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VOLUME XCIV -
Bids Accepted For
Waterworks Plan
Work on a long-discussed
project which will overhaul
the water system in Summer
ville may be started within 60
to 90 days after construction
bids totaling $2,045,811 were
accepted Thursday by the city
council and mayor.
Other fees will boost the
project’s estimated cost to
$2,450,000, according to of
ficials. The Farmers Home
Administration has already
promised the city a low
interest loan of $2,200,000,
and the council has voted to
seek the $245,000 balance
needed for the plan from
FmHA. Project engineer Herb
Barnum and Mayor Sewell
Cash said they expected
FmHA will approve the addi
tional funds. Barnum said the
extra funding needed was
mostly the result of inflation
over the three-year period
since estimates were first for
mulated.
The plan calls for the lay
ing of several thousand feet of
new, large pipes, new reser
voirs around the city, the loop
ing of several water pipe
Grant Funding Awarded
For Medical Clinic Here
A local physician received word Thursday
that an Appalachian Regional Commission
grant he sought to build a non-profit medical
clinic next door to the local hospital has been
approved.
Dr. Herman Spivey, who has headed the
local effort to establish the first primary
health care center in the county, was notified
by a staffer of Rep. Larry McDonald last week
that Dr. Spivey had been awarded a $165,000
construction grant for the project. Additional
ly, the ARC also apprved a $69,000 first-year
operations grant, tiie physician said.
Total construction cost will be in the
neighborhood of $210,000 to $225,000, the
doctor said, and the funds needed beyond the
grant money will probably be mostly borrow
ed.
Although the grant money is to be issued
to the Summervflle doctor, he has already
Savings Possible?
Trion OKs ”2,600 ‘Gamble’
The Trion Town Council
and Mayor voted Thursday
night to “gamble” up to
$2,600 to see if possible
modifications at the town’s
waste water treatment plant
could cut its power bill and
reduce maintenance costs.
The "gamble” comes in the
form of the maximum pricetag
of two feasibility studies the
council and mayor approved
to be undertaken by an Atlan
ta engineering consultant
firm, Sweitzer & Peoples Inc.
The studies would deter
mine whether some $17,000
worth of modifications could
be done—and whether they’d
in fact save the town money.
One study will be aimed at
discovering whether a slow
starter should be installed on
each of 10 aerators at the
treatment plant. Mayor Jake
Woods explained that the 10
100-HP aerators are presently
designed to kick on at full
force, which the engineers
believe is translating into high
maintenance costs because
the initial powerful start-up is
damaging gears. According to
Mayor Woods, two aerators
with gear problems are cur
rently out of commission and
it will cost between $4,000 and
SB,OOO each to repair them.
The engineering study, at
a maximum cost of SBOO will
determine if slow-starters
could be installed to minimize
starting torque.
The second study will pro
be the advisability of install
ing devices that would stag
ger the running times of the
aerators so that they are never
all running at the same time.
Mayor Woods said that
Georgia Power Co. bases its
rate after metering a random
30-minute period. By stagger
ing the running of the
aerators, the power bill could
perhaps be reduced, the
engineers said. The study will
cost a maximum of SI,BOO.
The $2,600 maximum cost
for the studies, the mayor and
council agreed, conceivably
could be money thrown away.
“It might be $2,600 wasted,”
said Mayor Woods, but he and
the council agreed that the
"gamble” was worth the risk
because enormous savings, on
the other hand, could be realiz-
NUMBEF
systems, and the expansion
and renovation of the water
plant. According to Barnum,
the entire system will benefit
from the updating program.
“When we get through with
this project, the city is going
to have a very good water
system—a first-rate water
system.”
Benefits to be realized
from the plan, according to
Barnum, include the beefing
up of water pressure in the
outlying areas, cutting water
losses due to old pipes and
equipment, and increasing
water capacity, which in turn
could allow new industries to
tap onto the system here.
Payback to the FmHA for
the project’s cost will come
from water and sewer system
revenues.
Barnum said work is ex
pected to begin “no later than
January, and possibly
earlier.” He estimated the
work should be completed
within 12 months of start-up.
