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Chief Pitts appointed
public safety director
The Griffin City Com
missioners last night created
the position of Public Safety
Director and named Fire Chief
il
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Chief Pitts. Page 12 .
Chief Pitts
is ‘humble’
“Good morning, Chief. How
do you feel?”
Griffin’s new Director of
Public Safety Leonard Pitts
smiled and replied, “Humble.”
In an interview with the
Griffin Daily News this mor
ning, he said that when he
assumes his new job Sept. 1, he
will attempt to maintain the
status quo for a while.
“I don’t want anyone to get up
tight about his job,” Chief Pitts
said.
He said he would be working
closely with Chief Leo Black
well of the Police Department in
an effort to become oriented
with the operations of the Police
Department.
The Public Safety Director
designate will be spending 85 to
95 percent of his time with the
Police Department when he
takes over his new assignment.
He said he wanted to learn the
nuts and bolts operations so he
would be familiar with the day
to day operations.
He made it clear that he
would not neglect the Fire De
partment during this orienta
tion period with the Police De
partment.
4®
“Voting taxes to provide
others’ needs is every bit as
generous as making
donations.”
Leonard Pitts to fill it.
The appointment is effective
Sept. 1.
The commissioners said they
As to what sort of operational
structure will emerge from the
new position the City Com
missioners have created, Chief
Pitts said he couldn’t say at this
point.
Ultimately, he will be the top
administrative officer for the
Fire and Police Departments in
his new role.
Chief Pitts said some com
munities already have gone to
the plan of having the fire and
police departments under a
central director. He said some
cities even have more under the
director. But the city’s plan now
is to have Fire and Police De
partments under the Public
Safety Director.
Chief Pitts said he wanted to
get a working knowledge of the
day to day operation of the
Police Department.
“I want to ride with the
detectives, I want to ride with
the shift captains. I want to ride
with the policemen on patrol,”
Chief Pitts said.
He said this first hand experi
ence would help him to make an
evaluation of personnel.
Ultimately, the director
designate said he would have to
appoint some people in each of
the two departments to be
responsible directly to him for
the day to day operations.
What their titles will be is not
known at this time, he said.
They may be deputy directors
or deputy administrators or
deputy chiefs, he said.
The titles are not important at
the moment, Chief Pitts said.
As he sees it, his main task
before him immediately is
pulling the two departments
under one administrative
umbrella and maintaining
their separate identities.
GRIFFIN
Daily Since 1872
were creating the office,
assuming favorable support of
necessary home rule amend
ment of the city charter.
“This appointment is made to
preserve uninterrupted
leadership and direction, also
continuity in the operation of
the Police Department,
following Mr. Leo Blackwell’s
retirement as well as to
preserve same qualities in the
Fire Department,” the com
missioners said.
City Manager Roy Inman told
the Griffin Daily News after the
city commission meeting that
Mr. Pitts would be spending up
to 95 percent or more of his time
with the Police Department
after Sept. 1 to become familiar
Court session ends;
another may be called
The special session of
Spalding Superior Court ended
late this morning because
state’s witnesses for a
scheduled case failed to show
up.
District Attorney Ben Miller
said he could not justify holding
the jurors any longer. He said
that due to the large number of
cases which remain on the
docket, including at least three
murder cases, another special
session probably will be sch
ceduled before the October
term of court
This morning several guilty
pleas were entered and a jury
found a man guilty of beating
and stabbing his wife.
Porter Furlow, Jr., 610 West
Slaton street, admitted he beat
and kicked his wife, Mrs. Mary
Edith Furlow, but said she was
drunk and when he went to hit
her with his hand, she ducked
and fell against a knife he was
cleaning his fingernails with.
The incident happened on
Feb. 4. Furlow said that he and
his wife separated on Dec. 23
after “she shot at me five
times.” They were wrapping
Christmas gifts for the children,
he said, when he went into the
restroom and his wife shot at
him through the door. She took
a peace warrant after that and
they have been separeted ever
since.
Mrs. Furlow claimed she was
visiting at Pearl Griggs home
when her estranged husband
came in and started beating her
about the head. He stabbed her
about the lip, ear, and head,
then dragged her outside where
he stomped and kicked her until
she lost consciousness. She
came to at the hospital
emergency room.
She said she had not said
anything to him and did not
have a weapon.
District Attorney Ben Miller
told the jurors that if they did
not find him guilty, he may kill
her yet. He said he could not
figure out how a man could
clean his fingernails, accidently
City delays license hikes
Griffin City Commissioners
voted last night to delay final
approval of business license
increases. They plan to review
the proposal they put on first
reading at their previous meet
ing.
Six men representing the
Merchants Committee of the
Chamber of Commerce asked
the commissioners to recon
sider plans to raise the fees at
an administrative session
yesterday.
