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PAGE 2A
Deaths
Italo Bisciotti
Mr. Italo “Bud” Bisciotti
Sr., 72, of Flowery Branch
died Nov. 28, 2005. He was a
member of the Free Chapel
Worship Center and retired
from Troncalli Chrysler Jeep.
Survivors include his wife
of 27 years, Jan Bisciotti
Flowery Branch; daughters
and sons-in-law, Rhonda and
Louis Kaissieh of Cumming,
Christy Novak of Puelbo,
Colo., Stephanie and Jeremy
Landman of Gainesville; son,
Italo “Bud” and Sherri
Bisciotti Jr.; sister, Vera
Bisciotti of Columbus, Ohio;
brothers and sisters-in-law,
Bobby and Martha Jane
Bisciotti of Columbus, Ohio,
Richard Bisciotti
Columbus, Ohio, RG. Bisciotti
of Columbus, Ohio; 10 grand¬
children; several nieces and
nephews also survive.
Services were Thursday,
Dec. 1, at 11 a.m. at the
McDonald and Son Funeral
Home Chapel. Interment fol¬
lowed at the Memorial Park
South Cemetery.
You may express condo¬
lences online at www.mcdon
aldandson.com
McDonald and Son Funeral
Home and Crematory is in
charge of the arrangements.
Forsyth County News
December 2, 2005
LANIER from 1A
Last year. Forsyth County
leased Charleston and Young
Deer Parks and the city
Cumming has leased Mary
Alice Park. Taylor is hoping
other cities will take a step for¬
ward and help relieve some
the financial burden from the
corps.
“We’re encouraging local
governments to take property
from us. They would not be sig¬
nificant savings, but they will
count now,” said Taylor. “We
might have to close a few parks,
but we don’t foresee how many
at this time.”
Before resorting to closing
parks the corps is looking into
reducing maintenance frequency
and is in the process of leasing
property to the YMCA.
Lake Lanier Association
President Jackie Joseph said the
budget cuts would not affect the
association’s annual projects
including the annual Shore
Sweep.
“I think they [the corps]
were hit pretty hard by hurri¬
canes this year, that being the
case, the budget was pretty well
eaten up,” she said. “They may
end up having to limit some
the hours in the parks or won’t
be able to open them as long
recreational purposes, but
and above that, they’re
to handle the cut.”
With more than 8 million
annual visitors to parks, changes
might decrease tourism,
Taylor is optimistic, stating
expects to bring the
amount of visitors as any
year.
“People use Lake Lanier as
playground. It’s among the
five lakes as far as
go,” he said. “I don’t
tourists to stop coming
because we have some
operating. I’m hoping we
make these cuts with the
impact on local economy
the least impact on the industry.”
TOUR from 1A
of Forsyth, which is some¬
thing of a natural fit as a send
off to cyclists, it really was a
no-brainer, win-win decision
to reach out to the city and the
county.”
The tour will attract spec¬
tators across the state, but
with professional cyclists
from more than 24 countries
participating in the race,
Cumming is sure to receive
national exposure.
“It will bring a lot
recognition to the city and
spectators will be able to see
more than 10 seconds of rid¬
ers because they’ll be there all
morning warming up and
going on warm-up rides,” said
David Crites, executive direc¬
tor of bicycle advocacy group
Georgia Bikes! “It’s a proud
achievement.”
The Tour De Georgia has
attracted more than 1.8 mil¬
lion spectators in its first three
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS — December 2,2005
State’s workers look to avoid avian flu
By Debbie Gilbert
FCN Regional Staff
GAINESVILLE — Offi¬
cials say it’s unlikely that the
lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu
will travel from Asia to the
United States. But if it does,
Georgia’s poultry companies
are confident they can keep
the disease from spreading.
About 50 chicken growers,
producers and industry execu¬
tives attended a closed meet¬
ing Wednesday afternoon at
Gainesville State College,
arranged by U.S. Rep. Nathan
Deal, R-Gainesville.
They listened to a panel of
experts that included Julie
Gerberding, director of the
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, and John
Clifford, chief veterinary offi¬
cer for the U.S. Department of
Agriculture’s Animal and
Plant Health Inspection
Service.
Afterward, Deal character-
Hall over sexual misconduct
By Nikki Young
FCN Regional Staff
GAINESVILLE — Five
Hall County Detention Center
jailers lost their jobs last
month on grounds of sexual
misconduct, the Hall County
Sheriff’s Office has confirmed.
Jail staff began investigat¬
ing three men and two women
in late October based on con-
Dawson commissioners cell tower
By Charlie Auvermann
FCN Regional Staff
DAWSONVILLE — The
county board of commissioners
again denied a request by
Southeast Towers Inc. to place a
new cell phone tower on
Galagi-na Drive. The tower was
to improve Cingular wireless
service along Hwy. 53 West
according to the applicant. The
commission in a split vote
denied the request making this
the second time they have voted
against placement of a tower at
LIST from 1A
And most of those new¬
comers came with college
degrees and high salaries in
the metro Atlanta area, looking
for a community with good
schools and low crime,
Bachtel said.
