Newspaper Page Text
VOLUME XCIV - NUMBER XXII
Cj 1,1
City Cour/il Slims Up
*
Library budget Increase
Request; Review Seen
By TOM KIRWAN
The Summerville City Council,
meeting in a special budget ses
sion Friday, formally agreed to a
small pay-raise for city employees
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Man Dies In House Fire
Firemen work at the scene of a house fire
on Kellett Street in Summerville that
claimed the life of a 35-year-old Robert
Leon Abernathy Monday afternoon. The
Summerville Resident Dies
In Bedroom In House Fire
By PAM PURCELL
The body of a Summerville
man was pulled from the charred
debris of his home at 43 Kellett
St. Monday afternoon.
Firemen and emergency
medical technicians found the
body of 35-year-old Robert Leon
Abernathy lying on a couch in a
back bedroom of his home. His
body was burned beyond recogni
tion, said Coroner Earle Rain
water, and was identified by
papers found in a billfold in his
back pants pocket.
Rainwater said he believed
Abernathy’s death was caused by
axphyxiation due to smoke in
halation. An autopsy was per
formed to determine the actual
cause of death, Rainwater said.
The test results are still pending.
Firemen received a call around
4:20 p.m. from a woman who had
passed by the house and saw that
it was engulfed in flames. Upon
arriving, firemen found the four
room house totally destroyed by
the fire. After firemen battled the
blaze for some two hours, all that
remained of the frame house was
its brick chimney and tin under
pinning. A car parked beside the
Subscription
Change Sees
Big Response
The new subscription rates for
The Summerville News went into
effect last Tuesday with over 150
new subscriptions being added to
the mailing list.
As of last Tuesday the county
rate for a year’s subscription to
The News went up to $6.50 plus
20 cents tax while the newsstand
price rose to 20 cents plus tax.
The subscription rate had been
$5.15 in the county. The rates for
outside the county also went up
from $7.21; they vary according
to the postal zone the subscriber
lives in. This was the first price in
crease in eight years.
During the one-month period
prior to the rate increase, there
were 153 new subscriptions
bought. The News subscribed to
for a total of 1,25214 years, in
cluding both new and renewal
subscriptions. One subscription
in the county was for 11 years.
There were also five subscriptions
for 10 years each in the county.
The News advises readers to
please check the expiration date
on their address labels. If you i
think The News has not given you
credit for the number of years you
subscribed or renewed your
subscription, please call our office
so it can be corrected.
iXbe gntmmerutlle News
and decided to fund only half of
the requested increase submitted
by the local library system.
The entire city budget,
however, was not approved.
house was engulfed in flames when
firemen arrived around 4:20 p.m. Aber
nathy was apparently home alone at the
time.
house was also destroyed by the
tremendous heat of the fire.
Abernathy, a cemetery
caretaker, was believed to have
been alone at the time of the fire,
reports said. The cause of the fire
is not known. The fire, however, is
still under investigation by Coun
ty Investigator J. R. Johnson and
Fire Marshal Ray Merritt.
Funeral services for Aber
nathy were held Tuesday, June
26, at 2 p.m. from Berryton Bible
Mission Church. Interment was
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WINE APPEARS
Wine Sales Launched
In Two Local Stores
Wine sales began Friday in
Summerville, the first authorized
under a new city ordinance
legalizing sale of the alcoholic,
beverage.
Wine went on sale Friday
afternoon at Ballenger’s Package
Store after the business had ob
tained its state license and
cleared its legal paperwork and
fee with city. Triangle Package
Store in recent days also began
selling wine.
A spokesman for one of the
stores offering wine said his firm
had sold "five to six" cases of the
first 50 cases delivered.
"So far, he said,” people have
enjoyed it. “They like having the
SUMMERVILLE, CHATTOOGA COUNTY, GEORGIA 30747, THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 1979
Several key decisions must be
made by the Council before
estimates for income and ex
penses can be determined for the
new fiscal year which begins Sun-
in Summerville Cemetery.
Survivors include his wife,
Mrs. Shirley Abernathy of Sum
merville; one son, Robert Lee
Abernathy of Summerville; one
stepdaughter, Janice Smith of
Collinsville, Ala.; parents, Mr.
and Mrs. Sebie Abernathy of Ber
ryton; two brothers, Johnny and
Jimmy Abernathy of Summer
ville: and two sisters, Betty Har
relson of Centre, Ala., and Ruby
Abernathy of Summerville.
option of drinking wine instead of
beer.”
Under the new ordinance, local
, retailers who already hold a malt
beverage license are not required
to run a legal advertisement
declaring their intention to apply
for a license. A business where
malt beverage is not currently
sold which wishes to sell wine
must advertise, however.
