The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 23

IP? Monday, March 9, 1992 OMEI Obituaries ML HI Hews briefs Lawyer's muraer trial begins today Page The Legislature Campaign bill could come back to life Page C3 Legal notices C4 Classifieds C5 The Atlanta Journal The Atlanta Constitution T8 Weather 5 Lewis 'They have given new life to our school' Gizzard swering a buildin cry Complex dosiHted as homes fer Interfaith to revamp units west of Dome Hooked: Devoted to fishing, the Lunsfords were caught1, by a schoolhouse empty since cotton.was king. A big raise? My conscience says no The big boss here at the paper summoned me to his office. I wondered why. Could I be in some sort of trouble? Or was he sending me on some exotic assignment? There had been constant rumors that Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, the front-running Democrat in the presidential primaries, possibly had had an affair with cartoon character Daisy Mae.

Would I be off to Dogpatch USA in the Ozarks to investigate? By Bob Harrell STAFF WRITER I It 4 I i I ill fan- 4 i 6 Rockville, Ga. Mary Hudson and Margaret Walker toured the deserted rooms of the 102-year-old Rockville Academy, where they learned their three R's more than 60 years ago. On this day, they practiced a fourth remembering. "This was the recitation room and all of us sat at double desks," Ms. Hudson said.

"My desk was right here in the middle of the room, the most preferred spot because it was beside the potbellied stove." They walked through empty rooms packed with memories. Measured footsteps echoed in the upstairs auditorium. Ms. Hudson pointed upward, in the direction of the footsteps. "They have given new life to our school." The steps were those of M.

Rosser Lunsford and his wife, Evelyn, who have launched plans to turn the school into a private museum of academy memorabilia and a classroom depicting teaching methods of the early 20th century. The auditorium will again host community plays, meetings and concerts. Already the building is popular. Ms. Lunsford had to turn down a request to use the the academy as a wedding site.

Chasing a fishing dream The Lunsfords moved to the shores of Lake Sinclair in Putnam County from Douglasville in 1988. Their only objective was to convert fishing dreams into reality. There was no intent to organize a community project in a place where they were still considered tourists. "It began to nag at me almost from our first trip into Eatonton for groceries," Mr. Lunsford said.

"There was this building, almost hidden by weeds and trees. And I tell you, it cried out to me for help." The Lunsfords stopped and looked. Windows were broken or missing. The exterior sagged. A first-floor room was filled with Please see ACADEMY, C2 By Charles Salter STAFF WRITER A 74-unit apartment complex in northwest Atlanta today will be donated to a non-profit development corporation that plans to renovate the property to provide homes for low income people.

The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. (Freddie Mac) is turning the property at 234 Troy St. NW over to Interfaith which will outline its renovation plans at a 10 a.m. news conference at the complex. "The long-term goal is to convert the units, initially rented, to ownership units," said Eugene H.

Bowens, president of Interfaith. "We will help make them more self-sufficient and credit worthy and increase their incomes through training and job counseling." The six vacant brick buildings, which Mr. Bowens said are valued at about $250,000, were built in 1955. The economically depressed area west of the Georgia Dome lies between Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Simpson Road.

The Interfaith leader estimated the renovation costs will be $1.4 million, and the apartments will be occupied within two years. One of the buildings will be razed. The 74 one- and two-bedroom apartments will be converted into a smaller number of three- and four-bedroom units. An expanded community development program in the neighborhood will focus on unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse, health, literacy, recreation, and economic gains. Thomas Watt, senior vice president of Freddie Mac's multifamily division, cited the housing needs.

"It is up to companies like Freddie Mac to get this property back into production," Mr. Watt said. "One of the most viable ways is to find a committed local entity like Interfaith." Freddie Mac, which assumed the property ownership after foreclosure proceedings, will not benefit financially from the project, Mr. Watt said. "In the context of creating affordable housing, sometimes the social benefit returns are just as important as the financial returns," he said.

"This has the ingredients for success. We are experimenting and creating opportunities we hope will be successful and imitated by others." Interfaith founded in Atlanta in 1967, is a private nonprofit housing development corporation sponsored by 45 churches of various denominations. Photos by DAVID TULIS Special Rockville Academy graduates Margaret Walker (left) and Mary Clark Hudson talk as restoration leaders Evelyn and Rosser Lunsford explore the stage. 1 1 I YT.iI fffi i 'Uf I (T )j Li 1 1 couia see tne headlines: Grizzard Exclusive: Li'l Abner says Daisy Mae rocked with the Guv in Lil' Rock." "Take a seat," the big boss said, blowing blue rings of smoke from his cigar that turned to dollar marks as they reached the high ceilings of his inner chamber. Perhaps he was giving me a raise.

