Bread and butter At factory for blind, it’s knives, forks and spoons
Knives, forks and spoons have
become the bread and butter business
for the Georgia Factory for the Blind in
Griffin.
The 70 employes there are working on
a half million dollar federal govern
ment contract, wrapping the flatware
in plastic packages.
Charles Merk, manager of the plant,
said the contract will run for a year
with the possibility of renewal.
The General Services Administration
supplies armed forces and government
agencies with the plastic dining ware.
The packages from Griffin go all over
the world.
The knives, forks and spoons are
made in another blind factory in
Louisiana and sent to Griffin for
packing.
Merk is running a day and night shift
now to meet the contract schedule.
He said he needs more blind workers
to fill jobs at the plant.
Removing the blind plant operations
from the state’s welfare organization
and putting it under vocational
rehabilitation has improved the
situation, Merk believes.
Blind factory operations no longer
are welfare operation, he said.
Griffin student killed,
/
sister injured in wreck
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Speaker Tip O’Neal congratulates President Ford on message. Story Page 22.
Sweepstakes no accident
By MARTIN MERZER
Associated Press Writer
’Twas the month after Christmas and
all through the nation, many bills were
piling up, as was aggravation. So
through the mails were sent many
sweepstake giveaways, to people in
need of cash soon after the holidays.
It’s no accident that for the past
several days, millions of Americans
have received invitations to win as
much as $125,000 for merely licking an
envelope, mailing it in — and reading
an advertising message.
At least four major companies chose
the month after Christmas to make
their pitches and sent out more than 80
million pieces of mail.
DAILY
Daily Since 1872
The blind plant opened here more
than 20 years ago primarily as a bolt
and nut salvage operation for
Lockheed.
Blind employes separated the bolts
and nuts from the assembly lines at the
Marietta plant, saving the company
thousands of dollars annually.
But the bolt and nut business from
Lockheed has dwindled so that three
employes can handle it, according to
Merk.
Besides the federal contract, the
factory in Griffin spends a few months
a year repacking light bulbs for the
Lions Clubs to sell in their sight
conservation programs, Merk said.
Merk became manager of the plant
about a year and a half ago. The work
force was down to about 20 or 30.
Now the plant is running two shifts
with 75 people and is looking for more
blind people to fill jobs.
Merk came to Griffin from the
JCPenney catalogue center. He trained
as an industrial engineer at Southern
Technical Institute. He is a native of
Warner Robins.
His wife, Marie, is employed with the
Department of Human Resources and
works in the health district which
includes Spalding County.
“Through these mailings over the
years, the best mailing period by far, as
far as response is concerned, is right
after Christmas,” said Maren DeGraff,
direct mail manager for Downes
Publishing Co., which publishes Ladies
Home Journal and American Home
magazines.
“My personal opinion is that people
have blown so much money, they say,
‘Well, it’s only a few more dollars (for a
subscription).’ Also, after Christmas,
people need money.”
“We’ve also found the response to
any type of mailing is always better in
January,” said Jim Lyles, a spokesman
for the Exxon Travel Club in Houston.
“I know I’ve received four sweepstakes
GRIFFIN
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Thursday Afternoon, January 13,1977
mailings in the past few days myself.”
Reader’s Digest is offering a $450,000
giveaway, backed by a national ad
vertising campaign that one source
estimated cost as much as the prizes.
More than 84,000 people will share the
$450,000. Prizes range from a top of
$50,000 to $5 each to 21,000 respondents.
Publishers Clearing House, a Port
Washington, N.Y., firm that sells cut
rate subscriptions to magazines, is
offering $125,000 cash in a $400,000
giveaway that will include 60,000
winners.
The top prize in the Exxon Travel
Club’s SIOO,OOO sweepstakes is a
vacation home, car and other prizes, or
$50,000 in cash.
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Workers at the Georgia Factory tor Blind In GrIIBn working on packing contract.
NEWS
Robert W. Branch 111, 20, a Griffin
student at Gordon Junior College in
Barnesville, was killed in a collision on
the Griffin By-pass this morning.
He and his sister, Barbara Ann
Branch, 19, were headed for classes in
their small foreign made car when the
accident happened.
She was admitted to the Griffin-
Spalding County Hospital for treatment
of injuries. She was believed in serious
condition.
They are the son and daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. Bob Branch, 1119 Skyline
drive, of Griffin. Mr. Branch is
manager of the Interstate Life
Insurance Company office in Griffin.
