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Tax bills
expected
to be lower
Most people in the community
should find their Spalding
County tax bills a little less this
year, according to county com
missioners.
They set a tax rate yesterday
that was .48 of a mill less than
the total last year. And most
property owners will share in
the tax break given people at
the last session of the General
Assembly.
The commissioners had been
delayed until yesterday in
setting the tax rate because
they were waiting on digest and
other figures. They set the rate
as soon as they got them.
The total rate this year will be
31.29 mills as opposed to the
31.77 last year.
This includes taxes for county
operations, schools, and bond
retirement as well as the .25 of a
mill levied for the state, ac
cording to Chairman Jack Moss
of the County Commissioners.
He with Commissioners Sandy
Morgan and Palmer Hamil set
the rates.
They are subject to a fac
toring by the State Revenue De
partment, Moss said, and this
could amount to 1.6 or 1.8 per
cent, he estimated.
But even if the Revenue
Department should factor, it
will not change the total amount
the county expects to get from
local revenue nor will it change
the amount of individual tax
bills, Moss explained.
The state factors digests to
make sure they are on the tax
books at 40 percent of current
market value.
— —-
News highlights
By United Press International
Girl under security
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (UPI) — Authorities have kept an
unidentified girl under tight security as a possible witness
in the slayings of four Sioux Falls teen-age boys, it was
learned.
The girl, about 13, may be able to identify the murderers
of the youths whose bodies were found in a state park in
nearby lowa.
Astronauts run tests
HOUSTON (UPI) — The Skylab 3 astronauts ran medi
cal tests on each other in preparation for their Thanks
giving day spacewalk.
Flight officials said the crew could walk in space for as
long as eight hours, breaking a 6% hour record set by
Skylab 2 for working outside an orbiting spacecraft.
70 Communists killed
SAIGON (UPI) — South Vietnamese infantrymen killed
70 Communist troops in Mekong Delta fighting, the Saigon
command said.
Mildred Burnett
Moss broke down the total
rate to be levied here as fol
lows:
County government
operations 10.81 mills, hospital
bonds .36 of a mill, library
bonds .34 of a mill for a total of
11.51 mills for those living
outside the county fire district.
Those in the county fire
district under protection of the
Dundee Volunteer Fire Depart
ment will pay 1.04 mills for this,
bringing their county tax total
to 12.55 mills.
The Griffin-Spalding School
Board already had set its rate at
16.62 mills. This will be
reflected in the county tax bills,
too.
One school bond issue tax was
set at .43 of a mill and another
was set at 1.19 mills.
The Vo-Tech tax was set at .25
of a mill.
The Spalding digest increased
about $lO-million this year.
The gross digest was
$125,432,244 (before homestead
exemption) and the net digest
was $112,819,620 (after
homestead exemption.}
Last year the gross was
$115,031,244 and the net
$102,926,026.
The county expects to receive
$1,219,573 with a credit of some
$433,000 as its share of the SSO
- state wide tax relief.
The school system figures to get
$1,875,000 from local taxes.
Moss said if there are no more
delays, citizens here could
begin getting tax bills within a
week to 10 days.
Mildred Burnett
She doesn’t think of her job as a blow for women’s lib
Mrs. Mildred Burnett does not
think of her election to the
Chamber of Commerce board of
directors as a blow for women’s
Üb.
Not at all.
One of her friends commented
to that effect the other day after
she became the first woman to
receive the honor.
Mrs. Burnett said she didn’t
think of it as the beginning of
women’s lib in that sense.
She thinks people should be
elected to jobs because of what
they might be able to contribute
rather than because they
happen to be a woman — or a
man.
Os course, she’s glad that
women have representation on
the board. But she doesn’t make
a big thing of it.
The successful business
woman likes to think of every-
GRIFFIN
Vol. 101 No. 277
»>-■ -Q -- Jmr UJT - -•V-irrV. X Jft 1
| first winter after the
I landing was a time of death
JL and heartbreak. From
December through February, they
A d* e d into the bleakness two and
three a day until less than half were
alive. The six or seven healthy
■ Pilgrims cared day and night for
the survivors, gathering wood, pre-
I paring food, changing beds, wash
ing infected clothing, keeping ner-
JL vous lookout while dark savages
skulked, remote and shadowy,
through the woods.
Then, on a morning in March, an
• Indian — Samoset — strode calmly
! into their midst. He spoke some
.dr English and told them of another
p man “ Tisquantum — who spoke it
England. When Samoset was con-
-K-r *
After-Thanksgiving sales
will begin here Friday
A total of 56 Griffin firms will
join in the After-Thanksgiving
sales here Friday, signaling the
opening of the Christmas
shopping season.
