Newspaper Page Text
VOLUME CII — NUMI
Chattooga To Buy
Voting Computers
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LISA DEAN DEMONSTRATES OPTECH 1 MACHINE
During Press Conference Tuesday Morning
FOR AMBULANCE SERVICE
Relocation Set
A new location for Chat
tooga County’'s Emergency
Medical (ambulance) Service
hasn't been decided, Commis
sioner Harry Powell said
Tuesday.
Powell was notified Mon
day that ambulance service
quarters on North Commerce
Street have been leased to a
restaurant chain and the ser
vice must move within the next
month or so. The county has
been leasing the structure, a
former Maryland Fried
Chicken restaurant, since
Powell took over the service
from Chattooga Hospital on
Jan. 1, 1986.
Powell confirmed the
notification but said he hadn't
decided where to move the ser
vice. Several locations are be
ing considered, he said. The
commissioner said previously
that he might move the service
to the site of the county public
works camp east of Chattooga
Hospital.
APRIL 16
The lease with a Rome
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C. W. BOLING (R) CLIMBS TO COURTHOUSE CLOCK TOWER
Guided By Custodian Marvin Powell Over Boxes, Furnace Plenum
Special Olympics
--See Page 16-A
Che Summeruille News
restaurant chain is effective
April 16 but Powell said he had
been told the firm may give the
county another month to
relocate the ambulance service.
The chain reportedly plans to
locate a Bojangles restaurant
on the site I)y about midsum
mer, depending on progress in
completing the Highway 27
widening project.
The commissioner indicated
last week during a meeting of
County, Cities Taken Over
By KAY ABBOTT
Staff Writer
Students from Chattooga
and Trion High Schools ‘‘took
over’’ local government and
business offices Tuesday mor
ning during “Youth In Govern
ment and Business Day.”” The
annual event is sponsored by
the Summerville-Trion Op
SUMMERVILLE, CHATTOOGA COUNTY, GEORGIA — THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 1987
To Cost $78,000
Chattooga County joined the computer age this week
by deciding to buy 17 Optech I voting machines for use
in all the county’s election precincts, starting in 1988.
The purchase was announc
ed by Jon Payne, probate judge
and elections superintendent,
at a Tuesday morning press
conference attended by county
officials and civic leaders.
COST
Net cost to the county will
be $75,723, Payne said. Harry
Powell, county commissioner,
indicated that the county
would borrow sands from
Farmers and Merchants Bank
“if necessary’’ to finance the
purchase.
Three large Optech I com
uterized voting machines will
ge bought, two for the Sum
merville precinct and one for
the Trion box, Payne said.
Fourteen smaller machines will
county officials that he had
allocated $391,395 for the am
bulance service for this current
calendar year. That figure ap
parently is more than twice as
much as the coun;:jy had been
paying the hospital to operate
the service prior to 1986.
Reports of the expected
lease and restaurant location
had been circulating for several
months.
timist Club as part of National
Youth Appreciation Week.
Participants were chosen
from U. S. history and govern
ment classes at the two
schools. In addition to learnin
about the duties of elected of
ficials, youth in government
particifiants were invited to
share their ideas for future pro
gress in Chattooga County.
Youth in business par
see COUNTY, page 14-A
Chattooga Follies
--See Page 1-B
be bought, one for each of the
other voting districts, in
cluding Trion and absentee
voters, plus one spare. Two
precincts had less than 100
voters each registered last
November and tilree had less
than 200 registered voters
each.
Average cost of each
machine will be $4,300 or a
total of $73,100. In addition,
Payne said, the county plans to
buy a $5,000 maintenance kit
for the equipment, pushing the
total to $78,100. The ghat
tooga Democratic Committee
has donated $2,377 toward the
purchase, making $75,723 the
net cost to the county.
QUICK RESULTS
The machines will eliminate
“a minimum of 100 workers
that would normally come in to
help count the ballots after the
polI)s close,” Payne said Tues
dafl. “Within minutes after the
polls close, with this machine,
the manager will have the
count for every candidate run
ning for office, and by 7:30-8
p.m., the chief election official
should have the results from
every precinct.”
Business Records Corp.,
which has an office in Atlanta
and a regional office in Birm
ingham, Ala., will sell the
machines to the county, Payne
said. The firm will provid}c'an a
crew to help oversee Chat
tooga’s first two elections, the
March, 1988 presidential
preference primary, and the
§eneral primary in August,
988, Payne said.
The firm will also teach a
local person to maintain the
voting machines, he added, bet
ween now and the first coun
tywide election in one year.
DELIVERY
Deliverl); of 16 machines is
expected shortly after the first
of 1988, Payne said, and the
one on display during Tues
day's press conference will re
main in the county to help
familiarize residents with the
process.
The election superintendent
recommended this week that
the machine be demonstrated
to the seniors of Trion High
see CHATTOOGA, page 7-A
‘Gonna Fix His Clock’
A new Chattooga County resident will
reiair the courthouse clock free of charge
if he can obtain permission to do so and
donations of materials for the project.
C. W. Boling, who helps manage the
Lake Wanda Reita Apartments north of
Summerville, said he noticed none of the
clock’s four faces was working while pass
ing through town.
