Newspaper Page Text
By NESHO DJURIC
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (UPI) — If
anyone has a fear of flying, it should be
Vesna Vulovic. Four years ago today
the former stewardess fell 31,000 feet
from an exploding jetliner.
Since then, she has flown 40 times,
but only as a passenger. She still works
for JAT, the Yugoslav airline — as a
ticket agent.
Vulovic, 26, says she remembers
i —IQJi \ VV JB
Jkn
■WMtifl M RuWl I ' fl 'F
B fl| BpRI
Jrj~ / ’--i k V
gM EKaßz * »hI HMMnfl IF' -JI Y
!"WS4-.■ ■. .r^7’ , W4 '-■ " ' ■
Making this a cleaner community
These Girl Scouts in Troop 192 pick up discarded beverage cans in a community
wide clean-up campaign. Miller’s Brewing Company is sponsoring the
nationwide campaign and Jackson Beverage Company is handling the project
on the local level. The company will pay the participants 15 cents a pound for
G-S Hospital
move delayed
Opening a portion of the new wing at
the Griffin-Spalding Hospital has been
delayed again.
Moving the emergency room into the
new section, which had been set for this
week, was put off until after Feb. 3
when state inspectors will check the
new facility.
According to Administrator Carl
Ridley, after the emergency room has
been moved, contractors will begin
remodeling the old emergency room
where the lab will be located. That
should take some three weeks, he said.
The business office also is expected to
begin moving next week.
Beds and other furnishings for the
new patient area were expected to
begin arriving this week, he said.
Mr. Ridley said he is not sure when
the patient rooms will be open, but it
should be around the end of February,
he said.
Earlier it was thought the opening
would be in November.
Decline in Georgia farms has leveled
By WALT SMITH
United Press International
Urbanization — especially in the
metropolitan area around Atlanta —
has wiped out 135,000 farms in Georgia
in the past 25 years.
Although the decline may not yet
have bottomed out, state Agriculture
Commissioner Tommy Irvin says, the
sharp drop has leveled off.
Irvin says the reason for the decline
in the number of farms is simple
economics. “People thought there was
a better way of life, an easier way of life
somewhere else,” he explained.
“The economics of production is what
is causing part of this," said W. Pat
Parks, an agricultural statistician with
the Georgia Crop Reporting Service.
She still flies but only as a passenger
nothing of the explosion that tore apart
her DC9 over Czechoslovakia Jan. 26,
1972, killing the other 27 persons
aboard. Authorities said it was caused
by a bomb planted by the right-wing
Croatian Ustashi Movement.
“It is just a period of about one month
which has been washed out of my
brain,” Vulovic said from behind her
desk at the JAT office recently. “I
remember just entering the plane and
GRIFFIN
Daily Since 1872
Picking up checks
could pose problems
ATLANTA (UPI) - Welfare
recipients in Georgia could be
financially burdened by transportation
costs if a bill requiring them to collect
their monthly checks in person
becomes law, according to a
Department of Human Resources
official.
Mrs. Betty Bellairs, director of the
division of benefits payments, said the
DHR has some “serious concerns”
about a bill now pending in the House
that would stop direct mailing to
recipients of Aid to Families with
Dependent Children benefits.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Bob
Beckham, R-Augusta, would require
the recipients to come to one of 159 DHR
county offices across the state to claim
the checks. The bill passed the House
“It is just harder and harder for the
small family farm as the production
costs go up,” he said.
“The availability of land is not there
anymore and you have to have this
high-priced equipment to operate with
and you just can’t do that very well on
small acreages.”
Parks said there were 208,000 farms
in Georgia in 1950 but the number
dropped to 73,000 at the start of this
year. There was a decline of 1,000
during the past year.
While the number of farms has fallen
dramatically, the total acreage has
declined less drastically from 22 million
acres in 1960 to the present 17 million
acres, indicating family farms are
being phased out and bigger farms are
becoming the rule.
later waking up in a hospital.
“Maybe that’s why I’m not afraid of
flying. Yet, when I think about all the
things that I was told about the crash I
consider it was a real miracle,
something which cannot be explained.”
