Newspaper Page Text
03 XXX! CRS
CENTRAL RESEARCH STATION
ATLANTA DEPARTt 1EMT iF ARCHIVES'. w I*' .2 SuEabcr-ffirtbune
Volume No. 96, No. 17
Flim flam operation
nets $3,000 from lady
An elderly Fort Valley woman has
been cheated out of at least $3,000.00
in what officials are calling “a scam,
pure and simple”. The 88-year
old woman told investigators from the
Fort Valley Police Department that she
received a call from a man who said he
was an employee of the Bank of Fort
Valley, and needed her help to catch a
crooked teller. The man told her a bank
auditor had found a shortage at the
bank and he needed her to help catch
the teller responsible for it.
Chief John Dankel said the
unidentified man convinced the woman
to remove $3,000.00 in cash from her
safe deposit box and to bring the cash
to her home, where a uniformed man
would pick it up. Chief Dankel said it is
possible that the person or persons
responsible for the scam may have
known that the woman had a large
amount of cash in her safe deposit box,
but he added that it could also have
been just a lucky guess
Shortly after the woman returned
home, a man wearing what she
described as "some sort of blue
uniform,' ’ knocked at the door, and she
gave him the money. Sometime after
he left, the first man called back and
said he appreciated her help in the
matter and reassured her that he would
bring the money back later that day.
"This is just a bank examiner scam
played a little differently,” Chief
Dankel said "It is amazing how
consistently it works Scams of this
nature are often played on the elderly,
but are sometimes used on young
people as well A legitimate bank
examiner would never call people at
home and ask them to withdraw money
from their accounts. Nobody, under
any circumstances should ever give
money to strangers. A bank is just not
going to send someone to your home to
take money.'
A Georgia Bureau of Investigation
agent has been called in to help with
the investigation The Federal Bureau
of Investigation is also being consulted
on the scam, although they are not an
active pan of the investigation So far
"nothing of significance” has been
turned up in the way of similar
operations using a uniformed pick-up
man in any area of the state, Chief
Dankel said
Anyone who may have received any
similar calls is urged to contact either
Chief Dankel or Detective Captain
Wayne McKinnon
Fort Valley police are also
investigating a hit and run car accident
in which one car drove off after striking
and seriously damaging another The
accident occurred at the Carver and
Memorial Drive intersection, ar 7 49
am April 22 Geraldine Jones
Emerson was driving north on Carver
and was attempting a left rum onto
Memorial Drive when the other car
began a right turn from Memorial
Drive onto Carver Drive and swerved
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Mrs. Walter V. McCarson and Mrs. Fay Moore stand at
attention as the members of the 10th Georgia Sons of
Confederate Veterans fire a salute in honor of the Con
federate dead. The salute at Oaklaum Cemetery was well
attended by members of the United Daughters of the
Confederacy who remembered the past on Tuesday.
Home Owned And Operated For Years
Fort Valley, Peach County, Go., Thursday, April 28, 1983
too far over into the other lane, striking
the Emerson car. No one was injured in
the mishap and police are continuing
their investigation into the identi¬
fication of the other driver.
Police officers once again relied
upon their wits to catch an intruder at
the Indian Oaks apartment of
Harris. Officers were summoned to the
apartment at 1:23 a.m., April 23, to
investigate a domestic disturbance
call. When they arrived, Harris told the
officers that she had taken a warrant
out against Bobby Lee Smith
Alabama Avenue with the Justice
the Peace's office earlier that day, but
the warrant had not been served.
Immediately before she called the
police, however, Smith had banged on
the door and demanded to be let in.
When she refused, she said he climbed
in her bedroom window, and she ran
next door to call the police. She said
that when she realized police were on
the way, he was leaving but would be
back after they left.
After searching the area surround
ing the apartment, all three police
officers got into their three cars and
left. After their arrival at the police
station, Officer W'ayne Martin rode
back to the edge of the Indian Oaks
complex with Officer Jimmy Cotton.
Officer Martin then got out and headed
in the general area of Wendy Harris'
apartment, staying back in the wooded
area for cover After he waited in the
woods for about 15 minutes, he
reported that Smith returned and was
"creeping alongside the building
heading for the location of the
apartment.”
Officer Martin alerted Officer Cotton
that he had spotted Smith and was
following him When Smith arrived at
Harris’ door, Officer Martin put his
flashlight beam in his face and as he
started rcf apprehend him, Smith ran
off. Officer Martin gave chase and
shon time later Smith gave up He was
arrested on the assault warrant from
the sheriffs office and on criminal
trespassing charges. He was later
released on bonds totaling $300.00.
There was apparently no damage South to
the All American Company on
Camellia Boulevard after someone
pried off a back window Manager Jim
Heer reported the apparent break-in at
8 00 April 23 Heer told police he could
not find anything missing from the
building
Officer Leon Smith stopped Robert
L Smarts of Warner Robins at 1:24
a m on Peachtree Street in Fort Valley
and charged the 52-year-old with DU1
Smarts was released on $500.00 bond.
Darrell Keith Hicks, 23, of a Fort
Valley address was stopped at East
Main Street and Beech Street at 4:23
a m., April 23, for failure to stop at a
stop sign and was additionally charged
with DUI. Hicks was released on
$325 00 bonds
April 26, Confederate Memorial Day. The re-enactment
group is commanded by Steve Smith of Byron. Other
local participants in uniform are Curt, Chris and Jack
Hodge of Fort Valley. The UDC and the soldiers had
previously participated in a ceremony held at
Beechwood School in Mdrsha’.tmlle.
