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LEGAL :
County not
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at fault in
e ®
bid dispute,
Wall says
B Richmond County did not
have to award contract to
lowest bidder, attorney says.
Commissioners call for reform
in bidding procedure.
By Rhonda Y. Maree
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
” _AUGUSTA
“They don’t have a case,” Richmond Cduf\-
ty attorney Jim Wall said of a local black
business who recently filed a law suit against
the county.
Karlton and Wayne
Howard, owners of
Uniformals Unlimited,
sued the county Jan. 27
after being denied a con
tract to provide uniforms
for firefighters, despite
being the lowest bidder.
They are seeking
$50,000 in compensato
ry damages and total
punitive damages in ex
cess of $500,000.
Although Mr. Wall predicts an easy viciory
for the county, the Howards’ attorney sees it
differently.
Although discrimination is one of the alle
gations of the suit, the case rests primarily on
the state law requirement that the contract
be awarded to the lowest reliable bidder, said
Rodney K. Strong, the plaintiffs’ Atlanta
based attorney.
“The problem is that there is an automatic
assumption that because the bidder is black,
he is not reliable, therefore he should not be
awarded the bid,” Mr. Strong said.
According to Mr. Wall, however, the county
did not have to adhere to the low-bid require
ment in this situation because, he said, it
See LAWSUIT, page 3
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Your local newspaper sponsored by your local grocer
February 2 -8, 1995 VOL. XIV NO. 685
wl—\-I_l*t—e—{r-;'.)"X‘ugusta's Finest Weekly Newspaper
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N Center [
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YIS Wi, Y ? Di%ctor blasts M v}
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e T R i
THE MARGARET WESTON CENTER in Edgefield County is a health facility of last resort for |
hundreds of low-income patients. Embattied Director Joe Thomas charged federal investi
gators of conducting a “witch hunt.” Photo by Jimmy Carter ]
By Rhonda Y. Maree
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
. AUGUSTA
Despite being threatened
with the loss of federal fund
ing after receiving a poor re
view, Aiken County’s Marga
ret J. Weston Health Center
executive director said he
doesn’t fear being shut down
because the review was “slop
pily done.”
According to a report by fed
eral regulators, the center has
overbilled Medicare and Med
icaid, allowed an unlicensed
physician totreat patients and
violated federal ne;otism reg
ulations by giving a contract
to a computer consulting com
pany owned by the executive
director’s nephew.
Currently receiving two
thirds of its funding from fed
eral grants, which amount to
about $400,000 annually, the
center would be forced to close
its doors if it doesn’t get other
sufficient financial support.
Executive Director Joe Tho
massaid hedoesn’t think there
is a real possibility of the cen
ter’s closing.
Black History Month
Events
LECTURES & SEMINARS
February 7 ;
§ Dr. Erskine Peters
Dr. Peters is Professor of English and Black
Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He
will discuss and review his books African
Americans in the New Millennium and Afri
can Openings to the Tree of Life. Dr. Peters is
a specialist in Faulkner Studies, American
Literature to 1930, African-American Litera
ture, Eighteenth-Century British Literature,
and Afro-Poetics. ;
Paine College Odeum, 2:00 p.m.
: February 8
i 14th Annual Conference
on the Black Experience @~ =~
Thetheme ofthis year’s conference is “Histor
icaland Contemporary Issues Confronting
African-American Children.”
Paine College Odeum, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
i Discussion of The Color Purple by Alice
Walker. The event is part of series entitled
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“They’ve got to have good ev
idence to close us down, and
they don’t have it,” Mr. Thomas
said.
“They didn’t do their job,” he
said. “They didn’t look at things
in a complete manner.”
Mr. Thomas said the center’s
staff keeps good records and is
usually able to check any defi
ciencies brought to their atten
tion. He said these auditors,
however, did not allow him to
do so at the time of the review
because their accusations were
not specifically documented.
“They were on a witch hunt,”
he said. '
Mission is to serve
low-income patients
Founded in 1971 by the late
Margaret J. Weston, the center
caterstothe primary health care
needs of low-income people.
The center uses a scaled fee
based on income. The rates are
determined by the poverty scale
issued by the federal govern
ment annually.
Mr. Thomas explained that
this scale allows some patients
to pay as little as $lO for servic
es worth SIOO or more.
T ANg,
.
i 3 s
ERSKINE PETERS, noted scholar,
will speak at Paine College on
Feb. 7.
