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Muscadine growers
Dr. M. E. Ferree, horticulturist from the Cooperative Extension office in
Athens, Ga., answered questions from muscadine growers this morning at the
1977 Georgia Muscadine Field Day at the Georgia Experiment Station here. The
field day began at 10 a.m. and ended with a tour of the Experiment Station’s
muscadine breeding plots.
\Local option tax
City is checking
on charter idea
The city of Griffin today planned to
look into the possibility of amending its
charter to tie local option tax money
into cutting property taxes and garbage
fees.
Carl Pruett, former city com
missioner, suggested the move in a
letter to the commissioners.
City Manager Roy Inman today
planned to ask City Atty. Bob Smalley if
it could be done.
The present commissioners tried to
write into law a stipulation that in
future local option sales tax revenue
would be used to cut property taxes.
Smalley advised the commissioners
they could not.
® ■
EXH i
“Sometimes it’s good to
admit you’re wrong — even
when you’re right”
Movie makers coming here
American International Film
Co. has chosen Griffin as the
production site for a new movie
and production is expected to
begin October 10, according to
Mildred Sawyer, executive vice
president of the Griffin Area
Chamber of Commerce.
The movie will be made in the
period of 1967 and revolves
around a high school student
who is on the track team and
tries to win the state meet in
order to obtain a scholarship.
Vehicles, 1967 model and
earlier, will be needed for the
production.
Mrs. Sawyer said more
details about the movie and the
film company’s office location
GRIFFIN
daily#news
Daily Since 1872 Griffin, Ga., 30223, Tuesday Afternoon, September 20,1977
The charter change is a new ap
proach that interested the com
missioners this morning.
Some of the commissioners had not
received copies of the letter from
Pruett but said they had read about it in
the newspaper.
Griffin voters will cast ballots in a
Sept. 27 referendum on a local option
sales tax. They would be bound to cut
property taxes by the same amount of
money the sales tax brought in the first
year. However, under state law the
commissioners are bound legally to do
this only the first year.
The commissioners wanted to make
the property tax relief permanent.
People
...and things
King size dog enjoying ride in car
trunk downtown with trunk held open
with stick.
Father and son proudly bringing
home hornets nest for decoration.
Beans, pork chops, fried potatoes and
bread creating a mouth-watering odor
at the fire department kithcen.
will be known in a few uays.
It is not known yet who will be
starring in the movie or who the
director will be.
Mayor Raymond Head
alerted city commissioners this
morning that the community
might be called on to assist in
making the movie.
He said the movie people had
consulted with local leaders and
planned to announce details at a
press conference.
Head said some scenes would
be in Griffin and a final track
scene would be shot at Newnan.
He said the California film
makers came to Griffin as a
typical middle American town
at the suggestion of the state
industry division.
Hospital won’t be fenced
The Griffin-Spalding Hospital won’t
be fenced after all.
Reversing itself, the hospital
authority Monday night voted 4-3 not to
put up the fence as a security measure.
Dick Hyatt said he still thought the
fence was a good idea but in the face of
overwhelming opposition from the
public, he moved not to build it.
He said there are too many instances
of people being forced to buy safety
devices they don’t want. He cited
automobile seat belts as just one.
During the discussion, Bill Feely,
executive director, was asked what
hospital employees thought about a
fence. He said their opposition to it was
the same as that of the general public.
Board member Otis Head said he
thought the public was not well in
formed about the fence. He wondered
what other security measures might be
taken.
Board member Larry Ballard who
had secured bids on the fence at the
direction of the authority asked
Secretary Charles Wynne to review the
minutes of three sessions in which the
fence was discussed. Ballard said he
justed wanted the authority brought up
to date on where it stood at the present.
Chairman 0. M. (Pete) Snider, Jr.,
went through a parliamentary tangle
and finally announced a 4-3 vote against
the fence.
Hyatt, Head, Jerry Savage and Dr.
Kenneth Reynolds voted against the
fence. Snider didn’t call for a show of
hands by those for it. He simply said the
vote was 4-3. Ballard, Billy Wesley and
Snider apparently were the 3 sup
porting the fence.
