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Becnam Swears In Deputies At 12:01 A.M. Thursday
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Sheriff Becharn pins insignia of rank on Chief Deputy
Jimmy Jones.
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Volume No. 93, No, 1
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Left to right, Elwyn McKinney, C. W. "Pete" Peter • Donald Furrer, Cleon Moore and ferry Walker. I he
son, Walter Lee, James Reece. Mack Collins. Hill Jones, smiles were bright as Rivers dipped the ribbon.
Fred Glenn . Rill Elliott, Ray Ant home, Tracy Rivers,
Ribbon-Cutting _ _ Ceremony Held . . > m AI m a
New Giant Mart Store j-i _ a Monday, a m Jan.5 ■ mm
A ribbon-cumng ceremony was held
Monday morning at the Giant Man
store in Fort Valley The celebration
was in honor of the grand opening of
the store
Participating in the ceremony were
company officials, city officials, and
chamber of commerce representatives.
Cutting the ribbon was Tracy Rivers,
president of the Peach County
Chamber of Gimmercc
The store on North Macon Street
(now Camellia Boulevard) has been
vacant for about 18 months It was the
home for many years of the oid
Russell Pearson, Peach Farmer, Dies At 70
James Russell Pearson, retired
farmer and peach grower and member
of the Board of Directors of the Bank of
Fort Valley, died December 30, 1980.
Funeral services for the Crawford
County native were held at the First
Baptist Church in Fort Valley on
December 31, 1980. The Rev. Harold
P- ■
.
Russell Pearson
Newly-elected Sheriff J ohnnie Bedl
am held a swearing in ceremony
for all the deputies in his department
just after midnight on January l, 1981.
Sheriff Becharn explained to the
gathering of friends and supporters
that this is the first year that a sheriff
can swear in his own deputies He read
the oath of office to each one of the
deputies.
Before administering the oath,
Sheriff Becharn told the audience that
it is an honor to he sheriff of this
county. He assured them that lie has
no animosity toward anyone and would
conduct the department in a manner to
serve everyone in the county. Later in
his prayer Sheriff Becharn asked, ”1 et
there be no animosity, no prejudice or
bias in this department . ”
The new sheriff said that he would
have an open door policy at the
sheriff s office and that he would be
available to serve everyone in Peach
County. He said he had two telephones
in his home and will answer them.
"I’m not blindfolded; 1 know what I’m
Stye fCcaiier-®rtbune_L /
Home Owned And Operated For Ninety Years 66 DAYS
IN CAPTIVITY
Fort Valley, Peach County, Ga., January 8, 1981
Colonial Store. Giant Mart reopened
the store for business on December 1,
and company officials say they have
been pleased with the business they
have done here.
The store is billed as a "discount
store” but offers a full line of grocery
items “We have quality products at
lower-than-normal chain store price
averages,” said President Bill J one*
The headquarters for the store is
CommericaJ Properties, Inc., of
Jackson, Ga, The business was begun
tn 1975 and now has stores in Butler,
Withers and Rev. Jerry Mahan
officiated Burial was m Oaklawn
Cemetery.
Mr Pearson was 70 at the time of his
death. He was born on May 29, 1910.
He was a member of the First Baptist
Church.
Included among the survivors are his
wife, Mrs. Uiadys G. Hear son, Fort
Valiev; a daughter, Mrs. Jane Pearson
Campaign Is In Sixth Week
by Diama T. Smith. Chairman
The Christmas Seal campaign is in
its sixth week. To date we are down
$22,000 from last year, having
raised a littie over $245,000. This is
16 per cent of our goal for 1980.
As it is, the 1980 goal of $550,000
is only 15 per cent increase over last
year’s total, and it does not keep up
with inflation and the rising cost of
providing services.
The Georgia Lung Association’s
Christmas SeaJ campaign will
continue through the holidays and
officially draws to a close on J anuary
31. We hope at that time we will
getting into,” he said.
After each of the deputies were
sworn in, Sheriff Becharn pinned the
insignia of rank on the uniforms of
those he has promoted. The new chief
deputy is Jimmy Jones which is
Becharn’s old position; Frtzel detective Ray,
captain in charge of the
division; Fred Barker, lieutenant in
charge of the patrol division; Bobby
Brown, lieutenant in the patrol
division; Joe Wilder, sergeant in the
patrol division; and Hubbard Ste
phens, sergeant in charge of the radio
dispatchers. Becharn
Not offered jobs in the
administration were former deputies
Bobby Maddox and Gary Trawick.