A non-binding straw ballot
held here over a year ago saw
local voters split on the wine
question: the ballot tied 222-222.
In recent months, with financial
pressure on the city to find a new
source of revenue, the proposition
narrowly passed the council.
day, according to city ad
ministrative assistant John Sim
mons.
The council Friday committed
the City to funding only $2,400 of
the library system’s $4,800 re
quested increase for Fiscal Year
80. Library officials made the re
quest in order to stabilize its fun
ding, hoping to ward off situa
tions seen in the past when the
special grants were requested of
local governments in addition to
already-committed funds.
But Mayor Sewell Cash stress
ed that the decision to increase
the library budget by only half of
that requested was not final.
“The council authorized the
$2,400 additional library expen
diture for a six-month period.
That’s half of what they (the
library board) asked for, but the
council sincerely hopes we will be
able to come back (in six months)
and give it (the balance) to them.
We couldn’t come up with the full
appropriation now, but in six
months we’ll look at it again.”
With the partial increase, the
library system will be receiving
$9,600 annually from the city as
opposed to the $12,000 it had re
quested.
An $8 per week per employee
raise was officially approved by
the council Friday for inclusion
into the new budget. “That’s all
we could come up with for a
raise,” Mayor Cash commented
after the meeting. “We wish it
could have been more, and if there
is any way possible we will grant
a cost-of-living raise later in the
fiscal year.”
Inflation has been especially’
taking its toll on city operations,
the mayor said, adding that for
purposes of the new budget the
council is projecting an 8 percent
inflation rate. But he noted that
there’s no way, especially with
the economy as unstable as it is,
to accurately guess at the future
rate of inflation.
“Expenditures keep going up
and up," he said. “In the area of
wine sales is the only place where
revenues can expand. Frankly, we
tried to cut back and tighten our
belts, and we currently have
various studies going on in the
departments to find out where we
might eliminate some costs.”
According to Simmons, con
versations with officials in
neighboring counties indicate
that those governments typically
see their wine revenue come in at
about half of their malt beverage
tax revenues.
This means the City of Sum
merville should see wine taxes to
the tune of $50,000 annually or
more, assuming the rule of thumb
is correct.
One area the council must still
make some hard decisions in con
cerning the budget is how much
hardware the city will purchase
this year. A new backhoe and
tractor for the water department,
both of which have already been
ordered, will be in the new fiscal
year budget. But decisions re
main as to whether the city can
afford the proposed purchases of
a new truck for the water depart
ment, a ditch digger for the
natural gas department, and a
4600 series Ford tractor for cut
ting rights-of-way, Simmons said.
Astronomy Program
At State Park
An astronomy program will be
held at the James H. “Sloppy”
Floyd State Park Saturday begin
ning at 9:15 p.m.
Larry Winegarden, a
LaFayette High School teacher,
will be in charge of the free pro
gram.
Participants should bring
lawn chairs, said Park
Superintendent Derrell Rush.
The News To
Publish Wed.
Next Week
The Summerville News
will publish a day early next
week in connection with the
Fourth of July holiday.
The news deadline, for
next week only, will be 1 p.m.
Monday. The classified
advertising deadline similar
ly has been moved up to
noon Tuesday, while the
retail advertising deadline
will be 5 p.m. Monday.
The paper’s offices will be
closed Wednesday in obser
vance of the holiday.
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(Continued On Page 12-A) '
Director Says:
Holland Day Care Center
Feeling Financial Crunch
If financial aid for the Holland
Day Care program doesn’t pick
up soon, the program will face
closing its doors, causing 55
families to find another source of
child care for the 75 children
presently served by the center,
Director Joe Cannon said.
Since the Holland center has
been in existence, funding has
grown increasingly harder to get,
Cannon told the Inter-Agency
Council Thursday as its monthly
meeting. This year the center
received the least amount of
money from revenue sharing
funds than it ever has received in
its eight years of operation.
County Commissioner Pete
Denson gave the center a SIO,OOO
slice of the $170,976 the county
received from revenue sharing
this year. Cannon had requested
$18,727 of the federal funds. Re
cent requests for funds from
Summerville and Trion have been
turned down.
With funding for the center
harder to get in the last few years,
student enrollment has been trim
med to 75 from 85 students, Can
non said. Day care centers lost a
lot of support in their early days
when many people who were not
qualified to participate in the pro
gram did so, he said.
In recent years, though,
guidelines and state monitoring
have about eliminated the pro
blem of unqualified parents tak
ing advantage of the day care pro
gram, he noted. Three years ago
the state adopted new guidelines
by which to run day care centers;
now there are four volumes of
rules and regulations, and a state
monitor visits the center every
two months.
