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Forsyth J Your "Hometown County Paper" Since 1908 J News 3
Vol. 99, No. 129 WEDNESDAY August 13, 2008 ams SPORTS, fire practice IB volleys
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Photos/Jennifer Sami; top right/Jim Dean
Clockwise from top left: Matt Elementary fifth-grader Samuel Adams films morning announcements;
DeWitt Weaver says goodbye to his 5-year-old daughter, Landry, before her first day of kindergarten;
Otwell Middle School Principal Steve Miller welcomes eighth-grader Angelica Chavey; and South Forsyth
High School freshman Kyle Fratello runs back to class for his backpack.
Students, staff at all levels start anew
11
i
A
Photo/Jennifer Sami
From left, Michael Uzee and Christian Blackmon wait
for the bus as sisters Katie and Emily Pitts talk about
first day anticipations. All four are students at North
Forsyth Middle School.
Buses leave,brunch beckons
Mothers share food, fellowship as school year begins
By Julie Arrington
Staff Writer
For thousands of parents
in neighborhoods across
Forsyth County, Monday got
off to a busy, if not bitter¬
sweet, start.
It was no different in the
Bridle Rjdge subdivision in
south Forsyth, where
Michele Weaver sent her
youngest of four children off
to school.
She and husband DeWitt
met with other parents and
their elementary school-age
children at a bus stop on
Bridle Ridge Drive in time
for the 7:45 a.m. ride to
Johns Creek Elementary.
Weaver’s fifth-grader,
Mary Evans, and second
grader, Jack, were all right,
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Copyright © 2007 Forsyth County News
i
Photo/Jim Dean
From left, Karen Moissiadis, .... Marilee Cleland, Melissa
Neff and Lisa Kelley talk Monday about the new
school year at a neighborhood brunch.
But Weaver and her kinder
gartener, Landry, had a tear
ful morning.
INDEX
Abby 3B
Classifieds.... 20B
Deaths........... 2A
Events............ 6A
Horoscope... Legals_____________ 3B
4B
Opinion_________ 8A
Sports ...IB
,
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-M*
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By Jennifer Sami
Staff Writer
The first day of school is “always an
exciting time” for Buster Evans, and this
year was no exception.
Evans, the superintendent of the Forsyth
County school system, praised the district’s
staff for a “phenomenal job getting ready.”
“To my ’knowledge, everything has gone
extremely well,” he said Monday. “I’ve been
out in some of the traffic. I’ve been to proba¬
bly half a dozen schools thus far and every¬
body just reports good smooth flow of every¬
thing taking place. *.
The system has added nearly 1,300 stu¬
dents since May, bringing total enrollment to
about 32,000 in pre-kindergarten through
See SCHOOL, Page 2A
“She cried until she got
on the bus and then she went
and sat with her sister and
Local
Resident to challenge
commission chairman
in hearing.
Page 3A
she was fine,” Weaver said.
But Weaver has a remedy
for the back-to-school
mommy blues.
For the past seven years,
she has organized a brunch
on the first day of school.
She joins with other mothers
in her neighborhood to
laugh, cry and share stories
over an assortment of home¬
made casseroles, sweets and
snacks. .
■ I started doing this
brunch the first year Forde
went to school because I did
n , t want to be by myself all
day ” Weaver said.
Forde, her oldest son,
started the sixth grade this
year at South Forsyth Middle
School.
See MOMS, Page 2A
Opinion
Columnist Bill Shipp:
You’d better hide your
wallet from the state.
Page 8A
, 3
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m. ■aft
J - -4v* t :
Photo/Jim Dean
Forsyth County firefighters work Monday to free a driv¬
er from a car after it ran through the front doors of a
Canton Highway convenience store.
Woman hurt
as car plows
into food mart
By Julie Arrington
Staff Writer
The manager of a conven¬
ience store in Cumming got
an unexpected surprise
Monday afternoon when a car
smashed through the front of
the building.
Pankaj Jain said he was
helping a customer inside the
Chevron Food Mart on
Canton Highway and Sawnee
Drive when a white Toyota
Camry plowed through the
front door and window, scat
tering glass throughout the
store.
I heard a big boom noise
and I see a big car in my
store,” he said. “And the
'
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Photo/Emily Saunders
10-month-old Luke Samples sits next to an 85-pound
watermelon that his father, Chris Samples, grew.
Faith and fertilizer
work wonders in
man’s melon patch
By Ben Holcombe
Associate Editor
Chris Samples’ watermel¬
on patch stands as a testament
to what prayers and a little
cow manure can do.
This year, Samples, a 37
year-old electrician, planted
three watermelon vines on
about a 10th of an acre in his
shady north Forsyth garden.
He watered them in, fertil¬
ized with some cow manure
and 10-10-10, then left them
in thp Lord’s hands.
,
I planted ’em, and God
grows ’em. I give it all to
him,” Samples said Monday
Possible Rain
LAKE LANIER LEVELS
Date Level
Aug. 8 1054.58 ft
Aug. 9 1054.50 ft
m Aug. Aug. Full 10 11 1054.42 1054.34 1071.00ft ft ft
High in the high 70s.
Low in the low 60s.
Officer: Driver
hit gas, not brake
door was broken. Everything
was broken.”
The driver, 80-year-old
Lillian Jones of Cumming,
was taken to Northside
Hospital-Forsyth for treat
ment. Her condition could
not be determined Tuesday.
Jain said Jones is a daily
customer and usually parks
her car in the handicapped
space in front of the store.
u I never saw her coming,”
he said. “All I heard was a
See PLOWS, Page 3A
For more on Chris
' Samples’watermelon
success, go online at
forsythnews.com.
afternoon as he looked at four
gigantic oblong watermelons
piled under a shade tree.
“I watered some when I set
them out,” he said. “After that,
I didn’t touch ’em. I know
you’re supposed to, but I just
didn’t have time.
“You know you’re sup¬
posed to pull all off but one.
But this one, this one, this one
See MELON, Page 3A