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Your GEORGIA NEWSPAPER PROJECT
Vol. 96, No. 097
Board considers adding new department
ByToddTTuelove
Staff Writer
County commissioners are consid¬
ering a new department that would
offer multiple services ranging from
promotion of tourism to business
recruitment and inspectors who would
investigate complaints relating to
items like new residential and com¬
mercial projects.
The idea comes from County
Manager Jeff Quesenberry who titled
the department the “Community
Resources Division” and said it could
include employees such as staff with
the existing Keep Forsyth County
Beautiful department as well as a new
code enforcement unit.
While commissioners authorized
Quesenberry to begin advertising for
code enforcement officers, his concept
for the new department remains in
limbo.
Innovative language
program blends Spanish,
English for early learning
By Crystal Ledford
Staff Writer
Business is “muy bien” for an innovative,
local early childhood learning program.
Marta Merriman began Cumming’s Smarta
School of Foreign Language, primarily a bilin¬
gual preschool and kindergarten, in 2003 with an
enrollment of only five children. Those numbers
have grown by nearly 1,000 percent in only two
years, she said.
While the school began with only a few stu¬
dents in one class, today it boosts several sepa¬
rate programs including summer camps; pre¬
school, after school and homeschool classes; pri¬
vate tutoring; family and adult classes; and spe¬
cial short-term programs such as Spanish story
time and Spanish culture classes.
Merriman said last school year she had more
than 50 students enrolled in the various pro¬
grams. This summer she has already had more
than 30 students participate in weekly summer
camps and she is anticipating even more to enroll
for other camps through July and August.
The Smarta School, named for Marta and her
husband, Art, features a unique curriculum that
stresses an interweaving of English and Spanish.
The concept of the curriculum is reflective of
Merriman’s life story, and the Smarta School is
the realization of Merriman’s lifelong dream, she
said.
“From the time I was 12 years old, I knew I
wanted to open my own school,” she said while
taking a break from one of her camps Friday.
Because of that desire, she obtained a degree
\
Photo/Sam Freeman
Police respond to a robbery at Crescent Bank on Canton Highway Thursday.
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Quesenberry
drafted job description for the eco¬
nomic development director lists
numerous functions of the job such as
developing policies for recruiting and
retaining businesses, attending events
that could impact the county’s eco¬
nomic development and administering
grants.
However, the job description con¬
tains no details relating to managing
the Community Resources Division,
and District 1 Commissioner Charles
Laughinghouse said the department
in education from a university in her native coun
try.
She later met and married an American and
relocated to the United States. They have lived in
the Atlanta area for more than 22 years.
When her children — Andrea, 15, and Arturo,
13 were growing up, the concept of a bilin¬
gual school took root with Merriman.
“I saw them growing up and realized what a
gift being bilingual is,” she said. “They could be
home and communicate with their father and his
family or they could go to Mexico and visit my
family without missing a beat of communication.
I knew I wanted to share that gift with others.”
Now she’s sharing that gift on a daily basis
right here in Cumming,
Merriman said the Smarta School is designed
to foster bilingualism through helping both
English-speaking students learn Spanish and
Spanish-speaking students learn English.
The programs, which have been created and
developed solely by Merriman herself, rely on an
innovative multi-sensory concept.
“It’s a blending of all five senses,” she said.
“For example, for a child who has never heard the
word ‘hola,’ they may have no idea that means
‘hello.’ So, to help them understand, I would pair
that word with a symbol — a waving hand that
they would understand. We also explore Spanish
culture through things like food, clothing, arts and
crafts.”
Merriman’s programs also rely heavily on the
See SMARTA, Page 2A
SUNDAY June 19,2005
The sticking
point is
Quesenberry’s pro¬
posal for the head of
the department —
an economic devel¬
opment director, a
position the local
governing body has
discussed in the past
but never approved.
A March 14
and director position, need mission
statements for further clarity.
“To me, they [the community
resources division and the economic
development director] don’t mesh,”
said Laughinghouse.
District 4 Commissioner David
Richard said he was against hiring an
economic development director.
“This ain’t the role of government
— to sell ourselves,” he said.
Richard also questioned the effect
the position would have on the
Cumming-Forsyth County Chamber
of Commerce.
Quesenberry said the county gov
ernment which provides almost
$200,000 annually to the Chamber —
should continue to support the private
entity.
“There are things we cannot do [as
a county],” said Quesenberry, adding
See POSITION, Page 2A
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Above, Alex Castleberry breaks
open a pinata during a summer
camp at the Smarta School on
Sharon Springs Road Friday.
Right, Luisa Ferananda Velez
splashes into a pool during a
camp.
Photos/Sam Freeman
Canton Highway bank robbed
Police search for a white male with deep scarring on face
By Stephen Gurr
Staff Writer
A man wearing a ballcap and sunglasses
robbed the Crescent Bank on Canton
Highway Thursday, taking an undisclosed
amount of loose cash after passing a robbery
note to a bank teller, authorities said.
Cumming Police Chief Mike Eason said
the robber never showed a weapon and no
one was hurt during the 3:45 p.m. robbery,
which happened in a matter of minutes.
Several customers were unaware the bank
was being robbed until the suspect had
already fled, he said.
“It wasn’t like the bank robberies you see
on TV,” Eason said. “It was a quiet robbery.”
Witnesses told police the robber fled alone
in an early 1990s model Plymouth Neon that
was dark green with Georgia plates.
A bank surveillance photo taken during
the robbery did little to help identifiy the sus¬
pect, who witnesses said had deep pock mark
scarring on his face. He was described as a
County commission revises
fire code
ByToddTruelove
Staff Writer
District 5 Commissioner Linda
Ledbetter on Thursday recommended
the county government revise numer¬
ous portions of a modified fire pre¬
vention code to clarify the local ordi¬
nance.
“All of this is just for clarifica¬
tion,” said Ledbetter during a board
work session.
Attorney Ken Jarrard, whose firm
Jarrard & Davis is under contract
with the county, said the local gov¬
ernment should conduct an addition¬
al public hearing after Ledbetter fin¬
ished reading about 10 changes to
the code which has been undergoing
j-vr
white male in his 30s, about 5 feet, 8 inches,
170 pounds, and wearing a dark blue baseball
cap with white lettering, a T-shirt and dark
pants.
The FBI and officials with the Forysth
County Sheriff’s Office assisted with the
investigation. Eason declined to say whether
authorities recovered any physical evidence
from the scene, but confirmed that an explo¬
sive dye pack was not included in the cash
taken by the suspect.
The getaway car was last seen heading
east on Hwy. 20 toward Cumming. The
escape route would not have been close to
Ga. 400, Eason said.
“It was about as far away as you can get
from 400 in the city limits,” Eason said.
, The robber may have taken Hwy. 9,
though that remains uncertain, he said.
A lookout for the car yielded no immedi¬
ate leads.
See BANK, Page 2A
IB
Ledbetter
election recommended adding
prevention measures to the code such
as minimum distances between hous¬
es and the types of materials in build
See FIRE, Page 3A
modifications for
about a year after a
fire in the
Manchester Court
subdivision
destroyed five
houses.
After that fire,
former
Commissioner A.J.
Pritchett who
did not seek re-