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The Official Legal Organ of Chattooga County Georgia
WINSTON E. ESPY DAVID T. ESPY, JR. TOMMY TOLES
PUBLISHER GENERAL MANAGER EDITOR
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L A 1987
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N Information At Summerville GA 30747
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Address all mail to: THE SUMMERVILLE NEWS, P. O. Box 310, Summerville GA 30747
TELEPHONE (404) 857-2494
Our Opinion
Honor Bishop, Camp
A lot of Chattooga County residents on
a waiting list for Oak View Nursing Home
must be giving thanks that construction
has finally started on a 63-bed addition to
the Summerville facility.
Quite a few older residents are housed
in nursing homes in LaFayette, Col
linsville, Ala., Rome, Centre, Ala., and in
counties far removed from their homes.
Naturally, they'd like to be closer to
Chattooga.
But the 90-bed nursing home now has
a 40-name waiting list for admission to the
facility. Sadly but realistically, the only
way anyone can be admitted to Oak View
is if a resident dies. It has almost 100 per
cent occupancy all the time.
The extra 63 beds should be ready for
occupancy no later than sometime next
spring, based on the completion time of
240 days from the start of construction.
That’s something for a lot of Chattooga
families and their elderly relatives to look
forward to — and it's not that far away.
. Planning for the nursing home addition
.and overcoming all t‘ge roadblocks it en
countered since its inception took almost
four years. It should take only about eight
Plan For More Water
Although the water problem in Chat
tooga County is very serious, it’s not as
bad as it is in some parts of Georgia. But
that’s not much comfort to a family whose
well has gone dry, to the homeowner who
is watching his expensive sodded yard die
from lack of rain, or to a farmer who sees
his future withering in his parched fields.
Conservation of that precious com
modity is the standard solution to this
emergency. And it will work partially for
awhile if everyone does his part in reduc
ing water use.
But that's not the total solution. Ad
ditional sources of water are needed by
several municipalities in the county, by the
county water system and by residents who
have no source except their wells.
The drought of several years may or
may not end this year. It’s sheer specula
tion to figure what may or may not hap
pen to our weather in the years ahead. We
do know it will rain again in quantity, but
it may not come when we need it the most.
It’s time for local governments to begin
Saved From Suicide
A recent seminar for Chattooga Coun
ty teachers on recognizing symptoms of
possible suicidal behavior in their students
was badly needed.
Dr. Gerald Jennings, a psychology pro
fessor at Berry College, did a superb job
in explaining how educators can intervene
when they suspect that a youngster may
be contemplating suicide.
There have been attempts by
youngsters in Chattooga to Kkill
themselves, according to an earlier report
by a Rome nurse. Many survivors are
'@?——- U.._11._.
38 YEARS AGO
The following are excerpts from the June 22, 1950, edition of The Summer
ville News.
* * *
A 1,000 WATT radio station will go into operation in Summerville on Aug.
1. William Farrar, secretary-treasurer of the Tri-State Broadcasting Co., made
this disclosure Monday night at the regular meeting of the Summerville Retail
Merchants Assn. Ground was broken Saturday for the building of the frame
structure on Bolling Road which will house the radio station. Farrar will serve
as general manager of the station, whose call letters are WGTA.
months for the nursing home to be finish
ed now that construction has startéd.
Without the dedication, persistence,
hard work and courage of two Chattooga
women, the nursing home would never
have been built.
Katherine Camp, chairman of the
Hospital Authority, which oversees the
nursing home and hospital, and Authori
ty member Sherry Bishop have been the
driving force behind the current project
during the last two years.
Most of the work they did, the trips
they made, the phone calls they received
and made and the personal contacts they
developed aren't that visible to the public.
But without that quiet, hard work, the cur
rent addition to Oak View Nursing Home
would never have been built.
They ought to be honored in some man
ner by the community. Naming the
employee lounge or dining room in the new
nursing home in recognition of their con
tributions doesn’t seem inappropriate.
Perhaps it's something that the full
Authority should consider at its June 27
meeting.
making plans to establish a reservoir
system to serve the entire county. The
most logical — and most expensive —
choice seems to be the East Fork of Little
River atop Lookout Mountain. That would
serve all the county.
