Summer Camps Sponsored section ►►PAGE 20
Anderson sworn in
County mgr. has big plans to reorganize Fulton ►►PAGE 5
Going bald
Taste o’ Ireland
St. Baldrick’s raises money, awareness for cancer ►►PAGE 24
Olde Blind Dog named Irish Pub of the Year ►►PAGE 13
March 18, 2015 | miltonherald.com | 75,000 circulation Revue & News, Johns Creek Herald, Milton Herald & Forsyth Herald combined | 50¢ | Volume 10, No. 12
Alpharetta resident celebrates 100 years Nancy Couch gets birthday party at Cottonwood Estates By SHANNON WEAVER shannon@appenmediagroup.com
Nancy Couch dances with Juan Arce at her 100th birthday party.
SHANNON WEAVER/STAFF
ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Nancy Couch, a resident of Cottonwood Estates in Alpharetta, says she doesn’t feel old, even though she turned 100 on March 7. “I have no feelings of being old,” Couch said. “I feel like I can get up and dance.” And dance she did at the birthday party her family and friends threw at Cottonwood. Juan Arce danced with Couch while another resident played classical guitar. Couch was born in Lebanon, Indiana in 1915 where she grew up and started her education. But during the Great Depression, her family could no longer support her. “My father ran out of money, so I had to leave school. I
went up to Detroit to live with my sister,” she said. “That was back in the days when they didn’t have money.” In Detroit, she said she worked for Chevrolet for 10 years until she moved again. “I went to Florida one year and never went back to work in Detroit,” Couch said. Couch worked for an airline before becoming a private secretary in Florida, where she met and married her husband, who passed away around three years ago. The family lived in Miami, Atlanta, Tennessee and New York before their last move to Atlanta, where Couch has stayed for over 60 years. Couch’s only child, Deborah Hooper, and her husband Bob live in Alpharetta. They found Cottonwood so that
See NANCY, Page 29
Milton named 2nd safest city in state Johns Creek, Alpharetta, Roswell in top 10 By HATCHER HURD hatcher@appenmediagroup.com MILTON, Ga. – Milton was named the second safest city in Georgia for 2014, according to a national research company. Also in the top 10 are Johns Creek (No. 1), Alpharetta (No. 5), Roswell (No. 8) and Sandy Springs (No. 9). ValuePenguin is a company that does in-depth research in a variety of areas to help people making major
financial decisions, including where to live in Georgia. ValuePenguin cofounder Brian Quinn said the company sourced its data from 2013 Federal Bureau of Investigation crime statistics by city, which provides the most recent data available. The raw data report included violent crimes (murder/manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault) and property crimes (burglary, larcenytheft, motor vehicle theft and arson)
Georgia’s 10 safest cities of 25,000 or more 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
JOHNS CREEK MILTON Peachtree City Kennesaw ALPHARETTA
from all law enforcement agencies that participate in the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting program. “We standardized the data to reflect violent and property crimes per 100,000, to account for population. We
6. Woodstock 7. Duluth 8. ROSWELL 9. SANDY SPRINGS 10. Lawrenceville then aggregated a ‘crime score,’” Quinn said. To calculate these scores ValuePenguin weighted violent crime at 90 per-
See SAFEST, Page 28