The authority had struggled with the
matter for most of the summer.
Dr. Valdon Smith of the medical staff
reported steps were being taken to
eliminate an apparent “double billing”
misunderstanding on X-rays in the
emergency room. He said signs had
been posted there telling people they
could refuse to have an X-ray read by a
radiologist. The patient would assume
responsibility for such a decision, Dr.
Smith said.
He said it was a matter of practice by
doctors on the staff to insist that a
radiologist read the X-rays. Such
reading requires special training and a
doctor not specializing in this might
miss some fracture or something else in
reading a negative, he added.
Sometimes when a person gets a bill
for reading an X-ray, he thinks he
already has paid it when he actually
hasn’t, Dr. Smith explained.
Dr. Smith also pointed out that Blue
Cross-Blue Shield insurance which now
requires varification of hospital
charges had forced the hospital to hire
more part-time help to do the job.
In effect, the insurance firm is for
cing the hospital to hire more clerical
‘lt’s the love of people
that makes me tick’
Mrs. Domineck’s hobby
is caring for others
Though they don’t remember it,
hundreds of Griffinites have been
petted and loved by Mrs. Sallie Mae
Domineck.
And Mrs. Domineck is quick to admit
she doesn’t remember all of them
either, but she loves them just the same
and still keeps up with quite a few.
Most of the time since 1943, she has
worked and cared for new babies and
their mothers at the Griffin-Spalding
Hospital.
She first started in the old Strickland
Memorial Hospital at College and
Eighth streets and has been there ever
since except for a few years when she
quit to work for Dr. Charles Releford
and a Barnesville doctor so she could be
with her small children on weekends.
Presently Mrs. Domineck works the 3
to 11 p.m. shift on the hospital’s third
floor.
“That’s the happiest place in the
hospital,” said Mrs. Domineck, whose
“first hobby is doing things for others”.
—Also in this story
I.— Doctors take steps to eliminate
misunderstandings on so called
“double billing” for X-rays in the
emergency room.
2. Insurancecompany won’t help pay
for extra clerical work it caused by
requiring RNs to confirm work the
hospital does when a patient claims
coverage.
3. — Authority votes to pay for own
unemployment compensation rather
than into a general state labor fund.
Authority figures it’ll cost some $16,000
to $20,000 this way rather than up to
$60,000 or more the other way.
4. — The authority adopted an income
table under which patients can be
classified as charity or non-charity.
This table should help hospital
eliminate a backlog of uncollectable
bills as well as avoiding such billings in
the future.
5. — Executive director announces an
audit is on file in the Clerk of Court’s
office available to the public.
6. — The hospital had a good month
financially in August which normally is
a “down” period.
work but refuses to pay for it, Dr. Smith
said.
Reporting for the Personnel Com
mittee, Otis Head recommended the
hospital follow a plan of paying for its
unemployment compensation as
charged by the Labor Department
rather than paying into a general Labor
Department fund. He said the com-
City deals with petitions
on parking problems
Griffin City Commissioners told a
Southern Bell employee they were
working with Tom Hamby, local
telephone manager, about parking
problems downtown.
Some 80 telephone employees had
petitioned the commissioners for relief
of their parking problems at the Hill
and Poplar area.
A group of employees at Southeastern
Textile on East Solomon street also
petitioned the city for parking relief.
The petitions came after the city went
to no-meter parking last week on a trial
basis.
The commissioners said they would
respond to the Textile employees by
letter.
Commissioner Dick Mullins
“It’s amazing how busy I can be, yet I
love every moment of it. Instead of
getting tired, I get over anxious. I feel if
I stop, I couldn’t get started again.
It’s the love of people that makes me
tick”, she said.
And “tick” she does from morning to
night.
She cares for her 92-year-old mother
in-law, Mrs. Sarah Ann Domineck, who
has lived with Sallie Mae and Robert
since their wedding day.
Robert, 65, has never spent a night
away from his mother and when he
married Sallie Mae, she moved in with
them. Later, when Robert and Sallie
Mae bought their home on Spellman
avenue, the elderly lady moved in with
them.
