Newspaper Page Text
MIDWEEK
EDITION
250
Perry & Houston County's
official Legal Organ
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 19, 1994
Birr...it's getting cold!
By VETO F. ROLEY
Staff Writer
Perry residents need to get their
plants and pets indoors tonight as
another polar front assaults the re
gion.
Wednesday night temperatures
could get as low as 13 degrees, said
John Pendergrast, a meteorologist
with the National Weather Service
in Macon. Thursday night will be a
little warmer, with temperatures
dipping into the 20s, he said.
Even with temperatures ap
proaching what is normal for north
ern climes, Perry will not see any
snow, sleet or freezing rain. "Right
now,” said Pendergrast, "there are
no indications of that. No precipita
Perry water
system is
top notch
(Editor's note: With the
recent release of a consolida
tion report, this report high
lights one of the areas sug
gested for consolidation, Perry’s
water system).
BY BRENDA THOMPSON
Staff Writer
When talking about Perry’s wa
ter works, Danny Walker says he
tries not to brag.
But, sometimes, he just can’t
help it He’s proud of the local sys
tem and wants everybody to know
it.
“We start out with the worst
quality of water and end up with the
best,” said Walker, water system
supervisor for the City of Perry.
“Our water for some reason comes
out of the ground higher in iron
than most, but we correct that and
have done well on all our EPA
testing. We’ve even had folks from
other systems come over here to see
what we’re doing differently. It’s
hard not to be proud of that.”
According to Walker, the City of
Perry’s water system currently has
two water treatment plants which
serve 4,228 residential and
commercial customers and have the
combined capacity of pumping and
treating up to five million gallons
of water a day.
The oldest of the two plants is
located on Main Street and is today
used primarily as a back up for the
newer facility located on Woodlawn
Drive. The old plant’s capacity is
only a million gallons a day while
the newer plant, which was just
upgraded in 1990, can pump up to
four million gallons every 24
hours.
Both plants are full blown water
treatment and filtering plants which
have in-house laboratories for daily
testing and the newer one is manned
Good
morning, Perry
MBI
JOYCE COMPTON 4A
BETH JONES lfi
DEATH NOTICES 2A
CLASSIFIED SB
EDITORIALS 4A
LEGAL NOTICES 4fi
LOCAL CALENDAR 2A
BILL OVERTON SA
NEWS OF RECORD 5A
VETO ROLEY 4A
MISS YOUR PAPER?
WE HOPE NOT, BUT IF SO
CALL EARLY
987-1823
a The Houston Home*
Journal
tion (is expected)."
However, said Pendergrast, the
weekend should be warmer, with
Friday starting a warming trend for
the area.
"This month, so far, has been
colder than average," said Pender
grast, "especially the past couple of
weeks." He added that the National
Weather Service has not compiled
any absolute figures for the month,
but the average temperature has
been 42.1 degrees.
Staying warm
The elderly, mentally ill, young
children and people without proper
shelter or heat are those most af
fected by the severe cold, said Kathy
■is v • ■
' ; K j a *
■*- - 1 v
w m - G v HP^
i ' innilr'• • 11IIiniw r < /
(HHJ photo by Brenda Thompson)
City Water Works Supervisor Danny Walker is proud of Perry’s water system. And, for good
reason. The city has two of the best water treatment plants around and consistently rates high
marks In state and EPA testing.
24 hours a day; three features very
few, if any, area water systems can
boast of and undoubtedly one of the
reasons Perry’s “recipe” for water
has proven both cleaner and more
Council schedules work
session on consolidation
By BRIGETTE LOUDERMILK
Managing Editor
Perry City Council scheduled a
work session for Tuesday, Feb. 8 at
their regular council meeting
Tuesday, Jan. 18. The meeting will
be held to gather facts and figures
on the city's water and sewer
system and to discuss the efforts of
state and other lawmakers in the
county to consolidate these services
in Houston County.
Mayor James Worrall and
Councilmen Hervia Ingram and
Charles Lewis attended a meeting
along with representatives from the
cities of Warner Robins and
Centerville and the Houston
County Commission.
