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VOLUME CIV
Fire Station Delay
Prison Facility Must Await Funding
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Time Change Set
Chattoo%la Countians will get an “extra" hour of after
noon. sunlight starting SUNAAY.... . e gt
Daylight Savings Time (DST) will go back in effect for
the s%ring, summer and fall months, effective at 2 a.m. Sun
day. But Chattooga residents don't have to stay up that
late to change their clocks. Before going to bed Saturday,
they should set their watches and clocks ahead one hour.
If tKey don't they could be late to Sunday School or church
on Sunday.
For ex‘am{)le, if a person goes to bed at 11 p.m. Satur
day, he should set his clocks ahead to midnight.
"Local residents may “lose” an hour of sleep Sunday but
they'll gain it back next fall when the time changes back
to Eastern Standard Time (EST).
Accord Reached On Recreation
Summerville Mayor Sewell
Cash and Chattooga County
Commissioner Jim Parker
worked out a tentative agree
ment last Thursday that was
designed to allow continued
participation of non-city
residents in the town's recrea
tion programs.
Two sets of monies involv
ed in the agreement cancelled
out each other but Parker
agreed that the county would
pave some city streets and do
other non-monetary work for
the city in exchange for coun
ty recreation participation dur
in?' the last six months of this
calendar year.
The commissioner also said
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staff Photo By Rich Jefferson
CHATTOOGA COUNTY REP. JOHN CRAWFORD
Discusses Results Of 1989 Legislature
The ' ummerville News
NUMBER XI
he would include money for
recreation — including Sum
merville — in his 1990 calendar
year bud%et, probably 10 to 12
percent of the total city recrea
tion budget.
HOUR MEETING
The accord was reached
following an hour's discussion
in Parker's office. The session
was set up on Tuesday even
ing, March 21, during a
meeting of the Summerville
Recreation Board. Ralph
Stanley, recreation director,
criticized Parker several times
for allegedly failing to make a
definite commitment to the ci
ty recreation program.
SUMMERVILLE, CHATTOOGA COUNTY, GEORGIA
A promised fire station for
Hays Correctional Institution
at Pennville won't be built un
til sometime next year after the
750-inmate facility is opened.
The fire station was one of the
main sellinfi points for the com
munity when state officials
revealed plans for the prison.
John giler, public informa
tion officer for the Georgia
Department of Corrections,
this week acknowledged that
no money was contained in
either the 1988-89 supplemen
tal or 1989-90 state bu(f)gets for
the fire station. It wasn't in
cluded in the original contract
for the prison.
NEXT BUDGET?
However, he said money for
the station should be contain
ed in the 1989-90 supplemental
budget request from the DOC
that the Georgia General
Assembly will be asked to ap
prove early next year.
The station is supposed to
be built outside the prison com
plex itself and staffed 24 hours
per day by state inmate
trusties, D(XC officials said
when the prison was announc
ed. It would be designed to
serve not only the prison but
also the Pennville community,
the DOC said initially.
The prison is supposed to
be comp{)ebed by next gebruary
or March, according to Mike
McConnell, general superinten
dent for the prime contractor,
Carlson Southeast Corp. But
Siler estimated that the facili
ty will be completed ‘‘next
spring.”’ If money is placed in
next year’'s supplemental
budget, it would likely be late
summer before the structure
would be built, Siler agreed.
ADDITION?
Whether it would be built
as an addendum to the Carlson
Parker suggested Thursday
that the city pay the county
$14,970 in past-due bills for
housing city prisoners at the
county jail. In turn, the com-
The Summerville City
Council will meet at 5:30 p.m.
Friday at city hall to discuss
the recreation issue.
missioner said, he would write
a check to the city for $14,970
for Summerville’s recreation
program, after the agreement
had been reviewed by Bill
Hyden, county attorney. The
More Interest In Lottery Than Tax
Chattooga, Trion Schools To Receive Additional Funding Next Year
By RICH JEFFERSON
Staff Writer
Chattooga County Rep.
John Crawford discovered Fri
day that the one-cent sales tax
increase passed by the 1989
General Assembly was only
mildly interesting to most of
the members of the
Summerville-Trion Optimist
Club. What was important to
a small, vocal group, was that
Crawford had not supported a
statewide lottery.
“All the polls showed that
the people want a chance to
vote on the lottery,” said
member Eddy Elf]enburg.
