Newspaper Page Text
VOLUME CI — NUMBE VIII
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DADE COMMISSIONER LARRY MOORE
Talks About Form Of Government
COUNCIL OKAYS WEIGHT ROOM
Trion Rejects Water Plans
Trion's City Council has
rebuffed two proposals to ex
tend water service to two
tracts within the city limits, in
dicating that the city prefers to
await a recommendation on the
utility extensions controversy
from a Council committee.
However, the Council has
approved financing for a
weight room at the Trion Com
munity Center over the objec
tions of Mayor J. C. Woods,
who said he (I'oubted the legali
ty of the action.
Mayor Woods appointed
WESSON GETS CHECK, LETTER
State Paid For Cars
Chattooga County Commis
sioner Harry Powell has paid
the state of Geor;iia for tfiree
surplus vehicles bought last
Ma bf' Sheriff Gary
Mcgonne N
On the same day that he ap
parently signe({ a check
payable to the state, Powell
also wrote a Teloga body sho
owner that the cars were “stifi
not insured or paid for.” Yet
with the letter to Larry
Wesson, Powell included a
check paying Wesson's Body
Shop For the second of two
repair bills on one of the
surplus cars.
ON COUNTY ESTIMATES
Did Powell Obey Law?
Commissioner Harry
Powell may not have been
abiding by portions of a state
law he is demanding that
Sheriff Gary McConnell and
other county officials obey.
The commissioner in mid-
September sent the State
Department of Administrative
Services Surplus Property
Agenciand Teloga body shop
owner Larry Wesson a copy of
a letter written to him March
18, 1985, by county attorney
Ed Surles. That letter outlines
state law re%larding the pur
chase of supplies and materials
by the sheriff and the county
commissioner.
SURLES’ LETTER
Part of that law, as quoted
by Surles’ letter, says the com
missioner must estimate the
county's needs and re
quirements ‘‘as often as shall
Thefts Solved
--See Page 10-4
The Summerville News
two committees to study the
utility extension issue at the
Council’'s monthly meeting last
Thursday night. He named
Councilmen Hoyt Williams and
Henry Miller to a panel to
devise a recommendation for
extending city water and sewer
services to large tracts bought
by developers %rom Riegel ’lgex
tile Corp. earlier this year.
The Mayor also appointed
Councilmen Larry Stansell and
Dwight Arden to a finance
committee to develop a method
for financing the city's propos
The commissioner had said
in early September that the
countfi didn’t own the vehicles
since he hadn't paid for them.
Wesson said at the time that
he was going to sue the coun
ty for non-payment of a repair
bill on one of the vehicles being
used as a sheriff's patrol car.
Powell also indicated that he
wanted the matter decided in
court.
NO EXPLANATION
Powell has not explained
his most recent actions involv
ing the surplus vehicles or the
repair bill.
be required, but not less than
four times per calendar year
and to have said estimate
published in the official organ
of the county ... "
The law said the ‘‘estimate
of said requirements shall be
divided into commodity divi
sions . .. Said supplies,
materials, equipment, road
machinery, food and clothing
and other items shall be pur
ghased ‘from the lowest %id-
B
It was not Yossible to deter
mine if Powell had complied
with the law since he said ’Fues
day he would refuse to respond
to questions about county
business or activities.
However, aside from specific
bid requests published on occa
sion this year, estimates which
appear to meet the law’s re
quirements could not be found
SUMMERVILLE, CHATTOOGA COUNTY, GEORGIA — THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1986
OUTLINED BY DADE OFFICIAL
Advantages Of Sole Commissioner
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Following is the first part of a series
dealing with a vital issue Chattooga County voters will
decide on Nov. 4 — whether to institute a county govern
ment with five elected commissioners and a manager, or
to retain the present sole county commissioner setup. Sole
Dade County Commissioner Larry Moore, in the folle)wing
interview, discusses the advantages and disadvantages of
one person being in charge of a county’s government).
* * *
THE NEWS: What do you see as the primary advan
tages of having a one-member commission, or a lone com
missioner form of government?
COMMISSIONER MOORE: Well, the advantages that
I see is that the person holding the office is directly accoun
table to the voters and constituents of the entire county.
