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TODAY'S
ISSUE
If it's spring, that
means Gwinnett Relay for Life is soon
By Steve Howell
Special to GwinnettForum.com
(Editor's Note: When he is not piloting jets
for Delta Air Lines, Steve Howell is a volunteer for the Gwinnett
Relay for Life.)
MAY 4, 2004 - - If it's spring in Atlanta it must be time for the
American Cancer Society's Relay For Life in Gwinnett. That's right,
on Friday, May 14, more than 10,000 Gwinnettians will put on their
tennis shoes and get ready to Relay at the Gwinnett County Fairgrounds.
For months team members from businesses, religious and civic organizations,
school and neighborhoods have been fundraising to help fight cancer.
On the Friday after Mother's Day, they will take their sleeping
bags, their tents and lawn chairs to their camp site at the Relay
where most will spend the next 18 hours taking turns walking the
track and having lots of fun along the way.
I've had the awesome opportunity of participating in the Gwinnett
Relay for the past ten years and am looking forward to my 11th this
year. But like the thousands of other participants in this community,
I know Relay is so much more than raising money and having fun.
As a cancer survivor, taking that first lap of Relay in the Survivors'
Victory Walk is an awesome experience. Each year 1,000 to 1,200
survivors participate in that special lap in Gwinnett. They come
in all shapes, colors and ages, from babies being carried or strolled
by their parents to silver haired seniors, with young mothers, fathers
and teenagers in between.
As you walk around the track, people on the sidelines are applauding
and cheering you on. Tears mingle with laughter as each survivor
celebrates life as they recall memories of their own struggle.
My volunteer job for the past several years has been to help organize
the Survivors' Walk and it truly is a labor of love. Relay For Life
makes a difference in people's lives and the Survivors' Walk not
only makes a difference, but allows the survivor an opportunity
to celebrate their victory or if they are still in treatment, to
experience the awesome support this community offers.
We always have two goals for Relay. One is for fundraising to support
the important ACS programs. The financial goal is $2 million this
year. The other Relay goal is aimed at survivors. We hope to have
2,000 cancer survivors taking that first lap at 6 p.m. on May 14.
If you, a friend or relative are a cancer survivor or are currently
battling the disease, I invite you to come out to the Fairgrounds
this May 14 and take part in the most incredible "happening"
you can imagine.
We are honored this year to have country singer Karen Shayne lead
the Survivors' Walk. Karen is a three-time cancer survivor and has
written songs and now a book about her encounters with cancer. The
book actually begins with her first experience as a cancer survivor,
walking that first lap at the Gwinnett Relay.
If you want more information for yourself or a friend or relative,
give us a call at the office at 770-814-0123. Or you can go to www.cancer.org
, click on Relay For Life and put in 30045 for the zip code to get
information on the Gwinnett Relay For Life.
And don't forget the Luminaria Ceremony at 10 p.m., where you can
purchase luminaria bags with names of those you wish to remember
or honor. These bags line the track and are an awesome sight as
they light the way for late-night walkers throughout the evening.
Relay is an experience you won't forget. I'll bet my purple Relay
T-shirt that you'll be back next year.
See you at Relay!!
ELLIOTT
BRACK
Perplexed
about Sheriff's funds? Here's explanation locally
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com
MAY 4, 2004 -- Were you perplexed as to why the sheriff of Fulton
County had access to millions of dollars to place for investment?
And if this was taking place in Fulton, what about Gwinnett?
 We
went to the source, Sheriff Butch Conway, for understanding. What
we have learned is quite complicated, with the short answer being
that, indeed, similar accumulation of funds takes place in most
counties, under the aegis of the sheriff. However, unlike the Fulton
County sheriff, Butch Conway has not placed his funds with "outside
investment advisers,"
It's an escrow account and called the "Excess Funds After
Tax Sales" account, and currently it consists of $1,743,596,
as of April 27. The monies are deposited and draw interest in Brand
Banking Company in Lawrenceville.
Since April 2000, a total of $5.9 million has been funneled through
this account, with the money eventually going back to the lien holders
or property owners.
Major Cathie Higgins of the Sheriff's Department, says that the
monies in the account represent the "overage after tax sales,
which go to the highest bidder." This overage is the amount
after payment of taxes, a sheriff's levy fee, a commission on the
sale of 3-4 per cent which goes to the county general fund, and
other administrative costs such as a title search.
"After all those costs are paid, what is left over is considered
the excess amount the property brought, and goes into the sheriff's
fund," she says, "To eventually be paid out to the property
owner or lien holder."
All this begins to take place after taxes are not paid on a property.
