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VOLUME XCIV - NUMBER > 2
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Re-Inspects County School Buses
Sgt. Dan Edwards (L) and Sgt. Charles
R. Deal talk with county bus mechanic
Ewing Goodson concerning the six
school buses that were recently grounded
‘Normal Wear And Tear’
Six Buses Grounded, Fixed
After Annual GSP Inspection
The annual inspection of the
Chattooga County school buses
recently found the buses in good
condition with the exception of
six which were grounded with ma
jor repairs to be fixed before they
could be used this school year.
The six buses have since been
repaired and passed re-inspection
by the Georgia State Patrol.
Lt. Ralph Hutchinson of the
Cedartown GSP Post, who first
inspected the buses, said follow
ing his inspection of the 31 buses
Thursday, Aug. 2. 12 buses were
found needing minor repairs such
as lights being out or some small
repair not sufficient for groun
ding.
“However, we grounded six of
the buses due to holes in the
tailpipes or loose steering
sections,” Lt. Hutchinson ex
plained. “These were things we
felt were dangerous enough to
warrant grounding.”
Since the first inspection, Sgt.
Charles Deal and Sgt. Dan Ed
wards, also of the Cedartown
Post, have re-inspected the six
buses and found the necessary
repairs have been made. They ap
proved repairs and said the buses
were safe to use again.
Os the 13 buses passing the
first inspection, Lt. Hutchinson
said they were average or a little
above average in their upkeep
and maintenance.
“You (Chattooga County)
have nothing to be ashamed of as
Recorded Books Helping Handicapped
Residents Who Have Trouble Reading
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Thousands Os Recordings Available
Talking Book Center librarian Bob Manningly checks
incoming tapes from program participants. Between
5,000 and 6,000 recoraings are available in LaFayette
at the regional library; if a request can’t be found there
Manningly contacts other agencies to hunt down the
selection.
(Hie ^ummeruille New
for repairs. Following a re-inspection of
the six buses, the troopers gave their ap
proval for them to be put back on the
road.
far as your school buses are con
cerned,” said Lt. Hutchinson.
“The repairs came about due to
the normal wear and tear on
buses. We run into about the
same thing everywhere. We’ve
found a lot of the late model
Chevrolet and GMC buses have
some steering section problems.
The driver may never notice
anything wrong with the bus
other than a little more play in the
steering wheel. You have things
to wear and work loose even with
the best mechanics. I think your
mechanics are doing a very good
job.”
Lt. Hutchinson said buses in
Hearing Scheduled Next Week
On Proposed U.S. 27 Widening
The proposed widening of
U. S. Highway 27 from Summer
ville to Trion will be the subject of
a pubilc hearing to be held next
week at the courtroom of the
county courthouse.
The Georgia Department of
Transportation, which is propos
ing to widen the highway, has
called the meeting, which will be
held next Thursday.
SUMMERVILLE, CHATTOOGA COUNTY, GEORGIA 30747. THURSDAY, AUGUST 16, 1979
all the school systems are much
better this year than before. Of
ficials seem to be taking more in
terest in public transportation, he
said.
A program, Lt. Hutchinson
said, he felt would help the school
system maintain its buses better
is monthly inspections by their
mechanics. The program has
worked ’’real well” everywhere it
has been tried, he said.
During the annual inspection
of buses by the GSP, the buses
are checked over completely. The
troopers inspect the mufflers,
brakes, tires, lights, seats and
glasses.
An informal meeting will be
held at 5:30 p.m. that day, the
DOT has announced, with the for
mal hearing to follow two hours
later.
According to a Department of
Transportation spokesman, the
informal hearing will allow
residents who have businesses or
property that would be affected
by the proposed project to review
Ivon Weevie can’t see out of
one eye, and the vision he has in
his other eye is so weak that when
he tries to read written material
he has to use a thick magnifying
glass.
