‘We want to stay alive’
ASSEN, The Netherlands (AP) -
Captive children chanted “We want to
stay alive!” today as South Moluccan
extremists holding more than 160
hostages again threatened to kill them
if the Dutch government did not meet
their demands. A deadline for death
passed without apparent incident,
however.
Two hours before the deadline at 2
p.m. local time (8 a.m. EDT), several
children were brought to the windows of
the village school in nearby Bo
vensmilde where they have been held
for two days. They cried out in unison,
Daily Since 1872
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Political bubble?
WASHINGTON — Rep. Walter Flowers, D-Ala., blows bubble gum and has It
burst on his face while playing in the second annual Congressional Marbles
Tournament Tuesday in Washington. (AP)
Federal rules likely
to hike utility rates
“Federal regulations are getting to
te point where anybody’s crazy to run
>r elected office, crazy to be city
tanager and crazy to head the water
nd sewerage department,"
Mnmented City Manager Roy Inman.
He made the statement during a
udget hearing following Tuesday
ight’s city commission meeting,
iman had just read penalties of
assible 1 and 2 year imprisonments
nd up to $50,000 per day fines for city
aders violating Environmental
protection Agency regulations
Lnceming pollution and waste water
leatment.
Harry Simmors, head of the water
nd sewerage department, met with the
Immissioners and told them the city
Ls to do something about changing its
pter and sewerage rate structure. The
Lange will mean “tremendous
creases" for both the home and
Immercial user, he said.
|L3 arrested in drug bust
■Griffin police, Spalding Sheriff’s
Bpartment drug investigators and
Borgia Bureau of Investigation agents
Booped down on 11 homes during the
Bht and arrested 13 people for
Kpected drug violations.
Bfost were charged with selling
Brijuana. Heroin and phencyclidine
Bo were involved. Some stolen
Bperty was found in the searches,
Bmen said.
Bhe raids started around 9 o’clock
Besday night and ended at
Broximately 4 o’clock this morning.
GRIFFIN
“We want to stay alive, Van Agt.”
Andries van Agt is the Dutch justice
minister and the top government
strategist in dealing with the gunmen.
Six gunmen were holding 105 children
and six teachers in the school. Seven
other terrorists, one believed to be a
woman, were holding at least 55 hos
tages on a hijacked train stopped in the
middle of open pastureland 10 miles
north of here.
Earlier today the Asian militants
spoke with senior Dutch officials by
telephone for an hour, rejected a
government appeal for release of the
“You’ve got to do something. Since
the federal government has gotten in,
you’re going to have costs you never
dreamed of. The city is faced with
higher rates that I wouldn’t want to
predict,” he said.
The federal act requires that cities
meet certain water quality standards
and EPA has told Griffin that instead of
charging a flat rate for sewerage, users
must be charged by the number of
gallons put into the waste treatment
systems. Everybody’s waste will be
measured and the rates must produce
money to finance the costs of
maintaining and operating the
sewerage facilities, he said. Sewerage
costs more than water, he added.
More money will be needed to correct
sewerage treatment plants at Cabin
Creek and Shoal Creek which are not up
to standard. Also, present lines will
have to be repaired.
The Potato Creek plant which was
One arrest was made at 8:15 this
morning and more arrests are
expected, when the suspects can be
located, police said.
According to Lt. Glen Whidby, who
heads the police department’s
narcotics division, his department had
asked that GBI undercover narcotics
agents be sent to Griffin. An
undisclosed number arrived in April
and have been working in Griffin and
Spalding County buying illegal drugs in
(Continued on page three.)
Captive children chant
children and repeated their threat to
shoot hostages.
The gunmen, members of an im
migrant community from the former
Dutch colony of the South Moluccan
Islands, now part of Indonesia, were
demanding release of 21 jailed coun
trymen and a jumbo jet flight, with
hostages, from Amsterdam to an un
disclosed destination.
Some South Moluccans are serving
terms in Dutch jails for using political
violence in the past in fruitless at
tempts to force the Dutch government
to help them win independence from
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Wednesday Afternoon, May 25, 1977
More rain was in the forecast for the
Griffin area tonight and Thursday after
.88 of an inch was recorded here
Tuesday.
