Augusta focus. ([Augusta, Ga.) 198?-current, January 18, 1996, Image 3

Augusta focus., January 18, 1996, Page 3, Image 3

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Newspaper Page TextCivic center seeks new GM M Civic center panel votes to slash pay of prospective general manager. By Rhonda Y. Maree AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer AUGUSTA Although a potentially costly lawsuit is a constant reminder of Wendy C. Oglesby, the Au gusta-Richmond County Colise um Authority recently decided it’s time to forget the former civiccenter general managerand Jjump-startefforts toreplace her. “It’s time that we recognize that Ms. Oglesby is history. It’s time to move on,” said Authority member Owen Crickenberger, who moved for immediate ad vertisement of the opening. Authority Chairman Ernie Bowman agreed. “This is something that has to be done. It needs to be done,” Mr. Bowman said. Claiming a “hostile work en vironment” forced her to quit after only seven months on the job, Ms. Oglesby has put the Authorityback where they were Alpha Phi Alpha house to get facelift By Rhonda Y. Maree AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer Its paint is peeling. Its roof is crumbling. But the 90-year-old Alpha Phi Alpha house at 1025 12th Street will soon undergo a massive facelift. NI The modest six-room house became the local Augusta Alpha chapter’s meeting place in the early 1950 s when the black col lege fraternity bought it from the late Rev. A.C. Griggs’ family after meeting there informally for years. The house now bears Griggs’ name. According to Bert Thomas, chairman of the Alphas’ alumni House Foundation Committee, the yellow-and-white house, with touches of black, is the oldest meeting place for black Greek letter organizations in Augusta. But its age is starting to show. Any day now, though, SBO,OOO worth of renovations will begin. The house will get a completely new exterior, and the inside will be upgraded with central heat ing and air to replace gas space heaters and window cooling units. Other areas of moderniza tioninclude the male and female restrooms as well as the kitchen. Mr. Thomas stressed the im portance of the house to the com- Workshop offers unique view of African- American contributions to the Old West r_‘*’_ L S paEERRET DR Bus Te e | ' L | Educator/historian Michael Searles, also known | | as “Cowboy Mike,” made a special appearance to g a 0 | the Black History Workshop held on Monday, ‘ o T | January 15. ! 427/; i I Garbed in a black cowboy hat and a sweatshirt i o :é’“ that advertised a tribute to African-American | ""M.' ; b ! cowboys, “Cowboy Mike” relayed the excitement | ' . sß¢ and saga of the Old West as he told tales of hero i : Vi f | ism and adventure of the courageous Black cow | ' i . /’, boys and pioneers. He also talked about the =\ g & women of the Old West and about the legendary | 547 w7y | Buffalo Soldiers. I 794 Y , - i ‘ i M«%% “Cowboy Mike” is _also a history professor at - . %#9 Augusta College. His appearance was sponsored 't.;‘_:, Y . Z%' by The Augusta Chronicle. . . o “”*% 1 . L - L B ; | Cowboy Mike greets workshop participant at Biack History st . s Workshop. Photo by AC. Redd ch R : G e ol T 3 qE Y o e e, R .. - B ; 32& L - 7 . | %‘ cO e ’ & o ;%%& PO ~SI TN e Y i & b pa -s % e Lo e R e L e O L e B SRR P S '\m T R R COLISEUM AUTHORITY members discuss salary for new manager. just a year ago — launching a national search for a general man ager that can revive the stagnate entertainment complex. This time though, Authority members say they aren’t willing to pay the “exorbitant” $72,800-a --year salary that Ms. Oglesby suc cessfully negotiated. Those vying forthe position can expectasmuch assls,ooolessthan Ms. Oglesby’s pay. According toMr. Crickenberger, a top-of-the-scale salary such as Ms. Oglesby’s is too much for a *3* # v\,.,:;"\“”g;‘. b ~ . % \“\‘ i ‘./""I » , ‘ ﬁ”% e Y T S e VO ee O et Te T Y %;ﬁ" g v oot s ... et el % M A f e - B e B o Foaain wgl ST R i A a e MR T R PR i f;‘,vg S R o iLD e HRE G s e R S . A 4 & Tt o S BRI e § argEr & S L e Tl R e cre R @ O G S B . T w = . .. :. m e?