Despite his severe handicap,
though, Weevie is able to talk in
telligently about many
bestsellers, and he subscribes to
no less than 17 magazines rang
ing from “Changing Times’’ to
"Sports Illustrated" and
‘‘Newsweek.’’
The apparent contradic
tion—that of a nearly-blind man
being well-read—is explained by
the fact that Weevie is one of
thousands of handicapped per
sons nationwide, and one of 25
Chattoogans —who is par
ticipating in a unique program
called the Talking Book Center.
Under the program, ad
ministered through the Library of
Congress, visually handicapped
people can receive free—tapes,
records and plastic discs that
reproduce verbatim books and
magazines. (There is a small fee
for a few of the 50 magazines of
fered.)
For Weevie and thousands like
him, the program is a godsend.
Every few weeks he mails in re
quests for talking books to the
Cherokee Regional Library in
LaFayette, which in turn locates
the requests and sends them to
Weevie.
“Anything you want to know,
they come out with a talking book
about it,” Weevie explains. "I’d
rather be listening to something
than to be idle.”
Weevie has been listening to
books since 1945—and has
developed a voracious appetite
for reading in those years. In
School System Will Retain
Surplus Tax $$ From State
The Chattooga County Board
of Education Monday night
decided it will use $238,000 given
it under the General Assembly
tax rebate bill earlier this summer
for capital improvements rather
than passing the money on to
residents in the form of a one-shot
tax relief.
Superintendent Bill King ad
vised the board during its regular
monthly meeting that the State
Department of Education would
not approve the system’s budget
for the upcoming year until the
board decided what to do with the
money allotted the county under
House Bill 95. The state had to be
able to show somewhere in the
budget how the money will be us
ed, King said.
The money-$238,447.14-repre
sents the local share granted by
the General Assembly in line with
a campaign promise of Gov.
George Busbee to rebate to state
taxpayers $75 million in surplus
taxes. The money, in the form of
House Bill 95, was divided among
the school boards in the state and
it was left up to each board to
decide if it wanted the money for
school repairs and enrichment or
to return it to county residents in
the form of a tax relief.
Following some discussion by
Services Held
For Former
City Mayor
J. R. “Dick” Dowdy, a former
mayor of Summerville, died at his
home on Sunset Drive Friday.
Services for Dowdy, who serv
ed for 12 years as mayor, were
held Sunday.
Dowdy, 60, was an insurance
agent with Liberty National.
maps and get their questions
answered in regards to the pro
posal.
At the formal hearing to
follow, a DOT moderator will pre
sent an opening statement giving
a general overview of the pro
posal, the spokesman said.
Presentations by different DOT
experts—including a traffic safe
ty engineer, and a right-of-way
1977 and 1978, for example, he
listened to a total of 416 talking
books.
His typical weekday sees him
returning home from Harriet and
Henderson Cotton Mill, where he
works as a sweeper, around 3:30
in the afternoon. “I’ll come in and
start listening to a book until
about 7:30 to 10 p.m., he said. He
uses a headphone so as not to
disturb his wife Patsy, who
prefers to watch television. Patsy
will sometimes listen to talking
books with him, but usually they
have to be comical, he chuckles.
The recordings have helped
him retain a fierce independence.
When his doctor told the partially
sighted 47-year-old to get a walk
ing cane, he declined. “I didn't
want anybody feeling sorry for
me,” he explains. For many years
he could be spotted on his bicycle
riding through town, a habit that
earned him the handle "Bicycle”
from local CBers (ratchet-jawing
is another of his hobbies, along
with caning furniture), but he’s
given up his bike “because my
eyesight has grown worse.”
According to Bob Manningly,
who heads up the Talking Book
Center at the regional library in
LaFayette, Weevie is one of his
most enthusiastic participants.
"He reads 200 books a year
and his selections are wide and
übiquitous,” Manningly explains.
"He reds everything from
Tolstoy to Tinkerbelle to science
fiction, to history to westerns.”
