaldehyde. Both lungs were the color of rotten bananas and one had the same consistency. The other lung was hardened with emphysema. "It looks like brownies," Zack Holbrook, 11, said. Ashiee Carlson. 11, said the deflated, bloodless lungs were gooey and cold. "It feels like gelatin," Steven Parianos, 11. said. Nurse Angie Caton from Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville visits annually, to teach the students about the dangers of smoking. Fifth-graders are a prime audience, school nurse Connie Trent said, because the average age children try their first cigarette is 11. "Today is to get them thinking about it before the peer pressure of middle school." Trent said. Trent asked the fifth-graders to sign a contract, witnessed by two of their best friends, promising never to smoke. With the support of friends, it is easier to say "no." "You’ll be saying, ‘We're not going to make the tobacco compa nies rich, and we're not going to hurt our lungs,’” Trent said. As part of an essay contest, each fifth-grader wrote a letter encourag ing a loved one to stop smoking. Caton passed around a smoky towel, the contents of a cigarette and a bag of chewing tobacco. One of the children commented that the chewing tobacco smelled like mint. “That’s how the tobacco compa nies get you to try it, because it smells good,” Caton said. The class discussed different ways cigarette manufacturers get their customers hooked on their product from nicotine addiction to the Joe Camel cartoon character used in print ads. Whether the smoke comes from a cigarette or cigar, the children learned that nico tine-laced smoke robs the body of oxygen. Smoking causes emphyse ma, premature births and chronic coughing. See LUNG, 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 C 2004 Fortyth County New« " 90994 0400 ™ Unterman bill, said restaurant franchises sup ported the bill to create a uniform standard throughout Georgia and eliminate local ordinances which vary between counties. "It passed the Senate overwhelm ingly without much opposition at all.' UnTerman said. "The main objective of the law is so we have uniform standards." i , I SWr % w* 7JI MF bt % Ji L ' * Photos/Audra Perry Fifth-graders at Matt Elementary School participated in a "No Smoking" program organized annually by school nurse Connie Trent, below in blue. Above, 11-year old Steven Parianos holds the lung. He said it felt like gelatin. Below, Mikhayla Martinez, 11, grimaces as Northeast Georgia Medical Center nurse Angie Caton, right, displays a deceased smoker's lung. Unafraid, 10-year-old Veronica Dougherty awaits her turn to touch the exhibit. ' 'IS Tilf * 1 '1 INDEX Abby 5B Classifieds 2B Deaths .. 2A Government 4A Horoscope 5B Kids Page lOA Opinion 9A Sports 8A THURSDAY March 11, 2004 the House of Representatives after the Senate approved it 45-7 on March 4. It would then have to be signed by the governor. State Sen. Renee Unterman. R-Loganville. a co-sponsor of the |Government| Second annual Taste of Forsyth to benefit Family Haven Page4A "That really matters to franchises; they were the ones that were really interested in it." she said. Courtney Prewett, the executive director of the Georgia Restaurant Association, agreed that because of the “hodgepodge" of local restric tions. the GRA prefers a standard ized regulation. "Our first priority is that we don't want government interference," Prewett said. "Baiting that, we would support a statewide solution." However, while the bill would prohibit smoking in most restaurants in the state, it does not prevent local governments from imposing stricter standards —a limitation Prewett does not anticipate will cause prob lems. "I don't see that as a concern right now." she said. "It's a fairly comprehensive piece of legislation." However, with only 10 days remaining in the Legislature’s 2004 session, state Rep. Tom Knox. R- Cumming, said he doubts the bill will be addressed by House legisla tors this year due to partisan politics. He said legislation that has passed through the Republican Senate will be addressed by the House, which has a majority of Democrats, next year predicting elections in November will result in a Republican majority of representatives. “There are a lot of important mat ters down here that are not being addressed [because of the Democrats],” Knox said. "We ll have a Republican majority one way or the other next year." Knox said while he does not smoke, he is opposed to the bill and Sports ■ Coverage of Monday’s high school baseball games. PageßA <ju cents First Vote gets teens involved Local youth help at precincts By Todd Truelove Staff Writer Forsyth County Chief Voter Registrar Gary J. Smith wants to get more younger voters to participate in the democratic process. To that end. Smith and co-worker Jayne Munda began the First Vote program which ~11 involves teaching high school students how to work at the polls in various county precincts. ’ "Part of my concern is that the < il ing [rate] for the 18-24 year olds is just terrible." Smith said. "I was with people '■ll.ci -laics and they were doing thisß sort of thing." he said. "I just thought it I was a great idea." Smith Smith said the response from the March 2 presidential primaries overwhelmingly sup ported the program. "The response was excellent." Smith■ said "I have gotten letters from workers and from participants, it extremely positive." Students must be 16-18 years old participate in the program. Elizabeth Fairchild, a junior at South F* fe Forsyth High School, helped at the Sharon Fork precinct and said it was| | her first experience with the voting e-s— --process. Fairchild “I had no idea what to expect." Fairchild said What began as away to earn credit toward a special ized high school diploma became something more for the 16-year-old as she trained for election day. "The people I worked with were great." she said. “I had several people tell me how great it was to see teenagers [at the polls]. That meant a lot to me." Fairchild said she found the amount of registered voters who actually turned out to vote interesting when cohi pared to the total .v lumber of registered of my concern IS voters. tnat the voting [rate] In the Sharon Fork for the 18-24 year precinct, 492 out of olds is iust terrible." 2.468 registered vot ers or 20 percent 99 participated in the March 2 election. “It really drove home the point that your vote means something." Fairchild said. She said she intends to con tinue participating in the program, as well as get more students interested in it. “I'd love to become more involved in telling people about First Vote.” Fairchild said. “Both my parents are registered to vote. That makes it really important to me.” Upon graduating. Fairchild plans to attend the University of Texas and eventually go to law school. Smith said overall 50 students participated in the county initiative program. “[The students] were evenly distributed between North. South and Central high schools.” he said. "We're going to do this forever, if we can." Smith said. “We may need more support from the community because it takes a lot of additional work. So far, we think it is very worthwhile.” Partly Cloudy LAKI LANIER LEVELS Uk Date Level March 6 1069.78 ft 1 March 7 1069.84 ft J Marchß 1069.85 ft WOrWW March 9 1069.85 ft Fol! 1071.00 ft High in the low 60s. Low in the mid-30s. r ***“ M BUSINESS, IB New Publix opens would likely vote against it unless he is asked to support it by the GRA. "If they come and ask me to sup port the ban, I probably will," Knox said. Like Knox, Rep. Jack Murphy, R- Cumming, said he doesn’t smoke but is hesitant to impose governmental regulations on private businesses. "1 don't favor smoking. I know it’s hazardous to your health. It does a lot of damage," Murphy said. "But I am for preserving individuals' and business owners' rights. That’s my problem with the bill.” “I don’t think it’s right for us to tell a business owner what they’re supposed to do. If they buy the prop erty and build the building, they should have the right to say if they allow smoking in their building or not.” he said.