In all, four construction
bids were awarded Thursday,
as follows:
ed if the modifications are
feasible.
In other action, the council
decided to take a “wait and
see” posture on the possibility
of building an employee park
ing lot on the soutn side of the
Trion Town Hall. Mayor
Woods told the council a den
tist will soon be opening an of
fice in the old hospital
building and that a half dozen
Town employees are currently
parking in the dentist’s park
ing lot. Woods said a new
City Ice Company
Helps With Relief
Efforts In Mobile
A local firm played a role in
helping hurricane-torn Mobile,
Ala., emergency efforts after
high winds knocked out elec
tric power and disrupted
water service for several days.
Summerville Ice & Coal
Co., owned and managed by
Ray Cler, hired trucks and had
130 tons of ice hauled over a
five-day period, Sept. 17-21, to
Mobile as the crippled city
struggled to recover from
Hurricane Frederic.
“I happened to see the
news on TV after the hur
ricane," said Cler, “and I
thought we might take some
tractor-trailer loads of ice
there. I called the mayor, who
directed me to the Civil
Defense, and finally I con
tacted an ice company which
had got knocked out—all of
them were. There was no
drinking water or refrigera
tion.”
The Summerville ice plant,
Cler said, was one of many in
the Southeast that began
hauling truckloads of
ice—some 30 to 40 per
day—into the windtom city.
“We sent five loads,” said
Cler, “one load per day of 26
tons each.”
Early on, Cler said, ice
became a hotly-sought com-
Oe ^ummerutlk News
♦ Cash Construction Co. of
Rome won the bid for renova
tion and expansion work at
the water plant for
$1,175,650.
* Hoi-Sum Contractors of
Ellijay bid $327,506 for the
contract to update the water
distribution system. Ductile
Iron Co. won the pipe bid for
$23,690.
*Crom Corp. of
Gainesville, Fla., won, with a
bid of $454,000, the bid for
new water reservoir construc
tion. '
♦Jones Environmental
Construction Co. of
Trussville, Ala., bidding
$64,964, won the altitude con
trols and valves work with a
$69,964 bid.
Engineering fees for the
project are estimated at
$139,115, while inspection
costs are projected at $81,832.
Other fees (survey, property
purchase, legal and ad
ministrative costs) are
estimated at $20,000. The
council has set aside $158,242
in an interest and contingency
fund.
helped establish a board of directors made up
of a cross section of the community to run the
center. Dr. Spivey said the grant money will
be turned over to the board as soon as it is
received.
Plans call for a modern clinic to be built on
Stockade Road behind the Head Start Pro
gram building (formerly a barbecue
restaurant). The clinic could be ready to open
as soon as early 1980, Dr. Spivey said Tues
day.
Dr. Spivey said he began working on the
idea of establishing such a clinic three years
ago because of the “alarming disappearance of
Enysicians in the area and the difficulties in
ringing physicians here, and my own feeling
of wnat kind of physicians we need here.”
He noted that when he first came here 17
years ago there were 11 physicians in the
(Continued On Page 6)
parking lot could cost
anywhere from SI,OOO to near
ly $3,000 (depending on
whether it’s paved or not), but
he expressed the fear the
Town couldn’t presently af
ford the non-budgeted item.
On the other hand, Woods
said the existing Town Hall
parking lot might be too
crowded if employees park
there.
“Let’s try doing nothing
for two or three months and
(Continued On Page 6)
modity and unscrupulous peo
ple began selling it for
outrageous prices. A five
pound bag which typically
sells for around 50 cents was
selling for $5, Cler said he was
told.
Authorities clamped down
on such shenanigans, and Cler
was told that all authorized
ice vendors from out-of-town
would have to get clearance
through a local ice company
before they could do business
in Mobile. The local firm’s ice
was consigned to two ice com
panies in Mobile. “We
reported to an ice company
and in turn the national guard
and police would take us
directly to a shopping center
and the CB (citizens band
radio) was used to notify
neighbors that we had ice.”
