Newspaper Page Text
m i
.<••“ _ _ _ ,«.
Ruby Hill, tax commissioner
Hospital running out of red
Improvements in the billing and
bookkeeping system at the Griffin-
Spalding County Hospital are bringing
about a brighter financial outlook,
members of the hospital authority
learned during their regular meeting
last night.
Vernon Baker, the new comptroller,
explained that the hospital is some
1134,000 in the black so far this year,
compared with being about $150,000 in
the red at the same time last year.
He credited the increase to several
improvements in the billing system.
Insurance claims are filed by the
hospital five days after a patient is
discharged. The patient receives a full
statement of all costs within a week or
10 days after discharge, even though it
may take 45 to 60 days to get the money
back from an insurance company.
It was brought out that previously,
patients often complained of receiving
bills for some added hospital charge
months after they thought their
accounts had been settled.
This won’t happen in the future, Mr.
Baker explained, because from now on,
no additional charges will be added to a
bill after the fourth day of discharge.
Charges are put on a patient’s state
ment daily and if one should slip by, the
hospital will not charge the patient if it
has not been added by the fourth day.
Termed by Baker as “one of the
community’s biggest businesses”, the
hospital “poured out $576,800” into the
community during October, he said.
It took in $609,140.
Hospital chaplains are expanding
•Ms
Turkeys
Many Georgians will feast on Pike
County-raised turkeys this
Thanksgiving. One of the largest
operations in the county is the McCrary
Turkey Fann at Molena. See picture
layout, page 8.
DAILY NEWS
Daily Since 1872
their services.
From now on a minister will be
available in the hospital at all times.
They will be assigned to floors to assist
the ill and their families. Office space is
being made available to them for
counseling and other duties, according
to Administrator Carl Ridley.
A committee will be formed to recruit
more physicians to practice in Griffin.
It will be composed of both doctors
and members of the hospital board.
Among the duties will be inviting
prospective doctors to look over the
hospital and community.
Dr. Kenneth Reynolds, president of
the medical staff, will appoint three
doctors to serve.
Approval was made to spend some
$20,000 on repairing elevators in the old
section, replacing air conditioning fan
coils in the operating rooms, and to
purchase a new feed pump for the
boiler.
New x-ray equipment will be pur-
Swine Flu
WASHINGTON (UPI) - The head of
President Ford’s swine flu im
munization program says that, because
of vaccine shortages, he “probably”
would recommend that some children
be given adult type shots in the event of
a flu outbreak.
Dr. Delano Merriwether, chief of the
program, Monday said, “If indeed
there was evidence of an outbreak due
to the swine flu virus we would have to
reexamine the alternatives we have.”
The U.S. Public Health Service
Monday announced that only one in
every 10 American children may get
the shots because of a vaccine shortage.
There would be enough vaccine,
however, to immunize chronically ill
children between 3 and 18 year of age,
the health service said.
Merriwether was asked if he would
recommend giving adult type single
stage vaccine to children if a swine flu
case was verified. “That is probably
so,” he said.
Assistant Health, Education and
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Tuesday Afternoon, November 16,1976
Some children may
get adult-type shots
GRIFFIN
Busy
By MAY WINGFIELD MELTON
The only way to handle widowhood is
to stay busy says Ruby Hill, tax com
missioner, who lost her husband Al less
than two years ago.
Ruby says that you feel “like you are
half a person for a long, long time” but
that you need to “make yourself get
involved.” Observing that nights are
the most difficult times she says she
often gets up in the middle of the night
and “gets out the mop bucket or
dustcloth” to stay busy. But there are
still times she “feels so alone.”
Al was secretary to the board of tax
assessors and so he and Ruby “went to
work together and came home
together” from the courthouse.
Learning to accept your new position is
the first step says Ruby, then adjusting.
She and Al were married for 11 years.
As one of the first women in Spalding
County to seek public office in 1956,
Ruby campaigned during the daytime
and then worked until 11 or 12 o’clock at
night to catch up with her work. She
Also in this story:
1— Chaplains expanding their ser
vices.
2 — Doctors name committee to
recruit physicians to settle in Griffin.
3 — Repair work approved.
4 — Ambulance services commend
ed.
chased within the next few weeks. Two
bids already have been received and a
third is expected, Mr. Ridley reported.
He said that personnel is looking at
equipment in other hospitals before
making a final decision.
The ambulance service received a
commendation from Dr. Charles B.
Mosher, medical director of the
Georgia Department of Human
Resources, for its fine performance.
Members were invited to attend the
Georgia Hospital Association meeting
in Atlanta, Dec. 2-4.
Welfare Secretary Theodore Cooper
said Monday that only eight million
doses of the split-virus vaccine suitable
for children will be available before
February.
Since two inoculations would be
necessary for each youngster, only four
million of America’s 40 million children
between ages 3 and 18 could be im
munized.
People
...and things
Optimistic deer hunters at pre-dawn
breakfast before starting their hunt
comparing notes on how to cook
venison.
People who took flu shots still telling
each other how they felt afterward.
Man who grew up in Griffin returning
after 11 years absence and finding
things and people so very different.
