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It is getting to the end of another school year and this one is becoming very special by the moment. I cannot express in this short letter how much I appreciate the people who have brightened the lives of my family within the Forsyth school system. Read More
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At the Cumming-Forsyth County Chamber of Commerce’s annual State of the Community program earlier this month, Northside Hospital-Forsyth administrator Lynn Jackson proffered an interesting take on why the county has succeeded in building a quality of life that is the envy of many others throughout the country. Read More
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The purpose of this correspondence is to personally thank all of the parents I have known and students I have had the distinct pleasure of teaching the last 8 years at Vickery Creek Middle. Read More
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165 years ago, Karl Marx wrote a book about communism called “Forward.” Read More
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How to solve 14.5 percent real unemployment? Everyone is wringing their hands over how to improve the jobs picture. President Kennedy addressed the issue in the early ’60s and we can do the same thing now. How? Enact an Investment Tax Credit for small business. The ITC is a dollar for dollar tax credit, not a deduction, available to all businesses but targeted for small businesses. It should be limited to $25,000. Read More
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As one who stands firmly on the left side of the political spectrum, I found myself disheartened reading Vince Coyner’s column in last Sunday’s paper in which he asked, “Is enough ever enough for liberal government opposed to freedom?” Read More
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We are writing in response to the letter to the editor from April 29 concerning EPD meetings and water withdrawal permits for the county. The permit has been on the table for some time, and we held three meetings on that subject at the Capitol in March. Combinations of commissioners, the mayor and the EPD director and staff attended, as did each of us principal members of the Forsyth County legislative delegation. Read More
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We read with interest the letter from Robert (Bob) Rorke, a self-proclaimed leasing agent with nearly 10 years of experience in retail leasing for corporations. Read More
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Given a history of contentious feuding and fighting that often has marked negotiations between the city of Cumming and the county government, it’s hard to envision the two entities being honored for working together on a sales tax issue. Yet that is exactly what happened at the annual Law Day program last week, and rightfully so. Read More
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The scenario of socialism in which I had lived for 30 years of my life in my native Czechoslovakia is now reccuring; after 40 years of my life in the United States I see the same misery creeping in. Read More
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In talking about the economy, President John F. Kennedy noted, on more than one occasion, that “a rising tide raises all boats.” And while the phrase didn’t originate with the former president, it does concisely capture the idea that everyone benefits when general economic conditions improve. Read More
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Yes Mr. Pritchett, many of us in the county are against the SPLOST tax and very sorry it passed. We voted for it year after year with no visible results. Our communities do a great job helping each other while the local government has a tax-and-spend policy. Also notice large payments to outside counselors for decisions that the elected should make. Common sense has disappeared, with importance taking its place. Read More
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It appears we are making progress on the water issue, and that’s good. Certainly Georgia EPD will play a role in this. It is important that Sen. [Jack] Murphy and Rep. [Mark] Hamilton let the voters know their position on water allocation by EPD to Forsyth County. Right now the “allocation” is 65 percent city versus 35 percent county. Read More
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On April 17, Gov. Nathan Deal signed HB 48 “Ad valorem tax; freeport exemptions; revise and change certain provisions” into law. This law essentially repeals all laws that conflict with HB 48 governing state level inventory taxes and allows county commissioners to exempt all businesses from Freeport Level 2 ad valorem taxes. Read More
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In my opinion, and many other water rate payers and taxpayers, the issue of Commissioner Brian Tam’s conflict of interest is not over. Read More
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Their numbers are dwindling rapidly, and before many more years pass the last will be gone. Read More
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Political season is in full force, as evidenced by former Commissioner A.J. Pritchett’s assault on the local tea party. Mr. Pritchett’s broadside is also an attack on the First Amendment, which guarantees the right of the people to peaceably assemble. But Pritchett would be satisfied with chilling that right by imposing whatever unconstitutional, bureaucratic hurdles that he could muster. Read More
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A short time ago, we lost our sweet ol’ girl, Rosie (one of our very elderly horses). I was overwhelmed by the compassion shown to my family by the Forsyth County Fire Department and the city of Milton Fire Department Horse Equine Rescue Department. Read More