The merchants suggested
that all of the citizens of Griffin
be called on to share in the
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Wednesday, July 11, 1973
with its operations.
Pitts, 47, has 24 years of
service with the Griffin Fire
Department.
Chief Blackwell told the
Griffin Daily News this morning
that his plans at the moment are
indefinite.
Accumulation of sick leave
and vacation time would make
him eligible to retire as early as
Oct. 3 if he chose, he said.
He will reach the age of 62,
Feb. 3 and retirement would be
mandatory for him at that time
if he continues to be classified in
a hazardous position.
Chief Blackwell said that
several options are open to him
at the moment and he has not
decided what he will do.
cut his wife, and beat her up at
the same time.
Defense Attorney Bill
Johnson told the jurors not to
forget that she was still his wife.
A man has a right to talk with
his wife, he added, and “I ex
pect if you went to a party and
found your wife drinking, you’d
be mad too.”
It took the jury a few minutes
to find him guilty. They set his
sentence at one year and recom
mended misdemeanor punish
ment.
Judge Andrew Whalen, Jr.
said that ordinarily he would
accept the misdemeanor
recommendation, but due to
Furlow’s long record, he could
not.
He said Furlow presently is
on parole and had been con
victed of three separate
burglaries and of stealing two
cars.
He said the one year sentence
could begin when his other
sentences end.
Four persons entered guilty
pleas and were sentenced this
morning.
Harry Gray, 19, 440 Spring
street, pleaded guilty to selling
some 13 to 14 ounces of
marijuana for $195 to an un
dercover narcotics agent in
front of the Tasty Pizza on West
Taylor street in March.
He was sentenced to two
years in prison.
Lee Early Colvin, 45, of East
Slaton street, who shot and
killed Henry Watkins on April 28
was given 10 years when he
pleaded guilty to voluntary
manslaughter.
Donald Dunn, 26, 427 North
15th street, pleaded guilty to
assaulting Leon Hambrick with
a deadly weapon last year and
was sentenced to two years to
be served on probation,
provided he pay a S3OO fine.
Willie Raymond Williams, 21,
1340 Boyd row, was sentenced to
one year. He pleaded guilty to
robbing Mike Brown by in
timidation on April 2 in the
parking lot of the Waffle House.
rising cost of city government,
if that be the case, they said.
Felton Rainwater, chairman
of the Merchants Committee,
appeared with businessmen
Jim Mankin, Herbert Bolton,
Charles Jones, David High
tower, and Carl Clark. Gene
Hayes was a member of the
committee appointed to
represent the merchants before
the commissioners could not
attend the session.
The merchants presented a
petition signed by 29 people
asking the city to reconsider the
license fee hikes.
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CHICAGO—The Williams triplets, Judy (1) and Susan (c)
and Laura are all smiles after all three underwent double
hernia operations at Walther Memorial hospital. The girls
upset the odds 12-years ago when they were born with
hernias as 85 of every 100 newborn with a hernia are
Miracle baby
survives tub
A 13-month-old boy, who
hospital attendants call
“Miracle Baby” was expected
to be dismissed from the
Griffin-Spalding Hospital today.
The child, Brian Cannon, son
of Mr. and Mrs. Raiford Cannon
of 405 Springview drive, came
near drowning in the bathtub at
his home.
His mother gave this account:
Early Friday afternoon, she
put Brian and his two-year-old
brother, Lee, in the tub to play.
There was a small amount of
water in the tub and she walked
outside to talk with another
woman. A little while later, Lee
came running out calling,
“Mommie ... Bubba ...” They
ran in to check and found the
tub filled to the brim and the
child floating on his back with
his eyes open and his head
under the water.
The Cannon’s have no phone,
so the women rushed the un
conscious baby to the hospital.
All the way, Mrs. Cannon said
she kept giving mouth to
mouth resuscitation and
pressing the baby’s stomach
letting “a lot of water out of his
mouth.”
When they reached the
emergency room, hospital
attendants called a special code
over the intercom which is a
signal to all available doctors
and nurses throughout the
hospital that there is a critically
ill patient in the emergency
room.
The baby’s heart had stopped
and a cardio pulmonary
The petition suggested that
the burden of the tax increase
be paid by all of the citizens in
the city rather than a small seg
ment of the business commun
ity.
The merchants suggested
three courses of action open to
the city commissioners.
They were:
—Equalize garbage fees
throughout the city so that busi
nesses would be accessed ac
cording to the amount of trash
they ask the city forces to
handle for them.
(City Commissioners indicat-
Vol. 101 No. 163
City doubles garbage fees
City Commissioners last night
put on final reading an or
dinance increasing from $1 to $2
the residential garbage fee,
effective Oct. 1.
The commissioners also
accepted the only bid it received
to remodel the city hall building
so the Police Department head-
Triplets face surgery
resuscitation machine was
brought in.
