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DAILY NEWS
Daily Since 1872
Taxes won't go up
County budget in final stages
awaiting scheduled hearing
The operational budget for the
county’s 1978 fiscal year is finished,
requiring only a public hearing before
adoption.
The public hearing has been
scheduled for Oct. 21 at 3:30 p.m. in the
county commission office conference
room at the Spalding Courthouse.
This marks the first year the county
has prepared a budget that required a
public hearing in accordance with the
Federal Revenue Sharing State and
Local Assistance Act of 1072 as
amended.
Having worked on the budget over a
period of several months to present
during the public meeting, the com
missioners announced they were able to
keep operational costs of the county
down so as not to have to raise taxes.
Weather
FORECAST FOR GRIFFIN AREA —
Showers and scattered thundershowers
this afternoon and tonight dimishing
Sunday morning. Partial clearing
Sunday afternoon. Highs in the low 70s.
Lows tonight in the mid 50s.
Sights on first place
Geese project is part
of family’s standard
Beth Bums is not the girl with the
golden goose, but she is the Griffin High
School senior who has geese as her 4-H
project.
Beth became interested in geese as a
4-H’er in the ninth grade and has been
in state competition with her project for
2 years. This year, she hopes to become
a state winner.
Her 2 older brothers were state
winners several years ago. Joe, the
oldest, was a winner with a fruit and
vegetable project, and Jim was a state
achievement winner.
The older brothers seem to have set a
standard in the family and Beth is
trying to meet it. They are the children
of Dr. and Mrs. R. E. Burns.
She has put a lot of hard work into her
project to make it eligible for state
competition.
Beth currently has a flock of 18
Beth currently has a flock of 18
GRIFFIN
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Saturday, October 8, 1977
“The commissioners were able to
approve a budget that did not have an
increase in taxes and one which would
adequately meet the service programs
of the county,” said Lewis Leonard,
county administrator.
The proposed budget for 1978
amounts to $4,299,632 as opposed to the
1977 budget of $3,181,458. The 1978
budget includes a federal grant of
$316,000 for the renovation of the
courthouse annex (old Grant building)
and another $302,328 mental health
grant.
The actual operational budget that
required local revenues totaled
$3,586,307 which is a $404,849 increase
over last year’s budget.
County taxpayers will be paying
taxes on a levy of 28.365 mills. Less than
half of that will actually go toward
county operation'al expenses. Some
17.149 mills have been set by the school
board, Griffin Vo-Tech and for school
maintenance.
The school board and Griffin Vo-Tech
under state law set their millage rates.
Their annual budgets are not reviewed
by the commissioners.
The administrative budget showed an
increase of $662,327 to $672,774. This
reflects an increased budget for the
Chinese geese in the backyard of the
Buras home on East Mclntosh road.
The geese have been in the Burns
family for 16 or 17 years.
“My parents got the geese because
they are decorative,” Beth says.
“The hardest part of the project is
feeding and watering them and that is
easy,” she said. The geese are fed
cracked com and scratch feed. During
the laying season, the females are: fed
laying mash.
Beth has made an incubator to help
increase the number of hatchings from
the geese.
The female geese lay about 15 eggs
during the laying season, which begins
in January. Some of the eggs are
allowed to be hatched by the geese and
others are placed in the incubator.
Beth also has helped to increase the
yield by putting the young geese in a
regional library from $8,400 to $25,000.
The budget also includes contributions
to the mental and physical health
budget.
The general appropriations budget
was increased over the 1977 budget of
$226,833 to $347,722. This increase is
primarily due to the steadily rising
costs of providing health insurance and
a retirement system for county em
ployees.
A budget increase for the correc
tional institution was from $221,061 to a
proposed 1978 budget of $262,451. The
increased amount will basically be
applied to higher food costs and
prisoner care. A minimal portion of the
increase will go toward employee
salaries.
The sheriff’s budget for 1978 amounts
to $519,334 as opposed to last year's
$486,009. That increase will go
primarily toward hiring 2 drug in
vestigators.
The clerk of court’s 1978 budget
showed a decrease from last year’s
$121,184 to $83,749. *
The superior court budget was in
creased to $75,505 as opposed to last
year’s $23,422.
A proposed $185,439 for CETA over
last year’s SB,OOO should not be un-
brooder until they are ready to run with
the flock.
Some of the geese will be sold during
the Thanksgiving and Christmas
seasons. “It seems that is the season
when the demand is highest for geese.
We advertise them and people will
come out and pick out the ones they
want,” she said.
“Geese are better watchdogs than
our dogs,” Beth said. She said the geese
will honk at any disturbance or when
anyone enters the yard. “Mother says
they even honk when a bird or crow
flies over,” she said.