Merchants have their shelves
stocked and are ready for the
season.
Some will begin keeping their
stores open on Fridays until
8:30 p.m. beginning this week.
Some began with all-day
openings on Wednesday today
and will continue them through
the season.
One of the highlights of the
season will be the annual
Christmas parade Thursday
night, Nov. 29, downtown.
The affair is expected to draw
No paper
tomorrow
The Griffin Daily News will
observe Thursday as a
Thanksgiving Holiday and will
not publish that day.
Regular publication will
resume Friday.
one as people — not men or
women.
This latest milestone in her
career came about as quietly as
did getting her first job. That
was when she was a senior at
Griffin High School.
Christmas was coming and
she needed some money.
She applied to the J. C.
Penney store, then located on
North Hill street near Solomon,
and was hired for the season.
Her efficiency and sincere
interest in seeing that
customers were pleased im
pressed her employer. He told
her he would like to have her
when she finished high school.
Her interest in customers has
been the hallmark of her career
ever since.
“Customers keep our doors
open,” she said.
“Without them, there
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Wednesday, November 21, 1973
thousands again and be bigger
and better than ever.
Participating in the After-
Thanksgiving promotion
beginning Friday will be:
Cartledge Furniture Co.,
Tonkin Casuals, O’Kelley’s
Furniture & Upholstery,
Rhodes Furniture Co., Randall
& Blakely, Inc., Buy-Rite,
Claxton’s Pharmacy, Hensley’s
Office Equipment, The Furni
ture Shop, Jones-Harrison
Furniture Co., Jim Pridgen
Hardware Co., Star Chevrolet
Co.
Ben Franklin Variety Store,
Akins Feed & Seed, The Oxford
Shop, Griffin Sales & Service,
Southern States Printing Co.,
Morrow-Powell Clothing Co.,
Smith-Roberts, Easterwood
Shoe’s, Whitmire Jewelry Co.,
Sears’, Kentucky Fried
Stock prices down
NEW YORK (UPI) — With speculation spreading that a
recession might result from the energy crisis, stock prices
fell sharply Tuesday. The Dow Jones industrial average
closed at 844.90, a drop of 17.76.
wouldn’t be any business.”
And another thing:
“The customer is always
right.”
Not just trite words to Mrs.
Burnett.
She’s learned that through
experience.
A native of Griffin, Mrs.
Burnett spent some of her early
years in Manchester where her
family moved. But they
returned to Griffin and Mrs.
Burnett finished high school
here.
The man in her life, Robert
Burnett, known throughout
Griffin as “R. 0.”, had some
influence on her early business
training.
Mrs. Burnett grew up in the
Methodist Church. One day her
future husband, who is a
graduate of old Spalding High
School, spotted her on the way
vinced of the Pilgrims’ friendliness,
he brought Tistquantum to them.
The Pilgrims called him Squanto.
They learned that he had been cap
tured twice by English slavers. The
first time, he escaped in London
and sailed home. The second time,
he spent five years as a slave in
Spain until, overcome by homesick
ness, he made his way back to
America again.
He arrived eager to see his land
and be among his people again. But
when he arrived at the site of his
Patuxent village, he found no
family, no home. A plague had
wiped out the entire tribe. There
were no more Patuxent.
Lost and alone, Squanto wan
dered until he met Samoset who
brought him to Plymouth. Despite
his earlier experiences, Squanto
learned to trust the English once
again. He served them as in
terpreter and guide, and when the
Pilgrims encountered the powerful
3F ~ ■
Chicken, Goode-Nichols Furni
ture Co.
Fashion Shop, Leonard’s,
Diana Shops, Crouch’s, The
Fabric Center & Annex, Batton
& Jackson Quick Tire, Inc.,
Lights of Griffin, Inc., Griffin
Gallery, Maxwell Furniture
Co., Carden Furniture Co., The
Gentry Shop, Saul’s, Wynne’s
Jewelers, White’s Auto Store,
Griffin Hardware Co.
Godard Clothing Co., RBM
Motors, Fisher Hardware Co.,
The Bonnie Shop, Clark’s
Supermarket, Fashion Shoes,
Spalding Gas, Inc., Toyota of
Griffin, Cain’s, Gene Hayes
Motor Co.
Griffin Daily News, The Bank
of Griffin, Commercial Bank &
Trust Co., First National Bank
of Griffin, WGRI, WHIE,
WKEU.
to the First Methodist Church
when it was located downtown
at the Commercial Bank site
today.
He asked a friend who she
was and an introduction follow
ed.
From blossomed romance,
marriage and a family.
But that’s getting ahead of the
story.
