Newspaper Page Text
Stacks of red tape hide
gold in federal grants
EDITOR’S NOTE: As a member of
the Associated Press, the Griffin Daily
News contributed substantially to the
series on red tape. When the AP series
is finished, we’ll run one of our own on
the local situation, based on our fin
dings.
By DICK PETTYS
Associated Press Writer
ATLANTA (AP) - There’s gold in
the dozens of federal office buildings in
Washington, De., for state and local
officials who have the time, the
patience and — sometimes — the
money to seek it.
But this gold — in the form of federal
grants — is hidden under a rat’s nest of
red tape and often tangled in strings,
and some political leaders in Georgia
wonder if it’s worth the effort to go after
it.
“Federal regulations are getting to
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Herman Anderson, right, of Williamsport, Tenn., and daughter-in-law Mrs.
Nancy Anderson, sit in a Columbia funeral home Monday, as they recount how
they heard that six members of their family died Sunday in the Maury County
Jail fire in Columbia, Tenn. Herman Anderson lost his wife, two sons, a
daughter, and two sons-in-law. Nancy Anderson was married to Marvin
Anderson, one of the sons who died. (AP)
Sprinklers, smoke alarms
were not required at jail
By CARL MANNING
Associated Press Writer
NASHVILLE (AP) - The Maury
County Jail, scene of the cyanide-laden
fire that killed 42 persons, lacked a
sprinkler system and had no smoke
alarms. The state fire and jail codes
didn’t require them.
An automatic locking system that
could have opened all cells at once was
not required. Instead, seven keys were
needed to free 56 prisoners trapped in
side their cells Sunday afternoon as the
toxic fumes traveled through the jail’s
air ducts.
Thirty-four of those inmates and
eight visitors died.
The 13-year-old jail underwent a
routine inspection only last Friday and
met all necessary state standards,
People
...and things
Four high school age girls sitting
under street light on South Hill swatting
lightning bugs and enjoying girl talk on
a warm summer night.
Man holding grandson’s model air
plane in front of fan and watching the
propellers whirl.
Regular Hill and Solomon park bench
occupant confiding that the fish are not
biting there too well these days.
the point where anybody’s crazy to run
for elected office, crazy to be city man
ager and crazy to head the water and
sewerage department,” says Roy
Inman, the city manager of Griffin, Ga.
Inman says the time that he and other
city officials spend on federal red tape
would equal two full-time employes’
time. But no one extra has been hired to
handle the task.
And Inman can speak with authority
about federal strings, too.
Griffin is one of several Georgia
cities which obtained federal grants to
expand and improve sewerage
facilities. Now they are finding that
federal regulations will require them to
raise their sewer rates.
Tifton, the other city in that situation,
has just passed on an average increase
of 80 per cent in sewer charges to its
residents.
There are so many federal grant
GRIFFIN
Daily Since 1872
including the proper number of fire ex
tinguishers, state Correction Depart
ment officials said.
“This is really one of the better jails
in the state,” Thomas Woodson,
director of the state jail inspection
division, said Monday. The current jail
inspection report ranks the facility 18th
in a field of 102, he said.
Woodson said his agency does not
require a sprinkler system for county
jails. One reason, he said, is that “you
could have the problem of prisoners
constantly setting off the sprinkler
system.”
• “All jails are potential firetraps due
to the fact that you’re keeping people
under lock and key. This could happen
in any given facility,” Woodson said.
Georgia lawyers not likely
ATLANTA (AP) - Georgia lawyers
are not likely to take advantage of a
U.S. Supreme Court ruling that would
let them advertise for routine services,
the president of the State Bar of
Georgia said Monday.
Before the ruling becomes effective
in Georgia, the state bar’s rules will
have to be revised and the revisions will
have to be approved by the state
Supreme Court, Wilton Harrington said
in a telephone interview.
Lawyers in Georgia currently are
permitted to list their names in the
Yellow Pages of the telephone direc
tory.
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Tuesday Afternoon, June 28, 1977
programs that it takes a catalogue to
list them. It’s often described as a
“shopping list.” The real title is
“Federal Domestic Assistance Cata
logue.”
Local and state governments can use
that document to pick and choose from
among 600 or so grant programs.
Federal grants in Georgia to the state
and local governments during fiscal
1975 were worth about $1 billion, ac
counting for about 25 per cent of the
total spent by governments in Georgia
that year, according to the Tax
Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit research
group in Nqw York.
The state government received $888.6
million in federal funds that year for
such things as the medicaid program of
health care to the poor; some special,
federally-funded education programs;
(Continued on page 2)
Nixon not entitled to tapes
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme
Court ruled today that former
President Richard M. Nixon is not
entitled to control the White House
tapes and 42 million pages of
documents left behind when he
resigned from office.
The justices, voting 7-2, decided that
Congress acted within its authority
when in 1974 it passed the Presidential
Recordings and Materials Preservation
Act, seizing all of the documents and
tapes generated by Nixon’s presidency.
The act calls for regulations to be
drawn up by the General Services
Administration to allow the public
access to the papers and tapes.
The court rejected all arguments by
Nixon’s attorneys that the law was
unconstitutional.
