Newspaper Page Text
Nudists
Controversy over club
heats up in Henry
(Editor’s Note:) Cindy Glozier of
Henry County Newspapers, Inc. has
been writing stories about the
development of a nudist facility near
Locust Grove. She wrote the following
report for the Griffin Daily News on the
latest conflict between the developer
and people in Henry County attempting
to stop it.
BY CINDY GLOZIER
HENRY COUNTY NEWSPAPER
Residents and elected officials in
Henry County, are protesting the
construction of a proposed facility for
nudists which was announced this
month by Francis A. Gilmere,
president of the Nudist Corporation of
America.
The project, which is geared to cost
between $2.5 and $5 million, would
develop over 700 acres in the county’s
Locust Grove area into a “second
home" community for nudists,
according to Gilmere.
The development is designed to
include an outdoor Olympic swimming
pool, a 100 pad travel trailer park with
bath houses, 200 patio homes, 50
cottages and apartments, and a
shopping pavillion.
Gilmere presently operates the
Garden of Eden, a nudist village on the
site of the proposed project. He was
stopped by officials in the Atlanta area
in 1974 when he tried to establish a
■Junior Achievement
I Designs Unlimited take
I majority of J/A awards
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J. R. (Jett| Russell U) presents award to Linda Thacker
A high school student company which
roduced and marketed picture frames
s a Junior Achievement project should
e in a frame inself this morning.
The firm walked away with the
lajority of awards Friday night at the
utures Unlimited banquet at the
loose club.
It was the climax for students who
articipated in the first year of Junior
cheivement in Griffin.
The frame making company called
self Designs Unlimited. It was named
ompany of the Year and its president,
inda Thacker, was named Achiever of
ie Year and President of the Year.
Charles Barkley who was Vice
resident-Manufacturing for Designs
nlimited, was named Vice President
anufacturing of the Year.
Tamela Stahl of Handmaid was
l imed Vice President-Marketing of the
ear. Handmaid produced food serving
DAILY
Daily Since 1872
nudist community with Nudist
Corporation of America funds.
Henry officials claim they have not
issued the nudists a permit for
recreational use on the land and vow
they intend to stop operation of the
Garden of Eden and any other nudist
activities.
Henry County Zoning Administrator
Walker McGarity says the Nudist
Corporation of America has not
submitted plans for any type of project.
“Before any construction on the
property can take place, the Planning
Commission must approve specific
plans,” stated McGarity. “Gilmere and
his nudists have not taken steps for
approval and they are not supposed to
be running any type of nudist village in
Locust Grove. We’re going to do
everything we can to stop them,” he
added.
The county commission has received
more than 400 signatures on peitions to
stop nudist activities from civic and
church groups. The petitions state that
nudism is “a bad influence to the
county’s children and reputation.”
Gilmere appears unshaken by the
opposition to his proposed develop
ment. In a letter sent to local officials
and newspapers, he stated he legally
has the county “backed in a comer” on
the nudist issue.
“We’ve hired Atlanta engineering
Janet Thomas of CPG Enterprises
was named Vice President-Personnel
of the Year. Her company produced
clothing hangers.
Cindy Bevil of Designs Unlimited was
named Treasurer of the Year.
Mike McElheney of CPG Enterprises
was named Secretary of the Year.
Tamela Stahl of Handmaid won the
Outstanding Salesperson Award.
The best Annual Report Award went
to Designs Unlimited. Unlimited
Horizons which produced and marketed
jewerly boxes won the Most Improved
Company Award.
Kim Gillespie was given a surprise
award by members of her company,
Hang-It-Up-Hanger. The award was for
best representing the spirit of Junior
Achievement through her cooperation
and dedecation shown consistently
throughout the year’s activities.
Scholarships of SIOO each went to
Randall Coleman, Stuart Ogletree,
GRIFFIN
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Saturday Afternoon, May 21,1977
firms for the project and we’re
financed through mortagage
companies in Texas,” claimed
Gilmere. “We’re no jive operation.
Everything we’re doing is legal. Let the
county be the first to cast a stone if they
feel we’re doing anything wrong. The
Nudist Corporation of America will
drop a ton of bricks on them.”
Despite Gilmere’s confidence, his
financial records show everything isn’t
so rosy at the Garden of Eden. The
$194,000 property has accumulated
$19,067.09 in liens from seven different
contractors in the past year. The liens
are a result of equipment and labor
charges for development of the land.
Presently, the Garden of Eden
maintains a clubhouse with indoor pool
and sauna and a club room with
fireplace. Skeet and trap ranges are
located on the grounds of the facility.
Gilmere says there are
approximately 35 to 40 members with
an average attendance of 6 to 18
couples, mostly on weekends. Several
Henry County residents have visited
the facility and confirm the existence of
nudist activities.
County Attorney Edward McGarity
says the nudists can be stopped. “I
along with the board of commissioners,
am going to do everything possible to
enjoin this operation,” he stated.
Charles Releford, Tamela Stahl, Linda
Thacker and Janel Thomas..
Harris T. Remley, supervisor of civic
affairs for Seaboard Railroad
Company, was the speaker for the
evening. His topic was “What’s Right
With America.”
He emphasized the importance of the
free enterprise system which Junior
Achievement fosters through student
programs.
More than 225 people attended the
banquet.