. “There are affluent people
choosing to move there
because of the quality of life,”
he said.
And as the upscale subdivi¬
sions and mini-mansions con¬
SUED from 1A
but something entirely differ¬
ent when payment on all
invoices is being withheld in
what appears to be bad faith,
stubbornly litigious, or an
attempt to cause Gibson
Technical Services unneces¬
sary trouble and expense,”
Quirk wrote.
The lawsuit claims that
Scientific Games “failed to
dispute the validity of the debt
or any portion of it.”
Gibson maintains that the
debt is accruing a daily inter-
years and more than 4,000
volunteers on an annual basis.
Between participants, sup¬
porting family and spectators,
Cumming-Forsyth County
Chamber of Commerce
President and CEO James
McCoy said he expects a sig¬
nificant financial impact on
local businesses.
Though an economic
impact analysis has yet to be
conducted, McCoy estimates
at least $1 million in revenue,
based on the success of other
communities.
“Lots of people come the
night before to stay for the
start of the race,” he said.
“They’re staying at the hotels
at the start of the race rather
than the finish, they’re buying
gas, meals and lots of other
filings that go along with that.
We will probably get to that
$1 million figure, and we may
well exceed that.”
1
ized the event as “a very suc¬
cessful discussion.”
“The overall conclusion
that all of us reached is that
chicken in this country is safe
to eat and will continue to be
that way,” he said.
Millions of birds in Asia
and Eastern Europe either
have died from the H5N1 flu
or been slaughtered in an
attempt to contain the virus.
There also have been
cases of the disease in
humans, including 68 deaths.
But Gerberding said nearly
all of those cases occurred in
people who lived or worked
closely with birds. “We have
found only two documented
cases of person-to-person
transmission in Asia,” she
said.
Health officials are worried
that the virus will mutate into
a form that is passed easily
from one human to another,
creating a global pandemic.
But at Wednesday’s meet-
versations a supervisor over¬
heard.
The jailers were found to
have inappropriate relation¬
ships and conduct for the work
place.
The five resigned and were
no longer employed with the
sheriff’s office as of Nov. 1.
“The misconduct was
strictly between the employees
and involved no inmates or
that location.
Southeast Towers brought in
the heavy guns for this round
with the county. Ellen Smith, a
lawyer from the firm of Holt,
Ney, Zatcoff and Wasserman
LLP spoke to the commission
from a carefully worded docu¬
ment touched on every point
that had caused the first rejec¬
tion when the commission
heard the request July 21.
The original request was
denied because the tower com¬
pany had not acquired the mini¬
mum 5 acres of land required
tinue to sprout up around
Forsyth, they keep coming.
“That affluent growth
attracts more affluent growth,”
Bachtel said.
The housing options in
Forsyth tend to exclude those
who aren’t well-heeled enough
to keep up with the prices,
Bachtel said.
The median value of an
existing home in Forsyth
County is now about
est of $876 as long as it
remains unpaid.
A phone message seeking
comment from Bauer was not
returned before press time
Thursday. Quirk and Gibson
CEO Stewart V. Gibson also
did not return phone messages.
Scientific Games has 30
days to respond to the suit
after being served. It was not
clear whether company offi¬
cials had seen the suit yet.
Scientific Games’ new
Puerto Rican operations were
A local organizing com¬
mittee of more than 10 mem¬
bers has been formed with
various subcommittees to
handle planning for the event.
Frank Felker, senior vice
president of the Forsyth
County division of Crescent
Bank, is one of the committee
members. Felker, a six-year
participant in Bike Ride
Across Georgia, will be on the
Sponsorship, Hospitality and
Logistics subcommittees.
He will be coordinating
efforts to monitor traffic,
helping to set up a.staging
area and looking for corporate
sponsorships.
In conjunction with the
tour, the annual Taste of
Forsyth is scheduled for April
23 to provide food and enter¬
tainment for spectators.
Though an official tour
route has yet to be deter¬
mined, Felker believes the
4
ing, the focus was on how the
existing virus could affect the
poultry industry.
Clifford said no poultry is
imported from countries that
have had cases of H5N1. And
it would be almost impossible
for an Asian poultry worker to
get on a plane, enter the
United States and carry the
virus to an American poultry
farm.
“We have excellent biose¬
curity at the commercial level,
and prevention at all of our
ports of entry,” he said.
Georgia’s poultry compa¬
nies require their growers to
follow strict rules, banning
visitors from chicken houses
and mandating decontamina¬
tion procedures. Also, chicken
houses are closed to the out¬
side, so wild birds cannot fly
in and spread diseases.
And even if they could,
there have been no cases of
H5N1 found in wild birds in
the United States. Clifford
civilians,” Sheriff’s Maj. Jeff
Strickland said.
Those resigning were:
Armondo Amezcua, Chris
Collins, Amanda Pate, Michael
Stephens and Bashati Wells.
Strickland said no sexual
intercourse took place at the
jail.
Three jailers still were in
the probationary period, the
first 12 months of employ-
under the county regulations. In
returning to the commission the
company claimed that they had
now increased the amount of
land to meet the requirements.