It might be as much as 10 bucks a week. "I've had my eye on you," he continued, "and I like what I see." Fifteen bucks? "I've been talking to my accountants and my lawyers, and I've decided to give you a raise." he said $20 a week, I'd faint. kicked the amount back and forth and we finally agreed on a number," the big boss went on. offering you a new, six-year contract at $6 million a year. "These baseball players are getting salaries like that these days, and, by darned, it's time we in the newspaper game caught up." IDid he say $6 million a year foil six years? That's about what Ryjie Sandberg of the Cubs got.

"I just want to be certain I heprd you correctly," I said to the big boss. "Did you say $6 million a year for six years, which comes to a total package of $36 what I said, son," he answered. "And on top of that, you always get to fly first class, have a suite in every hotel, get a couple hundred per diem for meals and expenses, and if you get a hangnail and can't type for a month, we'll still pay you the entire amount." I was shocked. Here we are in the middle of a horrible recession. And there's the problems with the homeless and with health care.

Everybody knows these superstar professional athletes are nothing but a bunch of spoiled brats and don't deserve anything near what their beleaguered owners are paying them. How could in good conscience, accept such an exorbitant salary? "I really appreciate your of-1 fer, sir," I said to the big boss, "but it just wouldn't be right for me to accept that kind of money. "It's just not the American way for a worker like myself to take advantage of his or her employer. Perhaps a few more people buy our product because of but I don't need any more compensation for that. "You already provide me with a desk and a telephone.

What more could I really ask?" The big boss looked puzzled. "Sir," I went on, "I'd rather you keep your money. I'm sure you need it. Take the wife on a long vacation or buy her that small New England state she's been wanting. "I can get by on what you pay me now just fine.

And perhaps I can set an example for these money-hungry ballplayers and show them how wrong it is to accept the enormous salaries team owners are giving them. "This would be a better society if everybody who was rewarded with an increase in salary just said Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to Arkansas." "At least fly flrst-class," the boss said. "Nope," I replied. "The bus is just fine vith me." Silhouetted in old broken windows are Rosser and Evelyn Lunsford (left) and academy graduates Margaret Walker and Mary Clark Hudson. y.fli.ilil.

i rul 'in'- I i mi mi. I ii 1 1-1 1 in r'l'lni Turning Point for shoplifters You take, you talk in DeKalb program By Donna Williams Lewis STAFF WRITER They sat wordlessly, stiffly, in a ring, carefully avoiding one another's eyes, waiting for the session to start. A very pregnant woman coughed loudly, adjusting her floral-print dress. Another woman seemed to want to fold into herself and disappear. A young man wearing a white cap ancj headphones sat next to the latecomer a silver-haired woman in pearl earrings and sharp business attire.

The 10 people had little in common except a secret humiliation one count of shoplifting. A $30 pair of tennis shoes. Some packages of steaks. A pair of pants. Items any of them could have paid for, but didn't.

"When they put us in that car and rode us to the police station, it really did something to me," the pregnant woman said. "I just felt like I was stripped. I felt thing to the point they carried it away. 'The reasons people shoplift' Whether it is the threat of jail or the group therapy sessions, something is working. At last count, of the estimated 450 to 500 people who have gone through DeKalb's program since 1986, seven have been re-arrested for shoplifting.

"I think it's a really special thing," DeKalb Assistant Solicitor Andy Rogers said, "and it has to do, I think, with the reasons people shoplift in the first place. It's rarely an economic thing." Project Turning Point is a program of the non-profit agency Families First, whose therapists run similar programs through the courts in Cobb and Gwinnett. "What we discovered is that shoplifting may be a somewhat unique crime in that individuals who have never been in trouble and will never ever be in trouble with the law, will occasionally be arrested for shoplifting," said DeKalb Solicitor Ralph Bowden. Please see SHOPLIFT, C2 Shoplifters boost cr'me stat'st'cs Misdemeanor shoplifting cases in DeKalb County 1988 1,142 1989 1,192 1990 1,370 1991 1,401 jj Source: DeKalb County 1 Solicitor's Office so horrible." And yet, in this tension-filled room, they knew they were lucky. Having never been arrested for anything before, and because they were charged with, shoplifting goods valued at less than $100, they got a chance to have their cases dismissed through Project Turning Point.

Each paid $100 and agreed to spend an evening a week for six weeks in group therapy, sharing their stories of shoplifting, a problem that's become an obsession for some. Their mission is to figure out what made thenv covet some- '-t 1 i MARLENE KARAS Staff Welcoming whistleblowers Jeff DeBonis, founder of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, visits the Chattahoochee forest as he swings through the South. Article, C2. 1.