Crawford told the club that
there is no provision for such
a referendum in the Georgia
Constitution. The Constitution
would have to be changed to
allow a vote, he said.
Cash, Drugs Seized
--See Page 6-A
© Copyright 1989 By Espy Publishing Co., Inc
Southeast contract or by
another contractor after
Carlson turns the site over to
the state hasn’t yet been deter
mined, the DOC spokesman
said. No other contractor may
start work on the station while
Carlson is still working on the
main prison complex, accor
ding to state law.
A state official who didn't
want to be identified said the
fire station appeared to have
been ‘‘squeezed out” of the
budget &is year by the need
for more prison bed s‘i)ace. The
legislature approved several
“‘fast track” prison construc
tion projects to help relieve the
overcrowding in the state's
prisons and county jails.
Siler said the fire station
was in “one” of the DOC’s
original funding requests, but
wasn’t included in the final
budqets adopted by the
legislature.
PLANNING FUNDS
However, the %eneral
assembly did include planning
funds for a new North Georgia
Crime Laboratory (see related
interview with Chattooga
Counti Rep. John Crawford)
near the prison.
Although the proposed fire
station won’t ge built on
schedule, Siler said the DOC
has increased . its staff re
quirements for the prison at
Pennville. Initial reports said it
would take 250 people to staff
the facility. Siler said Tuesday
that the DOC now plans to hire
approximately 290 staffers,
most of them from the Chat
tooga area.
NO INCREASE?
The DOC official also
asserted that the state has no
plans to increase the number of
see FIRE STATION, page 9-A
city wrote its check Tuesday
afternoon and the county was
expected to follow suit this
week.
Parker also agreed that he
would pave some streets within
the city limits this year and do
other work for the city, par
ticularly in recreation, wl?ere
no direct money exchange is in
volved. If allowed by law, he
said at the time, the county
would pave some recreation
parking lots, tracks and drives.
*‘l don't intend to do anything
illegal . . . If we can, great,” the
commissioner said at the time.
Money will be placed in the
county’s 1990 buSget and will
see RECREATION, page 8-A
CATCH
The catch is that a majori
ty of the representatives have
to recommend a change in the
Constitution to allow the
referendum, Crawford said. He
also said that the state would
have to actively encourage
citizens to famble, and that
millions would have to be spent
to market the state lottery.
“You don't want to elect a
representative who says yes to
every group of people that
comes to see him. People who
want to gamble are going to
gamble anyway. I don’t have a
problem with gambling, but we
would have to hire people and
sgend money to market the
thing.”
In an earlier interview,
Crawford said that represen
tatives from South é)eorgia
had observed how the lottery
worked for Florida. Florida
doesn’t just have a lottery, but
allows other kinds of betting as
— All Rights Reserved
THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 1989
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Brandi Bryant, 3, participates in one of the childhood
rites of spring by blowing on a dandelion and allowing
dozens of seeds to parachute to earth and start new
Hospital Finances Better
The financial condition of
Chattooga County Hospital
continued to improve in
February but the facility still
owes almost $65,000 in past
due bills with contributions
rapidly coming to a halt, the in
stitution's governing authority
learned this week.
Only two major fundraisinfi
events, a spaghetti supper an
benefit auction, remain in the
current Chattooga Cares fund
drive, the authority was told.
The possibility of sponsoring a
benefit professional wrestling
match is also being explored.
Only 36.1 percent of the
original $200,000 goal has been
reached but members of the
authority have set their sights
on a goal of SIOO,OOO before
May 1.
OPEN TODAY?
Meanwhile, the authority
was told that the hospital and
Oak View Nursing Home hope
to begin using a new kitchen
and dining room late this week
and to start admitting
well, including jai alai, or horse
racing, ang dog racing.
Crawford said that conve
nience store owners and
grocers in Florida had objected
to the lottery because would-be
customers spent their money
on lottery tickets instead of
buying staples.
SUCCESSFUL?
“Florida has the most suc
cessful lottery in the country,’
Crawford said in a follow-up in
terview later Friday afternoon
*lf it was successful in funding
education the way some say it
will be, why is Florida now con
sidering a 10-cent gasoline
tax?"
Crawford also said he didn’t
«are for the exemptions that
Gov. Joe Frank Harris includ
ed in the sale tax bill approved
by both houses in the General
Assembly. “‘l've always been
of the opinion that if you're go
ing to tax, you need to tax
everything, no exceptions,” he
Rites Of Spring
residents to the new Oak View
wing during the week of April
10-15. The projects are several
weeks behind schedule.
