Ledger-Enquirer from Columbus, Georgia • 9

(Hr (Columbus Inquirer rp7 CITIES TODAY Richard Hyatt iJL You Get By Without Grits In Mexico SALTILLO Mexico Burritos was a word I knew cerveza was a word I learned I was ready for anything Mainly the waiter in the red vest dias senor" I said in an accent that would have made Ricardo Montalban envious He answered and asked how 1 was bien I said surveying the breakfast menu Every item was numbered and there was an English translation on the right side but I need it I had been in the country two days had learned that Taco Bell operate their inefficient phone system and was ready to talk Mexican Listening to me the waiter smiled repeatedly nodded his head and wrote things down on his pad I WAS EELING cocky so I stick to the basics I ordered my two eggs scrambled and pointing to the bottom of the menu put an index finger on pork chops picturing a couple of chops next to my eggs my refried beans (which come with everything from tamales to ice cream) and my tostada And Coca Cola always Coke for not wanting to drink the water and not enjoying room temperature milk I became dependent on favorite export 1 Now it was Mike turn My friend had been bragging i about the Spanish he had learned in college and how he spent a summer in South America speaking the language but now that we were South of the Border he was suddenly reminding us how that had been ten years ago that he was rusty He ordered some eggs and pointed down to something called Mexican meat Along came our Cokes the waiter still smiling Then the eggs an uninviting lump of beans and a crispy tostada No chops No Mexican meat No grits 5 NOW I IT came down to asking him how he felt to saying good morning or to asking where the I restroom was I could handle it i But not asking about pork chops How I wished I had passed high school Spanish So what I had my eggs and those beans that looked as if they had been on plate before The waiter still smiling asked how it was I said He nodded again and cleared the table returning with a plate of pork chops more of those beans and something resembling potato salad Then mystery meat More smiles More nods We smiled and nodded back because really it makes sense to i eat breakfast and lunch together I Think about (he time it could save in a lifetime BUT DOWN HERE just not important Mexican homes often equipped with clocks people wear watches siesta's at 2:30 and if a Mexican says going to pick you up at 8 in the morning it may be 9 before he gets 1 there But you can survive in a land where the taxis have meters where you see cars that take you back to the fifties and where Ronald McDonald have a visa even though Col Sanders does We survived even though being cautious can be just as embarrassing as being cocky We found that out when we looked over the bill of fare at another meal Remembering our previous experience and remembering the head of a young goat we had perused staring at us from a table next to us at another meal we decided it best to find our interpreter And upon hearing that the man behind the counter looked at us like little boys and in nearly perfect English said ya Margarita and hold A Conviction of Man Without Lawyer Overturned rom Staff Wire Reports Charles Raymond Whitehead as owner of a sporting goods store could afford a lawyer but quite have one retained when he went on trial on drug charges in Phenix City last year Russell County Circuit Court Judge Paul Miller made him represent himself Whitehead at times objecting to the attorney by saying he a little out of line there was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison in June 1980 He appealed this time with the advice of counsel and Tuesday the conviction was overturned by the Alabama Court of Crimi nal Appeals Whitehead 48 is no stranger to the court room His criminal record in the Columbus Phenix City area dates back to at least 1958 when he was arrested on check counterfeit ing charges in Phenix City In 1971 Whitehead was convicted in federal court on interstate gambling charges along with longtime Phenix City vice figure Clarence Olen Revel While awaiting trial he was wounded by a young woman he had allegedly shot the year before Assault charges against Whitehead were dismissed when the woman refused to testify against him In 1974 he was charged with operating a gambling house in Columbus This time Whitehead was charged with pos session of an illegal drug pentobarbital after police entered a Phenix City motel room when a shooting was reported Jan 20 1980 No gun was found the court said but blood was splattered around the room a woman was bleeding from the chest another was al legedly intoxicated empty syringes and empty capsules were found along with a mar ijuana cigarette old food was decomposing in paper sacks and Whitehead said he had been asleep and know what hap pened want to go in the record that 1 tried to obtain counsel and that they either take the case or wanted to charge more money than I could Whitehead said at the beginning of his trial Russell County Assistant District Attorney Ken Davis said Judge Miller had advised Whitehead to hire a lawyer when he was first charged and had granted Whitehead a con tinuance on the case in order to do so judge made