Newspaper Page Text
25e
Volume No. 96, No. 18
will not federal
"We intend to comply,’’ said Bvron
Mayor Larry Collins simply of the
federal government’s charges that the
city of Byron has failed to provide the
black community with adequate
recreational services and drainage
services,
Mayor Collins told the other city
officials at the city council meeting last
Tuesday night, April 26, that he has
signed a letter "without an admission
of any violations" confirming to the
Department of the Treasury that the
city will comply,
care center proposed for
The citizens of Byron will be
enjoying the services of the new
Urgent Care Center by July 1 if all goes
according to the plans of the Peach
County Hospital Authority The health
care facility will be a branch of the
hospital and is intended to provide
medical services for the north end of
the county which is not readily serviced
by the hospital.
The Urgent Care Center idea has
been in the works for about a year,
according to Hospital Administrator
George Karahalis. He said the center is
not designed to take patients away
from their own private physicians, nor
to provide emergency health care for
any serious or life threatening illness
or injury. The UCC was planned to
provide health care services without
appointment during hours when
doctors' offices are closed: Friday from
3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p m., Saturday and
Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.
The clinic costs should be 25 to 45 per
less than emergency room costs,
said
The clinic is also intended to relieve
hospital emergency room of many
illnesses or injuries which are
true emergency cases. Although
UCC will be staffed by a physician
a nurse, all serious or
cases will be referred
the nearest appropriate hospital
First year losses for the clinic may
as high as $16,000 according to
who said the figure was “a
rough estimate, purposely made
the high side “ The administrator
that the losses would be
by the number of patients
at the UCC who need to be
to Peach County Hospital
should improve revenues at the
bv as much as $317,000
Karahalis said, adding that
hosts middle Georgia police school
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Assistant District Attorney Wayne Tillis conducts one of the classes held
or the campus of Fort Valley State College. photo by Carta Hilt
tune ICeaibEr-Sribunc
Home Owned And Operated For Ninety Years
Fort Valley, Peach County, Ga., Thursday, May 5, 1983
The mayor said that he w ; as “real
surprised” about the complaint which
was originally filed in January 1980.
He said that he did not have a copy of
the complaint and did not know who
filed it, but that since the federal
government has determined that “it is
more likely than not” that Byron is in
non-compliance, the city will seek to
resolve the problems.
“We plan to keep the ‘geetus’
coming,” said Mayor Collins of the
imperiled revenue sharing funds. The
Treasury Department has threatened
the figure was “purely an educated
guess.
Dr. William Briggs, an emergency
room physician at Peach County
Hospital, is presently the only
physician on the UCC. staff. As the top
physician, he will help in the upcoming
recruiting efforts
Thursday’s motion to proceed with
proposal
angers doctor in Byron
The only physician practicing in the
city of Byron is adamantly opposed to
the opening of the proposed Urgent
Care Clinic (UCC) which will be
operated in that city as an arm of the
Livingston Peach County Hospital. that Dr. James
says the present
volume of business in Byron does not
warrant either another doctor or a
weekend clinic.
“I have three to four patients a
weekend that I send to the emergency
room and another four or five cases
which 1 handle over the phone. I live in
Macon and 1 prefer Macon hospitals as
do most of all my patients. They are all
handled appropriately and at the
present time, I feel this is adequate,”
he said
The doctor went on to say that he
estimates that it would cost $50,000 to
$100,000 to establish the weekend
clinic in Byron. "1 don’t know who pays
for the extra money needed to
appropriate funds for the clinic or why
we need one when what we have now is
perfectly adequate “
Livingston said that he has offered to
keep his clinic open Saturday or
or any additional hours if it was
hosted a first this week, as 23 officers
from eight middle Georgia area
departments met at Fort Valley State
College for two days of classes on
obtaining and presenting evidence
from a crime scene.
The course was sponsored by the
Port Valley Police Dept, and san
etioned by the Georgia Peace Officer
Standard and I raining Council. It was
taught in cooperation with the Georgia
Police Academy in Atlanta, and all
graduates will receive credits towards
certification as a crime scene
technician. According to Chief John
Dankel. this could be very important in
criminal trials because the detective
could testify as an expert witness.
The decision to host the class in Fort
Valley came about after Chief Dankel
and several other police officers
noticed that the class was not
scheduled to be taught anywhere in
middle Georgia in the near future, and
the course is a required course for the
crime scene technician.
Among the certified or licensed
instructors were: Wayne “Biff' Tillis,
assistant district attorney: Jay Jarvis of
the state crime lab in Macon, and Andy
Sheehan of the Georgia Crime
Information Center
Chief Dankel said officers from the
Macon Police Department. Fort Valley
State College campus police, Dooley
Countv Sheriff s Department. Monroe
County Sheriff s Department. Warner
Robins Police Department. Fort Valley
Police Department. Oglethorpe Police
Department, and Montezuma Police
Department participated in the class.
to cut off these funds if the allegations
are not corrected.
Collms remarked that the original
complaint, as noted bv the feds,
listed eight areas where discrimination
in delivery of services were charged,
They were drainage, sewer system,
street signs, street paving, fire
protection, parks and cemeteries,
street lighting, and recreational
services, facilities and equipment,
After an investigation in 1982, the
other six charges were dropped and no
remedy was proposed by the
final leases, contracts and other
legalities concerning the UCC passed
unanimously.
