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About Griffin daily news. (Griffin, Ga.) 1924-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 29, 1977)
Gov. Jimmy Carter and was re-enacted in 1975 after he left office. But it didn’t take effect that year, either, because of last-minute budget cuts. There has been much talk since then and a variety of plans have been proposed in the legislature — none of them enacted so far. One is to increase the sales tax statewide by an additional 1 per cent, earmarking that money for local school systems — the heaviest users of property taxes. But Busbee says he doesn’t see that idea winning approval. “I do not see that there will be an increase in the general sales tax. I think that more and more cities and counties can go to the local option sales tax and reduce taxes. I think that’s the biggest thing that’s being done,” he said. Under the local option sales tax act, local governments — with voter ap proval — can impose an additional 1 per cent sales tax within their jurisdictions. The following year, property taxes must be reduced by the amount of revenue the new tax produces. Beyond that, Busbee said, the state can increase its aid to local govern ments by financing improvements to rural and urban roads and by making more money available to help local governments obtain federal sewer and water grants. ‘‘lf there are inequities (in the Kennesaw nursing home evacuated after wreck By KATHRYN JOHNSON Associated Press Writer KENNESAW, Ga. (AP) - The small gray cloud of am monia and smoke hovering over Shady Grove Nursing Home forced an evacuation so sudden that one elderly resident forgot his teeth. “They were practically shov ing us out the door,” said 90- year-old Oscar Hickey, one of 26 elderly residents evacuated within 15 minutes to escape the toxic fumes which floated in small clouds from a burning tank car. “I grabbed for some things and was in such a hurry I came away without my teeth,” said the pajama-clad Hickey, smiling broadly nevertheless. The tank car was one of 20 which derailed Wednesday in a thickly wooded area when the engines of two Louisville and CORRECTION Oak 4 Piece BEDROOM SUITE Double Dresser Mirror 4 Drawer Chest Full Or Queen Size Bed BADCOCK HOME FURNISHINGS East Solomon St Shopping Center 228-5638 CUT ME OUT H U AND CUT □ 0 5 75 OFF B n THE PRICE OFANY U M REFRIGERATOR R Wnirlpooi INSTOCK! U ks Offer expires 10/4/77 LJ H W. Solomon St. R □ ‘VJ U itr) Phone 227-3597 Gov. Busbee (Continued from page 1) Nashville freight trains side swiped each other. Three other railroad cars, laden with canned food and flour, also caught fire, but the flames were quickly put out. Firemen wearing gas masks fought all day Wednesday to contain the blaze from the tank car which carried anhydrous ammonia. Late in the day the flames were out, but gas con tinued to escape and the nursing home and other homes and in the area were evacuated. "The nursing home is directly in the path of the wind carrying the gas,” said Randy Lewis, disaster chairman with the Red Cross. “These people can’t afford to be exposed," he said. “A good whiff of ammonia might gag a healthy person, but for some of these people one good whiff could put them over the edge.” property tax) that can be corrected, I don’t mind facing the hard problems of correcting them,” said Busbee. “But what I am trying to be so cautious ... about is this: you talk about property taxes and this is very much on the minds of the people in this state, par ticularly some of the people who have high property taxes on homes — higher than they’ve ever had them. “The only thing we can do is either for the state to do what I’ve already been doing and put up more aid from the state level and less from the local levels, or redistribute the people that pay property tax,” he continued. “And I have enough sense to know that there’s a limit as to bow much any person can do to adjust any inequities we have by redistributing the burden of the property tax. If you take it off the farms and put it on the homeowners, that presents a problem. If you take it off the homeowners and put it on the farmer, that presents a problem. If you take it off both of them and put it all on industry, that presents a problem. “So I don’t want to build up any false hope... but that does not mean that I’m not going to pursue the studies I’m making and if there are some im provements we can make and inequities we can correct, I want to do this.” Twenty of the residents were taken to the Wildwood Baptist Church near this small town about 30 miles north of Atlanta. Six, who were bedridden, were taken to Kennestone Hospital. “I was a little bit scared,” said Mrs. Leila Wade, 88, sitting in the church's recreation room describing how she and the others were gathered together and told of the danger. “Well, it sure didn’t scare me none,” said blue-eyed, white haired Mrs. Mary Singleton, 83. “I just said, ‘Lord, if it’s for me, it’s all right.’ Those were my thoughts. He’s never let me down.” “Oh Lord, we were praying,” said Mrs. Willie A. Nunn. But Mrs. Nunn, who joined in a gos pel sing while a nurse played the piano, said she was enjoying the day. “I don’t get out too often,” she said. When the Red Cross and Civil Defense decided to evacuate the elderly patients, the two cooks in the miring home grabbed up a half-cooked luncheon of chicken and noodles, pound cake, tea, milk and crackers and finished preparing the meal at the church. The 20 patients spent the night with the other six at Kennestone Hospital, where there were beds. Workers were capping the leak late Wednesday night. But Lewis said, “We can’t af ford to take a chance with these patients. Healthy people can jump in a car and escape if anything happens to relase more gas in the area.” Other residents were allowed to return to their homes. Mil £IB E aEikSL • BMBBKbM - ~ wJ ; f irl ■ ■ •'’ll ''‘s’ Ba ? ''' 1 IBs '"’A Br .BK M' I. IIS HOPKINTON, Mass. — Actress Joanne Woodward, center, is lost in a sea of runners Wednesday as they begin the recreation of the Boston Marathon at its actual Building Board reviewed ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia Building Administrative Board is the first of 10 state examining boards to be reviewed this year under Georgia’s new “sunset” law, which requires 47 state agencies to prove their worth or go out of business. A legislative committee this week began reviewing the building board, which sets codes for home builders. Nine more examining boards are to be reviewed this year, and legislative committees will recommend whether the 1978 General Assembly should abolish them. The “sunset” law, passed this year, requires that 10 examining boards be reviewed annually until all 47 have been inspected. The process calls for an “operational” audit of each board, followed by public hearings, recommendations to the General Assembly and final action. Grant for metric system ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — The North Georgia Cooperative Education Service and three Georgia school systems have been awarded more than SBO,OOO to teach the metric system of measurement to adults and children. The U.S. Office of Education announced grants of $23,000 to the education service, $22,000 to the Bacon County Board of Education, $19,000 to the Griffin-Spalding County Board of Education and $25,000 to Thomas County schools. Firm spared huge fine ATLANTA (AP)—American Cyanamid Co. won’t have to pay a $321,000 fine levied by the state for industrial pollution of the Savannah River, the Geor gia Supreme Court has ruled. The commissioner of the state Department of Natural Resources, Joe Tanner, said he was “disappointed but not sur prised” by the high court’s de cision Wednesday. W. E. Trees, environmental control manager at Cyanamid’s Savannah plant, said, “We, of course, are gratified. It’s evi dent that Cyanamid has been vindicated.” The case began when the De partment of Natural Resources brought administrative pro ceedings against the company for discharging industrial wastes into the river. ‘See How She Runs’ w J Spalding Square 1 228-5650 ■ ■ S’ 9HB|MH|| HHB g|| I Ji F ° r Coi>| Mon,in s s w E _■ Carries Her “Kennington V For Gals” Jacket; And Kim Wraps Herself In A Sweater “Darnknil" Both Super looks! , Come By For Yours And Let Our a Experts Help You With Your Selections. I B* B * **** // Ml M Owner ■B If* - Cindy Banks , dr < Clara Clark ® ’ K Manager ■? K' r * MM i v Store Hours: WL. f*J Monday thru Thursday -10 til 7 “ -C' • kJBKHgf Friday 10 til 8 Saturday 10 til 6 WE WELCOME DEBORAH SMITH TO OUR STORE FAMILY. Page 3 starting line in Hopkinton, Mass. She’s starring in a (CBS) television film about the marathon, “See How She Runs,” directed by her husband, actor Paul Newman. (AP) Fighting for funds ALMA, Ga. (AP) — Bacon County and Alma officials are taking federal authorities to court in the fight for $2.7 million originally allocated for building the Lake Alma dam project. Alma Mayor Tessell Mullis and Bacon County Com mission Chairman Wesley Johnson said their court move was made to protect planning work already completed on Lake Alma and to protect “the future of the project from an arbitrary decision” by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which impounded the funds last month. HUD refused to release $2.7 million for the project after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency objected to the recreational lake project and the Hurricane Creek Protective Society filed suit against the proposal. The project would dam part of Hurricane Creek and would flood two-thirds of the six-mile stretch known as Hurricane Creek Swamp. Court backlogs reduced ATLANTA (AP) — The backlogs in many Georgia courts have been reduced as judges handle cases more quickly, the Judicial Council of Georgia says. The council said judges disposed of more than 450,000 cases in 1976, while 500,000 cases were filed in the courts last year. The council’s first “caseload summary” reported that 24,841 felonies last year accounted for 69.2 per cent of the workload. — Griffin Daily News Thursday, September 29, 1977 Court sets aside sentence ATLANTA (AP) - The Geor gia Supreme Court has set aside the death sentence of a man convicted of shooting an off duty police officer. The high court cited its recent ruling that the death penalty is not justified in cases where the victim does not die. The court Wednesday over turned a death sentence given Frank Lewis in Baldwin County for conviction on a charge of kidnapping with bodily injury. The justices ordered the trial judge to impose a life sentence. Lewis’ was one of the first death penalty cases the state Supreme Court has considered since it ruled last July —by mandate of the U.S. Supreme Court — that the death penalty is not warranted if the victim survives. Persons convicted in federal courts of treason or air plane hijacking still can be exe cuted. Lewis was convicted in the 1976 robbery, kidnapping and shooting of off-duty police offi cer Jerry. Whidby, who was moonlighting as a motel clerk when he was abducted, shot and abandoned on a rural road. He survived the shooting but was seriously disabled. In other cases, the court af firmed the conviction of Wil liam Maynard Watts, who was given a life sentence in Floyd County for murdering Richard Garcia and two 10-year sen tences for kidnapping Inez Sutherland and Walter Gra ham. The court also affirmed the conviction and life sentence of Larry Thomas of Ware County in the 1975 slaying of Calvin Williamson. Many Style* of Wedding invitation* Hensley’s Card and Gift Shop 121 West Solomon St. Phone 221-1295
