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About Griffin daily news. (Griffin, Ga.) 1924-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 26, 1977)
School bus fleet / all ready to roll Fifty-three bright yellow school buses are receiving final checks this week at the school bus garage near Spalding Junior High and will be ready to roll Monday morning for the first day of the 1977-78 school term. * Each of the buses, including six new ones, received the final checks. The six new buses will be replacing « six older ones which have been taken out of service. New buses are pur chased regularly to replace the older ones according to the number of years of service and the condition of the bus. No unsafe buses are allowed to leave the bus shop. All buses are inspected by f- the mechanics at the garage and by the Georgia State Patrol. The patrol’s standards for school buses are rigid and . each of the Griffin-Spalding buses passed. This year there will be four new drivers. They will be replacing 2 drivers who retired and 2 drivers who chose not to drive for another year. Twelve of the drivers are women and • two of the drivers are husband and wife. Each of the drivers goes through a Lance switched stock as collateral in loan WASHINGTON (AP) - Bert Lance pledged stock dividends as part of the collateral for a $2,625,000 loan from a New York bank, then broke the agreement by putting up the same stock dividends as collateral for a loan from another bank. A spokesman for Lance, now director of the Office of Management and Budget, acknowledged that Lance violated the terms of a clause in the loan agreement he signed June 30,1975, with Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co. But the spokesman repeatedly em phasized that the bank was not con cerned enough to call in the loan. The transactions are disclosed in bank records of Lance’s personal loans, made public by federal banking in vestigators. Government officials in terviewed Thursday said they saw no violation of federal law. But Robert A. Baer Jr., special assistant to the U.S. comptroller of the currency, said, “Lance may have violated a contract he had with Manufacturers Hanover.” And an offi cial with a legal background at the Federal Reserve, which regulates the banks involved, called Lance’s action an apparent breach of contract. “It’s very clear that both banks People ...and things One line sermon on message board at First Presbyterian Church: “When all is said and done, more is said than done.” One hunter already asking another, “Have you got a place to shoot doves this year?” Youngster rambling through school supplies at display counter, checking his money, then deciding to buy 2x3 inch assignment book. Complete school bus schedules on page 11 today. GRIFFIN Daily Since 1872 continuous training program, no matter how many years he or she has been driving. Herman Nelson is in charge of overall transportation and maintenance and Gene Kierbow is in charge of routes and drivers. Each bus in the fleet is taken to the bus garage for a monthly check by the mechanics. Minor problems are corrected during the monthly checks before they become major, Nelson and Kierbow said. All of the buses, except for 2 mini buses, are 66 passenger buses and will transport more than 60 per cent, or about 6,000 students, of the student population. The cost for transporting a child to and from school during the school year is approximately |4O, based on the average daily attendance of the total school population. The Griffin-Spalding County system has an efficient operation, Nelson said. Insurance premiums for the Griffin- Spalding bus fleet have decreased. This is an indicator of the safety record for expected the stock,” a House in vestigator said. “Bert Lance clearly gave the impression to both banks that they would get the shares.” Lance’s spokesman, Robert W. Dietsch, was asked: You don’t dispute that up until the end of the documentary record of the loan, Manufacturers thought they were going to get the stock dividends* they didn’t get them and the language that Lance signed indicated that he would in fact send them any such dividends? “That’s all true,” Dietsch replied. “It’s all there and it’s all in the written record. It’s also true that the loan was not called. It’s also, I think, true that there were additional discussions about what was adequate collateral on the • terms of the loan. “And I think, too, that the written documents have to be taken in the context of all the circumstances that took place between the time the loan was put on and the time the loan was paid off.” Asked if the written document ever was revised, Dietsch replied, “Obviously not. At least not what we have in this file. I have no reason to believe there is anything else in writ ing. I don’t know.” Dietsch was asked: You’re not denying that the loan agreement language was in fact broken? Your point is that the bank wasn’t enough concerned about that to call the loan? He replied, “That’s correct. The language in the note form is there.” Three Manufacturers documents, two of them letters to Lance, show that from June 2,1976, through Nov. 5,1976, the bank sought the stock dividends from Lance. James Hambelton, a Manufacturers vice president, said Thursday in a telephone interview that his bank wanted the stock dividends but never got them before the loan was paid off in January 1977. Despite this, Hambelton said there was never any concern at Manufac turers that the loan was uncollectable. “The shares should have been there,” Griffin, Ga., 30223, Friday Afternoon, August 26, 1977 the buses and drivers. There have been no bus-related deaths of students or drivers in recent years. Mechanical problems are generally minor when it is necessary for drivers to call for spare buses. These generally involve dead batteries and flat tires. Some buses will be off the routes for several days and possibly weeks if major repairs are necessary. New buses generally give more problems than the old buses, Nelson said. He said the mechanics at the bus garage learn the characteristics of each bus in the fleet. Nelson said one of the greatest im provements in recent years for the men and women drivers has been the in troduction of power steering. This year, for the first time, all of the buses are equipped with power steering. Most of the buses also have automatic tran smissions. During the course of the year, students will board the buses more than 2,160,000 times and “that is a lot of safety and responsibility,” Kierbow said. he said."