Newspaper Page Text
Midweek Edition-October 26-27,2022
2A | FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS | ForsythNews.com
FORSYTH FORECAST
The four-day outlook
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
Partly Cloudy
65/45
Sunny
70/53
Mostly Cloudy
69/50
SATURDAY
Cloudy
64/52
Lake Lanier level
1066.62 feet (as of 10 a.m. Oct. 25)
Full pool is 1,071 feet
Oct. 22:1066.68 feet
Oct. 23:1066.68 feet
Oct. 24:1066.66 feet
Photos courtesy Heather Kolich
Master Naturalist trainees visit a City of Cumming water reclamation
facility during the Human Impact training day.
Conservation efforts in Forsyth
gain 25 additional volunteers
ByAshlyn Yule
ayule@forsythnews.com
Though it was a chilly
day outside, the Forsyth
County Master
Naturalists were celebrat
ing each other with warm
camaraderie, home-
cooked food and desserts.
The Master Naturalists
held a luncheon on
Tuesday, Oct. 18 to wel
come the organization’s
newest members and cel
ebrate their graduations
from students to full-
fledged volunteers, pre
senting some with their
certifications at the meet
ing.
According to Heather
Kolich, the county’s UGA
Extension coordinator,
about 25 people took the
eight-week, adult educa
tion course about conser
vation, ecosystems and
natural resources to
become Master
Naturalists.
“We are just so proud
of our new Master
Naturalists,” said Jeannie
Glisson-Davis, president
of the organization, at
Tuesday’s luncheon. “I
mean, [25 graduates,] can
you believe it? We’re so
happy you’re here.”
Kolich said that the
newest graduating class of
Master Naturalists will
now be able to volunteer
for conservation projects
around the county, such
as previous efforts install
ing bluebird houses at
Fowler Park, creating an
interpretive tree trail
along the Big Creek
Greenway and putting up
bat houses at the Buford
Trout Hatchery.
While Glisson-Davis
said she was excited to
work with this new group
of volunteers in the future,
she was also looking for
ward to welcoming even
more Master Naturalists
in the years to come.
The Master Naturalists
will be holding classes
about food gardening in
February and March of
2023. Interested residents
can find out how to regis
ter and discover other
classes to take at www.
extension.uga.edu/county-
offices/forsyth.
Master
Naturalist
trainee
Carol
Gericke
tries to
determine
what ani
mal a
model
skull might
have
belonged
to during
the
Mammals
of Georgia
class.
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Obituaries
Bill Falls
October 15, 2022
Bill Falls, age 92, of
Simpsonville, South
Carolina passed away on
Saturday, October 15,
2022. Bill was a poultry
industry executive and con
sultant for over fifty years
who retired from Tyson
Foods as complex manag
er for its Cumming, GA
operations. He served on
the Georgia and Texas
Poultry Federation Boards
and hired and mentored
numerous graduates from
poultry science programs
throughout the south. Born
and raised in Hurst, GA,
Bill joined the US Navy in
1949 and served on Guam
and at sea on the USS
Ross. Upon completion of
his stint with the Navy Bill
landed a position with
Lockheed Aircraft
Company in Marietta, GA
where he worked full time
while attending night class
es at Georgia State
University. After completing
his degree Bill landed his
first job in the poultry busi
ness with Gold Kist Foods
in Boaz, Alabama. Bill met
his wife Johanna in August
1953, and they were mar
ried on January 1, 1954.
They moved numerous
times during his career liv
ing in Alabama, Georgia,
Texas, and Arkansas. Bill
and Johanna had a second
home in Sky Valley for
many years where they
loved to hike and explore
new places. They enjoyed
participating in the BULLI
program at Brenau
University in Gainesville
where they also volun
teered and taught classes.
Bill and Johanna loved to
travel to various places in
the US and to Europe,
often visiting Johanna’s
home country of Germany.
They also loved to dance
especially during the
Oktoberfest season. Bill
was an avid golfer, a left
hander, who landed (2)
hole-in-ones. When not on
excursions with Johanna
after his retirement, he
could be found enjoying a
round on one of the local
golf courses. He especially
enjoyed challenging his
sons and grandsons on the
course. Bill and Johanna
enjoyed more than 60
years of marriage until her
passing in 2016. He is sur
vived by their (3) children:
Lorenz (Lucy), Heidi and
Greg. (4) Grandchildren:
Vassa (Erica), Wesley
(Marianna), Elizabeth, and
Austin (Anna), and (7)
grandchildren: Liam, Lyriel,
Ethan, Everett, Austin Jr,
Zachary, and Emmett. Bill
is also survived by his sis
ters; Betty Brakebill, Louise
Roberts and Lynda
Hunnicutt along with
numerous nieces and
nephews. Bill was prede
ceased by his parents and
his siblings: Frank, Robert,
Howard, Ruth, and Susie.
