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lEarly (ILnunty News
Volume 124 -No. 15
© Early County News, Inc.
November 19-25
Farm - City Week
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The prosperity and well-being of our community being dependent upon the
cooperation between the two great elements of our society, the farmers and the
urban people. Mayor Billy Fleming has proclaimed November 19-25 as Farm-
City Week.
A widening gulf of misunderstanding, caused by complexities of their in
dividual problems and the divergence of their activities, must be eliminated.
Each group must understand the other if our American way of life is to endure.
The proclamation urges all farm and city people to participate during Farm-
City Week in becoming reacquainted.
Fire Destroys Home
A Blakely couple and their two
year-old child had to climb out a win
dow to escape flames which destroyed
their home Monday night.
Jack Burkes and his family had to
flee through the window when a flash
fire resulting from gasoline fumes
quickly engulfed their home at 146
Redbud Street.
According to fire chief Franklin
Brown, Burkes had a chain saw and a
gasoline can near an open fireplace
when the fire broke out. ’
Brown stated that when the firemen
arrived on the scene just before 7
P.M. Monday, Barnes already were
Burglary Charges
A 38-year-old Blakely man is facing
charges of burglary and aggravated
assault following a break-in this past
week at South Main Package Store.
Officers answered a burglar alarm
at the store around 2 A.M. When they
approached the store the suspect,
identified as Tommy Chandler of
South Boulevard, locked himself in
the back storeroom of the store.
Chandler refused to come out of the
store and told officers he had a .38 cal.
pistol.
Officers eventually fired three can
nisters of tear gas into the room with
Chandler, but three hours later he still
Tuesday Night
Community-Wide Services
The Joint Thanksgiving Community
Wide Service planned by the Blakely
Ministerial Alliance will be held at
First Baptist Church in Blakely on
November 23,7:30 p.m.
This is an annual Thanksgiving ser
vice for the entire community and you
are cordially invited to attend.
The message for this Thanksgiving
season will be brought by Rev. Roger
Russell, Minister of the First Freewill
Baptist Church, and the music will be
under the direction of the new
Minister of Music of First Baptist
Church, Rev. Steve Williams.
Appreciation Day Called Off
Farmer Fish Fry Set
The Farmer’s Appreciation Day,
sponsored by the Blakely-Early Coun
ty Chamber of Commerce and plann
ed for November 20, has been cancell
ed.
“Even the best of plans sometimes
goes awry,” stated Mrs. Nancy J.
Kinsey, Executive Director of the
Chamber.
"Although lack of funds caused the
cancellation of the day’s events, we
still want to say “thank you, Mr.
Farmer.” So on November 30, a Fish
Fry with all the trimmings will be
held at the Early County High School.
Mr. Warren Cleveland, of the ASCS of
fice will supervise the cooking.
coming from the doors and windows.
Burkes received minor burns to his
hand as he attempted to throw the
chain saw frorn/b • ’"ruse
Unable U/ahage anything from
the flamiiP fipse, the Burkes lost
everyth I, reir home.
Anyoi, jible to donate furniture,
clothing, etc. is asked to contact the
Blakely Fire Department at 723-5150
for further information.
Chief Brown also urges everyone to
use extreme caution when consider
ing using gasoline and other
flamables inside a home or utility
room.
refused to come out.
Around 6 A.M. officers Mike
Thomas and store owner Billy Ray
Murkerson went into the store and
talked to Chandler and brought him
out a short while later.
He told officers that he flushed his
face and eyes with ice from an ice
machine in the room and breathed
through a damp rag.
The alarm was answered by the
Blakely Police Department assisted
by members of the Early County
Sheriff’s Department and Blakely-
Early County Drug Task Force.
All of the other pastors in the
Ministerial Alliance from all of the
churches will be participating in the
service, and the entire public is in
vited to attend.
“We have much to be thankful for in
Blakely and in Early County, and we
definitely need to get together and lift
one community voice in Thanksgiving
for these blessings,” states Dr. Dor
riety, the host pastor.
Please feel free to share with us in
this Thanksgiving celebration is Dr.
Dorriety’s invitation.
Mrs. Kinsey went on to say that the
speaker for the evening will be Mr.
Tyrone Spearman from the Georgia
Peanut Commodity Commission, Tif
ton.
Food, entertainment, fun and
fellowship will be the order of the
evening. Awards will be presented for
the Farmer of the Year, Young
Farmer of the Year and other agri
related awards.
All farmers and their spouses are
invited to attend this special evening.
To be able to plan for the fish fry, we
need your help. If you plan to attend,
please call the Chamber office at
723-3741.
