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Ready for try
Stickers such as these were being put on parking meters
today in preparation for free parking beginning Thursday.
The experiment will run through Dec. 31. The Griffin City
Commissioners in a 3-2 vote Tuesday night put the or-
G-S Hospital reports
on corrective action
The Griffin-Spalding Hospital has
made 14 changes which affect the way a
person’s bills are handled. They were
made in an effort to improve service to
people and correct some of the
problems which have been brought to
light in recent weeks.
Some local citizens and public of
ficials have expressed concern about
some of the mix-ups in billings. They
have criticized the way billings and
collections have been handled and
called for corrective steps.
In a report to the Griffin Daily News
on the steps taken, Executive Director
William J. Feely said .. I try to instill
in our staff a more personable ap
proach. . .” to billing.
He said systems are needed to handle
the heavy volume of paperwork but
added that if the systems aggravate
patients or fail to do the job, they should
be changed.
He said the systems would be under
constant review.
Feely said new computer equipment
Carter’s welfare reform shows strengths, weaknesses
By JONATHAN WOLMAN
and
EVANS WITT
Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON (AP) - To hear the
President tell it, Carter-style welfare
reform is a many-splendored thing. It
will fight poverty, create jobs for poor
people, help keep families intact and
eventually cut the taxpayers’ cost of
public assistance.
Or will it?
A close look at the President’s
welfare package reveals important
strengths, along with serious
weaknesses that threaten its chances
for passage and success. Consider:
—The |30.7 billion price tag is based
GRIFFIN
Daily Since 1872
at the hospital should make the billings
work better. He said that now specific
employees are assigned to process a
limited amount of patient bills so that a
patient desiring information on their
bills or insurance will be referred to one
of these competent clerks who will
respond to the request and answer
questions.
Feely insisted that any person having
trouble understanding his bill should
call the hospital for personal attention.
Feely pointed out that some 2,000
people come through the Emergency
Room for help during an average 30 day
period. He said the mere volume alone
poses a problem in billing.
He also pointed out that the hospital
has accumulated more than 50,000 bills
over the previous years. In trying to
straighten them out, there are bound to
be problems, he indicated.
Feely listed the 14 administrative
changes made affecting billings were
as follows:
1— Admission hours have been in-
on a block of iffy assumptions and
questionable bookkeeping decisions.
The eventual cost of welfare reform
could be billions more than Carter’s
estimate.
—While the plan may be expensive,
the rewards could be considerable.
With jobs, cash and tax benefits, the
plan would guarantee an income above
the official poverty level for every
American family whose breadwinner is
willing to work and can find a job.
—The plan would require recipients
to work and would create public service
jobs — with paychecks as incentives to
keep them. But the program provides
no new help to move this new welfare
work force into private sector jobs, a
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Wednesday Afternoon, September 14,1977
dinance on second and final reading. Griffin Police will
mark cars and issue tickets to drivers whose vehicles
violate the 2-hour limit in the downtown metered spaces
beginning Thursday.
creased to 8 a.m. until midnight. By
doing this the hospital has staff
members present to process more of
the emergency admissions than before.
2 — A new courtesy discharge service
has been established.
This means if a person is fully
covered by insurance and has no
foreseeable financial problems, he can
be discharged without going to the
cashier.
3 — The hospital begins financial
consultation with the patients upon
admission and not after an account
becomes a bad debt.
4 — A patient representative who is
on the hospital staff tries to visit every
person' admitted to answer questions
and listen to any problems the person
might have. Feely said he tries to call
on about 2 patients a day himself.
5 — The hospital checks with in
surance companies to find out why bills
have not been paid after a reasonable
time. This is part of the insurance
(Continued on page 3.)
move that is critical to reducing the
number of persons who rely on welfare.
—Because the public service jobs
would pay only the minimum wage or
slightly more, the entire welfare work
force would remain partly dependent
on welfare benefits.
—The plan would eliminate financial
incentives for poor fathers to abandon
their families. But exprts say this won’t
be enough to overcome the family
breakup problem.
These are the main findings of
Associated Press reporters who studied
Carter’s plan, discussing it with dozens
of welfare and manpower experts, in
and out of government.
Hearings are to begin in Congress
City board pledges
option for tax cut
The city commissioners each agreed
if the local option one-cent sales tax
referendum passes in 2 weeks, that as
long as they serve as a commissioner,
they will favor using its income to roll
back city ad valorem taxes.
All except City Commissioner Dick
Mullins agreed to use any remaining
funds to reduce garbage fees.
Mullins explained he would not favor
earmarking all the remaining money
for garbage fees because if the county
passes a later referendum, it could
collect a portion of the funds, thus
reducing the city’s share.
Garbage fees would have to be raised
again and “nothing makes people
madder than raising it back,” he said.
“I do favor cutting all ad valorem
taxes back as far as we can,” Mullins
stated.
Commissioner Louis Goldstein called
for an informal poll of the board during
its meeting Tuesday morning.
“I want a guarantee from each of us
that as long as we’re on this board we
will use the money to roll back ad
valorem taxes and garbage fees,” he
said.
Under state law, the money could be
used to reduce all property taxes, ex
cept the city’s 2% mill for bonded in
debtedness. The remaining 6.38 mills in
taxes totaling some $688,000 could be
cut out entirely, in addition to the $4
monthly garbage collection fees which
total about $332,000, the commissioner
figured.
After the first year, the city would
receive some $1,162,000, Goldstein
explained.
Even though Commissioners R. L.
“Skeeter” Norsworthy and Ernest
“Tiggy” Jones are against the local
Courthouse
old but spry
NASHVILLE, Ga. (AP) - Berrien
County’s dilapidated courthouse —
called the worst in Georgia by one
statewide study — may be old like
grandma but friends say it’s still spry.
