Newspaper Page Text
The Official Legal Organ of Chattooga County Georgia
WINSTON E. ESPY DAVID T. ESPY, JR. TOMMY TOLES
PUBLISHER GENERAL MANAGER EDITOR
WILLIAM T. ESPY s e
ADVERTISING MANAGER i —‘SUBS(‘RI‘PI‘I()N RATES -
Within Chattooga County ........... $8.93
Out-of-County Rates Available On Request
! Published Every Thursday By
O ESPY PUBLISHING CO., INC.
2SO A 1987
¥ O /50N E Freedom of Second Class Postage Paid
W : At Summerville GA 30747
O Et B [nformation
3', *' - Award Publication Number SECD 525560
4 o 3
, Q'OC|‘“° o Opinions Expressed By
Editorial Columnists Are Not
Necessarily Those of This Newspaper
Espy Publishini Company, Inc. will not be liable for any error in an advertisement to any
greater extent than the cost of the s'?ace the item occupies. Classified advertising rate is 11c¢
Ber word, minimum $2.25. Card of Thanks, Memoriams, etc. same as classified advertising.
isplay rates given upon request.
Address all mail to: THE SUMMERVILLE NEWS, P. O. Box 310, Summerville GA 30747
TELEPHONE (404) 857-2494
Our Opinion
Credit McConnell, Too
The odds are that Trion will get a new
regional commercial driving license testing
center within the near future. Not only will
it provide several more jobs, the project
will result in the installation of water and
sewerage and a road into the Town of
Trion's industrial park tract.
It will be a bonanza for Trion, which
was trying to figure out how to finance in
stallation of the utilities. And when new
businesses and industries locate in the im
mediate vicinity or in the park, it will
benefit all of the county.
A new regional state crime laboratory
will also be built at Pennville adjacent to
Hays Correctional Institution, adding
several jobs and greatly assisting local and
area law enforcement agencies.
The prison, of course, will provide some
Tax Evaluation Program
Chattooga County Commissioner has
taken a wise step in planning for evalua
tion of the county's tax digest. It's regret
ful that preliminary steps weren't taken in
1988.
Because of new state laws, Chattooga
and most other counties in Georgia will
have to undergo a massive property
evaluation program prior to 1991. If the
counties’ tax digests don’'t meet certain
stringent requirements, the state will cut
off highway money to those counties.
The program has the potential for
costing hundreds of thousands of dollars
in each county.
Parker met recently with officials of the
Give Blood Today
A community blood drive will be held
today at the Presbyterian Church on West
Washington Avenue in Summerville and
it’s imperative that there be a good tur
nout of donors.
The drive will be held from 2 until 6
p.m., co-sponsored by the church and
Chattooga County Hospital. .
The area has done better in turning out
_@]From OurEarlyFiles
38 YEARS AGO
The following are excerpts from the March 29, 1951, edition of The Sum
merville News. .
SEVERAL EXPLORER scouts from Summerville were among the 50 ex
plorers who attended a three-day encampment at Dobbins Air Force Base,
Marietta, Ga., last weekend, March 23, 24 and 25. Highlight of the encamp
ment was an airplane ride over North Georgia in a two-engine C-47 transport
by all the explorers attending the camp. Explorers from Summerville included
Eugene Haney, Eugene Suit and Charles Orr.
* * *
THE FEED that had previously been planned for Saturday night at the
Memorial Home has been cancelled. Announcement is made by the House
Committee.
U
GEORGIA COUNTIES will receive $9,317,013.03 of state funds the next
fiscal year in the form of aid for road construction and maintenance, under the
new appropriations bill passed by the recent General Assembly and signed in
to law by Governor Talmadge. During the current fiscal year ending June 30,
1951, State grants to counties for highway building and maintenance have total
ed $4,817,013.03.
i * .
* EIGHTEEN OF the 30 churches that make up the Chattooga Baptist
Association are now in a simultaneous evangelistic effort from March 25-April
8. These 18 churches make up an aggregate of 3,074 members and had as their
increase in baptisms for the 1949-50 year at total of 327. This year's increase
is expected to be greater.
