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Christie comments
Bonds needed for state funds
Supt. D. B. Christie of the Griffin-
Spalding School System reviewed today
the state regulations under which state
construction funds could be made
available here.
The amount involved is about $4-
million.
He said another point to remember is
implementing a law that makes
provisions for handicapped, mentally
retarded and behaviorally or
emotionally disturbed children.
More classroom space is needed to
meet this new law, he pointed out.
The superintendent also said 40
percent of the students at Griffin High
attend college, leaving the other 60
percent heading into the job market
upon graduation.
He said a comprehensive high school
program would improve the one for
students not college bound.
This is a statement from the
superintendent on the bond proposals:
Tuesday, November 8, the citizens of
Griffin and Spalding County will have
D/XII.V
Daily Since 1872
Griffin vicinity is sopping wet
following days of downpour
The rains came by the bucketfulls
Friday and Friday night, leaving few
Griffinites dry. Reports of flooded
basements, stalled cars and knee-deep
puddles were numerous.
Officially the Griffin area received
4.35 inches of the wet stuff from 8 a.m.
Friday to 9 a.m. today, according to the
Georgia Forestry Unit. But, many local
residents would quarrel with that,
offering their flooded yards and
driveways as evidence.
High temperature Friday was 67
degrees at 5:15 p.m. and the low was 62
degrees.
The worst news is more of the same is
predicted by the National Weather
Service for today and Sunday. A low
pressure system stalled over the
Southeast will continue to bring rain in
the form of showers and thun
derstorms. Predictions call for clearing
111 V
Patient
the opportunity to go to the polls and
vote on an issue which will affect not
only the youth but also the economic
growth of this community. Three
questions will appear on the ballot. 1.
"Shall School Bonds for a High School
and Other School System Additions and
Improvements in the amount of
$5,955,000 be issued by the Griffin-
Spalding County School System?”
“Shall School Bonds for an Athletic
Stadium and Facilities in the amount of
$1,000,000 be issued by the Griffin-
Spalding County School System?” 3.
"Shall School Bonds for a Central Food
Storage and Cooler-Freezer Facility in
the amount of $160,000 be issued by the
Griffin-Spalding County School
System?” The second and third
questions, if approved, will result in
construction of a stadium and a food
storage facility entirely with local
funds.
QUESTION ONE
Question number one on the ballot, if
approved, insures the construction of a
GRIFFIN
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Saturday Afternoon, Novembers, 1977
late Sunday.
Most Griffin High football followers
planned to dress for the weather tonight
when they go to Jonesboro to see the
Bears battle North Clayton in the final
game of the saason.
They were spared a dreary night in
the rain Friday because of the Saturday
night game.
But folks in Pike County had to brave
deluge Friday in Zebulon to see the
season’s closer. Pike lost to Taylor
County 38-0 in a battle in the mud and
rain.
Faithful followers of the team found
makeshfit shelter for the first half but
most of them left at halftime for the
gym or home.
Other sportsmen who hunt game
faced a day in the rain if they planned to
open the deer season with a trip to the
woods today.
The rains didn’t spare AIR stock drivers in their efforts to qualify for the Dixie 500. Janet
Guthrie, third in the running for Rookie of the Year honors on the NASCAR tour, is shown
here patiently waiting for the rains to clear at the raceway Friday. (AP)
new high school which includes
classrooms, P. E. fields and facilities,
baseball field, an all-weather track,
football field with dressing facilities,
and adqquate parking spaces. Passage
of this issue will provide for renovation
of the library at the Spalding Junior
High II campus and construction of a
new P. E. facility on the present Griffin
High campus. We will also be able to
construct a new eighteen classroom
elementary school on Cowan Road
which will alleviate the overcrowded
conditions that exist at Atkinson,
Beaverbfook and Orrs. The state will
provide this system with ap
proximately SBOO,OOO to construct an
elementary school only if the high
school issue is passed and we do in fact
construct a new high school.
