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Ethics board to receive flurry of complaints
ByToddTruelove
Staff Writer
David Milum, a local
political activist, and George
Anderson, a governmental
watchdog who resides in
Rome, want the Forsyth
County government to resolve
what they say are ethical
problems within its ranks.
Anderson has filed com¬
plaints for the Forsyth
County Board of Ethics to
investigate Sheriff Ted
Paxton, District Attorney
Penny Penn, Commissioner
Brian Tam, the whole Board
of Commissioners and the
ethics board itself.
Incident reports
Expired tag investigation
leads to drug charges
A Forsyth County man faces drug charges
after he was detained for an expired tag
Saturday morning at a Chevron station off
Buford Highway.
According to Forsyth Sheriff’s incident
reports, a deputy patrolling Buford Highway
about 11 a.m. Saturday spotted a 2003
Cadillac Escalade with an expired tag pull off
at the gas station. When the deputy went to
talk to the driver, he acted suspiciously,
according to the deputy’s report of the inci¬
dent. When the deputy asked to search the
man’s car, he refused, according to reports.
A police dog trained to detect drugs was
brought to the scene and “alerted” to the pres¬
ence of drugs outside the man’s driver-side
door, according to reports. A subsequent
search of the car turned up a loaded .38-cal¬
iber handgun, six unidentified pills, a small
plastic baggie with white powder residue
thought to be methamphetamine, a small sus¬
pected “rock” of methamphetamine and a
suspected marijuana pipe, according to
reports.
Jonathan W. Poss, 21, of 2375 Roper Road,
was arrested and charged with possession of
methamphetamine, possession of a firearm
during the commission of a felony, drugs to be
kept in original container, possession of drug
related items, and expired tag.
Special ed teachers deal with certification requirements
Editor’s note: This is the
last of three stories concern¬
ing various educational issues
that were discussed by Dr.
Mercuria Chase Williams,
president of the Georgia
Association of Educators, dur¬
ing a recent visit to Cumming
as part of a media tour of the
state.
By Crystal Ledford
Staff Writer
It hasn’t been a good year
for many special education
teachers in Georgia, but
leaders of a state profession¬
al group say they are doing
all they can to help the situa¬
tion.
Under No Child Left
Behind’s new certification
requirements, all special
education teachers must
meet the same high stan¬
dards as their regular educa¬
tion counterparts by summer
of next year.
Under the new NCLB
requirement, special educa¬
tion teachers must be “high-
Dawson County commissioners
War Hill Marina bid
By Charlie Auvermann
FCN Regional Staff
DAWSONVILLE — After
months of intense dialog
between residents, developers,
consultants and the county
government about the place¬
ment of. a marina at War Hill
Park, the final vote on the pro¬
posal was almost anticlimactic.
The county commissioners
voted 4-0 to reject the single
bid placed before them on
building the marina. The vote
came during the Nov. 17 regu
lar meeting of the commission.
The conclusions by a coun
ty park and recreation consult
ant that there was no county
interest in having a marina
proceeded the vote by several
weeks, making it unlikely the
commissioners would all vote
in favor of a marina since they
had requested the consultant
review the possibility of hav
ing a marina at the park.
All of the complaints
except the one against Tam
generally revolve around the
use of cell phones in the
Sheriff’s Office and the fail¬
ure of local governmental
officials to do anything about
it.
Milum and Anderson
spoke during the public com¬
ment period of the board of
commissioners’ regular
monthly meeting last week.
Milum presented a sam¬
pling of one deputy’s county
phone bill which he said
included 2,154 calls over a
five-month span.
“There are others equally
as bad,” he said of deputy
Burglars get motorcycle,
ATV at Bannister residence
A Bannister Road resident told authorities
someone stole a four-wheeler and a motocross
bike from his garage while his family was out
of town.
According to Forsyth Sheriff’s incident
reports, the burglary occurred sometime
between 5 p.m. Nov. 12 and 8 a.m. Saturday,
when the burglar entered the home through an
unlocked patio door.
A Honda 4x4 ATV valued at $2,500 and a
Honda CR80 valued at $600 were reported
stolen. The victim provided deputies with the
name of a possible suspect.
Designer drug MDMA
found after traffic stop
A Gainesville man faces a felony drug
charge after authorities found the designer
drug MDMA, also known as Ecstacy, during a
search of his car after a traffic stop late Friday.