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Owners home burns
When the Leland "Pete" Mangrum family left their home at 205 Martha
Lane early Monday morning, all was fine. When they returned a short time
later they were greeted by devastation. Both the Mangrums work out of
town and had to be notified by phone with the bad news of the fire. Three
Peach rated at 75-80%
“We will be selling peaches this
year instead of buying them. ”
So was the assessment Tuesday of
the recent cold damage by County
Agent Billy Dick following several days
of inspecting orchards throughout
Peach and into neighboring counties.
This year’s crop of pecans remains
largely unhurt, he assured.
Dick and Dr. Maurice “Butch”
Ferree, chief of the Extension Service
Department of Horticulture at the
University of Georgia, Athens, spent
the entire day Monday in the orchards.
As everyone, especially the growers,
expected, they found cold damage
resulting from the 30-degree temper
ature reading of Monday, April 18.
"The peach crop as a whole came
through pretty good,” Dick said,
’ adding that cold damage, or lack of it,
could not be attributed to individual
varieties. "Generally, it was site
location rather than variety. The lower
the site, the heavier the damage,”
referring to the elevation of the orchard
slopes where the air stirred more above
than below, helping ease the severity
of frost.
“Not one variety was wiped out, »»
the county agent assured. He said that
this week’s assessment showed there
will be “80 per cent of a normal good
crop” provided this spring’s lingering
cold snaps now are at an end.
Dick said they based the 80 per cent
figure on “still a lot of question
marks,” explaining that several more
■ rm owners in Peach County
to new assessments in June
Owners of property in Peach County
will be receiving totally revised and
completed updated tax notices early in
June on schedule, and as promised,
county tax officials reminded this
week. The notices, which are not bills,
will reflect current market values and
will represent “fair and equitable”
assessments, they pointed out.
With the notices of what their 1983
taxes will be also will come surprises
— some pleasant, others not — for
most owners of homes, land and other
properties, for most of the notices will
show increased taxation through
higher evaluations than they have been
receiving in years past. Others may
actually call for less taxes than last
year’s bill, depending on how the
property's individual characteristics
have faired in the spiraling trends of
the market place.
Road
Despite being hampered by rainy
weather, grading of the State College
Drive is continuing this week. County
Road Superintendent Jerry Bryan said
Tuesday morning that this phase of the
project will soon be complete. The next
step is the paving which the county will
accomplish with its equipment.
This progress has led Commission
Clerk Tom Franklin to predict that
“weather permitting’’ the road will be
complete by the last of July.
The road will connect Fort Valley
State College with Georgia Highway 49
1 Year (local) Subscription $8.84
rooms in the house were very heavily damaged by fire, and other areas
received extensive damage from smoke and water. A neighbor alerted
firemen at 9:05 a.m. after she saw smoke coming from the house. Firemen
could not determine the cause of the blaze. photo by Howard Colay
warm days are required to see just how
many of the injured peaches are going
to drop off and how many are going to
heal themselves and grow into mature
fruit.
He said all packing sheds will be
operating this summer, although the
crop is tunning about two weeks
behind normal season due to late cold
nights and days. The first picking was
expected to be during the seven-day
period from May 25 to J une freeze 1. burns
As for the pecans, some
were found on the nuts. Although it
still is too early to determine the total
damage, the specialists agreed the
The new values and tax levies are
results of months of compiling data,
appraising, assessing and reviewing in
a program started in late 1979 to
modernize the county tax structure.
With an objective of restructuring for
fairness and equality to all citizens who
own property in the county, Chief
Appraiser Tom Waldon and his crew of
tax specialists put the task of updating
into ‘ ‘ high gear’ ’ when he and his wife,
Barbara, moved here early last year.
A target date for completion was set
for early summer.
Since the last re-evaluation was done
in 1967, it was pointed out that there
had become an accumulation of
inequities in property values and tax
assessments throughout the county. A
number of steps were taken to begin
corrective action.
Besides using new aerial maps,
a t the county line. In the recent past
the county has constructed a new
bridge across the railroad, and the
newly paved road will increase the
traffic across the bridge.
In other news about road paving,
Tom Franklin reported “good prog¬
ress” on acquiring deeds to the
necessary right of way along Kay
Road. “We are hoping to grade it this
year if we get ail the right of way
cleared,” said Franklin.
The Kay Road paving program was
helped considerably when State DOT
25o
1983 crop in Peach County is generally
considered safe. Areas to the north
appear to have been hurt more.
In surveying several local growers
earlier this week, there seemed to be
general agreement on the fruit
kill-survive situation. Don Wainwright,
who farms some 3,000 acres of trees in
Peach and neighboring counties,
indicated his crop suffered high losses
in some areas while others sustained
negligible damage.
Duke Lane Jr., another high-acreage
grower, gave a similar report that his
outlook for a good harvest was at this
point 75 to 80 per cent.
verification of size, construction
features, quality and depreciation of
each residential, commercial and
industrial building was made as of last
January 1. Every rural acreage
building site had to be checked for
accessibility, topography and other
factors. Each acre of rural land,
including farm, woods, orchards, and
farm ponds, has been categorized well-drained by
quality types, from deep,
soil or excellent cultivatable soil to
shallow, poorly drained and deep,
sandy soil:
According to Waldon and Assessors
J. T. Joiner, John Demons and Grant
Vcnnes, timberlands were graded
similarly with values computed to
include volumes of timber per acre and
whether it is cordwood or saw timber,
Besides the quality types of orchard
See ASSESSMENT page 2
Commissioner Tom Moreland waived
the usual right-of-way requirements
for the road from 80 feet to 60 feet.
This action had the county com¬
missioners smiling as they declared
that the project suddenly became a
possibility.
Tom Franklin said that the DOT
engineers are now surveying the Bible
Camp Road. This work is in
preparation for the acquiring of the
rights of way by the county. Franklin
said that it will possibly be another
year before that road will see paving.