ARGUMENTS
Many arguments have been
presented as to why this system is in
need of additional facilities, however, I
think it is imperative that I name a few
which may have been overlooked or
NEWS
Many, however, were undaunted by
the weather and went to their deer
stands anyway.
Griffin commuters from Atlanta
were glad to escape the capital city late
Friday where the heavy rains swelled
Peachtree Creek and other regularly
flooded areas. Flash flood warnings in
Atlanta remained in effect today.
And race fans faced uncertainty.
Time trials and qualifying for the Dixie
500 at AIR in Hampton had to be called
off Thursday and Friday because of the
rain.
The drivers were to try to get in their
rounds today.
However, the threat of rain hung over
the track and the possibility of a week’s
delay for the race was in their air.
Elsewhere, The Associated Press
Reported:
passed over lightly. It has been
previously mentioned that this system
will receive approximately $4,000,000
in state funds to provide for con
struction of the high school and new
elementary school if the voters approve
the first question on the ballot. State
capital outlay funds presently are
allocated to public school systems on
the basis of increased attendance or
consolidation and this system will
receive funds based upon consolidation.
This present method of allocating
construction funds to school systems
will no longer be in effect after 1980 due
to the passage of the House Bill 905 by
the General Assembly.
ALLOCATIONS LESS
It is apparent that school system
allocations for construction purposes
will be much less than what is presently
earned. Dr. Cal Adamson, Associate
State Superintendent of Schools, in a
letter addressed to me dated October
17, states “capital outlay grants under
(Continued on page 2)
Vol. 105 No. 262
Firemen early this morning
evacuated three persons from the lower
level of a College Park apartment
flooded with waist-high rainwater as
thunderstorms countinued to drench
much of the state Saturday.
Firefighters reported that a woman
and her young child and an elderly man
whose bed was “floating” in his apart
ment were led to higher ground during
the early morning hours.
Because of the unusually heavy rain,
the National Weather Service extended
its flash flood watch for Southwest and
much of Northern Georgia until tonight.
The watch line extends west of a line
from Thomasville to Macon and north
of the Columbus-Macon-Augusta line.
There were reports of washed out
bridges, property damage and flooded
roads in many areas of the state
following the rains Friday. The weather
service said the storms were brought on
by an intense low pressure area near
the central Gulf.
Fire officials reported that the roof of
a College Park dress shop collapsed
early today after three feet of water ac
cumulated on it.
The Hall County Sheriff’s De
partment said 4% inches of rain fell in
the Gainesville area in a 24-hour period,
washing out at least three bridges in the
county.
Officers said the bridges were located
on E. A. Buffington Road, Fuller Road
and Old Flowery Branch Road. They
also reported flooding in urban areas.
The weather bureau said the system
would drift “slowly and erratically”
along a northwestward course today
and tonight, reaching east Tennessee
by Sunday night.
Forecasters said that “until then,
periods of showers and thundershowers
are expected to continue with oc
cationally very heavy rainfall ac
companying the showers in the watch
area.”
The Country Parson
by Frank (lark
II /fig r
fl
bK —
“Love is the only thing you
can give to one person without
denying it to another.”
r// / '
Superintendent D. B. Christie
Social security
House and Senate differ
on how to get job done
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House
and Senate agree that vast sums of
money must be funneled into the ailing
Social Security system, but they differ
on the question of how much working
people and their employers should
sacrifice to get the job done.
The Senate on Friday concurred with
the position of the House that Social
Security taxes will have to be raised.
Left unresolved was the question of
whether the maximum tax paid by a
worker will be doubled or tripled over
the next 10 years.
House-Senate conference committee
will have to decide to what extent Social
Security taxes will be raised for em
ployees and their employers.
The panel also must decide whether
employers and employees should
continue splitting the payroll-tax
burden 50-50, as the House proposed, or
whether employers will be required for
the first time to carry a larger share of
the burden, as favored by Senate.
At stake are the paychecks of some
107 million working men and women
and Social Security benefits of 33
million elderly Americans.