Mrs. Cannon said the baby
stayed in the emergency room
for about an hour and a half
before doctors told her they
thought he would make it.
She said the doctors said it
was a miracle the baby was
alive.
Last night they put him in a
tub of water at the hospital and
he had a good time playing in
the water, she said. He doesn’t
like the taste of it though and
refuses to drink any.
Mrs. Cannon added they were
lucky in another way, as the
boys has turned on the hot water
faucet. The electric water
heater was not working at the
time, otherwise the tub would
have been filled with hot water.
Weather
ESTIMATED HIGH TODAY
90, low today 69, high yesterday
90, low yesterday 68, high
tomorrow in upper 80s, low
tonight near 70.
Savings interest going up here
Three local banks and one
savings and loan association
today announced plans to in
crease interest rates on savings
accounts under new federal
regulations.
In a joint statement the three
local banks said they expect to
make an announcement in a day
or two about probable increases
ed they already were planning
to do this.)
—Raise sewerage rates to
meet rising costs of operation
and expansion.
—lncrease water rates to
their previous levels and raise
the millage tax rate in the city.
The merchants referred to the
10 percent cut in water rates
announced months ago by the
city.
The commissioners already
had announced their intention of
keeping the tax rate at eight
mills.
The commissioners pointed
quarters can be transferred
back to there.
The bid was submitted by C.
A. Kendrick and was for $16,161.
The commissioners approved
a number of purchase orders
and expenditures at their
meeting last night.
They announced that an open
males. Their doctor waited till they were this age before
operating because it was safer. The trio, from suburban
Streamwood, 111., will be sophomores at Oak Hill high
school in the fall. (UPI)
Spell out gripes,
health board says
The Spalding Health Board
yesterdaj) asked construction
contractors and people in the
building business to be more
specific as to their complaints
in a petition.
The board received the
petition at the monthly meeting
yesterday.
It stated that Atty. John
Carlisle had secured a ruling
from the attorney generals
office in Atlanta that some of
the personnel in the Health
Department were being em
ployed illegally.
The petition also complained
about enforcement of some of
the department’s regulations.
Dr. George Walker, chairman
of the board, said the petitioners
needed to spell out their gripes
and quarrels so they could be
dealt with properly.
P. W. Hamil, board member,
said he thought that supervisory
personnel in the department
should attend board meetings so
board members could be kept
abreast with what was going on.
Dr. Walker and Dr. Guy
Woodroof, board member,
concurred. They were the only
in savings rates.
Government regulatory
agencies have approved in
creases in interest rate ceilings
and formal notice of these new
ceilings have been received and
are being studied by the banks.
A spokesman for the banking
industry here said the local
rates will be competitive with
out that tax bills this year would
be higher, even if the rate is left
at eight mills. The reason is that
the city will have to operate
under the factored tax digest
just as the county was required
to do last year.
The commissioners an
nounced a couple of weeks ago
that they were making known
their plans to adjust business
license rates and increase other
charges so that people would
have time to respond to them.
The commissioners did not
indicate last night when they
would make a final decision on
business license fees.
Inside Tip
Food
See Page 8
house would be held July 18
from 1 p.m. till 5 p.m. for the
new city offices. They have
been relocated in the remodeled
building next to the city hall.
The public will be invited to
see the offices on that after
noon.
three board members at the
meeting.
Hamil questioned the paying
of supplements to some Health
Department employes. He said
the County Commissioners had
let the item slip by them in
approving the health budget.
He said the commissioners
would withdraw approval if
they could. The amount in
volved is about $2,800.
A department spokesman
said the supplements were part
of the agreement when the
personnel were hired. He said
the supplements have been in
the budget for a number of
years.
The spokesman said that the
supplement practice had been
discontinued.
The board was told that the
State Department of Human
Resources was making him an
effort to secure an additional
SB,OOO from state sources so the
Mental Health program here
would be able to maintain last
year’s program. Without, the
money, some personnel and
services would have to be cut.
banks in all other areas •
Bill Ramsey, top executive
officer of Griffin Federal
Savings and Loan Association
said:
“As I interpret the new
proposed rates on savings,
Savings and Loan Associations
are still given an edge over
commercial banks on the
maximum rates we can pay. We
at Griffin Federal intend to
impliment these higher per
missive rates as soon as the so
called monetary experts in
Washington give us the green
light. We expect the increases to
be retroactive to July 1 and will
advise all of our members if and
what they need to do to receive
the higher rates.
“In the meantime, of course,
this means that the interest on
new home mortgages will go up
to the 8.5 to the 8.75 percent
range, reaching the levels of
1969.”
Joe Cumming, head of First
Federal Savings and Loan
Association, was out of the city
and could not be reached for a
statement.
A spokesman for the business
said that it would have no state
ment to make at the present but
probably would later.