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FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS
Sunday, December 25,2022 FORSYTHNEWS.COM
Stay vigilant as cold weather hits
Freezing temps bring risk of outages, fallen trees, frozen pipes over Christmas weekend
By Kelly Whitmire
kwhitmire@forsythnews.com
Emergency crews continued to
monitor the situation as cold
weather struck Forsyth County
for the holiday weekend.
Starting early on Friday, Dec.
23, temperatures fell into the
teens, with a projected overnight
low in the single digits on early
Saturday, Dec. 24. Weather pro
jections show Forsyth County is
not expected to have above-freez
ing temperatures until Christmas
Day.
“We expect to stay below
freezing for close to 72 hours. So,
right now, we’re not even 24
hours into that,” Forsyth County
Emergency Management
Director Chris Grimes said on
Friday afternoon. “I think people
need to stay vigilant, try to stay
warm and hopefully it will start
warming up this week.”
Grimes said despite the rain on
Friday morning he was not aware
of any reports of black ice in the
county.
“It does appear that the forecast
held with what we anticipated,”
he said. “As the wind came in last
night, it dried the roadways, so
I’m not aware of any reports of
black ice this morning.”
Instead, Grimes said the big
gest issue caused by the storm
was bringing trees down on roads
and power lines.
“I think at this point the biggest
thing we have dealt with today is
trees that have come down,” he
said. “We have probably had
between 15 and 20 tree-down
calls that have either temporarily
blocked roadways or been on
power lines. We’ve been in touch
with Sawnee and Georgia Power
throughout the day.
“Their outages both have fluc
tuated as we go through the day,
but they’ve got crews out work
ing, trying to get people’s power
back on as quick as possible.”
In online updates on Friday,
Sawnee reported outages, includ
ing a peak of more than 1,500
members in the seven-county ser
vice area being affected. All
Sawnee outages in Forsyth
County had been cleared as of
press time.
As of 5 p.m. on Friday,
Georgia Power reported one out
age affecting 33 customers.
As cold weather continues,
Grimes advised that power outag
es could continue and recom
mended that residents have a plan
for the weather.
“I think now it’s just continuing
to make sure that people bring
their pets in tonight, like most
people did, and watch their
homes, make sure that they take
preparations that we shared earli
er in the week and make a plan in
case the power goes off,” he said.
“We’ve seen trees come down,
people lose power temporarily, so
make sure you have a plan if the
power goes off.”
See Cold 12A
Lambert takes global science prize
Sabrina Kerns Forsyth County News
Lambert High School's iGEM team stands together before the 2022 Grand Jamboree.
Students compete at event with blood-based heart test
By Sabrina Kerns
skerns@forsythnews.com
The Forsyth County Board of
Commissioners recently recog
nized Fambert High School’s
iGEM team for its win at the
iGEM 2022 Grand Jamboree
annual international competition
held in Paris, France.
The iGEM team, or
International Genetically
Engineered Machine, is made up
of 28 students and three advisers
who all took home the
International High School Grand
Prize back in October at what is
considered “the most important
global synthetic biology gather
ing,” according to the competi
tion’s website.
During the jamboree, more
than 350 teams presented their
ideas to address the world’s most
pressing problems. For Fambert’s
submission, the team created a
blood-based test for the early
detection of coronary artery dis
ease.
According to Fambert’s sub
mission, the screening test,
CADlock, uses three unregulated
miRNA biomarkers to find the
presence of the disease, a much
less costly and invasive procedure
compared to current detection
methods.
This test could help catch the
disease early and possibly pre
vent the 17.8 million deaths it
causes across the globe every
year. According to the submis
sion, coronary artery disease is
most prevalent in the southeast
region of the U.S.
The 370 judges involved in the
competition recognized
Fambert’s team with six nomina
tions, including the best in show
award for the high school level.
According to a press release,
Fambert was the only high school
team from the U.S. to receive
such a nomination.
“The Board of Commissioners
See Lambert 12A
City OKs design
panel, rules in
zoning update
By Kelly Whitmire
kwh itm i re@f o rsyt hnews.com
New design standards are coming to certain new
buildings in the city of Cumming.
At a meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 20, the
Cumming City Council approved a zoning ordi
nance amendment that will deal with building
design standards and create a design review panel
after a presentation from Cumming Planning and
Zoning Director Scott Morgan and Jerry Weitz, of
Jerry Weitz and Associates Inc. the firm hired by
the city to help with the update.
“Basically, the ordinance itself would set up a
design review process that would require certain
developments — multi-family developments with
six units or more, and any commercial, industrial,
institutional, office-type building additions of
1,000 square feet or more — would have some
standards to go by that’s what we’ll call the design
guide document,” Weitz said at the meeting.
Weitz said the update was needed as part of the
See Zoning 12A
$10K in credit
reported stolen
from shopper
By Kelly Whitmire
kwhitmire@forsythnews.com
After her mother had several credit cards stolen
from outside a Forsyth County business, a local
woman is hoping the incident can be a lesson for
others.
Ashley Glass, a Roswell resident, recently told
the Forsyth County News her 75-year-old mother
had eight credit cards stolen on Wednesday, Dec.
14 when loading her car after leaving Costco on
Bald Ridge Marina Road. The suspects charged
more than $10,000 to the cards within hours of the
theft.
Glass said her mother had a purse in her shop
ping cart when she was approached by a couple
See Cards 12A
Keep Forsyth County Beautiful to host Christmas tree recycling event
By Kelly Whitmire
kwhitmire@forsythnews.com
While they probably won’t
help you get rid of wrapping
paper and unwanted gifts, Keep
Forsyth County Beautiful is
offering residents a way to recy
cle their natural Christmas trees.
From Monday, Dec. 26
through Saturday, Jan. 28,
KFCB is hosting the annual
“Bring One for the Chipper,”
where residents can bring their
trees to several local recycling
centers to be mulched.
“Forsyth County has recycled
well over a 100,000 Christmas
trees since the county began
participating in the ‘Bring One
for the Chipper’ program in
1994,” said Forsyth County
Environmental Program
Manager Tammy Wright said in
a release. “All of the Christmas
trees brought to us for recycling
have either been placed in the
lake as fish habitat or chipped
into reusable mulch. We look
forward to keeping trees out of
landfills every year.”
Wood chips from the trees
will be available on a first-
come, first-served basis to resi
dents at Coal Mountain Park,
3560 Settingdown Road.
Residents are responsible for
loading and hauling their own
chips.
Trees can be brought to:
• Home Depot - 1000
Market Place Blvd. and
2635 Peachtree Parkway,
Jan. 7, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Vickery Creek
Elementary School -
6280 Post Road,
Monday, Dec. 26 to
Saturday, Jan. 7, 9 a.m. to
4 p.m.
• Tolbert Street Recycling
Convenience Center -
351 Tolbert St., Tuesday,
Dec. 27 through
Saturday, Jan. 28 (closed
on Sundays), from 7:30
a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Old Atlanta Recycling
Convenience Center -
3678 Old Atlanta Road,
Tuesday, Dec. 27 through
Saturday, Jan. 28 (closed
on Sundays), from 7:30
a.m. to 5 p.m.
See Chipper 12A
Photo submitted to Forsyth County News
From Monday, Dec. 26 through Saturday, Jan. 28, KFCB is
hosting the annual "Bring One for the Chipper," where resi
dents can bring their trees to several local recycling cen
ters to be mulched.
Weather
High Low
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