“Transformation & Legacy: The Civil War in American
Life.” Sponsored by Augusta College’s Reese Library and the
Atlanta History Center, the discussion will be led by Margaret
Yonce, Ph.D., AC professorof English. For information call 737-
1745. ’
Augusta College, College Activity Center, Towers, Fourth Floor.
12:00 p.m.
Having seen 3,654 people last
year, the center is the only one
of its kind in the county, and its
absence would hurt the area.
According to Mr. Thomas, the
nearest clinic with similar bill
ing is in Allendale, S.C.
“Althoughourtargetareasare
Clearwater, Beech Island and
Jackson, you would be surprised
how far some people come,” Mr.
Thomas said. :
Timothy Key, board chair
man, said the center’s closing
would affect hospital emergen
¢y room service.
“The trend is if you don’t have
a ph?sician, and you feel bad,
you go to the emergency room,”
Mr. Key said.
“This fills up emergency rooms
with non-emergencies and caus
es problems for those who real
ly do have emergencies,” Mr.
Key said.
In addition to allegations in.
the report, former employees of
the center have accused its ad
ministration of wrongful doings
such as intentional overbilling.
“You have to consider the
source,” Mr. Key said. “Those
accusations are because of a lot
of sour grapes.”
See CLINIC, page 3
A e
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T R
DAVID HURD,Organist, will
appear at Church of the Most
Holy Trinity on Feb. 12.
MR. 808 HENNEBERGER
GEORGIA NEWSPAPER
UNIVERSITY OF GA
ATHENS GA 30602 12/31/99
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U.S.A.’s child
9.A.’S chlaren
living in poverty
B New York study shows that most
of nearly 6 million of nation’s poor
children had working parents.
NEW YORK
(AP) More than a quarter of American children under age
6 were living in poverty in 1992, though nearly three in five
poor children had working parents, a new study says.
The number of American children under 6 living in
poverty increased by a “staggering” 1 million between 1987
and 1992, the year on which the findings were based,
according to a reportissued Monday by the privately funded
National Center for Children in Poverty. The center is part
o . of the Columbia University
We will pay School of Public Health.
the costs of these & The toztzl reaches 6ngl
-or 26 percent of the
vaeflY rates national population in that
* age group, the study says.
for the nest two That’s the highest rate in
decades. ' the 25 years that the re
— J. Lawrence Aber, searchers have been study-
Director National Center ;‘;l@ds‘mh figures, the center
for Children in Poverty Analysis of the results re
vealed some surprising results that were “not consistent
with public myths” about poor families, the center said.
Among these, it said, was the finding that 58 percent of the
affected children had parents who worked at least part
time, and fewer than a third of the families relied entirely
on cash public assistance.
Unemployment accounted for the poorest families in
1992, the study found. The poverty rates of children under
6 living with unemployed parents varied little between
those in married two-parent families — 83 percent — and
those living with unmarried mothers — 82 percent.
J. Lawrence Aber, director of the NCCP, said the survey’s
overall findings, based on the Census Bureau’s 1993 supple
ment to the 1990 census, reflected a 20-year trend that is
having “devastating consequences” on youth — from tod
dlers to teen-agers.
The number of children living in families below the
poverty line nearly doubled from 3.4 million in 1972 to the
high of 6 million in 1992, it said.
“The significance of these figures for our society’s social
landscape cannot be overstated, because we will pay the costs
of these poverty rates for the next two decades,” Aber said. “We
need to document and comprehend the complex and ever
dynamic demographic characteristics of child poverty as we
reform welfare.”
The poverty linein 1992 was $9,137 for a family of two, $11,186
for a family of three and $14,335 for a family of four. The report
said a parent working full time for the federal minimum wage
of $4.25in 1992 would have earned $7,438, 34 percent below the
line for a family of three and 48 percent below for a family of four.
B
February 10
# Michael Thurmond, Director, Divi
sion of Family and Children Services, State
of Georgia. Mr. Thurmond is the guest speak
er at the Paine College 113th Founders Day
Convocation.
Paine College’s Gilbert-Lambuth Memo
rial Chapel, 10:30 a.m.
February 14
1 “Blacks and Civil Rights: From sla
very to the 21st Century.”
Assistant District Attorney Vincent
Crawford is guest speaker. Sponsored by
Augusta College Minority Advising Pro
gram.
Augusta College, College Activity Center,
Topic Room 2, 12:00 p.m.
Blacfi History
Month Events
Continued on Page 9
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