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Linda Fields (1) and Rosa Howard (r) who are secretaries
in the Spalding Sheriffs Department got the thrill of a
lifetime yesterday afternoon when Johnny Cash talked
with them. The popular country western singer was in
Griffin to shoot part of a television special on railroads
and trains- It will be on ABC network in November. The
van in which Cash was traveling with his father stopped
for a little while near the Spalding jail and the railroad
yard across the street. The word traveled fast that Cash
was in town and a crowd gathered quickly to see the
Gas pipeline
becomes inferno
GRIFFITH, Ind. (UPI) - An
uncapped pipeline that spewed
thousands of barrels of propane
gas into the air and forced 1,000
persons to flee their homes
erupted early today into a 90-
foot tower of flames.
Miraculously, volunteer fire
men and civil defense workers
in the area where the fire
started, escaped injury. They
quickly began watering down
the raging inferno, attempting
to keep the intense heat from
setting off explosions in 11
natural wall gas storage tanks
nearby.
Griffith Chief of Police
Robert J. Herod, explaining
how no injuries occurred, said
firemen backed off from the
gas line when they sensed it
might explode.
“It was just like a cigarette
lighter,” Herod said. “It
Some 15 inmates from
Spalding County at the Georgia
Industrial Institute at Alto were
among those tested for speech
and hearing defects under a
new program.
There were four inmates from
Butts, one from Fayette, one
from Henry, two from Lamar,
and 10 from Upson.
It all started because Sam
Richwine’s wife went to
Clarkesville to take a course in
patient rehabilitation. When it
ended, the Departments of
Human Resources and Offender
Rehabilitation had done
something that had never
before been done in Georgia.
Mrs. Richwine, a nurse, was
taking a short course to learn
Griffin Bears win; see Page 6
Oh what a thrill!
erupted and then it died down.”
Glen Reyome, Griffith public
works director, said, “I jumped
at least six-foot off the ground
when it went up.”
Firemen and officials of
Contenintial Oil Co., which
owns the 300,000-barrel capacity
cavern located within a mile of
downtown Griffith, had at
tempted to recap the leaking
pipeline, but pulled 200-300 feet
away shortly before the fire
began.
“You could feel the heat from
six blocks away,” said Don
Watson, a civil defense worker
in the area. “It was like
sticking your head in an oven.”
Residents in the immediate
area were not in danger
because authorities Friday
night had ordered an estimated
1,000 persons out of Griffith and
neighboring Schereville, Ind.,
Spalding inmates at Alto got speech, hearing tests
how to help patients regain their
independence. Her teacher was
a young woman named T. C.
Davis, a speech pathologist
from the Department of Human
Resources (DHR).
One day, Mrs. Richwine told
her husband about Ms. Davis
and her work testing people for
speech and hearing defects. Her
husband, Sam Richwine, is a
DHR vocational rehabilitation
counselor for the Georgia In
dustrial Institute at Alto, where
youthful offenders serve prison
sentences.
“I knew we had a lot of in
mates with speech and hearing
problems, but there was no
regular screening program for
all inmates,” Richwine said.
DAILY NEWS
Vol. 102 No. 219
famous star. Cash said this was like home to him, since his
grandfather had lived here. He couldn’t remember his
grandfather’s first name but Cash said he had lots of
third, fourth and fifth cousins in Spalding and Henry
Counties. Some prisoners on the top floor of the jail
shouted for Cash to come up and visit with them. Cash
said “they won’t let me.” But he stood in a parking lot and
had a rap session with them for a few minutes. Cash has
made several records of prison songs and often does
concerts in prisons. (Other Pictures Page 8)
when the gas leak started.
“I was down wind a half a
mile from the cavern taking a
reading when it just flashed up,
and I turned tail and ran for all
I was worth,” said Joe Szurgot,
president of the Griffith Plan
ning Commission. Szurgot said
the reading he had been taking
showed 30 per cent propane in
the air.
Clifford Wilkey, a local
resident, called the fire an
explosion.
“The explosion rattled all the
windows,” he said. “It went
sort of whoom! Then I ran
outside and you could see the
flames shooting about 100 feet
in the air. It was followed by
several little booms.”
Before the fire, the escaping
gas had formed a white cloud
that drifted with the wind
toward Gary, Ind., 12-15 miles
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Saturday Afternoon, September 14,1974
away, and residents in the
Gary suburb of Glen Park
complained of the odor.
“The gas shot out of pipe like
a geyser or a white tornado,”
one witness said.
The gas leak occurred at
about 10 p.m. Friday while
85,000 barrels of propane gas
from Wood River, 111., were
being pumped into the cavern.
Deward Nevins, who was in
charge of the gas pumping at
the time of the accident, said,
“I heard something that sound
ed like a slight explosion. Then
I saw the gas shooting from the
pipe.”
He said 83,000 barrels of gas
had already been pumped into
the cavern. He had no idea how
many barrels might have been
in the cavern in addition to
what was being pumped in.”
“After my wife told me about T.
C., I called the director of the
VR Center, J. H. Scarbrough.
He immediately called the top
officials at Alto and T. C. to get
the ball rolling.”
Mrs. Davis reported the
situation to her superiors in
Atlanta and offered to coor
dinate screening of the inmates.
When she got the go ahead she
made the arrangements with
officials at Alto.
Then one day in August, a
team of eleven health specia
lists arrived in Alto, ready to
check all 1150 inmates.