Thursday, Nov. 18,1982
Early County - Blakely, Georgia 31723
Georgia’s Unemployment
Lowest Among States
While the rest of the nation suffers
the worst unemployment in 40-odd
years, Georgia’s rate is actually being
reduced and at 7.4 percent is the
lowest in the entire Southeast, Labor
Commissioner Sam Caldwell said to
day.
“We certainly don’t want to gloat
about all this," Caldwell said, “but we
can be thankful that we have a diver
sified economy and volatile growth in
many of our metropolitan areas -with
Atlanta leading the way.
“Umemployment remains much
too high, even in this state,” Caldwell
continued. “And we, again, don’t like
to point a finger at a sister state like
Alabama, but the fact remains that
Alabama has almost twice the jobless
rate that Georgia has, and many other
states are almost in the same situa
tion.”
The Georgia Department of Labor
reported the 7.4 percent rate for
August, the latest month for which of
ficial statistics are available. That is
a decided drop from the twin 8.1
percents reached in both June and Ju
ly. Then, too, five of the state’s half
dozen Standard Metropolitan
Statistical Areas reported declines in
unemployment.
The rest of the states in the
Southeast lined up like this, respec
tively: Alabama, 14.5; Florida, 7.5;
Mississippi, 12.3; Kentucky, 11.2;
North Carolina, 9.8; South Carolina,
11.7 and Tennessee 11.6.
“We can all be glad that Atlanta,
where some 40 percent of the jobs in
Georgia are located, has one ot the
lowest metro rates anywhere,”
Caldwell said. “It just proves that
Atlanta is indeed one of the brightest
Thanksgiving
Deadlines
The NEWS will be published a day
early next week due to Thanksgiving
Holidays.
Please note the following deadlines:
Classified Ads - Friday (Nov. 19) at 5
p.m.; Display Ads - Friday (Nov. 19)
at 5 p.m.; news items - Monday (Nov.
22) at 12 noon.
The NEWS staff appreciates
everyone's cooperation in working
with these deadlines.
Ham & Turkey
The Blakely Drum and Bugle Corps
will be smoking hams and turkeys for
Thanksgiving.
17-20 lb. smoked hams will be $30.00
and 14-15 lb. smoked turkeys will be
$20.00.
Your hams and turkeys can be pick
ed up between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Wednesday, November 25 at the
American Legion.
To place your order, contact any
member of the Blakely Drum and
Bugle Corps.
Packer Football
Banquet Set
The Annual Packer Football and
Cheerleaders Banquet will be held
Monday, November 29, at 7 p.m. at
the Early County Elementary School
Cafeteria!
“Everybody’s A Star" will be the
theme of the banquet which will
feature Ric Hall, Bobcat Head Coach,
as guest speaker.
A covered dish supper of fried
chicken, potato salad, green
vegetables, dessert, and tea, will be
brought and spread by those atten
ding.
Everyone who has helped make the
“Packers" the program it is, is urged
to come and enjoy the banquet.
Holidays
The local public schools will dismiss
at the end of the school day Tuesday,
November 23 for the Thanksgiving
Holidays. The schools will reopen at
their usual time Monday, November
29.
buckles on the Sun Belt. Atlanta’s rate
is down again, and that is certainly a
positive in all the economic gloom
that surrounds us these days.
The 15-county Atlanta SMSA, which
has 1,049,254 on jobs, declined in
unemployment, month-to-month,
from 6.4 percent to 6.1. Employment
in Metro Atlanta grew by 5,530 in a
month’s time, and the number of
unemployment declined from 70,946 to
68,074. A year ago, however, Metro
Atlanta’s rate was 5.5 percent, with
almost 10,000 less unemployed
-58,951.
“Perhaps the best indicator,”
Caldwell explained, “is that Atlanta’s
civilian work force has grown by
more than 50,000 in a single year
(51,942), and that shows the viable
economic address that this area has
become."
All the state’s metro area except
Augusta recorded jobless declines.
Augusta climbed a bit, from 8.9 to 9.0
percent, while Albany went down
Improved Fire Protection Class
Saving Property Owner Money
Many of the City of Blakely’s pro
perty owners will begin saving BM:%
to 15% on their fire insurance
premiums effective December 1,1982.
The savings is the result of an im
provement in fire protection from a
Class 7 to a Class 5.
The improved classification
Construction Begins Soon
On $8.2 Million Clay Co. Plant
Construction on an $8.2 million
lightweight aggregate plant will begin
below Ft. Gaines soon after this
week’s signing of revenue bonds.
