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Atlanta committee prepares transportation plans; meeting planned
By Todd Truelove
Staff Writer
The Atlanta Regional
Commission (ARC) is in the
process of developing trans
portation plans for metro
Atlanta counties, including
Forsyth Countv. through year
2030.
ARC Director of
Comprehensive Planning Tom
Weyandt told county commis
sioners Jack Conway and
Charles Laughinghouse
Monday the ARC is drafting
the specific details of the
plans and will present those
drafts during regional meet
ings including a public
presentation Friday. April 30.
Perdue’s OK makes endangerment a felony
By Nicole Green
Staff Writer
Serious crimes against
Georgia’s children now have a
serious punishment.
Gov. Sonny Perdue signed
into law on Friday a bill that
makes endangerment of a
child’s life a felony.
’’For the person who leaves
the child in the car in 100-
degree-plus weather, before
there wasn’t a crime that fit
their actions,” said Forsyth
County District Attorney
Penny Penn.
Most offenders of the new
law are people who do not
intend to hurt their children
but do so out of negligence.
Child endangerment is defined
as causing cruel or excessive
mental or physical pain to a
child. An offense is punishable
by one to 10 years in prison.
“The child endangerment
bill was one of the better bills
to come out of this year’s leg
islative session," Sheriff Ted
Paxton said through a
spokesman. “It’s really good
to see Georgia joining the
other states who’ve taken a
more proactive approach to
protecting our children.”
The new law includes man
ufacturing illegal drugs
including methamphetamine
in the presence of a child.
“If you’re concerned about
your child, you wouldn’t be
cooking meth period,”
Penn said.
Awaiting the governor’s
signature is a bill that punish
es dealers of MDMA, com
monly known as ecstasy.
According to current state law,
users and dealers of ecstasy
are punished equally.
State Rep. Jan Jones, (R-
Alpharetta), who represents
parts of Forsyth and north
Fulton counties, authored the
bill that passed the General
Assembly on the final day of
the session.
Use of ecstasy reportedly
is gaining popularity among
middle-class adolescents in
the north suburbs. Ecstasy typ
ically is sold in candy-like
tablets at nightclubs, bars and
all-night parties known as
“raves.”
“I want drug dealers to fear
the consequences of selling
ecstasy to Georgia’s young
people. If they don’t, they’ll
have three years in jail to think
long and hard about it," Jones
said in a prepared statement.
Though Forsyth County
at the Sawnee Cultural Arts
Center.
In general, Weyandt said
the ARC draft suggests
improvements such as exclu
sive High Occupancy Vehicle
lanes for buses, various inter
change improvements and
ways to use existing roads bet
ter, such as using signals to
designate open lanes on arteri
al roads.
The ARC is a regional
planning organization which
helps guide the area’s growth
for everything from trans
portation needs to infrastruc-’
ture.
Though the Forsyth
County government is not in
law enforcement does not find
ecstasy in great quantities, it is
found in user amounts, Penn
said. The Forsyth County
Sheriff’s Office makes a sig
nificant number of arrests in
ecstasy, said Capt. Ron
Freeman, commander of the
Sheriff’s Office criminal
investigations unit. That num
ber has been growing in the
last few years, he added.
Though methamphetamine
is still the drug of choice in
B MOVIES 400
Friday 4/9/04 ■ Thunday 4/15/04 fIS
THE ALAMO (PGI3) _ 12:55,3:55.5:50, 9:45 "
ELLA ENCHANTED (PG) (FRI-SUN 11:55) 2:00, 4 55. 720935
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THE GIRL NEXT DOOR (R) (FRI-SUN 12:00)2:25, 4:50, 7:30,10:00
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■MR THE PASSX3N OFTHE CFffUST (R) 1:15. 4:15, 7:00, 9:45
HELLBOY (PGI3) 1:25, 4:15, 7:10, 9:50
THE PRINCE AND ME (PG) (FRI-SUN 12:06) 2:35, 5:05, 7:35, 10:05
WALWGIAU.(POI3) 1:30,3:35,5:40,7:45,9:50 (MM
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LADY KUERS (R) 12M, 2:30,4:55, 7:30,9:55 I
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Forsyth County News
J Your "Hometown Paper" Since 1904 J
ADVERTISING ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE
The Forsyth County News is currently seeking a
goal oriented Account Executive to join our
growing Advertising Department. Individual
must have excellent organizational skills and
possess prior outside sales experience, prefer
ably in advertising or related field. Must have
ability to service existing accounts while focus
ing on new business development and work in a
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FCN offers a pleasant work environment,
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For consideration on this position, please fax
resume to:
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Or Mail To:
302 Veteran Memorial Blvd.
Cumming, GA. 30040
or email to: marti@forsythnews.com
No phone calls, please.
EOE
one of the 10 counties which
are members of the ARC
Forsyth is a member of the
Georgia Mountains Regional
Development Center the
ARC must include the county
when developing transporta
tion plans for the metro
Atlanta area.
That’s because Forsyth
County is one of 13 metro
Atlanta counties that does not
meet federally regulated
guidelines for clean air due to
the amount of ozone that’s
formed when exhaust from
vehicles and chemicals emit
ted from some industries mix
with sunlight.
Ozone can make breathing
Forsyth, the strengthened law
could have a greater effect on
the county in the future.
“Everything goes north.
People are moving up here,
and it could only be a matter
of time [before ecstasy gains
popularity]," Penn said.
The Drug Enforcement
Administration seized 7,000
ecstasy tablets in an interna
tional drug bust on March 31,
according to a DEA press
release.
I
■ < '
' *‘ J . 'd' V
X'' ’z.\
Photos/David McGregor
Red Cross blood drive
Cumming Library hosted a blood drive Thursday for the Red Cross. Far
left, American Red Cross worker Jay Jones looks over some paper
work. Center, Alix Johnson is all smiles while giving blood. Right, Mary
Froehlich sits calmly as Arthur Diaz checks on her.
difficult, especially for people
with respiratory diseases,
according to the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA). It can also lead
to health problems that
include coughing and throat
irritation. Prolonged exposure
may permanently scar lung
tissue, according to the EPA.
States that do not meet fed
eral clean air standards risk
losing federal funds for road
improvement projects.
Weyandt said long range
transit needs in metro Atlanta
through 2030 total around $74
billion and finding that fund
ing is going to present a chal
lenge.
The arrests of more than
100 drug dealers in 16 U.S.
cities, including Atlanta, and
three cities in Canada fol
lowed a two-year investigation
that took 407,000 ecstasy
tablets off the street.
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FORtYTH COUNTY NEW# - Wdn-diy, April 14,2004 -1
“Our best estimates of the
amount of money that will be
available to the year 2030
and this includes local, state
and federal funding for both
construction and operations
is about $47 billion,” said
Weyandt.
“There’s a considerable
gap [s2s billion] between
what we know our needs to be
and the amount of money we
expect to be available,” he
said.
He said the transportation
plans will include proposed
funding mechanisms for proj
ects as well as detailing higher
priority projects.
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"We have begun a process
through our aspirations plan
that is fundamentally different
from the way most metropoli
tan areas in the country do it,”
he said, adding other areas
plan around budgets.
“The [ARC] took a pretty
bold step here by saying,
‘Let’s do it differently; let’s
really talk about what our full
range of needs are even
though we can’t fulfill them
all shouldn't we get that
[information] so we know
what we’re working on?”’
Weyandt said.
“We will have a lot more
detail come April 30,” he said.
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