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World of Coca-Cola set to move, |
Underground Atlanta could suffer
ATLANTA (AP) - The
World of Coca-Cola is
set to close Saturday as
the museum of all things
Coke gets ready to move
across downtown to its
new location near the
Georgia Aquarium.
The museum, whose
doors opened in 1990,
will reopen at its new
location on May 24.
The Coca-Cola Co.,
the world’s largest bever
age maker, has agreed to
sell the old building to
the state of Georgia, but
what to do with it hasn't
been decided.
The museum draws
about 750,000 visitors a
year, so the move has
some worried that the
shopping center next to
the old location, Under
sround Adlanta, will
hlccd visitors after the
museum closes.
Dan O’Leary, who
manages Underground
under an agreement with
the city, said the com
plex will survive because
it has grown more
dependent on people
who live and work in the
area and less on tourists.
“We don’t know yet
what the impact will be,
but we certainly don't
feel like the sky . is
falling,” he said.
A November 2006
—report by the city's
Finance . Department,
however, forecast a 20
percent drop in revenue
after the museum shuts
down. It suggests
Atlanta, which has subsi
dized the complex at an
average cost of more
than %7 million per year
since 2001, find other
uses for Underground.
O’Leary said the report
Hanged prisoner case remains unsolved
By DANIEL SILLIMAN
FOREST PARK, GA—
The dothes in Ronnie Butler’s
hotel room were neady folded
when he died. The room was
dean. His cell phone was
plugged into the charger. A dis
ability check for $612 was wait
ing in an unopened envelope.
n‘éNothing was in disan:;xor
anything,” said Monica
Ingram, Buders sister.
The hotel room didnt look like
the room of someone who was
about to commit suicide, she
said.
“The people that knew him
knew that he suffered from
depression, and so on and so
forth,” Ingram said. “Bur there
hasnt been any answers. Ques
tons asked, but no answers.”
More than a year after the 47-
year-old Hurricane Katrina
evacuee was arrested for crear
ing a public disturbance while
preaching in the Forest Park
Days Inn and was found, a few
days later, with a bed sheet
knotted around his neck, his
family still wonders what hap-
Medical examiners ruled the
Jan. 9, 2006 ddlofm
sered from depression and may
have been bi-polar, a suicide.
The 911 call leading w 0 his
arrest Jan. 2of that year report
ed a “demented " and
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has mistakes. Under
ground General Manager
Bill Ciccaglione said
there are 110 tenants in
the mall, and an increas
ing number cater to
locals instead of out-of
town Visitors.
But getting a steady
stream of visitors is cru
cial, said Ken Bernhardt,
a marketing professor at
Georgia State University
and a board member of
the Adanta Convention
and Visitors Bureau.
“Underground Atlanta
is an event attraction,’
he said. “When there is a
big event downtown like
the Peach Drop, they do
well. But when there isn't
an event, they suffer.”
Also crucial will be to
overcome the perception,
fostered by the presence
of loiterers, that the area
is unsafe, which has
many in the tourism
industry steering visitors
away from Underground.
*lf people’ are not
going to the World of
Coca-Cola, we don'’t
send them to the Under
ground,” said Janet May
cock, a former concierge
for the Westin Peachtree
Atlanta who is now in
convention services for
the downtown hotel.
watch, but then he was taken
off of the suicide watch.
Clayton County Shenff Vic
tor Hill, who had been critical
of the number of prisoner sui
cides under the previous
administration, promised an
investigation into the hanging,
He said he wanted w 0 know
who had authorized taking
Butler off of the suicide watch
and why that decision was
made.
The investigation has not yet
been completed. The family
protested the report thar But
lers death was a suidde and
demanded answers from the
sheniffs office, but, with the
passing of time, they have come
to some peace with the mys
tery.
“I just left it in the hands of
the Lord,” said Butler's mother,
Longura Kirk. “I try to let it be
a dosed book in my life. You
know, like your life is a book.
Your lie % pant”
Butler had been living in the
hotel for a few months, before
the arrest, as part of the federal
CMErgency assistance program
that provided aid to evacuees
from the 2005 hurricane. But
ler lefc Hartiesburg, Miss.,
along with QQDodrue;reopk
fldlfi(tll:hunianc, drove
his -model Cadillac to
Forest Park. A former bus driv
e, he was known by those
around him as :flous man
who didnt own A draw
AUGUSTA FOCUS
Fort Gordon needs blood donors
Most of us know that there
are several blood types, and
some of us know exactly what
our blood type is. What many
people dont know, according
to Army Capuain Warren
Brown at Fr Gordon’s
Kendrick Memorial Blood
Center, is how their individual
blood type fits into the big pic
wre.
“We need all types of
blood,” said Brown, “to take
care of our hospital patients, as
well as our troops who are
injured downrange. But right
now we have an emerging need
for specific types.”