Former Deputy William Rowell has
secured a job with the Fort Valley
Police Department, Becharn said.
Attending the ceremony were Byron
Police Chief Maynard W atson and Fort
Valley Police Chief Sam Stalnaker.
(. .ommenttng on the changes
planned in the Shetiffs Department,
Warner Robins, Barnesvillc, Jackson,
Atlanta, and now Fort Valley.
Jones said that James Reece, a Fort
Valley an, is the manager of the store
here. Jones also pointed out that most
of the personnel hired to run the store
were from Fort Valley. Later General
Manager Waiter lee told Chamber
Executive Director Elwyn McKinney,
“We want to become involved in the
community.” Lee gave McKinney a
check for the store’s membership in
the chamber. "We’re happy to be in
Fort Valley,” said lee.
of Perry; three soas, Mr. James
Russell Pearson Jr., Columbul, Ga.;
Mr. John Pearson and Mr. Joe
Pearson, both of Fort Valley; one
brother, Mr, Willard Pearson, Fort
Valley; two sisters, Mrs. Vtrgie Jones,
'Fort Valley, and Mrs Christine
Jonston, Okeechobee, Fla.
Rooks Funeral Home of Fort Valley
was in charge of the arrangements.
have surpassed our Christmas Seal
goal and be actively involved with
the American Lung Association’s
national promotion of Freedom
From Smoking, a dynamic new
self-help manual for persons
wanting to quit smoking.
Remember Peach County led last
year in contributions in the Central
Branch of 16 counties, namely
Baldwin, Bibb, Bleckley, Crawford,
Dodge, Houston, Jasper, Jones,
Laurens, Montroe, Putnam, Pulaski,
Twiggs, Wilkerson and Wilcox.
Peach has raised 52 per cent of its
goal. Can’t we do it again?
Becharn said in an interview Monday
that his primary job now is to get more
patrol cars on the road. Sheriff Becharn
said that crime prevention was going to
get a high priority and that patrol cars
need to be seen throughout the county
on a more frequent basis. Becharn
commented that it is a lot easier to
prevent a crime than it is to solve it
after it has been committed. He said
that there will be more patrolling
during the daytime when people are
away from their homes at work.
"People will see more of us,” he
commented. Becharn -said that he is
working long hours right now trying to
“get everybody situated” and that
once this is done, he is going to join the
patrols.
So far the transition has been “real
smooth" commented the new sheriff.
He added that the employees of the
department have gone "far beyond the
normal call of duty” to cooperate and
get things into shape.
Copies 25ct. each, 1 Year (local) Subscription $7.80
School Board Chairman Johnson
Calls Editorial An ‘Out And Out Lie’
school Board Chairman A. B.
Johnson called an editorial which
appeared in the December 31 issue of
The leader Tribune an "out and out
lie”. He made this charge and others
ai the end of a late-night Board ol
Education meeting Tuesday night.
Johnson also objected to the editorial
comments which called the board a
"rubber stamp”. Johnson said that he
was cot npletely aware of all the issues
that brought the critical editorial to
beat and that he was aware of the
sources
The chairman said that the term
"rubber stamp” carried the connota
tion that the board was approving
things it ought not to approve and that
the editorial assumes that "some
dastardly deed is going on by
somebody”.
“The real target was not the
members of the board and not me. The
real target was this man (Superintend
tendent of Schools Ernest Anderson),”
tai s:
rose and spoke to the group saying that
Anderson pointed out the progress the
H/Iyu* »*« *»• ™ Ann 11 1 X/inQflfl W 11 1
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Mrs. Ann Vinson was recently
selected to fill a spot on the Peach
County Hospital Authority.
Mrs. Vinson, the wife of Fort Valley
physician F rank Vinson, was a member
of the authority from 1962 until 1964
during her tenure as mayor of Fort
Valley. active in
Mrs. Vinson first became
politics in 1956 when she ran for a Fort
Valley City Council seat. Though she
was defeated by 32 votes in 1956, she
defeated eight men for a seat on the
council in 1958 and was elected mayor
pro tern, a seat she held until she was
elected mayor in 1962.
