The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 40

li I Iff Saturday, Dec 19, 1998 LOCAL NEWS The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Blouse, earring found in house i. 1 I A '1 i 1 IMMM- in-. FRANK NIEMEIR Staff At the board's final 1 998 session Friday in Canton, county planner Rodney Heard (left) shakes hands with outgoing member Jimmy Long. At right is Chairman Hollis Lathem and at left is Nona Sanders. 7 rezmiBii reouests rejected in CheroScee blouse and an earring at the couple's home.

She was wearing those items when she left her sister's Duluth home Dec. 1 at 9 p.m., Penn said. The matching earring was recovered on Robin Turan's body. Police have said the killing was planned. Troy Turan is charged with malice murder and concealing a death.

His attorneys brought witness after witness, family and friends who said he's a loving, attentive father to his children, ages 7 and 5. They said he was resigned to the impending divorce and that he wanted what was right for his kids. The children have been interviewed by investigators and may be witnesses in the trial. They are in the custody of Robin Turan's sister. Tom Wagner, Troy Turan's boss at Helicopters a charter that operates out of Peachtree-DeKalb Airport, said he was a dependable, punctual employee who told him about the impending divorce.

Wagner spoke with him just hours after prosecutors say, Robin Turan was killed. He told him that he couldn't make it to work. "Hey, can you fill in for me? I don't know what the deal is. Robin went to visit her sister last night. She didn't come home," Troy Turan said, according to Wagner.

Discussion of a divorce started months before the killing, friends and family sajd. Troy Turan had moved in with his mother for a time. He had moved back home at the time of the killing. Robin Turan slept in the upstairs bedroom, and Troy Turan downstairs, in the guest room. "She needed her space figure things out," Elllis said of her sister-in-law.

"She felt like her life may be going in a different direction." Forsyth County hearing: Prosecutor offers evidence Robin Turan came home the night of her killing. By Brad Schrade STAFF WRITER The blouse and an earring a Forsyth County woman was wearing the night she was strangled were found at her house, evidence that she came home the night her husband is accused of killing her, a prosecutor said Friday. Troy Turan, 35, was denied bond Friday in court. His sister, Natalie Ellis, wept moments after Forsyth County Superior Court Judge Richard S. Gault denied his release.

During the two-hour hearing, the corners of Turan's eyes watered as his mother, father and other family members took the witness stand and argued that he was safe to be let out until his trial. It is scheduled for next spring or summer. Assistant District Attorney Penny Penn said Robin Turan, 31, was eager to end the marriage and was seeking a relationship with an old high school boyfriend in Mississippi when she was killed in the wee hours of Dec. 2. Robin Turan spoke with her husband on the afternoon of Dec.

1 about moving ahead with their divorce, Penn said. She had papers drawn up. Her body was found without a shirt in the passenger seat of her car the next morning on a dirt road six miles from the couple's Cumming home. Investigators focused almost immediately on Troy Turan, who told police that his wife never returned home after visiting her sister. Police found her black I fpeadline pn water extended for a year states at odds bver allocation i )jy Charles Seabrook STAFF WRITER I Montgomery Georgia, Florida and Alabama now have another year beyond the original Dec.

31 deadline to settle their decade-old water war. Representatives of the governors of the three states, meeting in Montgomery on Friday, signed agreements to 'pxtend until Dec. 31, 1999, the for devising a water Allocation formula to divide up She waters of two river basins: Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa tasin (ACT) and the iApalachicola- Chattahoochee-Flint basin (ACF). The ACT tasin flows through Georgia And Alabama, but the waters of 'ihe ACF are shared by all three states. Under two interstate water Compacts approved last year Jby Congress, negotiators for three states began deliberations in February to come up iwith a formula that would guarantee each state an equitable share of the waters from basins.

However, devising $5uch a plan has proved complicated, and the three states still Jhave major differences over Show much water each state Swill get. "We still have a long way to but there is a light at the end of the tunnel," said Laird, the chief negotiator 3br Alabama. Each state has its different proposal for how Cthe waters will be divided, and line negotiators are trying to Jwork out a plan that all three tates can agree on. No state will get all the it wants. "If each of the States cannot agree to give up Something, then we will face "failure," said Bob Kerr, Geor-Jgia's chief negotiator.

"A year jjto come up with a formula is short time; the tasking is immense." At stake for Georgia in the negotiations is enough water to tnurture metro Atlanta's growth and most of the growth tof North Georgia. In exchange for guarantees of enough water for growth during the next 30 Jjyears, Georgians may have to pay higher electricity rates as production is reduced. Strict limits on water for irrigation may be imposed southwest Georgia farmers. In metro Atlanta, permanent on outdoor watering and other stern conservation measures may be put in 1 place. Lindsay Thomas, who was appointed by President Clinton tto represent federal agencies Jin the negotiations, said that By D.L Bennett STAFF WRITER Cherokee County's pro-development commission voting bloc crumbled Friday as the board closed out a year-end zoning rush by delaying or denying outright seven of 17 rezoning requests.

Community activists didn't get all they wanted Friday but came away from the meeting feeling they'd fared reasonably well for the first time in months. The most controversial project was shot down while another that drew heated opposition was amended to make it more acceptable to neighbors. "Overall, I'd give the board a passing grade," said Chuck Dean of Hickory Flat, a vocal critic of three outgoing members. "For the closing out of the year, the taxpayers fared the best. We won more than we lost." Dean and others have repeatedly criticized the lame-duck voting bloc of Hollis Lathem, Jimmy Long and Rebecca Ray, which approved dozens of development projects since September.