Kendrick is part of the
Armed Services Blood Pro
gram (ASBP), the tri-service,
Department of Defense
(DoD) organization that pro
vides blood to service members
and their families. Their pri
mary mission is to ensure
Combat Support Hospitals
and medics in the field have
blood to care for soldiers who
are injured. For this purpose,
Capt. Brown explained, the
center needs to collect more
type O and type AB blood
Cullum Series at ASU continues in April
A performance by
Michele Rosewoman and
Quintessence will be
held on Tuesday, April
17, at Augusta State Uni
versity. The group will
present jazz ftl’xsion o
p.m. in ASU’s Jaguar
Student Activities gall
room as part of the Cul
lum Series, A Year of Jazz
at ASU.
Ms. Rosewoman is a
modern jazz composer,
pianist, and bandleader.
Early in her career, she
inspired raves from crit
ics, musicians, and music
fans. Her debut record
ing of a cross was taped up to
the window in his room.
When arrested, he was stand
ing in the hotel lobby, preach
ing from the Bible and refusing
to go to his room.
Kirk, a 70-year-old resident
of Muskegon, Mich., thagxt
about suing the sheriff’s office
for wmng\fixl death, last year,
but she didnt have the money.
The only money she had was
Buders $612 disability check,
but that had be returned to the
government.
Kirk talked to a lawyer with
the Cobb County-based avil
rights group, New Order. The
lawyer, she said, asked for a
copy of the death certificate,
she sent it to him, and that’s the
last she heard. “I never heard
anything from anybody,” Kirk
said. “Not a word.”
New Order CEO Gerald
Rose said he talked to Kirk for
a couple of weeks after the
hanging,
“I told her I would try to get
some answers,” Rose said. “We
havent been in contact since
then.”
Rose toured the jail with Hill
and said he was confident that
Hill would investigate thor
oughly and m the
death of an inmate a serious
Sl o R
“Even though youre an
inmate, you're still a human
being,” Rose said. “It may have
been a mistake, but it was a
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than they would in peacetime.
It is always best for a patient
to receive their own blood type,
but when there is not enough
ume to verify the blood type of
a soldier who is wounded, type
O blood can be safely trans
fused. This is because type O
cells are universal. However,
according to Capt. Brown, that
is only half the picture.
“Blood is made up of differ
ent components, each of which
serves a different function for
someone who is critically
wounded or sick,” he said.
Each unit of blood Ft. Gordon
collects is separated into its two
ing as a leader, The
Source, was praised for
its radiance and ingenu
ity. In a review published
by Downßeat magazine,
Ms. Rosewoman’s direc
tion was likened to that
of master innovator
Charles Mingus. With
her maiden voyage on
record, she distinguished
herself as both a talented
player and a composer of
unique vision. Tfie con
cert is free with a valid
ASU ID. General admis
sion tickets are $7.
The second program in
April will feature local
very serious mistake because it
was taking someoness life.”
Rose said he remains confi
dent in the shenff
Hill madea chfl' re 10 the bunk
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main components, and can be
used to help two different
patients. Red blood cells, the
component of blood that car
ries oxygen throughout the
body, are what people general
ly think of when they think of
donated blood. These are the
cells that make type O compat
ible with other types. But
equally as important to Capt.
Browns team 1s plasma, the lig
uid component of blood in
which the red cells “swim.”
Plasma contains proteins and
clotting factors that are of
supreme importance to acci
dent and injury victims, as well
jazz musicians in a Cul
lum Capstone/Home
grown concert at 7 p.m.
on Thursday, April 19, in
the JSAC Ballroom.
ASU’s Wind Ensemble
will perform at 8 p.m. on
Tuesday, April 24, in the
Maxwell Theatre. The
last program in April will
highlight jazz tunes by
ASU’s Orchestra and will
be held on Thursday,
April 26, at 8 p.m. in the
Maxwell Theatre. Admis
sion is free for all three
concerts with a valid
ASU ID. General admis
sion tickets are $5.
beds in the prison cells, shortly
after Buder's hanging, welding
shut an open slot between the
bed and the wall where the
sheet knotted around the man's
April 12, 2007
as surgery patients. And the
universal plasma? It comes
from type AB donors.
Type AB blood is rare, with
only about 3% of the U.S.
population of this type. Most
people who have type AB
blood dont know about this
unique charactenstic, or how
uncommon their blood type is.
Ft. Gordons blood center
freezes plasma made from type
AB blood donations and ships
this plasma into Iraq and
Afghanistan; and the need for
type AB plasma is increasing,
This, says Brown, is due to
advances in treatment for our
troops. “In theater, doctors and
medics are transfusing more
plasma as part of the treatment
of those who are severely
injured, and the patients are
responding well,” he said.
“The plasma, because its
frozen with the dotting factors
still active, helps patients more
so than transfusing them with
basic red cells.”
Erin Hawkins, blood donor
recruiter at Ft. Gordon, added
Sce Blood, page 8A
For rtickets, call the
Maxwell Theatre Box
Office at 706-667-4100.
For more information
about the Cullum Series
or for a schedule of Cul
lum events, contact Rob
Foster, co-chair of the
Cullum Committee and
associate professor of
music, at 706-667-4875
or Jim Benedict, co-chair
of the Cullum Commit
tee and professor of
mathematics, at 7006-
667-4488.
neck had been tied.
Hill could not be reached for
comment for this story.
Sec Unsolved, page 9A
3A