In other discussion, Assistant
Administrator and Comptroller Vernon
Bowden reported that the overall
figures during the first five months of
the fiscal year were the best since
1975. “I see that as a very positive
sign,” he said.
needed, but that he did not receive any
requests to do so. He said that he had
tried to keep health care costs down at
his clinic and had even provided
thousands of dollars worth of medical
care to people without insurance or the
means to pay medical bills. The
physician said rhat he fears for who will
eventually have to foot the bills for
opening and running the UCC.
In answer to a statement made at the
hospital authority’s meeting last week
that he was afraid of the effect the
clinic would have on his practice, Dr.
Livingston said the UCC definitely
would interfere with his practice. “If
we bring another doctor and the clinic
into this town, and he gets established
he would be likely to open a practice.
We at the office, and the people of this
town, worked hard for two and a half
years to keep this office open. And we
have some very fine people here now
working hard to keep it open, but the
present volume of patients does not
warrant another doctor in this town,
and our records will show that,” he
said.
Lillian Williams, a lifelong Byron
See ANGR Y on Page 2
bureaucrats,
Alderman James Williams said that
he had a meeting Thursday (April 28)
with representatives of the Soil
Conservation Service to begin survey
ing Byron’s drainage problems. He
said that it would be a city-wide survey
which would include the black
community. After the survey is made,
a plan of action will be proposed for
correcting the drainage problems.
Mayor Collins said that Recreation
Director Robert Stump is planning to
respond to the charge of different
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The greased pig won the contest last year. These boys carried a distinct odor with them the rest of the day.
Battle of Byron set for Saturday
The city of Byron is gearing up all
this week for the fifth annual Battle of
Byron folk festival which starts late
Friday afternoon with a parade
followed by a square dance. The road
race at 8:30 Saturday kicks off the main
day of competitions, amusements,
frolicking and just plain fun.
Three new events have been
organized for this year, arm wrestling,
cow chip throwing and a cherry pie
eating contest with hands tied behind,
The parade will start at 6:00 p.m.
from the First Baptist Church on
Highway 49, move through the
downtown district and end at the Byron
school grounds. Square dancing that
follows in the school gym from 7:00 to
10:00 p.m. will feature Larry Sandefur,
caller, and his music. Dancers are
asked to please wear tennis shoes on
the gym floor.
Saturday events will be scattered
over town from 10:00 a.m..
The road race will feature a
10-kilo. netcr road race and a one-mile
fun run. They are open to all ages and
both sexes Runners in the 10
kilometer race will be grouped by sex
ar)c j ages. Overall winner in the men’s
women’s divisions and top
finishers in each age group will receive
trophies, as will the overall winner of
t g e fun run. All finishers in both events
will receive "Battle” T-shirts,
Greased pig catching, frog jumping,
tobacco spitting and fun contests for
rwo-to-four-year-olds will be staged in
Jailhouse Park. Challenge events will
inc | uc i e _ but not i lfTUte d to — bed
racing, fanny racing, sack racing, and
bubblegum bubble blowing. Byron
Police Department has challenged
Wanderlodge customer dies from
gynshot after freak accident Tuesday
A 70-year-old man was accidently
shot and later died as a result of a
gunshot wound Tuesday, May 2 The
accident happened in a Wanderlodge
parked in the Bird's Nest campground
behind the Wanderlodge plant.
Albert Cowart, Winter Garden,
Florida, was taken by ambulance to the
Peach County Hospital where he was
treated and then taken immediately in
to surgery.
Cowart and his brother had come to
Fort Valley in a Wanderlodge to pick
1 Year (local) Subscription $8.84
services in recreational matters.
The government’s contention re
garding drainage i in the black
neighborhood centers around the
number of homes that front onto
streets with open drainage ditches.
The Department of Treasury missive
states that a disproportionate number
of black homes do not have access to
these drainage ditches as compared
with the number of white homes.
Black residents also alleged that
they were provided inadequate
recreational services and
Byron Mayor and Council to a
bubblebath-in-a-bathtub race and the
challenge has been answered.
A dunking booth will operate all day,
but challengers here have not been
revealed.
A warm food booth will be open all
day, as will registration for prizes for
the 51 donated items. The 6:00 p.m.
awarding of the 51 donated items will
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With every hair in place, Detective James Barbour hits the water in last
year's Battle.
up Cowart’s new Wanderlodge. He was
planning to sell his old model to his
brother and drive the new one home.
The shooting occurred as the two men
were transferring belongings from one
Wanderlodge to the other. An interior
engine cover was raised, and the 357
magnum Ruger revolver fell into the
crack where the cover fits. As the gun
landed, the engine cover slammed
shut, apparently lodging the gun in an
upward position and snapping the
hammer of the revolver. The bullet
25c
They charge that the location of
gymnasium and ball fields used by the
Recreation Department are almost
exclusively in or near the white
residential areas, yet minorities
comprise 31 per cent of the population
of the county. The feds also charge that
the Recreation Department has not
made an effort to lease or improve any
athletic facility in the black com¬
munities of either Byron or Fort Valley,
but instead they have chosen to utilize
only facilities located near white
include a painting by local artist Mrs.
Frances Moseley, a bicycle donated by
the police department, and a television
donated by J erry Allen.
Among the games also will be a cake
walk, bingo, and visitors will be bussed
to the obstacle course.
Included in the scheduled enter¬
tainment are clowns of the Macon
See BATTLE on Page 2
travelled upward and through the seat
where Albert Cowart was sitting.
Police Chief John Dankel said
Cowart was conscious and talking with
Officer David Coleman and Detective
Lieutenant Jerry Stripling before he was
taken into surgery.
The police report indicated that the
path of the bullet, upward into
Cowart’s body, destroyed too many
vital organs. The bullet apparently
lodged just beneath his heart.