Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4A
Former POW to recall experience with McCain
By Jennifer Sami
Staff Writer
He lives in Forsyth County now,
but 40 years ago, Col. Lee Ellis was
living across the globe, where he was
being held as a prisoner of war.
During his imprisonment he came
to know another American prisoner,
who would later go on to become the
likely Republican presidential nomi¬
nee.
Ellis’ personal experience with
John McCain will be the main topic
during Tuesday’s Forsyth County
Republican Party meeting.
*.<■ We think he has a very interest¬
ing story to tell,” said Andrew Miller,
HOMELESS from 1A
Alice Park Road about six weeks ago
while he was checking out a fire he saw
from the road.
After trudging through tall, thick
grass into a wooded area, thinking the
source of the flames might have been a
car on fire, he found a small clearing
with about four tents where at least two
men had been living for a couple of
months.
The men, 37-year-old Anthony Dale
Frachiseur and 27-year-old Tony Ray
Britt, were arrested July 17 and charged
with criminal damage to property and
pedestrian under the influence after
they allegedly knocked over street
lamps on Marketplace Boulevard.
Coffman said the incident occurred
the night after Frachiseur had appeared
in court on disorderly conduct charges.
The charges were brought against him
after an altercation with a man at a gas
station on Atlanta Highway.
The camp appears to have been
vacated since, but it’s still littered with
broken glass, beat up lawn furniture,
empty liquor bottles, crumpled ciga¬
rette packs and other miscellaneous
items.
Lying on the ground are large sheets
of clear plastic and tree limbs used for
makeshift tents. There’s even what
appears to be a shower, fashioned from
blue plastic, possibly a tarp, draped
between trees for privacy.
Eason said most of the department’s
calls about the homeless are usually
nuisance-related and that sometimes,
Mia 20011 MO 5 HatcESM
from John Hegel Chevrolet or
< $10,000 cash! v
Reverse raffle
The last ticket drawn
wins the car or cash!
Only 350 tickets printed
Prizes Every 25th number drawn will win a prize
equal or more valuable than the ticket price.
Your $100 ticket is also admission for Two
(2)people to the “Drawing Party" on
kagoMt 28,2008, 7:00 p.m.
/a’" If $100 is out of your budget, get some
partners and split the $10,000 CA$H!
Purchase your tickets at
Ik Duran County Chamber of Commerce or all far other ticket locations.
Wt accept cadiorchicks! All proendi benefit Chamber of Commerce
You do not bm to be present to Win.
Call 706-265-6278 for more information. Are you feeling lucky?
/
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS - Sunday, August 10,2008
local party chairman.
“We wanted to take advantage of
that and let him share his story,
which is very timely right now... and
to give members of the party and cit¬
izens of the county insight into John
McCain the man.”
Both Ellis, who was shot down
over Vietnam, and McCain were
held as POWs for more than five
years.
Though McCain is the presumed
party nominee, he trailed Mitt
Romney and Mike Huckabee in
Forsyth County, during February’s
presidential preference primary.
Miller said learning more about
the candidate will get the party more
4 ¥ ,
Photo/Emily Saunders
A blanket and clothes hang in the
remnants of a homeless camp
near downtown Cumming.
particularly in the winter, they will seek
shelter in houses that are abandoned or
under construction.
“We’re not seeing much destruction
at construction sites, but they may
rearrange things to get comfortable,”
Eason said.
Coffman said if he receives a com¬
plaint about a homeless person being
on private property, he goes out there
and tells the person to move along.
He said they “usually have enough
sense that if we ask therh not to fre¬
quent that area they comply.”
“If there aren’t any complaints
about them, or they’re not doing any¬
thing illegal, we don’t take them in,”
Coffman said.
E-mail Julie Arrington at juliear
rington @forsythnews. com.
involved before Election Day.
“When you personalize a candi¬
date, it brings people closer to him.
They feel like they understand him
more, they respect him more and he’s
no longer just a candidate,” he said.
“I think positions of candidates and
parties align people to who they will
and won’t vote for. But when people
feel that they know personally about a
candidate, those are the people that
will actually go out and campaign.
“They’ll tell their friends to go
out and vote for this candidate and I
think that will really get up the vote
in Georgia.
“It’s a good way to start building
a relationship between McCain and
RECOUNT from 1A
“I’m definitely looking forward
to [taking over in January] and I’m
already doing everything I can
toward being as up to speed as I
can be. 99
Boff said he thought a recount
“would be a waste of everybody’s
time.”