It was her marriage to Dr. Frank
Vinson in 1936 that brought the
Mobile, Alabama, native to Fort
Valley. While in high school in Mobile
in 1928-29 Mrs. Vinson, the daughter
of a lumberman, worked in a protestant
orphan home. Her mother was active in
the social reform of the era. Mrs.
Vinson continued her formal education
after high school at Gulf Park College
in Gulf Pon, Mississippi.
In 1939 Mrs. Vinson was the
chairman of Red Cross production in
Peach County. It was at this time that
the Red Cross was sending supplies to
Poland.
Mrs. Vinson says she feels very
positive about the new administration
at Peach County Hospital. "I think it’s
wonderful. 1 wish Mr. Karahalis all
kinds of luck in his endeavors,” she
said.
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The sheriff named Captain Ray to head the detective
division.
schcxils have made during his
administration and said that such an
editorial removed the incentive for
trying so hard to build a school in
Byron charged that the
The editorial had
board had abdicated its right to have
input and that Anderson needs more
than a rubber stamp for a board of
education. The editorial also charged
that Chairman Johnson has effectively
shut the board members up by
conveying to them the feeling that if
they speak up they “are making
trouble for no good reason”. The
editorial stated that the board
members "sit around the board table
like ,
a B rou P °\ mummies .
Johnson said fuesday night that he
resented being called a mumrny . He
asked for a retraction of that
statement,
Board member Inutse Powell said
f h at she had not read the article in
question. Wilton Walton, the editor of
H5S T& h s
then asked Chairman Johnson to state
were his personal reactions .
Walton told the board members that
'the opinions expressed in the editorial
were his own and that he was perfectly
capable of doing his own thinking. He
said further that he was standing
behind the editorial. I can take the
heat, he said.
At this point the chairman closed the
door of the meeting to discuss
the direction the board wants to take”.
Jimmy Walker Announces
Candidacy For City Council
Jimmy Walker has announced his
candidacy to fill the unexpired Byron
City Council post left vacant by the
resignation of Bobby Evridge.
Walker, a native of East Point,
moved to Byron in 1979 when he
became associated with the McNeal
Insurance Agency.
Walker graduated from Headland
High School in East Point in 1967 and
continued his education, receiving a
B.S. degree in mathematics from
Auburn University.
Walker is active in Byron Jaycees
where he serves as a director. He is
^ involved in the Batt i c 0 f Byron and
was director of the Byron Road Race.
Among his goals for the city of
Byron, Walker wants to see continued
unity between the city and the county
school system, and he plans to work for
Car Fire In Byron
Officer Kenneth Cameron answered
a cal) to Olsen’s Superette on January
2, 1981 and found that a car which
belonged Lonnie . Mae Couch of
to
Byron was on fire. The Byron Fire
Department was called and they put
out the fire in the 1974 Oldsmobiie.
Johnson said that he had planned this
special meeting before the "article”
appeared in in the paper.
other business at the Tuesday
night meeting, the board spent
considerable time discussing the
possibility of borrowing some money to
construct seats at the new high school
track. Superintendent Anderson said
that the Peach County athletic fund
could borrow the money if the note was
endorsed by the board. Anderson
explained that he had talked to officials
at The Citizens Bank and the Middle
Georgia Bank and both agreed to loan
the athletic fund $25,000 at eight per
cent interest. The board would have to
make the interest payments in order to
qualify for the tax-exempt interest
rate.
No decision was made Tuesday
night. Board member Billy Dick asked
for time to think about it. Anderson
said that he was not “gung-ho” to go
ahead with the project, but he
recommended going ahead now.
The board also decided to tack on
another day of school at the end of the
school term. The reason for this is that
when the school calendar was made
out, there were only 179 days for
school. The state requires 180 days.
The board rejected the idea of
substituting the extra day for the
January 19 planning day or for
substituting it instead of one of the
Spring holidays. The extra day will be
Monday, May 25.
At the beginning of the meeting
Tuesday night, A. B. Johnson was
re-elected as chairman. Charles Vinson
in making the nomination, praised
Johnson for his work.
the completion of the Byron
recreational complex. who is
Walker and his wife June, a
third grade teacher at Byron
Elementary School, have a three-year
old son, B. J. They live in the Old Oak
subdivision in Byron.
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Jimmy Walker