In addition to Ms. Davis and
others from DHR, and Rich
wine, the team included Haber
sham County Public Health
GRIFFIN
Nurse Elizabeth Strait and
several volunteers.
Each inmate put on headsets
and listened to tones to test
hearing. Then each inmate read
a short standard passage
designed to detect speech pro
blems.
More than 600 inmates
showed signs of hearing or
speech problems, and were
scheduled for retesting later. If
the inmates actually have a
serious problem speaking or
hearing, Richwine will try to
arrange for vocational
rehabilitation to pay for correc
tion of the defect.
“Some of them had an easily
correctable problem like dried
blood or wax in their ears,” said
Rabid bat
bites boy
Rabies treatments for Mark
Smith, 11, have begun after he
was bitten by a rabid bat which
flew down the chimney of his
home.
He is the son of Mr. and Mrs.
J. B. Smith of Route Six.
The diseased bat was caught
after it bit the youngster so tests
could be made on it to see if it
was rabid.
Tests indicated the bat had
rabies.
A series of 23 shots will be
given to the Griffin youngster
by his private physician. The
shots started Thursday.
They are a new vaccine used
to combat rabies.
Anti-drug
walk
resumes
DALTON, Ga. (UPI)-Atlan
tan Ken Krautter, a determined
drug fighter, was back on the
road again today, walking
toward Chattanooga, Tenn., in
his 450-mile campaign to gain
signatures on his petitions to
“stop drugs at the source.”
Krautter has spent four years
on his project and collected
some 170,000 signatures by his
own estimate. He wants to get
every American’s signature on
one of the petitions if he can.
ChattanoogaMayorKirkWalk
er plans to greet Krautter at
9 a.m. Monday. Krautter plan
ned to walk 17 miles today and
finish the last 14 miles Sunday.
Krautter says he is still wear
ing the same pair of sneakers
that he started out with and by
the time he is through he will
have been in 63 cities.
“The response has been fan
tastic,” he said. “The reason
for the walk has been to let
people know there is a petition
drive. Afterwards, we are
going to grammar schools
throughout the state to have the
children collect names.”
Krautter, who kicked off his
campaign in Savannah July 4,
has his family with him—al
most. His wife and two child
ren ride in a car about five
miles ahead of him when he
walks.
Weather
ESTIMATED HIGH TODAY
89, low today 68, high yesterday
88, low yesterday 67, high
tomorrow near 80, low tonight
on mid 60s.
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Randy Cooper (21) takes off after catching a short pass from quarterback Willie Jordan.
Cooper turned the play into a 37 yard gain to the Rockdale 29 yard line. Rockdale’s Anthony
Mann chases Cooper. Griffin defeated Rockdale, 20-14.
Lucky’s mother
faces charge
ATLANTA (UPI) - The 15-
year-old mother of “Lucky,”
the day-old infant who was
nearly crushed to death in a
garbage truck, has been
charged with attempted murder.
Georgia law prohibits divulg
ing the name of juveniles
charged with criminal acts.
DeKalb County police Sgt.
Jim Miller said the girl was
placed in a juvenile detention
Ms. Davis. “But some others, a
small percentage, have tumors,
deformed ear canals or other
problems that must be correct
ed by surgery.”
Speech defect testing turned
up problems such as lisping,
talking too low to be understood,
stuttering and others. One
Chinese inmate could barely
speak English and he may be
eligible for help in learning how.
Richwine said he first
realized what a serious handi
cap speech or hearing defects
can be when he was trying to get
job training for a young man
with a tracheotomy; “I thought
to myself, “Gosh, he can’t talk.
How can he communicate?’ ”
Then after researching the
Daily Since 1872
On his way
center after leaving a hos
pital where she received post
natal care.
People from around the na
tion have offered to adopt
Lucky, but Miller said the teen
aged mother has indicated she
wants to try and raise the
youth with her mother’s help.
The Department of Family and
problem he found out that two
or three times more inmates
have speech and hearing
defects than the general popula
tion.
D. E. England, superin
tendent of the Georgia In
dustrial Institute, said, “We feel
sure that the high percentage of
inmates in Georgia and other
states who have hearing and
speech defects means there
probably is a connection bet
ween the defects and their
crimes.
“It’s easy to see how a person
who can’t hear or communicate
could become frustrated and
angry and this could tend to
lead them to commit criminal
acts.”
A Prize-Winning
Newspaper
Rffll 1974
Better Newspaper
Contests
I B
“If you think habits aren’t
strong, try shaving the other
side of your face first.”
Children's Services is presently
caring for the child.
Authorities tagged the 8 pound
4 ounce baby with the name
“Lucky” after the infant es
caped being crushed to death
in a garbage truck compactor
Monday. A sanitation truck dri
ver heard the crying infant,
bom only about an hour before,
as he was about to start the
compactor.
England said the results of
the first screening have shown
beyond a doubt the need for
continuing the speech and
hearing tests for inmates. Now
the Department of Offender
Rehabilitation is investigating
the possibility of making the
tests routine for all prisoners in
state institutions.
But for Sam Richwine, the
reward was more immediate.
“We found inmates with
problems that can be corrected.
Now our staff of 11 vocational
rehabilitation counselors is
trying to help them. After that
maybe we’ll be able to get these
young men into job training and
jobs — that’s what vocational
rehabilitation is all about.”
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