Spalding County with other sections
of the state has been suffering from the
lack of rain in recent weeks.
Gardens have stopped growing and
farmers were beginning to hurt
because of the unusually dry weather.
The forecast for more rain was
encouraging to most fanners and
citizens in the area. More rain,
however, will be needed to bail out the
area and state from one of its worse
droughts in recent years.
The Associated Press reported:
Despite the rains of Tuesday and
more predicted for today, Georgia
remains dryer than usual, and farmers
need more rain to bring the state’s
estimated to cost $1.7-million ended up
costing $2.4-million or some SBOO,OOO
more. Inman blamed the increase to
federal regulations, including
standards set by the Occupational
Health and Safety Act (OSHA), which
assures safe working conditions, and
the Davis-Bacon Act, which sets pay
scales cities must follow for
construction jobs.
He also said federal officials told the
city to build polishing ponds at the
Potato Creek plant. After they were
excavated, the city was told they were
inadequate and filters would have to be
added, Inman continued.
Also regulations state that users
outside the city cannot be charged more
than those inside the city, as is
presently done, Simmons said.
The city must follow the 201 facilities
plan and upgrade and build facilities
(Continued on page three.)
Area gets good soaking
People
...and things
Sign on church playground: Angels
playing — drive with care.
Co-worker to fellow employe just
back from Panama City vacation:
“What’d you catch?” Quick answer,
“Lotta sleep.”
Burly truck driver pulling rig up
along side another vehicle at traffic
light, glancing at young girl driving,
then watching as she drags off in flash,
leaving him almost sitting still.
Indonesia for their homeland.
“If you dare not to meet our demands
... we will not hesitate or bluff to shoot
down a number of hostages for your
pleasure,” the terrorists said in a letter
to Dutch authorities that was released
Tuesday.
The government refused to discuss
any deals unless the schoolchildren
were released first.
But, said Justice Ministry
spokeswoman Toos Faber, “The
terrorists see the children as their ace
in the hole, their safeguard.” She
described the negotiations, conducted
crops back to normal, officials report.
“There is quite a bit of moisture
being brought into the state from the
Atlantic” because of a low pressure
system sprawled across Florida and
Georgia, said George Rippen of the
National Weather Service in Atlanta.
The dry weather of the past two
weeks, which had halted the planting of
some crops last week, has virtually
ended, he said.
Rippen said Georgia will receive
more rain within the next 24 hours, but
the state still is drier than normal.
“Seven and three-quarters inches of
rain will put us back to normal,” he
said. “I don’t think we want all of that
at one time, because that would cause
some problems. But a good inch or two
of rain right now will help farmers and
lawns and things like that.”
The Country Parson
by Frank Clark
4iHp
JS J
“Experience teaches you how
to do a thing after you no longer
need to know.”
Griffin merchants open
Memorial Day promotions
Almost 60 businesses will participate
in the Memorial Day promotion May 26-
30.
Members of the Merchants Associa
tion have been planning the special
event for several weeks. Merchants will
feature all sorts of holiday type sales as
an invitation to people in this area to
shop Griffin stores for bargains.
Participating in the special
promotion will be the following:
Rhodes Furniture Co., Kinney Shoes,
Byron’s California Concept, Cedric’s
Fish & Chips, Eleanor Shops, Randall &
Blakely, Inc., Mayfield Motors,
Sutton’s, Toyota of Griffin, Southern
States Printing Co.
The Bonnie Shop, The Diana Shop,
Griffin Office Supply, Beaty Auto
Parts, Inc., Easterwood’s Shoes,
by telephone, as courteous and “busi
nesslike.”
The tension eased noticeably in
Bovensmilde as the deadline passed
with no sign of violence in the school
building. Police who had been jumpy
earlier simply sat down in the shade
with their carbines and made no effort
to stop reporters or other passers-by.
The gunmen, who seized the school
and train in twin attacks Monday, also
threatened killings if mediation was at
tempted, if authorities did not meet the
deadline or if there were reprisals
against other South Moluccans living in
Vol. 105 No. 123
Light rain and isolated thun
dershowers were spread across central
and eastern Georgia Tuesday.