While Weevie is unusual in his
diversity and volume of reading,
he by no means is unique. Several
of the people who take advantage
of the library service offered by
the Talking Book Center in Chat
tanooga, Dade and Walker, Gor-
the board, Chairman Joel Cook
made a motion to give the money
back to the county taxpayers in
the form of direct tax relief. The
motion was seconded by Board
Member Leroy Massey but failed
to carry for the lack of another
vote.
Board Member Bill Mitchell
then made a motion for the school
system to keep the entire amount
for school enrichment and im
provements. The motion was
seconded by Board Member Ray
Hall and carried by an additional
vote of Board Member Sue
Spivey.
At the present time it is not
Libraries’ Fiscal Situation
Remains Up In The Air
The Chattooga County
Library Board, meeting in an
emergency session Monday after
noon, voted to seek additional
funds from its local supporting
governmental agencies in order to
meet its Fiscal Year 1980 obliga
tions.
The board said it would under
take an all-out effort to publicize
its financial plight to other
sources as well—notably clubs,
and industries and businesses.
The board met with County
Commissioner Pete Denson who
confirmed that he will earmark
one fourth of a mill for library ser
vices here—which based on his
figures would generate roughly
$16,000 based on last year's tax
digest. Only $14,000 perhaps,
would be available to the library,
however, as thesl6,ooo assumes
100 percent tax collection, he
said.
But Bill Kirchner, who heads
M> the regional library in
LaFayette which serves the two
local libraries, said his research
engineer, will also make com
ments on the proposed project. A
design engineer will also make a
presentation.
"After the formal presenta
tion, and during it, the floor will
be open to questions and
answers,” said the spokesman.
“The hearing will be recorded and
(Continued On Page 5)
don, Murray, Whitfield, and
Catoosa counties are as en
thusiastic as is Weevie. One man
in LaFayette, Manningly notes,
once spent 48 hours straight
listening to a book he was absorb
ed in. When Manningly asked him
why he spent such a long stretch
at one time, the fellow asked,
‘When you’re 60 years old and
blind, what else are you going to
do?” ’
Every two months Talking
Book participants receive a
catalogue showing new offerings
available through the service. The
participants pick their favorites,
and mail selection requests to
Manningly, who in turn sends the
recording to the reader as soon as
he can locate it. If the selection
isn’t one of the 5,000 to 6,000
recordings Manningly has on
bookshelves at the library, he can
contact one of three other agen
cies to run it down and mail it to
the participant. Then, after the
reader has listened to the selec
tion, he puts it into a special
plastic box and sends it back to
the library. Postage is free. Addi
tionally, the Talking Book Center
provides a cassette tape listener
and/or a phonograph at no cost to
the participant.
Manningly says he would like
to see more people use the service.
In the three county area only
some 234 individuals participate;
possibly as many as 8,000 per
sons are eligible, he said. He
thinks many more people would
use the service if they knew about
it and how easy it is to use.
In addition to individual
readers, the Talking Book Center
also provides materials for 48 in
stitutions in the counties it
known exactly how the money
will be used in the system other
than for enrichment, im
provements and maintenance,
school members said. But they
agreed—as noted by the August
grand jury—that there are a
number of needed improvements
that cannot be ignored. Mrs.
Spivey said after the meeting
that either a direct rebate to tax
payers or retaining the money in
ternally was a form of tax relief.
Using the money for capital im
provement projects now, she ex
plained, will forestall the need for
tax increases to pay for them
later.
after speaking with local and
state tax officials had found that
a one quarter mill levy would
generate nearly $22,000 for the
local libraries, a sum approx
imately equal to what the
libraries are seeking from the
county. Denson said Kirchner’s
figures were incorrect and the
library director said be would
recheck them for accuracy.
Assuming the commissioner’s
figures are correct, it was noted
that the budget for the libraries
would still be at least SB,OOO
short for the fiscal year. If that
situation can’t be corrected
through new funding, the library
board said, such moves as the
closing of the Menlo Library,
reduction of the Summerville
library's hours of operations, and
possible employee lay offs might
result. The board voted to not
operate in the red beyond Sept. 1.
