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Vol. 95, No. 59
Ga. 400 to widen this summer for buses
By Todd Truelove
Staff Writer
A new bus system that will take
passengers from Forsyth County to a
MARTA station in north Fulton
County is setting the stage for the
widening of Ga. 400.
Contractors will begin expanding
shoulder lanes on Ga. 4(X) this sum
mer to accommodate the buses,
according to Jim Ritchie, the deputy
director of Georgia Regional
Transportation Authority (GRTA).
Homeowners question fire department
New policies
now in place
By Nicole Green
Staff Writer
County fire department and city
water officials say improper proce
dures resulted in two fire hydrants
not working in the Manchester Court
subdivision.
Forsyth homeowners in the sub
division, which lost five homes to
an April 4 fire, questioned officials
from the Forsyth County Fire
Department and the Cumming
Department of Utilities on Thursday
at the Sharon Forks Library'.
About 100 concerned citizens
alternately praised and berated the
fire department for its handling of
the fire storm that deputy fire chief
Dwight Clark said began with a
backyard barbecue at 3914
Deerborne Drive. While they
applauded firefighters for aggres
sively fighting the fire, especially the
eight who were injured that night,
residents demanded an explanation
for the malfunctioning hydrants.
"Please don’t expect me to point
any fingers tonight," Clark said.
"They all point back at us."
"Were embarrassed. We’re hurt.
And we’re trying to get over it.” he
said.
It took firefighters eight minutes
to find a working hydrant, said Pam
Superdock, a Manchester Court resi
dent who saw the early stages of the
fire from her Delfaire Trace home.
The first hydrant firefighters
attempted to access on Deerborne
Drive was partially closed at the
water main. The plug could not pro
duce the 150 gallons per minute
needed to fill a 1.75-inch diameter
fire hose. Clark said. By the time the
firefighters realized the line was
inoperable, the second house was
See FIRE, Page 3A
Seven-year-old is heroine to some in her neighborhood
Quiet little girl warns of fire before it could spread
By Nicole Green
Staff Writer
The children of Manchester
Court subdivision in Cumming had
a spring break they are not likely
to forget.
After a fire storm that left 19
houses destroyed or damaged,
some of those children are now
homeless.
However, one is a hero.
Sydney Bacon, 7. first spotted
the fire that fire officials say began
on the screened porch at 3914
Deerborne Drive last Sunday after
noon. Before the fire spread to
four other homes, she ran from her
house on Somersal Court to warn
her neighbors.
Sydney roused the neighbor
hood by knocking on doors and
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Ritchie updated the Forsyth
County Board of Commissioners
Thursday on plans for the express
buses which also are set to begin
operations this summer.
"The construction you will see
this summer really is the beginning
of the widening project of Ga. 400,"
Ritchie told commissioners Jack
Conway. Charles Laughinghouse and
A.J. Pritchett.
He said construction is expected
to begin in July from Haynes Bridge
Road to McFarland Road and take a
■ MB >.
■
IHr i V?n ■
Photos/David McGregor
Manchester Court resident
Larry Kirk criticizes govern- i
mental policies for checking on
the working condition of fire ;
hydrants. Right, Deputy Fire j
Chief Dwight Clark speaks to ‘
the homeowners. Below, Dick
Sershon sits in disbelief after i
hearing that the fire depart- 1
ment did not document a main- 1
tenance request in Manchester r
Court during a Thursday home- 1
owners association meeting at |
Sharon Forks Library.
• >3 will
jo
She was screaming for
help. This was such a
big deal for a little girl
that never talks!
screaming for help, her mother
said.
“I’m sure that by her doing this
it only sped the 911 call up about
five minutes. But another house
could have burned had she not run
for help like she did.” her mother.
Sally Bacon, said.
INDEX
Abby 14A
Births 4B
Deaths 2A
Forsyth Life IB
Horoscope 14A
Opinion ISA
Sports 1C
SUNDAY April 11, 2004
year to complete.
"The shoulders will actually be
reconstructed," said Ritchie, “and
will be constructed so they can be
future travel lanes."