According to Worrall, Ingram
and Lewis, discussion revolved
around setting Highway 127 as a
boundary line and make Perry re
sponsible for providing water and
PERRY, GEORGIA’S HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER SINCE 1870-FQR COVERAGE OF YOUR EVENTS, CALL 987-1823
Temperatures are expected to drop into the teens tonight
2 SECTIONS—I 4 PAGES, PLUS SALES CIRCULARS
Joiner, emergency room nurse su
pervisor for Perry Hospital.
"Asa community," said Joiner,
"we need to be aware of people who
have inadequate shelter or heat and
take responsibility for calling on
them."
Calvin Broom with the Perry
Fire Department, said the fire de
partment offers help for a night. "If
it goes past that, the Salvation
Army in Warner Robins takes care
of it," he added.
Broom said that most of the as
sistance given by the fire depart
ment was given to people whose
houses were burned down and had
no place to go for the night and
consistent.
“Take the recent copper and lead
testing which made such a splash in
the newspapers,” Walker said. “We,
too, had to go through two testing
sewer to all areas south of the
highway.
"I don't believe the people of
this town want that," Councilman
Ralph Gentry said.
Council agreed to meet and dis
cuss not only water and sewer but
other issues suggested for consoli
dation in a Efficiency in
Government report constructed by a
committee due to legislation intro
duced by Senator Sonny Perdue last
year.
Councilman James Moore noted
that some aspects of consolidation
may be favorable to some areas of
the county or other cities in the
county, but it may not be favorable
to Perry.
"Everything said, Perry will get
the worst end of the deal," Ingram
said concerning the proposal for wa
ter and sewer consolidation.
transients coming through the area
off Interstate 75.
Joiner said the best protection
against the cold was to stay at
home. However, for those who
have to stray outside, she said bun
dle up in layers of clothes,
"particularly paying attention to
covering the head." She added that
70 percent of body heat loss would
come from the head.
Alcohol should also be avoided,
said Joiner, who added alcohol gave
people a false sense of warmth. The
effects of alcohol also causes people
to lose judgement about the
weather.
"That's (alcohol) where is see
sessions. Fifteen parts per billion
sends the red flag up, but the
highest we had was 8 parts. Many
systems throughout the state were
Please see WATER, page 5A
Worrall assured the council that
no decision could be made until
each city council in the county has
voted on a proposal brought before
them.
In other council business:
•Councilman Ralph Gentry was
sworn in to another four year term.
•Council appointed Davis Cosey
to the Downtown Development
Authority and Mike Gray to the
Houston County Public Library
Board upon his agreement to save.
•Appointments were made to the
economic Development Advisory
Commission. Those appointed were
Lewis Meeks, Herman Ragin, Tom
Daniel, Skip Dawkins, Draper
Watson and Rusty Wood.
Council expressed concern over
the manner by which nominations
for them to consider to this com-
Pleasa see CITY, page 5A
[American Publishing^on^
306 12/01/99
GEORGIA NEWSPAPER PROJECT
U. 6A MAIN LIBRARY
ATHENb GA 30602
most of our cases of hypothermia,"
said Joiner.
Plants and animals
Just as people need to stay away
from the wind and the cold, so do
plants and animals. "When it (the
temperature) gets to the teens, it
gets pretty severe on plants,” said
Tim Lewis, horticulture teacher at
Perry High School. "If it is windy,
its going to make it worse."
Lewis said those plants that can
be brought inside, need to brought
inside. For those plants that can not
be brought inside, he said home
owners needed to put mulch around
the plant to insulate the plant
against the wind.
On the blotter...
Simons says burglaries maybe related
"We'd like to warn residents
there has been a small increase in
burglaries and urge them to be alert.
Pay attention to what's going on
around them and if they see any
thing that's not normal in their
neighborhoods call us and let us
com© check it out," Perry Police
Chief Frank Simons said concern
ing two residential burglaries that
occurred recently.