extensive inquiries into his (Whitehead's) ability to pay for counsel and found that he was not indigent and told him to get counsel but he did Davis said The appeals court ruled that the right to counsel is guaranteed the rich as well as to the poor" and Whitehead said the court really needed a lawyer During the trial the prosecutor told the jury: these two young women that he talked about what were they doing in that room? What was going on in Room 143 at the Holiday Inn? I know I there but I would suggest to you that what was going on in that room is not something that we want going on in a hotel room in Russell At that point Whitehead said he a little out of line there Arts uture Looks Bright Despite Cuts By Jane Pitts Enquirer Staff Writer Although the amount of money spent for the arts in Georgia is among the lowest in the nation the future still looks bright especially for schoolchildren is one of my main interests" said Morrill Hut chinson of LaGrange Ga a member of the Georgia Council for the Arts and Humanities need to pro vide a variety of arts for the Mrs Hutchinson was in Columbus Tuesday for a public hearing conducted by the Georgia Council for the Arts and Humanitites During the last two weeks the council has held a series of hearings throughout the state to learn the public opinion of current arts pro gramming as well as plan for the future Mrs Hutchinson said she wants to put special em phasis on arts education in the schools The arts council currently has two containing special exhib its of paintings and crafts by Georgians that visit schools in the state Besides visiting schools the buses also go to community centers to acquaint citizens with local art There is also an artists in residency program within the schools Through the program artists in various disciplines such as painting dance crafts or archi tecture spend 18 weeks in one school working closely with students and faculty The artists in residency program has been extremely effective in Columbus said Judy Slusarchuk coordina tor of the cultural arts program for the Muscogee County school system Columbus schools have been visited by a folk musician a dancer a poet a painter a folk artist and a film video artist Hardaway High and Columbus High have each had architects in residence The Muscogee County school system is the only one in Georgia to have used ar chitects in this program the type of program that will motivate an un motivated said Ms Slusarchuk a pro gram that offers something extra especially to the stu Morrill Hutchinson Stresses Need or Arts Programs in Schools a II I 1 Staff Photo bv Allen Horne dent who needs a particular Mrs Hutchinson also said art projects in Columbus now going well are the Springer Theater Co and the Columbus Symphony Recently she said there has been money for artists to work on individual projects She said she believed arts projects in Georgia have expanded enormously but a type would be available if "there was better funding We re way down on the list as far as Money was one of the number one issues discussed at the hearing Tuesday The arts education fund for fiscal year 1982 has been cut from $100000 to $75000 and panel members said other cuts are probable arts are easy to cut in the state budget to put money somewhere said Dot McClure art council chairman and she urged participants at the seminar to' the legislature know what your priorities Other issues discussed at the hearing were money raising workshops and ideas on ways to get better and more information about the arts to the the public Approximately 45 people attended the hearing spon sored locally by the Columbus Arts Council The Georgia Council for the Arts and Humanities is composed of 24 members all appointed by the gover nor for three year terms There are two from each congressional district in the state with two at large Jailer Position Would Cut Costs The sentiment ot the famous question in a is expected to save the Columbus government money Although the reopening of the Columbus Stockade will require that eight additional employees be hired City Manager ranklyn Lambert said the city will save money by calling the employees instead of deputy sheriffs How much the savings will be has not been determined Muscogee County Sheriff Gene Hodge said Tuesday night Hodge said he is preparing now a job description for the jailer position and has not assigned a salary rate to it No jailer positions currently exist in the Muscogee County Jail he said The savings is expected to stem from a difference in the qualifications required for the positions Hodge said A person who fills a deputy position must be a certified law enforcement officer a position that currently receives a minimum annual salary of about $11932 (including the 5 percent cost of living increase effective today) Hodge said A jailer who would only be responsible for supervi sion security and other operational duties could receive a lower level salary Lambert said New Owners Drop 11 pm News By Greg Gardner Enquirer Staff Writer WYEA TV Channel 38 will have no 11 pm newscast beginning to night as ownership of the local NBC affiliate passes from Ameri can amily Corp to JC Lewis Broadcasting Co of Savannah decision was made by the new said Al leming