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PAGE 2A
Hiring freeze buys time to explore budget cuts
By Frank Reddy
Staff Writer
Forsyth County commissioners
voted 3-2 on Tuesday to freeze hiring
until Aug. 21.
The move will give officials time
to study a recommendation that all
departments trim their budgets by 12
percent.
Approval of the hiring freeze
came after commissioners reviewed
the midyear budget report for fiscal
year 2008, which showed a shortfall
of $6.9 million.
Chief Financial Officer Bill
Thomas suggested the 12 percent
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Photo/Emily Saunders
From left, Cinderspellers Connie McCrary, Carl Jackson and Ellen Cohan cringe
Tuesday after spelling their last word wrong in the final round of Spell Check Live!
2008 at Forsyth Central High School.
SPELL from 1A
nate spellings of words on
notepads in an effort to get
them correct.
The teams came from a
variety of entities and organi¬
zations, including local
Rotary clubs, the Kiwanis
Club of Cumming and the
Forsyth County Friends of the
Library.
They kept their spirits up
as Ferguson challenged them
with words like “ptyalism,”
“echolalia” and “bacchana¬
lian.”
One team asked Ferguson
JAIL from IA
Cumming city limits.
Tuesday’s town hall meet
ing, the first of two this month,
was designed to help voters
decide Nov. 4 whether to sup
port funding the proposed 480
bed facility through a $75 mil
lion bond.
The new facility would
replace the existing jail, which
is also off Veterans Memorial
and closer to downtown
Cumming. That structure, built
in the mid-1970s, is crowded.
Sheriff Ted Paxton and Jeff
Pieper of jail architects Pieper
O’Brien Herr fielded questions
from the group.
“I’m not going to change
your minds on this, but I want
you to be informed,” Paxton
said.
The sheriff and architects
presented designs for the pro
posed facility. County Manager
Rhonda O’Connor answered
questions from the administra
tive point of view.
Residents asked O’Connor
RECOUNT from 1A
left blank in a race is a com¬
mon occurrence, citing 607
ballots submitted with no
selection for either clerk of
court candidate.
Smith, reached by phone
Tuesday while on vacation,
said the recount will be held
sometime next week.
“Most of my staff is on
vacation this week, so I
don’t have the people I
would need to be able to do
it now,” he said. “This was
one week we thought we
wefe going to be able to
have time for vacations
before we had to do things
to get ready for the
November election.”
In an e-mail Tuesday
from Tressler’s campaign,
consultant Joshua Jones
l
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS — Thursday, August 14,2008
County’s financial woes blamed on slow economy, development
across-the-board cuts to eliminate the
financial gap, which officials blamed
’on a struggling economy and lack of
development,
The hiring freeze is not expected
to affect many job openings, though
the exact number of vacancies in
county government was not immedi
ately available,
According to Thomas, a $6.7 mil
lion budget deficit has risen to $6.9
million since April.
The revenue deficit is related
directly to the slow of the economy
to pronounce a word “like
someone from Cumming”
while another, showing no
shame, just asked for the
spelling.
Forsyth County Schools
Superintendent Buster Evans,
Lanier Technical College
President Michael Moye and
Northside Hospital-Forsyth
Administrator Lynn Jackson
judged the competition, pro¬
viding teams with definitions
and word origins when
asked.
Costumes also were part
why they had not been told the
property was sold next to their
subdivision,
O’Connor said newspaper
notices were published advis
ing of the potential purchase of
the land, but there was little
response from residents at that
time,
When the land was pur
chased over a year ago, we sent
out public notices,” O’Connor
said. “And we had only one
person call us. That’s it.”
Wyngate resident Greg
Rider said he had just recently
heard about the land purchase.
“First I heard of it was just
the other day,” Rider said. “We
weren’t told about any of this
until after the fact.”.
In an attempt to ease the
minds of residents worried
about how it would look to
have a jail 142 feet behind their
homes, O’Connor elaborated
on the outer designs of the
building.
We’re not worried about
wrote that Georgia law
“clearly states that if there
are more irregular votes than
the margin, you are obligated
under law to hold a new elec¬
tion.”