The decision-making is streamlined somewhat; that prac
tically anytime the office is open and the commissioner is
there, he and the clerk are technically in session — with
some exceptions on major item purcfi,ases, and things of
that nature that require hearing notices. So, on day-to-day
operations of county business, the commissioner, with the
assistance of the clerk, can cut through a lot of paperwork
and delays. For instance, if we receive correspondence from
the State Department of Transportation or various state
aEencies, we review, execute with siinatures, seal it with
the clerk and it can be sent back out the same day, whereas
with a board of commissioners, many things would have
to be acted on by the entire body and based on their
meeting sched#le, and whether it be weekly, bi-weekly or
monthly, it delays the*decision-m‘aking process.
THE NEWS: On the other side of the coin, what do you
ed industrial park.
“NO WARNING”
The utility extension issue
has plagued the Mayor and
Council for the last several
months. Mayor Woods has
said that the city had ‘‘no war
ning’’ from Riegel that it in
tended to sell the property and
therefore had no time to plan
for providing city services to
the city tracts.
Councilman Stansell has
been outspoken in his efforts to
proceed with extending ser
It was revealed Sept. 4 that
Powell felt the county didn't
own the three vehicles bought
by McConnell in late May
tfi,rough the Georgia Depart
ment of Administrative Ser
vices. The vehicles included
two 1983 Fords, one costing
$1,200 and the other costing
$2,500, as well as a 1980
Chevrolet costing SBOO. The
total bill was $4,§00.
“The commissioner ap
proves every purchase and
those were not approved
because 1 would not approve a
used car to catch speeders,”
Powell said during the first
in this year's editions of The
News, the county’s legal organ.
Powell placed an ad com
garing the 1985 and 1986
udgets in the Feb. 20 edition,
sought bids for tires, gasoline
and other items as welFas food
to be preYared by works camp
personnel for the county jail in
the A(Pril 10 and 17 editions,
;)lace an ad regarding the
eeding of jail prisoners in the
June 5 edition, sought bids on
jail meals June 12 and adver
tised for paving bids June 26
and July 3, and then again Ju
ly 17 and 24. Bids for jail
repairs were sou%ht July 17
and 24. Powell (F aced an ad
outlining alle%e expenses in
the sheriff’s office Feb. 20 and
again Sept. 4.
Other ads have related to
the board of registrars and
see DID POWELL, page 8-A
Road In Court
--See Page 17-A
vices to the areas, saying that
Trion has the reputation for
not wanting prOfiress.
Those same themes, which
were voiced at the August
meeting, were presented again
at length last il"hursday night
after Woods had appointed the
two committees.
“We want to do it straight
down the line,” Mayor Woods
said, referring to a utility ex
tension aFolicy. Two Tennessee
towns almost ‘‘gave away the
town” in trying to obtain two
automobile manufacturing
week in September.
AUTHORITY
However, Jason Long,
director of the Surplus Proper
ty Agency of the Bepartment
of Administrative Services,
said Tuesday that he has on file
a card dated July 15, 1985
featuring the signature of Com
missioner Powell givin
McConnell, Powell himself, Bis
ly Willingham and Donnie
green authority to purchase
surplus property from the state
for Chattooga County.
The state ordinarily sends
out the cards for updating each
year, Long said, and since this
year's mailout was late, cities
and counties received the cards
in September rather than in Ju
ly or August. The latest card,
(I]ated Sefit. 15, 1986 and
featuring the signature of Com
missioner Powell, authorizes
only himself and Robert D.
Price to buy surplus property
from the state, Long said
Tuesday.
With that move, Powell ap
parently will halt the purchase
of surplus property g'om the
state by county officials unless
it has prior approval by his
office.
On that same date, Sept.
15, Powell wrote check number
267 for $4,500 to the state to
gay for the cars McConnell
ought last May, according to
Johnnie Smith of the Surplus
Prog:arty Agency. The check
reached the state Sept. 17.
WESSON CHECK
Wesson received county
check number 266 dated Sept.
15 for $943.03 that same week,
along with a copy of a letter
from county attorney Ed
Surles to Powell and a hand
written note to Wesson signed
by Powell.
The Surles letter, dated
March 18, 1985, apparently is
see STATE PAID, page 8-A
see as some of the disadvantages to the sole commissioner
form of fi)vernment?