With assistance of custodian Marvin
Powell, Boling recently crawled around
dustK boxes stored in the old balcony area
of the courtroom and over a furnace
plenum to aladder leading to the clock
tower.
DAMAGE
Since the area now has no electrical
power, it’s difficult to determine whether
any of the clock motors would work or
wl;gther additional damage exists, Boling
said.
Ladders to the clock area need replac
ing because they have rotted and electrical
wiring to the tower must be restored as
first steps, he continued.
A preliminary inspection indicates that
the clock’s electrical motors may need to
be rewound or replaced, Boling said. He
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Staff Photo by Tommy Toles
SUMMERVILLE “CITY LIGHTS” REFLECTED ON STREET DURING SNOWFALL
Flakes Stuck To Grass, Trees But Left Roads Clear. See Page 1-B
REJECTED BY BOARD ‘
- Recreation Fees Out
Summerville’'s Recreation
Board has reversed a vote of
four months ago by deciding
not to implement a fee system
for non-city residents.
The panel last Thursday
cited two reasons for its deci
sion: (1) Inadequacy of propos
ed fees to raise su?ficient
revenue, and (2) What it said
was the willingness of Chat
tooga County Commissioner
Harry Powell to provide funds
for the program sometime this
year.
SSOO CHECK
Guinn Hankins, chairman
of the panel and a city coun
cilman, also displayed a SSOO
check Powell had written
March 5 to the Summerville
Recreation Department. It was
written on the balance of funds
remaining in the county’s
federal Revenue Sharing
account.
The commissioner had writ
ten the Recreation Department
and other city an(I) county
agencies last summer that
their funds would be cut off for
this year because of the end of
Revenue Sharing in 1986. The
Recreation Department had
been receiving around $25,000
er year from the county in
I)ederal funds.
Powell's decision resulted in
Summerville's City Council im
plementing a fire protection
subscription system for non
city residents.
found two motors and thinks a third should
exist. Indications are that the clock was
built by New York-Boston Clock Co. in
1909, when the courthouse was
constructed.
Lightning could have coursed through
the clock’s wiring at one time, wiring confid
have shorted out or fuse boxes may need
to be replaced, he indicated.
OLD CLOCKS
“There's nothing I can't fix,"” said the
confident Boling. ‘I love old buildings, old
clocks and things like that . . . With tender,
loving care to anything, it will last
forever."
Boling said Commissioner Harry
Powell was busy with other matters when
he visited recently and he was unable to see
the county official. However, he said he
hopes to see Powell or Ed Surles, counti
attorney, within the next few days to see
permission and a release from liability for
working on the clock.
He also hopes a local organization, such
as a civic or social club or the Chamber of
Commerce, will agree to establish a trust
see GONNA FIX, page 15-A
Recreation Board members
voted last Nov. 4 to institute
a fee system if Powell didn't
provide funds for the city pro
gram, saying more than 70 per
cent of the department’s par
ticipants were non-city
residents.
SAYS STATE CONSULTANT
County Violates Law
Chattooga County is in
violation of Georgia law regar
din(F its budgeting procedures
and unless corrections are
made, the state could possibly
cut off all funding to tfie coun
ty in the future.
That was the conclusion
Wednesday morning of a state
financial expert who has been
working with Chattooga of
ficials to develop sound
budgeting and accounting
methods that would be accep
table to the state.
“HEARING”
Sandra Hollifield made the
comments after learning of a
“budget hearing” moments
earlier that failed to include
budgets for all county depart
ments or anticipated revenues
Storm Damage
--See Page 7-A
Since the Board’s
Christmas banquet was held in
December, no regular business
meeting was scheduled for that
month.
NO SPECIFICS
A specific fee proposal was
for 1987. She is a city-county
management financial consul
tant in the technical assistance
division of the Georgia Depart
ment of Community Af}f]airs
(DCA).
Harry Powell, Chattooga
commissioner, exploded angri
ly at the heari:g when asked
about a proposed 1987 county
budget prepared by Ms.
Hollifield andp Jim Finney, the
county’s auditor. A photocopy
of that budget with handwrit
ten notations is included with
this report. It was not obtain
ed from Ms. Hollifield or
Finney.
The proposed budget,
which Powell said he had toss
ed in his trashcan, listed total
anticipated general revenues of
$3,203,000, plus $1,330,000 in
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CLOCK TQ BEGIN WORKING AGAIN?
Volunteer Offers To Make Repairs
PRICE 25¢
not voted on at the Board’'s
Jan. 6 meeting. Members said
they wanted to meet with
Powell first to further discuss
the issue. He was in a Rome
hospital at the time and
unavilable to conduct business.
see RECREATION, page 8-A
special local option sales tax
revenues for roads and bridges.
Total of both categories is
$4,533,000. Expenditures
balanced revenues in the
budget Powell rejected.
REVENUE SHARING
Ms. Hollifield also revealed
Wednesday that Powell ended
1986 with $66,000 left in the
county's federal Revenue Shar
ing account. She said the coun
ty also received an additional
$4,300 in federal funds this
month in an apparent final
distribution of monies from
Washington, D. C. The federal
Revenue Sharing program end
ed in 1986.
One of the county's
auditor’s for 1984 had pointed
see COUNTY, page 9-A