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Wednesday, August 18, 1999 Peach County's source of local news, advertising and sports for over 100 years • • *
®he Heater -tribune
Vol. No. 110, issue 33 2 Sections, 18 Pages
AC
Inside ut
FVMS NIGHT
Fort Valley Middle School
will have a Back-To-School
night on Thursday, August
19. It will begin at 6 p.m. in
the school cafeteria. They
will also have the first P.T.O.
(Parent Teacher Organiza¬
tion) meeting of the year.
Joint meeting
There will be an Intergov¬
ernmental Meeting of the
Peach County Board of Com¬
missioners, City of Fort Val¬
ley, City of Byron and the
Utility Commission of Fort
Valley at 6:00 p.m..Thursday,
August 26, 1999 in the Pub¬
lic Meeting Room at the
Peach County Courthouse
Annex, 205 West Church
Street, Fort Valley, Georgia.
Volunteer Training
Volunteer Training for
Children’s Bereavement
Program, Sat., Sept. 18, 9
a.m. - 4 p.m.; Sun., Sept.
19, 1-5 p.m. Peach Region¬
al Medical Center Confer¬
ence Room. Lunch will be
served. Laura Smith and
Nancy Watson will lead
the program. Pre-register
by calling 477-0335.
Bereavement Support
A bereavement support
group will begin Sept. 9 and
continue through Nov. 11.
Every Thursday night from
6:30-8 p.m. for 10 consecu¬
tive weeks at Thomas Pub¬
lic Library. Must attend all
10 classes. Pre-register by
calling 477-0335. Alicia Wil¬
son will lead the program.
Safety Class
An Internet Safety Class
for Parents and Youth will be
held on August 21, from
10:30 a.m. until noon, at the
Museum of Aviation Eagle
Building. Separate classes
will be held for youth and
adults. Seating is limitec
and reservations are
required. Please call 953-
5675 to make reservations.
Want to adopt?
Thinking about investing?
Invest in the future of Geor¬
gia’s children. Help provide
security to Georgia’s chil¬
dren and their families ... for
the rewards. If interested
call the Peach County
Department of Family ant
Children Services at (912)
825-6428.
SUPPORT GROUP
A new service
Wednesday, August 18,
at 7:00 8:30, Sexua
Assault Support Group.
more info and referrals,
tact HOb p ’s
< .
resource Center 2762 Wat
son Blvd. Warner Robins,
• 31093. 912-953-5675 .
(Continued on Page 2A)
Officer
on leave
after
shooting
By Jerry Murtagh
The Leader-Tribune
A Fort Valley police officer
attempting to execute two
warrants ended up shooting a
suspect in the arm last week.
According to Special Agent
in Charge Gary Rothwell of
the Georgia Bureau of Inves¬
tigation, Sgt. Wayne Mitchell
stopped a vehicle early last
Thursday. Sgt. Mitchell was
attempting to execute two
warrants on 28-year-old
David Payton, an occupant of
the vehicle.
Payton was wanted for theft
by-taking and simple battery,
as well as for failure to
appear in municipal court.
During the course of the
stop, Rothwell said, Mitchell
was engaged in a struggle
with Payton and subsequently
shot him in the arm.
Payton was taken to the
Peach Regional Medical Cen¬
ter and transferred to the
Macon Medical Center.
After treatment at the Medi¬
cal Center, Payton was turned
over to authorities at the Bibb
County Jail on Saturday.
Mitchell, who was named
Employee of the Year by the
Lions’ Club for 1998, and was
City of Fort Valley Employee
of the Month for April 1998,
was placed on administrative
City authorizes $22,000
transfer to buy trailer
A trailer used by the city in
building demolitions was
demolished recently.
Fort Valley’s director of pub¬
lic works, Richard Powell, told
city council last week that a
trailer used to carry off mate¬
rials from demolished build¬
ings tipped over and was
destroyed while delivering
materials to the landfill.
“It’s the second time the
trailer has tipped over in the
last three months. The first
time it tipped over at the
barn.
We had the insurance com¬
pany eome out. At that time
the tractor tipped over with it.
