Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 2A
- FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Fridty, March 12,2004
Deaths
Seth Abrahams
Mr. Seth Abrahams, 32, of
Alpharetta, formerly of New
York, died Sunday. March 7,
2004. Seth was a partner of
Partners in Precision
Diagnostics in Alpharetta.
A memorial service will be
Monday. March 15. at 7:30 p.m.
from the Johns Creek Baptist
Church in Alpharetta.
Survivors include his mother,
Sandy Abrahams of New York.
In lieu of flowers, contribu
tions may be made to your
favorite charity in the name of
Seth Abrahams.
Byars Funeral Home was in
charge of the arrangements.
Forsyth County News
March 12, 2004
Jennifer Kuznitz
Ms. Jennifer Jarriel "Jen"
Kuznitz. 34. of Alpharetta, for
merly of Milledgeville, died
Sunday, March 7.2004. Jennifer
was the owner of Jen's Graphics
in Alpharetta.
Survivors include her son,
Justin Kuznitz of Alpharetta;
parents. Billy and Bobbie Jarriel
of Milledgeville.
A memorial service will be
Monday. March 15. at 7:30 p.m.
from the Johns Creek Baptist
Church in Alpharetta.
In lieu of flowers, contribu
tions may be made to your
favorite charity in Jennifer’s
name.
Byars Funeral Home was in
charge of the arrangements.
Forsyth Counts News
March 12. 2004
Paul Short
Mr. Paul Short. 67, of
Dawsonville died Tuesday,
w _ March 9. 2004.
He was retired
_ from the con
struction busi-
VETERAXI ness and a veter
an of the U.S. Army and a
member of the V.F.W.
Survivors include his wife.
Pat Short of Forsyth County;
son and daughter-in-law. John
and Valerie Short of Forsyth
County; daughter. Michelle
Short of Forsyth County; grand
children. Stacy Short of
California, Aerial Hardie, Logan
Hardie, both of Forsy th County;
and a number of other relatives
also survive.
Private memorial services
will be at a later date.
Ingram Funeral Home was
in charge of the arrangements.
Forssth Counts' News
March 12. 2004
Tommy McMillen
Mr. Tommy McMillen. 54,
of Canton, died Tuesday, March
9, 2004. He was an electrician
and of the Baptist faith.
Survivors include wife,
Brenda Reece McMillen of
Canton; daughter, Jodie Bentley
of Canton; step-daughters.
Andria Blanton and Jennifer
Turner of Ball Ground; brother.
Charles McMillen of Canton;
sisters. Jane Robinson of Jasper
and Judy Lively of Ball Ground;
five grandchildren, nieces and
nephews.
Funeral services will be held
Friday. March 12. 2004. at 11
am., at the Chapel of South
Canton Funeral Home with Rev.
Billy Edmondson officiating.
Interment will follow in
Cherokee Memorial Park.
South Canton Funeral Home
& Chapel of Canton is in charge
of the arrangements.
Forsyth Counts' News
March 12. 2004
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Leßoy Ross
Mr. Leßoy Ross, 90, of
Dahlonega died Monday, March
8. 2004. Bom Feb. 26. 1914, in
Oconee County, he was the son
of the late Charlie and Fannie
Prather Ross. Mr. Ross had
resided in Lumpkin County for
the past 71 years. He was man
ager of Gold City Case and Pool
Room, loved the outdoors and
fishing and was of the Baptist
faith. He was preceded in death
by his wife, Adelaide Ross; and
son, Robert Ross.
Survivors include his daugh
ters, Hazel Tyson of Gainesville.
Mary Hall, Fannie Weidner and
Brenda Young, all of Dahlonega,
Ruth Piper of Marietta; sons,
Frank Ross and Howard Ross,
both of Dahlonega, Tommy
Ross of Dawsonville; brother,
Weldon Ross of Athens; sisters,
Rachael Ragland and Hazel
Ross, both of Athens; 18 grand
children; 27 great-grandchildren;
several great-great-grandchil
dren; several nieces and
nephews also survive.
Funeral services were
Thursday, March 11, at the
Dahlonega Baptist Church with
the Revs. Robert D. Green,
Lyman Caldwell and Junior
Evans officiating. Interment fol
lowed in the Mount Hope
Cemetery.
McKinney Funeral Home of
Dahlonega was in charge of the
arrangements.
Forss th County News
March 12. 2004
Rex Sexton
Mr. Rex Sexton, 56. of
Cumming died Tuesday. March
9. 2004.
Survivors include his wife.