While the definition of
irregular is broad, Matt
Carrothers, a spokesman for
the Secretary of State, said
there is “nothing in the
Georgia election code that
says that an ‘undervote’ [or
ballot where not all races
have been voted on] would
spoil a ballot.”
“For that particular rea¬
son, it would not require
another election,” he said.
Carrothers said it would
be a hypothetical situation to
assume blank ballots were
su l^mitted.
and the decline of development,” he
said.
Thomas stressed the situation was
dire and urged commissioners to take
some form of action.
“If you don’t want to act on any¬
thing else today at least freeze hiring,
so we can stop that,” he said. “If we
stop that, it will give us time to come
back and figure out how we’re going
to do this.
The hiring freeze is in effect until
Aug. 21, when the commission’s
next meeting is scheduled.
of the event.
Ellen Cohan, Carl Jackson
and Connie McCrary decked
out in fairy tale costumes to
represent the Forsyth County
school system as the
Cinderspellers.
They tied for the best cos¬
tume prize with the United
Way’s Bee Givers team of
John Goode, James Benson
and Skip Putnam, who
dressed as babies.
E-mail Julie Arrington at
juliearrington@forsythnews.
com.
What’s next
The second town hall
meeting on plans for a new
jail is scheduled for 6 p.m.
Aug. 26 in the conference
room at the Forsyth County
Sheriff’s Office, 101 E.
Main St. in Cumming.
how it looks,” Schneider said.
“Sure, it’s a pretty building. But
it’s what’s inside that concerns
me.
Wyngate investor Shelley
Laine had similar concerns.
“It’s not right to put a jail
here,” she said. “This is a
brand-new, beautiful communi¬
ty. These are taxpayers. The
county has turned its back on
the very people that make this
county run.”
Other residents wondered
about possible breakouts.
“I’d be foolish to tell you
we’ll never have an escape,”
Paxton responded. “Nobody
can tell you that.”
Tressler, however, con¬
tends there were “39 cards
that went into a machine”
with no selections made.
“It may be something
we’re reading incorrectly,”
she said. “But that is the
number that several different
people have come up with ...
it’s not about voting in one
race and not voting in anoth¬
er.”
Tressler said she’s “not
challenging the election.”
"There are* just unan¬
swered questions at this
point,” she said. “I’m just
trying to get questions
answered ... [a recount] is
just the next step.”
Smith said the recount
would be conducted accord¬
ing t<^ standard state proce-
At that time, the board may
decide whether the across-the board
budget cuts are the cure or if they
should seek other
options, which could include sus¬
pending all major maintenance and
nonessential capital projects.
“We’re all going to have to tight¬
en our belts,” said Chairman Charles
Laughinghouse. “In two weeks,
maybe we’ll have some more infor¬
mation, and at that time we’ll decide
what the next course of action is.”
County Attorney Ken Jarrard said
DEATH from 1A
for 30 years and had known
Lito for five years. He said he
just can’t understand what
happened.
“Buddy and John were
good friends and that’s why I
just can’t believe it was John
that had done that,” Miller said.
He said when he found
Preston, he thought he’d had a
heart attack.
When Preston’s body was
found, Lito immediately
became a person of interest.
Authorities said Lito was
arrested July 26 on aggravated
battery charges after he alleged¬
ly beat another tenant, David
Payne, and then took him to the
hospital for treatment.
Authorities have said Preston
was a witness to the incident.
Lito was released Aug. 1
from the Forsyth County
Detention Center.
Sheriff’s investigators said
last week that Payne came
home from the hospital on the
morning of Aug. 5 to find that
his apartment had been burglar¬
ized and two firearms were
missing.
Lito was a suspect in the
burglary, they said. Both guns
were later found inside his
apartment.
Sheriff’s Lt. Col. Gene
Moss said they still are waiting
for autopsy reports and other
forensic evidence before the
case can be closed.
Moss and Taylor said the
reports could take three to four
weeks to return.
Moss said authorities are
willing to talk with anyone who
may have any information about
He added that in the past
eight years there had been only
one jail break. He attributed
that to the outdated design of
the current jail.
Gary Gordijn, who works
for the Gwinnett County
Department of Corrections and
lives in Forsyth, said most
escapes occur during prisoner
transport.
“The farther the jail is away
from the courthouse the more
likely there’s going to be an
escape,” Gordijn said. “This jail
needs to be close to the court¬
house in town.”