Insurance paid for the tractor
Forum expected to provide
Y2K answers from entities
It was announced that The
Citizens Bank will sponsor a
Y2K forum on Tuesday, August
24, 1999 at the Peach County
Courthouse. The program will
begin at 6:30 p.m. in the court¬
room
Among those organizations
scheduled to discuss their prepa¬
rations for Y2K, in addition to
the Citizens Bank, are the Fort
Valley Utilities Commission,
Flint Electric Membership Corp.,
Alltel Telephone Company,
Southern Bell Telephone Com-
it i. i
■■
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I
,
40 *- . :
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Officer Wayne Mitchell when
he was accepting his
Employee of the Month
Award.
leave with pay pending an
investigation of the shooting.
Fort Valley Police Chief Jer¬
ry Stripling pointed out that
Georgia law requires adminis¬
trative leave with pay in any
officer involved shooting.
Rothwell said the GBI had
not finished its investigation
but would forward the results
to the Fort Valley Police
Department as soon as they
became available.
Investigation of officer
involved shootings by the GBI
is not required, Rothwell said.
He added that some counties
choose not to use the services
of the GBI.
Chief Stripling indicated
that he prefers to have the
GBI investigate these inci¬
dents because of its role as a
disinterested third party.
but not for the trailer.”
Powell said that insurance
agent Jack Lee said the trail¬
er wasn’t listed.
Council members discussed
the problem of guaranteeing
that all property is insured.
Mayor John Stumbo said he
had discussed extending the
limits on the liability policy
and on the vehicular policy.
Council members agreed
unanimously to permit a
transfer of $22,000 in the
public works budget in order
to purchase a new trailer. The
funds are available because of
savings from cancellation of
the BFI contract for trash col¬
lection.
pany, the City of Byron and the
Peach County Sheriffs Depart
ment.
Each organization will discuss
their preparations and a ques¬
tion and answer period will fol¬
low. Fred Greer, President of Hie
Citizens Bank, commented,
“This is an effort to provide
answers to citizens about year
2000 and to give Peach County
citizens an opportunity to ask
questions directly. I hope every
one will take advantage of this
unique opportunity.”
FV signs off
on agreement
By Jerry Murtagh
The Leader-Tribune
Fort Valley City Council
moved Peach County one step
closer to a county-wide water
and sewer system at a special
meeting last week.
The council voted unanimous¬
ly to sign an intergovernmen¬
tal agreement with Peach
County in support of a county¬
wide water and sewer system.
The agreement was necessary
as a first step toward placing a
1% special purpose local option
sales tax (SPLOST) on the bal¬
lot at a special election to be
held on September 21st.
The tax, which would not-be
in effect until the current 1%
sales tax expires, would contin¬
ue for five years or until $12
million is raised fcv the project.
Council tabled the intergov¬
ernmental agreement at their
4
Prayer walk
at schools
on Saturday
In response to the school shoot¬
ings in California and Conyers,
GA., the Georgia Baptist Wom¬
en’s Missionary Union has set
Walking and Prayer go*, is.
They were asked to be
involved to blanket every school
in prayer by people of all faiths
represented in Fort Valley and
Byron
Choose the school you want to
walk around. On Saturday,
August 21, 1999 be at the flag
pole of that school at 9:30 a.m.
in Fort Valley. A leader will be at
each school to get you started.
Prayer ideas will be there for
you. You will be asked to walk in
twos and pray aloud as you
walk. Then come back, to your
leader and relate how you feel
about this. The entire event
should take 30-45 min.
Fort Valley schools to walk
around are:
Primary, Chamlee Dr.; Ele¬
mentary, Tulip Dr.; Middle
school, Peggy Dr.; Kay School,
Allen St; Headstart Spruce St;
Peach Area Child Care, Morris
St.
We need God’s protection for
our schools and want you to be
involved, says Dorothy Hudson.
Plan now to be a walker. Satur
day, August 21 at 9:30 a.m.
In Byron, prayer walkers are
asked to meet at First Baptist
Church, Hwy. 49 and White
Road at 8:30 a.m. The group will
proceed to the schools - Byron
Elementary and Byron Middle
School after gathering,
regular session this month
because of a consensus that
they were not well informed
enough about the details of the
plan.