Deborah Sexton of Cumming;
stepchildren. Danny and Sherri
Jennings. Brandi Samples, all of
Cumming; grandchildren,
Danae. Dylan, Dalton and Drake
Jennings, all of Cumming; father
and mother, Rade and Nettie
Mae Sexton of Cumming: sister
and brother-in-law, Connie and
Jim Berlin of Norcross;
nephew s, Brian Berlin of Viera.
Fla.. Chris Berlin of Norcross;
niece. Stephanie Viscarra of
Snellville; grandnieces. Kayla
Viscarra of Snellville. Annie
Kathryn Berlin of Viera. Fla.;
several aunts, uncles, cousins
and other relatives also survive.
Funeral services will be
Friday, March 12, at 2 p.m. at
the Ingram Funeral Home
Chapel with the Revs. Gary
Coffey and Ruel Martin officiat
ing. Interment will follow in the
Zion Hill Baptist Church
Cemetery.
Ingram Funeral Home was in
charge of the arrangements.
Forss th Counts News
March 12. 2004
Forsyth
County
Nows
Obituaries
LEGAL from 1A
partner in the firm with Angie
Davis, said the comments did
not surprise him as much as
they disappointed him.
“He has not been assessed
a bill,” Jarrard said in an inter
view Wednesday, adding his
firm has tried to provide the
activist with the requested
information which includes
reimbursement payments to
County Administrator Stevie
Mills, County Solicitor Leslie
Abernathy and all five county
commissioners, and records
from all meetings of the coun
ty’s Board of Ethics.
“We’ve had these docu
ments produced for weeks,”
Jarrard said.
Anderson is working on
behalf of a local group, the
Citizens Oversight Comm
ittee, that seeks to find and
remove corruption from gov
ernmental entities. Local polit
ical activist and frequent gov
ernment critic David Milum is
an organizer of that group.
Milum and Anderson both
recently had ethics charges
against the county solicitor
dismissed by the ethics board
due to lack of evidence.
In a Feb. 19 letter respond
ing to Anderson’s request, the
law firm requested 5179.50 for
318 copies at 25 cents each
and retrieval fees to access the
records from an off-site stor
age facility.
“That (the off-site retrieval
fee] is a direct cost that 1 have
to pass on to him.” Jarrard
said, adding it costs SSO to
retrieve the documents and
SSO to replace them. “I can’t
see assessing for those unless
he says he wants them."
However. Jarrard said that
the money is only due if
Anderson wants the copies.
“He doesn’t owe it to me
right now,” Jarrard said. “He
only owes me that money if he
wants those copies.”
County Public Infor-mation
Officer Bill Johnson said the
retrieval fees are the responsi
bility of the person who
requests the records, not coun
ty residents.
“He's [Anderson] supposed
to pay those fees, not the tax
payers," Johnson said.
While Georgia law allows
DRUGS from 1A
The stop was made in connec
tion with a narcotics investiga
tion ongoing for the past month,
according to local law enforce
ment officials. Officers with the
Dawson County Sheriff’s Office
assisted in the investigation.
During a press conference on
Wednesday. Sheriff Ted Paxton
described the arrest as “instru
mental” to infiltrating and
impeding local supply of the
drug.
"The bottom line is this is
our continuing and ongoing
effort to impact the meth trade in
Forsyth County." Paxton said
Wednesday.
Maj. Gene Moss said
Hernandez-Lopez was a major
supplier of "ice" in the north
Forsyth County area.
"This is ice. methampheta
mine in its purest form.” Moss
said.
An investigation is continu
ing into Hernandez-Lopez, he
added.
Local narcotics investigators
say they have noticed a recent
local governments to assess
fees for copies, retrieval costs
and the time it takes employ
ees to gather the information,
Jarrard said the work-related
fees were waived.
“We waived a fee (the time
cost for county employees to
get the documents] that we
were absolutely entitled to
obtain,” Jarrard said. “The bot
tom line is I want to get him
the documents he wants.”
The letter from the law
firm also requested an addi
tional $220 in unpaid debt for
open records request informa
tion the county compiled for
Anderson last year.
Jarrard said Anderson did
not respond to the letter until
Monday night’s public com
ment period before the board
of commissioners saying
he’s being charged for docu
ments he hasn’t seen and that
he shouldn’t be charged if he’s
only going to inspect the
records.
The activist’s letter asks the
county to “provide” the
records and does not include
inspecting them.
“The way his open records
request was couched, he didn’t
want to simply inspect these
records," Jarrard said. “He
wanted them provided. He
wanted copies.”
“If he just comes by to
look at the copies that have
been made there’s no
charge,” Jarrard said.
Davis said if Anderson
wants the documents, he
should have contacted the law
firm. "If there was a sincere
interest, then he would have
responded to our correspon
dence,” Davis said.