Residents were anxious to
get ice, said Cler, who went
with one of his drivers on the
last trip to Mobile. He recalled
300 people being in a block
long line waiting to get a
chunk of ice.
Cler said a Mobile police of
ficer related to him that one
crowd became so rowdy while
ice was being distributed that
six shots were fired into the
air by a guardsman to settle
(Continued On Page 6)
SUMMERVILLE, CHATTOOGA COUNTY, GEORGIA 30747, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1979
• s
r D. T. Espy, Sr. Dies;
Former Editor And
Publisher Os The News
|| Guided Paper For Quarter Os Century I
David T. Espy, 77, long-time owner and publisher of The Sum
merville News, died Thursday morning in a Rome hospital after a
brief illness.
Mr. Espy had retired in 1967 after more than 50 years in the
newspaper business.
He had begun his career at the age of 11 after his father, the
late O. J. Espy, purchased The Summerville News in 1911. In
1918, he joined The Rome News as a Linotype operator and re
mained there until 1922. Mr. Espy then joined The Chattanooga
Times as a Linotype operator and on the copy desk where he re
mained for 17 years.
Upon the death of his father in 1938, Mr. Espy returned to
The Summerville News for two years. He was associated with
The Chattanooga Evening Times from 1940 to 1942 and worked
briefly with the Charleston (S. C.) Evening Post before buying
half interest in The Summerville News in late 1942. He purchased
the other half in 1953 and continued to operate the newspaper
and its accompanying printing plant until his retirement. At that
time, he sold it to his sons.
The Summerville News won some 20 awards during his
tenure. In 1960, it beat the daily newspapers in the Georgia In
dustrial Week Award Contest, taking three first places in
editorial, overall coverage and special editions.
Under Mr. Espy’s leadership, the printing phase of the
establishment became one of the largest and best-equipped in
North Georgia.
MR. AND MRS. ESPY LOOK OVER AWARDS IN 1960
.. .Georgia Press Association honored paper with four awards
Evolution Os Progress Under D. T. Espy Leadership
I^Hh^, ^^H
I LI ■
He was a 50-year member of the Georgia Press Association
and a former Summerville city councilman. Mr. Espy was a
member of the Summerville Presbyterian Church.
He was born in Chattooga County Jan. 12, 1902, son of the
late lowa Parham Espy and Oscar J. Espy.
His wife, Mrs. Lucille Gamble Espy, died in January of this
year and one son, James Donald Espy, died Feb. 13, 1977. J
Survivors include four daughters, Mrs. Helen Clark, Atlanta, ’
Mrs. Loraine Eubanks, New Martinsville, W. Va., Mrs. Mary Me- ) ,
Collum, Greenville, S. C., and Mrs. Carol Salmon, Summerville; / i
three sons, Bill, David and Gene Espy, all of Summerville; three I
sisters, Mrs. Carrie B. Freeman, Summerville, Mrs. Pauline
Mooney, Rome, and Mrs. Ruby King, Menlo; two brothers, Joe
Espy, Chattanooga, and George D. (Bill) Espy, Bradenton, Fla.;
18 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.
Funeral services were held at 1 p.m. Saturday in the chapel of
Lane Funeral Home with the Rev. Ronald Ragon and the Rev.
Curry Davis officiating. Interment was in the Summerville
Cemetery.
Pallbearers were Earl McConnell, Bobby Groce, Buren
Harkins, William Keeton, Herman Buffington and Carl Ham
mett.
Honorary pallbearers were E. C. Pesterfield, Riley Parham,
Frank Agnew, Rupert Garnett, Andrew Williams, Mark
Huguenin, James Jackson, J. B. Woodard, Bob Maples, Gordon
Allen and Gary McConnell.
lr s
Xs^
* W" — ~~
v WBSS^'
w j ,
. Xr. & _
1. At work in 1952 when paper was printed on time-consuming,
hand-fed press.
2. Looking over major equipment purchase in 1955, the News’
first completely automatic press.
3. Conferring with Swedish press erector installing ultra modern
web offset press in 1964.
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LEISURE MOMENT IN 1966
.. .fishing at Lake Weiss
PRICE 20c