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Forsyth J Your "Hometown Counts Paper" Since 19 306 Vol. 95, No. 72 Taylor says no to race Qualifies for post, then changes mind ByToddTruelove Staff Writer Forsyth County Commissioner Eddie Taylor announced Monday night that he will not seek re-election to his seat on the board of commis¬ sioners — three days after qualifying at the last minute for the position. “Many of you don’t know that I developed a health problem over the last year, and I’m battling that now,” Taylor said, “but mainly I’ve got to get my priorities back in order, and that’s God, family, business and serv¬ ice to the community. With this announcement, I’m going to remove myself as a candidate from commis¬ sion District 5 for the upcoming year. “After 12 years of trying to do what’s right for this community ... and working for various boards, it’s probably time for me to kind-of move on.” Prior to serving on the board of commissioners. Taylor — whose dis¬ trict encompasses eastern and central portions of the county — served on the board of education. A spokesperson for the county board of elections said Taylor had not filed a notice of withdrawal as of Tuesday morning. He would not be listed on the July 20 ballot if he files in the next few days before absentee ballots are printed, the spokesperson said. In making his announcement, he also said the county commission elections need to occur per district rather than “at-large”. Such a change would then let residents choose their district commissioner and prevent residents from other districts from electing board members outside of their area of the county. “Commissioners need to be able to run in a district — not the county at-large, said Taylor, adding other counties elect their board members per district. He said the only position on the board of commissioners that needs to be elected by the entire county is the c h~ The chairman needs to run at large, said Taylor, adding the chair man should then only vote on county issues when hoard members votes end in a tie. That way he, or she, is able to keep themself as neutral as See TAYLOR, Page 3A an to students By Nancy Smallwood Associate editor There was never any question in Mitch Holland’s mind whether he could complete 2,000 sit-ups — just what would happen if he could do more. Surrounded by cheers of encouragement from family and friends, the freshman at North Forsyth High School successfully completed his goal of 2/XX) situps to raise money for Relay for Life to benefit cancer research on Friday morning. The situp challenge is tough enough for anyone but is even more amazing because Holland has cerebral palsy. Just one year ago, he completed 1,000 situps in a 45-minutc time peri¬ od at North Forsyth Middle School and collected more than $1,000 in pledges. “He didn’t want to do the same thing everyone else did for the Missed paper polity: For a replacement paper, call Thursday 8 am. - and 5:30 Friday, p.m. Wednesday, and 9 a m. -I p.m. on Sunday - (770) 887-J|J«. Copyright 0 200* fortyth County N*»« 90994'0406' WEDNESDAY May 5, 2004 Fire engine damaged in wreck V M, K I m 1 i t * \ I m 4 ■ . f* «e "•••.o® •*« Sill Ml9 I • x V A c o! J fV "V A /V s fiyj m Photo/David McGregor A Forsyth County fire engine sits in a garage awaiting investigation after it was struck by a pickup truck on Ga. 400 Sunday. The pickup's driver was killed. See story, page 3A. School survey aids By Nancy Smallwood Associate Editor Parents of elementary school students will be pulling out their pencils this month to com plete a survey on school performance. The sur vey was requested by participants in the Forsyth County Schools Vision 2010 program and will provide feedback to the schools to use in setting their goals, according to Jennifer Caracciolo, communication specialist. in the survey, parents are asked to respond to several statements regarding learning, teach ing, safety and communication at their child’s school. Several statements question how par en ts view the school’s administration, Statements such as availability of administra tors, how quickly administrators act when a problem occurs, and how knowledgeable administrators are about teaching and learning are poscd t0 parents Parents that would like to make additional comments on issues not addressed the sur- cause,” said Michelle Mathis, Holland's mother. “He wanted to do something different.” Holland is an inspiration to the rest of his family. Once his situp goal was set he began training both at home and school. "He practices all year round and has rock hard abs,” said Cathy Evans, Holland’s cousin. “The words, ‘I can’t,’ do not exist in his vocabu¬ lary.” He went out and raised $1,000 on his own for the cause and then other students started making donations, said Holland’s teacher, Helen Lane. “He is an inspiration to the other students,” said Lane. “He wants to do this every year and keep increasing the amount.” In preparation of his challenge, Holland began taking weightlifting classes this year at the school and was encouraged by his coaches, Jim INDEX Abby 8A Classifieds. 