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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*
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Bk ; ; 1 —
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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.