... But it wasn’t a critical item in the total picture.” However, he also indicated that Manufacturers never knew that seven days before its first letter to Lance seeking the stock dividends, Lance had pledged them as collateral in-May 1976, on a $150,000 loan from the Chemical Bank in New York City. Both Lance and his wife, Laßelle, signed the loan agreement with Manufacturers Hanover Trust. They got $2,625,000 with which to buy stock in the National Bank of Georgia, of which Lance was then president. As collateral, they pledged 148,118 shares of stock in the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) and 8,375 shares of stock in the Calhoun (Ga.) First National Bank, which Lance had for merly headed. The agreement they signed also pledged them to deliver any stock dividends on those shares to Manufacturers as additional collateral. The agreement said the signers would deliver the dividends “in the exact form received ... to be held by Bank as Collateral Security.” Such stock dividends were declared on Dec. 31, 1975, and Lance received 14,811 additional shares of NBG stock. According to Manufacturers’ Nov. 5, 1976, letter to Lance asking him for the dividends, NBG stock then had a book value of $17.72 per share. That meant the 14,811 shares had a total book value of $262,450.92. However, instead of turning them over to Manufacturers as his loan agreement stipulated, Lance sent them to Chemical Bank as collateral on a loan he requested less than a month after the stock dividend was issued. Lance requested the Chemical loan in a handwritten note to corporate banking vice president George C. Ross. “Dear George,” Lance wrote. .“Was good to visit on the phone. Sorry I missed seeing you Thursday. I need to borrow $265,000 ...” Chemical loaned him $150,000. • K fD* V ■■ ■ tfUiF" iiin Ar "• I Bk ; ; 1 — . J IGSMCr- I Van Goss gets Griffin-Spalding buses ready to roll Monday morning. The Country Parson In I rank < lark Abb “A busybody is one who tells others how he’d do anything — if he was doing anything.” Post Office takes another look at idea of dropping Saturday WASHINGTON (AP) - The Postal Service, which seemed ready to end Saturday mail deliveries a few months ago, is taking another look at whether the public would accept the cutback. Postmaster General Benjamin F. Bailar said Thursday that before any decision is made to reduce service, “We intend to do a comprehensive study of what the public wishes.” The Postal Service still is considering the cutback, but will delay its decision until a new public opinion survey is completed, Bailar said. Last spring, the Commission on Postal Service recommended that Saturday service be eliminated, saving the financially troubled Postal Service an estimated S4OO million a year. Bailar praised the study group at the time and said the service was con sidering the move. Then, in late June, the agency put the proposal on its agenda for a July meeting of the Postal Service’s governing board. But when the meeting was held, the item was passed over. Bailar’s speech to a convention of the National League of Postmasters in San Juan, Puerto Rico, was the first public explanation of the delay. A survey conducted by the A.C. Vol. 105 No. 202 Patrol checking on highway litter ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia State Patrol has launched a crackdown on highway litterers, saying it is doing away with warnings and will arrest violators. Porter Weaver, deputy commissioner of public safety, said the new policy of arresting litterers was ordered at a patrol meeting Wednesday. “We’ve issued warnings down through the years and that has ac complished absolutely nothing,’’ Weaver said. “But the warning days are over. We have issued orders to arrest anyone seen tossing any form of litter on the highways,” he said. Nielsen polling organization for the study commission found 79 per cent of the public would be willing to forego the sixth delivery day if it would help hold down postal rates. But now the Postal Service is having second thoughts about that study. “The results of subsequent surveys... have differed enough with the Nielsen figures to make us want to more thor oughly analyze the public’s acceptance of this move,” Bailar said Thursday. A spokesman, explaining the “sub sequent surveys,” said results from a new poll commissioned by the Postal Service are confusing. That survey found 81 per cent of the public “couldn’t think of any reason they would have to receive mail on Saturday,” the spokesman said. “This would seem to confirm the Nielsen results,” he said. But, in answering a second survey question, only 45 per cent said they approved of eliminating Saturday deliveries, he added. Now, he said, “We are trying to find the discrepancy.” Before deliveries could be reduced, the Postal Service would have to submit its plan to the independent Postal Rate Commission, which would then hold public hearings on the issue. Weather FORECAST FOR GRIFFIN AREA - Partly cloudy, warm and humid through Saturday with chance of after noon and early evening showers. Low tonight near 70; high Saturday in the mid 80s. LOCAL WEATHER - Low this morning at the Spalding Forestry Unit 72, high Thursday 89, rainfall .39 of an inch. “It’s everywhere,” Weaver said. “All you have to do to see it is drive down any road in the state. People drive along with a soft drink or a beer and when they finish, they just toss the container out a window. “Some of these containers are glass, and shattered glass is a road hazard. But tin cans, used napkins and other debris along the road is an eyesore, and it’s got to be stopped,” he said. Littering is a misdemeanor in Georgia, but some judges prefer sen tencing violators to pick up trash along highways instead of paying a fine, Weaver said. Mail, calls heavy against Panama pact WASHINGTON (AP) - Let ters and telephone calls re ceived by the White House in connection with the Carter ad ministration’s Panama Canal agreement have been heavily against the accord, a White House spokesman says. White House Press Secretary Jody Powell said Thursday he could not provide figures gaug ing the strength of the opposi ton, but that the mail and calls were “heavily inclined against” the pact negotiated earlier this month. The United States and Pan ama will sign the two new treaties on Sept. 7. The pact must still be ratified by the U.S. Senate where conservatives have voiced strong opposition to it. Former California Gov. Ron ald Reagan on Thursday gave the opponents a lift, and the Carter administration another setback, by announcing his op position to the agreement. The administraton had hoped Rea gan might sway conservatives in favor of the two treaties.