Some doctors have theorized the
concussion she suffered saved her life
because it slowed her vital organs.
Autopsies performed on the others
showed their hearts exploded because
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Monday Afternoon, January 26, 1976
the discarded cans. Pictured gathering some cans are (1-r) Julie Giddens,
Penney Westbury, Andrea Warren, leader, Glenda Henley, Carolyn Eppinger,
Donna Yarbrough, Martha Yarbrough and Althea Murphy.
Rules Committee last week.
“We are a large state and a lot of
rural areas have no transportation
facilities,” said Mrs. Bellairs. “It’s
likely the (transportation) bill would
take a big chunk out of the check.”
Mrs. Bellairs said a transportation
bill of, for example, $5, would be a
sizeable expenditure for a family of two
collecting the maximum monthly
payment of $77. “Depending on how
much they had to pay, it could be a
hardship,” she said.
The DHR county offices are generally
open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and
closed on Saturday. Mrs. Bellair said if
Becham’s bill becomes law, the
recipients would have to pick up their
Joe Shelnutt’s family had been in the
dairy business near Atlanta since 1930
until they quit dairy farming in 1973.
Shelnutt’s father operated a dairy
farm in Forest Park for some 22 years
before selling the land for a subdivision.
Hethen moved about 13 miles south to
Lovejoy and operated there until 1963
when he died. Shelnutt, now 38, and his
brother-in-law operated the farm until
1973.
Shelnutt said the main reason they
quit fanning was “because of the cost
of the operation and the profit margin
was so thin.” He said it had also
become impossible to get farm labor so
near Atlanta where factory jobs were
available.
“Urbanization has moved down that
far (Lovejoy) too, and ad valorem
'Stewardess fell 31,000 feet
of the sudden decompression aboard
the plane.
The experts said they thought Vulovic
was in the tail of the twinjet airliner
when the blast occurred. The tail
section dropped onto a 50-foot high crag
in a wooded area of Ceske Kamenice in
mountainous northwestern
Czechoslovakia.
Farmers found her unconscious. She
had suffered brain, spine, kidney, liver,
checks on the first day of each month.
“These people need their money on
the first day of the month, not a week
late. Their Medicaid cards are attached
to the checks, so they wouldn’t be
eligible for medical services until they
picked up their checks,” she said.
Atlanta soaked
ATLANTA (UPI) — Almost three
inches of rain fell on Atlanta in about
eight hours today, causing Peachtree
Creek to spill out of its banks.
The National Weather Service said
the normally placid creek was expected
to crest at 18 feet around noon, five feet
over flood stage. Water spread over
low-lying areas along the creek.
taxes have increased,” he explained.
“Real estate property was booming at
that time and we sold.”
He said some young people who grew
up on a farm but left have discovered
the outside opportunities are not as
great as they thought and they would
like to get back into fanning. “It just
requires so much capital to operate,”
he said. “It’s hard for a younger person
to get into it.”
*
John Lee, now 72, quit dairy farming
after 20 years because of high taxes and
a shortage of labor. “There was no way
to make enough money to pay taxes on
this property in south Fulton County,”
he said.
Lee would like to see legislation
passed whereby taxes would be
leg and arm injuries. She was par
alyzed from the waist down. She
underwent surgery several times for
removal of metal splinters.
Vulovic spent 40 days recovering in a
Prague hospital. Eight months ago she
was well enough to marry. Doctors said
she made more progress in 18 months
than they would normally expect in
three years.
“Today I am as healthy as my
Vol. 104 NO. 21
ATLANTA (UPI) - Gov. George
Busbee signed into law today a $1.78
billion budget for the current year
which makes massive cuts in state
spending.
Busbee praised the “statesmanlike
conduct” of the legislative leaders who
participated in helping him cut the
budget when state revenues fell short.
“I seldom feel that the term
‘statesmanlike conduct’ is justified,”
be said, “but I will say that this bill
comes as close as any act I have ever
observed in my 20 years of experience
at this Capitol to living up to an act of
statesmanship by all involved.”
Lt. Gov. Zell Miller, House Speaker
Tom Murphy and eight legislative
leaders, including the chairmen of both
the House and Senate appropriations
committees, joined the governor in the
signing ceremony.