For the money “there is no
better investment than child
care," Cannon said. The children
learn to get along with other peo
ple at the center, he said, adding
that it is cheaper to cure future
problems a child may have rather
than having to correct them later
in a child's life by placing them in
a penal institution.
The demand for day care has
risen in the past few years, with
the nutnber of American women
working nationwide rising to 85
percent, Cannon explained.
"When a mother is able to work
for a living and not depending on
welfare to support her and a child,
the community benefits by hav-
ing an additional asset and not
another liability.”
The parent of a child atten
ding the Holland center is kept
abreast of the youngster’s-perfor
•mance and social behavior by the
teachers there, he said. All of the
teachers at the center have taken
at least one course in child
development and some have as
many as four. Cannon said of his
staff.
Cannon added that day care
Two Charged
For Assault
An incident at a Dry Valley
residence Saturday night resulted
in two Summerville men being ar
rested and charged with ag
gravated assault the next day.
Authorities identified the two
men arrested as David Hunter,
34, Martin Street, and Larry
Luallen, 30, Route 1. They have
each been released on SIO,OOO
bonds.
Hunter and Luallen kicked
open the front door of Charles
Simpson's residence on Route 3
late Saturday night, according to
two warrants at the sheriff's
department. Hunter, one warrant
said, struck Simpson, knocking
him across the livingroom and
broke his front tooth. Luallen, the
other warrant said, struck Simp
son and held a .25 caliber
automatic pistol on him while
Hunter cut him on the hand.
Simpson was treated at the
local hospital and released.
Theft Is Probed
The Summerville Police
Department investigated the
theft of several speakers from a
local restaurant Sunday night.
John Weaver, manager of the
Sonic Drive-In on Georgia
Highway 114, reported to police
officers that someone had taken
five outside speakers from the
drive-in between 11 p.m. Sunday
and 9 a.m. Monday. The speakers
were valued at $74.75.
As of Wednesday afternoon
the speakers had not been
recovered and no arrest had been
made.
programs can help in preventing
drop out problems, reducing
medical problems and teaching
children social behavior skills.
Job Outlook Good
For County Grads
Despite worries of a pending
recession, recent Chattooga
County college graduates have a
better chance of finding a job
than those of last year's class, a
survey indicates.
The number of new graduates
hired so far this year is 15 percent
greater than last year, a survey of
667 employers nationwide shows.
Expecting a slight improve
ment in the employment picture
for the rest of the year were 37
percent of the employers ques
tioned. A substantial improve
ment was foreseen by 13 percent
of those surveyed while 35 per
cent forecast no change. Only 9
percent of the employers predict a
worsening of the economic condi
tion and 6 percent were undecid
ed.
Engineering graduates are
still in the greatest demand by
private enterprise. This year
alone, the demand for engineers
has jumped by 22 percent over
Retail Sales Jump Almost 20%
Chattooga County’s retail
sales have jumped almost 20 per
cent over last year's sales by the
end of the first quarter, the
Georgia Chamber of Commerce
says.
Last year's first-quarter tax
able sales in Chattooga County
were $12,726,000.
In a year's time, taxable sales
rose to $15,240,000 for the same
quarter.
Chattooga’s taxable sales in
crease was much higher than the
state as a whole.
The statewide increase was
13.5 percent, not much ahead of
the annual inflation rate.
For the first quarter of 1979.
Georgia's total retail sales reach
ed $6,277,973,000, almost $1
billion more than last year for the
PRICE 20c
“Day care is helping many
children get off to a better start in
life: This will help stem later pro
blems with the police,” he said.
last year the College Placement
Council (CPC) said.
This year 630 companies have
made 916 visits to the Georgia
Tech campus to recruit engineers.
Dr. Michael Donahue, director of
placement said. This is the largest
of recruiters to visit the Atlanta
campus in its history, he said.
Job placement has not been a
problem with Georgia Tech
graduates with 98 percent of the
students making future plans a
month before graduation. Those
graduates accepting jobs and not
going on to graduate school will
earn an average of $18,600 an
nually, up SI,BOO over last year.
Since 1972 the demand for
Tech’s engineering graduates has
steadily increased, Donahue said.
"It is very difficult to predict any
more than a year in advance, but
from a recruiting standpoint,
we re hooked (with companies) for
next year.”
same time period.
The figures are based on
Georgia Department of Revenue
data for adjusted gross tax
amounts.
They indicate the place of sale
rather than the consumer buying
power by place of residence.
Even though Walker County
and Floyd County each have
many times more taxable sales
volume than Chattooga County
they both fell short of the states
average growth rate for the first
quarter.
Walker was close to the state
average with a 12.4 percent in
crease in taxable sales. But Floyd
was 2.4 percentage points behind
that with an 11.1 percent in
crease over last year's figures for
the first quarter.