Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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.