Busbee also commended state
agency heads for making 3.5 per cent
austerity cuts without buttonholing
legislators for restoration of funds to
their departments.
"Our senators and representatives
were fully aware that there was
absolutely no money for pet projects
and no room to play politics without
causing serious harm to some current
state services,” he said.
The budget is some $176 million less
than originally signed into law last
spring. Immediately after the ceremo
ny, the House and Senate leaders went
into hearings on the 1977 budget.
“Well,” said Senate Appropriations
chairman Paul Broun, D-Athens, “let’s
go get another together.”
Busbee inks
money cuts
The Country Parson
..
M '‘
“We ought to treat our elderly
as if we expect to become one of
them.”
assessed “on what the land was used
for instead of what a neighbor sold his
land for. It would help some.”
He said “most of the people who used
to work on the farm got on relief. There
are plenty of people in the area to
operate the farms but they don’t work
any more. They get food stamps and
welfare checks.”
Charles Tucker, the extension agent
in Clayton County just south of Atlanta,
said when he came to the county in 1953
there were 804 farms but the number
has declined to 155.
“I think we have reached the static
point now,” he said. “The building
industry has been real slow the last
couple years. We’re probably going to
stay at somewhere between 100 and 155
farms.”
husband is or anyone else who doesn’t
need to see a doctor,” she said.
A month after the incident she told
JAT officials from her hospital bed,
“Keep my uniform, I want to fly
again.” She later changed her mind.
JAT gave her a job as a passenger
agent following the end of her sick leave
in June, 1974.
“The job of stewardess does not
attract me anymore,” she said.
Weather
ESTIMATED HIGH TODAY 70, low
today 63, high yesterday 67, low
yesterday 53, high tomorrow In low 40s,
tonight In mid 30s. Total rainfall 1.31
inches.
EXTENDED FORECAST: Chance of
rain with a warming trend Wednesday
through Friday.
News
summary
By United Press International
Ford healthy
WASHINGTON (UPI) - President
Ford passed his annual medical exam
this weekend and was declared in
“excellent” health by White House
doctor Rear Adm. William Luckash.
Luckash said he and four other
doctors concluded after extensive tests
that the 62-year-old chief executive
“should have no difficulties with any of
his responsibilities this coming year.”
Fishy fight
LONDON (UPI) - The prime
ministers of Britain and Iceland, allies
embroiled in a dispute over fishery
rights, attempted to work out their
difference face to face for the first time
in 18 years of the dispute.
Diplomatic officials said the United
States, worried the quarrel might harm
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,
has urged both sides to patch up their
differences without delay.
Bet foils kidnap
WASHINGTON (UPI) - A SIOO bill
used to pay off a gambling debt led to
the arrest of five persons accused of
kidnapping the son of a wealthy
trucking executive this month.
The arrest of Richard Hibbitt, 28, of
Alexandria, Va., for possession of SIOO
of $250,000 paid to the kidnappers for
the safe release of 27-year-old Alan
Bortnick, in turn led to the arrests of
four others allegedly involved in the
case.
Nine shot
TEHRAN, IRAN (UPI) — Nine
members of a secret Marxist
organization were executed by an
Iranian firing squad for eight terrorist
murders, including three American
military officers.
The convicted terrorists, who called
themselves the Islamic Marxist Group,
were responsible for killing Air Force
Col. Jack Turner, 45, of Carbondale,
DI., Air Force Col. Paul Schaeffer, 45,
of Dayton, Ohio, and Army Col. Lewis
Hopkins, 43, of New York. The three
were part of the 1,000-man military
mission to Iran.
UAW warns
DETROIT (UPI) - The United Auto
Workers union, replying to what it
considered a threat from General
Motors Corp., says it will not tolerate
any tampering with the cost-of-living
provisions that have kept auto workers’
wages abreast of inflation.
The apparent cause of union anger
were comments by GM chairman
Thomas Murphy, who said GM
workers’ wages had kept up with
inflation and that higher labor costs had
been responsible in part for the massive
layoffs during the past two years.