250 jobs when completed.
Chattooga County Rep. John Crawford
has worked hard on these projects, even
on the controversial prison construction,
and deserves credit for his efforts.
But credit should also go to Chattooga
Sheriff Gary McConnell, who is a member
of the Georgia Board of Public Safety. If
it hadn't been for McConnell, the commer
cial driving test center could just as easi
ly have been located in Walker County or
Floyd County. Ditto for the state crime
laboratory.
McConnell has remained rather modest
about his behind-the-scenes efforts to
bring these state facilities to Chattooga
County, but people of the county need to
know that he had a major role.
State Revenue Department, Department
of Community Affairs, Extension Service
of the University of Georgia and the Chat
tooga Board of Tax Assessors to review
the situation. It's a good start toward
resolving the matter.
A decision should be made in the near
future on whether to attempt the evalua
tion program in-house or to hire an outside
firm. Based on currently available informa
tion, it seems that an in-house program
would cost less and be just as accurate as
hiring outside experts.
We commend Commissioner Parker
and encourage him to move as quickly as
money will allow.
for the blood donation programs during
the past year and we encourage veteran
and new donors to maintain and improve
on that trend.
You can't get AIDS from giving blood
and the process takes only about an hour.
There is little pain involved.
Take an hour and save a life — give
blood today.
/eT . ]
/ \ N = NS
/ % . \:\\\ = —— -
’ PSS
1 These are camy=on. [~
N/
S B e
iy & \ O/ 58
"/ \' \ / RVE g, : Y
- 3 SN s
B ] o (3\% \ ((l AR »S W Ve
| %’(w %$ ™ v%/Lt 27 “‘\ \\\ \“\Ke ‘\‘. - ;
. 3 T 4 /’k / /\\ ’-“":,;I A, X /
% 0!’ ? /y (HeTnasy (@) \\\ \SEH "fl“!‘?fiifl\l‘fi;h”f‘; {
v‘\l\\ 7 " i PO -W\ @& w M\ L \'\\\“;fl;\:‘.l\s.‘.‘":t"(:,". ‘:\ i
lfl’( . ;L A ) ’v/o‘v; ';‘/// =- y e "o“‘\%\\\‘ J f "."‘f‘i"\\::-‘.‘:l,“;"::.
gl (. FRCANE
i r Nr / Ak ',‘“'.w\,:l.‘;l"‘fi h}:‘ %’\Jv,v.‘ ; ONE L /
Bl
it .AN AN/ Gasily
| FCRRSANR . i “ \\\\\"\ ATR O P
‘ 7': :,‘a\l“;;YeT\Q\Oh ."‘s‘: " "”"\\t,,_.,,j ,\\\\ \\\\\\\ t \ ‘\\‘\Q.‘,L"t,:o I \.':,:': ‘.s L ‘; \ \}\)}a ') \
“ o funay St o\ R TP |(R
RangZitr ot T e el WY CRRAARALIANDY [ AR\
.\\\ ) . 7;3,1,"'!' ,‘."’ll" kg ,'r.; i f"‘ ,‘_" K \ ."\:‘T\\) l\!\ Y \\\\ d \}"A!.},”}// \mk\\\\\ ‘\\ LN
ol ’l‘.l/'(‘!/’ YA ¥ ".'-'_:f::‘f:;sl' N \},;\_-';\“ \\\.‘ \ N A 1 \\ A -_\“\\
e AT DT ORRA Was NN SSO el (i \"\"\\' \
e e e g (L NN
e - ;”///,,,/ v g s Aalih
//’ i/ o o N§§y _,—'__: ) \<“ —oo o) .
R 1A
¥
Walkout Memories
THE STUDENT walkout at Chattooga
High School last week brought back
memories of 1961, when several of us at
Menlo High School held a sitdown protest
over the consolidation of Menlo with Sum
merville High.
School had been underway for a couple
of weeks, as I recollect, and the high school
students were routinely transported to
Menlo school to be hauled to Summerville.