Mr. Burnett, now a rural mail
carrier, in those days worked
for the U. S. Department of
Agriculture.
After their marriage, he was
transferred to Fayette County.
He commuted to Fayetteville
for about a year then the couple
moved to Fayetteville.
Another U.S.D.A. transfer
took them to LaGrange and
Mrs. Burnett had studied busi
ness at LaGrange College
earlier and had accepted an
Daily Since 1872
Massoit tribe, he helped negotiate a
treaty, founded on trust and
respect, which was to grant them 50
years of peace.
Late that spring, Squanto taught
the Pilgrims to bury small fish with
their corn seeds so that the barren
land would yield an abundant har
vest. That fall, when the rich crop
matured, the Pilgrims honored
Squanto as “an instrument of God.”
November of that year was a time
of great joy. The Indians had new
allies. The Pilgrims, by the grace of
God, had survived. They feasted for
three days — the 55 Pilgrims and 90
braves — and called it Thanksgiv
ing. No one was happier than
Squanto.
A year later, on a trading expedi
tion, Squanto was stricken with
severe fever. His days as a
peacemaker were over. As he lay
dying, his last words to the Pilgrims
were: “I have tried to be friends.”
Jones
elected
in runoff
Ernest (Tiggy) Jones,
Southern Railway employe, was
elected a city commissioner in a
runoff vote yesterday. He
received 969 votes. His op
ponent, Joe Williams who is a
former city employe, recieved
580 votes.
A total of 1,594 ballots were
cast. There were 8,652 people
registered and eligible to vote.
Jones will be the one new
member of the board to take
office in December. R. L.
(Skeeter) Norsworthy, in
cumbent, was reelected to a
new term for the Fourth Ward
in the Nov. 6 election.
Jones will represent the First
Ward, a post now held by Scott
Searcy. He was not eligible for
reelection to that seat, since he
does not live in the ward. Searcy
was assigned that seat when the
city commission was expanded
from three to five people.
office job with Callaway Mills
when Mr. Burnett was tran
sferred to Lamar County. She
never reported for the job.
“It hardly suited anyway. I’m
not a desk person. I had rather
be doing,” Mrs. Burnett
recalled.
She abandoned the business
world for a few years to raise a
family.
Mr. and Mrs. Burnett have
two sons. One is Robert 0.
Burnett, Jr., who is an engineer
with Georgia Power Company.
He is a graduate of Georgia
Tech. He is married and he and
his wife have two children.
The other son is Bruce Bur
nett. He graduated from the
Medical College of Georgia and
resides in Orangeburg, S.C.,
with his wife and son. He is a
medical technologist for a firm
that sells complex equipment to
Jr
9 1 wkf '.r jr *
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City election
JONES WILLIAMS
PRECINCT NO. 1 119 56
PRECINCT NO. 2 110 67
PRECINCT NO. 3 336 213
PRECINCT NO. 4 67 36"
PRECINCT NO. 5 95 62
PRECINCT NO. 6 105 89
PRECINCT NO. 7 72 34
PRECINCT NO. 8 51 16
ABSENTEE M
BALLOTS 7
TOTAL 969 580
Rain, wind cause outages here
Heavy rains and winds this
morning caused a rash of auto
accidents and reports of
numerous electric power and
telephone outages throughout
the city.
High winds reportedly
demolished a mobile home on
the Bethany Church road west
of Williamson. No details were
available as to who the oc
cupants were.
A large tree was uprooted at
hospitals and other health care
people.
Mrs. Burnett returned to the
business world after her family
was grown. She worked at
another ladies clothing store
before joining Smith-Roberts
when Mr. Frank Smith sold the
business to Felton Rainwater.
Mrs. Burnett is vice president of
the Griffin store. She manages
it and does the buying for the
store as well as one in Macon
which Mr. Rainwater owns, too.
(The purchase of Morrow-
Powell brought him to Griffin
and later he bought the Smith-
Roberts store.)
Mrs. Burnett finds time to be
active in the Business and Pro
fessional Women’s Club, the
First Methodist Church, the
Chamber of Commerce, the
Southeast Region of Women in
Chamber of Commerce and in
Inside Tip
Gasoline
See Page 10
Ethridge Mill and Maddox
roads and caused outages in
that section.
Griffin Light and Water Supt.
Charlie Smith said the tree
broke two utility poles and
knocked down a power line.
He said a transformer was out
on Hammond drive and the
Shoal Creek sewerage treat
ment plant was without elec
tricity for a short while.
many other activities.
Her business experience has
taught her one firm principle:
the customer is the boss.
That’s why she wants to make
sure the customer is happy.
□I
“It’s fairly easy to make up
your mind if you don’t have the
facts.”