Milton

MILTON POLICE TO TAKE THE PLUNGE

The Milton Police Department will be “Freezin’ for a Reason” Feb. 20 as officers take part in the first Special Olympics of Georgia Polar Plunge at Lake Lanier Islands.

Participants collect pledges from friends and family in exchange for the opportunity to jump into icy waters in the middle of winter. All proceeds collected by “plungers” will benefit the athletes of Special Olympics Georgia.

But the city’s police officers will risk life and limb in those freezing depths only if citizens make it worth their while. Team Milton’s goal is $3,000.

Milton Police are participating in the Polar Plunge as part of the “Law Enforcement Torch Run,” which involves more than 1,000 law enforcement officers from more than 100 agencies who take part in a 1,000-mile, two-week torch relay to pass the Special Olympics Georgia “Flame of Hope” across the state. All of the nine relays converge at Emory University during the state Summer Games Opening Ceremony.

THURMAN, LUSK COMPLETE MUNICIPAL TRAINING

Milton City Council members Karen Thurman and Bill Lusk received the prestigious Certificate of Recognition from the Georgia Municipal Training Institute at the Georgia Municipal Association’s (GMA) Annual Mayors’ Day Conference in Atlanta on Jan. 24.

They are the only two Milton City Council members to receive the honor.

The Georgia Municipal Training Institute, a cooperative effort of GMA and the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government, provides a nationally recognized series of training opportunities for elected city officials. To receive a Certificate of Recognition, a city official must complete at least 42 units of credit. The training program consists of a series of 24 six-unit courses.

“This is an outstanding achievement,” said GMA Executive Director Jim Higdon. “We commend Council members Thurman and Lusk for this accomplishment and for the dedication they have shown in using this valuable resource to become a more effective city official.”

Based in Atlanta, GMA is a voluntary, non-profit organization that provides legislative advocacy, research, training, employee benefit and technical consulting services to its 500 member cities.

SPOOKY POT PLOT

Trap doors that lead to secret rooms are usually only found in horror movies, but for one Milton couple, the age-old fright flick scene came to life: in their Nix Road home.

According to Milton police, contractors were at the house installing a hardwood floor when they uncovered an eerie-looking trapdoor. Naturally, just like in the movies, they decided to check it out. So they descended down some stairs beneath the trap door and found a hidden room tucked away behind a cellar wall.

Not surprisingly, Milton’s finest were called to the hideaway and uncovered — you guessed it — pot-growing paraphernalia.

According to police reports, the unsuspecting couple said they bought the house, built in 1995, at a December foreclosure auction and were in the process of renovating it. Now cops are looking for the prior owners.

By the looks of the foreclosure sale papers, they must have had a bad crop.

TEENAGER TO SIZE UP CANDIDATES

by Maggie Lee / Staff

Milton resident Lauren Haase doesn’t have a favorite in the GOP debate, but she’s looking forward to hearing the candidates — even though she’s not old enough to vote.

“I’m going to listen to the debate and see who meets my criteria,” said the 15-year-old Milton High School student. 

She and her father, Karl Haase, plan to attend the Beacon GOP Big 5 debate together.

“Politics in general are interesting,” Lauren said. “I like to know what’s going on in my state, my community and my country. I kind of really got interested in eighth grade, when I realized I’d be voting age by 2012.”

She wants to hear what the Republican gubernatorial frontrunners have to say about two things that affect her. First, since she’s still a public school student, she’d like to know “how the limited state funding will impact education.“

And second, since the aspiring marketing consultant will be hitting the job market in a few years, she wants to know whether she’ll get what she’s hoping for: a recovered economy, and a job.  

Lauren said her family talks about politics at home and sometimes she talks about it with her friends. Her father said a social studies project during the 2008 election inspired his daughter’s interest. 

Though Lauren isn’t a member of her school’s Young Republican club, “I consider myself a Republican,” she said, adding, however, that she likes to “be informed about both sides” and watches both CNN and FOX news.

Johns Creek

KIDNAPPING FOLLOWS HOME INVASION

Five to seven unidentified home invaders kidnapped a Johns Creek dad on Saturday morning from his home in the Colony Glenn subdivision in the midst of what looked like a botched home invasion attempt.

According to Johns Creek cops, the rest of the family, although shaken, were left behind and unharmed. Two cars were stolen.

Roswell

QUEEN OF ANGELS CATHOLIC SCHOOL WINS COMPETITION

A team of students from Queen of Angels Catholic School of Roswell has won the Georgia Regional National Engineers Week Future City ® competition. They will now travel to Washington to compete in the 18th annual Future City National Finals (www.futurecity.org) scheduled for Feb. 13-17at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill.  More than 33,000 students from 1,100 middle schools in 39 regions across the country are participating in the competitions. The grand prize is a trip to Space Camp in Alabama, provided by National Finals host Bentley Systems Inc., which provides software solutions for infrastructure.

The winning students, Laura Aileen O’Brien, Kristen Elizabeth Coppiano and Haley Wing-hei Tam, teamed up with their teacher, Peggy DeGance, and their volunteer engineer mentor, Brian James Smith.  The competition took place at Southern Polytechnic State University on Jan. 23.

The Queen of Angels Catholic School’s future city, Bene-Sciath, is a blend of green technology innovation embedded in a contemporary designed tropical city. Located off the southeast coast of Florida, Bene-Sciath, now in the year of 2173, accommodates a population of 85,273. Bene-Sciath, built at 15 feet above sea level, represents a city shielded against hurricanes and high tides, providing comfort and security to its citizens.