None of us liked the idea of consolidation
and one morning, I decided I wouldn't get
on the bus to Summerville. It wasn't long
before I was joined by several classmates
and our numbers swelled.
ROBERT SHIGLEY, who was prin
cipal of the school, asked us to leave the
classroom where we had congregated and,
because we respected him, we obeyed his
request. We were going to the gym but he
locked the door before we could get inside.
So we sat on the steps of the gym and
generally milled around.
It wasn't long before the Rome, Chat
tanooga and Atlanta newspapers showed
up for photos and interviews. We had our
protest — probably the first of the sit
downs in the 1960 s — with our parents’
best wishes, and one of our number even
met with the then-School Superintendent
James Spence.
* * *
OF COURSE, nothing came of the pro
test, which lasted only a day, and Menlo,
Lyerly and Summerville High Schools
became Chattooga High School. A few of
us returned to Summerville to graduate
but I was as stubborn then as I am now,
so [ never returned. Instead, I graduated
from Gaylesville, Ala. High School and
made a lot of fine friends in the process,
several of whom work in Summerville, in
cluding one at CHS.
On The Funny Side
Keep Eating Apples
THE UPROAR over apples and
pesticide really bothers me.
School systems in New York, Los
Angeles, and Atlanta have banned the
fruit from children’s lunches, and reclusive
actress Meryl Streep is even talking about
it on television — without an accent, no
less.
You know it's serious when Meryl
doesn’t talk with an accent.
I'll take my mom’s word over Meryl's
any day, though.
* . N
“BESIDES CHOCOLATE- covered
cherries and cheese nachos,” Mom used to
say, ‘‘apples are one of the best foods you
can eat.”’ (Well, she didn't actually say the
part about cherries and nachos, but I could
read between the lines).
Because of that, apples have always
been my favorite fruit.
I've tried others, including oranges,
peaches, grapes (Mom always insisted on
grapes from Chile, for some reason), and
even kiwi, but the long-term interest just
isn't there.
£ B
ONE ORANGE might be sweet, and
Viewpoint
By Tommy Toles, Editor
By Gary Solomon
I'm a lot older now, and I hope a bit
wiser, but I'm still convinced that con
solidation of Lyerly and Menlo with Sum
merville was a mistake.
ON ANOTHER FRONT, Indian Lore,
the page produced by the CHS journalism
class, failed to cover last week's walkout.
Although I have no problem with the
concept of a school controlling the content
of a school newspaper insofar as profani
ty, obscenity and pornography are con
cerned, it was wrong of Indian Lore to ig
nore the walkout and pretend that it never
happened. Shades of Moscow!
IT WOULD HAVE been a perfect op
portunity for the class to cover some “hard
news’’ and to learn how to keep their opi
nions — for or against the walkout — out
of the news columns.
But they did learn a valuable real-life
lesson by being prevented from covering
the walkout. There are some media outlets
where the owners ‘‘encourage’’ reporters
or editors to ignore or play up certain
stories. I know, I've worked for some of
them. Thank God that list doesn’t include
The Summerville News.
BUT IF INDIVIDUAL Indian Lore
staffers go to college, graduate and start
to work for a newspaper, radio or televi
sion station, they’ll most likely be “‘en
couraged’’ or told to ignore certain events
or to play up others.
So maybe the lesson they learned last
week will be helpful to them, after all.
MEA CULPA — I've neglected to
mention that Sara’s Flowers in Summer
ville has provided several arrangements
and props for feature photos published in
The News in recent months. Sorry.
the next one will be so sour it makes your
eyes squinch and your lips pucker, like
somebody doing a bad Clark Gable
imitation.
Peaches, on the other hand, are always
hard. A cement block is softer than most
peaches I've eaten.
Grapes have those tiny seeds that taste
bitter and get caught between your teeth.
Some grapes come without seeds, of
course, but until I figure out how someone
can extract those little suckers without
breaking the skin, I don't intend to buy
any more.