Ruby Hill looks fragile
but does a man-size job
says she remembers stopping one man
who was plowing in a field to ask for his
vote. He replied, “I like you Ruby, but
I’m not going to vote for no woman."
But she won her election in a field of six
or seven men.
She had been working at the cour
thouse for her great uncle, Grover C.
Padgett who died before he could take
office after being elected tax com
missioner. Prior to this time Mr.
Padgett had been tax collector and
Harry Johnson was tax receiver. After
Mr. Johnson died his daughter Mary
Beeks Lindsey served out his unexpired
term and did not seek election. The
offices of tax collector and tax receiver
were combined then into tax com
missioner.
Ruby’s job had been working half the
year for Mr. Padgett and half the year
for Mr. Johnson, but she says the
courthouse officials at that time worked
so closely together that she often an
swered the telephone in the ordinary’s
The Country Parson
by Frank Clark
IB!
“Lavish gifts may not win
friends — smiles will.”
Little chance
to avert
oil increase
VIENNA, Austria (UPI) — U.S.
efforts to avert an increase in the world
oil price have little chance of success,
according to sources close to the
world’s major oil producers.
The sources said economic experts of
the Organization of Petroleum Ex
porting Countries will recommend an
oil price increase to OPEC’s ministerial
meeting Dec. 15 at Qatar.
OPEC’s Economic Commission
convened Monday for a one-week
conference to prepare a report for the
oil ministers.
“They can only make recom
mendations,” an OPEC source said.
“The decisions will be taken by the
ministers.”
There was little doubt among oil
experts that the Economic Commission
of the 13-member organization will
recommend an increase in the oil price
that has remained frozen in the last two
ministerial meetings.
“The price of oil must be maintained
by linking it to the price of manufac
tured goods,” one source said.
OPEC hardliners, led by Iran, said
the price of goods they import from the
West has risen 35 per cent during the
past three years.
In Washington, U.S. officials said last
week the United States is using world
opinion and an appeal to the oil
producers’ own financial interests to
try to avert a world oil price increase.
The U.S. efforts, the sources said,
have little chance of success.
Vol. 104 No. 273
office or typed letters for the registrars.
Bom in Line Creek district, Ruby was
the only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fred
Cobb. Her father died when Ruby was
13 years old and her mother, now Mrs.
Lamar Walker, lives with her on
Skyline Drive.
Working at the courthouse even
before she finished high school and took
a business course, Ruby later married
Sam Barfield and moved away from
Griffin. Returning to Griffin with Sam
she worked five years at the Georgia
Experiment Station in the bookkeeping
department then went back to the
courthouse where she has been ever
since. Her marriage of 18 years to Sam
Barfield ended in divorce.
When Ruby met Al she says he was a
“confirmed bachelor” and they were
always arguing about tax assessments.
After Al had been courting her for about
a year they had a “little spat” and he
came in bringing a dozen red roses and
a pair of boxing gloves. He said, “Let’s
Ex-officer kills bandit
ALBANY, Ga. (UPI) — A former city
police officer, who resigned from the
force two months ago because he was
“tired of being shot at,” was seriously
injured in a shoot-out at a convenience
store Monday, police said.
Ex-officer Victor Evans, now a store
manager, killed one bandit and
wounded another in an attempted
robbery, officials said.
Evans was shot in the throat and was
in a hospital’s intensive care unit.
Police said a pistol fight broke out
between Evans and the two bandits who
Jk \ U « 0f 7, »
II wk II <
A \\ ’» I A .
X ißL’f ’ I’
K IB life
jS, | k
>,■ ", *
Thanksgiving
“Thanks for Thanksgiving” is the title of a play to be presented by the Crescent
second graders. Michele Smith (in chair) and her classmates are shown at rehearsal.
See picture story, page 3.
Weather
ESTIMATED HIGH TODAY 49, low
today 35, high yesterday 46, low
yesterday 35, high tomorrow in upper
50s, low tonight in upper 30s.
FORECAST: Variable cloudiness
tonight. Mostly cloudy tomorrow with a
chance of rain.
EXTENDED FORECAST: Fair with
mild days and chilly nights Thursday
through Saturday.
throw away the boxing gloves and get
married”. They did marry but Ruby
still keeps the boxing gloves “for
sentimental reasons.”
Weekends usually find Ruby working
in the yard or mowing. She not only
tends her own yard but also her
mother’s down the street and which is
now up for sale.
Most Spalding County citizens will
make a check out sometimes this year
to Ruby Hill as tax commissioner or car
tag agent. She says that even though
her job is administrative and she is on a
straight salary, people still complain to
her office about the taxes they must pay
because there is nowhere else for them
to turn. She says part of her job is “to
listen.”
A slim, 110 pound brunette, Ruby
looks fragile for her “man sized” job,
but she continues to amaze her court
house “cronies” with the amount of
work she puts out. She has no trouble
staying busy.
tried to rob the store. Authorities were
not sure if there were other robbers
involved.
Officials have refused to release the
identity of the wounded and dead
robbers.
Evans resigned from the force
following a shoot-out at another store
two months ago. He apparently sur
prised robbers and was shot at with a
shotgun.
He was not seriously injured then, but
co-workers said Evans decided to leave
police work then because he told them
he was “tired of being shot at.”
,1