COMMISSIONER MOORE: A disadvantage is that it's
often thought that two heads are better than one on some
decisions and a sole commissioner, when the decision is
made, more or less has to live with it, right or wrong. So
you hope that your decision is in the best interests of a ma
jority of the people. Of course, you do have the right to
change on any decision, but normally, that is not done. Once
a decision is made, a project, or whatever the matter may
be, you stick with your initi‘al de::ision.
THE NEWS: Do you think that a single commissioner
is more responsive to the voters of a county than would
be three or I)i(\)/e members elected from districts within the
county? Do you think any of that makes any difference?
COMMIgSIONER MOORE: It has the distinct
fiossibflity of creating a bad situation. For instance, the
oard is only as good as the members elected to the board,
and what their motives are is going to determine the good
or the bad —or the makeup —of the board. If you get a
person elected as a member whose got the good og’the coun
ty at heart, he’ll probably go into afi meetings with an open
mind and vote accordinfify. But if he's in there for self
motivation or self-gain, he's going to vote only on things
that will make him look goog, or funds for his particular
district. And, often is the case, you can get a commissioner
saying, ‘‘Well, he didn’t support me on my particular pro
ject, so I'll cast a no vote on gis particular project.”” So you
can get delays that way.
* * *
THE NEWS: Do you think that a sole commissioner
plants, the mayor warned, and
“‘now they're about to take it
under.”
ENGINEER
Thomas R. Gore Jr., vice
president of Robert Company,
Atlanta, met with the Mayor
and Council Sept. 3, and
estimated that it would cost
the city some $250,000 to serve
all the tracts with water and
sewer lines. Gore is the city's
engineer.
Mayor Woods said he and
Gore had been unable to devise
a recommendation on a city
policy for handling utility ex
tensions and that's why he
wanted to appoint the commit
tees, with the mayor also serv
ing as an ex officio member.
Stansell, however, said it
had been more than six months
since the matter first arose and
the city had done nothing to
serve the tracts since that
time.
“I think that, personally,
we made a decision when we
issued the building permits
that we were going to expedite
getting at least water, an
essential, a necessity, to those
properties,” Stansell said. I
think we've got an obligation.
I think our obligation should
be fulfilled and it should be
done more expeditiously than
six months later appointinE a
committee. I do not mean that
to be antagonistic in any way.
I think we've crumbled our
cookie by not dealing with this
situation before now and we
will have three houses . . . near
the completion stage and we're
still saying, ‘well, now we're
gonna appoint a committee,
we're gonna study this thing.'
We've talked about and
studied this thing for six
months. Now let's do
something.”
75 PERCENT
Stansell said he had made a
motion in the August meeting
to extend water service along
Club Drive and Back Penn
road to two of the properties
but withdrew the proposal. He
made the motion again Thurs
day night. The councilman
moved that the city extend
water service to the tracts at a
maximum cost to the city's
general fund of $25,000 — with
the city to pay 75 percent of
the cost and developers 25 per
cent of the cost.
Ultimately, Stansell's mo
tion failed to gain a second —
but a lengthy iiscussion on the
matter took place before the
mayor asked E)r a second. The
progosal died.
ater in the meeting,
Stansell moved that the city
extend water service to the two
areas with developers paying
60 percent of the cost amr the
city 40 percent. The motion
also failed to gain a second
see TRION, page 12-A
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GBI DIRECTOR ADDRESSES OPTIMIST CLUB
Billy Gilbert, Robert Hamrick, Sheriff Gary McConnell
SAYS GBI DIRECTOR
Crack ‘Out Of Hand’
The ‘‘crack’ cocaine situa
tion ‘‘is really getting out of
hand’ in the state, accordin
to Robert Hamrick, director o%
the Georgia Bureau of In
vestigation (GBI).
Hamrick revealed at last
Friday's Summerville-Trion
Optimist Club meeting that a
special GBI unit has been able
to purchase the highly addic
tive form of cocaine at every
filace in Georgia where a “‘buy’”’
as been att,emgted.
“It is so cheap, it is so
available . . . and it's going to
do tremendous damage to the
Sum-Nelly Saturday
More than 100 exhibitors and craft
smen have signed up for the annul Sum-
Nelly program Saturday at the Summer
ville Recreation Center. More than 5,000
¥)eople are expected to visit the autumn
estival.