* * *
AS FOR KIWI, people stare at you
when you ask for it, plus it reminds me too
much of the color I turned once after
eating a defective chili dog.
But apples — ah, apples.
In northern New Mexico where I grew
up, apple orchards used to be a dime a
dozen. Most of them have been replaced
by shopping centers and housing
developments now, but in its heyday, the
area produced some outstanding apples. [
know, because I devoured several crops by
see ON THE FUNNY SIDE, Page 5-A
TN R
£ R R R
5
Potpourri g )
By Rich Jefferson '}
ASs The World Turns
NO SPRING TRAINING — Gov. Joe Frank Harris’
appointment powers have struck again. This time, the
Georgia school board, which is composed of members ap
pointed by the governor has looked down from its
Olympus-like view of Georgia schools, peered down its ex
tended bureaucratic nose, and decided that mere mortals
know not how to make decisions for themselves regarding
football practice.
The board has for future years eliminated spring prac
tice for high school football teams. The action was not
received well by some local coaches. The board now tells
them to have spring practice starting in May. This could
be the final year ever to do that. The coaches who object
to this say practice should begin immediately after basket
ball season. That way, spring football won't compete with
baseball or track. That shows a lot more common sense
than the board showed when it meddled with the spring
practice policy.
* * *
WHAT IS THE state board trying to do? Put
Georgia's high school football on par with other states that
have eliminated spring practice? Will football players now
spend more time studying in the spring time? And why
didn't the board change this policy in the fall; why did it
wait until the General Assembly was in session and grab
bing all the headlines?
QBE provides more than enough governor-sponsored
interference in local school systems. We don't need policies
such as this, and our teams emphatically do need spring
practice.
* * *
SECOND AMENDMENT UPDATE — A report from
Gun Owners of America said last week that the Bush ad
ministration and *'Drug Czar" Bill Bennett can do nothing
legally to stop certain foreign-made semi-automatic
weapons from entering the country. The ones they will
have to allow in have been paid for by licensed dealers.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms works with
dealers of imports in a contractual way that means the
BATF cannot legally keep the 500,000 semi-automatics,
purchased by dealers, out of the country.
That does not mean Bush, Bennett, and the BATF,
won't try to “stretch’ the law. Any president who works
as hard to alienate key constituencies as Bush has since
his inauguration will undoubtedly view gun-dealer con
tracts with the BATF and promises to groups who sup
ported him in the same way: non-binding.
N
CONTROL STRATEGIES COMMISSION — Accor
ding to one commentator, Gov. Joe Frank Harris' favorite
piece of legislation for this year, the so-called Growth
Strategies Commission, will make our state another
Georgia, USSR. *“The bill gives state planners the authori
ty to determine which county and city governments may
receive certain state funds. Counties and cities that fail
to abide by the wishes of state planners can be declared
“unqualified” governments and lose state funding,” he
says.
This means that even though you are forced to pay
state taxes, you may be paying for government supported
growth in another county. The state has for decades used
its power to tax as a controlling device, a trick it learned
from the federal government. We tax you, and then we
give some of it back when you meet our conditions.
A
OSTENSIBLY, the bills in the Growth Strategies
legislation will “‘oversee responsible economic develop
ment” statewide. But if a locality wants to do things in
a way not approved by the state, the state can cut that
local government out.
When a spokesman for the governor visited the
Summerville-Trion Optimist Club in January to explain
the bill. I asked him if it wasn't really government bribery
or blackmail. He said he had been asked that before, and
that, even if the bill looked that way, it really wasn't go
ing to be bribery or blackmail of local governments. He
said that, well, it was *‘a carrot and stick kind of thing.”
No, it's not blackmail, but yes it is bribery.
News Clips-
Imagination: Something that sits up with a wife when
her husband is out late. — U. S. Coast Guard Magazine
* * S
CONFKFUSING
Teenager to his father: “But Dad, ['ve got to be a non
conformist — how else can I be like the other kids?"’ —
Columbia (S. C.) Record
DEFINITION