According to Forsyth Sheriff’s incident
reports, a deputy pulled over a 2004 Mazda
RX8 for speeding on Dawsonville Highway
near Knight Road at about 10 p.m. Friday. As
a result of the traffic stop, Peter Danos, 47, of
3415 Thunder Road, was arrested and charged
with possession of Ecstacy, DUI alcohol and
drugs, and speeding.
ly qualified” in every subject
matter they teach to their
special needs students. To
achieve the “highly quali¬
fied” status, teachers must
either hold a degree in the
specific subject area or take
and pass the Praxis examina¬
tion in that subject area, as
well as meet various other
criteria.
Georgia Association of
Educators President Dr.
Mercuria Chase Williams
says that while the idea of
special education teachers
being “highly qualified” is
in and of itself not necessari¬
ly a bad idea, the problem
with the recent changes to
NCLB standards is time.
Under the requirements,
special education teachers
have only until June 2006 to
fulfill the highly qualified
mandates.
“This means a special
education teacher who cur¬
rently teachers four to five
subjects ranging from math
to science must now be
‘highly qualified’ in all of
Bob Betz, principal con
sultant of the firm of Robert
G. Betz AICP Inc., told the
commissioners he did not rec
ommend a marina be built at
War Hill Park. Betz was hired
to prepare a conceptual master
plan for the county which
included the needs and future
uses of existing parks, poten
tial new parks and the possible
uses of die county’s five state
parks on Lake Lanier.
Because of the significance
of a proposal received by the
county to sub-lease War Hill
Park for an upscale marina,
the county specifically asked
Betz to address the marina
issue as a separate section of
the master plan. Betz made his
presentation of that section
during the commission’s final
October work session.
As originally presented to
the county by William
Bagwell representing War Hill
Park LLC last spring, the pro-
phone bills, calling for a
criminal investigation.
Last summer, Anderson
made similar comments
before commissioners. He
wrote to Penn calling for an
investigation; he filed an
ethics complaint in August
against the board of commis
sioners for not investigating
the sheriff. But his requests
seemed to fall on deaf ears.
Tam also is accused of
using his county vehicle for
his personal business — an
allegation he has denied. Tam
has filed his own request for
the county ethics board to
look into his use of the vehi
cle.
£§
We're hopeful that
extension will be
granted,
- Georgia Association of
Educators President Dr.
Mercuria Chase Williams
99
those subject areas by the
deadline or he or she will
not be able to teach those
subjects to a special ed
class,” said Williams.
Williams also said the
new requirements could
have negative implications
on students and regular ed
instructors as well.
“If there is no special
education teacher certified
to teach a particular subject,
those students would be
mainstreamed into regular
classrooms,” she said.
The GAE, together with
the Georgia Department of
Education, have requested
posed marina would have
included 1,544 wet slips for
boats in the 30- to 35-foot
length range. There would
also be dry stack storage for
additional boats on the 103
acre facility. The plan eventu
ally called for a restaurant,
hotel and conference center in
addition to camp sites, RV
sites and rental cottages. The
marina was to be developed in
six phases,
Betz’s conclusion was
there was no Dawson County
demand for a marina thus he
did not recommend such a
facility be included in the
county’s master park plan,
The vote to reject the plan
was swift and clear,
Commissioner Bill Saling
made the motion to reject the
single bid received. That was
seconded by Commissioner
Frank Craft. There was no dis
cussion and the 4-0 vote to
reject the marina followed.
FORSYTH county NEWS — Wednesday, November 23,2005
While distributing docu¬
ments to commissioners,
Anderson questioned Tam’s
need of a county vehicle,
“I don’t even know why
you need a county vehicle,”
he said. “Use your own vehi
cle.
His words did not sit well
with District 5 Commissioner
Linda Ledbetter — who
decided to give her own pub
lie comments at the end of
the meeting. Anderson and
Milum were no longer at the
meeting at the time.
“That’s not what public
comments are for,” she said,
adding a previous set of
board members had quit hav-
Forsyth Chamber of Commerce
cancels annual holiday expo
By Jennifer Sami
Staff Writer
For those who planned to
attend the Cumming-Forsyth
County Chamber of
Commerce’s Annual Holiday
Expo, it’s time to change your
plans.
This would have been the
chamber’s 13th year of show¬
casing the products and serv¬
ices of its members. Chamber
President and CEO James
McCoy said the timing of the
event and need for improve¬
ment played important factors
in its cancellation.