Farmers, meanwhile, faced other
problems as well.
Black shank is damaging the south
Georgia tobacco crop and growers
could suffer serious losses, said Jim
Arnett of the Georgia Extension Ser
vice.
The disease, which destroys tobacco
plants, is a soilborn fungus which first
strikes the root system, then moves up
the stem, turning it black.
Cotton farmers, however, are
planting more because of a rise in
cotton prices.
“Farmers are influenced most by
prices received in the preplanting
season, which is usually the first
quarter of the calendar year,” the
Bond issue
panel formed
Mrs. Donald K. Boggs has been
named chairman of a steering
committee which will push approval of
a school bond issue in November.
Mrs. John Carlisle was elected
treasurer-finance chairman.
Representatives of CARE, League of
Women Voters, N.A.A.C.P. and the
Utility Club attended the organizational
meeting.
The group’s goal is to work with the
Griffin-Spalding Board of Education in
informing people about the need for a
Crouch’s, Coates Foreign Car Service,
Griffin Sales & Service, Inc., The Plant
Emporium, Wynne’s Jewelers.
Cole’s Drugs, Jester’s Car Sales, The
Furniture Shop, Purser Furniture Co.,
Cronic Chevrolet, Inc., Kmart, Ralph’s
Take Home Kentucky Fried Chicken,
Carpets of Griffin, Whitmire Jewelers,
Safety director
gets married
Public Safety Director Leonard Pitts
was not at the city commission meeting
Tuesday night, as he usually is.
He was on his honeymoon.
He and Barbara Ann Pierce were
married in a private ceremony during
the weekend.
Weather
FORECAST FOR GRIFFIN AREA -
Variable cloudiness tonight and
Thursday with chance of showers.
LOCAL WEATHER - Low this
morning at the Spalding Forestry Unit
*l, high Tuesday 88, rainfall .88 of an
inch.
Holland.
A leader of the Moluccan community
in the Netherlands, Dr. Theo Kuhuwael,
a 63-yearold educator and civil servant,
began a voluntary mediation effort
Tuesday night. Officials said he had
“orientation” meetings with local
Moluccans but no immediate contact
with the gunmen.
As Dutch voters went to the polls for
national elections today, Prime
Minister Joop Den Uyl conferred with
Van Agt and other key ministers in The
Hague.
Federal Bank of Atlanta said. Prices in
that time were 60 per cent above the
1975 low.
Despite the recent drought, county
extension agents report the corn crop is
in mostly fair condition. Tobacco was
reported fair to good with irrigation in
use where equipment was available.
Cotton, peanuts and soybeans were
rated fair to good, although soybean
planting had been virtually halted.
Scattered harvesting of small grains
is underway, with hay reported in poor
to fair condition.
Peaches were reported mostly fair to
good with some reports of sizing
problems. Harvesting was 10 per cent
complete.
Apples and watermelons were
reported in mostly fair to good con
dition.
new high school and renovations at the
ninth grade and present Griffin High
campuses.
Mrs. Robert Langford, public
information chairman for the school
board, and Administrative Assistant
Gene Kirbow attended the session.
Mrs. Langford said tax money could
not be used in a campaign for the bond
issue.
The committee plans a fund raising
drive for money with which to promote
the bond issue.
Hensley Office Equipment Co., Inc.
Mobile Telephone & Pager, Inc.,
Jones-Harrison Furniture Co., Cain’s,
Sigman Buick-Opel, Inc., Akins Feed &
Seed Store, Maxwell’s Home
Furnishings, Hill’s Tire Store, Tonkin
Casuals, Jim Pridgen Hardware Co.,
Griffin Hardware Co.
Friedman’s Jewelers, Sears, Collins’
Men’s & Boy’s Wear, Bishop’s Clothing
Store, Smith Roberts Co., Morrow
Powell Clothing Co., Goode-Nichols
Furniture Co., Cartledge Furniture,
Buy-Rite, Godard’s Clothing Co.
Griffin Daily News, First Federal
Savings & Loan Assn., Griffin Federal
Savings It Loan Assn., wgri, whie,
wkeu, First National Bank of Griffin,
The Bank of Griffin, Commercial Bank
it Trust Co.