They took the measure off the
table and voted to support it
after Melvin Walker, chairman
of the Peach County Water
and Sewer Authority, reviewed
the history of the proposal at
the special meeting.
Walker opened his remarks to
council by observing that after
hearing of council’s decision to
table the motion at their regu¬
lar session he felt “sort of like
a long tailed cat in a room full
of rocking chairs.”
The PCWSA began to consid¬
er the question of a county¬
wide water and sewer system
in 1997, according to Walker.
“Wu vj we met we ’ooked at
all the'rules and regulations
they handed out to us and
material that came down from
the general assembly...
Fort Valley... already had a
water and sewer system and
Byron already had one. We
looked out in the county and
saw areas that needed work.
W(* rnllinp meetings
and we had the people from
Byron there and from Fort Val¬
ley as well as the utilities com¬
mission.
Every elected body in the
county was there.
We started talking about
what we might be able to do.”
Walker noted that Fort Valley
and Byron already had territo¬
ries they were serving and that
after passage of HB 489 it
became clear that “wherever
there was an existing water
and sewer system you can’t
have another.”
At that point, Walker said,
the PCSWA began to consider
what could be done within the
constraints of HB 489.
Walker noted that in parts of
Escape effort thwarted
by local authorities here
Peach County Sheriff’s
Department and the Fort Val¬
ley Police cut short an alleged
murderer’s escape effort early
last Saturday morning.
According to Major Terry
Deese, the sheriff’s depart¬
ment received a fax from
Detective Jack Watson, of the
Waterboro, S.C. Sheriff’s
Department, indicating they
had traced a phone call to the
Budget Inn in Peach County.
The call was made by 38
year-old David Michael Brown
who was wanted by Waterboro
authorities for allegedly killing
his estranged wife while she
braided her daughter’s hair in
the family kitchen.
According to Captain Allan
Beech, of the Waterboro Sher¬
iff’s Department, Brown’s oth¬
er daughter and his two-year
old grandchild, also in the
kitchen, witnessed the mur¬
50e Per Copy
the county, when it rains, peo¬
ple have to worry about septic
tanks backing up into their
houses.
He added that six and eight
inch water lines throughout
some of the county result in loss
of pressure so that fire hydrants
can’t operate properly.
“We started out asking our¬
selves how we could get this
done so the cities of Byron and
Fort Valley would have autono¬
my and i^e could serve the
areas that need to be served.
At the same time you had
businesses interested in com¬
ing to the county and because
we don’t have sewer and water,
they’re going to go to areas
where they do have water and
sewer.
Warner Robins", Walker said,
“has been able to annex the i.
way they’ve been
annexing...because they can
literally lay line as fast as you
can walk...they have the capac¬
ity...they couldn’t annex all
these areas if they didn’t have
the capacity.”
Walker noted that both Byron
and Fort Valley have wastewa¬
ter svstems that are operating
at or very near to capacity.
Walker explained that the
first effort of the PCWSA was
to develop an agreement for
service provision in the county
which would maintain the
autonomy of both Byron and
Fort Valley.
Once a territorial service
agreement was signed by
Byron, Fort Valley and the
County, the PCWSA retained
Tribble and Richardson to
develop preliminary plans for
water and sewer for the county.
The plan developed by Trib¬
ble and Richardson was divid¬
ed into a five-year-plan, a ten
year plan and a twenty year
plan.
(See SPLOST, Page2A)
der.
After the shooting, Beech
said, a struggle ensued and
another family member took
the gun from Brown who then
fled the house.
Fort Valley police stopped
Brown on a traffic violation
when his 1988 Grey Oldsmo
bile pulled out of the Huddle
House parking lot at 2:38 on
the afternoon of August 11th.
At the time of the traffic stop,
the sheriff’s department was
preparing to execute warrants
against Brown at the Budget
Inn.
According to Deese, when
they heard of the traffic stop,
deputies from the sheriff’s
department went to the scene
and arrested Brown.
Brown waived extradition
and was picked up by two
Waterboro investigators on
Monday to be taken back to