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Forsyth CountvNews
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Vol. 95, No. 48
Hospital eyes more operating rooms
By Harris Blackwood
Community Editor
Northside Hospital Forsyth has applied
to state regulators for permission to con
struct a S3B million expansion to the operat
ing rooms, a spokesman confirmed
Monday.
If approved, the hospital would double
its current operating room space, said
spokesman George h ey.
"The expansion will include four operat
ing rooms which would be totally dedicated
to inpatient surgery.” said Ivey, who said
that the procedures would include any con
ventional invasive surgery where the
abdomen or chest cavity is open.
The rooms would also be utilized for
major orthopedic surgery, such as a hip or
knee replacement.
Presently, the hospital has three operat-
Downhill racers
[/▼Jr &
Photos/David McGregor
Above, Boy Scouts from Troop 62 watch a warmup race at the group’s Pinewood Derby race
finals last weekend at Cumming First United Methodist Church. Below, Cub Scouts Nathaniel
Fasnacht and Jeffery Bernard watch the finals. Winners will proceed to the district competition
at Coal Mountain Elementary School.
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Attorney General won’t investigate
activist’s charge against Forsyth
By Todd Truelove
Staff Writer
The state Attorney General's
Office has refused to investigate a
complaint filed by ethics activist
George Anderson dealing with fees
charged by the Forsyth County gov
ernment for accessing county
records, saying it doesn’t understand
the problem.
Anderson, a Rome ethics consult
ant who has been working for a local
Missed paper policy:
For a replacement paper, call
8 a m. - 5:30 p.m. Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday, and 9 a m. -1
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Copyright C 2004 fortyth County New*
l 594 0400
ing rooms within its first floor surgical
suite.
The rooms are utilized for a combina
tion of inpatient and outpatient surgeries.
In addition, a room that has been used for
non-sterile procedures is being converted
into a full operating room.
The cost of that conversion was estimat
ed at SIOO,OOO. which did not require state
approval.
The application for the four new rooms
was submitted Friday to the Division of
Health Planning of the Georgia Department
of Community Health. It will be reviewed
by a panel which renders decision on new
or expanded major medical facilities w ithin
the state.
The hospital is in the midst of a $23 mil
lion expansion of the emergency depart
ment and diagnostic facilities within the
government “oversight" group, dis
puted fees assessed in a letter he
received from Jarrard and Davis, a
law firm that represents the county.
“I am unable to tell from your let
ter ... the subject of dispute." Senior
Assistant Attorney General Kathryn
Allen wrote in a March 12 response
to Anderson.
Earlier this month, Anderson
appeared before the Board of
Commissioners and notified commis
sion members of the request to the
INDEX
Abby 8A
Classifieds
Deaths 2A
Events 4A
Horoscope 8A
15.................................... 38
Opinion IDA
Sports IB
WEDNESDAY March 24, 2004
Advice
Dear Abby
dishes out
good advice.
PageSA
hospital.
The construction includes a new two
story 42,(MX)-square-foot emergency facility
and a 12.500-square-foot expansion of radi
ological services, which includes CAT
Scan, MRI, ultra sound, nuclear imaging,
mammography, bone density scans, inter
ventional radiology, teleradiology and con
ventional X-ray services.
Ivey said that the additional operating
room space would be constructed on the
first floor near the present operating area.
Northside Hospital Forsyth opened its
doors in 1999 as Baptist Medical Center.
At that time, the hospital was under the
ownership of the Georgia Baptist
Healthcare System, which later sold the
facility to Northside, which operates a flag
ship hospital in Sandy Springs and a second
community hospital in Canton.
Attorney General’s Office. He said
he had been illegally charged by the
attorneys.
Georgia law allows local munici
palities to charge fees for copying
records and for staff time required to
gather documents to comply with
open record requests.
Though the law firm’s Feb. 19
response to Anderson includes a
request for S4OO before it would
See ACTIVIST, Page 2A
County plans to
build new public
safety complex
Mold invades fire headquarters
By Todd Truelove
Staff Writer
The Forsyth County Board of
Commissioners Monday directed
staff to begin planning a new com
plex that will house operations of the
Fire Department including
administrative headquarters.
In addition, the new facility could
include other public safety depart
ments such as 911 communications
and a training center, according to
Fire Chief Danny Bowman.
"It will be Fire Station 12, Fire
Headquarters, the Fire Prevention
Bureau, a multi-use public safety
training facility, E9ll and the
Emergency Operations Center.” the
fire chief said, adding the building
would be good for 50 years.
Bowman said the new facility
would be called the Forsyth County
Public Safety Complex.
County staff asked commission
ers to consider building the new
facility after an independent contrac
tor. while inspecting the fire head
quarters, discovered mold at the
facility located off of Settendown
2-year-old runs into
moving pickup truck
DFCS investigating child endangerment
By Nicole Green
Staff Writer
A small child ran into Kelly Mill
Road Friday night and struck the side
of a pickup truck, sustaining minor
injuries, according to the Cumming
Police Department.
Austin Cain, 2. strayed from the
yard of 506 Kelly Mill Rd. at 7:50
p.m. The child ran into the side of a
westbound truck driven by Miguel
Infante.
“It scared the driver to death. He
didn't know what he had hit, and
then he looked back and saw a small
child bouncing off the road.” police
department assistant chief Maj. Gene
Sams said Monday.
Cain received only visible
injuries, a Georgia State Patrol oper
ator said. The child’s parents imme
diately transported the victim to
Northside Forsyth Hospital for treat-
Opinion
Columnist Bill Shipp
says Geoigia Democrats
clipping liberal wing.
PagelOA
l
Photo/Audra Perry
An expansion of the emergency room at Northside
Hospital Forsyth is under construction and sched
uled to be opening soon.
Partty Cloudy
High in the mid-60s.
Low in the high 30s.
SPORTS, IB
Forsyth baseball heads for home
Bowman
Road in north
Forsyth.
“We found
mold in the roof
rafters and in some
of the sheet rock on
the west side of the
building.” said
Bowman. "You
don’t play with
mold.”
While construe-
tion costs of a new facility are not yet
known. County Administrator Stevie
Mills reported to the board that the
cost to remove the mold is estimated
at around $4 million Mills and other
administrative staff, including
Assistant Administrator Dane Perry,
recommended building a new facili
ty-
Bowman, in an interview after the
meeting, said the complex would be
built on county-owned property
eliminating additional costs to pur
chase land.
He said there are two optional
See FIRE, Page 2A
ment. When the Cumming police
arrived, the child had already been
removed from the scene of the acci
dent. Cain was in stable condition at
Scottish Rite hospital as of Tuesday.
The Department of Family and
Children’s Services received tempo
rary custody of Cain on Friday night,
director Alvin Fowler said DFCS
will determine who will gain custody
of the child. DFCS continues to
investigate the incident.
The driver will not be charged,
according to GSP.
A child endangerment bill slated
to be signed by Gov. Sonny Perdue
could put a new spin on incidents
such as these.
Under the bill that passed the
state House of Representatives on
Friday, parents can be prosecuted for
See CHILD, Page 2A
LAKE LANIER LEVELS
Date Level
March 19 1069.89 ft
March 20 10694)8 ft
2 Mwchii ;
March 22 1069.91 ft
VFull 1071 TMHF *