The county commissioner said
ht had no alternative than to pro
mise the library board no more
than the quarter of a mill levy. “I
can’t give you something I don’t
have,” he said. I can’t come up
with an additional SIO,OOO to
$12,000 in mid-year.” He added
that while he himself is not a user
of the libraries here, his family
members are, and that he has no
grudge against the library
system.
While no immediate solution
to the budgetary problems was
found, library director Kirchner
said he was not discouraged by
the outcome of the meeting.
He observed that he felt that
remarks at the meeting made by
Henry Watson—who came on the
board effective Monday—to the
effect that the public is now
aware of the financial plight of
the libraries and needs to be in-
(Continued On Page 5)
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Ivon Weevie listens intently to one of his
latest selections—which have included
recent bestsellers such as "Mommy
serves. In Chattooga County the
center for the mentally retarded,
the nursing home and one school
use the service.
The records and tapes used for
the Talking Books program are
much slower than conventional
recordings, which allows more
recording time to be put on a
recording, Manningly said. A
single cassette tape, for example,
runs six hours.
He estimates that two-thirds
of the programs’ participants are
In other action the board:
* Increased the salary of those
employees on minimum wage
from $2.90 to $3.10.
* Raised the price of adult lun
ches from $1 to sl.lO.
* Approved the hiring of five
new teachers. The new teachers
and the schools they will teach at
include: Ralph Wallin, Lyerly
Elementary; Allan Perry and
Ronald Abed, Chattooga High;
Robert Fisher, Chattooga High
band; and Renee Carver. Sum
merville Elementary.
* Approved for the Lyerly
Homemakers Club to use a school
bus for a trip to Nashville.
t I I
II \ A
J
Gets Shots For School
Joan Whaley, a nurse at the Chattooga County Health
Department, gives David Padgett his required shots
for school. David, 5, is the son of Mr. and Mrs.
Mashburn Padgett of Route 1, Summerville. State law
now requires pupils to have their shots before they
enter the first grade or kindergarten for the first time.
New Jr. High Pupils Must Register
Any seventh or eighth grade
student who will be attending
Summerville Junior High School
who did not register at the end of
the last school year should report
to Che junior high office Tuesday
from 8 a.m. until noon and from 1
Weevie Reads ’ Novel
over 30 years in age. For younger
readers the service has some 200
recordings which also have the
original text, which helps children
with eyesight problems to read
printed words.
The Talking Book service is
not just limited to people who are
blind or who have eyesight pro
blems, although the bulk of its
participants fall into that
category. Simply put, anyone
who cannot hold, handle or read
conventional material for
* Agreed to request new bids
on pest control for the schools.
♦ Hired the bus drivers for the
1979-80 school year The drivers
include: Jessie J. Bankston,
Joyce Bethune, Irene Bishop,
Wilene Bishop, Jeanette Burrell,
Phil Cavin, Nancy Crider, Claire
Downes, Glenn Downes, Hershell
Flood, Betty Gentry, Marvin
Gentry, William Hubbard, Fred
Hurley, Alma Lewis, Benjamin J.
Mosley, William Patty, Cathy
Sue Ragland, Cam Reece, Edward
K. Smith, Fred Stokes, Ray
Teems, Norman Lester Tucker,
Muriel Ward, Shirley B. Will
ingham and Patricia Wood.
until 4 p.m.
Any student coming to the
junior high from outside the coun
ty school system should bring
their 1978-79 report cards with
them when registering.
Dearest” and Arthur Haley's
“Overload.” He listens to some 200
recordings annually.
whatever reason may be eligible
to participate. An amputee, or a
person whose eyes water when
they read, are two examples Man
ningly noted.
Persons interested in the pro
gram can call Manningly collect
at 638-2992. An application must
be filled out, along with a state
ment from a "Competent authori
ty”—such as a physician or eye
doctor—confirming the disability.
PRICE 20c