The month before Lathem and Long were voted out of office for being too development-friendly. Ray did not seek re-election. The Lathem-Long-Ray bloc was rock solid in September, passing all 14 cases. But the majority began splintering in October and again in November when Ray cast a couple of dissenting votes along with slow-growth members Ilona Sanders and J.J. Biello.

On Friday, the bloc crumbled. Even Long, Lathem's staunchest ally, failed to follow the commission chairman's lead, leaving Lathem as the only supporter of three controversial projects. Overall, the board rejected four zonings and held three others. The most controversial, a proposal to turn 60 now-rural acres off Arnold Mill Road and Ga. 140 into a subdivision, apartment complex and retirement community, won only Lathem's support.

The five-member board agreed Friday that the entrance to the upscale Towne Lake development at 1-575 shouldn't be the site for mini-warehouses and storage buildings. The proposal had drawn intense opposition from neighborhood residents and local developers who said it would be an eyesore and give those entering Towne Lake a bad impression. Commissioners granted the 3.2-acre parcel general commercial zoning, but specifically prohibited mini-warehouses. Cherokee ends the year with 93 rezoning requests, a 60 percent increase from the then-record 56 applications filed last year. More than half were filed following the election losses of Long and Lathem.

Only three rezoning proposals are on the January agenda of the new slow-growth board. Senate election saga continues in court Scott contests defeat in Superior Court By David Pendered STAFF WRITER As expected, the Republican candidate in the state's longest when you senate campaign filed a lawsuit Friday that asks a judge to call another election between herself and the Democratic contender. Republican Portia Scott filed the paper in Ful purchase a multi-room DIRECTV System Scott Receive up to '50 off any powered or rooftop antenna. Receive MOO off 0 Receive sT00 off THE REGULAR PRICE WHEN PROFESSIONAL INSTALLATION OR YOU PURCHASE A SYSTEM AND A FREE SELF-INSTALLATION KIT. SECOND RECEIVER TOGETHER.

four-month duel between two Democrats over which of them had won the August primary election runoff. The lead in the runoff changed four times as votes were recounted, with the final count showing Horacena Tate had a one-vote margin over Gordon Joyner, a Fulton County commissioner. Joyner filed a lawsuit in October challenging Tate's apparent victory. As it worked through the court system, a visiting senior Superior Court judge ruled that Tate's name appear on the Nov. 3 ballot with Scott's because Tate was the apparent winner.

The votes were not counted. Persuaded by Joyner's arguments, visiting Judge George B. Culpepper III of Fort Valley called another Democratic runoff for Dec. 1, in which Tate handily defeated Joyner. Culpepper had ruled that if Tate beat Joyner, ballots from the Nov.

3 election would be counted to determine the winner of the partisan contest. That count showed Tate won with about 78 percent of the vote. "Miss Scott believes there were errors in the process," said one of her lawyers, Simon Bloom. "There certainly were groundbreaking issues, and a court needs to resolve the issues once and for all." ton County Superior Court. A judge from another district will be to hear the case involving Senate District 38, which serves western Atlanta and a small area of Cobb County, south of Smyrna.

Scott maintains results from the Nov. 3 election should be voided because the Democrats did not have a properly nominated candidate at that time. She raised the issue in a lawsuit filed with the state Supreme Court, which ruled last week that the proper way to resolve the matter was through an elections contest in Superior Court. The issue stems from a while the deliberators are con-1 cerned most about water quan-? tity, they also must be concerned about keeping the water clean and enough of it I flowing in rivers and streams to support fish and other aquatic life. If the negotiators fail to agree on a water allocation for-mula, then the water war will be thrown into the Supreme Court for settlement.

Thomas -also has the authority under the interstate compacts to veto an agreement if it is not acceptable to federal agencies. I pi THtirUwcsto i RUSH HOUR RECAP Occidents tied up three metro lane at the North Ga. 1 20 Loop. Friday's morning commute was rough. Three left lanes of 1-285 westbound between Buford Highway and Peachtree Industrial Boulevard were blocked by a 6:30 a.m.

wreck. A vehicle overturned about 6:45 on the ramp from I-28S northbound to 1-20 eastbound on the west side of town. $num -VZXr System T. i.v'il Atlanta highways in the northern suburbs Friday afternoon. On I-28S, the northern half of the circular highway was slow following a 5:07 p.m.

wreck, The crash involved two tractor-trailer rigs and a car in the northbound lanes at Paces Ferry 11 4 1 ON ACCESS ATLANTA Road. At 5:30, speeds in westbound lanes ranged from 15 mph to 24 mph. 1-85 was slow because of two crashes. The first happened at 5:57 in the southbound lanes of 1-85 at Pleasant Hill Road and involved an 18-wheeler. The second happened at 6:03 and involved three cars in I-8S northbound lanes at Shallow-ford Road.

The two problems that tied up 1-75 northbound: A 5:32 Delk Road crash that backed up onto the highway and a accident that blocked a northbound 1 InkM (irtlomrc only. Wdilionol (km may apply. Imtoflalion fcrl Nmitod to om ImmUI. Pi wnmmiiia HaJwfi owl ptogtDmmitu upwolely. DUECTYt Is ngr.Httd Hadwiwli i DIRETV, INC M(M and oHki good through January I9M.

1991 let! lay For current traffic conditions and helpful commuting links: http:www.accessatlanta.cornnewstraffic i.