Griffin High students who
participated in Junior Achievement
organized companies, designed and
manufactured a product, and put it on
the market. They handled the entire
projects from beginning to end.
The companies are dissolved at the
end of the year and new ones will be
formed again next year when Griffin
enters its second year in Junior
Achievement.
NEWS
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of EDEN
View from outside Henry County nudist club.
Sen. Kidd is acquitted
of taking SIO,OOO bribe
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia state
Sen. Culver Kidd, acquitted of charges
of accepting a SIO,OOO bribe, said Friday
he does not think the indictment and
two-week trial hurt his political career.
“With all the telegrams and phone
calls and personal visits I’ve gotten
from the people in Milledgeville, I think
it shows that they have faith in me and
appreciate the representation that I*ve
given them for some 20 or 25 years,”
Kidd said following his acquittal in
federal court Friday afternoon.
Kidd, the Senate majority whip, said
the case would not affect his
relationship with other legislators. “I
think the majority of the legislators
have felt they know that Culver Kidd is
a man above reproach and one of the
hardest working men in the Senate,” he
said.
“This (case) was motivated by the
news media, and by that I mean the
Drought
The end is in sight
Evidence that the drought, which has
set much of Georgia on edge, is ending
came with the first really effective
showers yesterday evening. Much of
the Griffin area received significant
amounts of rain.
Georgia crops may get just what the
commissioner ordered — the National
Weather Service has predicted a
possibility of steady rains for the next
five days.
State Agriculture Commissioner
Brock takes
issue with
energy plan
ATLANTA (AP) — Republican
National Committee Chairman Bill
Brock says President Carter’s
proposed energy program shows that
while Carter’s “heart is in the right
place, his hand is on the taxpayers’
pocketbooks.”
Brock, speaking Friday to the
Georgia Republican convention, said
the energy program “looks
suspiciously like a back door way of
raising enough taxes to pay for more
government programs and still balance
the budget.
“While his heart is in the right
place,” Brock said, “his hand is on the
taxpayers’ pocketbooks.”
Vol. 105 No. 120
Atlanta newspapers,” Kidd said. “I
think people want to hang their hats on
stars. They want to get the Pulitzer
prize no matter what they have to do.”
A federal court jury of eight women
and four men deliberated for 11 hours
before returning the verdict.
Kidd, 62, had been indicted on bribery
and conspiracy charges in connection
with an alleged SIO,OOO payment from
Hugh Lowe “Jimmy” Jordan of Centre,
Ala.
Jordan testified he gave Kidd the
money after Kidd promised him he
would get an illegal drug sale charge
against Jordan dropped.
Kidd testified he did agree to help
Jordan, but denied that he accepted
money.
Jordan eventually was convicted of
selling amphetamines and sentenced to
10 years in jail. He later filed suit
Tommy Irvin said Friday that, because
of recent dry weather, the events of the
next week will determine the future of
this year’s small grain, peach and
peanut crops. Without a good rain next
week, he said, the yield will be cut in
half.
A weather service spokesman said
the state is going back into a typical
rain pattern, where thundershower
activity is common in the afternoons.
He said scattered rain throughout the
state Friday was “spotty, but every
little bit helps. A week of this would
help substantially.”
Irvin said he has discussed the
possibility of seeking federal aid for
Georgia farmers with John C. White,
assistant U. S. agriculture com
missioner.
“If the situation gets more serious,
we certainly would qualify for federal
aid,” Irvin said.
The commissioner said although the
drought is occuring all over the
Southeast, Georgia farmers seem to be
suffering the most.
Gov. George Busbee is expected to
ask the federal government to declare
the state a farm disaster area if the
drought continues through next week.
Such a designation would qualify
farmers for low-interest loans to plant
another crop.
“Reports I’m getting from bankers
who’ve made loans are that they’ve
extended them as far as they can ex
tend them without production,” Irvin
said. “If conditions continue, some of
them will be out of business.”
Weather
FORECAST FOR GRIFFIN AREA -
Partly cloudy, hazy and warm with
chance of afternoon and evening
showers. Highs today and Sunday in the
mid 80s.
against Kidd, demanding his money
back.
That suit led to indictments against
Jordan, Kidd and Donald E. Gilbreth, a
Florence, Ala., man accused of acting
as a go-between in the bribery scheme.
Jordan pleaded guilty to the charge
and agreed to testify at Kidd’s trial.
Gilbreth was acquitted Friday along
with Kidd.
“I guess he (Jordan) just thought I
could have done a better job,” Kidd
said Friday.
Part of the evidence against Kidd was
a tape recording made secretly by one
of Jordan’s friends. Prosecutors con
tended the tape showed Kidd
acknowledging the bribe.
Soon after the verdict was returned,
Kidd joked that he would guard against
future clandestine tapings by requiring
all visitors to his office “to wear only a
G-string.” But later Kidd said he was
“very much disturbed” about the se
cret taping and added that he was
“very definitely considering” in
troducing legislation to tighten the
state’s anti-bugging laws.
The Country Parson
by Frank Clark
100
I. _ j
“A Congressman needs to do
just as much for those who
didn’t elect him as for those who
did.”
People
...and things
Young men sitting around table in
front of fast food restaurant and
commenting to each other about each
young lady who enters or leaves.
City worker watering grass and
shrubs in parkway on East Solomon
street in effort to beat the drought.
CB’er late for work after showing
tractor-trailer driver way to Griffin
industry.