Dan Sweitzer, executive
director' of the hospital and
nursing home, said the 1989
session of the Georgia General
Assembly was ‘“‘a very good
session for us."” :
In other matters, the
authority decided to postpone
final action on a covered
walkway and carfiort for the
nursing home until conflicting
cost estimates for the project
have been resolved. The addi
tion will be required by 1990.
OCCUPANCY
The hospital had an oc
cupancy rate of 34.79 percent
in February, Sweitzer said,
boosting net revenues to a
higher than expected level for
the month. The occupancy rate
in January was 32.57 percent.
Revenues and expenses at
the hospital are actually being
tracked by two separate
budgets. One was adopted by
NO EXCEPTIONS
There will be no exceptions
for the one-cent sales tax until
Sept. 1, 1990, he said, and then
the exemptions get confusing
for smaller grocery vendors. *'l
can see exempting bread pro
ducts or dairy firoducts. %ut
not exempting cheese, and ex
empting milk, or not exemp
ting gotato chips, but exemp
ting bread, that's different.
FOOD ITEMS
Groceries that will become
exempt from the tax im
September, 1990, include fresh
meat, but not canned or pro
cessed meat, poultry, fish, beef,
seafood,™ pork, eggs, milk,
cream, packaged ice cream,
sherbert, yogurt, flour, flour
mixes, corn meal, grits, rice,
bread, biscuits, rolls, muffins,
fresh fruit and vegetables,
honey, peanuts, ?ecans‘ baby
food and formula, salt and
Tax Hike Saturday
«-See Page 14-A
dandelions. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Mike
Bryant, Summerville. (Staff Photo By Tommy Toles).
the authority early last sum
mer for the current 1988-89
fiscal year. The other was
developed by Sweitzer late last
year to account for the Chat-
Blood Drive Set Today
A community blood drive will be held from 2 until 6 ‘B.m.
todaiinhosted by Summerville Presbyterian Church, West
Washington Avenue. The drive will be sponsored by the
church and Chattooga County Hospital.
A total of 227 pints has been collected in the drives so far
this fiscal year, said Jean Lambert, volunteer coordinator for
the American Red Cross, which conducts the drive. The goal
by June 30 is 304 pints.
Separate blood drives are held periodically for Trion and
for the Chattooga area. Trion’s goal is 175 pints and 93 have
been collected so far this fiscal year.
Mrs. Lambert asked previous and new volunteers to turn
out for today’s drive. Less than five percent of the popula
tion donates blood, she added, although about 40 percent is
eligible. She also noted that it is impossible for a person to
contract AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Sym!fi)me) bz;
gonating blood because new sterile needles are used for eac
onor.
sugar substitutes, sugar
sweetners, and syrup. “
The local sales tax option
for roads and bridges in (E,hat
tooga may still be used, and
may even be renewed after it
expires this fall, Crawford said.
The state sales-tax increase
does not eliminate the local
tax, he said.
Crawford said the tax hike
is projected to brin
$687-milfion the first year ang
$507-million in the following
years. Crawford said that, in
his opinion, the sales tax was
better than the gas tax for a
variety of reasons, especially
because a boost in the gas tax
would not have been enough
for succeedin§ years, and
legislators would have to raise
another tax in 1990.
Crawford said that the
QBE funding formula for
public schools had been revis
ed, and that local schools will
receive more money to work
with in the 1990 budget.
PRICE 25
tooga Cares fund-raising cam
paign and to provide a more ac
curate picture of the hospital’s
finances.
see HOSPITAL, page 8-A
SCHOOL AID
Taxpayers helping to cover
the cost of the two public
school systems in the count{
may receive some tax relief,
Crawford said, depending on
what the boards of education
decide to do with additional
funds the legislature has ap
progriated for schools.
tatewide, S7B million in
formula earnings was ap
ropriated for fiscal year 1989
gy the legislature for public
school systems. For the 1990
fiscal year, an additional
SB7-million has been earmark
ed for Quality Basic Education
Act (QBE) formula earnings, as
well as $lO-million for increas
ed ecLualization earnings.
The total ag{)ropriated for
schools in fiscal year 1990 is
$175-million. The amounts
given to school systems are
sometimes called ‘‘property
tax relief,”” or ‘‘property tax
rebates.” Chattooga County
see MORE INTEREST, page 9-A