‘ o N 02% 2 e G L R B 00, %o' MR e e e ??Wi’%“’”wﬁagﬁm 7 N s v %my wi B eT e R :¥B s e & L & O e e e R : & 3G * gw §< i e” % i s Lo R P W . i O I o R e e P i : ~ L b h ~,,? o R ’ ‘4s:_ ﬁ%“ ee o y/";";;o’;,,‘ﬂu i 4Py e i ,j/" “ eLTSST Gl S o So e RT R RSO oR, D IMAR e i ~’3”,,@” Any day now, SBO,OOO worth of renovations will begin. The house will get a completely new exterior, and the inside will be upgraded with central heating and air to replace gas space heaters and window cooling units. munity-oriented organization. Not only is it the meeting place for the alumni and undergradu ate chapters’ meetings, it also houses activities held for their various programs, including Project Alpha Success, a mentor program targeting young men living in area housing projects. The house can also be rented by non-Alpha groups for their meetings or social gatherings for a small fee. Although he’s happy about the much-needed improvements, Mr. Thomas isn’t completely satis LLocalNews general manager of a facility as small as the civic center, and it doesn’t leave room for raises later on. He added that the next one to fill the spot should first prove his or her worth by performance and then be rewarded accordingly. “I'think we oweit to the public to be more prudent,” Mr. Crickenberger said. However, Mr. Bowman argued that the salary is appropriate be cause of the demanding job de scription. “They’re putting in overtime. They’re here during the day. fied with the house’s location, which neighbors a poolroom and other houses in need of renova tions. Parking spaces are scarce. “It could bein a betterlocation, but the houseis nearly 100 years old, and it’s in a black neighbor hood,” Mr. Thomas said. “Maybe with our renovations the neigh borhood will become upgraded. There’s a lot to be desired right now, but hopefully in the future there will be more improve ments.” Although the city of Augusta had atonetimeapproved $50,000 They’re here during concerts. They’re here on weekends,” Mr. Bowman said ofthe general man ager’s long hours. Although some members pro posed simply referring tothe pool of applicants from which they pulled Ms. Oglesby, others ar gued thatthe list was “stale” and would exclude newly available candidates. “There may have been some changesinthe market, and there may be some people now that may want to come to Augusta that didn’t have an interest be fore,” Mr. Crickenberger said. “I think just to go back and look at a list that’s a year old, we may deprive ourselves of'a person that would come in here now that wouldn’thave comein here then, and I'd like to take a shot at the best person available at this par ticular time.” Advertising nationally as they did last year will initially cost the Authority $2,000. The Authority also agreed that its Personnel Committee should revise the generalmanager’s con tract, which allowed Ms. Oglesby to take a two-week vacation be fore working a full year. in funding for the organization, the defunct government reneged during its financial troubles. Mr. Thomas is hopeful the new gov ernment will give them financial assistance. Currently, the organization’s only government funds is a $30,000 facade grant from the Augusta Community Develop ment Department. Look for features on Augusta’s other black sorority and fraterni ty houses in upcoming editions of Augusta Focus. AUGUSTA FOCUS Overcrowding From page one weather was frigid. She also worries about the quality of instruction the kids are getting in the classroom, as the teachers have to spend much of their time engaged in “crowd control.” “When you have 30 or 40 kids in a classroom,” she said later, “you can’t give individual class time.” : She isn’t worried about her daughter Cindy’s studies, how ever. “She’s one of the fortunate students,” she said, who has teachers who make extra effort, and the ability to roll with the punches. But Cindy wants to be a business-owner. And Mrs. Pip er worries that, when her daugh ter’s former classmates visit her looking for employment in the years to come, her business will be affected by undereducated workers. “They need to be qualified,” she said. “They need to be edu cated.” Ms. Piper said that, around threeor fouryears ago, the South ern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) warned the school it could lose its accredita tion if something isn’t done. She was a parent advisor tothe SACS committee sent to inspect the school at the time and says that, depending on the infraction, schools have from five to seven years to fix problems. If a school does lose accreditation, she said, “it means colleges won’t accept these courses these students are taking. ... I don’t think