Sallie Mae goes out of her way doing
things for “Mama” and on her last
birthday, gave her a party with 260
guests.
Since the first week in August, Sally
(Continued on page 3.)
Vol. 105 No. 223
mittee felt going this route might limit
such annual obligations to some $16,000
to $20,000. Under the other plan, it
might run as high as $60,000 annually,
Head said.
Head and Dr. Reynolds with Mrs.
Josephine Pollard are on the personnel
committee. Mrs. Pollard was not able
to attend the committee meeting held
before the authority meeting. She was
in the intensive care unit of the hospital
being treated for an apparent heart
attack.
Chairman Snider reported the latest
information on her condition was that it
had stabilized.
The authority approved an income
range table which the hospital can use
in determining if a patient is a charity
case. This table will help clear up a
backlog of bills that apparently cannot
be collected and avoid such billings in
the future, the authority reasoned.
Executive director Feely announced
that a thorough audit of hospital
finances had been completed and was
on file with the Clerk of Superior Court
here. He said it is available for public
inspection at the courthouse.
The financial report showed that the
hospital had a good month financially
during August. A staff member noted
hospital census usually is down during
the summer and particularly in August.
But this was not the case here this
summer, he said.
suggested some special consideration
be given to handicapped people who
work downtown. He said a permit
issued for a fee might be a possibility.
The commissioners also wanted to
know if the downtown lots were lighted
well enough.
They also said they wanted to follow
up the idea of having a policeman make
security checks of lots on a regular
basis day and night, using some sort of
small electric car.
The commissioners will try the no
meter plan through Dec. 31 then decide
if they want to keep it longer.
Tickets are being issued to people
who park longer than 2 hours in one
place, the commissioners were told.
The system is working as planned, they
learned.
Mrs. Sallie Mae Domineck (1) with 2 of her “babies”, Randy Crane (born Nov.
12, 1952) holding his new son, Chance Johnson Crane, who was born on his
grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Crane’s, 38 wedding anniversary, Sept. 9.
Chance was the first boy in 5 generations on his mother’s side. She is the former
Lynn Johnson of Griffin.
Weather
FORECAST FOR GRIFFIN AREA-
Fair and cooler tonight with lows in low
60s. Fair Wednesday with highs in mid
80s.
LOCAL WEATHER-Low this
morning at Spalding Forestry Unit 64,
high Monday 82.
Mystery
of stock
is solved
Chairman O. M. (Pete) Snider, Jr.,
has solved the mystery of the Griffin-
Spalding Hospital stock holdings.
The finance committee turned it up at
a recent meeting. The committee didn’t
know how the hospital had come to have
the stock in the first place.
Snider reported that J. M. Cheatham,
Dundee president, telephoned him
about the matter after reading about
the stock.
He said Dudley Cannafax of Milner
had donated the stock years ago to the
hospital in appreciation for the ex
cellent care his wife received while a
patient.
Mr. Cheatham’s late father was
chairman of the hospital board at the
time.
The stock was in a food concern in
Houston.
Jerry Savage with Dick Hyatt and
Ballard who make up the finance
committee at first had recommended
that the stock be sold now and the
money used for hospital expenses.
The first information to the com
mittee indicated the stock was worth
about $27,000. But at the authority
meeting, Savage learned the value had
slumped to $17,000.
Savage took a quick pool of Hyatt and
Ballard and all three agreed to with
draw the recommendation to sell now.
Savage smiled and said the committee
would study the matter.
Discrimination
charged and
denied here
The Griffin NAACP branch has asked
the Postal Service to look into alleged
racial discrimination in the promotion
of a white employee here over a black
man who had more service.
President Gary Reid of the local
chapter sent a copy of the complaints
directed at Postmaster James Chappell
to postal officials, local and
congressional elected people.
Reid said the local chapter feels
Robert Jones, with 24 years of service
in maintenance here, was the victim of
racial discrimination.
Postmaster Chappell said today the
complaint would be settled within the
service. He said when all the facts are
known, it will be brought out that there
is no racial discrimination.
Some postal personnel people in the
Atlanta office which were in on the
decision were black, Chappell said. He
said they were convinced there was no
racial discrimination.