He said two lanes will be added
on Ga. 400 North and one lane on
Ga. 400 South.
"This is in anticipation of the
widening of Ga. 400,” he said,
adding GRTA and the Georgia
Department of Transportation
(GDOT) have been working together
to accelerate the widening project.
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Sydney is a very mature 7-year
old. No adult had to tell her what
to do when she saw those flames.
But there is something even
more special about this little hero
ine.
She does not usually speak.
Sydney suffers from selective
mutism, a condition that silences a
child outside of her home environ
ment.
Around her family. Sydney is
never quiet, her mother said. But
she has not even whispered to
friends or teachers at school since
her family moved to Cumming in
October 2002. Sydney writes her
thoughts on notebook paper to
communicate with her second-
See HEROINE, Page 2A
“GDOT expected to take six to
nine months to hire consultants to
[design the widening project]," he
said. “Instead, we developed an
intergovernmental agreement ... and
GRTA has consultants that we have
just secured for a general purposes
contract, and we will put them imme
diately to work.”
"We expect by May 1 to have
design work started," said Ritchie.
Though buses are scheduled to
roll out of Cumming July 6 from the
parking lot across from the city fair-
Photo/Oavid McGregor
Sydney Bacon, age 7, who suf
fers from selective mutism, is the
first Manchester Court resident
who saw the fires begin in her
neighborhood.
Spring Home
Improvement
Inside Today
SI.UU
Possible Storms
LAKE LANIER LEVELS
' Date Level
X ’ April 6 1069.94 ft
....... ./ April 7 1069.94 ft
Aprils 1069.94 ft
Illi h II April® 1069.94 ft
Full 1071.00 H
High in the low 70s. • j I**"'"’ •*" - - -
Low in the mid-50s.
. .m. ,9
Wednesdays with Belle
grounds on Castleberry Road, City
Administrator Gerald Blackbum said
Friday that the city and GRTA have
not yet agreed upon those operations
which include paving the Ipt and
installing lighting fixtures.
However, GRTA was able to
reach accord with MARTA Thursday
to let bus passengers transfer to rail
services free of charge, according to
GRTA Communications Director
William Mecke.
See BUSES, Page 3A
Politics
dominated
Reps say of session
By Harris Blackwood
Community Editor
Two members of the Forsyth
legislative delegation say the 2004
regular session of the General
Assembly was long on politics and
short on accomplishments.
State Rep. Jack Murphy and
Rep. Tom Knox, both Cumming
Republicans, agreed they were dis
appointed by the Georgia
Legislature’s
actions this year
“We should
have accomplished
more than we did,"
Murphy said.
His comments
were echoed by
Gov. Sonny Per
due. "This was a
busy session.” said
Perdue.
“We didn't
accomplish all we
set out to do. but
we have accom
plished some good
things, especially
for children."
The major leg
islation passed by
the House included
last-minute
approval of the
governor’s education bill.
The bill includes a plan to create
a Department of Early Care and
Learning, which will oversee both
pre-kindergarten and day care cen
ters. The bill also mandates that
third-graders must pass a reading
test before they can be promoted to
the fourth grade.
Also on the education front, law
makers reached a compromise on
the HOPE Scholarship. The
changes include tougher standards
for HOPE eligibility starting in
2007. The bill also provides a
mechanism for ending payments for
books and student fees if the lot
tery-funded program suffers a drop
in collections.
On Friday. Perdue signed two
other child-related bills into law.
The first bill, the governor's
Child Protection Legislation, codi
fies the definition of “criminal neg
ligence” that has been established
in Georgia’s case law and amends
the current Cruelty to Children
statute to add criminally negligent
behavior as a new second-degree
felony offense. This provides for
imprisonment by not less than one
year nor more than 10 years.
Georgia is no longer the only
state in the nation without a child
abuse felony statute that includes
criminally negligent behavior. The
legislation closes a gap in the
state's current criminal law and will
See SESSION, Page 3A
Knox
B
Murphy