11B Deaths........ 2A Events_________ 4A Horoscope 8A Legals..... 2B Opinion 10A Sports... IB a Caracciolo veys more often of their stake holders, said Caracciolo. “Stake holders can be internal and external they include business representatives, parents and legislators,” said Caracciolo. “There are informal and formal ways of collecting feed¬ back and we are doing the formal which is col¬ lecting surveys.” Administrators expect to receive the com¬ pleted surveys by the second week in May. “The average return for a survey is 20 per¬ cent,” said Caracciolo. “We would like to get more if we can.” Bishop and Keith Eickholdt. The coaches set up a weightlifting plan designed for his body size and, once he completed the routine, he would work on situps for the remainer of the class time. “He doesn’t know any limi¬ tations,” said Bishop. "He can do any¬ thing he sets his mind to do." Holland first began completing sets of situps with a 25 pound weight and just recently graduated to working out with a 35-pound weight, according to Eickholdt. The 2,000 sit-ups were completed by Holland without a single resting break with teacher Eric Killion holding on to his feet and cheering him on. Other students, Stacie Carley and Kelly Wise, helped keep the count during the situp challenge. “I’m so excited about this,” said Holland. “1 almost did a flip out of my bed this morning. I said. ‘Let’s get this thing done.’” Advice Dear Abby dishes out gixxl advice. Page 8A i vey can submit them on a sep¬ arate sheet of paper and enclose them with the survey. The survey follows a com¬ munication audit of Forsyth County Schools in which 12 recommendations were made to officials. One of the recom¬ mendations suggested the school system conduct sur¬ ns £ Photo/Jena Blackshear Mitch Holland works Friday to complete his goal of 2,000 sit-ups to raise more than $2,000 for the Relay for Life effort against cancer. Holland, a freshman at North Forsyth High School who suffers from cerebral palsy, was cheered on by his family and several students in the school gym. Teacher Eric Killion assisted Holland by holding his feet and Stacie Carley kept count of the sit-ups. Opinion Columnist Bill Shipp shares his perspective of Geoigia politics. Page 10A Testimony Murder was threatened by Turner By Nicole Green Staff Writer PERRY The lat^ husband of Lynn Turner said his wife was capable of murder, several police officers testi¬ fied Monday in Houston County Superior Court. Turner, 35, of Cumming, is accused of killing her husband, Cobb County police officer Maurice Glenn Turner, by causing him to ingest antifreeze in-1995. The trial was moved from Marietta to after the could not seat an impartial jury on the high profile case. Sgt. Robert C. Fisher Jr. testified Monday that Turner threatened to shoot her husband 10 days before Glenn Turner died. Fisher and Glenn Turner were mem¬ bers of the “Rat Pack,” a self-named group of six police officers who shared laughs and confidences. One afternoon while Fisher was conducting a traffic stop, Glenn Turner stopped to talk. Glenn Turner indicated that he was mov¬ ing out of his wife’s home, Fisher testified, and wanted Fisher to help him find an apartment. Glenn and Lynn Turner reportedly argued that morning, one of the last arguments in a stormy 18 months of marriage. “[Lynn] had threatened to shoot him with his own service weapon,” Fisher said in front of the jury Monday. Neither Glenn Turner nor Fisher filed a police report of the threat. In a separate occurrence, Fisher and Glenn Turner responded to a suicide call in December 1994. As they were leaving the scene, they debated whether the deceased committed suicide or was murdered. See TURNER, Page 2A Spending, murder connection eyed By Nicole Green Staff Writer PERRY — Murder suspect Lynn Turner is a shopa¬ holic, according to friends who testified at her Houston County trial Monday. Though it may seem irrelevant to the case, the state hopes to prove that money was Turner’s motive for the alleged poisoning murder of Maurice Glenn Turner in 1995. Hours of witness testimony revealed far from frugal spending habits for the former Cobb County 911 dis¬ patcher. Turner drove a limited edition Indy 500 Official Pace Car. She wore expensive clothes and carried a cell See 2A Partly Cloudy High in the high 70s. Low in the mid-50s. ~ ij I v'j, Kjjfl ".i V?'d ; SPORTS, 1B track meet concludes ► Turner LAKE LANIER LEVELS Date Level April 30 1070.40 ft May 1 1070.40 ft May 2 1070,44 ft Full May 3 1070.52 ft 1071.00 ft