Bill was a member of
Gainesville First United
Methodist Church and
Covenant United Methodist
Church (Greer, SC). He
was also a Mason for more
than 70 years. The family is
especially grateful for the
care he received for more
than (4) years from the
Memory Care staff at The
Woodlands at Furman, and
most recently for the care
he received from Interim
Hospice. A memorial ser
vice for Billy will be held
Sunday, November 13,
2022 beginning at 2:00 PM
at Gainesville First United
Methodist Church, 2780
Thompson Bridge Rd.,
Gainesville, GA 30506. In
lieu of flowers, memorials
may be made to a charity
of one’s choice. Fond
memories and expressions
of sympathy may be
shared at www.mackey-
centurydrive.com for the
Falls family.
Death Notices
Helen Payne Harris
October 24, 2022
Helen Payne Harris, 72, of
Clarkesville, formerly of
Cumming passed away
Monday, October 24, 2022.
Graveside funeral services
will be held Wednesday,
October 26, at 2:00 p.m. at
Sawnee View Gardens.
James Dale
Browning
October 19, 2022
Funeral Services will be
held on Friday, October 21,
2022, at 6:00 p.m. at the
Bearden Funeral Home
Chapel. The family will
receive friends on Friday,
from 4:00 p.m. until service
time at the funeral home.
Commissioners tweak development
rules; residents ask for traffic relief
ByAshlyn Yule
ayule@forsythnews.com
Following meetings with the county’s
planning team, steering committee and
community members, the Board of
Commissioners approved updates to parts
of the county’s Comprehensive Plan at a
meeting on Thursday, Oct. 20.
Some updates to the plan include bound
ary changes and modifications to the com
mercial corridor policies to “guide scale,
look and feel of development” in the desig
nated areas.
The boundary changes will affect the
Campground, Big Creek, McFarland and
Sawnee Mountain character areas.
The Campground Character Area has
expanded south to include more residential
areas and parcels of the McFarland
Character Area.
The Big Creek Character Area has
expanded west to include parcels of the
former McFarland Character Area.
The McFarland Character Area has been
redefined to include Mullinax and Fowler
roads areas, decreasing the size of the
McFarland/Shiloh Road regional node.
The Sawnee Mountain Character Area
has expanded the Coal Mountain
Community Node to include the intersec
tion of SR. 369 with Gravitt Road.
At a previous meeting in July, project
manager at Pond & Company Fauren
Blaszyk noted there was a desire from
committee members to move Mullinax,
Fowler and Union Hill roads out of the
McFarland Regional Node, some wariness
of new commercial and mixed-use devel
opment and that high-density projects were
not well received.
“There’s definitely a desire to maintain
lower density and preserve some of the
single-family areas that are existing,”
Blaszyk said at the meeting.
While planning commissioners had also
recommended to the BOC to remove the
references of master planned districts
(MPDs) from the Haw Creek and Daves
Creek character area, that change was not
addressed at Thursday’s meeting and not
part of the presentation to the commission
ers.
One resident, Tom McDonald, spoke in
opposition to adopting the updates during a
public comment section of the meeting.
“Traffic congestion is the ugliest quality
of life issue,” McDonald said.
As a former Cobb County planning
commissioner, McDonald said he knew
firsthand that traffic wastes time, can cause
road rage incidents, wastes fuel and is a
“collision magnet.”
Regarding the adoption of the partial
updates to the comprehensive plan,
McDonald said there were three things to
help slow the “break-neck pace of new
construction” in the county.
The first was to postpone the approval of
the partial updates to the comprehensive
plan, as the implementation of previous
plans is what “has created our huge self-
inflicted wound of traffic congestion.”
The second and third were to stop
approving new housing or high-rise office
projects until receiving voter approval on
the revised comprehensive plan and to
require developers to concurrently expand
road networks and highways around their
projects so that traffic from the develop
ment will decrease instead of increase.
“We are fed up with our terrible traffic
congestion. You probably are, too,”
McDonald said. “We want an intelligent,
positive and truly comprehensive solution.
It’s time to stop kicking the traffic conges
tion can down the road.”
Commissioners approved the partial
updates to the county’s comprehensive
plan with a unanimous 4-0 vote, with
Chairman Alfred John absent from the
meeting.
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FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS
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