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Sunday’s paper carried a letter from Patricia Wykoff in which she argued that our local government would be shirking from its duty to protect the citizens from the dangers of honeybees if it were to de-regulate beekeeping and no longer consider bees to be like livestock. She claimed that without specific laws regulating the keeping of animals and insects, the government would be without power to offer relief to a property owner who cannot reasonably enjoy and use ... Read More
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On April 8, I read the Forsyth Opinion page [letter] titled “Bee Ordinance should be rejected.” The author apparently has no clue about the importance of bees. Every fruit and vegetable we eat exists because bees pollinated the tree, shrub or plant that provided the foods that graced our dinner tables. Read More
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All of those in the education community warned that when Georgia converted to the new method of computing graduation rates, its numbers were going to drop. And that they did. Read More
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A number of legislative initiatives in the recently completed session of the state’s General Assembly bore the stamp of local participants in the lawmaking process, with the end results benefitting both the county and the state. Read More
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The United States has offered a democratic form of government to the Afghanistan people for nearly 11 years. We have invested the precious lives and limbs of more than 12,000 of our young men and women in uniform, and we have spent in excess of one-half trillion dollars of borrowed money from our treasury. Read More
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A government’s job is to protect its citizens, perhaps even from a neighbor’s good intentions. Suppose a neighbor’s hobby included deadly critters. That is his business, right? Now suppose they were roaming your property in droves. Suddenly you’re concerned. You naturally call the authorities, expecting the neighbor to be made responsible. If you live here, you’re more than disappointed. Read More
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I refer to the article by Julie Arrington in the Forsyth County News, Sunday, April 1, titled “911 call for sheriff probed.” Read More
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Bring together virtually any dozen people and ask them what needs to be done to improve public education in Georgia and odds are you are going to get a dozen different answers. Improving schools is an important issue for many, and is a subject in which most of us feel some degree of investment. Read More
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I keep hearing Republicans say we need to stop attacking each other and start attacking Obama. Wrong! In this year’s presidential election 40 percent will vote for Republicans and 40 percent for Democrats regardless (baring something really bizarre). It is the other 20 percent of us, who are yet to decide, that will determine the outcome. Read More
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While we may not yet be able to see a bright light at the end of the dark economic tunnel, there are at least enough shimmering glints of illumination to suggest that maybe we’ve made it past the worst of what all agree has been a tough time. Read More
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Let us see what is going on in our world. The president has ordered the people to buy Obama health care or pay a penalty for not doing so. These are people that cannot afford to pay their utility bills or buy food for their loved ones each month. Read More
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The Georgia Master Naturalist training program featured in the FCN on March 11 (Page 5C) was timely and important. This volunteer program of UGA Extension trains and educates the public about the value of natural habitats contributing to our quality of life. These programs improve and protect wildlife habitats from encroachment of “civilization.” Foresight and planning allow progress and growth while protecting nature. The need is nowhere more evident than on page 3C in the ... Read More
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Len Robbins, publisher of the Clinch County News and columnist for the Forsyth County newspaper, on Sunday, March 11, [in the column headlined] “Is it poisonous? Dunno, I don’t asp”, really showed his and his wife’s ignorance and how it is passed onto the children. Read More
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There are some real complexities involved in understanding government budgets and public sector financing, but there also are some very simple basic truths as well. Government gets money from those governed, by taxing them, and anytime one taxpayer gets an exemption to reduce or avoid a tax, it increases the amount that must be paid by other taxpayers. Read More
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As the immediate family of Michael Smith, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to all of the good people of Forsyth County who investigated the tragic events of his death and brought it to closure for us with a guilty verdict and life sentence for Jill Smith. We are grateful to the firefighters and police who rushed to the scene that night in an attempt to save Michael’s life. Lt. Debbie Lindstrom’s (arson ... Read More
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The March 11 issue of FCN includes a letter to the editor titled “County needs water permit.” This letter stated that the county’s cost, using the new $20M plant starting up in July, will be about $0.52/1,000 gallon. Read More
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