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MAIN LIBRARY UGA
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Serving Metro Augusta,
Carolina and The CSRA : s
April 1-April 7, 2004 Vol. 23, No. 1151
o ?L_ ';;;23 S j
INSIDE
5 e SRR C 0
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By
Condoleeza’s
confession T
After much debat e
and some political
wrangling, National
Security Advisor
Condoleeza Rice will
give public restimony,
under oath, before the
911 panels - G 0 0
Page 2A e
McKinney, Majette
won't do battdle .
Former Congress
woman Cynthia
McKinney . has
announced plans to
re-claim her seat lost
to Rep. ' Denise
Majette. Meanwhile
Majette has bowed
out of that race to
make a bid for che
U.S. Senate seat left
vacant by Zell Miller
PagedA . w.u el
Meals-on- Wfieelt
e
Once again Augusta
workers and senmior
citizens are getring
the short end of the
stick. R
Page 8A : i 7
Home town girl makes
i cha Jobigale’
has sudied and pes
formed drama in New
York for the last three
years. Now she returns so.
Augusta to impart some
of her knowledge on
Augusta. Mini-Theatre
students. e
Page 1B e
Brown v. BOE
spoddighted. 4
Savannah State Unic
landmark Supreme
Court ruling #‘:
nation’s schools and
laid the ground work
for ‘the Civil Rights
Movement A
Page 4A o
ARTbOE 1B
me‘mm
Meals-on-Wheels cans 31 jobs
in controversial contract switch
By HALEY A. DUNBAR
Augusta Focus Staff Writer
Carla Rouse is up early nearly every day of the week
to make it to her job preparing meals for the Meals
on-Wheels program. She’s worked at The Senior Cit
izens Council (TSCC) for seven years and sometimes,
when there’s a shortage in drivers, she puts down her
apron for a set of car keys and delivers meals to area
senior citizens. Although she hasn’t had a raise in five
years, she enjoys her job; and its pay, however mini
mal, is all she and her three kids have. Now, it seems,
they may lose that.
“Being a single parent with three kids to take care of,
I’'m very worried about it,” Rouse said.
During a March 29 press conference, Executive
Director of TSCC, Dr. Ronald Schoeffler, announced
that the CSRA Regional Development Center (RDC)
did not award his non-profit agency a three year con
tract, which begins July 1, to prepare meals distrib
uted to the elderly in 14 area counties through the
Regional Nutritional Program commonly known as
Meals-On-Wheels. This is the first time in over a
decade that TSCC was not awarded the contract and,
as it stands, Rouse and the other 30 staff members
responsible for preparing the more than 1800 meals
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Subscribe to the Augusta Focus, Call (706) 722-4222, extension 225
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(Photo by H. Dunbar)
Carla Rouse, one of 31 employees slated to lose
their jobs in July, prepares meals for the Meals-On-
Wheels Program. Rouse has worked in with the pro
gram for seven years.
per weekday will be left to fend for themselves in a less
than inviting job market come July.
“I guess the only thing I can do is go try to find a
Deadly house fires prompt
officials to stress fire safety
By HALEY A. DUNBAR
Augusta Focus Staff Writer
Seven people have died in a
recent rash of house fires in
Richmond and Columbia
Counties. Property damage is
estimated to be in the tens of
thousands. But Richmond
County Fire officials say the
tragedy can be avoided with
some simple fire safety meas
ures.
“There are always things
people can do and one of
most important, and the sim
plest, is to be mindful of what
they're doing and how they're
doing it. A lot of times its the
simple things like, say, cook
ing — we have a tendency
sometimes to start cooking
and then go and do some
thing else and forget about
what we have on in the
kitchen,” said Richmond
County Fire Department Bat
talion Chief, Richard Burts.
The more than 20 year vet
eran says that by getting into
the habit of just being careful
— never leaving cooking or
burning candles unattended,
keeping flammable material
away from flames, making
certain everything is turned
off before leaving home, keep
ing matches and lighters out
of the reach of children and
Commission hashes out
administrator’s duties
By HALEY A. DUNBAR
Augusta Focus Staff Writer
The road to a better
working relationship
between City Administra
tor George Kolb and
members of the Augusta-
Richmond County Com
mission has not been
without its share of pot
holes and wrong turns —
especially in recent
months. But it seems
that Kolb and the govern
ing body may have finally
www.augustafocus.com
when burning materials out
side the home, never setting
the blaze within 100 feet or
less of any structure — people
with most of the major causes
of fires in the home.
Burts’ advice comes on the
heels of three house fires that
claimed the lives of seven local
residents in as many days. In
the early morning hours of
March 20, 29-year-old Javana
Monique Johnson and her
two year old daughter, Brian
na, perished when a pot over
heated on the stove of their
Sunset Villas apartment caus
ing flames to spread to the
walls and cabinets. The
mother and toddler were
trapped by burglar bars on
their back bedroom window.
Two days later, Reverend
Samuel “Wayne” Bussey, 36
and his two daughters, 13-
year-old Antiscia “Monique”
Marshall and nine year old
Eugenia “Gena” Marshall died
from soot and smoke inhala
tion when a wood burning
stove ignited a late night blaze
in their Columbia County
home. And the last of the
seven victims, wheel-chair
bound Tommy Jones, 28 and
his caretaker, Sheryl Ann
Swain, 34, died when an after
noon fire in a nearby salvage
taken a step in the right
direction with the recent
completion of the criteria
by which the body will
assess the administrator’s
job performance.
During a recent meet
ing of the Administrative
Services Committee,
Commissioner Andy
Cheek presented the
group with a list of eight
goals and objectives
developed by the Delin
eation of Responsibility
PRSRT STD
US POSTAGE
PAID
AUGUSTA GA
PERMIT NO 302
FIFTY CENTS
House numbers
nixed by b
By THERESA MINOR
Augusta Focus Staff Writer
With all the attention
being paid to the pairing
of former Senate Majority
Leader Charles Walker and
Sen. Donald Cheeks (R
--23) in the new Senate Dis
trict 22, other majos
changes to local political
lines as a result of the court
ordered redistricting have
fallen below the radar —
namely in the local House
districts.
Richmond County vot
ers may be surprised to
learn that they no longer
live in House Districts 96,
See Hedlltl'lcflipage 12A
yard surrounded the mobile
home they were in, trapping
the two.
Despite the tragic deaths,
Burts says being caught in a
burning home is not always
an automatic death sentence.
Through the use of working
smoke detectors and pre-plan
ning, residents can survive a
fire.
“People should practice a
way'of egress — how to get out
of the house — for in the event
that there is a fire. I'm not an
advocate of bars on the win
dows but obviously people use
them: because they worry
about other criminal ele
ments. So in those cases, espe
cially, they should have a
planned escape route that
everybody in the house knows
and has practiced,” he said.
Adding that some companies
do sell panic bars that can be
opened from a button inside
the house.
The Richmond County
Fire Department currently
conducts fire safety education
programs in schools through
out the county and is available
1o give safety and prevention
tips to anyone in the'gommu
nity. For more information
call (706) 821-2909.
Contact Haley A. Dunfigr at
HDunbar@AugustaFocus.com.
Subcommittee during
two months of meetings.
Cheek, who served on the
subcommittee along with
Kolb and Commissioners
Marion Williams, Don
Grantham and Betty
Beard, explained that the
purpose of the criteria is
to help the administrator
improve the process by
which he operates the
various functions of the
government and to also
Sec Commission page 12A