This is the front page of the Savannah Morning News on the morning of the funeral of jazz musician Ben Tucker.

1. By Dash Coleman
912-652-0360
dash.coleman@savannahnow.com
A day before Ben Tucker was
to be memorialized in a funeral
andconcert,Savannahianspaid
their respects to the late jazz
musician at a viewing Sunday.
Throughouttheafternoon,peo-
ple filed in to the upstairs chapel
atEvangelicalLutheranChurchof
theAscensiononWrightSquare,
whereTuckerlayinanAmerican
flag-draped casket.
The 82-year-old musician,
communityleaderandbusiness-
man died Tuesday after the golf
cart he was driving was struck
byaspeedingcaronHutchinson
Island.
Charlie Miller, who knew
Tucker for about 15 years and
served on the church’s coun-
cil with him, was serving as an
usher Sunday at the chapel. He
said the flow of people had been
slow and steady.
Tucker, he said, was well
deserving of the turnout.
“He was such a great, com-
munity-minded person,” Miller
said. “We were so glad to have
him here.”
Tucker, a Tennessee native
and former New York resident,
moved to Savannah with his
wife,Gloria,morethan40years
ago.Inadditiontomanymusical
accomplishments,healsoserved
intheAirForcein1952,accord-
ing to an obituary.
Tucker served on several
boards and committees locally,
and once owned the former
Hard-Hearted Hannah’s jazz
club and the WSOK radio sta-
tion.
“He was a humanitarian and
an entrepreneur and really an
ambassadorforSavannah,”said
Alderman and Mayor Pro Tem
VanJohnsonoutsidethechurch.
“... Savannah is synonymous
with Ben Tucker.”
Van Johnson had known
Tucker for about 25 years, and
once took over and eventually
co-hosted a WSOK radio pro-
gram with him.
SEE TUCKER, PAGE 4A
State legislators say their expenses are more than they’re reimbursed for
$1.00
©
LIGHT OF THE COASTAL EMPIREMONDAY, JUNE 10, 2013
ACCENT, 8A
Nun raising
expectations
at school
™
H 88 L 72
Scattered thunderstorms. 2A
Drawing by Dominic Combs, 10
Pulaski Elementary School
today 164TH YEAR, ISSUE 147
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CORRECTIONS:
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fact, call Susan Catron,
executive editor, at
912-652-0327.
index
Accent........................... 8A
Classifieds.................9-12B
Comics ..........................7B
Crossword .............8B, 10B
Help Wanted..................9B
Horoscope......................8B
Lotteries........................2A
Morning Break ........... 7-8B
Nation/World...2A, 4-7A, 9A
Obituaries .....................7A
Opinion....................10-11A
Sports.........................1-5B
Vox Populi..................... 8A
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savannahnow
Lawmakers balance expenditures
By Walter C. Jones
Morris News Service
ATLANTA — When it comes
to politics, Regina Quick and Ron
Stephens are on the same end of
the spectrum, but when it comes to
claiming expenses from taxpayers,
they part ways.
Both are Republican members
of the House of Representatives,
Quick from Athens and Stephens
from Savannah. They often vote
alike on major bills.
Regardingexpenses,Quickhasn’t
claimed any and doesn’t intend to
while Stephens’ claims are among
the legislature’s top.
“Ithinkfiscalconservativesshould
lead by example, so I have tried the
treat the taxpayer’s money as if it
was my own,” she said, adding that
she plans to stick to the practice
of absorbing legislative expenses
throughout her political career,
which just began in January.
On the other hand, Stephens
entered office in 1997 and chairs
the House Economic Development
& Tourism Committee. Last year,
he collected $15,312 in mileage and
daily compensation for working on
legislativebusinesswhentheGeneral
Assemblywasn’tinsession,knownas
“perdiem.”Healsoreceived$5,498in
reimbursement for expenses, $5,391
of it for transportation.
Stephens sponsors three times
the legislation as the average law-
maker, mostly tax incentives for
various industries. That requires
many meetings in Atlanta year
round and conferences with trade
associations.
“The bulk of the things that pass
throughtheWaysandMeansCom-
mitteearebillsI’vebeenworkingon
SEE EXPENSES, PAGE 5A
Barricades just
aren’t enough on
Hutchinson road
Take the road least traveled … and dig it
up.
Don’t put up barriers or barricades, gates
or card readers on Grand Prize of America
Avenue, the desolate Hutchinson Island road
on which Savannah icon Ben Tucker was
killed a week ago. Break out
the jackhammers, go out on
the backside of the two-mile
loop, and pulverize some
pavement every few hundred
yards.
Start just north of where the
Tucker accident occurred and
work clockwise to where the
access road for the marine ser-
vices businesses branches off.
Then take those demo tools
and destroy the shoulders of
the remaining thoroughfare to narrow it.
Because for Grand Prize of America
Avenue to truly be what government officials
claim it to be — “just a road” — its ancillary
uses must be rendered impossible.
No more antique car races.
No more bicycling or running events.
No more Christmas lights festival.
No more exotic car conventions or new
model rollout functions.
No more remote parking for events from
the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf to St.
Patrick’s Day.
If a “road is a road is a road,” as the refrain
went last week, then make it a road. Make it
a stretch of pavement for the tugboat crews
at Moran Towing and U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers personnel to use to get to work
safely.
The Grand Prize of America Avenue is
so dangerous right now that more than one
commuter advocates doing to the loop what
crews did to the Hardeeville Speedway along
U.S. 17 a decade ago: Dig it all up.
Route a new access path to connect to the
road that services the marine companies and
the east end of the island. Grand Prize’s only
other connection is the rear entrance to The
Reserve housing development, and the own-
ers aren’t opposed to its closure, according to
the city.
The road/racetrack/Christmas lights
SEE ROAD, PAGE 4A
ADAM
VAN
BRIMMER
Savannah pays its respects to Jazz Legend
Photos by Carl Elmore/For the Savannah Morning News
Visitors, paying respects to the late Ben Tucker, walked quietly through the Lutheran Church of the Ascension Sunday afternoon.
Funeral today for Ben Tucker
Visitors view Ben Tucker’s body, flanked by pictures of him playing
bass, Sunday at the Lutheran Church of the Ascension.
On the Web
Go to savannahnow.
com/video to view scenes from
Ben Tucker’s public viewing
at the Evangelical Lutheran
Church of the Ascension.
Page 7A
See Ben Tucker’s obituary.