The maximum a working man or
woman now pays per year is $965, and
that is matched by the employer. The
Senate bill would change this so that, in
1987, for example, the top taf a worker
would have to pay would be $2,407,
while the employer would have to pay a
maximum of $5,325.
The House bill would continue the 50-
50 split, so that in 1987 both the em
ployee and the employer would pay
identical taxes of $3,025.
The Senate passed its Social Security
bill Friday night on a 42-25 vote, ap
proving tax increases that will cost S7O
billion to $75 billion over the next six
years, for example, and liberalizing
rules on outside earnings by pension
recipients.
The House approved its own plan last
week.
Here are unofficial estimates of how
the taxes in the two bills compare. The
figures include tax increases already
written into current law:
SIO,OOO WORKER
The current tax is $585 a year. Both
bills would raise it in 1978 to $605. Under
the Senate bill the payroll tax on this
worker from 1978 through 1987 would
total $6,612, or $357 more than without
the bill. The House version would result
in a 10-year total of $6,580, or $325 above
current law.
HIGH-PAID WORKER
Currently, no worker pays an annual
Social Security tax of more than $965.
That is paid only by those earning
$16,500 or more. By 1987 the maximum
wage subject to tax on the employee in
the Senate bill would be $33,900, for a
top tax of $2,407, and a 10-year total of
$17,188, which is $1,988 more than
without the bill.
Newnan resident stuck
trying Santa’s trick
NEWNAN, Ga. (AP) - Robert
Howard Parks has discovered that
Santa’s traditional method of entering
houses isn’t as easy as it looks.
Parks, 31, got stuck Friday as he
tried to crawl down his chimney after
finding himself locked out of his house.
It took volunteer firefighters two
hours to free him after his wife called
The employer now matches the
employee’s share of tax, a practice that
would be continued under the House
bill. Under the Senate bill, that
tradition would end in 1979, when an
employer would be liable for a payroll
tax on the first $50,000 of each worker’s
wages, or a top tax of $3,068. In 1985 the
maximum taxable wage would soar to
$75,000, meaning a top tax of $5,288.
In the House bill, the maximum wage
subject to employee tax in 1987 would
be $42,600, resulting in a maximum tax
of $3,025. The tax over the next 10 years
would total $21,391, or $6,191 above
current law.
Social Security is in trouble because
of a declining birth rate and high
unemployment, which reduce con
tributions to the system, and high in
flation, which increases payouts. The
problems were compounded by a 1972
congressional error which had the
effect of giving some beneficiaries
double cost-of-living increases to com
pensate for inflation.
The Senate bill corrects that error, as
does the House version, by reducing
benefits that some future retirees
would receive otherwise.
The Senate and House bills differ on
treatment of the “earnings ceiling,”
which limits the amount of money a re
tired person may earn and still draw a
full Social Security check. Under
existing law, the pension of a person 65
to 72 is cut $1 for each $2 above $3,000
that the person earns in a year.
The House voted to eliminate that
ceiling by 1982. The Senate voted to
raise the ceiling for most retired per
sons to $4,500 next year and $6,000 in
1979. In 1982 the limit would be elimi
nated for persons 70 or 71 years old.
People
...and things
School children dressed in rain gear
having great time playing in puddles
while waiting on school bus to take
them home.
Old-timer taking rains lightly,
quipping he thought he saw an ark pass
outside his bedroom window last night
Stack of pumpkins with wilting,
carved faces stacked in bushes behind
residential house.
Weather
FORECAST FOR GRIFFIN AREA —
Flash flood watch through tonight.
Periods of showers and a few thun
derstorms with rainfall occasionally
heavy through tonight. Showers more
scattered Sunday. Highs today in mid
60s, lows tonight in mid 50s. Sunday
highs in upper 60s.
when she heard his cries for help.
Parks, who is 6 feet 1, said his legs
were numb after he was freed, but he
was reported in satisfactory condition
at a local hospital.
The chimney didn’t fare as well.
Firefighters had to go through the
attic and remove bricks from the
chimney to free him.