Other choices include reservoirs at the
headwaters of Raccoon Creek. State
recommendations for reservoir locations
should be considered seriously in the im
mediate future.
But it’s going to take some entity call
ing a meeting of all local governments to
sit down and conduct preliminary discus
sions on the issue. Teamwork will be re
quired since no one government will be
able to bear the enormous cost of such a
project.
The City of Summerville has exercised
the most leadership in this area and it's
logical to hope that the city would set up
a preliminary meeting sometime this sum
mer to begin making plans for five, 10, 20
and 30 years in the future.
eventually taken to Floyd Medical Center
and few people outside their immediate
families are aware of the problem.
It's too bad that all schools in the coun
ty system didn’t send representatives to
the seminar held at Menlo School. They
could have returned and shared the
valuable information provided by Dr. Jen
nings with their colleagues.
If one child is saved from taking his
own life through the one-day program, it
will have been well worth the effort.
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fle " Viewpoint
‘ '\ 3 By Tommy Toles, Editor
L_é_________;
Rock Music Deadly
IT'S PROBABLY no secret that I like
early 1950 s and early 1960 s rock ‘n’ roll,
as well as country music. By the same
token, I'm convinced that today’'s pop
music and hard rock will rot your teeth
and cause impacted ear wax.
Elvis, the Drifters, Brenda Lee, the
Shirelles, George Jones, Waylon and
Willie, George Strait, Alabama, the
Statlers, Oak Ridge Boys, the Coasters,
Hank Williams Jr., Barbara Mandrell —
these are folks you can sit down and listen
to while you partake of a big glass of but
termilk and cornbread.
I ONCE MADE the mistake of wander
ing in a motel “‘lounge,” allegedly to listen
to the band. My ears still ring from the ex
perience. There was unrelenting loud noise
with a beat somewhere between an ar
rythmatic heart and my washing machine.
Whatever it was, it wasn’t music. It was
like sitting in the middle of I-75 with
18-wheelers passing within in
ches . .. amplified, of course.
The next thing I noticed was the
smoke. For a few seconds, I started to yell,
“fire!” I thought the place was going to
burn to the ground. If a smoke detector
had been located within 100 yards, it
would have exhausted its battery within
10 minutes.
* * *
I TRIED to talk. It was impossible.
Potpourri
By Rich Jefferson
When New Principal?
PUBLIC EDUCATION is one of the
chief political arenas in America. Such
organizations as the National Education
Assn. are far more concerned about pro
moting their leftist political agenda in
every school district than they are about
whether Johnny can read or whether
Johnny is the least bit culturally literate.
In the state of Georgia, the Quality
Basic Education (QBE) Act emphasizes
the political aspects of education
everytime someone floats a rumor about
a lack of funding. These days funding
struggles do not concern themselves with
whether to impose property taxes to pay
for education. The discussion only includes
the issue of how much a group can squeeze
out of their representatives, which makes
budgets purely political.
IN CHATTOOGA County, the school
system labors under other political
burdens. We can’t even hire a principal for
the high school.
There are some who blame the school
board for this. Jack Herring, the principal
at Chattooga High School, was chosen in
March as the new curriculum director for
the county and a fruitless search for a new
principal has been conducted since then.
One board member told me the board
really wanted to hire someone for the job
“You are attractive,” I screamed.
“What?" the young lady screamed
back.
After a few more efforts to com
municate in a rational manner, I gave up.
I decided to experiment.
“You have a zit on the end of your left
nostril,” I said.
“Thank you,” she screamed back.
* * *
“FURTHERMORE, your mother is a
bag lady in New York City and your old
man likes little boys.”
“You are so sweet,’”’ .she smiled.
“Your brother leaks likdßucky Beaver
with cavities and your hips look like Miss
Piggy's.”
She was really beginning to warm up
to me. ‘'You say such nice things,” she
yelled.
* * *
“YOU LOOK like Little Orphan Annie
without her contacts and wig,”’ I shouted
at the top of my lungs.
Unfortunately, the ‘“‘music”’ ended
after about the first word. But I had been
so deafened that I didn’t notice.
* * *
SHE DID. I still have a handprint on
my left cheek but the broken jaw is heal
ing nicely, thank you.
See. Today's rock music is dangerous
to your health.
before the end of school June 3.
Mr. Right just couldn’t be found. Why
not?
