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| FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS | Forsythlows com
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Full pool is 1,071 feet
Bell to seek
county GOP chair
By Kelly Whitmire
kwhitmire@forsythnews.com
A former Forsyth County commis
sioner is interested in-leading the
Forsyth County Republican Party.
Patrick Bell, who served as District
4 Commissioner from 2009 to 2012,
announced on Monday his intention to
run for chair of the Forsyth County
GOP. Current Forsyth County
Republican Party Chairman Justin
Hawkins announced last week he
would be stepping down as of March
23.
“I’ve been involved with the com
munity for over 11 years now,” Bell
said. “I’ve taken some time recently to
focus on my businesses, but with
Justin moving on to bigger and better
things, I just felt that the opportunity
was there for me to step back in and
give some guidance and assistance and
be part of a team continuing to carry
the Forsyth County GOP forward.”
Bell, a small business owner and
licensed real estate agent, said this
being an election year meant leader
ship in the party was crucial.
“From the election standpoint, of
course, it is critically important that
we protect the conservative values that
we have here in this county,” he said.
“With the governor’s race and the con
gressional race, someone has to carry
that momentum that Justin started.”
It is not immediately clear when the
next chair will be selected by members
of the party.
Church plans food pantry drive
By Kelly Whitmire
kwhitmire@forsythnews.com
A local church group is collecting
meals prior to a countywide day of
service.
At a recent service, members of
Cumming First United Methodist
Church began a food donation drive to
collect items for One Great Day of
Service, an annual event hosted by the
church in which members do a variety
of service projects in the county.
“Part of that event is food sorting
and kind of restocking our food pan
tries for the spring months,” said
Barbara Ledbetter, food pantry coordi
nator at the church. “In order to have
the food here in time to sort that food,
we have to start it off a couple of
weeks ahead of time so people have
actual time to go to the store and get
the items they want to donate.”
Donations can be dropped at the
church from 8:30 a.m. - f&e) p.m.-on
weekdays and church staff will be tak
ing bags of food outside the church
this Sunday.
Non-perishable items such as peanut
butter, canned meats, rice, dry beans
and more will be accepted. Organizers
ask that donations not have glass.
Ledbetter said the food pantry
serves hundreds of local families and
members try to give out balanced
meals.
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“The relationships I made with people
will be valuable being chairman of the
GOP. I’ve got relationships with peo
ple in Washington. I've got relation
ships with people at the [state] Capitol
and certainly relationships with people
back home.”
He said Hawkins had built and
maintained relationships for the party
during his term, which Bell said he
plans to continue.
“The chairman doesn’t, as some
people think, call the shots but is real
ly the one that kind of corrals every
body together to move towards the
common goal,” Bell said. “Those rela
tionships-1 have will, I think, help us
with fundraising, will help us make
sure that Forsyth is important at the
state GOP level and, of course, at the
national GOP level and when we’re
moving issues forward.”
Bell has lived in the county for 20
years and has two grown children and
four grandchildren. He has served
three terms as chairman of the church
council at Bethelview United
Methodist Church.
“We serve anywhere from 350-400
families a month,” she said. “It’s a full
bag of groceries. We try to get banan
as. We give meat. We’re lucky because
we have several local stores who
donate bread to us, so they get bread
and some sweet stuff t0o0.”
Serving that many local families
takes a whole team, Ledbetter said.
“I just started this job in July, and
I've kind of been kind of amazed at
how it works. It takes a lot of work,”
she said. “We have volunteers that
pack bags different days of the week.
They have stockers and people that do
inventory. It takes a village, and so it is
really important that we have these
donations to fulfill the needs of the
o ity.”
'i%e food collected in the drive will
be given out jn One Great Day of
Service, which will include several
service projects in the county.
“The Great Day of Service is when
people all over our county who want
to do this or are invited to do this sign
up and do different projects,” she said.
“We have local houses they work on.
We even have things like the ice cream
social at a couple of retirement homes.
It’s a lot of different projects.”
Cumming First United Methodist is
located at 770 Canton Highway.
Ledbetter can be contacted by phone
at 770-887-2900 ext. 236.
PUBLISHER | Stephanie Woody
GENERAL MANAGER | Norman Baggs
EDITOR | Frank Reddy
SPORTS EDITOR | Brian Paglia
CIRCULATION DIRECTOR | Lisa Safinas
If selected, Bell
said he wants to use
his experience in
‘office and relation
ships he’s made both
in and out of Forsyth
to benefit the party.
“It taught me a lot
of things when I was
on the board,” he said.
OBITUARIES
Timothy Gerald Cames
Timothy Gerald Carnes, age 51, of
Cumming passed away Feb. 24, 2018.
Ingram Funeral Home & Crematory
of Cumming is in charge of arrange
ments. - : A
Forsyth County News
February 28, 2018
Billy Joe Christopher
Billy Joe Christopher, Sr., age 59, of
Dawsonville passed away Feb. 25,2018.
Ingram Funeral Home & Crematory
of Cumming is in charge of arrange
ments. ; 3
Forsyt? County News S
February 28, 2018 -
Ruth Mignon Cole
Ruth Mignon Cole, age 99, of
Cumming passed away Feb. 24, 2018.
McDonald and Son Funeral Home of
Cumming is in charge of arrangements.