“We had feedback from
members that these events
weren’t what they wanted or
hoped for,” said McCoy, who
began serving as president
and CEO in July. “Our priori¬
ty is offering really high quali¬
ty services for our members.
The decision is if we can’t do
it absolutely topnotch, we
should not do it at all.”
that Georgia be considered
for an extension until June
2007. The extension offer
was entailed in an Oct. 21
letter from the U.S.
Department of Education to
all state school superintend¬
ents.
“We’re hopeful that
extension will be granted,”
said Williams. “In the mean
time, we’re trying to help
special ed teachers deal with
these new requirements as
much as we can.”
Williams said she has
hosted forums throughout
the state for their members
and other interested educa
tors and school representa
tives.
“We’ve had packed hous¬
es at those,” said Williams.
Williams said the GAE
also has posted a check list
for special education teach
ers to help them know if
they already meet the highly
qualified mandates.
Candy Norton, director of
human resources with
Forsyth County Schools,
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ing the period for such rea
sons.
“This was a personal
attack,” said Ledbetter.
The ethics board itself has
been in a state of limbo since
former Chairman Dan Wolf
asked commissioners not to
reappoint him to it. During
that time, it also lacked a
clerk to keep meeting minutes
and handle general business.
A clerk recently was
assigned to the board, but an
appointment from the board
of commissioners is still
needed,
The Board of Ethics met
Thursday — before Anderson
filed his complaints Thursday
McCoy said that while the
event will be canceled this
year, there are plans in the
works to hold a new expo
sometime in 2006. His hope is
to include primarily small
businesses and for the new
event to be much larger in
scope and impact than the
Holiday Expo has been in pre¬
vious years.
The event was originally
scheduled to be held Dec. 1,
the same day as Northside
Hospital-Forsyth’s 16th annu¬
al Tree Lighting.
“There’s an awful lot in
the community going on that
same night and we just
became a little concerned it
wouldn’t be well attended,”
said McCoy. “We made the
decision we didn’t want to go
to the expense of competing
with other county events.”
The Chamber currently
has 1,336 members, but as of
Friday, only three booths had
been purchased. McCoy cited
says the changes have been
difficult for some teachers to
deal with, but the local sys¬
tem has also been doing
what it can to help special
education teachers to meet
the new requirements.
“This is something we’ll
be grappling with forever,”
said Norton. “The gist is that
you just can’t teach some¬
thing you don’t know. The
downside is your extremely
experienced special educa¬
tion teachers who have been
very good at what they do
and are now being held to a
new standard. And that’s
scary for some, but I’ve been
very impressed with the way
most of our teachers have
embraced the change and are
just doing what they need to
do. >»
Norton said local teach-
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PAGE 3A
night — and appointed
George Pirkle as the new
chairman and attorney Kevin
McDonough as the vice chair¬
man.
They briefly discussed the
need for a fifth member, say¬
ing one is needed because
some votes could end in a tie.
“You could wind up with a
2-2 vote,” said ethics legal
counsel Brian Hansford.
The board agreed to dis¬
cuss complaints Thursday,
Dec. 8, at 5 p.m. At the time
of the meeting, they were
aware of only one complaint
— one Anderson had previ¬
ously filed in August against
the board of commissioners.
the other county events as the
reason for such a small mem¬
ber response, not a lack of
interest.
“That’s not a problem at
all. It just means that all of
those things together lead us to
the decision to host it at anoth¬
er time of year, and that's fine,”
he said. “At the end of the day,
the primary concern is that we
have an event that members
will derive value from. We
want to make sure we’re offer¬
ing a service that accommo¬
dates them and has a positive
impact on their business.”
Next up on the chamber’s
slate is a New Year’s Eve
Celebration at the Gumming
Playhouse at 7:15 p.m. A
reception and private dinner
will be catered by Tam’s
Backstage. Tickets are $75 per
person or $140 per couple.
For more information, visit
the chamber’s Web site,
www.cummingforsythcham
ber.org.
ers have been quick to
organize themselves into
study groups and support
one another in other ways.
“I’ve been very pleased
with how they have moved
forward,” said Norton.
The system also is help¬
ing the teachers through
financial reimbursements.
“We’ll reimburse them
the cost to take the Praxis
(exam) and if they add a
field (of certification), we’ll
give them $100, said
Norton.
The GAE has created a
clearinghouse of information
and reference materials on
its Web site, www.geor
gianea.org/content.asp?Cont
ended=933, to help special
education teachers with this
complex and ever-changing
issue.