“We now have 6 acres with
2 acres on lease,” Smith told the
commission.
Because construction would
place the tower spacing closer
than the mandated three mile
spacing to existing cell towers,
Southeast was also asking for a
variance in order to build the
new tower.
Smith reiterated previous
$250,000, up from $184,600
just five years ago.
“The housing costs just
keep going up and up,”
Bachtel said, noting rental
options are few.
“It’s a self-fulfilling proph¬
esy — you’ve gotta have a
pretty thick wallet to live there
in the first place.”
Forsyth and Fayette, the
bedroom community south¬
west of Atlanta which includes
partially credited for a 10 per¬
cent increase in third-quarter
revenues this year, up from
$179.3 million in 2004 to
$196.8 million in 2005.
Revenues for the company
through September stood at
$578 million.
The Alpharetta-based com¬
pany employs more than 500
of its 1,200 workers at its
Forsyth County facility, where
lottery tickets are printed for
29 states and about 50 coun¬
tries.
racers will leave Forsyth
County, head through some
northern counties and then
circle back through Cumming
to compete in a sprint line at
the Cumming Fairgrounds,
before heading toward the fin¬
ish line in Alpharetta.
“It would be an advantage
for spectators, because in
addition to being able to see
the start of the ride that morn¬
ing, they will get to see the
sprint line later on,” he said.
“There’s going to be the Taste
of Forsyth, so the general
public is going to have the
opportunity to view the race
in two different segments
along with having fun at the
Taste of Forsyth that day, so it
will probably be a daylong
community event.”
For up-tojdate information
on the 2006TourDe Georgia,
visit the official Web site,
www.tourdegeorgia.com.
said that’s because migratory
routes are north-south, not
east-west, so birds in Asia
never cross paths with those in
the Americas.
But because H5N1 is
potentially devastating, the
USDA has prepared a contin¬
gency plan in case the disease
infiltrates the Western
Hemisphere. Last year,
Congress allocated more than
$22 million specifically to
address the threat of an avian
flu outbreak.
“Some of the money was
used to increase surveillance,’”
Clifford said. “Also, $12 mil¬
lion was set aside for indemni¬
fication.”
He said those funds would
compensate fanners if an out¬
break occurred and their
flocks had to be destroyed.
Gerberding said President
Bush also wants to allocate
money to help the Asian poul¬
try industry adopt more
hygienic practices.
ment.
None was certified by the
Georgia Peace Officer
Standards and Training
Council.
Sheriff Steve Cronic has
put in place additional training
to prevent future such inci¬
dents, Strickland said. Jail staff
has been lectured on the dan¬
gers of improper relationships
at work.
company statements that the
addition^ tower was needed to
improve coverage in the area,
“We tired to co-locate on exist¬
ing towers but Cingular did not
see an improvement in coverage
so we are asking for a tower at
this location,” she said.
Residents of Galagi-na Drive
again appeared in opposition
behind their own lawyer, Henry
Young. Young noted that the for¬
mal documentation regarding
the additional land had not been
made public at the time of the
hearing and that it remained two
Peachtree City, both have
proven to be among the most
attractive places to live for the
well-paid white-coller workers
who have flocked to Atlanta in
the past 30 years, Bachtel said.
And the metro area’s growth
has only begun to dramatically
affect outlying counties in
recent decades, he said.
“Of all the demographic
variables in the world, one of
the things that causes the most
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t ‘ti
“I’m impressed by the
biosecurity protecting the
poultry supply in this coun¬
try,” she said. “If only all the
other countries had these
measures in place.”
John Smith, veterinarian
for Baldwin-based Fieldale
Farms, believes the risk of
H5N1 here is “extremely low.”
“We feel we are very well
prepared to keep this disease
out of the United States,” he
said, adding, “Eat more chick
en! »
Smith’s comment was
intended to be amusing, but it
reflected the poultry industry’s
concern that consumers might
change their buying habits as a
result of all the publicity about
bird flu.
Abit Massey, president of
the Georgia Poultry
Federation in Gainesville, said
there’s no evidence that this
has happened yet.
“Chicken is still America’s
favorite food,” he said.
The sheriff’s office will not
tolerate questionable or unethi¬
cal behavior, Strickland said.
“He (Cronic) emphasizes
that these employees are
human, and in today’s work
force, where men and
women work closely togeth¬
er, occasionally relationships
affect the workplace,”
Strickland said in a written
statement.
parcels divided by a road —
thus it was not a contiguous par¬
cel per the regulations.
The commission voted 3-1
to deny the application with
Saling being the only vote for
the tower. The issue may not be
over as Smith noted during her
presentation that a notice of
intent to pursue the company’s
constitutional rights had been
filed with the application packet.
Opposition attorney Young
also stated that, “the adjacent
property owners also have legal
rights.”
change is urbanization,”
Bachtel said.
“As the growth in Atlanta
spread out, the increased
income and educational attain¬
ment came with it,” he said.
“Basically when people come
to Atlanta for job opportuni¬
ties, they seek out places to
live for the quality of life, and
. they bring their income, their
education, the three cars, kids
and the dogs.”