The property owner is issued a FiFa, which is a writ authorizing
the sheriff to obtain satisfaction of a judgement in debt or damages
from the goods and chattels of the defendant. Direct FiFa sales
are handled by the Gwinnett Tax Commissioner, acting as an ex-officio
sheriff.
However, often third parties will purchase the FiFa from the county
by paying the overdue taxes on a property. Many FiFas are purchased
in bulk by investors. (This helps the county treasury immediately.)
When FiFas are not satisfied, a FiFa holder may request that the
sheriff hold a public auction on this property. However, the FiFa
holder must wait one year before they can sell a FiFa property,
to give the property owner a chance to redeem the FiFa.
The monies that result from such sales go into the sheriff's Escrow
Fund. Eventually, this money must be disbursed to the mortgage holder
or property owner.
Here is where our complex society in effect holds up the disbursement.
For today mortgage on any property are not owned locally, but may
be routinely traded to other larger financial houses, even at distant
locations. Therefore, it may take several months or even years for
the actual mortgage holder to know that one of its properties has
been sold at a tax sale. And meantime, the money sits in the Escrow
Account, though it must be available immediately.
It was this money in escrow that totaled over $7 million in Fulton
County. In Gwinnett County, it is still a large sum, and though
the sheriff holds the funds, the money is actually due to lien holders
who have not yet sought their monies.
Butch Conway says: "We have the funds available for the lien
holder of record. Our biggest concern is getting to the rightful
owner. We work with the county legal department, who will file a
suit if two people claim the money. This can sometimes add to the
delay in dispersing the money to the rightful owner. It can take
a long time to get the money to them."
We told you it was complicated. It's good to know that in Gwinnett,
the money sits in a local account, earning interest, and is available
immediately.
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FEEDBACK
5/4: Feels more of
an issue concerning individual rights
Editor, the Forum:
In response to Mr. Nelems' Feedback, here is what the Gwinnett
Commission was thinking with the smoking ban and denying an exemption
to Wild Bill's: VOTES!
I fail to see a connection between any alleged CDC, Gwinnett Anti-Smoking
Coalition, American Cancer Society, et al, "reports" (ad
nauseum), and the Commission's action. Simply put, the Commission
felt that there were more votes to be gained by supporting the ban,
restricting free enterprise and business owner's rights, than by
rejecting it.
To wit: business owners have more at stake and will just deal with
the outcome, as they can't just pack up and move. Whereas if they
rejected the smoking ban, they'd be harangued by the whining masses
of anti-smoking zealots who need the government to save them from
themselves, thereby abdicating their personal responsibility and
civic duty.
Surely smokers weren't going to say anything; they've already been
successfully ostracized and marginalized. Those of us who still
support personal responsibility, freedom and business-owner's rights
were howled down and reduced to letters such as these since almost
every story clearly took the pro-ban stance.
Mr. Nelems, the constitutionality issue was not about the "right
to smoke," it was about the rights of business-owners to make
their own decisions regarding their business. Let's call a spade
a spade: those people who felt we needed the government to save
us from ourselves merely support coddling the weak (willed). Let's
see if you and the rest of smoking-ban supporters leap with the
same relish to sacrifice someone else's rights when the next big
idea comes along…and this time it negatively affects you. Welcome
to the slippery slope.
-- Anthony Rivera, Suwanee
BOOK
RECOMMENDATION
FROM THE REV. BILL CROSLAND:
"Most recently I completed Bruce Catton's trilogy on the civil
war entitled The Army of the Potomac. The trilogy includes Mr. Lincoln's
Army; Glory Road; and A Stillness at Appomattox. Although written
from the Federal/Union perspective, the volumes in no way demean
the South. I felt that the author gave considerable approval of
Confederate military leadership and southern valor."
ENCYCLOPEDIA
TIDBIT
Savannah, founded in
1733, is oldest city in the state
 Founded
in 1733 by colonists led by James Edward Oglethorpe, Savannah is
the oldest city in Georgia and one of the outstanding examples of
eighteenth-century town planning in North America. Savannah was,
by design, the first step in the creation of Georgia, which received
its charter from King George II in April 1732, as the 13th and last
of England's American colonies. In November 1732 Oglethorpe, with
114 colonists, sailed from England on the Anne. This first group
of settlers landed at the site of the planned town, then known as
Yamacraw Bluff, on the Savannah River sixteen miles inland from
the Atlantic Ocean, on February 12, 1733.
To access the Georgia Encyclopedia, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
THOUGHT OF THE DAY
What to make of the
admiration your dog has for you
"Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence
that you are wonderful."
-- Ann Landers.
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