people realize how serious the situation has gotten.” Butler principal David Smith agrees that the school is in trou ble. He was alarmed when the SACS committeetold himin 1992 his school risked losing accredi tation , because they stressed that there had been a problem with overcrowding during the previous inspection in 1982, and nothing had been done. It was presented to the school board at that time, he said. “We work hard to have a good school,” he said. “And something needs to be done.” A loss of accreditation would not necessarily mean that But ler students would not be accept- Adrienne Brown From page one Dan Ackroyd, Little Richard, Kasey Kasem and JaNet Dubois. About 100 people attended the service, which was closed to the public. The Browns had been married more than 10 years. They met on the set of television’s “Solid Gold,” where Mrs. Brown had worked Golf project From page one unable to name the source of funding if the couaty were to front the hall the money. Commissioner Bill Kuhlke recommended the hall take out aloan, butthe statelegislature’s design of the project prohibits it from doing so. “I don’t understand how they can get started if we don’t have any money for them. It doesn’t make any sense to me,” Mr. Kulhke said of considering ac cepting the hall’s request. In addition to being skeptical about the availability of the mon ey, commissioners also ques tioned the wisdom of doing the hall a favor, considering numer Look in the growing classified section of the AUGUSTA FOCUS for your next job! January 18, 1996 ed into colleges, he said, but did agree that a lack of high-school accreditation would cause eye brows to be raised when colleges review a student’s application and transcript. “When they see that accredita tion they know Butler meets cer tain minimum standards,” he said. When asked if the school board’s future plans for a new high school would remedy the situation, he said that it would depend on when it would be com pleted and where it would be built. “That’s why we need the bond issue,” said trustee Jeff Annis. He cited several building and renovation projects that are cur rently in the works, including a new middle school near Glenn Hills High School, intended to relieve three middle schools; the renovation of Laney High School; and a new high school and new elementary schools in South Augusta. “The place’ll be ate up with new schools,” he said. “But we can’t do it without a bond issue. And we need to plan for it now, regardless of the superinten dent.” Thebond issue would work like this. School board votes to bring it in front of the public, and the public votes whether or not to borrow money and sell bonds to the public. They would work just like government bonds, and the school board would be responsi ble for redeeming them. Accord ing to Mr. Annis, the Richmond County school system has the best credit rating in the state because their budget is balanced, so they wouldn’t have to pay as much interest on the borrowed funds as would some other sys tems. The buying of bonds would be an “investment in the school sys tem,” he says. “It'sa regular busi ness deal.” He also says that the system has passed smaller bonds before, but that a larger sale of bonds would “catch everything up.” Other schools that use porta bles include Glenn Hills High School, Davidson Fine Arts Mag net High School, Lamar Elemen tary School, Murphey Middle School, and Sego Middle School. as a hair stylist. On three occa sions during their sometimes stormy relationship she claimed Brown beat her. Mrs. Brown was recuperating from the surgery at a Beverly Hills aftercare facility when she collapsed. Coroner’s spokesman Scott Carrier has said she ap peared to have died of natural causes, although the surgery could have played a role. in jeopardy ous other needy projects and the fact that it would mean aban doning a set schedule for fund allocations. “We have a planned schedule, and I certainly wouldn’t want to deviate from that to do a cultural arts project versus a flood project,” said Commissioner Moses Todd. Commissioner Willie Mays said not sticking tothe sales tax sched ule would set an unwanted pre cedent. “I think what we’re opening the door for, if we do otherwise, is on the very next agenda meet ing, everybody who has a special project is going to be here... ” he said. A special meeting may be called to decide on the allocation. 3