The law firm wrote another
letter to Anderson Tuesday to
address his concerns and
inform him there is no cost to
inspect the copies.
Johnson called Anderson’s
accusations “ridiculous" and
said Jarrard and Davis have
"bent over backward" to avoid
unnecessary fees.
"The problem I have with
these guys is they want to do
these so-called ‘investiga
tions.’ but they want the tax
payers to pick up the tab."
Johnson said.
increase in the amount of “ice”
in the county, noting users prefer
it to traditional methampheta
mine because its high lasts con
siderably longer, allowing them
to stay awake for days at a time
without sleep.
Ice is similar in appearance
to rock candy.
According to the federal
Drug Enforcement Agency, ice
contains the same active chemi
cal compound as powder
methamphetamine, but under
goes a recrystallization process
that removes impurities.
When smoked, highly con
centrated doses of the drug are
delivered instantaneously into
the user’s system and may cause
more compulsive use and more
severe delusions than traditional
methamphetamine.
Hl
a” 7 J
1
Happy
Birthday
Luann...
Cowgirl Up!!
MILUM from 1A
the governor’s office.”
Milum believes the GBI
action was a retaliatory action by
the governor’s office and GBI.
In his complaint against
Perdue, Milum criticized the
governor’s use of a state heli
copter to drop off his adult son,
Jim Perdue, at a state patrol
post in Cumming following a
day of official business Perdue
and his son conducted in mid
dle and south Georgia. Jim
Perdue was dropped off in
Cumming so he could attend a
local high school football game
with his wife, a teacher at North
Forsyth High School. The heli
copter then returned the gover
nor to Atlanta.
The Lamar County
woman’s custody battle is unre
lated to the ethics complaint
filed against the governor. In
that case, the woman’s children
were taken away from her by
case workers with the
Department of Family and
Children's Services.
Milum, who owns an orna
mental gate company, is a
member of the Forsyth County
Citizen’s Oversight Committee
and has lambasted the state’s
treatment of the woman on his
political Web site about
forsyth.com. The Web site has a
link on it to another Citizen’s
Oversight Committee in Lamar
County, where the woman’s
child custody case is the main
topic of discussion.
Following the phone con
versations between Milum and
the governor’s staff member,
the governor’s office requested
advice from the GBI and attor
ney general’s office.
“It was quite clear to us what
the statements were,” Bankhead
said of Milum's proposal.
Under Georgia law, bribery
is defined as giving or offering
any public official 'any benefit,
reward, or consideration to
which he or she is not entitled"
for the purpose of influencing
The Longstreet Preschool
a Ministry of Longstreet Baptist
Church located at
6468 Campground Road,
Cumming, GA.
Openings are available for all ages
(2 years - 5 years)
for the upcoming fall session.
4
Registration is Saturday, March 13th from
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 pm at the church.
For information, call 770-781-9100
Forsyth CountvNews
•/ Your "Hometown Paper " Since 1908 J
USPS 205-540
Veterans Memorial Blvd., Cumming, Georgia 30040
Phone: 770-887 3126 Fax: 770-889-6017
Internet Address: www.forsythnews.com
e Publisher DENNIS STOCKTON
General Manager NORMAN BAGGS
Editor TOM SPIGOLON
Advertising Director MARTI BARNES
Circulation Director PHIL JONES
MEMBER
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the official in his or her official
capacity. The crime carries a
fine of up to $5,000 and a
prison sentence of between one
and 20 years.
The search warrant was exe
cuted less than two days after
Milum and fellow political
activist George Anderson lashed
out at the county government for
what they considered a pattern
of corruption by local officials.
Milum has faced court pro
ceedings related to his interac
tion with public officials in the
past, including an accusation he
intimidated County
Commissioner Marcie Kreager.
Following the search of his
home, Milum called the warrant
a “fraud warrant” because he
considered it legally deficient.
“They were looking for a
recording where I talked to
Harold Melton, the governor’s
chief counsel and John Watson,
the governor’s chief of staff,”
said Milum, who said that he
had an audio cassette tape of
the conversation
Milum said that he believes
that the investigation was trig
gered by two events the
ethics complaint he filed
against the governor and an
unflattering report he published
about a retired GBI agent who
spearheaded an investigation
into former Forsyth County
Sheriff Denny Hendrix.
Among the items seized by
the GBI agents was a computer
Milum uses to update his Web
site and another computer
belonging to his wife. He said
the agents also removed disks
and recorded media from his
home. Milum said the removal
of his computer would not stop
him from continuing to oper
ate his Web site.
“This won’t slow me
down. I'll do double time
now.”
A spokeswoman for the
governor, Loretta Lepore,
declined to comment.