the anchorman on 7 pm newscast apparently a mat ter of economics like Ameri can Motors competing with ord and General Motors You try to do your best but it keeps costing more Curtis Lewis Jr the Savan nah businessman who is the sta new owner is in town today to help organize the transition Lewis who owns WJCL TV in Savannah WLTX TV in Columbia SC and several Savannah car dealerships could not be reached for comment Tuesday night In the past week three reporters formerly employed at Channel 38 Borden Black Gene and Sherri Thomas were hired by WRBL TV Channel 3 according to Tom news director at Channel 3 was formerly news director at WYEA leming who said he does not expect to remain at Channel 38 much longer said the intention of Lewis to do away with the late evening news coverage was antici pated CC (ederal Communi cations Commission) requires every new owner of a television station to fill out a form stating certain practices he intends to fol low and in that form Mr Lewis said he plan to operate a late night leming said be leaving eventually be happy to spend the summer run ning my AL LEMING Expects to Leave Station leming owns Al Place a nightclub on Buena Vista Road The new ownership also plans to change its early evening newscast from 7 pm to 6 pm leming said where it will compete directly with Channel 3 and WTVM Channel 9 Meanwhile the addition of Ms Black and Thomas in creases Channel 3's reporting staff to nine news director said With the culmination of sale area media watchers are keeping a close eye on the future plans of American amily Corp which still owns stations in Hunts ville Ala Savannah Cape Girar deau Mo Waterloo and Sioux City Iowa Leroy Paul vice president for corporate development with American amily Broadcast Group said the sales agreement between his company and Lewis included a non competitive clause in which American amily pledged a certain number of years" not to buy a competing broadcast property in the Co lumbus market Council to Consider Downtown acelift By Greg Gardner Enquirer Staff writer A proposed facelift of store fronts in the 1100 block of Broad way financed by a combination of public and private money will be presented next week to the Co lumbus Council Highlighted in the plan is a to be built in the wing of Department store that fronts on Broadway The mall to be called 1136 Off Broadway would contain about 10 shops averaging 320 square feet according to Dupont Kirven III president of the department store To set the plan in motion how ever John Simpkins of the office of economic devel opment said the council must ap prove a $135000 appropriation from the fiscal 1982 Commu nity Development grant from the federal government The grant would help pay for demolition of the wing of store that fronts on Broadway The council is also expected to act next week on a request from Mayor Harry Office of Economic Development to release $200000 from the current Community Development block grant for improvements to public property in the 1100 block of Broadway That would include landscape work and benches in the median of Broadway and acquisition and demolition of a building at 1122' Broadway to create a walkway be tween Broadway and the Co lumbus Parking Garage The public investment is in tended to spark privately financed improvements throughout the block John Edwards owner of Ed wards Shoe Talk and president of theColumbus Local Development Corp said he has received oral commitments from 80 percent of the merchants in the block to fi nance some type of exterior reno vation of their buildings Written commitments will be sought from each of the property owners if the council ap proves the plan Edwards said not just talking about new Edwards said of these buildings could use com plete new Edwards said the cost would vary according to the size of the store but estimated the average cost at $4000 to $5000 Some improvements may be fin anced through federally subsidized loans Edwards said while some business owners might have to seek conventional loans Kirven said his store would have to finance part of the demolition I2TH 1 MB MMfr WmMb i 4 iledgerENQUirert "fWcUrA AMIL CLOSET center I sHOe'z KiANaThO NEW STREET KSSSSS SNAPPER SSSSSR WALKWAY TO OPEN ilf PARKING SSSgARMY SURPLUSSBr (( STAIRWAY 2RI mC CO $hoesSE s' '1OR ELEVATOR Ij I Qgj yKE THE LAMPOSTjj JI IteaSMg 7 iBaaaa IhiiiMMk GREEN CORJ I iffiMMARKET PLACEB WALKWAY STEAM CLEANING A RONT LANDSCAPING IITH ST Graphic Shows Proposed Changes in 1100 Block cost then spend between $100000 and $160000 to construct about 10 shops it would lease to retail ten ants think they woujd be the types of shops that would appeal not only to local people but to tourists brought in by the conven tion center and he said Lingerie and sportswear depart ments now in the 1136 Broadway wing would be consolidated in portions of the first and second floors Kirven added Re modeling estimated to cost $350000 would be financed pri vately to accommodate the consol idation he said If the public money is approved by the council Kirven said demoli tion could begin in 90 days The shops however would not open until the fall of 1982 If the council approves Ed wards said construction on some buildings may begin within 30 days i TTcurns ii.