Forsyth County News
February 28, 2018
Hilda H. Cox . 2
Hilda H. Cox, age 93, of
Dawsonville passed away Feb. 25, 2018.
Bearden Funeral Home of
Dawsonville is in charge of arrange
ments. !
Forsyth County News
February 28, 2018
Ronald E. Flowers
Ronald E. Flowers, age 79, of
Treasure Island, Fla. passed away on
Feb. 22, 2018.
Ingram Funeral Home & Crematory
of Cumming is in charge of arrange
ments.
Forsyth County News
February 28, 2018
William Daniel “Bill” Foltz
William Daniel “Bill” Foltz, age 81,
of Cumming passed away Feb. 21, 2018.
McDonald and Son Funeral Home of
Cumming is in charge of arrangements.
Forsyth County News
February 28, 2018
INCIDENT REPORTS
Man loses lottery, goes
on gas station rampage
A deputy responded 1 p.m. Feb. 21 to
an incident at a gas station on McGinnis
Ferry Road in reference to a dispute
involving a customer and convenience
store management. The deputy inter
viewed two store employees who
described the recent behavior of a prob
lematic customer.
“The female stated [the suspect]
believed he had been shorted by $25 on
a lottery scratch off. [The suspect] had
contacted the business the previous day
and stated he was going to return to dis
pute the payment,” the incident report
stated.
When the suspect arrived to make
"good on his promise;,-he “became irate
and began to yell and destroy the plastic
counter top store fixtures.”
He allegedly pushed over a lottery
computer, valued at SIB,OOO, “leaving it
dangling from the cord but undamaged.”
While pushing the fixtures off the
counter, one of the plexiglass fixtures
struck an employee, leaving a bruise on
her hand.
FROM 1A
Vigil
hear about it on the news but we don’t
see pictures ... We don’t see these bod
ies, and we don’t see the horror of chil
dren being gunned down with AR-15s.
Perhaps if we did, we would change
hearts and minds faster. But at the very
least we need people like us out here
memorializing those children and those
teachers who were killed,” Allen said.
Added Allen: “We cannot let our
selves be desensitized to this violence,
and I’m not going to let that happen.”
Tucker spoke to the group about how
furious she was at the continued preva
lence of gun violence in the country.
She said that she remembered how
shocked people were after the massacre
at Columbine High School in 1999 and
how amazed she is that things haven’t
changed. :
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Betty Green Heard
Betty Green Heard, age 74, passed
away Feb. 24, 2018. : :
Ingram Funeral Home & Crematory
of Cumming is in charge of arrange
ments. : !
Forsyth County News :
February 28, 2018
Robert John Hoover
Robert John Hoover, age 74, of
Cumming passed away Feb. 23, 2018. .
McDonald and Son Funeral Home of
Cumming is in charge of arrangements.
Forsyth County News
February 28, 2018
Harley Bruce Long :
- Harley Bruce Long, age 66, of Villa
Rica passed away Feb. 24, 2018. >
Bearden Funeral Home & Crematory
of Dawsonville is in charge of arrange
ments.
Forsyth County News
February 28, fi2Ol 8 _
Joan Colette Makosky :
Joan Colette Makosky, age 80, of
Dawsonville passed away on Feb. 25,
2018.
Bearden Funeral Home of
‘Dawsonville is in charge of arrange
ments.
Forsyth County News
February 28, 2018
Margaret Brown Morgan
Margaret Brown Morgan, age 91, of
Plant City, Fla. passed away Feb. 21,
2018.
Ingram Funeral Home & Crematory
of Cumming is in charge of arrange
ments.
Forsyth County News
February 28, 2018
Theresa Swift
Theresa Swift, age 84, of Marietta
passed away Feb. 24, 2018. :
Byars Funeral Home & Crematory is
in charge of arrangements.
Forsyth County News
February 28, 2018
The clerk-called 911, while the sus
pect lunged at her. He eventually left the
store and was located later at a nearby
business by Forsyth County Sheriff’s
Office personnel.
He was taken into custody and trans
ported to Forsyth County Jail.
Flat screen TVs, stereo
systems, lifted from large boat
A deputy was dispatched at 3:40 p.m.
Feb. 18 to Bald Ridge Marina in refer
ence to a burglary call. The owner of a
boat met with him to discuss the rob
bery of his vessel.
The owner told the deputy that when
he arrived he discovered the plastic
screen ‘of his vessel had been unzipped
and-that-three flat screen televisions,
two stereo systems and an amplifier had
all been stolen.
A toolbox beside the vessel — a
35-foot Sea Ray Sundancer — had shoe
prints on it. Another deputy arrived to
process the shoe prints as well as finger
prints on the boat’s bathroom mirror.
Deputies talked the incident over with
security guards and left the scene.
‘Everyone was like, ‘it's
awful and should never
happen again, and here we
are almost 19 years later
and it hasn't gotten better;
it's gotten worse.’
A
Democratic Women of Forsyth County
treasurer
“Everyone was like, ‘it’s awful and
should never happen again,’”” and here
we are almost 19 years later and it
hasn’t gotten better; it’s gotten worse.
And I personally believe that the gradu
al chipping away of gun control laws
that we have has been a major factor,”
she said. .
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We&nesday. IR RN