According to state law, the board can
not hire a new principal without the recom
mendation of Superintendent Don Hayes.
A spokesman for the Georgia Department
of Education said the board could ask the
superintendent to recommend the person
of its choice, but chances are slim that
Hayes would heed any such advice from
the school board.
THE SUPERINTENDENT must be
the highest paid person in the school
system, and the high school principal must
be the highest paid person in the school.
Hayes makes around $49,000. That’s more
than most of us, but it's not exceptional
for a superintendent.
What would happen if Hayes recom
mended a principal to the board who would
move to Chattooga County only if he will
earn here as much or more than he is mak
ing now? If he is currently making
$52,000, and agreed to take the job at
CHS, the board would also have to raise
Hayes’ salary by at least $3,000.
Earlier this year, school board member
Leon King made a motion to increase
Hayes’ salary but the board took no ac
see POTPOURRI, page 6-A
4
¥+« Commentary
.’ By Buddy Roberts
A
Chickamauga Comes Alive
THE AMERICAN Civil War conjures up images of
spacious battlefields, soldiers clad in blue and gray
uniforms, and the powerful figures of great military
leaders. It was a war that created a new nation and
destroyed a former way of life.
I had always enjoyed studying about the Civil War in
history class, and prior to last week, I thought I knew a
lot about it. But last Monday, I realized that I only knew
precious little about the war between the states. Ap
plicable here was the passage in the Bible that warns, “‘Let
me who is standing beware that he does not fall.”
* * *
IT WAS LAST Monday that my News office colleague
Cheri Teague and I visited the national military park in
Chickamauga, the site of a Confederate victory against
Union forces in late 1863. We went there to begin resear
ching the battle for a special project The News has plann
ed to coincide with the reenactment of the 125-year-old
battle.
Before our visit, we both had done some reading,
though not much, about the battle. For all practical pur
poses, we seemingly knew the basics of the battle. We ar
rived at the visitor’s center at the parkway and looked at
several of the displays and newspaper accounts of the bat
tle. We knew we would have problems when the majority
of the military personnel mentioned were people we had
never heard of before.
&
OUR CONVERSATIONS were usually something like,
“You heard of this guy before, Cheri?”
“No. Have you?”
“Can't say that I have, no.”
“‘Better write his name down.”
We had compiled a nice long list of names before it was
over.
* * *
ANYWAY, WE decided to view the 20-minute slide
presentation on the battle while we were there. The show
is presented every hour and half-hour, and we attended
the 11:30 a.m. showing. It was very interesting, and both
Cheri and I took notes during the program.
When it was over, we returned to the displays and
began to discuss the slide show to make sure we
understood the way the battle went. I think we knew more
about the battle before we saw the slides, because sudden
ly we couldn’t agree on what event took place first, what
general led the charge against the Union army, or anything
else.
“You know what I think we need to do?” Cheri finally
asked.
“Yeah,” I sighed, ‘‘Let’s go.” With that, we treked
back to the slide room for the noon showing.
e e
WE TOOK MORE notes and all but memorized the
narrative this time around. When it was over, for the first
time we really knew what was going on. Cheri commented
that she felt as if the mysteries of the universe had been
unraveled, and I felt the same way.
Before we left, we knew who most of the previously
unheard-of military leaders were, and had a fairly good
understanding of the geography surrounding the area. We
even drove around and visited certain sites of the
battlefield.
* * *
THERE’S A CERTAIN aura about that place I can’t
explain. We went around to the Snodgrass farm, where.
Union General George Thomas saved the day for the
Federal troops and held off a charging Confederate
brigade, earning the title “‘Rock of Chickamauga.” The
farmhouse sits off the main roadway and is somewhat .
secluded from other areas of the battlefield.
As I said, we stopped there for a few minutes, and it
seemed we had stepped back in time. It was surreal; I
could almost see the two armies clashing on Snodgrass Hill
and hear the sounds of their artillery fire. It's amazing how
real imagination can be.
* * *
FOR THOSE few moments, the Civil War was
something real, almost tangible — and we had vivid look
at the struggle that ripped a nation apart.
|
THERE USUALLY IS
In nearly every case when you exclaim: “There ought
to be alaw against that!” — if you'll look it up, you'll find
that there is. — Atlanta Journal