The Plant, which will be located
about five miles south of Ft. Gaines,
could be open as early as May or June
of 1983, according to Columbus
businessman Wilson Camp.
If the weather is good, Camp
estimates it will take six weeks to get
the plant’s kiln, the integral piece of
equipment that will be used to pro
duce the aggregate, to Ft. Gaines
“Angel Street” Monday Night
The Asolo State Theater’s produc
tion of “Angel Street” will appear in
15 Florida, two Alabama, two
Georgia, and one-each North
Carolina, Texas, and Ohio locations,
from mid-October through mid-
December, including this one in
Blakely at Mangham Auditorium on
Nov. 22, with curtain time at 8 p.m.
Brought here by the Court Square
Arts Council, this tour is sponsored by
Asolo State Theater, Inc. Ap
pearances in Southeastern states are
made possible in part from a grant
from the National Endowment for the
Arts through the Southern Arts
Federation, of which The Gerogia
Council for the Arts is a member. The
Florida portion of the program is sup
ported in part by the State of Florida,
Department of State, Division of
Cultural Affairs; the National Endow
ment for the Arts, a federal agency;
American Express; the William G.
Selby and Marie Selby Foundation;
and the State Theater Board of
Florida.
For reservations and/or ticket in
formation, contact The Book Keeper
at 3 Court Square or phone 723-3881.
Tickets are $4.00 and may also be pur
chased at Woody's Restaurant,
Donalsonville and Grove Drug Com
pany, Colquitt.
Patricia Oetken as Bella Mann
ingham and Bradford Wallace as
Rough, in the Asolo State Theater
Company of Florida’s production of
“Angel Street".
1
from 11.6 to 9.2 percent, Columbus
declined from 9.9 to 9.5 percent,
Macon reported a slight decrease, 6.8
to 6.6 percent, and Savannah had a
small loss in unemployment, 7.7 to 7.6
percent.
Even though the nation is suffering
through the worst recession since
World War 11, Georgia seems to be
able to bear the brunt of this economic
downturn with more resilience. The
state has experienced more moderate
declines in employment compared to
neighboring states, thus keeping the
unemployment rate the lowest in the
Southeast. But, this does not mean
that Georgia has not had any layoffs
and cutbacks.
“Blue-collar workers always suffer
most in a recession, however in this
economic era, white-collar workers
are also feeling the effects of hard
times,” Caldwell said. “From August
of last year to this August, white
collar unemployment rose from 3.9
percent to 4.8 percent in the country.
resulted from a recent evaluation by
the Insurance Services Office of
Georgia.
The improved classification will ap
ply to properties inside the city limits
within 1,000 feet of a fire hydrant and 5
road miles of a fire station.
Fire Chief Franklin Brown at-
from New York.
Camp said some of the people who
will be employed at the plant will ar
rive this week. He added most of the
jobs created by the industry will be
filled by local people.
APDC Executive Director Ron
Starnes estimated the plant would
create 113 full-time jobs and 200 sup
port jobs.
“We're trying to hire local people to
do all of the work,” Camp said.
“There will be some jobs they can’t
do, such as monitoring the kiln, but
USPS 16406000 MV
For the same time-span, blue-collar
unemployment went from 9.5 percent
to 14.2 percent. The white-collar
unemployment for August ranged
from 3.1 percent for professional and
technical workers to 6.7 percent for
clerical workers.”
Caldwell went on to say a company
policy of “belt-tightening” has been
implemented in the nation, and in
Atlanta as well. Area employers are
hiring less and planning lower raises.
But, there are also fewer layoffs, pay
cuts, and hiring freezes than there are
taking place nationally. The only
white-collar sectors to show a
decrease over the year were in
surance and government employ
ment. Although overall layoffs have
not been prevalent, many jobs have
not been filled as attrition and retire
ment have occurred, giving some
employees the task of carrying the
weight of a job-and-a-half.
The industries which have affected
tributed the improved classification
to new equipment such as a deluge
gun, smoke ejector, and ceiling noz
zle, and improvements in the com
munication system.
According to Brown, the step up to a
Class 4 could possibly be achieved
within the next two years.
they could potentially be trained to do
this.”
Camp, who said he was ready to put
a plant in Ft. Gaines 10 years ago,
said 75 truckloads of material will
soon be arriving on the construction
site, and clearing the roads for the
trucks will be among the first orders
of business to attend to.
Camp has received an Urban
Development Action Grant (UDAG)
of $950,000 to help him build the facili
ty in Ft. Gaines, of which $905,000 will
go to Camp.