As it stands after certification,
Boff has 50.24 percent of the votes
and Tressler has 49.76
Because the vote was decided
by less than 1 percent, Tressler has
the option to ask for a recount
under state law.
She must do so, in writing,
before close of business Tuesday.
Though it was too late Friday, she
said she will meet her deadline and
will request the recount.
During the meeting, Tressler
made a request to the board to
postpone certifying the election,
citing several ballots cast with no
actual vote.
She presented the board with a
letter asking for the postponement,
allowing for more time to look at
the issue.
“Because it was so close and
there were still unanswered ques¬
tions, I asked them to postpone it
to day seven instead of day three,”
she said, following the certifica¬
tion.
The official results showed 33
blank ballots were cast for the
District 5 race. In the clerk of supe-
The Citizens Bank of
Forsyth County
Experienced People.
Committed to Community.
Here to stay.
m
Tiffany Hilderbrand has been at
the Martin Crossing Office on j
GA 400 since the doors
opened in February 2007.
You can always count on a
smile when you visit
Tiffany's teller window.
She knows why she is
here... to make the
customer feel welcomed
and appreciated. Tiffany is
ready to help you find what
.
you have been missing with
your bank-experience,
commitment, and a true
customer service attitude.
Let The Citizens Bank introduce i 5
you to
Community Banking at It's Best!
770-886-9500 www.citizbank.com :
CB • / <
CITIZENS itr
BANK amui
OF FORSYTH COUN TY ...OIItimiTY
Ill
WMm meeting
The Forsyth County
Republican Party meeting
begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday and
will be held at the Cumming
Library on 585 Dahlonega
Road in Cumming. For more
information, call (770) 889-
8810 or go online at
www.forsythgop.com.
the people who didn’t really support
him. 99
Ellis, a retired Air Force colonel
rior court run-off election 607 bal¬
lots were left blank.
Gary J. Smith, chief voter regis¬
trar and elections board chairman,
said there is no way to prove intent
on a blank ballot apd often, people
choose to vote for one race, but not
another.
The three-member elections
board unanimously voted to certify
the election Friday despite
Tressler’s plea, said Smith.
“We felt at the time, there was
no reason to hold up certification,”
he said.
“In every election we’ve ever
had since I was in office, we’ve
had people who decided not to
vote. There was no reason to wait
another two days.”
Election board member Janis
Thomas said she wished she
received a copy of Tressler’s letter
.. earlier to make a decision on,” but
would not comment as to why she
voted against postponing the certi¬
fication.
Brant Meadows, the third elec¬
tion board member said the certifi¬
cation was the same as all past cer¬
tifications.
“If there had been something
that could have been exercised, or
identifiable, some irregularity or
inconsistency with something that
happened in the past ... we might
have done things differently,” he
said.
was head of the University of
Georgia's ROTC program, served as
a fighter pilot, instructor pilot and
was a veteran of 53 combat missions.
As a prisoner of war, Ellis was
n changed by that experience,” said
Miller.
tt But he didn’t let it beat him,” he
said. “When he got back, he kept
pursuing his Air Force Career. He
didn’t turn back on the military. He
didn’t let that event turn his life.
Ellis will also serve as a 9th
District alternate representative to the
Republican National Convention in
September.
E-mail Jennifer Sami at jennifer
sami@forsythnews.com.
“But I didn’t see anything. For
me, it is the consistent way we’ve
done it each and every time here.”
In the event of a recount, all
absentee ballots would be run
through an optical scan reader, said
Smith.
The reader would then release
votes to a memory card, which
would be combined with memory
cards from all other machines used
in Tuesday’s run-off.
“Then what we do is re-run all
of the memory cards from the
machines, summarize the data and
print the report again,” said Smith.
Apart from the potential
District 5 recount. Smith character¬
ized the rest of the runoff election
as “flawless.”
During the July 15 primary
election, five voting machines were
closed due to technical difficulties.
Two of those machines were
closed after voter complaints. Both
machines passed all tests needed,
and while they were approved for
use, none were used during the
runoff.
Machines that were used “ran
well,” said Smith.
“There were no problems at all
this time. None,’ he said. “This
election ran technically as well as
it could. As far as I’m concerned, it
was flawless.”
E-mail Jennifer Sami at jen
nifersami @forsythnews. com.