Hauling prisoners has been
one of the chief motivating fac¬
tors in seeking a new county
jail.
Because of crowded condi¬
tions at the existing facility, the
county is forced to house some
200 prisoners in nearby
Cherokee and Dawson coun¬
ties, as well as Floyd County in
northwest Georgia and Irwin
County in South Georgia.
dures, which essentially is
setting up “the same process
we had for election night,”
he said.
All valid ballots were
recorded to memory cards,
which will be read and
uploaded to the main server,
which will then recalculate
the totals.
“It’s not a complicated
process,” Smith said. “But
we will work to make sure
we have all the things put
together so we can do a
proper recount.”
Boff, who has already
declared victory, could not
be reached Tuesday or
Wednesday.
E-mail Jennifer Sami at
jennifersami@forsythnews.
com.
v/
whatever budgetary action the board
takes must be fair.
“If we’re going to dp this, it can¬
not be arbitrary,” he said. “It should
be reasonably tailored to deal with
the situation at hand. In other words,
you can’t cut more than you need.”
Jarrard said cutting the budget in
midyear could raise some eyebrows,
but maintaining a balanced budget
should trump any objections.
“You have an obligation to main¬
tain a balanced budget,” he said.
“You have the fair weight of authori¬
ty to do this now.”
E-mail Frank Reddy at frankred
dy @ forsythnews. com.
the shootings.
Sheriff’s investigators were
scheduled to talk with Preston
on Aug. 5 about the Lito-Payne
altercation, but he never arrived.
Miller said he thought that
was suspicious.
“He’s never late for his
appointments and he’s usually
here at 8:30,” he said. “So all
day Tuesday [Aug. 5] I didn’t
hear nothing from him or
Tuesday night.
“Wednesday, I still couldn’t
get a hold of him on his phone.
We had talked Monday about
the boat dock and I thought I
better go over there and check
on that boat dock before the
water disappears.” '
Miller said Preston owned
boat slips on Lake Lanier,
where the water level continues
to receded under the withering
drought.
Miller said he noticed that
Preston’s trucks were parked in
his driveway and hadn’t been
moved when he arrived Aug. 6
at the quadriplex.
“That’s when I realized the
screen door, it looked like some¬
body had busted it open,” he
said. “That’s when I went in and
found Buddy laying there in his
bed.’
Miller said Preston’s head
was covered by a pillow, which
is confirmed in the incident
report. He immediately called
911.
“I thought it was just a heart
attack,” Miller said. “I know his
health has been bad, but that’s
what I thought it was. I would
have never dreamed of this.”
Preston’s former brother-in-
It costs $45 per day to
house one inmate elsewhere,
not factoring in transportation
costs, according to county fig
ures.
Paxton said there are every
day risks “removing prisoners
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4 d-
law John Smart said he had
known Preston for about 50
years.
Smart said Preston had a son
with his twin sister, June.
Smart’s wife Margie said
she did not know how or where
to contact their nephew.
John Smart said he attended
North Fulton High School in
Buckhead with
Preston. He remembered his
former classmate as a property
owner and car enthusiast.
“He’s got two or three hous¬
es on Lake Lanier,” and proper¬
ty in Cumming, Buckhead and
Helen, John Smart said.
He said the quadriplex
Preston lived in used to be a
motel on Lakewood Avenue in
Atlanta.
“There used to be a motel
out there and he bought it at
auction and brought it up here
and put it up there,” Smart said.
He added that Preston also
owned several antique cars and
recruited a band from Bavaria
for Helen’s Oktoberfest a cou¬
ple of years ago.
“He collected antique auto¬
mobiles,” he said. “He has a
1934 Dodge four-door convert¬
ible up there in Helen.”
Funeral arrangements, if
any, have not been released for
either man.
An official with McDonald
& Sons Funeral Home said
Lito’s body had been cremated
last weekend and Preston’s
body was scheduled for crema¬
tion Wednesday.
E-mail Julie Arrington at
juliearrington @ forsythnews.
com.
from a confined and secure
environment and taking them
here and there,” while a new
jail would require less move
ment.
E-mail Frank Reddy at
frankreddy@forsythnews.com.