Newspaper Page Text
the Monroe County
VOLUME 37 NO. 12 • USPS 997-840 • 75$
Forsyth, Ga. 31029 • Wednesday, March 19, 2008 • 2 Sections, 28 Pages
Inside
Woman escapes
If I could get out, they could have
whatever was in the house.
Chambliss, after fleeing two burglars in h
BY GINA HERRING
A Floyd Road woman is a little
shaken, but safe, thanks to some
quick thinking after she discovered
two burglars in her home Monday
morning.
Crystal Chambliss said she was
getting ready to take a shower a lit
tle after 9 a.m. when she heard
noises that sounded like a knock
coming from another room.
“I’m always kind of scared being
in the house by myself,” said
Chambliss. “But, I really didn’t
think anything of it. Then I heard it
again and I knew something was
wrong.”
Chambliss peeked out the bath
room door and saw a man wearing
a ski mask in her house. She quick
ly retreated back to the bathroom
See BURGLARS page 7A
home invaders
Crystal
Chambliss
gives sheriff
deputies a
description
of the two
men who
broke into
her home on
Floyd Road
Monday
morning.
(Photo/Gina
Herring)
Nov • MONROE
Lawmakers move to
axe the ‘birthday tax’
But local officials decry loss in $$$
Have you
seen the
Queens?
See page 14A
Sports
MP rallies in
extra innings
for first win
See page 1B
BY GINA HERRING
and WILL DAVIS
Monroe County taxpay
ers may save money
under a plan moving
through the legislature,
but local officials say
things are not as they
may appear on the sur
face. Once known as
Georgia House Speaker
Glen Richardson’s GREAT
plan, House resolution
1246 underwent a com
plete transformation
before finally passing the
House last Tuesday, 166-5.
The plan, now headed
for the Senate, calls for
the elimination of the
auto ad valorum tax by
2010,saving taxpayers
hundreds of dollars a year.
See TAX page 6A
Deaths
William Glyn Ard
Doris O’Neal Coleman
Nellis Louise Johnson
Davis
Beverly Cook Ensign
Eddie Perry Johnson
Estelle Fitts Lee
Bessie Mae Morris
A sketch of the planned Forsyth Supercenter submitted to the city by Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart meeting
A ‘waste of time’
See obituaries
page 2A
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Monroe County sounds off: See page 4-5A
The parties in a federal lawsuit filed to
keep a Wal-Mart Supercenter out of
Forsyth couldn’t reach an agreement to
end the legal delays Monday.
“Unfortunately it was a waste of time
for us,” said Walter Kyte, who was sued
along with six other Indian Springs
Drive property owners for trying to sell
to their properties to Wal-Mart. “They
didn’t tell us anything.”
City officials and a number of Indian
Springs Drive property owners met for
as long as five hours on Monday at the
Monroe County Justice Center in a
required mediation. The meeting, which
was closed to the public, failed to pro
duce a mutual agreement. But the par
ties are expected to have a follow-up
meeting, perhaps by teleconference. Kyte
said the attorneys talked most of the
time, trying to reach common ground. He
said he left around mid-day, but city offi
cials were there until about 3 p.m.
Caleb Davies, a mediator for the
Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals, led the mediation. On one side
are the defendants, city officials and
Indian Springs Drive residents whose
property is under contract to be sold to
Wal-Mart. From the city were Mayor Tye
Howard, city councilman Mike Dodd, act
ing city manager Janice Hall and city
attorney Bobby Melton. About six prop
erty owners with contracts to sell to Wal-
Mart were also on hand.
Also in attendance were the plaintiffs,
seven Indian Springs Drive residents
who brought the original lawsuit against
the city, claiming Forsyth violated their
constitutional due process rights in 2006
when it rezoned the property for com
mercial use. An attorney for Wal-Mart
was also on hand.
A federal judge had tossed out the suit
in January, but the plaintiffs appealed to
the U.S. Court of Appeals. The lawsuit
must go through mediation before it can
be heard in appeals court. Mediation is a
process in which the parties try to reach
a compromise agreement before the case
gets to an appeals panel. The plaintiffs,
Ralph and Leila Bass, James and
Georgianne Bearden, Gail Quinn and
Donald and Mary Sanders, argue Wal-
Mart doesn’t fit in their historic neigh
borhood. One of the two federal lawsuits
is still pending in its initial jurisdiction.
And in January they also filed a lawsuit
in Monroe County Superior Court.
Milam hops
parties to
fend off
challenger
Monroe County resident and
former Macon attorney George
H. Hartwig III announced
Saturday that he’s running for
district attorney of the
Towaliga Judicial Circuit as a
Republican.
Hartwig is expected to face
incumbent district attorney
Richard Milam in the GOP
primary after Milam
announced this past weekend
he’s running as a Republican.
Milam was appointed district
attorney in 1999 by
Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes
and won election as a
Democrat in 2000. He was re
elected without opposition as a
Democrat in 2004 but said he
feels more at home in the
Republican Party.
“The Republicans have a lot
more conservative views on
the issues I’m concerned with,”
said Milam. “As far as being
fiscally conservative and law
and order.”
While saying he thinks DA
races should be non-partisan, he says the Democratic
Party has changed since he was first elected. “Sonny
See RACE page 7A
MILAM
Dr. Richard Bazemore congratulates Anglela Dungan, Monroe
County’s teacher of the year.
Dungan is MC’s
Teacher of Year
BY GINA HERRING
T.G. Scott Elementary School’s Angela Dungan was
announced as the Monroe County teacher of the year
for 2007-08 last week. Mrs. Dungan is a third grade
teacher. She first came to Forsyth as a student at Tift
College, where she bachelor of science degree. After
meeting and marrying her husband, decided to stay.
See DUNGAN page 14A