Geese may be an unusual project for
a 4-H’er, but Beth feels it is the one that
is going to make her a state winner.
Who knows what the project will be
that will get younger brother Bobby, a
ninth grader at Spalding Junior High,
into state competition?
Vol. 105 No. 239
derstood as an increase in the budget
for 1978. The increase will be offset by a
federal grant which will be used for
fulltime employees such as for animal
control officers and some secretarial
(Continued on page 2)
People
...and things
Lady driving into service station
shortly after 6 a.m. today and asking
for oil change for her car.
Referees tossing ball around and
having their own fun game before Pike
County-Harris County game.
Young man rushing into post office
shortly after the windows closed only to
find there’s no way for him to get 13
cent stamp.
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Beth Burns checks her geese each day at feeding time.
Gates open
Monday
The 31st annual Spalding County
Fair, sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of
Griffin, will open with exciting en
tertainment suited for all tastes on
Monday, Oct. 10.
During its 6 days of operation, the fair
will include such events as livestock
•shows, 4-H exhibits, canning contests,
crafts competition, needlework con
tests, rides, games, and much, much
more.
This year’s theme is “It’s Your Fair
— We’ll See You There,” with Jack
Smith serving as the manager.
The gates will open on Monday at 5
p.m. Individual exhibits will be judged
and the Kiwanis Club and Belle City
Amusements will be open.
Tuesday is School Day. All students
in grades 1 through 12 will be issued an
admission ticket at their schools.
Poultry and flower judging will take
Canal pact
Senate panel
wants more info
WASHINGTON (AP) - With
pressure continuing to mount against •
the Panama Canal treaty, the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee is in
viting 34 witnesses including military
officers, two former secretaries of state
and Canal Zone residents to register
their views on the pact.
Henry A. Kissinger and Dean Rusk,
during whose term as secretary of state
the treaty negotiations began 13 years
ago, will appear toward the close of the
week-long hearings on Friday. Both
support the treaty.
But more than half the witnesses
listed by Sen. John Sparkman, D-Ala.,
committee chairman, are expected to
oppose ratification. They include Adm.
Thomas Moorer, retired chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and spokesmen
for veterans and conservative groups.
President Carter acknowledged on
Friday that the canal treaty is in
serious trouble in the Senate. He called
on Democratic party leaders to help
him build support for the ratification
vote expected next year.
Meanwhile, Gen. Omar Torrijos,
Panama’s head of state, said during a
visit to Sweden that Senate rejection of
the treaty could lead to the closing of
the canal.
He did not explain how this could
occur but, in an apparent attempt to
increase world pressure, said the treaty
does not concern the United States and
Panama alone. “Innocent countries
will be suffering if the canal is closed,”
Torrijos said.
Senate resistance to the treaty
centers on apparent differences in the
way U.S. and Panamanian officials
place on Tuesday at 10 a.m. The gates
will open at 1 p.m. and a special
feature, the tractor pull, will be held at
7 p.m.
The gates will open at 5 p.m. on
Wednesday.
Beef cattle will be judged on Thur
sday as the gates open at 5 p.m. and the
swine judging will take place at 5:30
p.m. Dairy cattle will be judged at 6:30
p.m.
Gate time on Friday is 4 p.m.
On Saturday, the last day of the fair,
gates will open at 1 p.m. and prizes will
be awarded at 11 p.m.
Admission to the fair is $1:00 for all
over 16 and 50 cents for those 16 and
under.
Chairmen of the fair events include:
Jack Smith, agriculture; Jet Russell,
livestock; Bill Wages, poultry and
rabbits; Mrs. Gayle Cox, 4-H exhibits
and Mrs. Janice Massey, needlework.
interpret provisions concerning the ca
nal’s security after it is turned over to
Panama in the year 2000.
One previously announced treaty
supporter, Sen. John C. Danforth, R-
Mo., said Friday he was reconsidering
his position. He told Carter in a letter he
had been led to believe the treaty
provided for permanent U.S. rights to
use and defend the canal.
The State Department says the treaty
would allow the United States to in
tervene militarily if the canal were
threatened and also would give U.S.
ships priority passage in wartime. But
Panamanian officials say the treaty
does not provide such guarantees.
Carter told the party leaders the
United States will have a right after the
year 2000 “to ensure that the canal will
be open to all commerce and neutrality
guaranteed.” But he stopped short of
saying this means this country would be
able to intervene with military force if
it saw a threat to the canal.
The Country Parson
by Frank ('lark
!’ 11'
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“It’s deceitful to be a little bit
honest.”