Admission is free. Sum-Nelly will begin
at 10 a.m. and conclude at 5 p.m. Saturday.
The displays %fanerallf' are outside but in
case of rain, they will be moved into the
recreation center gymnasium.
Entertainment will be featured at 11
a.m. and 1 p.m., according to Pam Echols,
coordinator, who is also a Chattooga Coun
ty Extension Service agent.
Thousands of dollars in receipts have
been reported by craftsmen who have at
tended Sum-NeIIF' in the past. Craftsmen
and those dis€ aying other items are
responsible for cleaning up their areas after
the festival.
Among the displays and booths will be
the following: Crochet items, silk flower
dolls, hats. hutterflies, woodcrafts, quilts,
Graves Unearthed
--See Page 1-B
form of government is better for smaller counties and a
board concept better for larger counties, based on your ex
perience and knowlec}fe of government around the state?
COMMISSIONE MOORE: It works well either way,
depending on who you are talking with. In smaller coun
ties, in particular, tfie sole commissioner conc?xt‘rdnbly
works better than the board of commissioners. likewise
a board in the larger counties. In talking with board
members of multi-member commissions from some of the
larfier counties in the state, they’re kind of amazed — I'm
talking about someone who hol(I's a public job and attends
two board meetings a month and tfiat's pretty much his
input into the particular commission meetings, other than
he's heading up a particular department in the county —
about our (sole commissioner’s) broad range of duties.
We're jack of all trades in county government, I suppose.
The sole commissioner —the advantages to it inclu(l:e that
he is usually the one who makes the contacts with the state
agencies, such as the Department of Transportation,
Natural Resources and Community Affairs. It afford one
on-one — you become acquainted with the people there on
a daily or weekly basis, on a first-name basis. In turn, they
become familiar with you. I guess the county manager
would kind of serve in that capacity for a board. You don’t
load up the whole bus and take afi your board members
to ask for a particular bridg‘e or road project.
* *
THE NEWS: Based on your experience as a sole com
missioner, do you feel that election of a new sole commis
sioner sometimes results in a loss of continuity of programs
and projects — as opposed to the prejects and programs
see ADVANTAGES OF, page 18-A :
pe(zf)le who use it,”" Hamrick
said in his speech at The Round
Table, Pennville. The GBI
director was introduced b
Chattooga County Sherif}l
Gary McConnell.
In the next five years, peo
ple will be coming into the
work force who have been on
drugs, he said, and if
something isn't done ‘“‘we're
going to face serious pro
lems." The drug problem will
affect ‘‘every one of us and it's
going to be bad,” Hamrick
continued.
MOVED NORTH
A number of years ago, the
federal government realized
that a drug problem existed in
Florida, Hamrick said, and it
sent in vast amounts of man
power and money. The effort
succeeded in moving the pro
blem north into Georgia.
“Georgia is in an ideal spot
geographically for drug smug
glers . .. " Hamrick said.
Most people refer to the
problem as a “war,” the GBI
director said, adding, “'lf it is
a drug war, we've got to start
see CRACK, page 7-A
baked goods, canned goods, pillows, dolls,
Christmas ornaments, baskets, dried
flowers, barbecue, brunswick stew, pottery,
homemade candies and cookies, pastel por
traits, cross-stitch, applique, chocolate can
dies, baby items, spinning and weaving,
aintings, ceramics, needlecraft, chili, ham
gurgers. hot dogs, knives, country crafts,
framed cross-stitch pictures, gourds,
honey, plastic canvas, gristmill, hairbows,
doll cothing, linen colf;rs. stained élass,
onion rings, funnel cakes, corn dogs, Chris
tian toys, wreaths, embroidery, Efipcom,
cotton candy, face painting, children’s
ministry, stul‘led animals, airbrush art, folk
art, corn shuck art, water color painting,
pinto beans, cornbread and soup.
The booths will feature plenty of food
as listed.
Diane Smithson's ballet class will per
form, as will clofigers.
Individuals, churches and organizations
will be featured in Sum-Nelly, all offering
all sorts of crafts or food for sale.
PRICE 20c¢