WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015 • $1 • CARROLL COUNTY’S TRUSTED INFORMATION LEADER SINCE 1871

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TG 1A

Local artist helping prepare water park for opening

The former mayor of Temple has filed a law-suit against the city, the current mayor and two city council members, alleging the defendants made false statements that harmed his reputa-tion.

Rick Ford, who served as mayor of Temple until Jan. 1, 2014, filed a civil lawsuit in Carroll County Superior Court against the city and numerous individuals in both their official and individual capacities. Ford alleges numerous incidents in which defamatory statements were publicly made against him that resulted in dam-age to his personal and professional reputation.

Named as defendants in the lawsuit are the city of Temple; current Mayor Lester Harmon; City Council members Howard Walden and Penny Ransom; and individuals Linda Walden, Deborah McIntosh and Dawn Adkins.

The lawsuit seeks both compensatory and punitive damages that could exceed $1 million, said Dallas attorney Lisa Johnson, who’s repre-senting Ford. The lawsuit alleges libel, slander and invasion of privacy by placing Ford in a false light.

SEE MAYOR/PAGE A3

Former Temple mayor

suing city

BY COLTON CAMPBELLTHE TIMES-GEORGIAN

Current mayor, two council members

also defendants in suit

For many years, Carrollton Councilman Gerald Byrd has dreamed of renovating the old Catherine Hardy Lavender Park on Willie North Street and making it the center of the West Carrollton community.

On Monday, his dreams moved closer to reality with the City Council’s approval for the start of the first $400,000 construc-tion phase of the three-phase, $1 million project.

The first phase will include the con-struction of a pavilion, with utilities and walkways leading to the existing Catherine Hardy Lavender Recreation Center and its parking lot.

The second phase of the project will

include building walking trails, estimat-ed to cost $300,000, and the third phase, construction of additional parking lots, $300,000.

“I’m really excited about this,” Byrd said Tuesday. “It’s going to be the nucleus of that community. There’s been a grow-ing interest there for having a venue to be used by churches and civic groups to do food and clothing drives and other out-reach activities.”

Byrd said this pavilion will be different from those at any other city park because it will have a small stage and kitchen area. He said the stage will lend itself to drama presentations, as well as family movie showings in the summer. The kitchen area will have a refrigerator and range so that groups hosting large events can prepare food or reheat catered meals.

SEE PARK/PAGE A5

City to put $1 million intoLavender Park renovations

BY WINSTON JONESTHE TIMES-GEORGIAN

Councilman envisions ‘nucleus’ of community

Ricky Stilley/Times-GeorgianLocal artist Alan Kuykendall puts a primer coat of paint on Wally the Walrus on Tuesday at the Carrollton Midtown Water Park. Kuykendall said he has been painting the water swing and other fixtures in the pool for the last 11 years. The water park is scheduled to open May 23.

AGW Ice Cream back in business

Ricky Stilley/Times-GeorgianLayla Deese, left, and Kinsley Clayton enjoy a helping of ice cream Satur-day at the grand reopening of AGW Ice Cream. The shop at 201 Newnan Road in Carrollton offers 72 different flavors of Blue Bell Ice Cream, as well as cotton candy, funnel cakes, pretzels and cookies. The opening also fea-tured face painting and games for the children.

Most people are often confused by the financial language they hear on business news reports or tele-vised discussions by economists.

The Center for Economic Educa-tion at the University of West Geor-gia’s Richards College of Business

has a goal to teach people to become literate in the language of business and to learn how to make good financial decisions.

“We see a growing need for all people to learn more about busi-ness,” said Kim Holder, assistant director of the Center for Economic Education. “They often make mis-

takes in finances because they haven’t been told anything different. People need to be more economi-cally savvy, smarter with credit cards and taxes.”

To accomplish this goal, the cen-ter is planning a series of community

SEE FINANCE/PAGE A9

Learn to speak the language of finance with UWG workshops

BY WINSTON JONESTHE TIMES-GEORGIAN

A 24-year-old Villa Rica man who was killed in a auto acci-dent last month may be memo-rialized at a place he loved dear-ly — a soccer field.

A group of Carroll County residents have started a memo-rial fund for Kyle Barry and his

mother, Willy, who died a few months before her son. Bar-ry’s vehicle was struck by an oncoming train in Union City in late March, and Willy Barry died after a fight with cancer a few months earlier.

Carrollton attorney Michael Flinn, who’s acting as the orga-nizer of the memorial fund, said

he and several other members of the community were search-ing for “the per fect way” to memorialize the mother and son.

“At Kyle’s funeral, we were talking about how to remember them both best,” Flinn said. “We decided that there’d be no bet-ter way to remember them than

by constructing a monument and renaming a soccer field that they loved so much.”