A state trooper and Lamar County
sheriff’s officials investigated the
wreck but were not available to give
details of what happened.
The Branch car and a pickup truck
reportedly collided.
People
••• and things
Man in shirtsleeves about noon
outdoors and enjoying warmed-up
weather.
Woman with invitation to the
inauguration pondering the age-old
female question, “What shall I wear?”
Child so bundled up against yester
day’s cold it had to waddle instead of
walk.
The Country Parson
by Frank Clark
■■
“Happiness comes from
being willing to do lots of things
which are neither enjoyable nor
profitable.”
Vol. 105 No. 10
Mayor calls session
to end board deadlock
Mayor Louis Goldstein today called a
meeting of the city commissioners for
Friday night in an effort to end the
deadlock on electing a chairman.
The meeting will be held at city hall
beginning at 7:30 p.m.
“In all fairriess to the citizens of
Griffin, I feel it’s imperative to resolve
the deadlock among the board of city
commissioners, and to select a
chairman to serve during the year of
1977,” Goldstein said.
“The law clearly states that the
chairman cannot-succeed himself, so
therefore I am not eligible. However,
the law requires that I continue as
chairman until my successor has been
Busbee warns House
on cash roads plan
ATLANTA (AP) — Gov. George
Busbee warned the legislature today
pay raises for teachers and state em
ployes may be in jeopardy if House
leaders insist on paying cash for a S3O
million road paving program.
In a budget message prepared for
delivery to a joint session of the
legislature, Busbee said the House plan
could only be accomplished by “cutting
some of the educational enrichment or
cutting cost-of-living increases, or
some other critical items that must be
funded.”
Busbee’s address came less than two
hours after the House began con
sidering the supplemental budget for
this year, which includes the road
resurfacing plan.
But in his remarks, the governor said
he has spoken with House Speaker Tom
Murphy and other House leaders, and
that they assured him his warnings
Tax bite bigger
WASHINGTON (AP) - If your
salary is just keeping up with inflation,
your spending power actually isn’t
keeping pace because federal taxes
take bigger and bigger bites of your
earnings.
That is the conclusion of a new
government study which notes that
income tends to rise to keep up with
inflation. But the bad news is that
taxpayers are moved to constantly
higher tax brackets while, at the same
time, the inflation erodes the real value
of tax exemptions, credits and standard
deductions.
The study said this problem may
continue to plague American taxpayers
through 1981 if there is no change in tax
Weather
ESTIMATED HIGH TODAY 50, low
today 29, high yesterday 32, low
yesterday 20, high tomorrow in upper
40s, low tonight in upper 30s.
FORECAST: Rain likely tonight.
Occasional rain Friday.
EXTENDED FORECAST: A chance
of precipitation Saturday and again on
Monday.
selected by the board of commiss
ioners. These are the conditions that I
now serve as chairman and I strongly
feel the best interest of the public will
be better served by the immediate
selection of a chairman to be in office
the entire year of 1977 — not to serve
from week to week,” Goldstein said.
He said he hoped a chairman would
be elected Friday night.
The commissioners made no effort to
elect a chairman Tuesday night at their
regular meeting. Commissioner Dick
Mullins was absent because he was ill.
Goldstein checked and believes all of
the commissioners will be at the Friday
night meeting.
would be carefully considered before
the supplemental budget has completed
its lengthly course through the leg
islature.
Busbee worked until midmorning on
the draft of his text and told reporters
he felt confident the issue would be re
solved.
Busbee proposed financing the
program to resurface about 4,000 miles
of city and county roads in next year’s
budget, which takes effect on July 1,
using bond money. It would cost the
state about $3 million a year for about
20 years to retire the bonds.
House leaders objected to the plan,
saying the roads would have to be
paved again long before the bonds had
been paid off.
They developed their plan to pay
cash, using $21.5 million in surplus the
governor had planned to leave at the
end of this fiscal year, June 30, and
some other funds.
law and if inflation grows at an annual
rate of 5 to 6 per cent between 1977-81 as
forecast by the Congressional Budget
Office and the executive branch.
The report by the Advisory
Commission on Intergovernmental
Relations recommends changes in
federal and state tax laws to soften this
impact. One solution set forth is to tie
the amounts allowed for personal
exemptions, the standard deduction
and some credits directly to each year’s
rise in the Consumer Price Index, the
inflation indicator.
As inflation rose, so would those tax
return items that lower a person’s
taxes.