"When investigating a burglary
many times we find neighbors may
have seen something suspicious. If
Local teenager arrested on gun charges
A Perry teenager was arrested by
Perry Police Friday, Jan. 14 follow
ing a disturbance inside McDonald's
Restaurant on Sam Nunn
Boulevard.
Kenneth Dewayne Felder, 17, of
Gardner Street, was arrested and
charged with carrying a pistol with
out a license, carrying a deadly
weapon at a public gathering, ob
struction of an officer and carrying a
concealed weapon.
Elections for school
board still partisan
By VETO F. ROLEY
Staff Writer
The Houston County Board of
Education deadlocked Tuesday night
over the issue of non-partisan elec
tions meaning, for now, the board
will continue to be elected in party
based elections.
Board chairman Zell Blackmon
said the current partisan elections
resulted in Robins Air Force Base
(RAFB) employees being denied the
right to mh for the Board due to
federal regulations. He added that
RAFB was the largest employer in
the county, and that its employees
staffed county parent-teacher organi
zations, touchdown clubs and band
booster clubs.
"School board membership has
nothing to with whether one is a
Republican or a Democrat," said
Blackmon. "It (non-partisan elec
tions) would open our board to a
wealth of talent"
Voting for the non-partisan elec
tions were Tiena Fletcher, Dave
Davidson and Blackmon. Voting
against non-partisan elections were
Hubert Hutcherson, Skip Talbert
and Shirley Lowery. New board
member Gary McLure abstained,
requesting additional time to study
the matter.
In other business board members
decided to name the libraries at
Perry High School and Perry
Middle School after local educators.
Perry High School’s library was
named for L. Cohen Walker, who
served on the board for 20 years,
most of that time as chairman of
the board.
Perry Middle School's library
124TH YEAR—VOLUME 6 |
Tender plants that can not be
brought in should be covered, said
L?wis. "Some plants are more
hardy than others," he added.
What goes for plants also goes
for pets and other animals, said
Lewis. Those animals that can be
brought inside should be brought
inside.
Those pets and other animals
that can not be brought inside
should be given shelter away from
the wind, said Lewis. Pine straw
should be given to pets and animals
left outside for them to bed down.
Lewis said that most crops being
grown in the county were wheat and
Please see COLD, page 5A
they call, we may be able to pre
vent a burglary," he said, adding
that the two recent burglaries most
likely happened during the day.
Sometime between 9:30 a.m.
and 4 p.m. Monday, Jan. 17 Ben
Evans' home at 1807 Tucker Road
was burglarized. Entry was gained
into the by breaking the window in
the kitchen door in the carport All
that was reported missing was an
undetermined amount of costume
jewelry, but Simons added Tm sure
Please see RASH, page 5A
Officers responded to a call from
McDonald's employees reporting a
disturbance inside the restaurant at
10:42 p.m. allegedly involving
Felder.
Upon investigating the distur
bance, police were told by wit
nesses that Felder left the restau
rant and ran behind Gabby's
Restaurant. Police recovered a .32
caliber semi automatic weapon be-
Please see FELDER, page 5A
-BRIGETTE LOUDERMILK,
Managing Editor
was named after A.D. Redmond,
who was principal at the school for
over 20 years during the time it was
known as Houston County High
School.
McLure sworn m
to school board,
attends meeting
By VETO F. ROLEY
Staff Writer
The Houston County Board of
Education welcomed its newest
member Gary McLure, to serve
Post 2, at a special called meeting
Tuesday, Jan. 18.
McLure, a vice president with
C.8.&.T., was selected to save out
the remainder of Eddie Causey's
term. Causey was forced to resign
when he moved out of the
geographical boundaries of Post 2.
"I’m excited about it," said
McLure. "I hope that I can fit into a
board that is doing an exceptional
job. I hope that I slide right in and
nobody will know the difference."
McLure, who has taught in
Houston County schools before he
went into banking, said that he
hoped his background in education
will help him on the board.
McLure added that his experience
in private business and banking
should also serve him well on the
school board. He is the manager of
the C.B.&T. Russell Parkway
branch, and is in charge of
consumer and commercial loans at
the bank.
Please see McLURE, page SA