The group — which can be found on Facebook by search-ing for “Willy and Kyle Barry Memorial Field and Monument” — plans to erect a monument to the Barrys at the East Carroll-ton Park soccer fields and name

one of the fields the Barr y Memorial Field. Any funds left over will go toward the educa-tion of Craig, Kyle’s brother.

The group has star ted an online crowdfunding campaign housed at www.GoFundMe.com/BarryMemorial, but Flinn

SEE MEMORIAL/PAGE A3

Community plans memorial, monument for mother, her sonBY COLTON CAMPBELL

THE TIMES-GEORGIAN

THE TIMES-GEORGIAN, Wednesday, April 8, 2015 A9

FROM THE FRONT PAGE

workshops so that peo-ple can learn to better handle their finances.

The center on Friday will hold the “Financial Literacy Workshop,” a series of four 15-minute mini -presentations to acquaint people with the community workshop program.

The free workshop will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday at Miller Hal l , Room 1201, on the UWG campus. A box lunch will be pro-vided. The workshops are being funded by a $25,000 grant from Sun-Trust Banks Inc.

Limited space is avail-able, so anyone interest-ed in attending should RSVP no later than 2 p.m. today to alumni.westga.edu/aw15reg.

“RSVP is necessar y because we’re ser ving lunch and there’s lim-ited seating available,” she said. “The event is hosted in conjunction with Alumni Weekend, but attendance is not limited to alumni. Our target audience consists of students, young alum-ni and the community.”

Friday’s series of mini workshops include these presentations:

• “ T h e S e c r e t o f Smar ter Sav ing and Savvy Spending” will be conducted by Holder.

“People treat money differently,” Holder said. “A lot of it depends on the money ’s source . Many people quickly spend their tax refund money, since they view it as a windfall.”

• “The Penny Pinch-ing PhD” will be the topic covered by Dr. Joey Smith, chairman of the Department of Eco-nomics.

“I ’m going to ta lk about ways to stretch your dol lars ,” Smith said. “I’ll discuss how a typical person can save a few dollars here and there and end up mak-ing it worth their while.”

Smith will talk about avoiding high-interest credit cards, how to trade cars and the best deals on physical fitness.

“If you star t by add-ing just a few things, you may save up to $300-400 each month,” he said.

• “Ten Things Every-one Should Know about Taxes” will be presented by Dr. Bruce Bird, UWG accounting professor.

Bird will talk about how to save on tax preparation costs, the importance of filing tax returns and paying on time.

• “Developing Your Mil l ionaire Mindset”

wil l be presented by UWG economics pro-fessor Dr. Leland Gus-tafson.

“ C o l l e g e s t u d e n t s often see a few exam-ples of millionaires who didn’t finish college or

live a strange lifestyle,” said Holder. “They think that is what makes a person a mil l ionaire. However, Dr. Gustafson will show what usually makes a person a mil-l ionaire is hard work and a good work ethic.”

Holder said that over the next three years, the Center for Economic Education will conduct a series of financial lit-eracy workshops, most about an hour in length.

“The workshops will

be conducted at loca-t ions a l l around the west Georgia region,” she said. “We anticipate using community space, such as public libraries, to conduct these finan-cial literacy workshops. The presentations will target the 20-40-year age group, although the topics would be of inter-est to teenagers, more experienced workers,

the unemployed, as well as the retirement com-munity.”

Pr ev ious f inanc ia l workshops have been presented to teachers, but this series will be designed to reach com-munity members direct-ly.

“We estimate we’ l l hold four workshops in our first year,” she said, “two in the fall and two in the spring.”

April is Financial Lit-eracy Month and Holder sees a growing need for people to lear n more about basic finance.

“People often make mistakes in f inances because they haven’t been taught anything d i f ferent , ” she sa id . “People need to learn to

be smar ter with credit and taxes to avoid mak-ing innocent mistakes they have to pay for in the future.”

The UWG Center for Economic Education is a collaboration between the Richards College of Business and the Col-lege of Education. The center conducts teacher training workshops for K-12 educators to help t h e m i m p r o v e t h e i r knowledge and teach-ing of economics and personal finance. The center also serves as an advocate for economics and personal literacy in the community.

Dr. Faye S. McIntyre, dean of Richards Col-lege of Business, will g i v e t h e w e l c o m i n g address for Fr iday ’s workshop. Jenner Wood, c h a i r m a n a n d c h i e f execut i ve o f f i cer o f SunTrust Bank, Atlanta Division, and Deborah Laity, director of talent acquisition and inclu-sion, SunTrust Banks, will also speak.

TG 9A

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FINANCE

Left: Kim Holder, assistant director of the Center for Economic Education at UWG, will lead one of Fri-day’s presentations.

Christine Atwood, right, tax specialist 3 and office manager at H&R Block in Carrollton, talks to Joyce Jacobs about her tax return.

Ricky Stilley/Times-Georgian