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injures firefighter
By Kayls Robins
krobins@forsythnews.com
A firefighter injured his shoulder Tuesday
while on duty at a house fire near Lake Lanier in
northeast Forsyth.
He was among about 30 personnel who
responded to the blaze on Bethel Road adjacent
to the lake about 3:30 p.m. June 21, Forsyth
County Fire Department Division Chief Jason
Shivers said.
“As he was trying to make the initial forced
entry into the building, he did suffer a minor
shoulder injury and has been taken to an urgent
care center for treatment,” Shivers said.
A couple other firefighters “had to be pulled
out of operations for exhaustion” due to the
intensity of the heat, the humid weather and the
access to the property.
The home, about 2,000 square feet, sits at the
end of a long private driveway about 1,800 feet
off Bethel Road.
There was no room to move trucks in and out,
80 the first ones that got there had to stay while
water was drawn through two engines worth of
hoses from a hydrant on Bethel Road.
“That took a considerable amount of time just
to get the water supply operation in place and
begin providing positive water on the scene,”
Shivers said.
He said exhaustion injuries are “nothing that's
not expected” and that they “come with the job.”
All firefighters have made a recovery since.
Four adults occupied the residence as a rental,
Shivers said. No one was inside the home when
the blaze began.
They had been out on the lake, Shivers said,
and as they boated back to their dock they saw
smoke coming from the shore. Once they real
ized it was coming from their home, they called
911.
The home was deemed a total loss, Shivers
sald. Two vehicles and a motorcycle parked in a
car port adjacent to the building sustained dam
age, too.
The 30 emergency personnel who responded —
including four engine companies, one ladder
company, an ambulance, staff officers, investiga
tors and all three tankers — were more than “what
a normal structure fire requires” due to the
access challenges the property presented.
A cause and origin of the fire, as well as
whether it was accidental or suspicious in nature,
has not yet been determined, as the incident
remains an active investigation, Shivers said.
Personnel returned to the scene Wednesday to
continue the investigation,
Concerns rising over looming
drought, impact on Lake Lanier
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Volume 107, Numbet 75
© 2016, Forsyth County News
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Photos by Micah Green Forsyth County News
Survey: Georgia
among most
business friendly
By Kelly Whitmire
kwhitmire@forsythnews.com ¢
A national study brought good news
for small businesses in the north metro
Atlanta area,
Thumbtack, a website that connects
professionals and customers, recently
teleased a survey ranking Georgia as
the foutth most small business-friendly
state and Atlanta as the 10th for cities
for 2016.
James McCoy, president of the
Cumming-Forsyth County Chamber
of Commetvce, said there were a few
reasons for the good grade.
“We have a great tax structure over
all in Georgia,” McCoy said. *I think
there is a great employment base here,
particularly in metro Atlanta, of very
talented and creative people that fuel
the growth of small businesses.”
The study surveyed 12,000 small
businesses across 35 states and 78 cit
ies.
Classifieds 8B
Comics 78
Crossword Ll}
Deaths 2A
Horoscopes 6B
Opinion 7A
Sports 18
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Georgia finished behind Texas, Utah
and Tennessee and ahead of Colorado.
Atlanta joined Austin, Boston,
Minneapolis and San Francisco as cit
ies that had in-depth case studies per
formed — Atlanta finished with the best
ranking from those cities.
Aw part of the study, responders gave
a letter grade to categories such as reg
ulations, health and safety, zoning and
tax code.
Georgia earned an A-plus ranking
8 e T D &
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~FCN regional staff
It doesn’t seem so long ago when rain
couldn’t stop falling. Now, we could go days
between raindrops.
And the soil is beginning to show it, as the
Hall County area is steeped in drought.
So far, drought conditions are considered
moderate, but severe conditions are just to
the south of Hall in metro Atlanta and in
northwest Georgia, according to the U.S.
Drought Monitor.
“I'm definitely concerned about the fore
cast for lake levels,” which show Lake
Lanier hitting 1,066 feet above sea level by
mid-July. said Joanna Cloud, Lake Lanier
Association executive director,
At 1,060 feet, “we start being concerned
about public safety impacts,” said Nick
Baggett, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’
natural resource manager at Buford Dam.
“We start looking at it pretty hard at that
See DROUGHT | 2A
3 \ Sheriff elect
to hold meet
and greet.
for licensing requirements and was 24
percent higher than the national aver
age. Of those polled, 41 percent of
Georgians felt the tax rate was too
high, which was 16 percent fewer than
the national average.
McCoy said business friendliness
extends to Forsyth County.
“I think you'll find there is an over
all very positive ecosystem from a reg-
See ENTREPRENEUR | 2A
.
Pedestrian struck by
vehicle at gas station
By Kayla Robins
krobins@forsythnews.com
A pedestrian was seriously injured after being
hit by a vehicle Wednesday afternoon in the park
ing lot of a gas station on Canton Highway at
Heardsville Road, which is just east of the
Cherokee-Forsyth county line.
According to Forsyth County Sheriff's Cpl.
Robin Regan, a 44-year-old man from Cumming
was travelling on Canton Highway (Hwy. 20)
when he lost control of his Volvo and drove into
the Marathon Gas Station parking lot at 4644
Canton Hwy., striking a parked Chevrolet
Colorado.
The impact knocked the Chevrolet into its driv
er, also a 44-year-old man from Cumming, who
was standing outside the vehicle.
He was thrown into the side of the building as
the truck rotated after being struck, causing him to
tecelve multiple injuries, according to Deputy
Epifanio Rodriguez, also a spokesman for the
sheriff's office.
See PEDESTRIAN | 2A
‘I \ Yar brough:
Sebastian is
the real deal.
/ :
Forecast | 2A