There have been plans to rebuild,
replace and even enshrine the 1898
brick and concrete building as a
museum.
But the courthouse seems to resist
change and is used daily despite
complaints about cramped offices and
drafty corridors.
“It’s like grandma; it’s old,” said
Probate Judge John Pat Webb.
But age hasn’t weakened the
structure, which has six to eight-inch
walls and ceilings, poured of concrete
and filled with sand.
“There’s no danger of it falling. It’s
good and substantial,” Webb said.
County commissioners have come up
with a plan to renovate the building as
an historical structure, use it for office
space and move most courthouse
functions to a new building. An Atlanta
architectural firm has been chosen to
estimate costs for a new building.
this month.
President Nixon proposed a welfare
reform package but it ran into a
congressional crossfire between
liberals and conservatives. In 1970
chairman Russell Long bottled it up in
the Senate Finance Committee.
The Louisiana Democrat, who still
chairs the committee, has said of the
Carter plan, “We have the right to be
skeptical about cost estimates
associated with large new programs.”
Many antipoverty experts urge that
the Carter plan be given a chance.
“The Carter plan is a good one,”
argues Sar Levitan, an influential
manpower expert from George
Washington University.
Vol. 105 No. 218
sales tax, both agreed that if it passes,
the board will have a moral commit
ment to use its income toward reducing
property taxes and garbage fees.
“Pinpointing this money shows our
good intent. As long as we have it we
can reduce the fees. If it’s taken away,
we will have to raise them back,”
Goldstein responded to Mullin’s
statement.
The referendum will be held
Tuesday, Sept. 27.
Commissioner Goldstein has asked
that police officials clear up old for
feited jail bonds which have not been
paid.
A list of some unpaid bonds was
shown to the commissioners Tuesday.
All were on professional bondsmen and
amounted to several hundred dollars
each.
Goldstein asked that every effort be
made to collect both from the bond
smen and from any individual who
might have also signed a bond. Several
date back to 1975, he noted.
Goldstein also asked for a list of all
evidence collected by the police
department.
He has made the request several
times during the past months with no
results.
Tuesday he asked again and said that
in addition to the list, he also wants to
know how long the merchandise has
been held by the police department.
“I’ve had many complaints that
stolen merchandise has been recovered
by police but never returned to the
stores,” he said.
(Continued on page 3.)
Pike enrollment drop
could cut 4-7 teachers
The Pike County Board of Education
was told Tuesday night that the system
might lose 4 to 7 teachers for the 1978-79
term.
The possible loss of teachers was
made in a projection given to the board
by Dr. Jim Mullins, superintendent and
Jim Crayton, assistant superintendent.
Mr. Crayton reported that attendance
had declined by 100 students compared
to the 1976-77 school year.
The loss of students combined with
the ADA (average daily attendance)
could mean 4 to 7 fewer teachers for the
1977-78 session.
“We are 100 students down from a
year ago and it looks as if we will lose 4
teachers. That’s a conservative
estimate. We will have to work hard to
keep the loss at 4. It could run as high as
7 based on our ADA figures,” Mr.
Crayton projected.
Mr. Crayton said the drop in at
tendance was in the elementary school.
Attendance at the middle school and
high school is running about even.
Supt. Mullins blamed the decline in
elementary school attendance on
The key elements of what Carter has
called “My Program for Better Jobs
and Income,” are increased cash ben
efits and creation of 1.4 million low
wage public service jobs for adults who
head families.
If the program is adopted in the form
Carter has proposed, it will guarantee
to poor families a yearly income —
$4,200 for the family of four. Single
adults could receive up to $l,lOO.
Income benefits would go not only to
those who currently receive welfare,
such as fatherless families and the aged
and the destitute disabled, but also to
the working poor who hold jobs and are
not paid enough to lift them above the
(Continued on page 7)
Weather
FORECAST FOR GRIFFIN AREA —
Partly cloudy with a chance of thun
dershowers through Thursday. Lows
tonight in upper 60s. Highs Thursday in
low 80s.
County
tax bills
increase
Spalding County tax bills will in
crease about 9 cents per thousand
dollars of taxable property this year,
according to County Commission
Chairman P. W. Hamil.
The total tax millage rate for
everything will be 30.385 mills on 1977
assessments, he said. This will be
figured on a digest that increased some
$9-million dollars.
The gross digest on which taxes are
figured before homestead exemption is
$183,591,787. The net digest for figuring
bills after homestead exemption is
$168,886,349.
People living outside the fire district
will pay 2.020 mills of taxes less than
those inside the fire district.
The county tax rate breaks down like
this:
State -25 of a mill
County operations 10.98 mills
County bonds '236 of a mill
Fire District 2.020 mills
Schools 16.136 mills
School bonds -314 of a mill
Griffin Tech -45 of a mill
Total 30.385 mills
retention and movement from the
county.
Dr. Mullins and Mr. Crayton told the
board they would make every effort to
keep the ADA as high as possible.
Pike’s ADA was 96.95 last year. The
ADA for the first 11 days of this term
was just over 98 percent.
During its business session, the Pike
School Board accepted the resignation
of 5 teachers and granted a leave of
absence to another.
The board approved contracts for 8
new teachers.
The board awarded the bid on a
$60,000 loan to the Bank of Molena.
School officials also approved fund
raising projects and the use of school
facilities.
People
••• and things
Father stumbling with words while
trying to explain to his 10-year-old son
why a large flock of birds overhead are
flying north instead of south.
Photo firm representative quickly
correcting himself after telling PTA
members photographer will be happy
to “shoot” their children individually if
they so desire.
ft ft
•m. n. *.*>>. S'
“Most of us don’t say one
thing and do another — morej
commonly we say several
things and do nothing.”