The decision is a victory for the
government, which has fought for the
last three years to hold on to the nearly
5,000 hours of tape recordings and the
millions of pages of donuments.
Specifically, the court’s majority
ruled that the law passed by Congress
to prevent Nixon from taking the tapes
and documents with him to San Cle
mente after his resignation on Aug. 9,
1974 did not violate the doctrine of
separation of powers between the
branches of government, did not violate
Nixon’s privilege of confidentiality or
his right to privacy.
Farmers to hire rainmaker
DAWSON, Ga. (AP) — A group of
south Georgia farmers is trying to
scrape together $75,000 to hire a
rainmaker.
“It’s about the only thing we have to
turn to at this point in time,” said
Bobby Locke, spokesman for about 30
farmers who gathered recently to
consider a solution to the state’s
drought.
No contract has been signed and a
deadline of June 29 has been set for
gathering the money, said Bill
Whitaker, chairman of a committee set
up by the group to pursue the matter.
He said the counties of Terrell,
Webster, Randolph, Lee, Calhoun,
But Georgia lawyers may not ad
vertise much, even after the rules are
changed, said Harrington, 51.
“I base that on what has happened in
Maine,” he said. “In Maine, they
removed all prohibitions and allowed
attorneys to advertise, and only 13
chose to do so.”
Harrington, an Eastman attorney
who took over as president of the state
bar June 3, said the organization op
poses fee advertising.
“The problem is that advertising
misleads the public as to the abilities of
the attorney,” he said.
But Marietta attorney G. Robert
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Roy Inman, Griffin city manager
The court also said the law was not a
“bill of attainder” — an individualized
penalty imposed by a legislature rather
than a court.
Justice William J. Brennan wrote the
court’s majority opinion, joined by
Justices Potter Stewart, Thurgood
Marshall and John Paul Stevens.
Justices Byron R. White, Lewis F.
Powell and Harry A. Blackmun joined
most parts of the decision.
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and
Justice William H. Rehnquist dissen
ted.
Among the almost 900 reels of tape
covered by the court’s decision are the
now-famous 30 tapes which helped
force Nixon from office in disgrace in
the wake of the Watergate scandals.
The 30 tapes were used at the
Watergate cover-up trial of Nixon’s
closest aides.
Nixon estimates that of the 42 million
pages of documents held by the
government — at the White House and
the National Records Center in Suit
land, Md. — he personally wrote or
reviewed some 200,000 pages.
The tapes now will remain with the
government until archivists sift
through them to determine which can
be released to the public and which may
be returned to Nixon. The tapes include
conversations in the White House'Oval
Office, the Cabinet Room, the Lincoln
Dougherty and Sumter and parts of
Stewart, Quitman, Clay, Baker and
Schley counties would be included in
the program.
The banks of Dalton and Terrell, both
in Dalton, have been designated
trustees for the fund, he said.
Locke said meteorologist Dr. Keith
Brown, representing a California firm,
and Dr. Bill Woodley, director of the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Project in Coral Gables, Fla., explained
the process of cloud seeding to the
farmers.
The group hopes to have seeding
under way in two or three weeks.
to advertise
Howard said misleading advertising is
not the main problem with the high
court’s decision, issued Monday.
“I think the public can usually take
care of itself,” he said.
However, Howard said, “advertising
may mean an increase in litigation, and
that’s one burden our court system just
doesn’t need.
“Our courts are a year and half
behind right now, and I can’t see this
helping any.”
Under the Supreme Court dictum,
lawyers could advertise fees for ser
vices such as writing wills or handling
uncontested divorces.
Vol. 105 No. 152
Sitting Room and Nixon’s offices at the
Executive Office Building and Camp
David in Maryland.
Congress passed the 1974 law after
determining that Nixon was not a
reliable custodian for the documents
and tapes.
Brennan alluded to the passions of
1974 in his opinion.
“We, of course, are not blind to
(Nixon’s) plea that we recognize the
social and political realities of 1974,”
the court’s decision said. “It was a
period of political turbulence unprece
dented in our history.
“But this court is not free to in
validate acts of Congress based upon
inferences that we may be asked to
draw from our personalized reading of
the contemporary scene or recent his
tory,” Brennan said in the 56-page
decision.
Before leaving Washington, Nixon
reached an agreement with the General
Services Administration that he would
retain title to all his presidential
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Bridge to the past
UPSON COUNTY, Ga. — About a mile from U. S. 19, where contemporary cars
are busily going to and fro stands a bit of history, which crosses Anchumpkee
Creek. The covered bridge was originally built in 1898 and restored this year.
Some tourist to President Carter’s hometown of Plains, Ga. include the bridge
in their tour of the area. (AP)
Weather
FORECAST FOR GRIFFIN AREA —
Hot and humid through Wednesday
with low tonight in the 60s and high
Wednesday near 90.
LOCAL WEATHER - Low this
morning at the Spalding Forestry Unit
70, high Monday 94.
materials. The former president
agreed to donate a substantial portion
of those materials to the government
after he had decided which documents
and tapes to withhold.
At the urging of the Watergate
Special Prosecutor’s office, which
feared that the agreement would cut off
access to potentially useful material for
future criminal trials, the Ford ad
ministration refused to implement the
agreement.
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“To be a good boss one also
must be a servant.”